I got to Dublin a few days ago and I noticed was that it was pretty much exactly as I’d imagined. The people are Irish in look and lilt. And it’s damned expensive here. The numbers look the same as I’d pay for things in the US in dollars, but 60% more comes out of my bank account when I buy them. The exchange rate to the Euro is 1.57 to 1.

On a whim I decided I’d meander on down to Cork and visit there for a few days before coming back to Dublin to work. I jumped on a bus and headed down there. Boy did I have a time! I’ll write more details later, but here’s a quick recap:

• A local threatened to kill me the next time he saw me because I looked at his girl. But she was the bartender and I was ordering a beer. So I suggested that he might have to buy my drinks the rest of the night. He said he’s permit me to look her way for that purpose alone.
• I kissed the Blarney Stone and caught “the gift of gab.” After hearing that the local teenagers have a habit of breaking in at night and defiling it, I wondered if I didn’t catch something else as well.
• Saw a raging music show that rivaled some of the best I’ve ever been to anywhere. A man in drag, a plastic guitar, Optimus Prime with sunglasses and a drummer who’d never drummed.

Cork is a really great place and I wish I had the time to spend a few months there. But somebody’s got to pay the bills.