Be careful who you meet...

I was going to visit a friend who seriously broke her leg while in Uganda over the holidays. She is now staying at her parents' home until she recovers, so I was going to catch the bus there on my way home from work.

I had to walk a mile in the cold rain and wind (with gusts up to 30 mph). I was very hungry (thus light-headed and a bit shaky), basically tense and tired when I boarded the bus. The other occupants are in a similar state. The buses tend to be crowded at this time of day, so I looked for a seat and finally found one with no person in it--just a school girl's bags, as she was sitting in the adjoining seat. I sat down on the edge, and she sort of grumpily moved her bags onto her lap. I gave her a kind smile and said she could keep them there, that I was happy just on the edge. She said, no that's okay.

We road along in silence...I was in no mood to make conversation, and she didn't seem to be either. Her mobile rang and it was her mother, to whom the girl made some abrupt/complaining remark. Yes, in no mood for small talk.

We neared the area where my stop would be...but it was completely dark outside, misty, and the bus windows were fogged up. I peered outside and couldn't make out the landmarks, but we were clearly at an intersection with stop lights. As I was not in the most familiar territory, I asked the girl what road that was, making a hand motion parallel to the cross street. She replied, "That's not a road, it's an estate," while pointing to the street in the left-hand direction. Then pointing in the right-hand direction she named whatever street it was.

I gave a puzzled look, while my mind was thinking: In Ireland, streets take on different names at crossroads, sectioned off with different names as the street progresses along, even if it is the very same road. I suppose it is a handy way of letting a person know how far down a location may be, but it can be a bit confusing as well, since you may never turn off a street yet you find yourself on one with a different name...
More prominently, my mind was thinking about how clearly that was a street on the left, yet she had so tersely replied "it's not a road it is an estate." Give me some slack here! Okay, so an estate is what little neighborhood areas are called, like a (very small!) subdivision we'd have in the US. So this road evidently wasn't a through street, it was a road entering an estate.

I told her the road I was looking for, and she smiled and said it is the same stop where she will be getting of, so I could just watch her. When we arrived, she silently pressed the stop button, never saying a word to me, I took it as my sign to go forward, and thus we got off and went our own directions as soon as we were outside, never speaking. (This is very rare in Ireland--my experiences have been that strangers are generally very chatty and helpful.)

So I got out the instructions to my friends' house and walked 10 minutes there, in the dark, cold mist. My friend had said there would be a "laneway" in front of her house. I had no idea what a laneway was, but I hoped I'd realize it when I saw it...

Indeed, I discovered a laneway is a walking path/alleyway into the neighborhood, which prevents a pedestrian from having to walk all the way down to the next through road. I found her house easily, was welcomed inside and began visiting with my friend.

Five minutes later the front door opened, and in walked the girl from the bus!! It was my friend's sister! No way, what are the odds? We looked at each other, stunned. We began sheepishly laughing, and stammering over greetings, apologies, etc. Internally we were each re-tracing our words and attitude from the interaction we'd had on the bus, a bit embarrassed for not being more friendly then...for now we would be sharing a family dinner together. :)