Saturday - May 11

Well, not quite ALL of them are redheads, but this lover of fair-skinned, freckled-faced, strawberry blonds is looking forward to the sights! Here I am, ready to board the plane, with my new double-flowbee haircut (if you don't know, you will have to Google it).

My friend Cookie and I are on separate flights, his is due to arrive in Dublin two hours later than mine. He is re-routed and actually arrives two hours BEFORE me, sans luggage.  It is chilly and drizzling. We take the bus to the Times Hostel, across from Trinity College. It is too early to check in, so we store my bag and head out to explore.

Traffic and people all around. This is a bustling city at noon. We start up O'Connel Street, a main thoroughfair. A few blocks up is the Spire, a towering metal spike, said to be "erected" by the Pfizer company, maker of Viagra - your own joke here. There are actually many sculptures and public monuments all around, something the Europeans seem to do better at than America.     

The Spire is at Henry Street, a popular shopping area, almost like an outdoor mall, except that cars drive down the center. There are small shops as we go along, and to our delight and amazement, we find...Euro - the Irish version of the Dollar Store! Most of you know how much time we spend in Poundland in England, so it is a must the we visit this bastian of low prices (even though everything in the store is 1.5 Euros - vs. 1!.   

We walk about a bit, then head back to the hostel to check in, and find that we are in a "mixed dorm" room. Ta-Da! A trip to our favorite grocery, Tesco and we are back to cook dinner in the hostel kitchen.

Lots of international folks here: German, Italian, some Irish and many others. We meet three gals who are friends, all studying for their degrees in Chemistry. One from Spain. One from England and one from Ireland. We have a long discussion about psychology and what they each "really" want to do with their lives. Cookie and I head for the dorm, the girls stay out till 5am! I think two of the three actually remember if they had a good time!

©Mark Goldman 2013

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