Drinking Habits in Ireland

Since my sister recently moved to Dublin, I have now a first hand source for all kinds of funny, intersting, strange cultural differences between us Austrians and the Irish. First thing she noticed on the green Island was that she, a lover of wine, was completely lost. Of course given the meteorologic preconditions (not so sunny, not so warm, lots of rain) she did not expect to find tons of great wines in Ireland. Unfortunatly she really despices beer and therefore she feels kind of an alien. After several weeks of drinking soda on the weekly pub evening with friends apparently some of them felt sorry for her and started a risky expedtion: finding a pub, that serves "good" wine for Anna. And look, what they found:

 

First step towards feeling at ease with the new home.

Irish Easter

First of all, welcome back after the easter break.

I am sure we all enjoyed the days off and most of us have spent the holidays with their familys celebrating easter with many traditions.

In Austria there are a number of different traditions connected to easter. Some of them are the same but of course every family has a couple additional traditions just for themselves. In Ireland I am pretty sure it is the same. Curious about Irish easter traditions here is a short overview about what we have in comon and what is different in Austria and Ireland.

As we all know easter already starts 40 days before Easter Sunday. This period is called Lent. In the traditional way one should not eat meat during this time (many people try thesedays to go without something else they really like, for example chocolate). What I did not know is, that Irish people usually eat fish every friday in Lent in some kind of fish soup and they also do not eat eggs until Easter Sunday. In both countries eggs are a symbol for easter and the will get painted in different colours.

Of course the most important week in Lent is the last week also known as Holly week starting with Palm Sunday. On Friday, Good Friday, just like in Austria people try not to do any outside work and prepare themselves for Easter. Then comes Easter Saturday with the Easter Vigil in the evening. Which is the same in both countries again. Apparently we Austrians are the more unpatient folks and so we already have our easter Dinner on Saturday. It usually consists of homemade white bread, smoked meat, horseradish, vegetables, wine and off course eggs. All this food will previously be blessed by the priest. Irish people wait patiently until easter sunday for their special Easter meal. In Ireland this would usually includes potatoes, vegetables, meat, stuffing, bread and anything else that makes up a good proper Irish feast. All together the Irish Easter is not that different from the Austrian.

I hope you all had a Happy Easter. :-)

The Union Jack

Have you also been wondering why the british flag is called "Union Jack"? Or why it looks like it does? Here are the answers:

The Union Jack how we know it got it's looks in 1801 when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. All in all it practicaly unites three national flags. The red cross on white background of St. George which still is the flag of England and the white altire on blue background also known as St. Andrews cross that still is the flag of Scotland already formed the first union flag beginning from 1606. Later on in 1801 the the red saltire (x-shaped cross) on white background of St. Patricks flag that used to be the flag of the Island of Ireland joined the other two.

The name Union Jack first came up in 1674. Before that the word "Jack" was used to refere to the maritime bow flag. After 1627 this usually was a small version of the union flag. So while it officially was called "his Majesty's Jack" people started calling it simply "the Union Jack".

Brits vs. Austrians

Inspired by our lesson about stereotypes I started to browse through the internet a little bit. Here is my result:

 Daily routine of a common Brit:

He/she get’s up in the morning and after the first cup of tea he/she leaves the house. At the bus stop is everybody waiting in a queue until it is his/her turn. Then finally in the office he/she is having the second cup of tea and starts working. At lunch time he/she goes to the nearest pub to have fish and chips and a third cup of tea before it goes back to work. In the afternoon he/she either just has a fourth cup of tea or goes to a local tearoom to have a traditional English tea party with cucumber sandwiches and cake and tea of course. On his/her way back home he/she chats politely with his/her neighbor about the weather (usually the rain or drizzle that occurred during the day) before he/she enters the terraced house and has a nice roast for dinner. Afterwards he/she either goes to the local pub to have some beers or they stay at home to watch a nice Monty Python film. In the weekend they go out to the local pub and drink until the barkeeper calls last round at around 11 and then they lurch home. On Sunday they watch or take part in traditional cricket or football games before in the evening right before they go to sleep they have their fifth cup of tea just to fall sound asleep and dream from Marry Poppins.

An ordinary day for a Homo Austriacus: 

First of all everybody is called Maria, Heidi, Lisl, Rolf or Friedrich. He/she get’s up and first thing in the morning:  he/she climbs into th e Lederhosen/Dirndl. Afterwards he/she goes out to the pasture to milk the cows. During that work he/she either listens to Mozart or starts off yodelling. At a later time he/she starts his/her job which usually is skiing-instructor or hiking guid. At lunchtime he/she enters the local Inn also known as “Wirtshaus” and while having his/her beloved Wiener Schnitzel they complain together with everybody else in the room about everything and everybody. In the Afternoon after a view more hours of hiking or skiing he/she enters a cafè and orders a “Melange” – a typical Austrian coffee with milk – and a Newspaper. The waiter of course is particularly grumpy. In the Evening he/she goes out to dance Waltz and the men are giving the women kisses on the hand before everybody climbs back up his/her mountain. Later in the bed we are all dreaming from Maria and 'raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens'.

 

My great british summer

As my title already hints I spent the last summer in Britain.

From May until September I worked as an Au-pair for a very nice family in Winchester, Hampshire. But I did not just take care of the two sweetest an loveable kids ever I also tried to get to see as muchfrom the country as possible.

For this purpose I couldn't imagine a better time than the past few months.
Not only was I allowed to celebrate the queens Diamond Jubilee together with her and all the citizens I also was able to be in London when the Olympics where there. I was engrossed in britains battle for the European Football Cup, I saw the Olympic Torch on it's way through the country and I at least "tried" to see the great Thames Pageant.

Beside the big and historical events that took part in the UK this summer I also visited Oxford, with it's important and well-known colleges, I stroked wild pony's at the new forest, I explored some of the old castles, I took part in a real british tea-party, by bathing in the ice cold water of the british channel I got an idea about how Jack from Titanic must have felt and I learned a lot about the british history by visiting many other places.

All in all I have to say, that it was not only a great summer for britain but also a great one for me.