I first found out about Pub quiz nights while living in Ireland where it is quite popular. You can do it for fun but most people participate for charity fundraising. So no surprise that when I found out that 1) – I had a local irish pub (yay, feels like being in Dublin still) and that 2) – they have a pub quiz night…I planned a few nights out there.
I love pubs. In Ireland, it is a social place where you meet with your friends, drinks loads of beer (in average 7 pints according to my own statistics) and talk shite (pronounce sh-iii-te). You could spend hours doing that and having a good craic (good fun). The atmosphere is always nice and friendly. The music is generally loud so you have to shout and the day after you can barely speak (ok… not always). That was my experience of irish pubs! I like Michael Collins because when I am there, I feel like I am in Ireland again! When entering, you see a first room. Then there is a corridor along the bar and at the back a bigger room with a fire place and a lot of wooden chairs and table. It has all of those irish pictures and references to irish culture. They also have irish pub food like bangers and mash. Nothing different from an irish pub in Ireland I tell you.
Music, politics, history, roll on the pub quiz!
Now down to business. For those of you who don’t know what a pub quiz is, well it is a series of questions about general knowledge, politics, geography, history, movies and music…It is generally set in rounds that are marked. You come with your own group and you compete with other groups that probably know more things than you. They will end up winning the week-end trip in a 4-star hotel you want so much or in the case of Michael Collins the bottle of whisky they give to the best team. But, hey, that is life!
Pub quizes can wreck your head. Try to remember this band that were singing this so famous song about 500 miles that you have heard on and on again on the radio. Their name is on the tip of your tongue but you cannot damn remember it. Then there are the discussions about whether the third country crossed by the Equator is Venezuela or Colombia. You try to remember your world map, put forward your arguments in favour of “your country” and then the team votes on “the right answer”. It could be yours if you are loud and convincing enough. You need to be assertive in those moments. But it is always good fun especially when you can sing along that song from a 1982 band. And it is even more fun when you get your markings and you see 8 instead of the 5 points you thought you were going to get. And even more than even more fun (can it be possible?) when you are among the first 10 prize winners (even if you are joint 9th with some-other-group-with-a-funny-name) and you go home with a bottle of white wine.
I will come back…
In summary, it was the 6th time I went to Michael Collins on a tuesday night and I will go again and I will drag some more friends with me because I am eyeing that first place AND that bottle of whisky. And I will get there people, I will!
http://michaelcollinspubs.com/
MICHAEL COLLINS PUB
Plaça de la Sagrada Família, 4, 08013 Barcelona
Phone: 934 59 19 64