Oktoberfest.

This weekend marked Ireland's celebration of Germany's world renowned drinking festival, Oktoberfest. I was planning on attending the actual Oktoberfest, but time and money constraints kept me here in Ireland during the festivities. To compensate for not having a drinking festival of their own, or just to keep to buzz from Arthur's Day going, the Irish decided to host an Oktoberfest, large beer mugs and all. We went to a new pub called the Porter House, which had four stories and live music. The band played on a balcony hanging over the lower two floors. It was a great place to hang out and relax, while drinking a beer the size of my torso. I don't even enjoy the taste of beer, frankly the carbonation upsets my stomach, but the loom of these giant glasses was like a challenge I had to tackle. It was 9 euro for about two and a half pints. That comes out to a great deal because normally pints are around 5.60 euro in the tourist areas. After convincing myself I needed to drink this monstrous mug, I now had to tackle the challenge of picking out which beer I would voluntarily drink to upset my stomach to a new level. I chose Temple Brau (brau is pronounced brew). It wasn't terrible, but definitely did not change my views on beer in any way. It did the job. I was about a third of the way through and realized I could no longer drink this goblet of beer, and was ready to give up. After a couple comments about me being a sissy, and the realization that I just dropped 9 euro on this thing, I picked it back up and sipped, painfully through the rest of the mug.

The band that was playing had just got back from a European tour and was playing a few local shows. They were really great, and energetic and for once, genuinely seemed happy that Americans were in the bar. The lead singer asked where my friends and I all hailed from, and after not knowing where Connecticut was, I just settled for New York as the closest and most reasonable location in the North East. The thing is, non-Americans only know about 4 places in the United States; New York, California, Las Vegas, and Chicago. So if you are lucky enough to not be from there, it becomes Geography 101 trying to draw out the United States in the air while pointing out where you live.

We ended up staying at the pub until closing, around 2am. My stomach, cringing, hurting, and hating me for drinking that beer was not happy with the half mile walk back to the top of Grafton Street, where we have to hail a cab to go home. There were screams for McDonald's, but I took the stand and said no more late night snack times for anyone, because we are all feeling, and seeing the repercussions of the late night Mickey D's binges. At least I'm learning how to say no to one thing here. Drinking will be next on my list.

I guess it's a good thing I didn't pay for a flight over to Germany for the actual Oktoberfest. I don't think I would have been able to drink that much beer and function as a normal human. The taste of Oktoberfest in Ireland was just what I needed without going overboard in the money department.