St. Paddy's Day: Slainte! Erin go Bragh! Ceid mile failte!

I know, I know – I really haven’t updated this in awhile. I’m trying to squeeze the time in, and I just keep losing it. I have been so, SO busy this month. In fact, I’m a little hesitant in consciously believing the past few weeks have happened. Is it really almost April? Are my classes really OVER next Friday?? Anyway, I have been keeping a mental list of different things I wanted to write about in here. I must start before I lose them forever!

While I realize that this isn’t exactly THAT relevant because I am in Scotland and not Ireland, I still need to talk about it for a few reasons other than the fact that I just love the Irish and it is one of the most Americanized holidays, ever. ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

#1. Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. Clearly!

#2. I saw B*Witched. Live. For free. At an Irish bar (Three Sisters!). Anyone between the ages of 16 and 25 should have at least the slightest but of appreciation for this, stemmed from some good old ‘90s nostalgia. Described as “the most successful Irish pop-girl band,” any American should know them from their Disney-ified hit C’EST LA VIE! Good stuff. No, GREAT stuff! Being that they’re from the UK area, they were a little more popular here – in fact, some people knew every word to all of the songs they played. Clearly I only knew C’est La Vie…which they played twice…first and last. Being that they’re probably 35 now (and I guess called The Barbarellas?) and still only known for a ridiculous song that was released in 1998 says something sad, but hey! Who am I to judge?? And I cannot lie, IT WAS SO FUN. Not that I didn’t think it would be, but there is no way I was going to pay for it if I had initially thought I had to. If only I had been prepared with a DENIM TUX (which they’ve unfortunately moved on from)…

#3. Traditional Irish Breakfast – COMPLETE with a pint of Guinness. B*Witched was technically on the 16^th, so the next morning, on the actual St. Patrick’s Day, my friends and I got up nice and early for some traditional Irish breakfast at Biddy Mulligan’s Pub. It was here that at we all (for the most part) braved a pint of Guinness with a surprisingly (it was 10AM!!) drunken crowd of Irish and Irish enthusiasts! Other than the Guinness breakfast involved toast, egg, potato scone, hash brown, tomato, mushroom, beans, sausage, bacon, blood pudding, and HAGGIS (I know, the Haggis is not Irish, but you’ve gotta cut Scotland a little slack). While I’ve found here that the traditional Irish/Scottish breakfast (virtually the same thing) isn’t really my thing, I knew I had to get it. Not only did I get it, but I also TRIED THE HAGGIS. And honestly, it’s really not bad. It’s pretty stereotyped so I feel like that’s why a lot of people are afraid of it – while it’s hard NOT to do that because of the stereotype, I feel that if everyone knew EXACTLY what they were eating all the time, stereotyped or not, there would be a lot of “normal” food that would start to be looked at prettttty weirdly.

Guinness & Claddaugh

Audrey & I

Blood pudding on the other hand is NEVER happening. EVER. I’d like to think I’m pretty open to trying all kinds of food but I need to draw the line somewhere – and that somewhere is MILES behind blood pudding. Ew.

The day itself was also SO BEAUTIFUL! Here’s a lovely photo of Shelby, Meredith, Audrey, Kelly, and I on the National Monument – an afternoon of sunshine and cupcakes on Calton Hill.