Once you do make it up the stairs to the second level, the fun continues as you needlessly duck out of the way from tree branches which scape across the windows. Once you get used to all that (and realize the bus drivers can easily make seemingly impossible turns in such big buses), you relax and enjoy looking out over everything from your "sky view". It really is a nice vantage point.
Transportation from Dublin to most of the rest of Ireland is also pretty good. In comparison to most places I've lived in the U.S., it is fairly inexpensive to get to other parts of this beautiful island. I have already seen a lot of the country just by using the buses and the trains. Unlike in the U.S., you don't really need to fly because the country is small enough: it generally won't take too long to get wherever you're interested in going. And your journeys won't break the bank, either!
In fact, your ceramic pig can rest easy here because you will NEVER have to break him/her open...at least for transportation around Ireland. That's because paying to use transportation here is so easy and you don't need physical money! (Although you can pay with hard cash, but you had better have exact coins.) I have something called a "Leap Card". Mine is purple because it is for students (which means even cheaper transportation costs for me - hooray!), but most cards are green. I just tap the card against a box inside the bus, and it magically pays for my ticket! Of course it's not quite magic since I do have to load my card with money.
