If you don’t know already: The housing situation in Ireland, especially Dublin is currently a bit over the top.

Firstly, it’s not only hard to find accommodation before you arrive to Dublin, but even when in Dublin it’s tricky to find a place to stay unless you have a load of money to spend or you do not mind to share a room with 4 other people.

As I am doing my internship at a Language School, they work together with host families. That’s why I was gifted to be able to stay with a host family for my first 2 weeks at no charge. I was given the option to extend my stay after those two weeks. However, as the family didn’t live that central and taking the bus in the morning to work was a nightmare because of the traffic, I was looking for a place closer to the centre. It literally took me 1 hour for which it usually takes 20 min if there is no rush hour. So, during 2 two weeks I had time to look for another place to stay and go to some house viewings. On the contrary, some of my friends stayed in a hostel during their first week or rented an Airbnb until they found a permanent place to stay.

Luckily, I found another host family through a friend, which lives very central (Dublin 6, Rathmines) and just a 10-minute walk from my workplace. According to my snapchat filters I even live in McDonalds, Starbucks or other Shopping centres. However, living that central also has its price. I remember the first time when I transferred the amount of the rent to my host families bank account, my bank from Austria rang me to check in with me if I indeed issued such a high transaction to a foreign bank account and if they can let it go through. So at that stage I was really aware: I am paying a lot to have a room to stay in Dublin. Hold on tight: I do pay €700 a month (and do earn €500 a month)! Some of my friends here share rooms with other people and pay around €500-600 for living in the same location and other friends would pay €600 for a single room further out of the centre. However, as I live quite central and can conveniently walk nearly everywhere, I at least save money for public transport which would cost me at least another €80 a month with a student leap card.

So to sum it up: I am very grateful that there is such a thing as Erasmus+, because otherwise I could probably never afford doing my internship in Dublin and I am very grateful for this experience.