A Couple Left out Stories

I just woke up and realized I left out a couple of stories from the past week. First off, the list of people I have seen since here in Ireland on the street:

Dad
A high school Mom, that threw me for a loop.
LA Katherine Clay ;)
Uncle Larry (t'was a barman)
Colin McLaughlin
Mrs. Monahan
and one who could of been our brother

So the first "Irish" person that I bothered to get to know outside of our program was the mocha coffee shop worker named Antono. He moved to Ireland 5 years ago from Romania. It may be the one shop with the best customer service around. We talked about several topics, immigration and how to cheat the Irish system, skiing since he was an instructor, surfing, and the weather. Romania is much like home, it has four seasons and it can get very cold and very hot. So Antono was reminiscing about the first time he came to Ireland and watched all the locals when it would get freezing. He recalled the first week he was here where he noticed a line of Irish people all along the canal just staring into it. He thought it was so eary that he went up and asked a local why they were doing this, his response, "I have been here for 30 years and this is the first time I've seen the canal freeze over!". They rarely see snow, it never accumulates, and when it gets to 2-4 degree C weather they act as if the sun has hid itself for ever and we are in a never ending Arctic winter. I guess that's where the name Hibernia comes from.

Secondly I forgot to mention my two encounters with barmen. It is always interesting to see what people think of immediately when you say Philadelphia abroad. The first barman was the one from The Bleeding Horse and I got a kick out of his response, "Ahhh Philly! That's where the Roots are from right? They are huge over in the UK and a bit here." The second was the barman at 108, a local old pub in Rathgar, when hearing we were from Philadelphia he turned around and asked, "Have you ever met him!? Have you met Rocky??" And he proceeded to put his hands above his head and run up the stairs, "You've at least gone to the stairs and done this right?" Also my landlord first remembered going to Philadelphia and said it was lovely and "the city of brotherly love", so abroad Philadelphia is currently known as the lovely city of brotherly love with a fictional boxer who trains at the art museum and a hip hop group. Never mind liberty, maybe one day someone will say that.

Oh and thank you Emily and Kate, my first two "Subscribers"! For this I will have a special prize the next time I come back from my monday night class.

P.S. Devitt's Pub (The Cusack Stand) has great live traditional music thursday, friday, and saturday nights. No cover, it's upstairs. A group of family members just sits around a table and plays, sings, ect. for a few hours. The amount of people grows and grows and if you are ever in Dublin and can't find a non-trendy place, there's a place to go.

Messrs Maguire pub is another reccomendation from me and my roommates. It could be a little loud latter at night, but during the day it's a great place to get a pint. Old fashioned setup inside with tons of places to sit, and best of all they have micro-brews for 4 euro, which is the cheapest price for any pint in Dublin that we have found and also the best tasting.