El Dia de San Patricio (Ken)

Unlike USA cities and towns, St. Patrick’s Day is not such a big deal here. Helen and I have been in New York for the past three years on this day. In NYC, people are well into their pints before noon. Here, the only sign of afternoon revelers was this group of North American tourists I passed in Barrio Norte.

That evening, wearing my green shirt and festive pin, I headed out with Helen for another round of beer tasting with fellow expat blogger, Alan. We were joined by his Porteño friend, Augustine who picked us all up in his car. It is one of the few times I have been in a private car in Buenos Aires—it is always an adventure. We arrived at Antares in Palermo Viejo and met fellow blogger, Yanqui Mike and his beautiful Argentine wife. Mike has a popular blog that I have been reading for over a year. He was even mentioned in an article in Clarín about bloggers last month. It was nice to meet him get some more perspective on Argentina.




Alan and I were there to kill two birds with one stone—or kill two mosquitoes with one slap as the Argentine saying goes—to celebrate El Dia de San Patricio and review another sampler of beers from another of Buenos Aires’ brew pubs. (I’ll let Alan post the review this time on his blog.) We made our list of over-the-top tasting notes and even had Augustine along for Porteño perspective. His comments were . . .unique, like, “It smells like toes.”

Antares had some bagpipers. The crowd was amused and applauded after each tune. An Argentine song got the biggest applause and quite a bit of singing along. After they marched out, an Irish band started up. Augustine was enjoying himself—he went to an Irish school and this was very nostalgic for him.

Helen and I headed home, and I went back out to Shoeless Joe’s to see what was happening there. It was crowded and young. I went upstairs where it was a bit quieter. I took the long walk home to see what was happening. Not much green, not many silly hats, but people were out. I could still have gotten a table for dinner at 1:30.