Obligatory Irish Pub Post

There has been no post in ten days!

Early in my blogging career, five days without a post was unheard of. Apparently I'm no longer held to that standard, or at least my small but beloved audience has given up mentioning period of blog neglect. As I've said before, there isn't that much that seems worthy of note these days - at least, these days when I'm in Cork. All of the day-to-day here is old hat to me now. I go to class, I grocery shop, I go out with my friends - but then I remembered that when these now mundane things were new, I thought they were good topics for blog posts. Now that I have been living here a few months, I take for granted

Unforgivably, I have not talked about Irish pubs on the blog, aside from what I'm sure are the occasional passing mentions.

Coming to Ireland didn't transform me into a brave and enthusiastic party girl, but just like always, I enjoy a night out now and again with people I like. Since I have no less than twelve fairly close girlfriends here, there is always someone with whom to "hit the pubs." The ambiance varies from one place to the next. Recently Anna, Hailey and I discovered Monday night table quiz at the Bierhaus, a place with a variety of German and other import beers. Table quiz is literally team responses to questions and the winner gets a prize - at Bierhaus, the winning team gets a sample tray of beers that looks like this:

You can see how excited Anna and I were by our victory. This win did not come without earlier defeat. We got one out of ten correct in the previous week's "Name The Monster" picture portion of the game. Nearly all of these so-called infamous monsters were in pixelated black and white, clearly hailing from the pre-Technicolor era. Trying to contribute to a more satisfying experience for everyone in the future, I left a note to the establishment, which I found the following week displayed on the wall near the table at which we sat.

Places like the Bierhaus close early and have regulars all afternoon, without a late rush. There's nowhere to dance and people go there as much to hang out with existing friends as to prey upon new ones. After stimulating the intellect with a round of quiz, it's time to find a "late bar," a place that stays open as long as legally possible. In Killarney, that was the Killarney Grand, where there was live music in the front room and dance music and a club atmosphere in the back.
If you're like me, dancing and loud music aren't that much of a "crack" (Irish slang for good time) and a more mellow atmosphere is appealing. At places like An Bodhran, we can sit and hear regular traditional music sessions or independent musicians in a lower key setting.
You can see me getting more tan as we go through these pictures...interestingly, they are in a reverse chronology!