Hello Gary,

In all of my travels to Ireland, I have never had any issues with x-ray machines harming my digital cards. It is film that they have a tendency to destroy. If you are planning on taking a large quantity of pcitures, you might look into one of the small USB drives so that you can dump your photos each day. I made it a habit to dump my card into my laptop on a daily basis. That has its benefits and its negatives, as I came home with far more pictures than I thought possible.   No matter, as I am reaping the benefits now.

Slan Beo,

Bit

Gary,

X-rays don't harm the new digital camera cards. If you find you are filling them up you can have them put on disk in Ireland.

Michele

Hi,
That is good news they can be put on a CD and still be compatible at our home computer.  I've only been into digital for about a year.  My Swede daughter Nancy passed on to me her Olympis 3 Meg pixel camera as she upgraded to a 7 meg pixel camera.  I love the digital camera.  The 256M card holds about 79 pics.  So I figure if I buy a 1 Gig card, it should hold about 350 pics.  Man, that's  a lot of snap shots.   Would all of that fit onto 1 CD.??  I'm still green at this stuff.  Plus I'll bring the camera battery charger and  the extra conversion transformer and adapter wall plugs for Ireland and Sweden.

Bit, glad to hear you are getting better. 
-gary

Gary,

If 350 pictures seems like a lot, then a 1GB card will suffice. I, on the other hand, travel with 4 of the 2GB Compact Flash Ultra II. On my last trip, between my brother and I, we took 3562 photos. That doesn't include the ones we deleted or any taken by the other 3 people in our group.

One thig that I would suggest is carrying small notepad to jot down where you stopped to take photos and the time frame for each place. THat way you can more readily indentify each shot.

Slan Beo,

Bit

We also tried to remember to take a photo of our B&B first thing on arrival which gave us a landmark for the photos.

Youngka,

I take my laptop along because I am working while in Ireland. If I was not working I think I would leave it home. It does take up space and you have to tote it over, around Ireland and back. You also have to be sure it is secure wherever you travel.

Michele

I also have to carry my laptop when I'm traveling in Ireland. I'll be honest; if I didn't need it, I wouldn't bring it. However, It would be hard to put together a podcast and do my freelance work without one

Using the laptop for the internet as you mentioned is only useful if you have a connection, so be sure to consider that detail when selecting your accommodations. If you don't have a broadband/WiFi connection in your room or self-catering cottage, it won't be "readily available" and you won't find yourself using your laptop much for internet.

It's not easy to find free WiFi while traveling...so internet shops, which are all over Ireland, become your primary method of connecting. If you have to go in a shop to hook in to the internet, you might as well skip the laptop and just use their machines.

Having lived in Ireland and Australia for months at a time, I recommend paying bills before you leave...once you get arrive, you'd much rather be thinking about what's for dessert than which bill is due at the end of the week. That said, online banking is GREAT for checking balances, noting fees and keeping up on credit card charges while traveling for extended periods of time.

As for security, carrying the laptop with you everywhere puts it through a lot of abuse...crowds, narrow passages, bumps, scratches, drops, etc.

As for clothes...I pack for 7-9 days and drop dirty clothes off at a laundry as necessary. Otherwise, by the end of your trip, you'll have dirty, smelly clothes that have been steeping for 20 days. Yuck.

Good luck

   Yesiree/Merle-
      thanks so much for the info. while i have numerous books/flyers and have logged untold hours researching online, there is no substitute for first hand current experience making this forum Soooooo cool for me!
      while in england-all (except York) our accom have wifi and remarkably the cottage in Portumna claims internet access. 
      i am still wondering if you keep your lap with you nearly always? what is your confidence level with leaving it behind, while site seeing? I envision it being a tool at the end of the day- not needing it at all, while out and about! ridiculous as this may sound, do you have places you hide valuables in rooms? i've heard a car is a terrible place to leave things- that your room/lodging is much more secure. The camera would be with us always--but the lap top (not so much the cost of it-but information on it) concerns me some-while it hardly has international secrets on there- it does contain my stuff!                           and last, i'm not knowledgeable about laundry. You mention 'dropping-off' laundry. so, you take it and leave it?  I've seen these nifty little packettes of detergent in travel stores, do either of you travel with these? I don't think we'll need to do the sink-laundry-scene, but am wondering is it standard practice in rentals to stock the soaps or do they just have the machines? 
      it is a curious thing to the first time overseas traveler some of the things that are provided/and others that they charge for. go figure. Paula
      

I didn't want to waste time doing my laundry so we found a laundry/drycleaning establishment in a town where we knew we would be to pick it up later in the day or the next day. I told them to sort the clothes, not to wash the colors in hot water, and to fold the clothes. I have been happy all three times I have done this.

Merle

Just got the 1Gig camera card for my Olympus 3MP camera.  I removed the 64 MB card (which gave me

84 picture capability in HQ mode) and inserted the 1 GB card.  The camera formatted the new card  (took about a minute).  The camera then displayed the total picture capability.  Drum roll please, 1,305 pictures, I almost fell off my chair seeing this amount.

 

..Hey Bit, Im still about 2,000 shy of your picture taking. LOL.

Next stop Ireland.   Now if only the Euro would behave itself.
-gary 

Even easier than an external memory unit is to send files to a free yahoo account.
 
Unlimited storage online so if the laptop crashes, files are still there.


Blessings