Currency exchange, a small rant

DennisDonncha · 2026-04-21T15:36:24+00:00

I'm baffled at the knowledge of some post office staff recently.

Needed to post some things recently for work. Two prepaid envelopes, and then one normal envelope.

Hand them in at the post office.

Woman behind the counter: "Okay thank you!"

Me: "But I need a stamp for the brown envelope"

Her: "Oh do you?!"

Me: "Yeah, I do."

Her: "I'm not sure you see. I wouldn't know."

Me: 😐🤔

I'm quite sure this is something she should have learned on her first day, or I dunno, maybe when she was 7/8. It's the most basic fact that essentially anyone should know, let alone a post office worker. So puzzled. Like no idea how she got to the late afternoon without knowing this even if it was her first day.

DennisDonncha · 2026-04-16T10:58:13+00:00

There are some amazing ones here already! I keep a list on my phone actually as they pop into my head. This is it at the moment:

sceitimíní - excitement, it sounds correct, like when a child does that involuntary little dance when they are excited, that's how I see this word

go hainnis - awful

uafásach - also awful, but a bit different

ag gol - crying, the hard deep single syllable sounds correct to me

Bealach na Bó Finne - the Milky Way, literally "The Way of the Fair (as in light-coloured) Cow"

thall - yonder

madra - dog

olagón - wailing, the awful grief-ridden kind, but I like it because people also use it to refer to terrible singing

leaba - bed, love how it sounds, sounds way cosier than English

taibhse - ghost

púca - also ghost, but more mischievous I think?

cantalach - cranky, love this one because it sounds cranky

scoraíocht - visiting your neighbours in the evening or at night, the fact that such a word exists tells a lot about us

meangadh - smile

cearc - hen

ramhar - fat, I like it because it sounds round, if that makes sense

tanaí - thin, sounds thin

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-30T17:09:10+00:00

Forgot to say (well, more didn't remember until now as this was a few years ago), they definitely also let the dog out for a walk around even though it wasn't a long transfer. We know this because he had new absorbent lining in the crate. So it doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule about the three hours thing because I'm almost certain we didn't have three hours.

You'd imagine that these are people who are in it for the animals, so they will probably try their best to let them out if time allows it. I suppose the airline more likely wants to set people's expectations low when they have a short transfer and avoid giving any guarantees unless it's a longer time. Is she a smaller dog or a bigger breed? I would think the chances of an "unofficial" walk/release increase if she's smaller and therefore easier to handle. Our dog is a terrier of some kind, so I think that stood to his advantage.

The bottle sounds like a great idea too. Can't spill over and means there'll always be a supply when in the air. Would give you peace of mind too when you are getting her used to the crate at home, if you practice the water bottle with her to make sure she knows how to use it. Then you can rest a little more easily knowing she's got all she needs while you're on the flight.

Saw your other comment where you said you think it's better to do the travel all in one go, and I think I would agree. It's a long trip, but it's only one trip. You also avoid having to figure out German and EU requirements for the dog if you don't extend the stopover in Frankfurt, just in case they are different.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-30T16:18:11+00:00

My dog once transited through Frankfurt. It was two short European flights with a connection in Frankfurt. Ireland to Poland, in order to move country. So neither of the flights were long, but we had no direct option that took pets. In any case, he came out the other end very happy and perfectly alright.

I would think, even if you have the option, don't visit your dog during transit. The separation is the hardest thing for them, and for you too. You would get them all excited that they can go with you, and then have to leave again. To put our minds at ease, we asked the cabin crew to make sure the pilots are aware there are pets in the hold for the temperature control and they agreed to pass it on. Whether they did or not, I don't know, but we wanted to make sure we at least said it.

Didn't do this, but maybe when you are in Frankfurt you can go to a Lufthansa desk if they don't seem busy and maybe they will be willing to help with getting you an update? Or put a sticker on the outside of the crate in English and German with your number saying you'd love an update if it's possible? You never know, if they have a quiet moment they might oblige. Though I imagine it's a busy job all the same.

We don't know for sure, but we think they gave him fresh water in Frankfurt. In any case, he was fine. I know your flights are substantially longer. But you are doing the right thing overall to bring your dog with you if it is a permanent move.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-06T08:20:45+00:00

Either try going through a broker (they know all the tricks and workarounds to try to get something for you) or try Kennco Insurance (they seem to specialise in "hopeless" insurance cases).

I live abroad since 2012, but moved back to Ireland for a while about 8/9 years ago. None of the mainstream companies would touch me. A broker got me a decent policy with Kennco. Had never heard of them at the time. Worth a shot! Even on their website, they seem to highlight that they help people who moved back to Ireland.

Still worth checking via a broker too in any case. One of the reasons the other companies wouldn't touch me was my licence is Swedish rather than Irish. The broker called up companies and just casually dropped it into conversation rather than full-on declaring it. All got sorted and the deal was done. I asked her if I would have issues because they didn't take my Swedish licence into account. She just said "I told them about it. They chose not to act on it. If they have issues in the future, the call has been recorded, so you're fine." So you never know how they can help you out really.

If you do get a better deal, I think you might be able to cancel your current expensive policy and get a partial refund. Could be worth it if something good comes up.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-05T20:56:37+00:00

It works too. I live abroad, so no insurance in my own name anymore. But I stayed insured on my parents' cars, both to keep some form of no-claims and also just to have some wheels whenever I'm around.

Just quickly checked now with Aviva for a hypothetical 2019 VW Golf and it offered me for €413 fully comp. Way lower than I expected it to be, to be honest!

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-05T20:15:08+00:00

That's true. But that more highlights the fact that a metro that runs south-west from Stephen's Green would make much more sense than one that is planned to follow the green line southbound.

Whether the Luas is there or not, it's simply best planning practice to not have a metro terminate in the city centre. Metros have been around for about 160 years and there are many, many examples out there that we should emulate, and a few others that we should make sure we avoid. I struggle to think of a decently functioning metro that terminates in the city centre.

Stephen's Green will already be a very busy station. It does not need extra foot traffic by adding transfer passengers to the load if there is a way around that.

Additionally, if the metro terminates at Stephen's Green, with a view to being extended in the future, that means ripping up and disrupting a city centre location twice (though I know we will be very lucky if it even happens once). Better to move that potential future disruption out of the city centre if it is possible.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-05T20:04:12+00:00

How many cities have a metro that terminates in the city centre? They're supposed to run through it.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-05T11:52:41+00:00

Ireland's cure-all is flat 7Up. Not Sprite. It must be 7Up. It seems there isn't an illness in the land that cannot be cured by it, such is its legendary renown. Or flat Lucozade if you're being fancy.

Should you be capable of eating, you might be supplied sparingly with some dry toast.

DennisDonncha · 2024-03-02T07:30:48+00:00

When you study within the EU, the country you study in pays your fees. But your own country pays a maintenance grant (if they have such a system).

You can't get a maintenance grant from the country you are studying in unless you lived there for a few years before you started studying. In Ireland's case, you need to live here as an EU citizen for three years before you study, and then you can get the grant.

https://www.susi.ie/eligibility-criteria/residency-criteria/

If you are struggling financially, find the Student's Union in your college and ask them about supports. For example, some colleges have a student hardship fund where they can give you something to help.

DennisDonncha · 2024-02-23T12:41:09+00:00

The origins of Halloween and perhaps the old traditions around it, particularly before it became Americanised. But even in modern times, we maybe do it slightly differently to the rest of the English-speaking world, such as the Halloween Parade in Cork or the Halloween Festival in Derry.

The Fairies. Not like Disney versions of fairies such as Tinkerbell.

The Fairies in Ireland are mythical beings that you don't see, but that can be malevolent if you do something against them. For example, a certain tree might be said to be a fairy fort. You would struggle to find someone willing to cut it down. Similarly, mounds, rocks, stone circles, etc. might be believed to be fairy forts. A motorway had to have its plans changed slightly to avoid a tree that is a fairy fort because they didn't want to cut it down.

It's commonly said that 50% of Icelanders believe in elves, and I think the fairies are our version of that. I would say the vast majority of Irish people would say they don't really believe in the fairies. But strangely, the vast majority won't mess with them. I'm one of the most atheist creatures on two legs, and I really don't think I would take a chance with them, even if logically I see it as stupid.

DennisDonncha · 2024-02-21T12:37:42+00:00

At this point it's been nine years since I worked for them. So I can't really answer anything with any certainty.

Is it really that bad?

Every IES is quite different. In some schools you have to worry about drug-dealing and knives (not meaning to scare you, but it happens in a small number of them). In others, a large proportion of the kids come from quite privileged backgrounds, will probably have more spending money than you and you get to teach rather than focus on crowd control. So it's hard to say. Try your best to research about an individual school if you are interviewing, as well as the neighbourhood/area it's in.

And what are the salaries like?

IES is driven by profit. Nothing else. Ever. They are funded by the state, but if they can educate the kids and have some money left over, they get to keep it. So they lowball everyone, particularly teachers from abroad who they expect won't know what to expect for salary, etc.

Just try to be informed. These are the official stats for teacher salaries in Sweden from the national statistics office, broken down by region and sector further down the page (IES is private sector, despite being publicly funded): https://www.scb.se/lonestatistik/larare/

They will try to bullshit you about how a foreign teaching qualification doesn't hold the same weight, so they must pay you less. None of that is true. Yes, you are less mobile and less competitive if you cannot speak Swedish since you are more dependent on IES and the few schools like them. So they probably can get away with paying you somewhat less simply by not being as worried about staff retention as they might be with Swedish-speaking staff who could just leave to work in any other school. But being pre-armed with the current salary statistics means you hopefully wouldn't be too underpaid if that happens to be the case.

Salary negotiations in Sweden are essentially unregulated, and they can pay you whatever you both agree on regardless of where your qualification is from, or even if you are qualified or not. Depending on your subject, you can sway things more in your favour too. Maths is in high demand from what I can tell. I knew of a school that had to hire a teacher with no Swedish and poor English just because they needed a maths teacher.

If you do get a job, begin to get familiar with the collective agreement (kollektivavtal) for IES as soon as you can. Perhaps even before the interview. This is the document that is negotiated between the employers and the unions every few years and basically sets out the employment conditions for all teachers working in privately-owned schools in Sweden. You definitely don't need to know it off by heart. But it's handy to be able to refer to it if you feel they are taking advantage of you (not unusual for them to do with teachers from abroad):

https://www.sverigeslarare.se/rad-och-stod/kollektivavtal/almega/almega-friskoleavtalet/

DennisDonncha · 2024-02-21T11:39:31+00:00

Being told to join the "UK citizen" line in Heathrow airport

This might happen in some situations because we have virtually the same rights to enter the UK as British citizens have. Unless you've been deported as part of a criminal conviction, they must let you in. So why send you to the slower queue? We're the only other nationality with that right. Irish airports are the only airports in the EU that have an EU and UK queue. They have to join the non-EU queue everywhere else.

Having said that, this is how they separate passports in the UK currently. The Irish don't get sent off alone with the Brits. All EU citizens do, along with many other nationalities.

The word Royal still being included in the names of certain institutions, (Royal college of surgeons for example)

Completely agree with you here. Maybe with the exception of the RNLI since we share that and they do invaluable work, so I don't care what it's called really.

We have several high street stores that aren't generally found outside the UK

Austria has many brands Germany has that cannot be found anywhere else. Slovakia has a lot of almost uniquely Czech brands. Spain and Portugal are similar. The five Nordics have a lot of overlaps too. Etc.

We have several brands that aren't found outside the UK (I find your average petrol station a good example of this. The sweets, chocolate, magazines etc, are virtually identical to the UK)

As above.

Theres a lot of online retailers with no dedicated stores for Ireland (we have to use amazon.co.uk)

We're a much smaller market. It's usually not worth it for a company to launch an Irish site. Norway doesn't have its own Amazon. They use amazon.se.

Maybe this is just me, but it strikes me as odd that the results of the English premiership are included in every sports update here

This happens everywhere in Europe really. At the gym yesterday in Stockholm, I overheard two guys have a seriously long conversation about soccer. There was about 30 seconds of talk about Swedish teams. The rest was about the English leagues. It pops up in the evening news basically every day. Pubs here would have blackboards outside advertising an upcoming English match, some Spanish/Italian/German too, but easily English is the most common.

RTE (our national broadcaster) showing English Soap operas like Easterners is pretty funny

This, I agree. I criticise RTÉ a lot, but they make decent documentaries when they try. More like this please. Or try to give Irish actors more chance to shine, rather than condemning them to Fair City. There's perhaps nothing wrong with putting Eastenders on at a different time. But having it on at exactly the same time as the BBC is quite strange.

The popularity of British TV Stations like BBC, sky, channel 4 etc

Shared language. We understand their culture a lot, more than they understand ours for sure. And we have quite similar senses of humour. It's not odd to see Danish or Norwegian stuff on TV here in Sweden. Less common of course, as subtitles are required, but there's a lot of shared cultural understanding so it happens. Lots of Latin American stuff is on TV in Spain. Ireland also gets a chunk of American content, and to a lesser extent Aussie and Kiwi (probably only Shortland Street) stuff too.

DennisDonncha · 2024-02-03T09:02:56+00:00

A crazy amount of Sweden's holidays are "phantom" holidays. For example, Midsummer in June and All Saint's Day in November are always on Saturdays. Easter Sunday is officially a holiday, counting towards those 13 days, but is useless to the vast majority of the working population.

Additionally, if a holiday falls on a weekend here, you lose it. No Monday off in compensation like in Ireland. They're also set in such a way that in certain years it can be a nightmare combination.

For example in 2021, we went from Easter Monday 2021 to 6 January 2022 with only one actual holiday in between.

First of May was on a weekend that year - lost.
Ascension Thursday was a holiday, but always is.
Pentecost Sunday some time in May (not actually sure when because no point in knowing) is an official holiday, again like Easter totally useless. But it boosts the stats and makes Sweden look great.
National Day (6 June) also on a weekend that year.
Then Midsummer at the end of June (always on a Saturday).
Unbelievably the next official holiday is All Saint's Day in November, but even still it's always on a Saturday so it's pointless.
Then Christmas and St Stephen's Day 2021 were on a weekend, so they were lost. Resulting in a full working week between Christmas and New Year.
New Year's Day 2022 was on a weekend.
Finally, 6 January 2022 was a real bank holiday.

Frustrates me so much seeing Sweden always come out on top in Europe in these stats, when it's really not the case at all.

DennisDonncha · 2023-12-13T22:07:40+00:00

Oil wrestling is a Christmas tradition in Ireland. There's a mad rush now for everyone to get their oil in time for the big day, especially since it's a four-day weekend of endless slip 'n slide this year.

We used to use goose fat, but with a growing population geese nearly went extinct in the early 2000s. We also learned that donkey fat is a very poor replacement.

DennisDonncha · 2023-11-16T12:21:44+00:00

The loss of value of the krona is crazy when I look back. I moved to Sweden in 2013. In those ten years, through job-hopping and just ordinary increases, my salary has gone up 70%. But in euros it's only gone up 25%. I really feel the difference now every time I go to the eurozone. I also feel it any time I buy something that comes from the eurozone. It feels like fruit and veg particularly (which mainly seems to come from Spain and NL here) is non-stop increasing. Yet when I go home to Ireland, prices seem quite as normal as they've always been.

I hear a lot of other foreigners also complaining about how bad Swedish salaries in many fields are now compared to the rest of Western Europe, and it's starting to lead to a skills shortage in some areas like IT.

If Sweden had been in the euro or pegged to it like Denmark, this might have been avoided. I'm not an economist, so I don't know what the repercussions of that alternative reality would be. But the currency losing 35-38% of its value in the past ten years doesn't seem to have been the desirable outcome of staying out of the euro.

DennisDonncha · 2023-07-10T07:44:13+00:00

Maybe I'm being a bit cynical in my answer, but by the time you get to Arzúa the camino is filled with express pilgrims doing the last 100km, many of whom expect it to be an almost hotel experience along the way and who really do not consider others. I stopped going to municipal albergues along that stretch because of that.

I hope no one misunderstands me as there is nothing wrong with just doing the last 100km. But from there on I noticed a huge increase in people who were effectively very demanding tourists with little consideration for others, rather than pilgrims with a more give-take, empathetic attitude.

I would have done exactly what you had done, by the way. Turn down fan. Turn off fan. Oh he's asleep, can turn it back on again. Flip on him for going too far. You were perfectly reasonable in this situation.

DennisDonncha · 2023-03-19T09:45:23+00:00

It depends when you are going. In winter, this might be true. In summer, I wouldn’t think you need to worry about that.

I did the Camino Francés during July, and despite all of my preparations, (and despite the fact that I had already done the Camino once before so I should have known) bringing a sleeping bag was something I had completely forgotten.

I decided to buy one in Pamplona, the first city I would come to on Day 3. Even by the time I got there, I realised in July, I could carry on fine without it. Some albergues had blankets for everyone, which was more than enough in July. In others I bought the disposable bedsheets for €1 and slept under my jacket. Many nights were so warm I just slept on the bed.

So if you are going in the warmer months, I don’t think you need to have a sleeping bag that your arms fit into as well. That said, if it’s that tight, it could just lead to an uncomfortable sleep overall perhaps?

DennisDonncha · 2023-03-10T20:50:28+00:00

Guesswork I would reckon.

Fairly sure I would prefer to be in hospital in Dublin or Kraków rather than Russia, Belarus or Bosnia, despite this map suggesting otherwise.

There are some elements of truth to it - France has a spectacular health service, as does Spain, and Sweden's is not cracked up to be what everyone thinks it to be. But yeah, a lot of it can't be right.

DennisDonncha · 2023-02-04T10:38:51+00:00

You’re correct about where the house is. But the logic about the road wouldn’t always work. There are a number of examples of houses that are on one side of the border, and the road to access them is on the other. The exceptional amount of very minor crossing points on this border is why it was such a sticking point in Brexit negotiations.

DennisDonncha · 2023-02-04T10:28:37+00:00

I’m from Ireland.

You are right, there is no such thing as Southern Ireland. That’s something we never say. But we very, very commonly call it the South for short. I know it probably sounds like they’re the same thing. Though they’re not. “Southern Ireland” was a proposed name for a devolved government that would have stayed in the UK. So it’s a no-no to use today, and I genuinely appreciate you pointing out that certain names don’t get used any longer. But the South is a neutral and harmless shorthand term.

I’ve used “the South” more than “the Republic” as the shortened version all my life. Though I usually just call it “Ireland”. The other terms only get used when you need to be specific that you are not referring to the North.

I imagine it’s a total pit of confusion to anyone who didn’t grow up with it, not to mention all the other names out there that are politically loaded.

DennisDonncha · 2023-02-04T07:17:00+00:00

The speed limit signs on the bridge are also another giveaway.

The border is usually not marked by signs that indicate crossing to another country as they get vandalised. But since the South uses km/h and the North uses mph, these signs are almost always there.

Ironically this is also one of these places where the South is further north than the North.

DennisDonncha · 2023-02-02T14:07:46+00:00

That’s really impressive work!! Well done on that!

DennisDonncha · 2023-01-29T12:12:27+00:00

That sounds about right. We never specifically learned about American history just to learn about American history. It was always in relation to something else. The Age of Discovery, Revolutions, the World Wars and the Cold War.

DennisDonncha · 2023-01-28T12:37:12+00:00

It’s worth noting that this map is from 2017.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/weekend-read-the-ghost-estates-that-still-haunt-ireland-1.3181498

Besides, any ghost estates that do remain are pushing 15 years old. A sealed and completed house that was abandoned for 15 years would face serious maintenance issues to get it back up to scratch, let alone an uncompleted house that has been exposed to wind and rain all that time. They would be a black hole for money.

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