Weirdest. St Paddy’s Day. Ever.

I submit the following for most bizarre St. Paddy’s Day ever. And that includes the one where Alex got yelled at by Chet and I lost my pants:

Irish bar in Madrid, surrounded by Spaniards, accompanied by a fellow American, a Brit and two Germans (none of whom could grasp what the hell was so important about the day) watching the locals scream out the lyrics to mid-20th-century American rock songs (think Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) as covered by an Irish guitarist whilst the German cohort drunkenly convinces a Spanish kid to help him do his homework in the bar.

You espeaka Espanish? How you say ‘los’?

Ain’t no Finnegan party.

It does, however, combine numbers #89 and #72 on the list. (We are SO white.)

Oh, and then came the drunken “let’s compare cultures!” game that, apparently everyone plays. The German wanted to know more American swear words, and after listing off an impressive tirade of offensive language, all we had left to give him was “cocksucker”, which truly threw him for a loop. “Vat iss kock?!?” It didn’t take long to explain. And we learned it in German, but I forgot to write it down.

-bdmc

First Day Addendums

Let me fill you in in the minor details Al forgot. First: contrary to popular opinion, the British are NOT the most organized people on the planet. At least not at the airport. Aside from the roving ticket desks (there is no fixed counter for any airline), they also refuse to have a fixed gate for each aircraft, meaning you have to stand in the main lobby of the terminal and stare at the LED board until your gate pops up, usually 15 minutes before your flight. And conveniently, the board is facing perpendicular to the oh-so-comfortable lobby chairs so there is absolutely no chance that you can sit in said lobby chairs and view said board. Brilliant. Second, and in support of point 1, they really need to get that Terminal 5 up and running at Heathrow. The “take a bus to the check-in point, go thru security (again) and take another bus to the departing terminal while your luggage sits out in the pouring rain” idea leaves much to be desired. Third, babies screaming in Spanish for the entirety of a two-hour flight are just as annoying as babies screaming in English. Just so you know.

I can speak positive volumes about British Airways, though. Somehow that accent makes all the usually annoying things about flying more bearable.

-bdmc