March 16, 2018 – March 17, 2018

Warning: this post pretty much just talks about how drunk I got on St. Patrick’s Day. 

Although we had already embarked on one weekend getaway to Dublin, when our friends said they were going for St. Patrick’s Day, we knew we had to join them on this bucket list adventure. Because accommodations were so ridiculously overpriced for the occasion, we chose to stay in a private room of a pretty shitty hostel, but figured we wouldn’t be in our room very much. We arrived to our hostel pretty late on Friday night only to learn that we actually didn’t have a room booked due to a miscommunication with our friends. Luckily, the hostel had one room available (and I mean really luckily because the hostel worker guy even said so himself that he had no clue how there was a room available)! And even more luckily, we were able to book the same room we originally had for EUR 200 less than what we were supposed to pay. Thanks St. Patrick for your luck!

In an effort to not exhaust ourselves on the first night, Tyler and I decided to have just one pint of Guinness at a bar in the Temple Bar district, it was named The Quays Bar. I’d have to say we were probably two of the least rowdy people at the bar, and on the street, and at the other bars nearby. It was crazy how crazy everyone was already getting. But I guess it is one of the biggest party days of the year.

We kicked off Saturday by having brunch and being told that alcohol could not be sold or purchased anywhere until after noon. Probably for the best. So before the parade started, we dipped into a Carroll’s souvenir store to add some flair to our green ensembles. I picked a green Ireland hat and Tyler picked a green Ireland scarf. Did I mention that it was about 30 F as a high for the day? When will spring come!

We staked out a spot on the curb for the parade that ended up being pretty clutch. It was right in front of a bar so we could go in to use the toilet or get to-go beers. The beer drinking was necessary to warm our bones while we waited for the parade to get to our spot, which took like 45 minutes. The people watching of parade viewers might have been more fun than actually viewing the parade.

That’s to say that the parade itself was pretty underwhelming. I had pictured tons of little leprechauns throwing chocolate gold coins and green confetti into the crowd. However, most of the floats didn’t even have green! Like this one…

They were also all pretty small. This group of French guys had the right idea and brought a ladder so they could see over everyone

There were also several marching bands in the parade from colleges in the US, like Purdue, some Texas school and some Florida school. I didn’t really get why they were here, but how awesome would it be to be in a school band and travel to Dublin for the St. Patrick’s parade??

Once the parade was finished we met up with our friends and braved the crowds to head to the Temple Bar area. Everyone was so jolly and dressed in the craziest green outfits, it was a sight to see.

The rest of the day pretty much consisted of bar hopping and lots of Guinness. We also watched the Ireland vs England rugby match that Ireland won! So of course everyone went totally nuts at the bar we were at.

Another cool thing about all the bars is that there was live music pretty much everywhere. The bands alternated between Irish drinking songs that really got the crowd going and some more mainstream stuff.

I think we sat in this one bar for a few hours just listening to music and drinking our Guinness. I even joined a conga line through the dance floor! The other thing that really sticks out to me about the day is how many people I saw vomit in the street. Luckily no one from our crew was in that bad of shape, but I would hate to be the street cleaner on the day after St. Party’s Day, there’s no telling what you might see!

After a long day of Guinness, we reserved Sunday for waking up and making it to the airport for our flight. We woke up to a blizzard and I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it out of Dublin at all! We headed to the airport anyways to see what the deal was and were stranded with hundreds of hungover foreigners. Some flights were cancelled, but we were fortunate enough to only be delayed for 3 hours.

Although it was a quick trip, I sincerely recommend going to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day if you are ever in the area and don’t mind paying a ridiculous amount of money to stay in a substandard accommodation.

Maybe we will even go next year.