Tuesday in the Park

On Tuesday, Eli and I visited Bushy Park, which is about 9 miles from us, as the crow flies.  I don't know how fast a crow can fly, but it probably would've been faster to go by crow.

We took the tram to Dundrum and walked a short distance to the bus stop.  We arrived at about 1:20 p.m. and the bus was scheduled to be at this stop at 1:30 p.m.  As with Bus 7 at the Brides Glen stop, Bus 74 was lurking just around the corner with its doors shut.  We could see it almost smirking at us as we stood waiting.

But eventually it lurched around the corner, and we were off.  The ride was pretty bumpy.  Eli said if we ever needed a massage, we could just take a trip on Bus 74.

Both coming and going, our bus driver had to honk at a driver who thought it was a great idea to dart in front of a double-decker vehicle.  If you wondered if people were just as stupid on the roadways here as in the US, yes, I can tell you that they are just as stupid.

There is a small LED board on the buses that show the upcoming stop, and there is a verbal announcement of the upcoming stop as well  One of the quirky things here is that sometimes, the name of the stop listed on the official transit website doesn't match the stop listed on that LED board.  We needed to disembark at Dodder Park Road (stop 1301).  At one point, the LED board said Dodder Park Road, so I pushed the "stop" button and we went to stand by the door.  However, when the doors opened, the bus stop sign did not say Dodder Park Road (stop 1301) so we didn't get off the bus.  Eli got on his phone to look at the map - and it turns out, we'd needed to get off at that stop, even though the information didn't match.  So we got off at the next stop and just had to walk a little farther to get to the park.

I had wanted to visit a park near a river, and the River Dodder cuts through the park.  We crossed the river by stepping across these raised concrete pillars.  I wanted to get a photo while standing in the middle of the stream but was afraid I'd lose my equilibrium and either fall in or drop my phone.  So a photo after crossing had to suffice.

The path was very wooded and quiet, and there were a couple small waterfalls.

Sound up for the following two items:

I had bought some bird-safe shelled peanuts so I could feed the crows while waiting on tram platforms, and I brought it with to the park.  Here were a couple friends I made when we first got to the small pond/lake in the park.

They were very excited about these treats and got closer to me.  One even flew up and fluttered near Eli - I'm sure if I put my arm out, this bird would've landed on it.

We continued our walk along the shore of the lake, and these new friends bobbed along after us.  I stopped near a group of ducks and started scattering nuts both on the path and in the water.

It was amusing to watch the mallards snatching at the peanuts in the water.  If they didn't grab the treat before it sank, they were out of luck.  The pond/lake was only a couple feet deep but mallards are apparently too buoyant to make it to the bottom.  There were some smaller ducks that were able to dive so a couple of them were having a field day, scooping up everything that fell to the sand.

Eventually, I ran out of treats, and we kept walking.  We encountered these freaking huge leaves, a small water feature that fed the lake, and a heron.  There were also some smallish fish in the water but I didn't get a photo of them.

I took this photo of the waterfall while near the side of it.  The blur of the rushing water makes it look a bit abstract.  I think it looks cool.  And of course, I went searching for ferns and found them.

By this time, I was hungry and my feet were tired (and we both needed a restroom) so it was back to wait for Bus 74.  A lady sitting next to us on the bus was on her phone.  She was speaking in a language other than English (French?  Russian?).  It was hard to tell because she was talking very fast and pretty much non-stop.  After she got off the bus, Eli said, "I was fully expecting to hear her say 'When you get this message, call me' because there was no way someone else was on the other end of the line since she never took a breath."

We got off the bus in Dundrum, about a block from the library.  I had a book to return, and two books to pick up, so we walked over there (and availed ourselves of their bathroom) before walking to Nando's near Dundrum Town Centre.

I again had the butterfly chicken with medium peri-peri spice, fries, and garlic bread.  Eli wasn't extremely hungry so he had a couple of appetizers - spiced olives, halloumi, and hummus.  I didn't want to have caffeine that late in the day (it was around 4 p.m.) so I had orange Fanta, and it was really good.

Eli has recently begun taking a class to learn how to speak Irish.  It's in Dublin near his workplace at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.  He had some time to kill before going to the language school so he decided to wander around the mall while I headed for home.

There are hidden gems like this all over Ireland.  I'm looking forward to discovering more of them.