88th ISO country, 74th UN country for me.

That would be airport #205 for me.

The trams, the double decker buses…

The real reason we are in Dublin: Celebrating Sunil’s 60th birthday! The two Roy families have grown up together in Dallas for more than a decade. Too many memories since 1997, none more remarkable than how I first met them. (You can read it here)

Should be a good few days. We will raise a few pints to welcome Sunil to this side of the 60s. I, for myself, have been waiting for 6 months for him to get to my side!! My first question to him this evening: “What took you so long?” 🙂

It is a good thing they have English written everywhere. Otherwise, there was not a chance in God’s green earth that I could have read the Irish and figured it out.

I think the Irish line is saying “One hundred thousand welcome!” It reminds me of that Indian Punjabi character in “Mind Your Language”, Ranjeet Singh, I believe, who would always have his hands folded and go – “A thousand apologies.”

We began our exploration of the much-vaunted Irish pub scene with a fairly famous one, established in 1798.

To put that in perspective, the United States had only just elected its second President, Philadelphia was still the capital, and the world had yet to be introduced to trains, automobiles, electric lights, telephones, or cameras.

But there was beer to be had here!

It says “Ladies and Exit”. For a man, it is bound to make you think twice…

The band was very entertaining. The lady – who had an impressive voice – was playing a percussion instrument that I had never seen in my life – a bodhrán (pronounced “bow-rahn”).

Need to try it out some time!

This was an absolute joy.

Both the Roys have an incredible ability to catch up on sleep in a moving vehicle. We had barely gotten into the cab to go to the Howth Peninsula when Anannya went into deep slumber!

You can see on the top where we started from.

This is on the East Pier

One of the seven ancient colleges in British Isles and the oldest in Ireland, this was formed way back in 1592. That is more than 500 years back!!

It counts Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Beckett among its illustrious alumni.

A tourist cannot possibly be in Dublin without visiting the famous Temple Bar pub. Inside, you cannot find a single local! Everybody – other than the staff and musicians – are tourists.