“It’s a wonderful night, everybody can see”

St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland: an epic event included in just about everyone’s bucket list that I was luckily able to check off this year! While festivities across the country (and back home for that matter) were great in their own right, I’m glad I decided to spend the day in Galway. The parade in the morning was pretty standard as far as parades go, with the highlights for me being the large trucks with musicians playing trad music on them (accompanied by dancers), the circus animals (horses, a zebra, llamas), the various ethnic societies in traditional outfits, and the Massachusetts State Police (so badass!). There were also many school groups/marching bands that were quite entertaining! We stood at the high end of Shop Street and had a fairly good view most of the time.

After the parade we went out to eat at Couch Potata, where strangely enough I was the only one to order a potato dish! Following lunch I met up with some other friends who were at the Townhouse Bar listening to some live music. The band performing, The Rye, were absolutely brilliant! Coincidentally, we had heard them the previous night at The Crane and had a wonderful time then as well. We hung around at the Townhouse until they were done playing, and then found a place playing the Ireland-England rugby match. I was really hoping for an Ireland win to see if that would kick the St. Patrick’s Day party up another few notches (if that was even possible), but alas, we lost 30-9.

After a brief regrouping session back home, we headed back out to the pubs. It’s all kind of a blur, but I’m sure it was a grand time! Club Supermacs was the conclusion of our pub-crawl that evening, and boy was it club-like indeed! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many drunk people in one place at any given time! All in all, the holiday definitely lived up to my expectations! Everyone should try their best to experience St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland at least once in their lifetime.

On Sunday my lone visitor from the States arrived in Galway! Brooke, who had studied in Maynooth (outside of Dublin) last fall, has been on spring break in Ireland for the past week or so. Some of her roommates and her travelled to Galway for a day, and luckily it was one of the most spectacular days weather-wise we’ve had this semester! We decided to travel to the Cliffs of Moher to take advantage of the sun, and we were not let down. This was my third trip to the Cliffs, and it was by far the best conditions. Just like in Dingle, I believe I said “this is so beautiful” roughly eighty-six times. Afterwards, we headed back to Galway where we did a mini pub-crawl. Like me at the Cliffs, we kept a running tally of how many times Brooke said “I love Galway” and got to about ninety-two J

Monday morning I headed into town to meet up with Brooke again before they headed back to Maynooth. I was so sad to see them go, but really happy that we had finally met! Long story short, our parents work together but we had never actually met in person before. Skype and Facebook are great, but it’s not the real deal! It’s always wonderful to know someone who shares the same love/obsession of Ireland as you do!

This weekend has been crazy (even by Irish standards), so I’m really glad we got Monday off from school to recuperate! This coming weekend Butler is taking us to the Killary Adventure Centre, so until then I need to buckle down and get some actual school work done (what is this school I speak of?!), which should be an interesting change of pace! Until then, thanks for reading!

Click here for pictures from St. Patrick’s Day!

Click here for pictures of the Cliffs of Moher/Galway!