Thank you everyone for your comments and emails. It is nice to feel so loved when you are traveling alone. Of course, that also means you can get up whenever you want, do whatever you desire and have no one to please but yourself. It is great!

The crocouses are all in bloom, as are the daffodills. (My spelling may be off here but I can't find the spellcheck) Anyway, it is gorgeous, if a little windy, and the sun is glinting off the Irish Sea. Everyone is bundled up in coats and hats against the wind and cold, as it is about 8 C here which translates to roughly 45 F or so, unseasonably warm for this time of year, I'm told.

I am staying in Portmarnock, County Dublin just North of Dublin. My hotel, The White Sands Hotel is lovely and right on the Irish sea. The beach is sandy, punctuated by rocks with Tide pools at low tide and lots of colorful shells, which we don't see in California. The people are kind and helpful and very talkative. I had long conversations with the front desk lady, Patricia, who is Irish but has 2 sisters who moved to California, and with my server at breakfast (it was a slow day for her) who was from the Czech Republic.

The cabbie from the airport informed me that there are about half a dozen Irish accents native to the Dublin area alone and I think I've already heard at least 4 -- and I haven't even gotten to the city center yet! My untrained ear has trouble understanding any of them, though I have begun to distinguish them. One thing in common is they don't pronounce the "h". My cab fair was "tree tirty tree" for example. If you pay close attention and judge by context you can generally get it. That's the fun of travel. And in this case, you don't even have to leave the english speaking world to get a new language.

Right now I am in Malahide (the title is, if I remember right, the Irish/Gaelic spelling, which is also on the welcome signs), which is a larger town 30 minutes up the coast from my Hotel. They have a lovely internet cafe, full of spanking new machines in a Georgian walk up. Quite a convenience.

Today I am exploring close to "home" and getting adjusted and over jet leg. Tomorrow I'll make my first pass through Dublin (I'll see it again next week), then Sunday it is off to Galway. So far so good! Wish me luck!