Eye candy!

It´s about time I show you the money!
And this kind won't wrinkle, get ruined in the washer or get stolen at the back of an alley after a drunken night out on the town.

I´m talking pictorial baby! I´ve picked out some of my favourite pictures for you to see what my new home town is all about - a little bit of history, places that are on my bucketlist to explore and miscellaneous ones to dream about. 

Brace yourselves!

Once upon a time, in the beginning of the 9th century (800-talet) after a long ranged voyage over two seas and a channel they finally arrived - the Danish seafarers! 

"You´ve reached your destination" a GPS would´ve said centuries later.

They moored their boats in the blackened water and went ashore. 

"What shall we call this new summer idyll?" Asbjorn (or something like that) asked? 

The poet among the lads, Sven (or something like that) said: 

"Let´s name it after the black pool where we first put our feet - and in its native tongue." 

Everyone was onboard with that great idea. 

"Anyone here who knows Gaelic" Asbjorn asked? 

(Complete silence)

Then an Irish lad named Aengus (or something like that) came along. Sven walked up to him and asked: 

"Hvad kalder du det der?" ("What do you call that?") and pointed to the black pool. 

Aengus responded with his extremely sexy accent: "Dubh linn!" 

The Vikings all looked at each other.

"Did anyone catch that?" Sven asked.

"I think he said Dyflin" Asbjorn said. 

"Then Dyflin it is!!! Sven cried. 

The End.

Now, kids! What´s the magic word we´ve learned today? That´s right - Pronunciation!

It´s pronounced Dublin (ˈdʊbᵊlən)!

Liffey runs through the city, dividing it into a northern and a southern side. Since I´ve no orientation skills what so ever (still using my GPS in Stockholm after 11 years), this river will be my safety line. I´ve figured that if my phone dies and I´m waaay too proud to ask for directions, I´ll divine myself to the water and from two landmarks on each side, I can orient myself wether I´m on the north side or the south... I´ll be living on the south side.

Landmark nr 1, north side: the Convention center (the blue ringed building on the right hand side).

Landmark nr 2, south side: the wishbone part of the whale mouth looking Samuel Beckett bridge on the left hand side.

See?! I´ll be totally fine on my own!

And on my way home, I can stop and look att this! But preferably not alone (wink wink).

Like I said. I´m gonna be living on the south side, but not too far away from the Liffey and on the north side, just a walking distance from me, there´s a park. And this is not just any other park. It´s the place of the Fire bird. This is gonna be my new work out spot... and picnic area... and... oh, what the heck, I can just set up a tent and live here forever. Look at that!!! In the middle of the city!

As a tomboy (pojkflicka) I´ve always loved the outdoors - hiking, fishing, quading, shooting beer cans etc. But there´s one indoor place that´s my haven. The closest I can compare it with is to a church. A place of silence and learning - the library!
Rows and rows of books upon books- each and everyone a portal to other worlds never imagined! 

With a new job comes new colleagues. And that brings out two famous letters: A and W - After work! I prefer one drink above all others and that´s beer. But I require stamina! No tap water for me! A local brewery nearby can meet my needs for the next 7,241 years when their lease expires. I do hate to rush!

For every emotion, there´s a place. I´m a hopeless romantic and from time to time I just wanna skip, skip, skippety hop around and start an improvised Sound of Music choreography and be all fluffy duffy. And I´ve found the place for it!

This is a spring thing that I´m gonna miss out on this year. But to quote Simon and Garfunkel: "April, come she will!" So what can summer offer? Some relaxation perhaps? And to me, relaxation means water. Or being on a boat. I looove boats... especially those above the surface... rocking you into a blissful haze while you gaze out on the turquoise landscape. I don´t have a boat, but for this place I´d settle with an inflatable one.

And along came winter. And you know what that means... Christmas!!! Aaah, I love this holiday to bits. Thank you Santa! Walking through streets of cobblestones like in a Dickens novel, drinking hot chocolate and to see all those low hanging stars glistening in cheerful eyes. Watch out future family... you´re gonna be farting candy canes and reek of merries and frosties and Rudolphses so it will last you... well a whole year!

But everything isn´t hunky-dory all the time. As an artist I´m always close to every emotion, especially sadness. Now, sadness doesn't´t have to be a negative thing. Crying and contemplation is my self therapy, often to the tunes of a sad song. One of my favourites is sung by Sinéad 

O´Connor, about a poor woman, trading day in and day out on the streets of Dublin and without no one to save her, she died of a fever. 

Some stories you´re glad they´re fictional, like the one above. The next one is not. Along the river Liffey stands a monument over a gruesome time in Irish history that left me crying on the street. 

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move... only cry. 

As Santayana once said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." 

My darkened past is in the past. I will never forget it and that will give me the means to never repeat it!

So... maybe a bad way of ending a seemingly cheerful post. After all, that´s what I want this blog to be all about. Ok, I´ll put in an extra treat for you that made me smile when I saw it. A true hero -
a driver getting off his bus to help an elderly man tie his shoelaces.