GoCar means Go Life to me

I live in Dublin city center. Anyone who lives in Dublin city center knows that 1) you don’t really depend on a car to get from A to B 2) the parking is either non-existent or requires a small fortune. Recently getting my license, I was sitting at work calculating how much owning a car would cost me. I combined the parking costs with the cost of insurance, taxes, petrol, repairs, service and almost gave up on hope of driving when I came across GoCar on Twitter. I browsed around their website trying to figure out if this was for real – had car sharing come to Dublin before most other European cities?

After thorough research (I’m not the type to dive into a deal without exploring all sides of it), I signed up and even got some driving credit to start off with. I received my shiny new GoCard and was ready to go! But where? Being Scandinavian, IKEA was the obvious choice for my first GoTrip. I picked up couple of friends in the shiny new Fiesta with Spotify jamming through the surround system (I’d never be able to afford a decent music system if I’d to buy my first car!) and have felt at home in a GoCar ever since.

In the past six months, my (yes, MY!) GoCar has been my travel buddy and my friend in need on those spontaneous wake-up-at-10-am-need-to-do-something days. We’ve been to Wicklow on more occasions than I can count, we’ve explored Powerscourt Gardens with my camera on a sunny summer day, we’ve been to Trim Castle where I somehow managed to snatch a princess parking right next to the entrance, we’ve been to Bono’s house (ok, we just drove by, but still counts), we’ve driven many kilometers along the Dublin county coastline with Lana Del Rey’s High by the Beach softly accompanying the beautiful landscape, we’ve visited the haunted Charleville Castle in the deep forests of Tullamore, we’ve spent hot summer days at Britta’s Bay, we’ve volunteered with cats at the DSPCA, we’ve picked up people and dropped them off at Dublin Airport, and I’ve also perfected my parallel parking skills (thanks tight parking on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay!).

So now that the days are getting shorter and colder, I’m excited to start a new chapter with GoCar. It’ll be shorter, more practical trips to sort out the Christmas shopping or drive to Christmas markets in nearby villages. And little by little, the days will get longer and we’ll continue exploring the emerald isle together – my GoCar and I. To me, GoCar is flexibility to go where I want when I want it. GoCar = Go Life!