Believe it or not, over 50% of Singapore is considered to be green space. Considering how many people live and work here as well as the size of the island, its kind of incredible that there is that much open space with only vegetation. Our porch overlooks a fairly dense forest, but that has just become our backyard so you don't think about it that much. Yesterday, we took the bus downtown and sat on the second level for the first time. Had to check another Singapore to do off the list. Not sure if I would do it again because you sway back and forth, the ride is a little herky jerky and you feel like you are going to run into one of the many previously mentioned trees that are overhanging the road. It does, however, give you a nice vantage point for seeing the city and appreciating how everywhere you look is extremely green and lush. Little different than the black tunnel that is the subway and then popping up from underground somewhere.
Anyway, the point of taking the bus downtown and why all this is fitting is we were meeting up with friends for a joint birthday party/St. Patricks Day celebration. As you can imagine, with the amount of expats here and the British influence it was a bit of a production.... and that was last night. Something tells me tonight could be even moreso of an Irish festival. Either way, this Emerald Isle put on a show this weekend.
The first stop was Molly Roffeys Irish pub.... next to a ramen noodle restaurant of course. They were having a special on Tiger green beer, but one beer with an excessive amount of food coloring in it was enough of a reason to switch over to Guinness. Besides, if you're going to celebrate St. Patricks day right, you probably should be having something from Ireland vs. a Singapore beer that happens to be a different color. Even better, if you bought 4 points you got a free Guinness bowler hat and there were enough of us there to make sure we could have some additions to our already green, festive attire.
They actually had a pretty good live band playing; after last weekend this seems like it might be more of a regular occurrence for us. The only bad part was, they weren't playing any Irish music and actually stopped for the night at 11. At first we thought they were just on another break, but when someone looked over and realized the guitars were gone we had reached the decision point. Do we call it a night and head home or do we continue on in search of more Guinness, leprechauns and shenanigans? You can probably guess where this ended up.
Last weekend we had briefly stopped in Muddy Murphys basement Irish bar, but only sat on their patio (its split - indoor basement/outdoor patio) and left early when there was no music and too many large gentlemen watching rugby. If there was ever a weekend to give it another shot, this was clearly the one. We started walking down the stairs to the portion of the bar that is outdoors and again, lots of large guys watching rugby. Thinking we may have struck out, but deciding to get one more drink before heading home, we ducked into the actual basement bar and it became immediately apparent we had come to the right place. It was like you had set foot into the steerage hold of the Titanic. Warm and sweaty, low ceilings (glad we weren't on a boat) and the sound of an accordion and fiddle playing some Irish music above the din of the crowd. There was even a guy playing a recorder which led to multiple elementary school music jokes, but really did add to the atmosphere. They played Irish folk rock songs that half the bar seemed to know the words to, a few U2 songs that caused the room to shake people were singing so loud and even a tip of the cap to the Brits with some Mumford and Sons. When it hit midnight and actually was St. Patricks Day, you would have thought it was New Years Eve times eight. Crazy. I know where I'll be again 365 days from now.
Believe it or not, over 50% of Singapore is considered to be green space. Considering how many people live and work here as well as the size of the island, its kind of incredible that there is that much open space with only vegetation. Our porch overlooks a fairly dense forest, but that has just become our backyard so you don't think about it that much. Yesterday, we took the bus downtown and sat on the second level for the first time. Had to check another Singapore to do off the list. Not sure if I would do it again because you sway back and forth, the ride is a little herky jerky and you feel like you are going to run into one of the many previously mentioned trees that are overhanging the road. It does, however, give you a nice vantage point for seeing the city and appreciating how everywhere you look is extremely green and lush. Little different than the black tunnel that is the subway and then popping up from underground somewhere.
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