Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! There is officially nothing better than being in Dublin for St. Patty’s. It was a long day though, so here it goes...
Today started early with a bus tour into the center of Dublin with our EF tour guide David as well as a special tour guide for Dublin, Renee. On the way we were able to see everyone setting up for the parade. We first arrived at St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was absolutely beautiful. Being Catholic, Irish, and with Patrick as my confirmation name, made it such a wonderful experience to be in such a historic place. The cathedral was filled with statues, plaques, and all sorts of tributes to founders of Ireland and Catholicism. There was also a crew setting up for the live shooting of the service and the choir was warming up while we were there too. It was surely an unbelievable experience. I took plenty of pictures, so I will post them soon so you can all see a bit of it for yourselves.
After the cathedral, we all piled back into the bus and we started off through Dublin again to a park area where we were able to step outside and stretch our legs out. At the park, there was a giant cross there where David told us that the Pope gave a service a few years ago. I’ll get back to you with more information about that.
After taking pictures of the cross and getting back into the bus, we ended up at Trinity College where we were visiting the Book of Kells exhibit. The Book of Kells was beautiful as well. The exhibit was composed of illuminated and enlarged parts from the Gospels of Luke, John, Matthew, and Mark. They had some relics from the original pieces of scripture as well. It was fascinating. The neatness and symmetry used in the written Gospels was almost impossible to fathom a person being capable of that. There was no photography allowed, so it you want to look up the Book of Kells on Google, I would recommend it. If I find some decent links I’ll post them up.
After the Book of Kells exhibit we pretty much had a free day to go enjoy the St. Patty’s day festivities. The streets were filled with people all looking to celebrate the holiday. We lost a few of the people we were with, so my girlfriend and I went out to grab some lunch and then walked around visiting shops and exploring Dublin. The weather was pretty good for most of the day so it was nice to be outside experiencing St. Patty’s Day.
Later we all met up for dinner again. Shortly after we made a stop back at the hotel before heading back out to celebrate. We hit the “Temple Bar” area and visited a couple pubs. The atmosphere was great. I loved being able to be part of such a huge event and to see everyone out that night having a great time no matter where you were from. The one pub we were in they had a few Irish musicians playing folk and drinking songs. They also dedicated a few to some of the visiting peoples in Dublin, the American’s got booed though. I found it to be hysterical. There was actually a fair amount of Americans there, so when one musician asked if anyone in the pub was American there was some cheers from one side of the pub then an overpowering “BOOOO” from the other. The timing was priceless.
But, as for the rest of the night, we hopped from pub to pub joining in on some singing and some drinking and the festivities. People were out until the wee hours of the morning, but most of us called it around 1:30/2am. When we left “Temple Bar” we ran into a couple of Frenchmen that kept us entertained for some time. My girlfriend, Cait, can speak and understand French pretty well so she was able to have somewhat of a conversation with them. But, according to her they were pretty well gone and weren’t making much sense. I’m not totally naive, but I didn’t even realized what they were until a few minutes into conversation with them because they were so drunk.
After a long wait for a taxi, we finally made it back to the hotel and got some rest. Tomorrow we had a free day, so sleeping in a little was a good idea.
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