2 - Volume One: Dublin

This is the man who sat beside me during the flight over to Amsterdam (on my way to Dublin). He was a dentist who went back to medical school to become a specialist in jaws because that was the root of most of the dental problems he saw. Once he started working on people's jaws, he realized that most issues people have with their jaws are related to stress, so he went back to school once more to become a psychologist!
He was, at the time, dating a Canadian woman and they would see each other a few times a year. He was just returning to the Netherlands. We had a great chat and many laughs.



My first entry from Dublin. The is from the bartender at McDaid's, a pub on a side street just off of Grafton Street in Dublin. It is small and dark and has a great stamped tin roof. Since this was only our third pub, we asked the bartender what was up with the "North Star" beer on tap. He explained to us that it was a Guinness product. Guinness produced a set amount of a different test brews and distributed them to pubs in Dublin. Only once one was gone, they rolled out the next one. The idea was to find out which of these brews proved to be the most popular. Turns out, North Star was not it. It was in the pubs forever, and we came across many bartenders who were tired of trying to give it away. We tried a pint at McDaid's and never had it again, I believe.



Joe and I were in the smallest pub in Dublin (The Brazen Head) and a group of Americans walked through the door, all boisterous and ...well... American. It was a DJ from Chicago and his wife and his Mom, I think and a brother or sister and their spouse and daughter. This one was from his wife, I think.



This is from the Mom.



This is the DJ. Great voice. (go figure...)