Today, Saturday, Oct 30, is my last full day in Ireland. I'm spending it where I began, nearly a month ago, walking around Dublin's streets. This time, however, I'm much more oriented and don't even bring my map or my guide book with me. I cruised through Grafton Street, Dublin's premiere shopping avenue (and one of the world's 5 most expensive according to a recent news article), then over to St. Stephen's Green, now alive with rich yellow, orange and red folliage. On the way back there was a flurry of police car action, as they pulled over a car whose two occupants had been seen bilking unsuspecting foreigners by offering cheap laptops and mobile phones and pulling a switch at the last moment after taking their cash and instead, giving them bags filled with liters of soda or rocks (according to an Indian gentleman who witnessed it). I'm heading down soon to visit with John Downes and Dara O'Dubhain, have a "doblo espresso" this afternoon....(kind of like in Seattle where the weather is similar too), then hook up with another Dubliner, Saundra Stephen, who i met through my good friend Roberta, while visiting Boston some years back. Then, off to enjoy my last evening cruising around and do my own version of a literary pub crawl. It's been a very entertaining and enlightening month here and i vow to come back again very soon, having embraced (Cead Miles Failte)- A hundred thousand welcomes"!