Ok...
takeaway coffee from cafe (small size): €1.95 to €2.80 (A$3.20 to $4.60)
tall (small) flavoured espresso drink from Starbucks (think caramel latte): ~€4 (A$6.60)
half dozen eggs from the butcher: €1.50 (A$2.50)
one bunch of fresh broccoli from market: €1 (A$1.60)
daily newspaper: €0.70 to €0.90 (A$1.15 to $1.50)
pair of ninewest boots on sale (braveone style): €108 (A$180- same boots in ninewest NYC are US$80)
loaf of white bread from Tesco: ~€1.75 (A$2.90)
1 litre of fresh milk: ~€1.20 (A$2)
irish/guinness stew from pub or cafe: (starting at) €11 (A$18.30)
pint of guinness at the Celt: €4.70 (A$7.80)
bottle of VB at an off-licence (liquor store): €2.50 (A$4.15) I can't imagine paying $4.15 for a stubbie of VB!!!
average burger price at maccas: starting around €3.80 (A$6.30)
hair colour at a salon: ~€75 (A$125)
Any other items you want me to price so you can be glad you are in Australia/America where prices are a bit more reasonable? If there were a petrol station around I'd get the petrol price. I did go past a used car lot on the way in and saw that second hand cars (just little runabouts) start at like, €6000 (almost A$10,000)
BUT not everything is expensive here! You just have to be sensible and look around for the best prices. You can get a bag of pasta for like 79c and a bottle of pasta sauce for 89c and there you go-cheap meal! Chicken is relatively cheap here, too...(although due to increase in feed costs etc it is said it will increase soon) I got like 400g of chicken for the equivalent of A$6 here. Similar to what I'd be paying back home I think. Yoghurts too, the ones I like back home are A$1.20 (mmmm Dairy Farmers) and the yohurts I've been buying here (mmmm Channel cream...) are the same price. Also if you look in the different places you can see big differences in prices. One cafe I went to had coffee+a danish for €2.50 which is a sweet deal considering most places don't even have coffee by itself for under €2.50! And one takeaway I saw had chip buttys for €4 and another had them for €2.70! It's about looking around and NOT buying Starbucks or the first thing you see. If you think it's too expensive then it IS, go somewhere else to get it!
I've got some good news, too. The Visa office people told me that I don't have to go to London to lodge my application, they can send it from there (since all applications go to Canberra anyway). So hurrah I don't have to worry about flights to London and juggling my time around as much. The share apartment fell through too which is probably a good thing. Looking for new places to stay now.
Can't wait to get this all sorted. Then I will have to get a GNIB/Garda card which is like a green card registering you to stay for more than 90 days (€100) and a PPS number then a bank account. Should all come together within 3 weeks if I'm lucky but I don't want to jinx it.
I haven't met any Aussies yet which is strange because I thought Dublin would be crawling with them. It's funny, when I joke about Aussies being everywhere I say (and probably shouldn't) "we're like a cancer" as in we spread out all over the world. Anna, the Italian girl who I was looking at flats with yesterday, says Italians are all over the place but says (much more kindly) that they are "like mushrooms". I like that turn of phrase much better!
Australia Day is tomorrow and there is a thing at the Woolshed Bar (the big Aussie pub here) which I'll probably swing by to. They're playing the Hottest 100 countdown-yessssssss! Don't think I'll partake of any $4 VBs though but if they have Coopers then mmmmmm.
The weather has been crazy windy lately. It's good when it's behind me (what does that mean, anyway-keep the wind to your back?) but walking into it is an ordeal. It's not raining today and yesterday there was even a bright blue sky and the sun was out! I've never thought about it before but I got told to remember that 'when the sun is out then it will be cold' which is not the case in Australia but it is here. When there is cloud cover it is quite humid and warm, actually. I'd rather the weather be dry and windy rather than warm and humid!!! The hostel keeps their rooms overheated too which is a bit annoying. It means I can (actually I have to) sleep without socks on I suppose...the hostel is also situated under the DART train line. Which is fun if you want to sleep in. Not. Maybe that's why I've been getting up so early-not due to jetlag but to being woken up by the trains. It's nice to be up at 6am though and get the paper and a cup of tea and have the common room all to myself. There must be like school groups or something staying here because there are stacks of young people (eg young teenagers and kids) here which is annoying. Not least because it seems like NOBODY in the hostel speaks english! Makes me feel really alienated when I think I can't even talk to anybody.
Anyway.
My watch broke back in New York so I have been watchless for the last week and a half. I really liked my watch so it's unfortunate! Really should have bought a new one in Chinatown with all the fakes they had there for cheap...but I was with Mateo the Argentinean and he would go up to the shopkeeper and go 'jhow abowt faaave dollars?' (trying to type out his accent) and the shopkeeper would be like 'no you look around' (as in get lost) or one guy who we got from $10 down to $7 said 'no you go away and when you come back it will be 10 again not 7'. LOL it was pretty funny! Apparently the shopkeepers have walkie talkies and communicate with each other and it's possible to be black flagged from Chinatown!
But yes...I need a new watch and should have gotten one then because as if I will pay Dublin prices for a new watch! I don't need anything fancy...just something I can tell the time by basically. Actually a calculator watch would be sweet as. I'm checking eBay as I type. I like the look of this one, actually:
here
This Fossil one is nice, too...US$103
or this one for US$84
Okily dokily I best be off. Man I talk alot of crap on here!
Hello to everybody reading this-I hope you're doing something suitably Australian for Australia Day! Have a snag and a lamington, drink a VB or Tooheys in your stubbies and thongs and celebrate an awesome country!!
xxx lish
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