Free bikes

I usually eat in college (cheap food and not bad) but today I made myself a sandwich at home and took some time to try out the new bicycle scheme they've got going. I had noticed these heavy, solid looking bikes around the city. Apparently, Dublin is the latest in a series of European cities to have them. It's kind of a cool idea and I enjoyed cycling around though i was a little nervous because I'm not that used to cycling in the city and the double decker buses can be a little unnerving. I stuck to the places with cycle tracks and made it down the river to the Garden of Remembrance where I had a quick snack and then went back.

Could this be the start of a new, healthier me?



The more mean-spirited among you might point out that the Garden of remembrance is ooooh about .3 of a kilometre away from Trinity College, but that's not the point. It was the first time I'd been cycling for a while, so I was practicing. Nice spot, though. I don't usually like these war-memorial thingies but this one doesn't have unknown soldiers or anything but a very beautiful sculpture of the Children of Lir, which refers to (thank you Wikipedia)an ancient Irish story about three children who were turned to swans by their evil stepmother. Gorgeous. The statue is abut the moment when they were turning back into people after hundreds of years.

Well, I sat there with my rather soggy sandwich (no butter, trying to lose weight) and just looked at all the people coming and going. Some old folks resting their legs, an African mom plaiting her kid's hair and talking to the old folks, a couple of Irish moms with red-haired toddlers, a guilty-looking teen who I guess should've been at school, a business man furtively reading a Danielle Steele novel and a few students with books. All in all, not a bad sampler of Dublin life and it's nice to have a little oasis of calm in the middle of the city. Although it was very Irish there was also a bit of a Japanese-garden vibe to the whole thing.