St. Paddy's Day: Dublin Style

This was our first official St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, and we were really looking forward to seeing how the actual holiday is celebrated in the place of it's origin.  After all, St. Patrick was the one who evidently brought Christianity to Ireland so...let's celebrate!

In Dublin, there's a massive St. Paddy's Day parade through the center of town, which we'd heard mixed reviews about.  I've heard that it's a "total buzzkill and a letdown" and we heard that it was "absolutely insane, you HAVE to go!"  So...we decided to check it out.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning, got ready for the day in our green attire and silly St. Paddy's Day paraphernalia, and I ran across the street to my local shop for a couple of coffee cups with lids.  Why?  To put beer in, of course!  Drew had bought some Carlsbergs in a can the day before and we loaded up our backpack full of beer and headed into town.  It was cold and rainy (DUH) but that didn't get us down.  No siree.  Not on a day like today.

Just having a cup of coffee, watching the parade.
(JK!  It's not coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Decked out.

Crazies.

Hey look!  A dancing monkey float.

A strapping young Irishman.

We watched the parade (what we could see) for a little while, saw a few floats, saw 20+ high school bands from the States, met up with a few pals, got a delicious Lebanese lunch (the only place that wasn't crowded with ridiculous tourists - and we were NOT tourists, I'll have you know), and set up shop at O'Neill's with several of our friends for an afternoon of craziness and debauchery and fun.

A Lebanese beer - just what everyone drinks in Ireland on St. Paddy's Day.

Me and Tracy at O'Neill's.

Myself, Tracy, and Breanne with some kook who took a likin' to Tracy.

Just clownin'.

Drew and Lindsay (but we also just referred to her as "Weirdo" whenever she had that damn hood pulled up.)
Side note: Drew would tell the story of he and Lindsay dating in 8th grade and her infamous AOL Instant Messenger breakup throughout the day to anyone who would listen.  People ate that shit up.)

Everytime we'd say "Hey quick!  Let's get a picture of the 4 of us!" someone would jump in.  Ah well.  That's our friend Aaron making silly eyes at Lindsay.

A lot of the gals: Tracy, Kathleen, me, Breanne, and one of my besties here, Lauren.

More silliness.

Kim (Aaron's wife), their friend, Drew, Lauren.

I think I was trying to capture Drew and Kathleen having what looked like a deep conversation here, but I can't remember.

Drew and Lauren, who are best friends too.

Hook 'em!

Kathleen and Lauren bonding.

I met this guy and he went to Westpoint with Clay!  Who knew.  Small world.

Drew and his girls.

More b-fries.

Collage of craziness!

Kathleen wearing Drew as a backpack.

Instagram collages of the day.

My overall assessment of St. Paddy's Day in Dublin: really fun.  Really awesome.  Really silly.  Really crazy.  People here and abroad enjoy St. Paddy's Day because it's a fun loving day with no real agenda, except drinking!  Any city can do it, but it did feel a bit more "special" doing it up right in it's birthplace.  It may not have had the most elaborate parade and they may not dye the River Liffey green, but it's definitely the origin of the party.  And between the pubs, live music, and loads of people, it was definitely more authentic than any other city.  (Sorry Greenville.)  It's a great time to be in Dublin.  Like Munich has Oktoberfest (hopefully a future post on that one), Pamplona has the bulls, Sevilla has Feria...Ireland has St. Paddy's Day.  And it didn't disappoint.  It was a damn good time and I'm glad me and my boo got to experience it here with my best friends from home and abroad.