Experiencing St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin seemed to a group of us to be the only way to spend such a big holiday while in Ireland. Nowhere else in the world is there a bigger celebration for this Irish holiday than the capital of Ireland! Six of my friends and I packed overnight bags and headed to Dublin dressed in green. When we arrived to the city centre it was the calm before the storm. It was only around 10:30 and the parade did not start till 12. The Garda was in full force setting up for the event. The streets were blocked off and they were putting up metal gates that you would see for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, to hold back the huge crowd that would appear in just hours. Even though it was very early we knew it was St. Patrick’s Day, so our first goal was to get our first beer of the day and something to eat. We went to the most famous part of Dublin, Temple Bar, to look for a place to start. As we walked, the crowd around us started to multiply with every passing minute. After stopping at a few restaurants we found out quickly that until 12 nobody was allowed to serve alcohol, which changed our plan slightly. We found a place to eat and waited patiently with all the others dressed in green waiting for their first drink also. After eating it was a few minutes away from noon so we walked to the pub that we wanted to have our first drink at. Outside the bar were groups of people waiting just like us. It felt like New Years Eve in Time Square, everyone counting down until 12 so we could start to celebrate! Finally we were inside with our first pint on St. Patrick’s Day and we knew it was going to be a great day. Looking around the pub I realized I was in a sea of green; everyone was happy to be celebrating. We spent the rest of the day going from pub to pub and watching the parade. The whole city was in good spirits and it was sunny and warm making the day great. March 17, 2011 will definitely be the best St. Patrick’s Day I’ll ever celebrate!!
Lauren your blog is really great! This post really stood out to me because of the vast differences that I experienced in Copenhagen. St. Patrick's Day was not a big thing here so it was refreshing to hear about how the creators of the holiday celebrated it. Your descriptions painted a picture for me and helped the audience experience the day as well. I can imagine the sea of green and the amount of pints flowing. You can feel the energy and it makes me wish I had celebrated St. Patrick's Day there!
ReplyDeleteLauren it sounds like you had an amazing St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland! I am totally jealous, I wish I could have gone there for it, but I represented the Irish in Italy. When I asked for a green pint of beer in Italy, they looked at me like I was crazy. Your time in Dublin does sound very similar to New York New Year’s Eve, in which even if you get there early it is still a very hectic experience, although it is still a ton of fun. Were the people in Ireland all dressed up in four leaf clover gear, or “Kiss me I’m Irish” shirts? Or was it a more casual event in which people just drank and celebrated in the streets of Dublin?
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