Have you heard that people living in Ireland discuss the weather a lot, if not in every conversation? I think yes we do talk about the rain, wind, chills and (if lucky) the sunshine, a lot more than you’ll find in any other part of the world. But over the last few days we’ve been talking about snow and how passionately!
I’ve been residing in Dublin for 3 years and the year I arrived here my first wishful thinking was to see snow. Dublin is cold all through the year but snowfall is something that we don’t experience every winter.
You might find this strange but I had never seen snowfall, ever in my life! I was so eager to see snowfall that last Christmas we travelled to France to have a white Christmas. I was extremely happy to touch and see snow around me but I wasn’t lucky enough to enjoy snowfall.
Until a week ago if you’d to ask a Dubliner of the last snowfall, 2010 was the year you’d heard! Not anymore, because 2018 didn’t just show us a little snowfall, we had a snow storm.
Very interestingly the arctic blast was named ‘Beast from the East’ for strong winds travelled from Russia and covered Ireland and UK with soft white flurries.
Since snow is a rare sight here, the city is not very prepared for snow days with winter tyres and infrastructure. So, with snow came the holiday period for us! Also, we had red alert on weather. From Wednesday until Saturday the city came to a halt – schools were closed, we stayed indoors, worked from home and stocked up on food for the entire period. Yes, mostly people went panic shopping and ended up stocking more bread, eggs and milk packets than the nearby supermarket holds on a normal day (Okay, except a wee bit of exaggeration it’s true!)
The scenes outside the window were too tempting to be working continuously, so I took little breaks to stand near the balcony and see the snow entering our estate slowly but steadily. Like many others, my husband and I packed our laptops to walk to the nearest pub and settle there with warm food, unusual calmness of the pub and window views of carefully walking locals. Many city dwellers waited for the snow to prove the urgency for shopping and then reached the closest store with big shopping bags. I saw balancing weight of heavy bags on both hands as they softly walked back.
Of course we all worked from warm corners of home and pubs, but Dubliners didn’t forget the fleeting moment Dublin had offered to enjoy the snow. We played in the snow, created snowmen, got into snowball fights and walked on the freshly laid cushioned surface of earth.
By Friday we had so much of snow accumulated on our balcony that we built a tall and handsome snowman who ended up being a lovely attraction in our estate. Passersby didn’t miss clicking a photograph of him before he thaws in the coming rain.
Do you know that feeling when you don’t go on a holiday, but the vacation setup comes speeding toward you? It felt like that with snow days in Dublin. Suddenly this city looked deep into holiday mood and it took all the residents along with it into a slow and resting phase. No doubt Dublin looked alien but I fell in love with this place all over again.
More than being a ‘Beast from the East’, I’ll call her a beauty who took us back to the basics. Survival was everyone’s focus – we looked for the warm, safe surrounding of indoors and sufficient quantity of food. No cars were turned on and the public transports were out of service, giving people the opportunity to walk everywhere and to be seen in the neighbourhood. We were doing similar things and thinking alike because of storm Emma.
Her idea might have been disturbance but we didn’t mind her presence even one bit. This beast will live long in fond memories.
This was my first ever snowfall and it will always stay special. The next time someone asks me if it snows in Dublin, my answer will be – Yes, it does. And it creates a story to remember that you can’t experience at other destinations where snowfall visits frequently.
