Celebrating St. Paddy's Day like a TRUE Irishmen!

One of my favorite holidays, Saint Patrick's Day, finally came around about a week ago. My roommate and I decided, prior to leaving for France, that it was of extreme importance that we celebrate the Irish holiday in the only country that it was created... IRELAND! On February 23rd, we booked our roundtrip tickets from Nice to Dublin for six FULL days in the land of the Irish. Once the tickets were finalized the countdown began. The two of us were so excited! It was a few days later when we learned that our friend Nicole would be joining us in Ireland the following day. Sadly, she had a midterm on St. Paddy's Day that she could not miss.

Nonetheless, the day arrived, Brittany and I were extremely excited! Brittany and I began the morning with a drink and then we headed to the airport. Our first flight to Zurich was a bit depressing, as we looked around the plane there wasn't a single person dressed in anything green. We began to think we made the wrong decision. Once we landed in Zurich we had just enough time to get to our gate in time for boarding to begin. This is when it hit - We were flying to Dublin to celebrate the Irish holiday in TRUE Irish fashion! As soon as we arrived at our gate we saw the mass amount of people who were dressed, head-to-toe, in green! It was insane! There was one guy that had spray painted his buzzed cut hair green. I now wish I had taken a picture of him.

Once we FINALLY landed in Dublin, we got off the plane and headed to passport check and customs. Brittany and I were on a mission. The game plan was as followed:

Get to the hotel, check in if possible, otherwise leave luggage
Take some form of transportation to City Centre for parade
Have lunch
Begin Pub Crawl

Surprisingly, we were able to check into our hotel as soon as we arrived. Must have been the luck of the Irish. :) Once we did that we jumped in a taxi and headed into town. We arrived at O'Connell Street, where the parade was already in action, and attempted to see the parade. However, it was half past twelve when we got into town, and the parade began at noon. Meaning the crowd of people were blocking our view of the parade. So we decided to just head to a pub, grab a bit and a pint then continue celebrating the day.

Brittany got a text from her Mom later that day explaining that there had been 50,000 people who flew into Dublin just for St. Paddy's Day, and Brittany and I were 2 of that 50,000. I also found out that on the day there were over half a million people just in Dublin alone. This included tourists, internationals and other Irish people from other counties. Overall, the day was insane!

Brittany and I finally concluded our evening, and made our way back to the hotel. The next morning was terrible! For me at least. I didn't remember what a day of drinking would do to you until I woke up. Lucky for me, right? We laid around most of the morning until Nicole finally arrived. By that time, it was time to get back into the regular world - the regular world of Dublin City Centre. We stopped in to Cassidy's, a great little pub that has great food. The girls ordered a pint and I drank as much water as physically possible. I kept kidding around with the girls saying, 'this is what happens when you get old.' Hahaha. Even though I am only about 7+ months older than Nicole. Once lunch was concluded, we walked up and down both sides of the Liffey River. It was a fantastically beautiful day outside, the sun was shining and it was barely chilly. It was perfect!

By Saturday, we met up with Michaila for lunch and settled in at Messr McGuire's pub to enjoy the final 6 Nations Rugby match - Ireland v. Scotland! Rugby is by far my new favorite sport! Solely because of the gorgeous rugby players. ;) If you get a chance Google both Rob Kearney and Paul O'Connell. Talk about AMAZING! (They, along with the rest of the team, are part of the reason I feel in love with Ireland in the first place.) Nicole and Brittany dipped out to grab some food, and Michaila and I grabbed another pint then headed for food ourselves. I ended up crashing at Michaila's place, and the girls didn't head back to the hotel until 11:30-ish, when the last bus came.

Come Sunday, Michaila and I didn't get up until about 10 or 11am. We finally got a hold of Brittany and Nicole and decided to meet in City Centre at the train station. It was time to see a castle in Ireland. We bought our return train tickets to Malahide for the day.

We arrived in Malahide after a 20-30 minute train ride. It was a cute little town. Funny thing about it was the houses. Two years ago, when Michaila and I lived together in our house off campus, she had bought this poster with colorful houses in Ireland on it. To our surprise, that picture was taken right there in Malahide!

We found the castle, after following a bunch of tourists. It was a bit disappointing because there was work being down on the outside which blocked decent views of the castle for pictures. Nevertheless, Brittany set up her state of the art camera and we took none other than jumping pictures. Every kind of jumping pic from attempted cheerleading jumps to the Kill Bill action jump. It was a great way to start the castle tour. Once inside, we paid for the tour, which later we found out was automated through a speaker system. The castle belonged to the Talbot family for hundreds of years until the last daughter sold it to the state of Ireland in 1975.

Once we wrapped the castle up, we headed into town for lunch/dinner at the Greedy Goose cafe. It was a bit pricey, but definitely well worth it. Brittany claimed to have eaten the BEST steak she had ever had there. And I had an AMAZING whipped goat cheese with crusty bread crackers there. Yum! After food we headed back home. Said our final goodbyes to Michaila and then headed back to the hotel to pack for our flight home the following morning.

Nicole, Brittany and I decided to get up early, jump on the 6:15am bus to City Centre and finish up any last minute shopping or picture taking we wanted before jumping on the next bus to the airport. Wrong! We woke up to a monsoon outside (first bit of bad weather we had had all week). So we packed up and headed to the bus stop... 40 MINUTES later, the bus showed up... LATE! We were drenched and cold! Go figure. And of course, once we got to City Centre, the rain had stopped and it was beginning to warm up. So we stopped at the post office to mail off our postcards, and then we decided to just head to the airport early. Once we got to the airport, the sun was shining! We were so upset. Instead of being normal and waking up a bit later, we would have completely avoided being wet and cold. Story of our lives.

Our first flight wasn't too bad. Nicole was in the back of the plane, and Brittany and I were in the same row, at each of the windows. Of course, Brittany's luck changed when she got a very studly Swedish guy sitting next to her. Nicole said there was a child next to her, and I lucked out with a spastic guy next to me, and two small children in front and behind me. Oye! Our second flight from Zurich to Nice was much better. We got to get our seats changed so we could be next to each other. This flight was awesome because the video monitors came down and displayed a camera view from the front of the plane. So we actually saw what the pilots saw as we took off. It was awesome!

We are finally back home in Antibes, and have been back to class for most of the week. For me, it sucks to be back. I miss my best friend, and I miss being able to understand the people around me. I miss the English speakers. But I know I will be back to Ireland again some day. There is no doubt about that. Until then, I am here for over a month. Come April 1st I will only have a month and 12 days left. Time is beginning to fly by!

Next trip is in 19 days. Nicole, Brittany, Abby and I are heading to Rome, Italy for 5 days! I am actually going to Rome, the number one place I have always wanted to see. I am so EXCITED!