St. Patty's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Our March 17th started with a drenching rain as we walked to catch a bus downtown to watch the parade. Typical weather for the Irish holiday. The parade itself was wonderful with many schools, organization and sports clubs being represented. Some of the spectators and marchers even wore kilts but most wore green and with a shamrock somewhere, usually in the form of face paint, sticker or funny head piece. We wore green but didn’t have the luxury of additional flare as we were limited to the number of bags we could take on the plane over here :)

We took an umbrella as well but quickly learned that they were useless as the wind swirled so much that you never knew at which angle the rain would be attacking you from. And ours went inside out so many times we would have been just as well with a colander over our heads.

After the parade had sufficiently drenched us, we tried to find a not-packed pub to watch the rugby match in and to dry off a bit, which proved to be a difficult feat not only cause of the holiday but because it was the final rugby matches to determine who wins the Grand Slam. Eventually we found The Hole in the Wall. That’s the pub’s name, no joke, but it wasn’t as small as you might think. It even offered stools and a near by fire so we were in good shape. Ireland won the match in convincing fashion but everyone was on edge to see how the French team would fair because the teams were tied for number of games won, and the team with the greatest point differential would win the coveted Grand Slam. All was well until France scored late in the match on a highly contested try to steal the Grand Slam by a measly 2 points. The refs were being called all sorts of bad names across the country. I have a feeling all the fans drowned their sorrows in a few more pints but we opted for dinner and music at our next destination.

Dinner was unique as all the Irish restaurants were full with long waits so we ended up eating at an Indian restaurant. I know, not what you expected, but it was a place we had wanted to try, and only try once… pretty disappointing, we should have waited in a line.

We then moved on to the Crane Bar, which was having free “trad sessions” all day. That meant that they had random people lined up to play acoustically which is tough to hear with loud drunk people all around not so interested in the music. It was fun when random people joined in singing traditional songs. They were good but it was lacking the pep we had experienced in our other trad listening adventures.

I hope we're not disappointing everyone with the lack of flare and extravagance that was this St. Patty’s day, but we realized that American’s celebrate with just as much excitement and partying, and even more so because they get to pretend they’re Irish for a day… while here, well, they never get to pretend.

I’m rather happy and full as I report that Michael has tried his hand at another Irish meal. Tonight was corned beef and cabbage and it was bowl-lickin’ good, literally! It’s very handy to have the culture living right with you (Colm, our landlord) to tell you the history and “real” way to make it. The Irish don’t actually have it all the time on St. Patty’s day like we in America think they do, and in fact a more common dish here is bacon and cabbage. There you have it, and how was YOUR St. Patty’s day, we’d love to hear the American (or British or German or African… wherever you maybe reading this) version!