DuBlin to Dungarvan (my new home)

I know I still owe all of you my adventures in France, but for the sake of making sure I stay on top of my daily adventures I am going to update this to where I am now and then when I can add Paris and France in later....
DUBLIN to DUNGARVAN (Jan 10)
After my last night in Dublin I woke up and had my hostel-provided breakfast consisting of toast, orange juice, coffee and cereal...pretty basic. Then I got checked out and headed to the main bus station with all my bags. I only had to walk across O'Connell Bridge and then got onto a tram which took me to my bus station. I was suppose to meet one of my other roommates there who was flying in that morning from Canada but I didn't see her and boarded the 10:30 a.m. bus (we later discovered we must have been sitting RIGHT near each other the whole time, but she waited for the 11:30 a.m. bus in case I was late...opps!)
The bus took me about four hours to get into Waterford, where I then transferred and went straight to Dungarvan (my sleeply little waterfront town).


<---- On my bus ride down to Dungarvan! I was trying to be as discreet as possible with taking the picture.

The bus ride from Waterford to Dungarvan was just under an hour and exactly what I had imagined Ireland to be. Rolling hills of green everywhere, some sheep wandering around in a stone-enclosed field and a small one-lane, bumpy road. But with the exception of one thing: I had always imagined the green hills to be pretty filled with clovers and shamrocks for some reason.....but its mainly just different shades and beautiful textures of grass. This may make my goal of finding a 4-leaf clover harder than I thought...hmmm. When I got to the Dungarvan bus stop, which I almost missed if not for the brash Irish man sitting across from me (I think he was still drunk) I called a local taxi number and the driver was there within literally one minute. That's how small my town is :) He took me to 17 Parklane, Abbyside (we are still in the process of finding out the actual address so Google Maps can find me) and there I stood outside my new Irish home.


<---This is taken from the front of the house..My room window is the top right and the front door is right below me.

















<---Here is just another angle of the house. You can see our garage, a bit of the driveway and next to it is the front door; above is my window.











<----Here is an image of our front garden area. My window looks out onto that and a little park across the street. When I first looked out the window I witnessed a little furry dog peeing on the smaller bush near the end of the gate. Clearly it gets watered.





There were two rooms left, a bigger downstairs room and a smaller one upstairs but with more storage and built in closets. Stephanie and I, the roommate from Canada who I was suppose to meet, were going to "rock-paper-scissors" for them (Katie, I was going to make you proud!!) but since we didn't see each other at the bus station I figured something had gone wrong and decided I'd award her with the bigger downstairs room (plus she has a year visa so I thought I'd be nice in case she stays). Worked out perfectly for her and her cigarette pack since she is near the door, plus I'm right by the bathroom so it's a win-win situation for both of us.



<---This is my room from walking in the door. It is very much the smallest and most quaint room, but I love it. My bed is on the right and my whole right wall is a closet and dresser, with a built in vanity and mirror.Behind the door I have about five tall shelves for storage and books.











<---That is a closer shot of my big window above my bed and the little park area across the street. On more clear days I probably have the best view, plus I can see whoever is at the front door!


I met my other two roommates, Patrick, 23, from Holland, and Sarah, 26, from England. We hugged and Sarah gave me the not-so-long tour of our little house. She must have red my mind because then off she bounced and let me unpack and get settled in with little distraction. An hour later Stephanie, aka Canada, arrived and Sarah jumped up and basically repeated the same actions once again. She makes everything very welcoming. After Steph and I got pretty settled in Sarah and Pat walked us into the town so we could get a few knickknacks from the store and just wondered around a bit. After a while we came back to the house where Stephanie and I proceeded to pass out rather quickly....
Man did it feel good to actually feel settled into a place finally.

Here are a few shots of the house....the floor is torn up at the moment because we are getting brand new carpet this week, so just ignore that! :)



<--This is the hallway from my room toward the bathroom and then the stairway to downstairs....There are two other bedrooms on the right hand side, one right away(Sarah) and the other one down near the bathroom(Patrick).



















<--This is the kitchen which is downstairs and there is the garden out in the back you can see through the window. On the right hand side we have a door which leads outside to the backyard and the garage where the washer and dryer live.
















<----The entrance off the kitchen into our living room.















<--With my back to the TV this is our view into our backyard and our VERY comfortable couches.















<---Next to the couch we have two chairs and next to the chair on the right is the door in and out of the room. We have some very style-ish pictures going on throughout the house as you can tell.