It all started yesterday, the day before, with some serious prep working happening in the apartment. Decorations, accessories, and clothing were purchased, along with war point and copious amounts of alcohol. Because it's just not St. Patrick's Day without something green and something foamy.
I began my adventure at the store known as Carroll's where I successfully purchased one of those headbands that I have been wanting for days after seeing sooooo many people out and about wearing them. Now it's no ordinary headband, attached at the top is a mini-leprechaun's hat, most adorable thing ever and I looked pretty badass in it. After the head accessory, I also purchased 2 tee-shirts for the low price of 19 euro, pretty good. One is black and bears a skull and crossbones wearing a leprechaun hat and an eyepatch with a shamrock and saying "Argh! Shiver me shamrocks!" very classy. The other shirt is a classic green (which looks amazing on me) and has a pair of wings and a halo with the saying "Patrick was a Saint, I ain't!" also very classy. So now it's time for me to purchase my beverage of choice for the night/following day. Seeing as St. Patrick's Day is an Irish National Holiday, everyone gets drunk the night before and then mellows out the next day with a few beers and some greasy food. So I make my way to the nearest off license and grab some vodka and red lemonade for the night.When I get back to apartment, I discover that we still do not have power back from when it went out at 11am. So I watch some Sabrina on my laptop and try to wait it out. I have to shower in the guys room because by 4pm we still don't have power back on and they are now drilling the street to find the problem. So I shower and then wait some more. By 6pm, I am starving and decide that I ABSOLUTELY have to get food in me, especially since the shitshow was scheduled to start at 8pm. So I head out to Burger King who wants me to pay over 7 euro for a whopper, that's the lowest they have. Screw that! I leave and go to McDonald's to get my fall back: a Big Mac. And of course, while I was gone, they somehow turned the power back on and I didn't need to go out in the first place and spent more money than I needed to. But hey I wasn't really complaining because I had good food already made for me.
After dinner, everyone started getting ready and the drinking commenced. By 9pm everyone was gathered in the guys' room downstairs where the music was blaring in a great way and the alcohol was flowing freely. There was pong and funnels and card games, many choices for the night. Mike had a bunch of friends over for a couple of days and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was an all around good time. At this point I had begun my journey into my vodka bottle, a very cheap one which had to be greatly diluted. And thus the carbonation of the red lemonade was not my friend. I was also taking breaks to dash upstairs and chat with friends on AIM and Skype which was interesting.
We had a bit of fun learning a new game from London called "Fives." The purpose of the game is to be able to bow out without laughing. So everyone stands in a circle and puts out a fist. Everyone in the circle is supposed to either throw out a fist or five fingers after every countdown. One person begins with 1, 2, 3, and then calling a multiple of 5. If the hands in the circle DO NOT add up to that multiple then the next person tries. When someone finally guesses correctly they have to not celebrate but simply looking at everyone very seriously and say "Thank you ladies and gentlemen for a lovely game of Fives" without laughing or smiling in any way. On some occasions there is even a smile judge who determines laughter or smiles. Anyways, after a few people learned this game, they began to bet on the outcome...now you know this will never end well. The bet was that the loser had to run naked from our apartment to the end of the street by Grafton. So I will not name names to protect the guilty but two people ended up having to do it and there is video evidence to prove it. Of course they were both guys as no girl would actually get involved with THAT sort of a bet. People actually stopped to watch the streaking and at some points were even cheering one guy on...quite the event. Luckily the Garda did not become involved. HA!So after a fun filled night of streaking and booze, no one really made it out. Well if they did, I wasn't one of them. One of my roommates was put to bed early for being too drunk. Another roommate went out to the Temple Bar area with another girl and my last roommate was in the guys room with me except when she ventured out for a bit by herself...oh the times we had. So by 1am-ish, I decided to ground myself and not leave the apartment. First, I wasn't sure that I could make it back, and second, I didn't want to do anything stupid. So instead, I came back and drank water and ate crackers while sitting on my bed and skyping my friend Kosha from back home. That was an interesting conversation...I think...
Then I was convinced to go to bed by a nameless party that I was also talking to online...man I should really hide my laptop better from myself. So I changed and crawled into bed, barely aware of what I was doing.
I awoke this morning with a thirst that was almost painful and a desire to do nothing but eat the biggest bowl of Ramen noodles possible. So I heaved myself out of bed, chugged some water, and made my way to the kitchen. Kara was already up and making eggs, quite the accomplishment. Shannon and Morgan had both also made it up and Kyle was sitting in our kitchen with his friend Drew. I simply smiled and made my way to the nearest pot, pulled down a package of Ramen and cooked it as fast as I could. I sat down on the couch to wolf it down surrounded by the delicious smell of scrambled eggs and ham and enjoyed my own little meal. I then wandered back to bed for a bit. Around 10am, I decided that I should probably shower as we had to find a spot to watch the parade from and that started at noon.
So since I wore the pirate shirt last night, I wore the green one today along with my headband hat and pulled off the look quite well if I do say so myself. I was dressed and ready and went to witness the second part of the shitshow which was currently happening in the guys room again.
After watching some chugging, I wandered up to see how the other girls were doing. And apparently they had taken a delivery of friends during the night, 4 of them to be exact. Well wasn't I just taken by surprise and tickled pink. So I took some candids and just wandered up and down the stairs waiting to go. When mostly everyone had a good buzz going, not including myself, we set off for the parade at 11:40am.For some reason, Dame Street where we wanted to watch was already packed with people, go figure. So we all sort of played the pushy American and made room for ourselves next to some barricades but behind other people. So, thinking back to where the parade started at the top of O'Connell Street which across the river and about a 30 minute walk from where live, we estimated that it would be about that long until we saw the parade go by. However, clearly we underestimated by about an hour. We stood around and waited for the parade and it was around 1:30pm until it finally showed up on Dame Street. And I can't figure out why for the life of me. It was quite a fast moving parade actually.
The Saint and Bishop, Patrick, was one of the first people to walk on by and he was awesome. There were several marching bands including one from North Carolina! And of course typical Irish music ones. The fire department put in an appearance as did several dance studios and even a not for profit cycling association. However, I was surprised by a few things in the parade and often felt like I had either stepped into Arabia, Africa or a Tim Burton movie. But there were so excellent costumes and ideas going on like the Giant Rooster Float, the moving insect floats including an ant, a spider, and a praying mantis. There was a cake float and ballerina one, along with a live stagecoach and someone who wanted to take over the world but I wasn't really sure who he was...While standing behind people sucked, I did manage to get some decent pictures so I'm relatively happy. I couldn't feel my knee and I was starving when we left, but it was totally worth it I think. Definitely being in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And drinking the day of is not nearly as big here...well except for the tourists. There were a number of families at the parade, it's like their 4th of July. It was a great event. I have never seen the streets of Dublin so packed, it was a little unnerving. But for all the people, I did notice how much quieter it was than I expected. At typical American events, it's all loud all the time and people are cheering and singing and having a good time. But not here, sure people were laughing and talking and enjoying themselves. But there was only cheering when one of the parade members asked for it, no clapping when the bands finished a song and no clapping along. But all in all it was an experience I will never forget. So much GREEN! So many people!
After the parade was lunch followed by naptime. Everyone needed some downtime to get ready for Round 3 which started at about 6pm tonight. I went down to say hi and everyone was already on their way to a good time. I was offered beers and shots and respectfully declined. I had a sip of beer to show my support and then it was back to relaxing and recuperating my body so that I can actually deal with school when it begins again on Monday and complete my projects on time before that happens. So for now, I'm just going to post some pictures and hopefully get to sleep before everyone gets back!
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