St. Paddy's Day!

Last year as I tried to decide if I wanted to go to Ireland in the fall or spring semester one of my final reasons for choosing to study abroad in the spring was St. Patrick's Day. I was quite excited about the possibility of being in Ireland on March 17th to experience a true Irish St. Paddy's Day. In many ways the day was exactly what I had expected and in other ways the festivities took me a bit by surprise. I loved that St. Patrick's Day in Ireland is more of a weekend long event rather than just one day to drink and wear green like it would be in any other country. The Erasmus group and I spent much of our week, leading up to the big day, planning out the events we wanted to attend and purchasing outfits full of green and shamrocks. 

We all looked quite stylish Saturday morning!

Though I wondered if most Irish citizens bother with getting all dressed up as well or if it's just a bigger deal for kids and tourists... Either way we still seemed to blend in with the sea of green in the city.  

The city was packed with both tourists and locals but we were still able to find a good parade watching spot.

A few random tourist saw us all taking pictures and asked if they could join in. 

The parade was great but different from what I had expected. I had assumed that the parade was going to include many of the St. Patrick's Day stereotypes I'd grown up with such as leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold, step dancers, and traditional Irish music. Though is parade was nothing like that. It had a dream like theme with floats that looked like they came straight from a Tim Burton film.

Lukas (Austria) and Romain (Belgium) 

Paige (Colorado)

Manu and Kati (Austria)

After finishing up with the parade we migrated down to a pub for a pint and some lunch. I found it interesting that the American St. Patrick's Day tradition of dying beer green is not a tradition carried out in Ireland. But the again, who wants to go through the extra work just to have a gross looking drink?!

The American Girls! 

After getting lunch and walking through the Temple Bar area many of us decided to retreat back to Drumcondra, near the campus, in hopes that it might be a bit less swamped with people. Though despite the large flock of people flowing in the streets and trying to get places at a sloth-like pace there was no denying everyone's enthusiasm for the holiday. It was a blast to watch complete strangers laugh, sing, carry on, and take pictures with each other in the streets of Dublin. All in all, it was another day was full of fantastic craic!