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It was my second visit to Dublin and there seemed a certain sense of familiarity as I hit the cobbled streets and felt the chilly late autumn breeze beating my cheeks while I meandered through Nassau Street, walking past Trinity College and stopping for some window shopping at Blarney Woollen Mills, known for its tweeds.

Watching the leprechaun mementos peeping out of gift shops and taking in the sights, smells and sounds of the crowd gathered at the numerous pubs dotting the Temple Bar area warmed my senses. Armed with my camera, I was sure to take lots of photographs to remind me of the vibrant city — something I had been unable to capture in totality during my earlier visit due to a faulty camera.

So vivid were my earlier memories that a sense of deja vu filled my senses as I walked in along with a group of writers through the iron gates of the over 400-year-old prestigious Trinity College Dublin, way past its lawns, its groups of students, to enter the historic Trinity College Library. After all, it was here that I had had my first taste of a library where books dating back to several centuries were still kept in such a healthy condition.
Our first stop was the historic Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript which contains the four gospels of the New Testament in Latin handwritten on vellum (prepared calfskin). It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and the illustrations indeed make it Ireland’s finest national treasure.

A flight of stairs led us to the Long Room, which houses over 2,00,000 of the college’s oldest books neatly stacked in oak wood bookcases spread across columns and lovingly gazed upon by marble busts of writers, philosophers and famous Irishmen and also a 15th century harp.

Dublin, for the uninitiated, is the city of poets, pubs and the pint and at every bend you are likely to be greeted with the native sons like George Bernard Shaw, WB Yeats, James Joyce and Jonathan Swift posing either in the form of a statue or by way of a museum or a gallery in their name. Not to forget, the innumerable pubs dotting Temple Bar area which tell tales of the literary greats who spent many an evening there while penning their masterpieces. A literary pub crawl organised by private tours is the best way to get up, close and personal with the works of these literary masters over a pint of the famous Guinness beer.

Travel journalist Paul Theroux once wrote about the Irish: “I cannot remember any people so quickly hospitable or easier to meet.”
And rightly so. The Irish love their pint and are happy to stop for one and spot for the craic, the uniquely Irish form of fun that lets them revel in hearty laughter, dancing and singing. I found it all one evening while attending an Irish House Party in the basement of the Lansdowne Hotel. Withlive music, tap dancing and an amazing four course Irish dinner in a homely setting, it was worth every penny, or Euro, so to say.

The Irish joie de vivre spirit resonates everywhere. I experienced it again when walking past the Ha’penny Bridge across the river Liffey, when John Byrne, our friendly Irish guide and a veritable encyclopaedia on the subject of Ireland, broke into a song ‘In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on Molly Malone… crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh…’ while he crossed the statue of the famous fishmonger Molly Malone on Grafton Street, whose existence is part of the Irish lore and whose song is the unofficial anthem in Ireland.

My second visit to Dublin took me to the hitherto unexplored parts of the city too. Be it the scenic Powerscourt Estate with its castle and landscaped gardens or to Glendalough, a medieval monastic settlement founded by St Kevin, my camera went clicking happily.

As if I hadn’t had enough of memorable moments captured on camera already, supermodel Naomi Campbell made it the Kodak moment when she put her arms around me and posed happily for the shutterbug while walking the Temple Bar area one evening.
Dublin left me with memories, moments and a smile yet again.