Feet Don't Fail Me Now

I think it's safe to say that I've done more walking in the past four days than I have in the last two I lived in Los Angeles. Dublin is a walking city, even when you're heading for the public transportation. It's enjoyable enough, especially as a newcomer, but my shins feel like they did when I used to run track. Yeah, it's safe to say I'm a little out of shape. The good news is, that if I stay away from the beer (yeah, right), I'll probably drop a quick 10 pounds just by doing my daily commute.

Still, I've covered a good amount of ground in the past few days. I took the LUAS to the office on Friday, which is very much like riding the T in Boston. A 10 minute walk to the station, and 15 minutes on the train, and I was still a good 10 minutes from the office. My boss met me at the other end and gave me a ride to work, but until we get a shuttle running between the end of the line and the office, I'm thinking I'm looking for other transporation.

Which leads me to the bus. My co-worker Chharlie (yes, he does spell his name that way - don't ask me why) took a ride out to Blackrock on Saturday to attend a Bar-B-Que thrown by one of our Irish co-workers. He's living in a really nice, very new house and, aside from various people from the office like FHRDH and his wife Facty, the party was attended by a number of his family and friends. To say it was a gregarious crowd would be an understatement.

After a few hours of Guinness and grub, a few of us decided to head back toward city center and try our luck at one of the local casinos. A few hours of Pot-Limit Hold'em turned out to be a profitable way to spend the evening, and led to a 3:00AM walk back across the city to my dingy temporary apartment. It's kind of amazing to see how lively the city was at that hour, as tons of people were still gathered on the sidewalks hanging out around some of the city's afters-hours clubs. I'll have to check those out sometime in the future.

Today was spent doing more walking... another trip to LUAS led me to DunDrum and the biggest mall in Ireland where I quickly blew my winnings on some necessities I forgot to pack. Upon my return home, I quickly went out again and took a 10 minute walk (everything seems to be within reach of a 10 or 20 minute walk) to Baggot Street, which seems to lie between Ranelagh and Ballsbridge where I found a local Tesco supermarket so I could buy a little food and some laundry detergent. Exciting stuff, I know.

Anyway... I'm back trying to figure out the strange little combo washer/dryer that lives in my kitchen and typing this rambling note for all three of my faithful readers.

They'll be more to come... I think.