St. Patty's Day Adventures in Ireland 2012 Part 2

"St. Patrick is one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish." -Charles M. Madigan

Face paint and clothed in all green?

 Check!

Waking up at the crack of dawn to get ready and head to Dublin to see a parage?   Check!

Miraculously finding a spot where 2 short girls could actually see the parade?    Check!

One RIDICULOUSLY tall asian defying all stereotypes who stood up at the last second as the parade started?   Check :(

Our reactions?   

We got to see the tops of the floats... we later watched the mind blowingly creative parade highlights on tv at a local pub in Balbriggin.... better than nothing I guess!

We left the parade early and discovered that 11am is a good time to start drinking. We found a pub that was PACKED with nothing but German and French guys. Kelsey and I were approached by 2 of them and we started doing weird dances. I got picked up and flipped! It was sooooo much fun. Kelsey wasn't as lucky. He tried to do the same to her but ended up dropping her. It was absolutely priceless. The whole pub busted out laughing. These boys were also obsessed with our face paint since the Irish don't go all out like Americans do. They rubbed their faces on our cheeks to get paint on them. Such as weird experience.

That day we visited Dublin castle where I cut myself on the date and was entirely unimpressed with the interior which was almost all modern. No wonder it only cost 3 euros. Trinity college was much more impressive. The library would take your breath away! There were thousands of books that were hundreds of years old packed everywhere you looked. It was definitely worth a visit. I want a library like that! We spent the rest of the day and night celebrating in the Irish fashion... I'll let your imaginations take you where it will with that.

 Yes. That is a huge pint full of whiskey with a hint of coke. Great night :)

St Patty's Day Adventures in Ireland Day 1

"Take me drunk I'm home!"  This was plastered on the shirt of someone Kelsey (one of my best friends of 12 years) and I saw as we departed our plane from Leeds, England to Dublin Ireland. We decided to make the most of St. Patty's Day and venture out to Ireland to party with the best of the Irish. We arrived in Dublin airport by 730am after waking up at 4am. This was not a pretty site as I'm sure I looked like I was practicing for a zombie apocalypse movie.

Our plane ride was uneventful, however the man who shared my row was quite entertaining. He looked like the stereotypical gangster from old movies. He was short, stocky, had ridiculous gold bling on his fingers and tattoos all up and down his arms. I'm convinced he was a gangster. His stories about how he missed Ireland since he hasn't been able to get in the country for 40 years helped my thinking too. In typical Irish fashion he also told us we were going to fall in love with Ireland and that Guinness is better than anything else in the entire world.

By mere accident and a misleading website Kelsey and I ended up staying in a VERY small beach town called Balbriggin 30 minutes outside of Dublin city center. By small I mean the population was 300 at the very most.

As soon as we dropped off our stuff we made a beeline for Dublin. Taking Monsieur O' Gangsterhan's advice we decided the Guinness Storehouse would be the perfect place to visit first. Apparently that's what every other tourist wanted to do also. It was pretty impressive with 7 floors devoted to nothing, but processing beer. We even got a free pint and a half! When we first got there we saw photobooths and anyone who knows me will know that I never pass up a photo opportunity with friends. We learned that the Guinness Storehouse was trying to set a world record and make St. Patty's Day the happiest day of the year by taking pledges to be happy and do something nice on that day. Kelsey and I both signed up for this and got free pictures!

After that we ventured out and tried something new! We got a horse drawn carriage and we taken to Temple Bar where we had lunch. We toured the famous Grafton Street and took pictures in St. Stephen's Green. On our way from Stephen's Green we noticed a HUGE festival with Irish jigging going on. We immediately ran into the center and joined all the dancing for about 30 minutes. We probably looked spastic, but we had the time of our lives. We even got on local tv along with about 200 other people in the street. A professional photographer kept laughing at us and we got our own mini photoshoot. I can't wait to see those pictures. After that we went back to the hotel to relax and prepare for St. Patty's Day.

St. Patty's day toast:  "Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one!"