Saint Patrick’s Day in
Dublin:
My
friend and I were told that Dublin is the
place to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and I’m pretty sure that that’s
true. Head back to the train/bus Station in Galway and make sure you arrive
early enough in the day (basically, don’t arrive in the afternoon and miss the
parade). And yes, wear something green, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day. The parade is
really interesting to watch, there are local schools participating and
different sections of the military are in it as well. Oh, and you get to see a
dude dressed as a drunken Pope running around and leading the parade (not sure
if this is an annual thing though…).
So, here are some snapshots from the parade... There were so many participants that it was impossible to take pictures of all of them!
Some of the "vehicles" the particpants rode in...
Once the parade is over, head to the pubs or walk around, Dublin is absolutely ideal for sightseeing. There’s a river crossing through the city and bridges connecting one side to the other – no fees. There are various musical festivals taking place all throughout the city during Saint Patrick’s Day, but if you have a certain artist in mind that you know is performing that day and you’re dying to see, ask for someone helping out at the Saint Patrick’s Day festival to tell you where exactly he’ll be performing. Some of the people I saw that day were performing in the most bizarre little streets and I would’ve passed by them without even knowing.
If you’re interested in attending one of the big music concerts, you will get to hear a mixture of modern Irish folk, rock or even traditional Irish music, all of which are amazing! I even got to participate in a contest that was meant to be put in the Guinness Book of Records: at a given time we were all asked to repeat a phrase in Irish Gaelic, in the hopes of becoming the largest amount of people to be speaking Gaelic at the same time.
Now, my knowledge of Irish
Gaelic is next to nothing so I’m not sure if we were wishing for world peace or
calling someone’s mother a fat cow, but it was really fun! I didn’t get to see
many tourist places in Dublin since most of the day I was taking pictures in
the parade and conversing with the locals and visitors from all over the world
but I’m sure that if you get a tourist guide, you can go wherever you want;
it’s an easy city to navigate through.
Once the parade is over, head to the pubs or walk around, Dublin is absolutely ideal for sightseeing. There’s a river crossing through the city and bridges connecting one side to the other – no fees. There are various musical festivals taking place all throughout the city during Saint Patrick’s Day, but if you have a certain artist in mind that you know is performing that day and you’re dying to see, ask for someone helping out at the Saint Patrick’s Day festival to tell you where exactly he’ll be performing. Some of the people I saw that day were performing in the most bizarre little streets and I would’ve passed by them without even knowing.
If you’re interested in attending one of the big music concerts, you will get to hear a mixture of modern Irish folk, rock or even traditional Irish music, all of which are amazing! I even got to participate in a contest that was meant to be put in the Guinness Book of Records: at a given time we were all asked to repeat a phrase in Irish Gaelic, in the hopes of becoming the largest amount of people to be speaking Gaelic at the same time.
Now, my knowledge of Irish
Gaelic is next to nothing so I’m not sure if we were wishing for world peace or
calling someone’s mother a fat cow, but it was really fun! I didn’t get to see
many tourist places in Dublin since most of the day I was taking pictures in
the parade and conversing with the locals and visitors from all over the world
but I’m sure that if you get a tourist guide, you can go wherever you want;
it’s an easy city to navigate through.If you’re planning on spending the night in Dublin (or anywhere on Saint Patrick’s Day) make sure that you book your hostel in time! Hostels are a great way to save money in Ireland: they’re cheap, they’re clean and it feels like you live in a nice little community for as long as you’re there, but that’s ONLY if you book them in time!!! Even though we took a late night bus back to Belfast to stay there instead, everything was booked days in advance. We ended up spending the night with three other guys we didn’t know in a tiny room where one bed was stuck next to the other, the bathroom was down the hall but the sink was in the room next to the last bed, the heat went on and off and the door didn’t lock. To top it all off, we didn’t get to see our “roommates” at all; my friend and I went to bed as soon as we got into the room and we heard them stumbling in, completely wasted at around 4am. We woke up a couple of hours later to find them sleeping in various places of the room – thankfully nowhere near our beds. Lesson learned…
The
next day I hopped on the bus to the airport and headed back to New York to
finish my final semester as an undergraduate. The tunes of the Irish songs I
knew and had the chance to finally hear live for the first time in their country of birth accompanied
me to the airport and on the journey back. I’m all for trips that “feed your
soul” and Ireland definitely did that for me. So, I highly recommend a visit
there and…
May the road rise up to meet
you.
May the wind always be at
your back.
May the sun shine warm upon
your face,
and rains fall soft upon your
fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm
of His hand
(An old Irish blessing)
*S
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