When moving from one country to another – or probably even within a country – you expect certain things to be different. You even expect to find differences in places not expected and looked for. In what I hope will become a mini-series of blog-posts I’ll point out some of the oddities I experience as I make the transition from citizen of Oslo, Norway to citizen of Dublin, Ireland. First out – the money! As you all know Norway runs on Norwegian kroner while Ireland – like most of EU – runs on Euro. At any given time there is about 8 NOK to a EUR (€), which means that at first glance everything looks very cheap. It also means that I expect to either become very good at multiplying by 8 or just compare everything to the price of a large coffee at Stabucks. (The largest one is 2.90, it’s called “Venti” and will get you a huge cup of strong, black coffee – much like the one you see Gibbs drink in NCIS. I think it contains 0.8 liters of coffee.)

One of the first things I did when I got here was to open an account with the Allied Irish bank (AIB). They have a branch office on campus which is convenient, and they have something called a student plus account which I guess is a good deal for me. It set me up with a regular account, Internet banking and of course – a debit card!

I was happy to see that my new plastic fantastic came with a smart card chip. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these little babies are gonna change the world of credit card security as we know it. However, finding a store that will actually accept my card is a totally different story. It’s not that they don’t won’t this particular card. After all, it’s not only a smart card. The old magnetic strip is still there. They won’t accept any card. They don’t have a terminal!

Coming from Norway – the technology capitol of Sweden (…) – I’m used to use my card for everything. And I mean everything! Shopping, the movies, parking-meters… I even buy chewing-gum with my card. Here in Dublin I can’t even use it to buy groceries!

So you can see, cash has again entered my life. Bills and coins – they are everywhere. And I’m affraid they have come to stay.