Grafton Street is the main drag of the City of Dublin, Ireland. According to Wikipedia, it is one of two main shopping streets, but let's be honest, the pubs right off Grafton make the difference.
Grafton Street is decked out for Christmas like any big shopping street, and we found this website with photos of the Lighting Ceremony of 2013. At one end of Grafton Street, you find Ireland's Favorite Coffee and Tea Company, Bewley's, and Grafton goes out from there towards St. Stephen's.
Shoppers and revellers are out in force in the evenings and on the weekends.
One night before Christmas, a friend of the K-Landnews recounted a brief episode witnessed on Grafton.
I was standing next to M&S, taking in the bustle of the street before heading home. A group of young women heading north caught my eye, they were five or six, twenties, maybe early thirties, all wearing Santa hats, laughing, holding each others hands or hooked under. They took up much of the width of the street, and oncomers ducked and weaved to get out of their way. All of a sudden, one of the women broke free of the group and, picking up pace, headed for a solitary young man who was heading south on the other side of the street. She made a beeline for him. He stopped, she said something, and he nodded, lowering his head a little. She pecked him on the cheek, and they hugged.
Right about then, the rest of the group had caught up with her, and the woman closed to her reached out and pulled her back. She was obviously reluctant to let go. There was lots of giggling in the group as I heard her say: I had to, he looked so Christmassy.
This has become one of our essential Christmas stories, because of this moment of closeness among strangers. We'll never know if the young woman or the young man have held on to that moment. But we do.
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