So, I found out on St. Patty’s Day last year that I got accepted into the Milan study abroad program, and immediately started planning to spend the next St. Patty’s Day in Dublin-and I did just that! The celebration was on Monday, so Jess and I decided to spend Sunday through Tuesday in Ireland. Unfortunately, we made the incredibly stupid decision to go out on Saturday night, come home at 5:30 am, and leave for the airport at 7 am….no sleep before our trip! We were exhausted when we finally got to Dublin, but found a pub for lunch (huge lunch! Roast beef, mashed potatoes, etc-delicious!) where we were joined by an old Irish lady who had lived in Dublin her entire life, and told us where to go and what to see. We then ventured over to our “hotel” (it was a room in a guesthouse above a pub-we actually had to go into a crowded bar to check in!) and took a nap. We got up, wandered down to the Temple Bar area, which was crawling with tourists, got a shamrock shake at McDonald’s and headed back to the hotel to sleep and rest up for St. Patty’s Day.
We got up early on Monday and walked down to O’Connell St. to get a good place for the parade. After about 5 minutes of walking, we decided that we were not dressed obnoxiously enough, so we stopped to get some headbands (leprechaun hats and shamrocks) as well as feather boas, and then found a place right in front to watch the parade…2 hours early! It was freezing, but the parade was well worth the wait, and people watching in the huge crowd helped the time go by quickly. The parade was long- lots of marching bands!- but entertaining. There were groups from all over the country dressed up in crazy outfits doing crazy dances. After the parade, we found a little pub for lunch. I had a huge juicy burger, which was fabulous-they don’t have burgers in Italy! Jess and I each had a pint of Smithwick’s with lunch (yum!) intending that to be our only beer at this pub-we wanted to try some other pubs. However, we met some guys from New Zealand who bought us a round-which turned into 6 or 7 more!- so we ended up not leaving the pub until midnight. We had a great time though- the guys were hilarious, we had some good beer, listened to some good music- all around it was a good day!
Sunday we explored St. Stephen’s Green for awhile- it was beautiful! We stopped by Trinity College and Christ Church Cathedral on the way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse was amazing- we saw Guinness’s lease of the brewery (for 9000 years!) and then walked through an exhibit describing how Guinness is made, and another exhibit with all of the marketing that Guinness has done ( I was in heaven! Beer AND marketing!) The best part of the tour was in the Gravity bar on the 7th floor of the storehouse- there was a 360 degree view of Dublin accompanied by a free pint of fresh Guinness that ended up being quite a delicious breakfast/lunch, and the perfect way to end St. Patty’s Day in Ireland!
