1. week

On Friday 23rd of January we began our journey from Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 7.00 am; we had a stopover in Copenhagen and at 11.20 we arrived in Dublin. After two and a half hours wait for the bus and we were once again on our way towards our destination.

The Angel’s Share at Dublin Airport

Everything went smoothly until we arrived – we had not given any thought on how to get to our apartment-to-be. We tried asking around – some people didn’t know about our accommodation, some said we should just get a taxi and one girl instructed us with Google maps for the right direction. With the vague idea of the route we continued our journey to look for city center, which wasn’t very hard to find. From there we followed the map to where the app told us, but the place seemed all wrong. For some moments we wandered up and down the street, searching the back roads for our apartments until the wind started to blow really coldly and for a brief moment it even rained. We then asked for the directions from two people and finally decided to phone for help. Turns out that we had passed our apartment a couple of times already, but we couldn’t just find the right entrance. Luckily Siru’s new roommate came to welcome us. After settling in we had a quick dinner from the ingredients from the nearest store and afterwards we went straight to bed, exhausted from travelling all day.

In our defence we were cold. And hungry.

That night we slept like babies – 11 and ½ hours. We had had to sleep with practically every piece of clothing on – including jackets and hats – since it was so cold. Gradually it got a bit warmer because we turned the radiators on, but as we had heard earlier, it was still cold inside. During the first days we went shopping more times than we would like to admit, but it was kind of justified since we would need to buy essentials. We also had a walk to our future university so that we wouldn’t have to be lost on our first day of school.

On Tuesday we had our orientation day and met our fellow Erasmus-students. We had a tour around campus and got our student cards – nothing too overwhelming for the first day. Noora had scheduled a Skype-date with her grandparents so she had to head back home, but Siru went to A Casa Mia for a coffee with the others. As unplanned as is was, it was a perfect opportunity for Siru to speak for the other about Noora’s upcoming birthday. Everybody was happy to participate. The base for the plan had been placed.

It does not snow often in Ireland. Guess our arrival was the perfect time to start.

On Wednesday morning we looked outside worried – the wind had been howling all night and there had been a yellow warning for the wind. Nothing that should really concern people’s everyday lives, but as a warning for some occupations. For us it still seemed a bit extreme – gust up to 110 km/hour in addition to horizontal snow and hail. We decided to wait for some time and go to school a bit late. Not that it really mattered, as it turned out – out of 5 scheduled classes we only had one – the last. We ended up sorting our courses and our student-emails and such errands waiting for the classes to happen. We were told that during the first weeks the timetables might shift and some classes might not start until the second week and things like that. At first the campus seemed like a big maze, but with the help of a map that we were handed in orientation, we could quickly figure out somewhat where to go.

On Thursday we went to a local pub, Swagman where a welcome party for new Erasmus-students and a farewell party for those departing was hosted. We met a lot of new faces as well as some already familiar from our few short social appearances in the night club Velvet Room and the very same pub earlier. On Friday we had a day off, since the classes would only start next week so we went shopping together. Afterwards she revealed what a heavy day it had been for her – going shopping not once but twice. She had earlier been shopping with the Erasmus-girls for Noora’s present.

Siru had warned Noora to reserve all Saturday for mystery activities that wouldn’t be revealed to her before. Noora was still allowed to sleep late and on Saturday morning (noon to be straight) Siru went to Noora’s place and sang her a Happy Birthday song. We then went for a walk to see the Sligo little bit more. Had the weather been more favorable, we’d gone further, but we had a small walk along the river and past Sligo Abbey before we returned to city center for some shops and beverages.

Sligo Abbey

Local Titanic

Old carving

Duck grooming itself

Siru was strict that we should be home at 3 and that we should be ready again by 5 – with some more friends we went on to Coach Lane Restaurant at Donaghy’s Bar to have “The Best Burger ‘Ever’” (it says just that in the menu). The portion was huge – even though we set aside the top half of the bun it was hard to eat all the hamburger – not to speak about the fries. None of us could do the whole thing. We left the restaurant bordering coma, but nurtured and happy. Siru told Noora once again retreat to her apartment to get ready for going to a pub before going to Velvet.

The Best Burger ”Ever”

By 8 Siru started bombing Noora with messages that their dishwasher started leaking water to the floor and asked her to bring all the towels she could find. In the middle of brushing her teeth she gathered all towels she could find and came to rescue Siru – just to be surprised by all the Erasmus-girls gathered in Siru’s dark living room. Startled by the surprise Noora posed with the toothbrush for a moment, thanked all and excused herself to get rid of the toothbrush. She had a piece of pie and opened her presents (Survival Kit, which included thick socks, scented candle, hot-water bottle, two kinds of chocolate, nail polish and remover in a Minnie Mouse –bag and most importantly turquoise hangers) and again excused herself to get properly dressed and to lock her apartment’s door. After talking and eating for some time we went to a Snug-pub to listen to live music and around midnight some of us continued to Velvet.

Photoception at Snug -pub

Velvet Room

On Sunday we and the other Erasmus girls had plans to go to Strandhill, a beach 15 minutes’ drive away from Sligo. We missed the bus we were supposed to catch because the timetables in internet and on our bus stop were different. While waiting for the next bus we decided to walk to the main bus station, where as our surprise some man pulled over. He asked us if we were going to Strandhill and told us he lives there and wouldn’t mind giving us a lift. 

The grassy hills of Strandhill

In Strandhill we walked around for a bit waiting for the others to answer, but since we couldn’t get an answer we decided to go to Mammy Johnston’s for a scoop of home-made ice cream. The others had actually just arrived there, too, so we enjoyed our treats together. Afterwards almost everybody wanted to leave back to Sligo, but Camille and Elisa stayed with us. The four of us walked amongst the shore for some time and when returning we spotted The Strand Bar. By the time we were getting hungry with Siru and girls agreed gallantly to join us for the dinner. We decided to have their famous Guinness Beef Stew, which actually was really delicious. For only nine euros we got insanely large portions of the stew. Again, nurtured but happy we left.

Strandhill beach

We <3 the sun

Sunset