Our trip to Lisbon was eventful. It's a beautiful city and the people are very nice, but there's a real problem with pickpockets and both Alan and I agreed we wouldn't go back because of it.  The pickpockets themselves are annoying enough but the attitude of the general population toward them is worse.

Our first encounter with a pickpockt was on the third day.  The previous day we did a walking tour with a very well informed guide, who took to most of the neighborhoods in this beautiful, compact city. We really enjoyed it. During that tour, he'd mentioned the pickpockets several times, alerting us to their presence "virtually guaranteed" on the trollys.  We appreciated the warning because the next day we spent taking the older trolly to the various neighborhoods we wanted to revisit.  We noticed a large group of people getting on at the cathedral, one duo with a very large bag and the other three with a city map.  The map ones made a big thing of opening and consulting the map, while the bag duo stood next to me and held the bag practically in my lap.As they expected, I was distracted by the map ones, particularly the one with missing teeth.  I thought it was odd that a tourist would look like a Roma and have missing teeth.  That's when I heard a 'click' and looked down.  My backpack/purse, which I was holding on my lap has a clasp that you turn and that's what I heard.  When I looked down, there was a hand in my purse.  I yelled, he pulled his hand out and said "It wasn't me!"

The really, really disconcerting part of this was that most of the people on the trolly laughed, like this was funny.  No one, including the driver, who didn't even turn around when I yelled, seemed to think this would be unexpected or that I should be particularly upset. We both thought this was very strange. The pickpocket came away empty but I was pretty shaken up.

The following day, we got on the newer trolly to take a trip to the suburbs.  We were targeted there again, with two men who separated Alan and me as we got on.  The one in back felt up Alan's back pocket, where he holds his phone, and the one in front blocked me from touching my payment card off.  Alan pushed hard on the back one and yelled PICKPOCKET! They beat a retreat, but again, amusement.  Not even a little sympathetic eye contact.

Finally, when we checked out of the hotel, we told the people at the desk about the two incidents and both said "you sholdn't go on the trollys."  So there you have it.  A nice visit, and Lisbon is a nice place, completely overshadowed by two really bad incidents and a very casual attitude toward it. This is clearly bad for tourism.

When I returned to Dublin, I told several people and all of them related a similar problem in Dublin in years past that the police really cracked down on.  The problem is not gone from here, as it's not gone anywhere, but there's something being done.  It's really the only way to keep it in check, otherwise they will just multiply and there will be places, like the trollys, that are just prime pickings for the unwary.  What's the sense of having trollys if you can't use them.Anyway, a city that was in the running for a further month's stay at the end of our European journey, is now out.

On a happier note, we are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Aruba.

We are officially in 2014.

We passed the New Year, as we usually do, quietly.  Except for a walk in the City Center (Centre), during which we saw a pretty good street band and a parade, we didn't do much on New Years Eve.  In fact, we went to bed at 11:40 so really only rang in the turn of the year when we got up this morning.  That was fine with me because we had a pretty eventful holiday season overall.

On Christmas we went to our friends, Mary and Tom, for dinner.  This was our first Christmas in an Irish home so that was very nice.  It's very like an American Christmas, except the trees are very small and the decoration is minimal.  I really appreciate that about Ireland, they don't go over the top everywhere with Santa and sleighs and Jingle Bells everywhere you go.  On Christmas Eve we went to a mass at St. Frances Xavier church in Dublin 1.  This is a little bit of a rough area, as rough areas go in Dublin (which is not much, compared to DC) but the church was just beautiful and filled to the rafters.  There was a pretty good choir, but I was disappointed that they didn't encourage singing.  The people were pretty focused on hearing the choir alone.  The mass was very nice, including a nice celebration of Pope Frances, a fellow Jesuit in a Jesuit church.  This new Pope is just great, and I'm glad he made Time's Man of the Year for 2013.

On December 28th, we had our first party in Ireland.  We really like to have parties.  I think this one was OK, but there are a number of things I would have done differently in the post mortum.  One thing for sure, is that I wouldn't have provided so much seating.  I think it's pretty unusual in Ireland to invite a disparate group of people into one's home.  People from Alan's writer's group didn't socialize with our old family friends, who didn't socialize with our new friends from walking and dancing.  The guests arrived and stayed planted where they landed.  If we do another party, I'm only going to provide minimal seating so they have to move around.  The big success of the party was the food.  I made about 9 different canapes, all finger foods, and they were very well received.  On the invitation I called the refreshments "heavy hors d'oeuvres" which was hysterical to the Irish guests, another cultural difference.  "Heavy" in reference to food is a very bad thing.  Anyway, we had just over 20 guests and they all stayed to the end, so that was good.  We might consider another party in the summer....maybe.

I realized this morning that I haven't had a bout with depression a single time since we arrived in Ireland. This is a record for me in my adulthood to not have a bout with the black mood for almost two years.  A big 'knock on wood' and another of my reasons for humility and gratitude going into 2014.