Vecka tolv

This week I will complete a culture blog, comparing Vȁxjӧ to home. I went home this week for some appointments I had to attend. Luckily I was finished class, and colleges at home were closed for Easter holidays and so I got to meet up with and spend some time with my friends and family.  I also have a friend who I’ve met here in Sweden, Jackie from Australia, who always wanted to visit Ireland but never had the opportunity to, and so I invited her to along on my trip home. We were both so excited, I was excited to get to show off the lovely Ireland to my visitor and she couldn’t wait to meet my family, see some sights, the green grass, and of course the lephrachans!

When landing in Belfast, we were greeted with a familiar downpour of rain, rain which we never quite experience in Sweden, immediately I knew we were home. The familiar accent at the airport and the use of English was nice. Coming from a non-English speaking country to this feels great!

My sister picked us up at the airport and we drove to Sligo. Along the way I was giving Jackie a grand tour of our beautiful country. She had her camera out taking photographs of the green, green farmlands, the colourful mountains, and anything else out of the ordinary she spotted on the way, she couldn’t wait to show her family in Australia the ‘green-ness’ of Ireland. I quickly realised how beautiful Ireland looks through the eyes of an outsider.

Luckily Tuesday turned out to be a lovely sunny day so we headed to the mountain of Knocknarea which is in Sligo. From the top we had some beautiful views of the coast, and of the whole of Sligo. Walking up through crowds of sheep we spoke about the differences between Sligo, Vȁxjӧ and Melbourne.

We also made a trip to the beach on Tuesday. It was great to be near the coast again as Vȁxjӧ is about an hour from the coast and so it’s difficult to visit the beaches. From living in Australia, Jackie is also used to sunny weather and being at the beach and so she loved seeing what an ‘Irish’ beach looks like in comparison to theirs.

We will be in Ireland for a few more days and so I will continue a culture blog into week 13.