A pint in Ireland is not a true Irish pint without a friend.
So tells me Dubliner Joan Gorman, as we set ourselves down in a dimly-lit timber booth of The Porterhouse pub.
We'd only met 15 minutes earlier and already she was ordering me a drink - a dark dry stout brewed on-site.
"It's the closest thing you'll get to Guinness 'round here," she insists, with an accent I'm still trying to get my head around.
Within seconds my freshly-poured pint arrived, alongside her neat cappuccino.
"Normally I'd join you but I've got to get behind the wheel when we're done," she says of her beverage choice for our mid-afternoon rendezvous.
Joan is one of thousands of proud locals, known as Dublin Ambassadors, who've volunteered their time to be a part of the City of A Thousand Welcomes initiative - the Rolls Royce of greeting services, according to its founders Trevor White and Simon O'Connor.
The program pairs a (thoroughly vetted) ambassador with first-time visitors to the Irish capital, offering them a free welcome drink at one of three inner-city venues.
Like so many great ideas, this one was born in a pub.
White was inspired by a conversation with an Australian tourist and launched the initiative on Bloomsday (a literary feast day for Irish writer James Joyce) last year.
His aim was to show off Ireland's warm hospitality with the help of some of Dublin's friendliest faces.
More than 2500 locals registered their interest in the program's first three-and-a-half weeks and over 1000 meetings have taken place since.
Admittedly, my pairing with Joan seemed strange - she being a mother and me as old as her son.
But it worked.
A long-time employee of Johnnie Fox's, one of Dublin's oldest and most famous watering holes, Joan was no stranger to the odd Australian - including former prime minister John Howard, to whom she'd served a drink.
I had less than a day in Dublin and needed to fit in as much sight-seeing as possible. No problem, says Joan.
She effortlessly rattled off at least a dozen things to do; from the obvious (a tour of the Guinness Storehouse) to the more ridiculous (a visit to the National Leprechaun Museum and a mummified cat and rat display in the crypt of the almost 1000-year-old Christ Church Cathedral).
Our initial 30-minute meeting had stretched to an hour-and-a-half and the topics of conversation seemed endless.
By that point my glass was empty, notepad full and the was sun beginning to set - my cue to wrap up.
On our walk back to my hotel, combined with a quick tour of O'Connell Street, Joan said she'd struck up a handful of friendships with perfect strangers since becoming a Dublin Ambassador.
It was my first trip to Ireland and I think I'd just made my first friend.
HOW IT WORKS
* Before you arrive in Dublin, register your details at www.cityofathousandwelcomes.com. There, you can choose from a list of available dates and meeting times. You'll be asked to provide your name, mobile number (or accommodation contact), language spoken and age to help pair you with a suitable ambassador.
* All meetings start on the first floor of The Little Museum of Dublin, a Georgian brick building on St Stephen's Green in the city's centre. There, you'll be introduced to your ambassador and get to choose from one of three participating venues for your meet-and-greet - the Merrion Hotel, The Porterhouse pub or Bewley's Cafe. A free drink voucher will also be issued.
* And that's it! The length of your meet-and-greet is generally decided by you and the ambassador.
TRIP NOTES:
GETTING THERE: Ucango can source prices from various airlines inlcuding comlimentary stopovers if required. Call 1300 822 646 for details.
WHILE THERE: The Little Museum of Dublin (www.littlemuseum.ie) offers a great introduction to the city's history. It's also the meeting point for the City of A Thousand Welcomes. A visit to the James Joyce Centre (www.jamesjoyce.ie) is also a must-do for literary lovers.
MORE INFORMATION: www.discoverireland.com.au
* The writer was a guest of Tourism Ireland and Etihad Airways.
