St. Patrick's Day...in IRELAND!

My day started off by waking up, putting on my green attire, and heading over to the parade in town on shop street. The streets were packed with people. And yes, people actually do wear green here. They don't dress as ridiculously-looking though as we do in the states on dress-up holidays. Fortunately, I got to watch the parade from a friend's apartment in town which was a view from up above the street. After the parade, I went to another friend's house where we had a barbeque. It was a nice day so we brought out couches and chairs outside in the front yard and relaxed, played catch, and grilled pork chops for dinner and bananas with peanut butter and chocolate for dessert(one of my dessert favorites!). After the BBQ we went into town and looked for corned beef and cabbage(to satisfy our Irish-American tradition). We couldn't find it anywhere so we ended up going to a highly-recommended burger place. It was a nice quiet place in there; not too crowded. After dinner we went to a cute little pub and sat there for a while and chatted with a bunch of people. I met some really friendly Irish people and they ended up giving me a leprechaun hat, complete with a beard and everything. So naturally, I grabbed my friend's Guinness and posed for a leprechaun shot(as seen in my pics). There's nothing like sitting in a pub IN IRELAND listening to LIVE Irish music and getting a free leprechaun hat on St. Patrick's Day (and some "free" 'from-an-Irish pub-beer-glasses we found laying around). =] After being in that pub, called the Crane Bar, we went to another larger place where we got to sit and talk and dance when we wanted. I met someone there that I thought I recognized from the BBQ earlier so I was like, "Niall?" and he was like, "Yeah...(questioned look on face)" and I said, "You were at the BBQ earlier right?" and he said, "No..." and I was like, "WAIT, but your name is Niall?!" and he was like, "Yeah, how did you know that? Have we met?" and I was like "No, okay so now I feel like a major creeper but that's really cool at the same time 'cause I've never guessed someone's name on the first try before(especially such an uncommon name!)!" haha, funny/random story of my night. Anyways, it was a lot of fun just talkin' and dancin' the night away with my friends. Before going into St. Paddy's Day, I expected some sort of city-wide hunt for a pot of gold. Unfortunately, this was not the case, however, I had a wonderful time nonetheless. An experience to remember <3

Crowded streets after the parade

The parade

BBQ @ Villys

Lydia =] (met her at the airport then never saw her again then re-met at the Christian Union)

Extra crispy garlic bread is better right?

In bathroom stall: "Take a walk by yourself& discover the beauty of the world around you"

People who gave me the leprechaun hat




Random Irish fact: The term "cue" is used for a "line" that you wait in. Ex: "The cue is over there for the ride."