Living in Ireland

Before I left for Ireland I tried to exchange the bulk of my dollars into Euro at my local credit union branch. I was informed that the only branch that had a significant amount of foreign currency was the one located at the airport. On the day, I stopped at that branch and presented them with the roughly $4000 I wanted to turn in to Euro. "I highly doubt we have that much Euro on hand..." was what I got.

What they had was 1900 Euro. At the current exchange rate back then in 2006, that came to $3K. I cleaned them out and left the country.

1,900 Euro seems like a lot. I also had another $1,000 on hand as well. But Immigration Control was not impressed. At the time, I did not have a credit card. I destroyed them all before I left. I wanted to start over again. The immigration officer told me that would maybe last a month in Dublin. Now, I was the one that was unimpressed.ONE month?! WHat the faux? Anywho, you already know I mnaged to sneak thru regardless...

Back to my rental flat, terrace:

So, my rent in a tiny 7X10 room was 350€ plus €150 deposit. I handed Ciaran a €500 note. At the time that was like handing someone a $750 bill. He had never seen one before, and stared at it intently. "I know, that's a whole lot of cash in one little bill". He agreed. I said if the bank doesn't like it, feel free to boot me.

Ciaran turned out to be a gracious and friendly landlord. I still stop by on occasion to say hi. The other room Ciaran was renting out at the time belonged to Brian. Like Ciaran, he had a very thick Dublin accent. It took me the better part of a month before I understood them well enough to hold a decent conversation.
Brian always had a smile and was eager to help when I had questions. They made my transition fairly easy to Dublin living.

It was 2-3 weeks before I would start my new job. The next day, I decided to go outside and see what my new neighborhood was like.

The first thing I noticed was someone in the area owned a horse

Sure,OK. I lit a cig after a moment of pause...

"Don't spose yis gots anudder of them?"

I turned my head to meet the neighbor. She was a stout young lady that owned at least 3 children, maybe 4. I forget. She had a pack of John Player Specials in her hands, which I noticed. She noticed that I noticed. "Never had me one of them American cigarettes..." she nodded towards the unfiltered Lucky Strike I had just lit. I traded her one for one. I had JP's before,and though very light, I always enjoyed them. I lit her Lucky with my Zippo. "Ah, ya got one of them Zippo's, too dere". I nodded. I guess I was very American, or sumfin.

She inhaled. But not like I inhale, because I know even when filtered, Lucky Strikes are a pretty strong cigarette. I tend to sort of sip them  when unfiltered.

She started coughing and hacking immediately.

"S'good taste, this..*hork* Bit *cough* strong, tho"

I smiled and said, "You gotta go easy wit them. Smoke them like a filtered and it's gonna be a bit rough." I lit the JP I now had in my hands, drew enough smoke to keep it lit, then reached over the low wall that divided the terraced houses once again and motioned towards her for a swap. She exchanged cigarettes gladly. She then produced a half full bottle of vodka she had near the base of the wall on her side, and poured me enough to fill half a cup. It wasn't anywhere near noon yet. I drank healthily.