When I first got accepted to study abroad in Ireland and told my Grandma, she said all excitedly: "You can drink beer!" which was pretty funny since dying beer green in America is a pretty common occurrence. However, I was really in the St. Patrick's day spirit and decided to go to the store and I got some green food coloring. I for some reason got 2 little mini bottles...which was way more than I needed, but I guess I can use it next year!
Wednesday we didn't have school since it's obviously a very important holiday in Ireland. A lot of international students went to Dublin, but since I was expecting my mom in Limerick that evening, stayed in Limerick. My friends Amanda and Liz were also here, and Amanda's friend Carolyn joined us. We walked all the way down to City Centre for the parade because the buses weren't running yet and we didn't want to pay for a taxi. It actually wasn't a bad walk. I wouldn't want to do it alone though...having company definitely made it bearable.
As we were walking there, most of us wearing green, we noticed not many people on the streets were wearing green and I was like "oh Great. They don't get that in to it here." However, as we neared City Centre, the people decked in Green came crawling out of the woodwork. O'Connell Street, the main street downtown, was crawling with St. Patrick's Day celebrators. Before the parade started, we went to McDonald's and of course got Shamrock Shakes. The pricing in Ireland is so weird. I had gotten 2 smalls on previous occasions, for 2.50 each. However, that day I learned that a large was only 2.60!! A small extra price to pay for a considerable extra amount of shake.
We started to get all jealous of people because we didn't have any St. Patrick's Day memorabilia, which is rather funny because all semester we had seen it in stores and could have bought it at any time! Amanda and I ended up each buying a flag, as shown in the picture above. We found a decent spot along the street where we could easily see the parade, which ended up being only so-so. There was a lot of music, but not really any Irish music. There were a lot of city businesses advertising and people dressed up in silly outfits, and a lot of groups of other nationalities being represented which was cool, but we ended up getting bored after an hour or so while the parade was still going.
I texted my roommate Sean and asked him how his "St. Patty's Day" was going and he texted back and said "St. Patty's??" That, apparently, is the American faux pas way of spelling it and in Ireland it is shortened by saying "St. Paddy's." I then had to laugh when I saw people back home writing on Facebook "Happy St. Patty's Day!"
We walked back up to the campus and then I went to Stables with Amanda and Carolyn.There was stuff going on there all day. We went at about 4 PM. I wondered if many people would be there already since it seemed kind of early, but yeah...THERE WERE PEOPLE THERE! the place was hopping. We each bought a drink. We didn't really know anyone else there, so we just stood and observed everyone else's drunken antics. That's when my mom texted me and said they were on their way to their hotel in Limerick from Bunratty, which is only 20 minutes away. We finished our drinks and then I grabbed a taxi and headed to the hotel, which is the same one Ellen and Julie stayed in when they came!
I was so happy to finally see my mom and happy she made it to Ireland after all her difficulties! Her planes had ended up being delayed 3 times. The first day obviously...and then Monday it got delayed for about an hour and a half because of heavy air traffic, out of MSP to Newark again. Then her plane to Dublin got delayed because they were waiting for connecting passengers on the flight. She and her friend Bonnie who came with met up with their tour group in Killarney, and they managed to still see a traditional Irish farm and the Cliffs of Moher before getting to Limerick, which was the end of their tour.
When I got to their hotel room, Bonnie was having some difficulties with the tour bus driver because her bag had been misplaced because she wasn't aware of the loading procedures since she missed most of the tour. There was some major frustrations, but then after we got it straightened out we went to dinner at a restaurant called The Bailey. My mom was excited because our waiter had red hair just like her! She joked he was her long lost son. His name was Gary...short for Gearoid (Guh-road) just like my roommate. My mom tried Bulmer's cider and really liked it--the pear too! We had a very good dinner--Bonnie and Mom had fish and chips and I had Irish stew.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel for a little while and then I headed back to campus again. All in all, it was a very nice St. Paddy's Day!!
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