Dublin- St. Paddy's Day (SB1)

After staying up all Sunday night, we caught our bus at 12:30(midnight).. Tricia, Janny and I only had to wait for about 30 minutes in Swansea. We had a layover in Bristol and then on to the airport. Even though we got to the airport at 4:30 for an 8:00 flight it was good. There was a massive security line, so we got lucky being there early. After what seemed like two days we finally boarded out plane, along with a group of very excited Italian boys. They were absolutely insane! At one point, one of them stood up and yelled "Peanuts!" for no apparent reason. Keep in mind, they had already popped open the Heinekens in preparation for St. Paddy's Day. It was a good flight overall, though. Once we got to Dublin, we caught a bus into the downtown area. It was relatively easy to figure out. Getting to our bed and breakfast was a different story. Before we started looking for our B&B, we decided to catch breakfast at a local spot. It was delicious and a great way to recharge our batteries after a night full of traveling. We stepped out onto the sidewalk only to be greeted by mass crowds of people heading to the parade. They were all decked out in green clothing, beads, crazy hats, face paint and everything else typically St. Paddy's Day attire. There were a lot of children, which surprised me a bit. I didn't picture St. Paddy's Day as a family event in Dublin. As all of these people marched off to the parade, we decided to head to out B&B to get some rest for the night ahead. I wasn't feel the best, but was definitely disappointed about missing the parade! All we had was the name of the B&B, plus a street name. HostelWorld had overbooked, so we got put somewhere else and they failed to give us a phone number or street number. Two buses, a lot of walking, and one drunk guy later we found our B&B. It was quite the adventure. We took naps and then headed back to town. We wandered around the downtown area for a little while, then decided to head into a pub for a pint. I opted out of the first round as I was still not feeling the best with a sore throat. At this place we met a guy from Holland. He was nice and quite entertaining. Tricia just started talking to him randomly. That is one of my favorite things about her. She will start a conversation with anyone! I am working on being more like that, more open, more out there. It's not easy, but I know I can do it. We moved onto another place after they finished their drinks. We wound up meeting up with a couple of Tricia's friends that were also in Dublin for the day. We all had a drink together, then headed to get some food at a nice Italian place. After dinner, we headed back out to another pub. On the way to the pub, we all got basically enveloped in a group of Italian guys. They started singing and dancing, so we joined in. It was probably the funniest thing of the whole night. It was so random! Once we left our new friends ;) we headed down the street and found a place that was playing good music. Good music is a must when out on the town for me. If I can sing along or hear something new that I like, it's a good night. I actually got up the courage to talk to a guy from Florence, Italy. He was studying in Ireland and it was interesting to get his take on Ireland. Having a conversation was a bit difficult, as he wasn't the most fluent in English and I clearly speak no Italian. It was cool, though! That pub was a lot of fun and we sang and took loads of photos! We were all getting pretty tired at this point. We decided to help Tricia's friends find their hotel downtown, then get them on a bus to the airport. They had an early flight the next day, while ours wasn't until late in the day. We called it an early night, at 9:30. I still cannot even believe we went to bed before midnight on St. Paddy's Day in Ireland. It was still a blast with many good memories and an overall great experience!