An Irish St. Patrick's Day

Monday, 3.17.2014:

Woooo hoooo St Patrick's Day in Dublin! Did I start off my day drinking like all the other Americans in the entire city? Nope, I wrote emails and started my online project - my Irish ancestors would be shaking their heads if the knew. Eventually I got read,y and Becca, Catie and I walked over to Fortesque to meet up with everyone in order to walk over to the parade together. Since we ended up taking a while to get ready we missed everyone. We talked with all the Wisconsin kids that were visiting Dublin for a bit and sipped at our beers before deciding to head over to the parade. I don't think I can put the parade into words. It was easily one of the weirdest specticals I have ever seen. It was a parade of all types of oddities. Here are some pictures. If you are confused while looking through them then you'll understand how felt when I was watching it firsthand.

The best part of the parade was seeing the U of I marching band! They were awesome, and even though I am biased I would say they were the best part of the parade. Take a gander:

After the parade Becca, Catie and I strolled over to the Ginger Man, a local pub, to get some food and a pint. The food was delicious and the atmosphere wasn't crazy loud with tourists which the three of us were grateful for. Once every drop of our pints was finished we walked back home to drop off our leftovers and put on some temporary shamrock tattoos before heading over to the boys place. We matched any other tourist in the entire city. This is a feeling I'm not to fond of in my own city. At Fortesque, we all played a game were the "DJ" would play a song and everyone would try and guess it within the first couple of seconds. I surprisingly did very well at this game. For anyone that really knows me, I am horrible with naming song titles, bands, and albums so this was quite an accomplishment for me. After playing countless rounds of this, a bunch of us went to get some Chinese food. The food was okay, it didn't really compare to the Chinese tradition my dad and I hold back in St. Louis. (By the way Dad, we have to go to the buffet when I get back!) Once everyone was  finished with their food we checked out both Whelans and Flannerys. You would think these popular pubs would be bumping and packed on St Patrick's Day, right? You would be wrong. Maybe it was because it was kinda early in the night or maybe it's because the locals don't really celebrate it like we think they do, but regardless it was a little bit of a let down. After both pubs, I decided to call it a night. I walked all the way home and crawled into my warm bed.

Cheers,
Jenny