Land of the Leprechauns

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day and a huge party in Dublin. We woke up pretty early and set out into the heart of the city.

The first thing I saw was the giant St. Patrick's Day parade that was taking place on O'Connell street in the center of town. The streets were so crowded and I could barley see anything. There were people everywhere decked out head to toe in green.

The parade was really interesting once I could actually see what was going on. There were circus performers and musicians as well as giant floats and creepy skeletons and dog puppets.

After we got bored with the parade we went into a pub along the parade route to start celebrating St. Patty's Day the Dublin way. The pub we went into was really crowded with all kinds of people including parents and there really young children.

We met up with Sami Lee, my sorority sister at the pub and then went to our next destination. We went to an old church that is now a bar. It was my favorite place that we went to that day. The bar was really nice and had traditional Irish dancing and music playing. There was also fresh food and potatoes that Rebecca and I split...very tasty...and we ended up getting it for free, which was an added bonus.

After we were done eating, we walked to the other side of town and explored the Temple Bar area. This area was full of younger people who were celebrating all day and night in the streets as well as the bars and pubs.

One of the bars we went into was not very nice but we just wanted to use their restroom. While we were waiting for everyone I ran into Natalie Nassau, who I have known since the first grade, it was so crazy running into her in Dublin at a small, not very crowded place.

Next we went to the actual Temple Bar, which was really cool and fun. It had an outside area that had lights everywhere. Not too soon after we went to this pub did we start to head back to our hotel. We were out all day so we went back to our hotel and watched a lot of TV before falling asleep.

On Friday we woke up and went out to lunch at a really cool place that looked like an underground cellar. After that we went shopping and got a couple of souvenirs to bring back with us. We also toured Trinity College and sat in the sun for a little while.

Our flight was later that night and I was really excited to be going back to London and sleeping in my own bed! Dublin was really fun and I am really happy that I got to experience it especially during all the St. Patrick's Day festivities.

St. Patty's Day,
Johnni Z