Let's start with the basics. Going grocery shopping. In Dublin you have a lot, and I mean A LOT, of stores. The convenience store is a very strong concept around here, so there's a Spar or a Londis around every corner. And they're fine if you're in a hurry and want to grab something quick and cheap for lunch, but bare in mind that the things you buy there can be found for half the price in Tesco or Aldi. Luckily for me, they're just 5 minutes away from where I live. An interesting fact about Tesco and Aldi is that you may expect to find a big store, like you would in most places outside the city. But in the city, even the bigger ones inside the shopping centres, are the size of our supermarkets back in Portugal.
I've noticed that buying fresh produce, like fruit and vegetables, is much more expensive here than in Portugal. For instance, in Portugal there is a set price for a kilo of apples, so you pay according to the weight of what you're buying. So you can buy either 5 or 15 apples, but as long as the total weight is 1 kilo you pay the same. In here you pay by the unit, whether that unit is big or small you always pay the same. And the unit price can go anywhere from 50 cents to 1, 50 euros, which can be almost the price of one kilo back home just for one single apple.
On the other hand, buying toiletries is much cheaper here. In Portugal, you can easily pay 2 to 4 euros to buy a bottle of shampoo or shower gel. In here you can find them as cheap as 1 euro. And I'm not talking about low quality brands. I'm talking about Sanex, Nivea, Pantene, etc. So I suppose what you pay extra in some things you regain in others.
And when you go grocery shopping you'll need at least a bag to carry them right? Well, in here there is no such thing as a free bag. In Portugal, we already started to adopt this method in most supermarkets as well and you can get a bag for about 5 cents, but the big stores, like Continente, still give them for free. In here you pay 22 cents for a thin plastic bag that doubtfully will make it to another trip to the supermarket as it will tear in pieces. A strong bag costs 70 cents and a stronger and long lasting eco bag costs 1 euro. This is a great way to disencourage the use of plastic bags and it is understandable that most people here have given up plastic bags altogether, which is great for the environment. Way to go, Ireland!
Now, as a student, something I've done a lot up until now is making copies and printing documents. And, as expected, there came a time during this period in which I needed to copy a document for my research. Well, amazingly enough, that proved to be a huge nightmare!
As you walk around you see countless Internet cafes in which you can browse the Internet, as well as print and copy documents. Therefore, I thought it'd be fairly easy to get my copies done. But the mental prices, along with the inefficiency of the staff got my nerves on hedge. So if you want to print something off the Internet, it will cost you 1 euro for 5 minutes. And a print or a copy costs 20 cents each.
Well, the document I wanted to copy was 50 pages long, so I asked if they could make it front and back, so I'd pay less and waste less paper. But apparently front and back printing isn't a familiar concept around here. I tried to explain what it was for about 10 minutes and they were starting to mix up all the pages while trying to figure it out, putting them completely in the wrong order, so I just gave up of the whole front and back thing (should have given up altogether) and decided to go for the normal front copies.
The copying process took about half an hour, because the sheets of paper kept getting stuck in the machine and apparently they didn't know very well how to fix that (it's not like they do that for a living or anything)... So I just stood there as I watched them grab about 4 sheets at a time, in a complete random order mind you, and throw them in the copying machine.
In the end they handed me a bunch of loose sheets and told me that was the original. I was already starting to have a meltdown because everything was mixed up. They also didn't have a desk, so I had to kneel on the floor and try to make sense of the mess they handed me. It took me about 15 minutes to put everything in the right order again.
And then they handed me the copy bunch which, impressively enough, was even worse than the first one, because as they copied the pages they cut the page numbering part. So I had to go through every single page in the original and the copy document to get them in the right order and to make sure they had made a copy of every page, which I was starting to doubt at this point.
After a good 40 minutes kneeling on the floor I was exhausted and completely pissed at the completely useless and incompetent staff in this place. I finally finished putting everything in order and I had some good 10 copies of the same thing. But they didn't have the nerve to charge me for them. They "just" charged me for the 10 euros for the 50 copies and they didn't even gave me a receipt. At this point I was about to bite their heads off, so I think I half gnarled when I asked for one that they reluctantly gave me. So yeah, I'll never go back in there again and hopefully won't need to copy anything any time soon!
But let's move on to an happier note now and talk about going out. Ireland is very famous for its pubs and that's where you generally go in a night out around here. Now, I must say pubs in Ireland are totally different from what I expected. They're much quieter than I imagined, considering the irish pubs I've been to in Lisbon. Here, people can actually have a conversation while enjoying a drink and, my favourite part, no smoking inside. In Ireland, smoking is prohibited in all indoor public spaces, which is just brilliant! The thing I hate the most about going out at night in Portugal is the horrible cigarette stench in my clothes and hair when I get home. I feel disgusting. Or even in restaurants. It's just terrible trying to eat with someone's cloud of smoke invading your nostrils and depriving you from fully savouring your dish. Well, I don't have that problem here, so yey Ireland and I truly hope Portugal adopts this policy sometime soon.
And I guess this is enough clashing for today... I'll write some more about this topic soon!
