Shanghai Revisited

Back from a great Saint Patrick’s weekend in Shanghai. I think I enjoyed it this time a bit better than I did when I went last September. Maybe that’s cos I had a dose of the trots last time!

Paddy’s night, hit The Blarney Stone pub. Yeah, a good effort at an Irish bar. Pretty authentic. They had live music. All the old classics, Dirty Old Town, Raglan Road and so on. Introduced some Chinese people to their first taste of Guinness. I think they still need to acquire a taste for it! Yours truly did his usual singing bit and went up to sing The Fields of Athenry:

Seems that most Irish in Shanghai had gone to the Black Tie Saint Patrick’s Day ball. Tickets were sold out and were worth over a week’s wages for me, so I don’t think I would have gone anyway! It was a god laugh in the pub and got talking to some Irish people, including a fella from Galway, who was on his buying and selling trip to China, taking in 12 cities or something! A bit of a wheeler-dealer but a good laugh!

Ended up in the other Irish bar O’Malley’s on the Saturday night. Prob not as authentic as the Blarney Stone. Though it would be nice in summer with a big beer garden.

Shanghai does seem a lot livelier than Dalian. Not talking about night life even. More people around. And people actually cycle bikes in Shanghai. Dalian folks are afraid of a few hills. That’s the reason I’m told nobody cycles here. Shame on them! So, who knows, if I decide to stay on another year here, I might just head to shanghai!