wish my name were irish

dublin bus has the COOLEST LOGO EVER….baby castle!

i spend a minimum of 10 hours a week on the bus here.  so i thought an entry completely devoted to my dublin bus experience was legit.

you’ve already heard my gripes about the route– they don’t publish the routes online OR at bus stops, so it’s almost impossible to know where the bus goes and what stops it might make unless you ask the driver or someone who has lived here a long time.  not very tourist friendly, hm?

seating arrangement.   each time i mount the steps of those formidable blue and yellow monsters of transport, it is my sole aim to secure one of the first four seat on the second level.  my stop is relatively early in the route, so i don’t usually have to fight anyone.  but let me tell you, if i don’t get one of those seats, it is a ROUGH start to the day.  because they’re the first four, you don’t have to look at anyone else.  you can pretty much ignore anyone and anything.  perfect for the morning commute (and evening, now that i think of it).  the bus has huge panoramic windows and sitting in the first four seats affords the best views– uncluttered by other people’s heads and conversations.  and for a control freak like myself, you know that i enjoy being able to see exactly where we are at all times….why traffic isn’t moving……etc.

traffic. dublin doesn’t know how to do bus lanes.  they stop and start at all the wrong places.  once the bus lane disappears, all hell breaks loose on the road.  by that, i mean we DON’T MOVE.  i have sat at an intersection and watched the light change FIVE TIMES and still not made it through the intersection.   distance-wise, my trip should take about 25 minutes without traffic. instead, it takes an hour!

consequences of long and painful bus rides:

• i have time to think of ridiculous blog posting topics, like this one
• my ipod is my bff and for the first time in its 4 years of life, actually needs to be recharged everyday
• podcasts are suddenly infinitely cooler than they were before
• i inevitably end up falling asleep….my head snaps forward (or into the bus window, depending on which way my heavy brain sways) and i wake up

less than treasured moments on the dublin bus?  sharing a seat with anyone.  ever.  yeah, i’m fat and i DO need that extra space on the seat to put my bags down.  no i will not move them.  share a seat with someone else.

the time that i left the bars after getting really mad at someone….only to sit on a bus on which someone had spilled an entire bottle of soda which swished and swayed on the floor of the bus for an entire hour.  like a boat.  at sea.  all the liquid to the front of the bus…….anddddd all the liquid to the back.

i eagerly await the day when i can return to my normal commute: a two minute walk on the sunshine-laden, over-watered sidewalks of claremont.