As I am making my way back home to the place I was raised I find myself with plenty of time on the way to get updated on domestic matters that have seemed so far away this semester. I also happen to catch the way of Roskilde returning back to where they came from. The train is overcrowded, but with some luck I get a spot at the front of the train.

Taking in the information from the free newspapers handed out at the airport is precarious. Not much of it is actually interesting, but still it feels like getting your software updated. Though the programmes change the platform still stays mostly the same, other than the language switch. The hardware defiantly stays the same and I recognise I have neglected it some during the semester. Most likely exercising particular parts of the body.

Nevertheless it will be good to return back home and see the family, as well as taste the local cuisine. However I am not going to stay long as next semester commences in September and I need to find a place to live (though that seems to be almost sorted). Paris will be an interesting place to live and study (both being very different from each other and still connected). Most of all I cannot wait to meet the new people I will be in contact with until December, whereafter everyone will be scattered into placements around the world (or at least Europe).

Before going to Paris I have made some plans (though friends of mine would not call it anywhere close to a plan). I want to go see the south-eastern parts of Germany (Dresden, etc.) and perhaps venture into eastern Europe which is still very much a blank spot in my mental map of Europe. What are the tastes, sounds, flavours and people like in the eastern part of Europe? I hope I will get to know. Besides that, harvest season will probably draw me home end of July or early August (depending on the weather).

Before I left Dublin I went on a short trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the most enchanting weather ever and the locals were lying around and enjoying the sun in all the parks of the city. We also climbed a pre-historic volcano just outside the city (which is where the picture is from). Furthermore we got to see the Parliament of Scotland having a very emotional and passionate debate prior to voting on the legislation for ‘knife crime’. We even had victims present and watching the debate; this made everything very tense and interesting.

I’d never had the chance to see the law being made (most unnatural it had to be in Scotland – the newest of all European parliaments). Getting in is fairly easy and everyone was very helpfully guiding us through the political procedures. Best of all it is free and teaches you a lot about politics in very little time. If you have the chance to see your Parliament or that of any other country performing their duties then I highly recommend that you go!