Shock of the century, John and I actually took a taxi to get to the bus stop today. It was pouring rain in Cork this morning and windy, so we decided we didn’t want to get soaked by walking 2.3 km with our luggage to the bus stop.
Since the bus strike is still ongoing, I called a cab company at 7:30 am to book for 10:30, and we wondered if the cab would be late, given the transportation situation. The cab rocked up right on time, and when the driver got out, he told us we were privileged, as we were the first fare of the day that he picked up on time.
The cabbie was awesome and we chattered away. There seems to be a bit of a rivalry between Dublin and Cork, as the Cork cab driver said Cork is the real capital of the Republic and ‘they,’ meaning those from Dublin, killed Michael Collins, who would have been the leader of the Republic. Collins was ambushed and murdered near Cork during the civil war.
Our timing all worked out so well, as the taxi pulled up on the street beside the buses, we got out, grabbed our luggage and got right on the bus. The cab driver told us to check with the driver to make sure we were on the right bus to Dublin Airport. I asked the passengers in line and they said the bus was to Dublin city and they thought the next one in line was to Dublin Airport. We walked to it and the driver was loading luggage so I asked him, and he confirmed that we had the correct bus.
The most bizarre thing was that the driver never checked to see if we had a paid fare, we just got on and away we went. I don’t know if this all happened prior to our arrival or not, but we had booked online and went to an Internet café to print our tickets a few days prior.
We had a really good bus trip to Dublin Airport, the bus was almost full, most of the passengers were young people who are obviously catching flights out of Dublin. We got off the bus and then walked to the proper zone to catch the shuttle to our hotel.
We walked to a local pub and sat up at the bar, which is the best place to sit if you want to talk to the locals. A man sitting at the bar told us that if we wanted to eat and sit somewhere nicer, we should go to the lounge. I told him we don’t eat, and this place was very nice compared to the local bars we have in Canada.
We talked to him and another guy sitting on the next stool. After we waxed on about Ireland and the Irish talked about Canada, the conversation invariably tends toward the philosophical, and that is when things get very interesting. We also talk about the USA and the subject of Trump always comes up. We have had great conversations throughout Ireland, as the Irish are social and thoughtful people.
We just kicked back tonight in our hotel as we have to get to the airport at a fairly early time tomorrow for our flight out. This has been an incredible trip, I love this landscape and the Irish people more than I ever imagined. The Irish have suffered greatly throughout their tumultuous history, yet they are grounded, laid-back, kind, friendly, optimistic and have a great sense of humour. The landscape is indescribable at times as it shifts from haunting misty valleys to dramatic coastlines and to brilliant hues of green. We could not get enough of it. I don’t know, this place seems to sink in deep, it burrows in, down to the marrow of our bones.
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