First Impressions of Dublin
Babylon Radio’s interns come from all around the world. Experiencing culture shock, therefore, comes as no surprise.
Find out what Babylon Radio’s interns’ first impressions of Dublin are.
- Many houses in Dublin (in the residential areas) look…the same or at least very similar.
For some of Babylon Radio’s interns it has proven a difficult task to find their way round Dublin in the first couple of days. Especially at night. Of course, there are many significant landmarks that might help you find your way. The spire, the…other monuments and buildings. Irish people use pubs for orientation. Lost interns use…Google maps. Pray, your phone doesn’t die when you need it the most.
- Dublin is expensive.
It came as a shock to the Polish and German interns when they found out that a pint of Guinness was 6 Euros. And that cocktails were hard to find. For comparison: a pint of beer in Germany is usually not more than 3 – 4 Euros. It is hard to be an intern in Dublin.
- We love the sound that the traffic lights in Dublin make when they turn on.
The German interns confirm that they prefer the cute swishing sound of the Irish traffic lights over the annoying, high-pitched and ear-blowing sound that German traffic lights make.
- Music is…everywhere. As ardent music – lovers Babylon Radio’s interns were delighted to find out that nearly every pub was playing music in some form. Be it live music in the Rock – Blues Band Gypsy Rose or traditional fiddle music in “The Cobblestone”. Or at work in our music – loving office. As part of our job which consists of writing about all sorts of topics including events, we also browsed through all the wonderful events and music festivals that Dublin has to offer and decided that we should definitely visit some of them. As part of our job, of course.
- The weather is…unpredictable
I looked out of the window and thought: “Wow, what a lovely day it is today. Sunshine, no wind. Perfect for a stroll through the Phoenix Park. Maybe I’ll spot some deer”. An hour later I was clutching my hat so that it won’t get blown away by the wind while the rain was lashing against my face. Don’t get fooled by Irish weather. How we did we learn to cope with Irish weather? Get used to it. Umbrellas are useless when there is a slightly weaker version of a monsoon ripping your hat off.
- Dublin is very multicultural. Not only international students roam the busy streets of Dublin, tourists’ chatter will accompany you on your way to work and people from many countries work and live in Dublin.
And sometimes you happen to encounter people of only one nationality.
An example: When two interns, one of them Polish, decided to grab a coffee/ milkshake in a café near Dublin Castle, the Polish intern noticed that the shop assistant was Polish and decided to have chat with him. There were about 6 customers including the two interns in the café. After a couple of minutes, one after another got up from their seat and went to the counter to pay and to have a chat with the shop assistant – in Polish. Turned out, that every single person in the café (with the exception of the German intern) was Polish! What a coincidence!
