Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - After a long day of travel that took me from Florida to Atlanta to Munich to London to Dublin, I arrived in the early afternoon. Plenty of time for a quick nap and then off to explore the nightlife. My hotel was in a great location, within walking distance of just about everything, so wandered to the Temple Bar area. Had dinner with another solo traveler at Gallaghers Boxty House, then explored the pubs in the Temple Bar area. I sampled a few pints of Guinness at various pubs until I found one playing live traditional music. The Ned Kelly Gang was a quartet led by a nearly toothless gentleman with long white hair who played several instruments and sang with his eyes half closed, half gazing toward heaven. The tiny room was packed, so I shared a table with James from England and Jamie from the U.S. The Irish use the term craic (pronounced "crack") to describe a good time, and that night the craic was great. The songs were lively, the crowd entertaining and the Guinness heavenly. A woman from Bulgaria was kind enough to take a picture of us enjoying the scene. After the music, we wandered for a bit among the oddities of Dublin before enjoying a late night snack at the kebab shop. Not a bad time for my first few hours in Ireland. next>>