5 Everyday Things That Are Different in Dublin
Every country has different common habits or things about how everyday life goes. This isn’t different in Dublin and you may have already noticed some things that you don´t know from your country. This post will hopefully be helpful for you to get to know these things and to do them as well. Then you can call yourself a “real Dubliner”!
Traffic
As you probably already noticed the cars and busses drive on the left side in Ireland. This might be really confusing in your first days if you want to cross the road or something else. But don’t worry, there are signs on the floor where the traffic lights are, they will tell you which way you have to look first to cross the street safely.
Also the traffic lights change quite fast, so cross the street quickly. They also have three colours like the traffic light for cars and you can still cross the road if it’s orange. Moreover, you will see plenty of busses driving through the city….
Bus
There are a few things you need to know if you want to use the bus during your stay in Dublin. First of all you need to stretch out your hand if you’re standing at a stop and want to stop the bus that you want to enter. Otherwise it just pass the stop and you have to wait for the next one.
Secondly the Irish always say “thank you” or “thanks” to the bus driver when leaving the bus. The “leap card” is the main payment method when using public transport. If you want to pay in cash you need to pay the exact amount, because you won’t get any change and it´s a bit more expensive than the leap card fares. You can get one in shops that have the sign “payzone” or “leap card” at their shop.
For more information about the leap card and how to use it check here.
Plug Sockets
The plug sockets in Ireland are different than the most in Europe. This means you will need an adaptor to charge your electronic devices. They aren’t that expensive, but I recommend to buy one in your home country, if you need to charge something quickly at the airport or if you don’t have the time to buy one when you have arrived. Furthermore, you might need to turn on the plug socket first by pressing the button right next to it.
Meal Times
The meal times in Dublin might also be different than you know it from your country. Usually, you have a normal breakfast with cereal and toast and of course a cup of tea.
The lunch is just a light meal, for example, a sandwich or a soup. You will find lunch deals in nearly every grocery store or student lunch deals in some restaurants. They are usually quite good and should be enough for you that you make it until dinner.
Dinner is the largest meal of the day and contains most of the time a type of meat, vegetable and some sort of potato, rice or chips. If you’re staying in a host family you will probably get to know every possible way to cook a potato, be ready for that.
This meal structure might be unusual for you, but you will get used to it with the time!
Weather
The weather is probably the most inconsistent thing that you can find in Dublin and Ireland. You can’t really trust the weatherman and must be ready for all types of weather. On some days you can experience sunny, rainy, windy parts or even a mixture of them all in only have an hour.
So make sure you always have an umbrella or a raincoat at hand to be ready for some surprising rain. It usually rains a lot more than the sun is shining, but you probably already know that.
