On my 50-minute flight from Dublin back to Heathrow last month, I had a fascinating conversation with an older gentleman from Mumbai. I don’t normally strike up conversations with strangers on the plane, but he had so many interesting stories to tell I just sat there next to him with rapt attention. 82-year-old Kishore was born in what is today Pakistan, fought for India’s independence, fell in love with the girl next door, lived everywhere from Singapore to London, and today flies around the world touring exotic locales.

As we began our descent and Kishore turned to his newspaper, he nudged me and pointed to the back of the paper, featuring a full-color story on LEGO’s latest collector’s set — 10189 Taj Mahal.

My fellow traveler didn’t know about my love of little plastic bricks from Denmark, but he was so happy to see a familiar sight from the country he was so proud of that he had to share it with me. In moments like that, I’m reminded that LEGO is one of those things that connects people from everywhere in the world.

Okay, one more post from me and I’m off to build my 10081 Sandcrawler ($40 off!) that arrived in the mail today. ;)