I’ve been in Ireland for four months now and I’m really enjoying it. I enjoy life and the healthy food on the organic farm. When we go shopping in Donegal Town, Thomas, my landlord, likes to show me around his land and forests. My life is a little quieter now.
Some pubs here look more like a living room, especially if the extensions that have been made over time are actually from former apartments.
A walk to this year’s fall festival in Glenties impresses with the number of people flooding into the village from the surrounding area. It’s surprising how much is going on here for such an event in a community with less than 1000 inhabitants. All the pubs were full until late in the evening and many stores were also open on Sunday.
It’s harvest time in the farm garden almost every day and our excursions often end in pubs.
On September 25, I flew to Germany, also to celebrate my mother’s 93rd birthday.
I spent a few days visiting former colleagues from the rescue service in Saxony and classmates in the Palatinate.
I then drove on to Heidelberg. My doctoral supervisor, Professor Dr. Peter Bannasch, had invited his former doctoral students and other scientists to a departmental alumni meeting with a hike through the Odenwald.
The following day, Professor Bannasch, who is now 90 years old, also took us on a tour of the Neuenheimer Feld in Heidelberg, where we were able to marvel not only at our alma mater, in particular the German Cancer Research Center, but also many new clinics and research institutes. I was also able to have my picture taken in front of my old transmission electron microscope (now a museum piece), which I used almost every day for more than four years more than 40 years ago.
Finally, a meeting with former fellow students and housemates from the Neuenheim student residence in Heidelberg rounded off the visit to my old place of study.
After a somewhat adventurous return journey, I found myself back in Donegal Town in mid-October for a walk around the town.
In the following weeks, I made time to look at apartments in Dublin and the surrounding area, including during Halloween. You couldn’t miss it from the decorations on the houses. This tradition originally comes from Ireland and goes back to early Celtic customs.
If you’re in Dublin, then a visit to Temple Bar is a must. This district is an amusement mile and tourist trap, but still worth a visit. One pub follows the next and from midday it’s a hive of activity until late into the night – every day!
Nevertheless, I found a place to stay in a nice suburb, which I was able to move into from mid-November. So it was farewell organic farm and Irish country life in Donegal County and welcome to the city.
