My journey to Dublin!

Hi guys! ​​

My name is Alina – yes I am also called Alina! It was quite confusing at first, but at least everyone in the office knew my name from day one.. I started my internship at Cpl recruitment in January and am Alina´s colleague now. This is going to be my first blog entry and I want to use it to tell you a little something about my journey to and my first day in Dublin! As I said, my internship started two weeks ago on Monday, I only arrived on Sunday before that. Not only was it my first time in Dublin, it was also my first time in Ireland! Obviously, I was a little nervous at first, but I was also very excited.

After I had been brought to the airport and had said goodbye to everyone, I was finally ready to go! I booked my flights about a month before arriving in Ireland. In order to compare prices and save some money, I used Skyscanner, which I can only recommend. I have used it in the past to look for flights to Europe and Asia, but also for flights within southeast Asia and have always found great offers! If you are a little flexible and a bit lucky, you might find flights from Germany to Dublin for under 50€. I did not want to leave to Dublin at night, so I chose a flight in the afternoon which cost me about 90€ including luggage. I am a EU citizen, so I did not have to prepare too much in terms of Visa or work permit. I just boarded my flight, scanned my Passport and the airport in Ireland and that was it!

Once I had arrived at the airport, I had to collect my luggage, which might have been the heaviest luggage I have ever packed. I was allowed to bring 23 kilos and checked into the airport with almost 24.. Luckily, the lady on the airport did not mind too much and I did not have to pay extra! Leaving the airport, I found myself standing right in front of the shuttle bus terminal. You can buy tickets from the bus drivers or get them on a ticket machine, which is what I did. One way into the city costs 7€. It took me only about 20 minutes to get to the city centre. The bus has several stops along the way, so make sure you know which one is yours! In the city centre, I changed into the Luas Line, which is quite new to Dublin and operates every few minutes. Depending on the zones you are travelling, a ticket costs between 1.50€ and 2.50€.

I had booked an Airbnb apartment in advance, which was close to a Luas station. I got off the tram and called the guy in the apartment, who was super nice and picked me up and helped me with my luggage. The apartment was great and had everything I needed in it. I shared the apartment with the couple and had a great and relaxed first week, which I used to look for a permanent accommodation. Once I had left all my luggage in my room, I went for a quick evening walk in order to be able to navigate to work the next day. Dublin is a big city, but after a couple of days, it is quite easy to navigate and I pretty much always walk everywhere. After my walk, I was quite tired though and after a quick snack on my way back home, I went straight to bed and tried to get a good night’s rest before my first day!