St Patrick's Day in Ireland

(I tried really hard to cut down on the photos I post, but I took over 650 in five days so I'm sorry in advance) For the first trip of my five week Easter break, I went to Ireland with some of my Erasmus friends, Chantal from the Netherlands, and Chiara and Silvia from Italy. We left on Saturday (16 March) at 4.30 am, which was an early start since I didn't sleep at all before our taxi came to pick us up. Our train to Manchester airport was at 5.26 am, so we had a short wait before we left in the cold. We were some of the first people in the train station haha.

After grabbing some breakfast, we went through security, which was quite different from American airport security. First we waited in the queue for ages, and the bag sizes for the allowed bag of liquids are slightly different (yay metric system!) And you don't have to take off your shoes or go through quite as much of an ordeal. It just seemed quite different from what I was used to!

We had a bit of a wait in the airport, and at one point there was a flaming plane through the window, which was quite concerning, but it turned out to be a fire safety practice ground, so all was well. I also had my first RyanAir experience, which was also rather different from American airlines! You're only allowed one carryon item, so you have to fit your purse into your suitcase or dufflebag, so that was a struggle when packing! And there aren't assigned seats, you just pick one out once you get on the plane. There is a full menu of food and drink served on the plane, and they sell all kinds of goods as well. It was all very strange to me, but the flight was 50 minutes so we were soon on the ground in Dublin! Customs was quite simple, and I now have a green stamp in my passport from Ireland :-) And the airport was decorated with balloons for the holiday.

The flaming plane- it was a far larger fire, but I didn't have my camera out

Welcome to Ireland!

We had a few hours in Dublin before our train to Cork, so we explored city centre after the longest bus ride ever from the airport. Fair warning to anyone who goes to Dublin: the 16 bus (from the airport to city centre) stops at nearly every stop the entire way, so it can take an hour or more to get from one place to the other! We walked through Trinity College, although there was a MASSIVE queue to see the Book of Kells so we didn't stop for that, and it started to rain. Instead we went to the National Gallery of Ireland, and I had some major art history geek moments- there was a really great selection of artists represented. Caravaggio, Vermeer, Rubens, Titian, Monet, Picasso, Poussin, Velazquez and Van Gogh- there were pieces I'd studied in my art history classes in Wooster hanging in the gallery, so I definitely freaked out, despite being EXHAUSTED. We stopped in some book shops and grabbed lunch, and I decided I officially hate tourists. Especially American ones haha, I heard more American accents than Irish ones in Dublin, and there were just so many people who were rather rude. I know I shouldn't stereotype but tourists are so annoying and disrespectful. Chantal got an earful from me throughout the trip about American tourists :-p

Trinity College Dublin 

We had a three hour train to Cork, and I finally fell asleep after being awake and on the move for over 24 hours. We stayed at Sheila's Hostel in Cork, which was about 10 minutes from the train station and up a rather steep hill! We checked in, and went up to our room. We were in a 14-bed dorm, which was completely full of people visiting from across Europe for the holiday- there were some German girls, Spaniards, and some loud Americans on the floor below us haha. We grabbed open beds and got ready to pass out for our full day the next day!

We woke up around 8 to get ready for St Patrick's Day, although really we'd woken up around 6 when the first of our roommates got up. After breakfast at McDonald's (we're cheap and the porridge and tea were decent), we set off to find some festive accessories. Carroll's gift shop was a success- we all got hats of various sorts to wear for the day, and then we wandered around the city to orient ourselves and see the activities that were going on for the day. There was a market and live music in the streets, and then we found places for the parade! We bought some Ireland face paint in a pound shop and I drew some shamrocks on our cheeks while we waited :-)

Cork's river on the way to city centre! 

Chiara, Chantal and I

Walking through the street market with some ominous clouds behind us

Before the parade started, there were people handing out flags, both Irish and American. I was so confused why they were handing out American flags on an Irish holiday, and of course, the guy gave me one instead of the Irish flags he handed to my friends! I was quite put out, I can get an American flag any time! An Irish flag from St Patrick's Day is something special. But such is luck, and the irony was not missed by any of us haha. We were very near the stage where the announcer was, and it turns out San Francisco is Cork's sister city and the mayor and an American contingent were present at the celebrations, hence the flags. So even though we went to a smaller city, we still didn't escape the American tourists!

I was very unhappy about not getting an Irish flag!

The parade was great fun, although it was long and we got quite cold. I especially liked some of the art communities' floats and performances, and there were some international groups present, showing off parts of their different cultures. And of course there were military groups, lots of bands- including pipe bands!- and dance and sports teams. I took a ton of photos, but here are a few of my favourite parts (this took a lot of narrowing down since I took like 200 photos during the day):

Let's play spot the American mayor: hint, he's the one wearing cheesy St Patrick's Day garb and isn't in a red robe

There were some really cool floats in this series by the Cork Art Community

These dancers were part of it, one of the floats rained on them while they performed!

Grease, Irish style :-)

Gangam Style is literally everywhere

St Patrick chasing some snakes

The Chinese community

They were so cool but I'm not sure where they're from!

Pipe band :-) 

Belly dancers who followed the "Pray the Rosary" group 

Another cool interactive float!

Polish community, what a cute little girl!

After the parade, we explored Cork some more, went to Penney's (Primark in Ireland), and found a lovely place for dinner, Uncle Pete's (we ended up eating there every night we were in Cork because it was so delicious and cheap!). We wanted to have a drink in a pub to celebrate, and after much searching for one that wasn't overflowing with drunk Americans or overpriced, we found Dan Lowrey's on the street parallel to our hostel. I seriously love that place- it was full of locals, not rowdy tourists, and had such a wonderful atmosphere. And the music wasn't too loud so we could sit and chat for a while. I was a wuss and had hard cider instead of Guinness (I'm just not a fan of it haha), although the other girls stuck to the Irish traditions and had that. Overall it was a lovely day, and now I can say I've been to Ireland for St Patrick's Day!

My cider (with Chiara and Silvia in the background haha)

The interior of Dan Lowrey's so you get a sense of the cosy atmosphere :-)