St Patick's Festival!

I am typing this as catherine and chelsea have peaced out from my flat, bags in hand, into the chill. I’m staying awake in case they have any troubles and have to run back, but I’m sure they’ll be ok. it has been an outrageous weekend! it’s time for the St Patrick’s Festival recap!

It all began thursday when, after much discombobulation, ana and I found each other at the spire in dublin’s city centre. The two of us waited for catherine and chelsea to arrive from edinburgh in the supercold, eventually making our way into ned kelly’s to wait as the plane had been delayed. then the four of us bundled our way back to my tiny flat to prepare for the St Patrick’s Festival festivities!

day one: ana headed for galway. I headed to class, and after, catherine, chelsea and I headed for my neighbourhood pub for hot sandwiches and Guinness for the first-timers. after lunch we hit the city centre for exploration and shopping (yay penneys!) for dinner we had chow mein and crispy chicken at charlie’s four. following dinner we went to the oliver st john gogarty’s in hopes of some good trad music but found only bachelor parties, so wandered to doyle’s for dancin and such. We met up with ana again and left for home.

day two: DENNY TREASURE HUNT YEAHHH! the local radio station organized a city-wide treasure hunt complete with clues, a map, and free admission to various cultural sites. we registered under the moniker team awesome (of course) and started on our trek with stomachs full of free sausage baguettes and ice cream yesss. we made it to Christ Church crypts, mediaeval Dvlinia, temple bar’s gallery of photography, and the modern art gallery before the pouring rain had us chilled to the bone. we forewent our quest for the toasty interior of the living room, a polish pub at parnell square. we fully intended on finding the clue at parnell as well, but got much too comfortable on the couches at the pub. we were also starving by this point so we went to mcdonald’s for a feast of twisty fries and eurosaver burgers. stuffed and happy, we wobbled down to the porterhouse to meet my australian mates heather and rachael. there we heard live irish music, met up with a couple of other girls from edinburgh (maddy and sarah), and ran into some more folks that I knew (chantal, catherine, sara, ricky, and sam). we finally wound down after the bands had finished, still pretty wet and cold from the day of rain, and rode home to our cozy beds.

day three: this was the day we decided to sleep in. ana had to catch a plane back to edinburgh in the afternoon and there was nothing exciting scheduled for the morning so we took advantage of the extra hours. we woke up late and made a breakfast of peanut butter sandwiches and shamrock-shaped eggs care of the novelty pan I bought at the 2euro store. we arrived at the city centre a little after noon and ana caught the bus to the airport. then chelsea, catherine and I made our way down grafton street and through st stephen’s green to the merrion square funfair! we had won free tickets for a ride at the treasure hunt so attendance was a must. we ate a lunch of ballpark franks, cotton candy, ice cream and popcorn. also catherine snagged a free balloon! we saw marching bands practising for the parade, little kids getting their faces painted, terrifying costumed mascots, and a myriad of other fair sights. we did a ride audit of the available options for using our ticket, and decided that the extreme ride was the one for us! it’s a sort of juiced-up scrambler. you sit in a little chair with your legs dangling, connected to three other sets of chairs that all spin, which are attached to a big arm and eight other arms with similar setups, and those also spin, and then you get flipped up in the air whilst spinning in every possible way at breakneck speeds. I think we made the right choice! after this we all decided that a sit-down was a must, so we relaxed for a while and then checked out the merrion square park. after the park we were all getting a bit tired and cold, so we went to bewley’s on grafton street for coffees and hot chocolate. this is the same café that james joyce wrote about, as did a bunch of other irish authors. it’s been around since the early 1900s and is a great place for a rest and rejuvenate. the girls wanted to try some traditional irish food so I took them to the porterhouse for beef and stout stew (which is phenomenal) and we were served by a guy from new mexico with 40s zoot-suit hair haha. after the meal we weren’t sure what to do, as we were all tuckered out from the fair and walking so much, so we decided to see Horton Hears a Who at the cinema on parnell. it was great! after this we went to the wool shed next to the theatre, which is an australian pub. then we came home and slept like babies haha.

day four: parade day!!! we arrived at the city centre an hour and a half before parade time so we could grab a butler’s chocolate café hocho to enjoy during the parade. we got a pretty good spot on o’connell street but the masses of people were incredible! the parade was interesting but had very little to do with St Patrick or snakes or the irish or anything really. it seemed to me that the crowds were entirely tourists and the citizens of dublin were hiding out somewhere in the city, away from the crazyness. the parade was two and a half hours long, so by the end of it we were starved. we walked for a while before we found a burger king that wasn’t entirely packed with parade-crowd and ate burgers before heading to the wool shed to enjoy the live music and cheap pitchers with maddy and sarah. catherine, chelsea and I were getting a bit tired though, so we walked down to bewley’s again for a coffee. then we went again to doyle’s where we found a nook with couches to talk and enjoy the last little bit of their visit. we came home around midnight to make soup and the girls packed their bags. we napped for a bit and then at 3am they left for the airport to catch their plane for 6.

all in all it was an excellent weekend! there was so much to do, and dublin put on a great festival. I was glad that it only rained the first day, the parade day was bright and sunny and actually sort of warm. we weren’t able to make it to the national museum or dublin castle but that will have to be for next time.