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Chris, who revived his nerd braces for his last days in Ireland, left on Tuesday. Of all farewells, this one was the easiest. I’ll see him at the latest in some months in Bamberg, where we both study in the same department. Thanks for great nine months, Chris!

The day after, my brother, who could not come over during the easter break due to exams, arrived. The two of us spent a few nice days in and around Dublin. Here is a selection of photos that he took:

On the 8th, almost exactly nine months after my departure from Germany, we took the plane to Hamburg and subsequently the car to the house of our parents in Alfeld.

It’s over now. The Irish chapter of my life has ended and I have learned a lot. Not only about Ireland and Germany, the English language or other cultures, but also about myself. I got to know a lot incredible people and made friends, whom I miss already. I hope these friendships will prevail despite spatial separations.

It was nice to meet you, Ireland. Germany, it is nice to see you again.

On Friday, my friend Brandi arrived for a three day visit. We took a long walk through the town (i.a. up the quays, across the Liffey and back) and caught a glimpse of the rather disappointing Maritime Festival before I introduced him to Bulmers as well as some friends of mine in Thomas Read.

The day after we took the DART to Malahide, a small coastal town some kilometres north of Dublin. We strolled through the park and enjoyed the sun which kept us out of the castle. Later on, we went from the marina along the coastline to the beach and enjoyed some very spicy pub food in Oscar Taylor’s for a belated lunch.
In the evening we went to try some microbrewed beers in Dublin’s Porterhouse near Grafton Street. Yuck! It was horrible. To some degree it was our very own fault, because we decided to check out some rather strange beers (Chocolate Truffle Stout). Anyway, we decided to leave after our first pint and met up with some of the remaining Erasmus students at Anthony’s flat for a relaxed evening. I sincerely hope that their other offerings are better, but somehow I do not want to figure this out myself anymore.

On Sunday afternoon, we wanted to have a barbecue at our place. So Brandi and I went to the Aldi to buy some food and charcoal briquets. After entering the store, I immediately headed for the briquets. This turned out to be a good idea: there was only one bag left. We continued our way through the store to get some groceries and went to the checkout. Before queuing, I asked my friend: Do we have everything we need?
Beer? Check! Cheese? Check! Charcoal? Che.. wait a minute! Where is our charcoal? Someone had robbed it from our trolley. We looked around and spotted a bunch of girls that were just leaving the store with a bag of charcoal. Our bag of charcoal. I got really angry, but what can you do? So I had to walk all the way to B&Q to buy a bigger and more expensive bag. Thanks a lot, girls. Very nice of you.
Anyway, the barbecue was pretty cool although Abdoun was our only guest. After he had left, we watched the German movie Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex to kill the time until 3:00 am when Brandi took the cab to the airport. In between, Andreas and Janine dropped by to say hello to us and goodbye to Chris.

Here are some photos of the weekend:

As you can see, we had a pretty good time. Thanks for visiting, Brandi!

While the summer finally arrived this week, most of my friends left. Thus, the last week was another week of saying goodbye. I was constantly meeting people to spend some time with them.

On Monday, I went one last time with all my Spanish friends to the Lemon to have a nice crêpe and a coffee. Afterwards I had to say goodbye to Carmen and Óscar, because both left the day after. I’m really not good at goodbyes.

On Tuesday, I ate out together with Luisa and Natalia in Captain Americas and attended the pub quiz afterwards. With a little help from some other Erasmus students that joined us, we were able to finish last but two. Remarkable! Go, go team Flying Squirrel. The questions about Ireland broke our neck. However, I learnt that Navan is the only palindrome town in Ireland, that Tipperary borders on eight other counties and some more useless facts. Natalia left the day after.

On Wednesday, I went with Chris and Ennis to Trim. You can see some photos of that trip in an earlier entry.

On Thursday, Chris and I met up with Isabel and Berta, who wanted to ramble and take all the tourist photos. Of course, we started with a coffee. The Lemon was overcrowded and the weather was very nice, so we took the coffee to St. Stephen’s Green and sat/laid down in the grass to enjoy the sun after picking up some great white chocolate with berries from the local Butler’s branch. Later, Ennis and Simone joined us and we bumped into some friends. Thus, the afternoon passed by so quickly that we did not go anywhere else that day except for a brilliant dinner at Berta’s place. On Friday, Ennis left for vacation.
Thursday was a really awesome day. Here are some photos of my friends and me enjoying the day.

On Friday, we went to the Thomas Read to party one last time with Berta, Isabel and Luisa and listen to Brian again. Luisa, the president of the first unofficial international Brian Brody fan club, was very happy when he joined us for a pint and a chat after the gig.
The three girls left the morning after.

Bye bye, friends! It was nice to meet you, great to spend time with you and very hard to say goodbye. I’ll see you again; be it in Ireland, in Germany, Spain, Austria, Poland or the Czech Republic. Until then: enjoy your summer and don’t forget me. I won’t forget!

On Wednesday Chris and Ennis invited me to join them on an afternoon trip to Ennis‘ hometown: Trim in County Meath, a small town in the Boyne valley. While Ennis packed her bag for an upcoming hitch hiking trip, Chris and me visited Trim Castle – the biggest castle in Ireland. Afterwards we bought some groceries to prepare a huge bowl of delicious home made hummus. Yummy!

Last Sunday the photography society went on a one night trip to Charleville Forest Castle near Tullamore. Although I do not own a DSLR and do not know too much about photography, I joined them together with some other non-photographer friends.

This turned out to be a very good decision: it was a lovely day, the first of the Irish summer (it did not even rain). We enjoyed the sunshine all day long and recharged some energy after all the stress of the exams and last Saturday. All in all a very nice last trip with my friends! I am going to upload some funny series in the coming days. Here are some photos of the castle.