I bought a new (to me) car!!

After a little over 4 years in Germany without a car (I didn’t need one), I moved to Ireland. Ireland does have some public transport and alot of Taxis which are relatively inexpensive. However, after about 6 months of being here – I have grown rather tired of the waiting for busses that aren’t on time, taxis that cost 10 – 15 euro to get home with my groceries, and the inability to take my dog anywhere he can’t walk to (he’s not allowed on busses/trains/taxis here) when I want to take him with me. (In Germany, he was allowed on busses and trains – so we actually got to do alot together – including going to cafes.)

The result is that I started looking for a little transportation for the weekends. Thanks to my friend, Liam, he managed to locate (through a friend of a friend of a friend) a 1999 Fiat Punto with 98,000 miles on it. It’s a right hand drive (British), and gets about 40 miles to the gallon. They’re normally between 1200 and 1400 Euros to purchase, but he found this one for 700 Euro – and I had to jump on it. It has 2 new tires, a brand new radio, a new head gasket, new fan belt – and despite not being super clean (the person who had it before me used it to transport her dogs too) – it runs great, and most importantly — it does what I want it to – gets me from point a to point b, runs me over to the grocery store – and more importantly, it will let me take the dog with me to go hiking and/or out into the countryside for some further exploring of Ireland.

Now, just to get used to buying gas that runs over 6 euro a gallon ($10); driving on the “wrong” side of the road… and finally get my full Irish driving license….

Note: I am still planning on walking to/from work and riding my bike where I can, because I want to keep my carbon footprint (and insurance) as low as possible. This car is simply for the stuff that I can’t do with a bike or on foot – like taking my dog to go hiking in the mountains around Dublin.