Ireland, by JJS in KCK
Here’s something I meant to share with you last month.
Local blogger, JJS in KCK, went to Ireland and blogged an account of his trip. However unlike most bloggers, JJS did not do a straight chronological journal but instead gave us a commentary split into 5 themes.
In a trip that included over 700 miles of driving, there’s a lot to say and, because of the way it’s broken up, it’s very readable. There’s also a fair smattering of photos as proof of getting around - including I notice one of the Great Sugar Loaf (you may recall I recently did a painting of the Sugar Loaf.
The series of posts, apart from being entertaining, struck me as quite perceptive - so I won’t pick them apart though as the word “myth” is a strong one I’ll step in just once:
Oh–and a couple people asked me if they serve beer at a warmer temp over there. This is a myth. The beers were consistently cooler than cool, which is to say “ice cold”.
It’s not a matter of myth so much as it is a matter of timing. 20 years earlier and the beers weren’t served so cold. Before they were consistently cold you left pubs because the pint was too cold. And 20 years before then they were warmer again. Even today you can, if you’re lucky, get some pints that aren’t ice cold.
I had some pints not cold a few weeks ago in Dublin. There was a moment when a fellow Guinness drinker looked at myself and another stout drinker and asked us what the pint was like. This is a stout thing - ale and lager drinkers in Ireland never ask about their pint. In unison we answered that it was good (huge praise from an Irish person, no praise at all from an American) and then added with a tinge of guilt, “it’s not cold”. The look of a true pint-drinker stared back at us, somewhere between dismissing the irrelevant “warning” of warmth, and finding out it’s Christmas.
But anyway, enjoy JJS in KCK, in Ireland:
1 Flying
2 Driving
3 The Economy
4 Cuisine
5 Drinks
Other Bloggers Trips to Ireland:
• A view of Ireland from the Kansas Lakes
• Where is Wei?
• Leaving Kansas And Learning Languages
• KC Man Visits Ireland’s Fleadh Cheoil
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
