The Martina Blog

Dublin Bus

2010-04-17T15:11:00.001-07:00

Public transportation in Dublin is pretty much what you pay for. Its cheap. And not reliable. The buses come late if ever at all and the drivers seems to have the aim of having all the passengers covered in bruisers before getting off, due to the very common phenomena of reckless driving. Of course it is an experience and a part of Dublin which everybody should do when visiting Dublin, but after a few months I really missed the Stockholm subways.

But one thing that happen when I was waiting for the bus at O'connell bridge, there was a blind man standing by the bus stop holding his stick in front of him. Now, I dont know how it works for blind people when they go on Stockholm buses, but how it worked here was that all the buses that stopped open the door exactly in front of him and without the blind man asking the drivers shouted out the bus number to the him. About three-four buses he shook his head to and finally the right bus came and he jumped on, people in the handicap space moved right away and he sat down, and about half a second later the driver was hitting the gas and away they went.

Very effective and I was wondering to my self why this kind of attitude towards service didn't apply for all kind of passengers. I suppose that there is a difference for the Dublin Bus (and maybe a lot of other irish service businesses) between the kind of service you pay for and the kind of "service" you give your fellow human being.

I found over all in Ireland that when you expect service and maybe even payed for it, it is not good at all. But when you are in need of help, looking lost or some other ordeal, you can always count on the best help from irish people.

Raritet!

2010-03-01T12:36:00.001-08:00

Picture taken at work: Mad men feeling to this no smoking sign.

The other day in school.

2010-02-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

I wrote this my first year in uni:

In school there is this big room close to the entrance, kind of like a cafeteria where people sit an chat, eat there lunch or sit in study groups. I was sitting in one of them study groups, studying everyday for 10 days before a test. I noticed a guy sitting in the corner, by a window, al by him self and writing on the computer.

The stacks of books was growing as the days went by. There wasnt anything special about this person, and I hardly noticed him before it got intresting that I saw him there everyday at the same place, like he never gone home at all. He was flinging trough books and drinking his coffee, minding is own business. I could see he was working hard with his essay and sometimes he was writing a lot and looking hopeful, and sometimes he was holding his head in this hands, looking awfully resigned.

The last day of the semester and finished my exam and went by my self down the steps to the cafeteria to wait for some friends that still was it the the lecture hall doing the exam. I sat down with a coke and looking out the window feel happy it was the end of the semester. As a was staring out the window I heard somewhere in the almost empty cafeteria a series of lound and exajurated clicks on a laptop. I saw this guy in his usual corner, with exajurated hand movements, cerimounialy and hard pushing the buttons on the laptop before he stoped and but this both ands on the corners of the laptop screen, held them there a couple of seconds before a close the laptop. He stacked his books in neat heaps before he leaned back and with a relief sigh looked out the window with a relaxed and happy face - he was done! I was close enough cheering him with my can of coke and saying well done!

...

2010-02-22T04:56:00.000-08:00

Oh you where making fun of Sweden? I couldn't hear you over my health care benefits.

If we die in this cab, I love you guys. If not, you're alright...

2010-02-19T07:50:00.000-08:00