Its a Long Long Way to Tipperary

Merry Christ's Mass to you--in Celtic

I'm just getting oriented--a good word since I traveled a long way to the East from California--and after a day on the road and a longish nap today, I left the hotel for a stroll on Dublin's famous Grafton Street.

Ah, there's that famous Celtic restaurant now!

The Mcdonald's on Dublin's Grafton Street was jammed.  The Burger King several doors down was not.

A local Irishwoman in a candy store recognized my accent and said Grafton Street was busy because the Christmas lights had gone up and people liked to come in and see them. Otherwise, she said, things had been not so good--reflecting Europe's recent economic troubles. "But its Christmas," she said in her lilting voice, "And everybody likes Christmas."

The Molly Malone statue in Dublin's City Centre, her bronze bosom gleaming.

One more important stop: I needed an adapter for my MacBook so I didn't blow it up. On previous trips to England and Ireland I have used adapters I had purchased in the States without much success. Once, using my hair dryer at an Irish B & B with an "adapter" I had brought with me, I blew out all the building's fuses. On another trip, this time to England, I nearly set fire to my niece's dorm room bed when my curling iron began to smoke.  So, this time, right near the statue of Molly Malone, I found what I was looking for.

I don't know what a "Premium Reseller" is: but they had the do-dads I needed to remain connected, even though the kit cost me 39.99 Euros. Ouch.

I'm not using my iPhone, so I've turned off the roaming but it has a great camera in it so I'm using it for that. Except for one thing--when I give it to someone to take my picture, they never seem to be able to tap that little box correctly in the center of the screen and thus, even the Polish porter who is in his 20s and an iPhone kinda guy who I asked to take my photo in the hotel lobby, focused the room beautifully. I was, however, out of focus--as usual.

Which is a little how I feel on this my first night in Dublin. A good night's sleep ought to fix that.

Slightly out of focus me at my hotel.

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