Transportation & Accomodations

People have been asking me about my living accomodations over here. Dell has provided me with an apartment in east Dublin, across from the greyhound race tracks. See this map from http://www.softguides.com/dublin/maps/centre.html To get to work, I walk to the Dart station at Landsdown and take the train into Dun Laoghaire. Dun Laoghaire is the small town (pop. 200,000) where I’m moving next week. I walk up the road half a block to the bus stop and take the either the 7 or the 111 to Cherrywood on the south end of Dun Laoghaire. Most of the buses are double-decker and if you pay by coin you have to tell the driver how far you want to go. I buy a week pass at the SPAR (Ireland’s 7-11).

It’s in waiting for either the train or the bus that I waste the most time. Each trip (bus or train) only takes 20 minutes, but if I don’t time it right, I end up waiting 10-20 minutes for each. That combined with the walking means I spend easily 1:30 one way. Needless to say, I have a lot of time to read.

Cars here are small. That 2 door GEO Metro I drove for a few years would be on the large side or average over here. I’m not kidding. Ford makes a newer 2 door Ka that kind of slopes forward over the back wheels. There is an older Nissan model (Micra) that is really small, but the winner has to be the Daewoo Matiz ; it’s probably 70% the size of the GEO Metro. I’ve only seen one Smart Car, but it seemed large compared to the DaeWoo.

Oh yeah, they drive on the left hand side of the road. It’s not the driving that throws you off (not that I can speak from experience) – it’s walking around. You’re always looking out for cars in the wrong direction.

Books I’ve read since arriving:

Marc Bloch l’Etrange Défaite

Gregg Easterbrook The Progress Paradox

Morgan Spurlock Don’t Eat This Book

Merrill Chapman In Search of Stupidity

John Kay The Truth About Markets