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Daily Archives: March 17, 2017
St. Patty’s Day in Dublin was definitely an eye opener for me. Completely different from what I’ve experienced here in the States. St. Patrick’s Day is kind of like the Thanksgiving Day of Ireland. Very family oriented, not the binge drinking holiday us Americans know it to be.
St. Pat’s is a day the Irish celebrate the patron Saint Patrick. Families get together over fancy feasts and get ready to settle in to their chosen spots along the parade route. The parade itself was MAGICAL! It’s like Carnival in the streets of Dublin! It was absolutely amazing! Masts of creative, colorful floats gliding down O’ Connell Street. It was an experience I recommend you do at least once in a lifetime.
The people there (in Ireland) made the trip 10 times better! Everyone was always so nice and helpful. Nothing like New Yorkers. Not to discredit us New Yorkers, but we tend to keep to ourselves mostly. The Irish were so friendly, even though I must admit it was very difficult for me to understand them half the time. My friend, Lisa, had to translate for me, practically, the whole time. She’s a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn just like me but, for some odd reason, she had a magic ear for understanding them.
Anyways, we started our day on a drive to a nearby fishing village that a cab driver suggested we check out. By this time, we had rented a car, which that in itself is a hilarious story I’d have to tell you another time. Howth was the name of the village just about 45 minutes from Dublin. It was cute, quaint, with an amazing view of the Irish Sea.
We had breakfast at a local coffee shop then headed back in time for the parade. Once there, the city came to life! Music, laughter, ooh’s & ahh’s from all the parade viewers creating a harmony of sounds; the soundtrack of this unforgettable day! We decided to walk down with the parade stopping along the way to have a pint or to make new friends. We initiated a pub crawl to the Guinness Storehouse and as we reached Temple Bar we realized we were never going to make it there. There was too much fun happening along the way that could just NOT be missed!
Temple Bar is a long winding strip of bars and pubs. I have never seen that many people in one street in my life. We were bobbing and weaving through the crowd, popping in and out of just a few of the numerous establishments those cobble stoned streets had to offer. And when we weren’t in a pub dancing to some of Ireland’s finest musicians and trying to decide which was our favorite beer (Galway Hooker it turned out to be), we were outside taking photos with random people or listening to the sounds of capoeira played by the Brazilian band in the middle of one of the small squares of The Strip.
