Happy St Patrick's Day!

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Movies I Have Seen This Year, Part 1

A Very Long Engagement
The Forgotten
Sideways
Garden State
The Dreamers
Ladder 49
Dodgeball
Closer
Finding Neverland
Bridget Jones's Diary 2
The Aviator
Butterfly Effect
Anchorman

International Women's Day

http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2004/

Edinburgh, February 2005

Just my luck, I visited my sister during the coldest week they'd had this winter.

Wednesday: Damn it's cold! But oh, how lovely The Meadows is covered in snow. Love the school boys in their uniforms having snow ball fights. Midday snack at [name of cafe]. Discovered the lovely cobblestoned neighborhood of Dean Village. Stopped at The Granary to enjoy a pint of Tennant's and an order of chips with Heinz Brown Sauce. That stuff is delicious. Discounted pasta dinner at The Last Drop; shots of black zambuca and bushmills at Bar Salsa (be sure to check out the bathroom wall, lower left hand side); wandering through the snow, trying to explain to the French guy where San Francisco is, and finally ending up at Espionage - dancing with the Polish girl and other random people. Damnit, I left my jumper, but luckily I got it back 2 days later.

Thursday: Lost half the day to the hangover. Walked to Tesco to get some groceries (I was aching for some orange juice). Afternoon bus trip to Roslyn. There were boys throwing snowballs at the bus from their third story window. We tromped around through the village, took pictures of the chapel from the outside, speculated that the helicopter circling overhead was for the filming of The Da Vinci Code.... but it was too freaking cold and there were no freaking pubs open, so we only stayed an hour. Back in Edinburgh, wading through the hail and sleet, we ended up at [name of pub] on Rose Street and the cute bartender served us our "lemony water stuff." More pasta for dinner. Who woulda guessed?

Friday: Off to Glasgow to hear the real accents. [Lunch in the pedestrian area.] Walked down to the River Clyde and asked the startled ould man to take our picture. Popped into St Andrew's Church and chatted with an old bird who knew right off we were from out of town. We were passing by The Tolbooth pub and saw the sign in the window: Pints of Guinness for 1.75 pounds! Well, we couldn't pass that up. 'Twas nothing but old men watching horse racing - we loved it. Got our pints, sat down, and were chatted up by an old dude who told us his wife was from Brooklyn. He told us a bunch of other stuff too, but that was the only thing we could understand.
After regrouping back at the flat, we headed out for another night at the pubs. We started out at Greyfriar's Bobby's and then went to the White Hart Inn, which turned out to be the "oldest pub in Edinburgh," with a portrait of Rabie Burns hanging over the fireplace, and my favorite place of all. After meeting up with the Minnesotan girls, we made a quick stop at Bar Salsa, and then headed to Dropkick Murphy's Irish pub (how could I not love it with a name like that). Following that, things quickly slipped downhill: we wolfed down a mini-pizza while sitting at a bus stop, and then we walked (stumbled) halfway back to the flat (did I mention that it was damn cold) before finally flagging down a taxi. And then we had to make the obligatory 3 am drunken phone call to the boyfriend. Luckily it was only 7 pm for him.

Saturday: Off to visit the "relatives." We took the train from Waverly station down to Durham, where the relatives picked us up and took us to their home in the village of Blackhill. We were served a hearty English dinner: slabs of beef, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots. This was followed by three cans of John Smiths, so I was stuck to the couch like a lump of clay.

Sunday: One of my favorite parts of the visit, was the lovely walk from the train station back to the flat.
We had a delicious dinner at the vegetarian restaurant Hendersons. Then we headed back to the White Hart for (finally) some traditional music.

Stuff I drank:
Tenent's
Tenent's Velvet
Strongbow cider
Blackthorn cider
Guinness
Guinnes Extra Cold
John Smiths
McEwans