The Buried Life #27: Spend St. Patty´s day in Dublin, Ireland.

I recently downloaded a tv show from MTV called the Buried Life, a documentary of four guys living their life to the fullest. More specifically, they made a list of 100 things to do before they die and each episode documents one of their listed items. Such things as partying at the Play Boy Mansion, telling a joke on late night television, playing basketball with Obama, etc. Before I had even heard of the show I had created a list of 100 things I wanted to do before I die. Granted, as I get older, I update the list. After returning from Ecuador, there were a couple changes, to say the least.

We left on Tuesday night after Don Quijote class and headed for the Girona Airport to fly our favorite airline, RyanAir. Little did we know that the Girona region had been having some electrical issues due to the snow, which they were still recovering from (please see blog post: "F words...France, Fromage and F**k"). Our flight was scheduled to leave around 8pm which would get us into Dublin around 10:30pm. And yet, the electricity went out...and not just a brown out, a flicker, oh no...a good 20 minutes without electricity. It gets better, our flight was scheduled to board in 30 minutes and we were first in line. Ryan fooled us again. The airplane had been diverted to the other bum-f**k-nowhere airport near Barcelona. Great. We had no airplane. So we waited...and we waited until a voice came over the loudspeaker one hour and a half hours later, "the flight to Dublin has been moved to gate 15." Thanks, Ryan. So we booked it from gate 3 to 15, literally at the complete opposite end of the airport. We were tripping small children (the parents always send them first because the average person takes pitty on them and let's them cut in line, and then, BAM...the parents, grandparents, cousins and dogwalkers "look" for their children and in doing so, cut the ENTIRE line). Anyway, tripping small children, pushing Spanish people (telling them duty free had free sangria), and sprinting to the opposite side of the airport. We finally started to board the airplane, as I was pushing this short little Spanish woman, who was yelling "Candy, cuidado." I should have told the lady that she should cuidado (caution) before I run her and her friend Candy over.

At 12:15 our flight lands in Dublin, Ireland, the second most religious holiday to the Catholics of Ireland (obviously, Easter is number one, St. Patty's day is number two, and Jesus' birthday is number three). I may or may not have a stamp in my passport for Dublin on March 17th. We arrived at our hotel, (about a 20 minute bus ride from the center of the city) and were greeted with big, fluffy beds and a niiiiice bathroom. You have no idea what a nice hotel room means to a college student studying abroad. We immediatley went to bed in preparation for, as Colleen calls it, the high holy day. However, it was a little difficult to sleep, we were more excited than the night before Christmas.

The alarm finally went off, we prepared our green and headed out. We immediately saw how big of a deal the high holy day was, O'Connell street wad completely blocked off and people were already drunk. We were so ready. We then headed towards the Guinness Factory to start our celebration. It was so surreal. We had discovered the Disneyland for the Irish. We ended our tour with our complimentary pint of Guinness at the very top of the factory, the Gravity Bar.

We were just in time to head to the parade after we finished our Guinnesses. We stopped to had our face panited with a shamrock from some thirsty art students. Then, the parade. It was complete insanity. Small children were standin on ladders. Ladders! The crowd was so deep, I couldn't believe it. We made our way over to the other side of the street where we were only three or four people back from the street. The parade was incredible and a highlight of the trip. It was Carnaval in Rio de Janiero, but Irish style.

I took wayyyy too many pictures, and I loved every part of the parade. After the parade we met up with one of Tracey´s friends from school at had lunch at a really great burger place. We then wandered along the streets of Dublin and found ourselves at a carnival . I don´t know if having a carnival on the drunkest holiday of the entire year was the best decision. But, Tracey and Mattie hopped on one of the rides...

We then decided that it was time to spend time with the natives at the local watering holes. We found a great bar that wasn´t packed, which was harder to find than you will even know.

We spent the night there drinking Heinekens, we had had enough of Guinness, and mixed drinks. The bar was great. We made some new friends, watched some river dancing and even had stools and a table. We called it a night because we had to wake up early the next morning for our countryside tour of Ireland.

To see all of the photos, check out the Flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasecarrie/sets/72157623629612367/