You can tell that the university has been around for quite some time by the architecture, with beautiful, majestic buildings spread out over a well preserved centrally located campus. The campus, which is more or less 4.5 times smaller than that of TU/e, hosts about one and a half times as much students as TU/e, which makes for a very lively atmosphere!

Even though Irish is the national language here, they were so kind to also provide most signs and directions in English. The Irish-English accent, which oftentimes lacks some articulation, was a bit challenging for me to understand in the beginning, but it grew on me. On average, the people are very friendly and welcoming, as were those in my research group. The office, even though small, was filled to the brim with desks in a Tetris-like manner, how efficient! The walls were decorated with various relics and objects from the past, some of which have unknown origins, probably left by previous researchers. Additionally, a skeleton wearing a lab coat and a Saint-Patrick’s Day hat keeps guard of the coat rack, as in any good BME office should.

Outside my research I had a look at different clubs and societies at Trinity before deciding to join the Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC). The boat club has close ties with Trinity, just as the boat club in Eindhoven would have with TU/e. Because Dublin is home to multiple universities, we share our 1800m stretch of the river Liffey with five other boat clubs, including the other students in the University College Dublin Boat Club (UCDBC). DUBC and UCDBC have been known for their playful ‘rivalry’ which is settled every year at the ‘Colours’ boat races. This race is held in the centre of Dublin, which makes it easy to watch because of Dublin’s many bridges. In this race the novices and seniors of both men’s and women’s crews race each other for a chance to paint the trophy in their club colours, hence the name ‘colours’ boat races. Unfortunately, out of the four races, DUBC only managed to secure the Dan Quinn Shield (Novice Men’s 8+) this year.

When you think of Dublin, you think of Guinness! Of course I couldn’t leave Dublin without paying a visit to the famous storehouse experience. Even though it reminded me strongly of the Heineken Experience, my visit was greatly improved by the view from the Gravity Bar. It offered a 360 degree view of Dublin which you can appreciate while enjoying a fresh pint of Guinness, or as they like to call it here: Irish champagne.

So far I am really enjoying myself in the Irish capital, which doesn’t feel that far from home due to the short flight time. On King’s day there even was a drink for Dutch people, complete with Heineken, Dutch cheese and of course, bitterballen! Because Dublin is just a stone’s throw away, I regularly got visited by friends from the Netherlands on weekends. Even though it was good ‘craic’ (Irish for fun), I would recommend future students to keep the amount of visitors to a minimum. You would want to have some time to yourself to do some exploring, not only of Dublin, but also of Ireland. Ireland has so many beautiful places that are definitely worth a visit.

Slán go fóill! (Irish for ‘Goodbye for now!’)