I've lived outside Ireland since I was 17. I remember Paddy's Day in Ireland as being one of a self-imposed ritual - the Mass in Irish, the parade in the rain. Then everyone would go home. When I lived in the United States, the rivers were dyed green, and so was the beer. In England, I cooked special Irish food, like champ, and casserole of beef in Guinness. None of this would be happening at home, so Paddy's Day abroad is always a peculiar, distorted day.
Here in Hungary, it's totally different. In America and England, there's more of an international Irish community, a sort of ghettoisation. It isn't like that here in Budapest. Paddy's Day isn't appropriated here. There won't be anything official happening, so I'll have to organise my own celebrations, which I'm looking forward to. I see Paddy's Day as a way of celebrating where I come from with other friends. I wouldn't be celebrating nationalism or Catholicism.
I see it as a celebration of the modern Ireland. It's more a muted celebration, less of the schmaltz and green beer, and focused more on the things which aren't as easy to market. How can you market what it's like to end up in your flat teaching people to sing Irish songs or explaining the morass that is Irish politics? This year, I'll be hunting for fish to cook, not an easy thing in a landlocked country. And I'll be sitting with a group of Belorussians, French, Indian, Hungarians and Germans. I've started teaching them the card game Twenty-Five, and I'll have the duty-free whiskey out.
Renata Dwan (29) works for the Institute for East-West Studies. She has lived in Budapest for eight months.
