Luck o' the Irish!

Someone told me once that they drink green beer in Ireland on St. Patty’s day. I was all excited to actually be THERE on March 17^th and see for myself. Sadly, I still have no clue if that is a myth of not. I guess I forgot to take into account that I don’t spend much time in pubs to observe the color of other people’s beer.

We flew into Ireland on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning and the first thing we did was go to a beer museum. Ever heard of Guiness? Well I’ve toured their first factory. It was pretty hilarious having a group of BYU kids tour a beer factory. The tour included a free drink at the end and the workers were kinda confused as we asked for waters and cokes instead of beer. The tour was pretty cool though. I learned a bunch of useless information about how they make beer. Apparently women get drunk twice as fast as men because we’re smaller and have more fat on our bodies. Good to know.

Tuesday night we all ate at the oldest pub in Ireland. The Brazenhead Pub. The food was DELICIOUS. Once again, I think we amuse people when none of drink any alcohol. Wednesday we were given the entire day to do whatever we wanted. So we roamed Dublin all day! We visited the “biggest city park in Europe”, went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a little market, a street festival, and shopped for fun souvenirs. Wednesday night is when weird St. Patty’s stuff started showing up. This city goes CRAZY for St. Patrick’s day. There was green everywhere, carnivals, street performers, and then just weirdos. I saw people walking around dressed like swans, chickens, and foxes. What do those have to do with St. Patrick’s Day? Beats me.

The dancing in the square on Wednesday night was super fun. A huge stage was set up in the middle of the street with a live band playing Irish Music. Then they’d have different dance instructor people teach the crowd different Irish Dances. I wish I could say I’m now the master of the river dance, but alas. I would basically just kick and swing around because I never had any idea what was going on.

Thursday was the big day. St. Patrick’s. We all of course had to get dressed up in everything green we had, paint our faces, die our hair, etc. etc. in order to fit in. Green was EVERYWHERE! It was totally awesome. I’m used to St. Patrick’s Day being an extremely small holiday that just gives kids an excuse to pinch each other. Not in Ireland. There was a parade through the center of town that was supposed to start at noon and we had to sit in our places at 10. We sat there for over 2 hours and then when the parade did start, it lasted about an hour and a half. Now, I’ve seen many a parade in my day. Mostly St. George Utah style. This parade was unlike any parade I’ve ever seen. It was probably the creepiest thing in the entire world and still haunts my dreams. Nothing seemed to have anything to do with St. Patrick’s day. Every float was some really creepy looking giant villainous animal. We just stood there for 2 hours wondering who on earth put this insane parade together and what kind of drugs they were on.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets and enjoying the celebrations everywhere and then left for Kilkenny. That’s where we stayed on Thursday night and explored on Friday morning. They have a sweet castle that we toured with beautiful grounds. Then on the way back to Dublin to catch our flight on Friday night we stopped in Cashel. There was a giant Abbey/Cathedral/ruin thing that was awesome. In the spirit of the week I even got a grass stain jumping off one of the walls! Staining my pants green just to show a little St. Patty’s pride. That’s true Irish devotion for ya.

In conclusion: where on earth were all the leprechauns, rainbow, and pots of gold? I clearly need to do some more research on this whole St. Patty's day thing, because maybe America has the wrong idea. Maybe swans, foxes, and chickens are where it's at. 

 Haley and I drinking our beer at the Guinness Tour House. A little sour for my liking, but overall good quality. 

 This was at the "biggest city park in Europe" that I mentioned. The big stone tower behind me is called the Wellington Monument... and I have no idea what it's for.

 Someone please tell me why on earth you'd dress up like a fox and go out dancing in the streets for St. Patrick's Day?!? 

 Yes. Sharon and I wore Shamrock covered boxers over our pants. 

 This is us waiting for the disturbing parade to begin. 

 I took TONS of pictures during the Parade so that I'd be able to prove how insane it was. Unfortunately, I can't show you all of the floats, but here are some. Pictured above: creepy black dog of death.

 This is a giant cockroach. GIANT COCKROACH!! In my mind, enlarging the nastiest insect ever to walk the earth and marching it down the middle of the street is NOT something I wait 2 hours to see. But maybe I'm crazy.

 This is a band. Of Moose skeletons. Kinda cool... in a creepy way of course.

 It took us a minute to realize what this was. This is a bird carrying a dead dog in its talons.

 I call this one CLIFFORD WITH RABIES. 

 Ramzi, Sharon and I at the Cathel Rocks in Cathel. 

 Jumping down from this wall is how I got my grass stain. (Might I add that Ramzi was too chicken to jump and climbed back down the baby way.)

 I wish you could see this picture better. My eyes reflected and look completely white. It definitely adds to the mummy/"raising from the dead to haunt you" feeling. 

This was my favorite picture of the entire trip, so I had to include it. Ramzi struggles a wee bit.