St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

I originally had no plans when I booked my trip to Europe. Once I realized it was during St. Patrick’s Day, I knew I had to hop on a plane over to Ireland!

Since I had not purchased an outlet converter, my phone was about to die. While waiting for the plane from Oslo to Dublin, I asked a stranger if I could plug into his laptop (because that’s not awkward). His name was Carl, he was from Sweden living in Dublin. Carl gave me some information about Dublin while I charged my phone, and then our plane started boarding.

Once I arrived to Dublin, I took a double decker bus (10 Euros round trip) to my hostel. Dropped off my luggage, borrowed someone’s converter so I could charge my phone, and got suggestions on where to eat. I ended up going to “The Celt” by suggestion of the Hostel Staff. It was AMAZING. For being St. Patrick’s Day, it was not crowded at all. Almost a hidden gem on Talbot Street. I got the Irish Stew and, of course, a Guinness.

From there I walked to St. Stephens Green. I got lost, and asked two French guys, Jullian and Loic, if they knew where the place was. There was quite a language barrier, but it turned out we all were going the wrong way. We turned around, walked to the concert and had a blast. I spent FOUR hours dancing and learning different folk dances with my new friends.

I booked an all-female room at Jacobs Inn Hostel. It was very clean, and offered a lot of free events (like a walking tour!). The girls I stayed with seemed very nice, and we talked for a couple hours before I went to bed.

When I woke up, I had breakfast provided by the hostel (toast and jam). I sat and talked to a teacher from Denmark for about two hours. My friend, Janine, from the room came down and we took photos in the photo booth before heading out to buy souvenirs. After shopping we went back to the hostel to have our faces painted. Another friend, Becky, joined and we walked to the parade. It was crowded! Even more so than Mardi Gras in New Orleans! It was a blast, as we weaved in and out of the crowd. We got an ice cream cone (in the cold?). Tried to spy floats over the tops of heads. Somehow Jullian and Loic ran into me in this huge crowd, so the five of us celebrated St. Patrick’s Day together. After the parade we went to eat. We laughed for hours over the difficulties communicating. “MY French Fries, YOUR French Fries.”

After dinner we made our way back to our hostel. Over a bottle of wine (or two) we discussed very important worldly things… Like “Soda” or “Pop”. By the time I had crawled into bed, I realized I was actually a bit homesick, but this time tomorrow I’ll be sleeping in Trier, Germany.

Bucket List: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland.

Bucket List: Drink a Guinness in Ireland

Bucket List: Coffee with a stranger