Fighting the flu

Since London I have been battling the flu and MDW has been caring for me, making sure I stay warm and drink plenty of fluids. Lots of tea and not too many Smithwicks. One of MDWs main objectives is to buy gifts for the grand children. She says the sooner we get them something then the shopping part is over, but I know better, it is never over. We buy some gifts for the youngest grandsons which aren’t available in Australia then head down the dolls section, looking for something uniquely Irish. MDW finds the ideal item, a 4 foot high dolls house. No way, a doll sure but we are not buying a house. We leave without anything for Zarli, she is only 1 and there are other places we are yet to visit. MDW is disappointed but back to the apartment to offload our purchases.
We have been commuting around Dublin on the bus and tram (luas) network. The buses into town run every few minutes and the tram goes around the city and provides a connection to the outer suburbs. As in many European cities, public transport is affordable, frequent and has good coverage. It is so different to Canberra’s bus system which makes it more practical to drive and pay for the parking at the town centres.
Pedestrian crossings are a different matter. We originally would wait for the walk sign to appear but we would observe most pedestrians darting across the road when there was a break in the traffic. One Irish lady tried to explain The Irish are #&@$*% and the traffic lights are too, they are never in sync, so we followed her across the road as cars started heading in our direction. Not sure if we are ready to keep taking these risks.
When you catch a bus you hold your travel card on the sensor then take a seat. We caught the tram for the first time yesterday. We decided to go to Dublin’s largest mall so MDW could have some retail therapy at some of the larger department stores and for me to get some medicine. On the tram we walked but there wasn’t anywhere to scan our travel card so we hopped straight off. The tram was about to depart when MDW pressed the open door button and got back on again, it sure if she was trying to lose me but I quickly followed close behind, it was a bit like a movie scene where you are being chased and get on the train at the last second. MDW asked a passenger where do we scan our travel card and was told not to worry about it. Must be free travel but we later discovered you scan the travel card at the terminal before getting on the tram. Lesson learnt.Read more