One of the first things I did when I got to Dublin was drive to the city with my host family to look at the bus route I’d take to school. The next day, I navigated my way through the many route numbers and stop numbers and timetables, and made it to school. At first, I was a little off-put by how long my commute would take. 45 minutes each day to school and back seemed like a lot. My bus ride to and from the city has become, however, the best 45 minutes of my day.
I’ve got a love affair with the Dublin Bus. My dad said a similar thing one time about the Rossalyn metro, and I didn’t really understand what he meant until I started commuting to school and work. One thing me and my dad have in common is that we’re both a bit introverted. We’re good with people but we need time away from them- time to think and reflect. One thing I absolutely adore about my commute each day is that regardless of what’s going on, regardless of how busy I am or how hectic a day feels, I have a guaranteed hour (plus) of reflection time built into my day. I can listen to podcasts, listen to music, read, journal, catch up on texts, or just sit in silence for a whole hour, no matter what.
The other thing I love about the bus is people watching. I grew up with a mother who loved to sit in a restaurant and try to guess how the people sitting next to us were related, so naturally, I have a bit of a knack for people watching, and the bus is the prime place for it. Every kind of person rides the bus in Dublin – from businessmen to school children to moms with babies to old drunk men, and everything in between. I’ve seen my fair share of funny things while riding the bus, so I’ll share with you three of my all-time favorite moments.
1. A mom and her little boy were sitting across the aisle from me one day. He was probably 3 or 4, and bundled up in a puffy winter jacket. She was your average mom-age, maybe mid-30’s, and it was obvious that she was trying to get something done on her phone, but her little boy kept interrupting. I missed the beginning of their conversation, but she was talking about something that had happened a long time ago. Confused, he asked her “was I there?” She said “no, you didn’t exist yet” to which he replied “well… was I in a little seed?” She put down her phone and looked at him, and very lovingly said “Well yeah, that’s how everyone starts out... they're little seeds in their mum's tummies and then they grow into babies.
2. I was riding the bus home on the day of the All-Ireland Gaelic Football final, so the bus was absolutely packed. Three boys, probably about 8 or 9 and completely decked out in blue Dublin jerseys were sitting in front of me and across from their dad. We were at the front of the bus, and there was a group of girls at the very back of the bus, probably about 12 or 13 years old. They were quite chatty and we could hear their girlish banter from the front. One of the girls exclaimed “you like BRIAN?” I laughed to myself. I noticed as she said it that one of the boys in front of me hit the boy sitting next to him. The boys exploded in laughter – it turned out that one of them was named Brian. Though this was not the Brian that the girls were talking about, his two friends started making a ruckus. Their dad egged them on as they taunted the girls to ‘come say hi to Brian’ and ‘make a move.’ Right before their stop, the giddy girls came and sat right behind the 3 boys and started chatting them up. Brian was red as a beet, and the other two boys were beside themselves. All the while their dad was belly-laughing, and everyone on the bus was either giggling or trying to stifle a giggle.
3. The bus stop I get on the bus at is the very first stop, so I always take the very front seat, and I usually sit by myself the whole way home, cuz the bus is never very crowded. One day, I went to my usual seat, and had just popped in my headphones, when all of a sudden a man was beside me gesturing at me to move my backpack out of the way. Confused, I looked back. Surely, all the seats on the bus were open, but this man had chosen to come sit by me. In all honestly, I was a bit annoyed. He was a quirky guy, with his jeans tucked into his socks and a tattered paddy cap and he smelled of cigarettes and booze. My annoyance heightened when he pulled out an old fashioned radio, jacked up the antenna, and started playing pop music. We rode in ‘silence’ for a while, me with my headphones in and him tapping his foot to the music he was playing. I shifted my weight and he said to me “oh! I thought you were dancing!” All my hard feelings dissapated when I took out my headphones and he struck up a conversation with me. His thoughts were scattered- he moved from topic to topic like wildfire: we discussed Madonna, Trump, the Irish president, my college, photography, and a few other things in the span of the 15 minutes remaining in the bus ride. All of a sudden, he gathered his things, jammed his radio antenna down, and headed off the bus. Before he left, he said to me “Good luck to ya. The world’s your oyster you know!”