Wendy's Blog

A few month ago, I decided I was going to do a tour of all the station in Dublin. Of course, life of leisure kind of got in the way. Between the Italy trip, trip back to the US, general lazieness, and awesome Irish TV, I have only done Malahide Station. We live in Malahide, so doing a blog post on a station where you live is pretty lazy!

I decided to venture out to town by myself (!) to Dublin. Mr is away for the next few weeks in California working so it’s just me an Oskar for the next 2 weeks. Since I was going to go to Dublin anyways, it’s only fitting I do a blog post on Stáisiún Uí Chonghaile, one of the big daddy of all stations in Dublin.

There’s not much to say about this station. It’s one of the central station of Dublin. You can take a train to Belfast from here.

Here’s the main entrance to the station,

Inside the station,

Outside the train station is a connection to Luas,

The main train depo is pretty cool. The inside is a mix of red bricks building and glass roof.

The big red train stoppers are interesting. Would it really stop a train? I wonder because that stopper is right in front of the main hall. If the train stopper doesn’t work or is not there, the train will probably demolish the main hall.

Over all it was a nice day into town. The weather was gorgeous, not a rain cloud in sight.

I also got to take an awesome picture of the Ha’Penny bridge!

The night started out pretty well. Meeting with friends, having dinner at an awesome restaurant.

But after we got out of the restaurant to hit another bar, that’s when it went down hill. (Or up hill, depending on how you feel about having new experiences.)

And what an experience it was that night. I got to ride in an ambulance car in Dublin! I have never rode in an ambulance before so this is kind of a treat. The fire brigade guys are quite good looking as well. Now, I remember meeting fire brigade guy in the US when our house almost burnt down by the neighborhood kids back in 2001ish. All the fire brigade guys were like kind of chubby and grandpa like. Comforting, but really, not much to look at, unless you like grandpa like guys that is.

Anyway, the guys were super nice they asked for my name medical history etc etc. The ride was pleasant. They stab my finger to take my blood sugar level and then took my blood pressure. Asked me where I lived, etc. They could have just ask the Mr because he was right there. Maybe they want to make sure I am coherent. I only had 2 glass of wine and a shot of vodka, so I think I was pretty coherent. They told me they were taking me to St James and I was like ok. My phone battery died otherwise, I would have like a picture of the experience.

When I was waiting in the ER with the fire brigade guys (I think one of them is name Johnny but I was in the state of mind to ask for their names) I asked them if they fought fires. I mean, if they are paramedics do they still need to fight fires? Inquiring minds wants to know. They told me yes, we fight fires. Then I asked them what kind of cases do they see. And they said they see ODs, stabbings, shootings, etc. I was a bit surprised I guess Dublin is just like any other big city.

The emergency room experience is somewhat surreal. There were like people with tattoos, drunk people, people with broken hands, etc. No shootings, stabbings, ODs, maybe it was a slow night. I did see a homeless guy got kick out of the waiting room. I felt bad for the homeless guy because there were lots of rooms and I felt they didn’t need to kick him out. But rules are rules I guess.

I was ushered into a room, they put little EKG pads to measure my heart rate. Let me just tell you, I am glad I have no chest hair! The nice nurse took my blood and then sent me out to the waiting room.

We waited and waited, and just decided to go home. I felt fine, and hopefully they will call to let me know that I am fine.

Over all, I find the medical staff very nice. And we do have insurance so I hope this is not going to cost gazillions dollars.