St. Patrick's Day in Israel

Blog Diversion!  I had intended to give you a detailed description of the magnificent shrines that Marty and I had visited yesterday.

But then……..we went out to dinner.  We were kind of beat, and just looking for something small.  We had even looked to see if the hotel had a lounge of some sort where we could pick up a bite to eat.

When it was apparent that they did not,  we decided to walk to some of the restaurants that we had passed earlier in the day.

Before we had left our room, I had spotted this green glowing light, emanating from one of the shrines, and we found it interesting that this city would be recognizing St. Patrick's Day.

Last year, when we just so happened to be in Scotland on St. Patrick's Day, we found it hard pressed to find any signs of celebrating the day.  But, here, there were several restaurants featuring Guinness, balloons, and obvious festivities designed to celebrate the day.

We decided on a place that offered a lovely view of the Greek Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the square, and as soon as we got near the door, a young lady, wearing a leprechaun hat and a green floral lei around her neck, was jumping around asking if we were interested in coming in.

I asked to see a menu and was brought one written entirely in Arabic.

So, I asked if there was an American Menu:    Just one minute.  

Well, that minute came and went, and we decided to just give it a shot, because it was obvious that these people were eager for business.

We were just relaxing in our seats when an enthusiastic waiter popped a fluorescent green tie on Marty and a green lei around my neck.

Do we look Irish?   Actually…Marty does have Irish roots.  I do not.  But, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day….right?

Well, that is apparently the case here in Nazareth, because this Arabic restaurant was quite enthusiastic about celebrating the day.

There was one waitress who spoke English and she became the official waitress for our table.    She was VERY excited to practice her skills.  She was a dark haired, slightly plump, short, beautiful girl, who just kept smiling and fidgeting in between words.  I've never seen someone so happy at waitressing.  Her exuberance was quite catchy.

It took quite awhile for anyone to produce an English menu for us to read. It must have been buried somewhere.  In the meantime, our friendly waitress asked us what we wanted to drink.

But not before giving the specials.  

"We have a Guinness Special tonight! ……..It is St. PATRICK's Day today!!!!!…..Did you know that?……..We have a special, from between 7:00 to 8:00, if buy 2 Guinness glasses of beer, you get the third one free!!  Are you interested? "

Marty looked at the time.  It was 7:40.  He laughed and said, "So, that means that I would have to drink 2 beers in 20  minutes to get my free beer?  I don't think that I will be able to do that. "

"Oh……OK….but do not worry….when one special finishes, we have another one begin."

So, he ordered his ONE beer, and we waited to see what was in store for us. 

While waiting for our dinner to be served, the music suddenly became very Irish, and the owner was attempting to get his staff into the spirit by making them wear crazy hats, leis around their necks, and, of all things…..hula skirts……because they were green.

By this point, I was trying very hard not to break out laughing.

Dinner was fabulous and certainly one of the most entertaining meals of our trip.

Marty and I were certainly enjoying the festivities.  And then……I spotted something very unfamiliar to me.

The owner of the place, who was ordering all of the girls to dress in grass skirts, was sitting by a window…..smoking a hookah.  

I'll be honest with you…..I don't even know if that is spelled correctly.

I know absolutely NOTHING about hookahs.

Except, when I began to look around, all of the  people who had finished dinner were smoking them.

Two women, just behind Marty, were puffing away, as well as people at other tables in the restaurant.

Some new patrons came in, sat at the table next to us, and the staff brought one to the table, along with a pot of coals.

We would soon be surrounded by people smoking these things.

Perhaps many of you blog readers will not be as surprised by this as I was.

Now we're wondering if this will be the norm at every restaurant here when we go out to dinner.

Do you suppose that there is a Nazareth for Dummies book out there?   Or, perhaps, Hookahs for Dummies?

I had better get busy looking!

In the meantime, if you have any advice……I'm all up for any suggestions!

Perhaps I'll write about those shrines later…….