I headed up to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in
Dublin. I decided to go with a tour group so I could meet some new people and
not worry about organizing anything! The tour met at 5.30am Wednesday morning
to get started on the 9 hour bus and ferry journey to Ireland. The night before
a group of people on the tour had met for drinks, and we could tell it was
going to be an interesting four days as there were still some people who were
rather happy from the night before! After a couple of head counts we were on
the road to the emerald isle.
An hour or so into the journey we discovered that we had a
stowaway on the bus… some of the boys had met a young lady out the night before
and managed to smuggle her onto the coach for the trip to Ireland! She managed
to get to Holyhead (the ferry) before she was kindly asked to leave the bus.
This was really just the start of the shenanigans that were St. Paddy’s day!
The drinking started on the ferry, the bar staff weren’t quite sure what to do
with the bus loads of people that converged on the bar… The short bus ride
through Dublin was much more lively than it was at 5.30am that morning! Once we
arrived at the hostel (after fighting peak hour traffic) we quickly made
ourselves presentable before heading to the pub next door for a BBQ and our
first Guinness in Ireland. There was an Irish band playing at the pub and we
danced our way into the night, pulling out some old irish jigs and steps from
years gone by! It’s amazing how your feet just want to move when you hear a
lively hornpipe being played… especially after a couple of pints of Guinness. I
did however discover that it is rather difficult to multitask dancing and
drinking at the same time! After a great night of drinking and dancing we
eventually headed back and fell into bed, grabbing a couple of well earned
hours of sleep before the big event – St. Patrick’s Day.
The day started with the sun shining and the feel of
anticipation on the streets… today was St. Patrick’s Day, the day everyone is
Irish! We all donned our various costumes and a sea of green converged on the
main street of Dublin. We were very lucky in that our hostel was right on the
main street, we could have watched the parade from our dorm window! The streets
quickly packed full of people, and just after lunch time the parade passed us
by. It was themed around an Irish short story called ‘Brilliant’, which was
about finding the black dog of oppression that had come down over Dublin, and
getting rid of him. The costumes and colours were amazing, although a lot of my
photos are slightly out of focus as my camera was playing up! (perfect timing,
ofcourse). I was slightly disappointed not to see any irish dancers in the
parade, but I guess it didn’t fit with the theme. After the parade the population
of Dublin, along with the influx of tourists converged on the many pubs in the
city, and partied well and truly into the night! The atmosphere was amazing,
everyone was happy to be there and up for a great night of partying. We pulled
out the irish steps again, and the dance floor was full of people getting their
“Michael Flatly” on! After a long day of excitement we gradually fell into our
respective beds for some more sleep, in various states of soberness!
The next morning I headed to a local café with some friends
for something a bit more filling than the hostel toast and watery tea. French
toast has never tasted soooo good! After breakfast we had a bit of a wander
around Dublin, to Christchurch Cathedral, through Temple Bar and to some
souvenir shops. After lunch we all went on a walking tour arranged by the tour
company, and heard about the history of Dublin and the various buildings about
the city. We passed over one of the many bridges over the River Liffey that has
a plaque commemorating when a priest apparently died by plunging off the bridge
into the water… this is one of the most famous prank jokes in Ireland, as it
was put there as a joke by some college students one night. Three years later a
council worker noticed it and looked into it, and it managed to make national
headlines! Ofcourse they decided to leave it there for others to be amused by.
Following the walking tour we headed to the Guinness storehouse where we learnt
about the delicious black stuff and even had a go at pouring our own ‘perfect
pint’! We headed up to the top of the storehouse to the bar and enjoyed what is
proclaimed to be one of the best views of Dublin. It really just looks like any
other European city really, lots of roof tops and factories! After enjoying a
couple of pints we headed back into the main part of the city to find ourselves
some dinner. By this point I didn’t have much voice left, all that was left was
a very high pitch that sounded a tad irish when I talked! I think it was all
the Guinness bringing out my heritage… I sounded a bit like a squeaky squirrel and
the guy who served us at the noodle place we went to for dinner had a great
time making fun of me, along with the group of friends I was with! Not very
nice at all L After
dinner we went back to the pub (ofcourse) for our last pints of Guinness before
we had to head home. Tonight was karaoke night, and we sang along with the best
of them! I was reduced to miming, but it was a great fun night filled with more
dancing, Guinness and singing.
The next morning we had another early start, and were on the
bus ready to go at 6.30am. We were all much quieter this morning as we enjoyed
the sunrising over the city as we headed towards the port for the ferry. Once
on board we all collapsed onto the couches and enjoyed some more sleep before
we had to pile back onto the coach. We watched some dvds and slept for the long
drive back into London. I certainly didn’t envy our bus driver having to stay
alert and awake for the drive back, I was fast asleep for the majority of the
day! At least there were no accidents on the way home, we had sat in traffic
for close to an hour on the way to Ireland. We all exchanged various contact
details, and vowed to stay in touch, especially those of us who live in London
or its surrounds.
It was an amazing four days that were full of
excitement, a lot of Guinness, even more dancing and trying to understand drunk
Irishmen! As the Irish would say, it was grand, it was brilliant, it was
fan-fecking-tastic! :)