Ireland on a Working Visa #1
April 1st
Reality keeps forcing me to refuse to allow myself to believe that my pending trip to Ireland is not an April Fool’s Day gag that I have played on myself.
Reality keeps reminding me that it is true that I leave for Ireland on Tuesday, Apr. 4, and then, when I try to resist, reality makes me look at my train ticket from Edinburgh to London, and at my plane ticket (one-way) from London to Dublin.
Reality reminds me that it is true that I will be in Ireland for 4 months, on a work visa.
Reality also reminds me that I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do, where I’m going to be and stay, and how the hell I’m going to pay for it all, during that limbo, that purgatory, known better as “The Time Before My First Paycheck Arrives”.
Well, I still don’t know the answers to the first two. I like surprises too much, and I don’t like going to another, different place just so I can map out a perfect plan whose routine I never deviate from.
The third quandary, however… For that reality reminds me to look in my wallet:
I have a Visa card.
Life is good.
I exhale.
In truth, I’m only worried about this trip if I want to be. At the moment, I am coming to the end of a week’s holiday in Edinburgh – where I’m staying with friends, going out far too much and staying out far too late, as I always do here-and though I’m having a blast in the Scottish capitol, I cannot wait to get to Ireland.
The more I think about this trip, the more I remember what it was like coming to Edinburgh for the first time, a year and a half ago, and remembering that a scared, lonely wee boy quickly became a man surrounded by a familiar city and damn good friends. My time in Edinburgh was such a good experience that I came back to live here for six months.
Ireland, too, shall be good. I will start out knowing little – and will leave having learned much. I will make friends, I will travel about the country, I will leave in my wake a pile of pint glasses, filled only with a remnant foam that once was Guinness.
Reality says Ireland will be good. Reality says fear will soon give way to friends, familiarity and fun.
I have no trouble accepting that belief at all.
Actually, I do have a slight idea of where I’m going and what I’m doing.
The work visa, which is sponsored by Usit, allows Americans to work in Ireland for 4 months and Canadians for a year. It is available to students, recent graduates, and BUNAC work program participants.
I will be supplementing my work visa with a travel pass from Stray Travel. The All-Ireland Route (IR£99, or US$120) takes a minimum of 6 days to complete, but the pass is good for 4 months.
The route is a circuit leaving from and terminating in Dublin, and it will take me through the following cities: Donegal, Galway, Killarney, Schull and Cork.
If I fancy staying a while in any of these places, I can, and whenever I want to move on to the next I can phone up Stray Travel and get a seat on the next bus.
More details on all of Stray Travel’s passes and tours can be found on their website.
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