slainte!

So I spent the last weekend in a drunken haze in Mighty Belfast. Drinking up a storm, catching up with friends, putting the hard word on this cute gay guy just in case he was curious (some things never change) overall just enjoying the great craic thats there to welcome me every time I spend time in the green isle. All of my friends there are people I've met along the way (mostly Erasmus students in Spain) and are the most lovely people you will meet. Seriously heavy drinkers (there was one drinking game in particular that was played where we consumed around 200 finger widths of alcohol. I wasn't looking pretty the next day) but the most welcoming young'uns (they are all around 20, so I'm the wise old bird when I'm with them) you'll ever come across. Belfast gets a bad rap but I love it. The troubles are all still very real (one of my friends got kidnapped by the IRA a couple months ago and just got away with broken knee caps) but if you look past that, I've found the Northern Irish (because in my mind, they're Irish not British) to be some of the most passionate and generous people I've met. They're so passionate about their history and are so proud about where they come from that I aways feel a bit ashamed that I'm not more vocal about my love of Oz. Its not that I don't love Oz, its just I've never been one to preach about it. I think I actually know more about Irish history and politics than I do about my own history.