Since I’ve been living in Florida, one of the things I wanted to do the most is to go to Dublin and celebrate my Birthday plus St. Patrick’s day! Okay, my birthday is March 18th and I was always partying with friends on March 17th (St. Patrick’s day) so it was a big deal for me and awesome party time!

Dublin_

By December, I talked with one of my best friends that is living in Madrid, that we should go to Ireland to celebrate her day (her name is Paty!) and my birthday since I was going to spend some time in Europe. Of course she agreed!

conPaty_bars

I couldn’t wait any longer! I was counting the days, seeing everything on my mind, searching everything I needed to know about Ireland, Dublin and St. Patrick’s day… Oh, by the way, I later found out that the celebration it actually started in United States… but anyway… I was ready to enjoy and have an awesome time in Dublin!!

Guinness3
Are we?? 🙂

Sick in Dublin

Every time I arrived in Venezuela, my allergies go crazy! And I brought them to Ireland. I always know that once I leave Caracas, in 2-3 days I’m already feeling great. However, this time, in Dublin, with the crazy cold and very windy weather, it was impossible for me to get better. I got sicker! Of course, I didn’t care! I was, finally, in Dublin! So give me everything I need, vitamin C in every way, a green sweater (it was a green weekend!), scarf, jacket… I don’t know how I could move with everything I was wearing!

Dublin_OConnell
O’Connell Street

We arrived on March 16th by late afternoon. Our walk through the city needed to start! Obviously, Dublin was packed! Everywhere we went, there were a lot of people, all of them dressed with green, different tones of greens, green mustaches, green nails, green (and huges) hats, fake green hair and even in costumes… with more green. It was fun to watch everyone!

Dublin_TrinityCollege
Trinity College

Our stroll started by O’Connell Street, crossing the bridge to get closer to Trinity College, which it was founded in 1592. By the corner of Suffolk St. in front of Trinity College, if you are very familiar to some typical Irish music, you’ll meet the famous Molly Malone. So I had to stopped and take a picture with her… “In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone…”

2014-03-18 22.03.56-1

Our following stop was at a park where another famous, a person that actually lived, was waiting for us. We visited Merrion Square Park, where they were having a fair with attractions, games, music and more. We strolled by the park to find an Oscar Wilde sculpture.

OscarWilde
Hanging out with Oscar Wilde

The walk, as usually, never stops for me. My friend, who loves taking naps (siestas since she’s from Spain), was about to kill me for making her walk a lot without a break. Naturally, we were in Ireland, our break was a stop for a beer at a pub.

By night, since it was Sunday 16th, before St. Patrick’s day, a Monday with no classes or work and a lot of people visiting as we were, we needed to go to the pubs.

Let’s St. Patrick’s day begin!

2014-03-16 21.52.24

On Sunday night, the celebration started. Even when for the whole weekend, including our days in Cork before Dublin, we could feel and taste St. Patrick already. Specially by night, not only by looking at the people, but at the buildings. Most of the buildings, by 6pm, they were turning on the green lights on them. I believe they do that in every city.

2014-03-16 23.35.18-1

For our first night in town, we went to the famous and most touristic area to party, Temple Bar. Very touristic and very crowded indeed! We couldn’t even walk easily. To get into some of the bars we needed to wait or simply go to another one. One name caught our eyes so we headed to that one, Bad Ass Cafe. It was really nice actually! As many of the other pubs we visited, they had a band playing live with those classics I like as ‘Wild Rover’ or even ‘Galway Girl’ (video below). From there, we visited few more, meeting people from around the world, singing our favorites and having an amazing time! Even when both of us weren’t feeling good. I could feel my throat bothering.

And the day had arrived! It was St. Patrick’s day, March 17th and we were dead! If it wasn’t enough green I was wearing, I also bought a thick bright green sweater to wear underneath my trench coat, plus everything else I was wearing to keep me warm and not get sicker. I bought more vitamin C. I knew that once I was back in Madrid, I was going to take care of myself, so I needed to enjoy as much as I could my days in Ireland!

We waited for an hour or so by O’Connell Street to see the parade. Everyone was very excited, singing songs, clapping, smiling faces… I was happy and sneezing…

2014-03-17 11.33.45-1

The parade this year, 2014, was about the past. In 2015 will be the present and then in 2016 the future. So I guess I should be there for the following years? 🙂

Dublin_StPatricks1

Dublin_StPatricks2

Dublin_StPatricks4 Dublin_StPatricks

That day we took it very slow and calm. After the parade, a lot of people started to leave the city. I was drinking just water and taking some pills to feel better for my birthday at least.

March 18th… birthday time!!

I wasn’t feeling very well, but I just didn’t care anymore. Better than the day before. I thought, that for this time, I needed the ‘hop on hop off’ bus to take us everywhere and I could see more of the city. However, it got worst for me by the end of the day because I was on the top of the bus, roofless, and very windy!

That day we visited first the St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Gorgeous! What I loved the most, being something different, small pillows in front of every chair so you can use it when it’s time to kneel down to pray.

Dublin_Cathedral_StPatrick4
St. Patrick Cathedral

Dublin_Cathedral_StPatrick2

Even when Dublin have many churches, for my birthday I needed something more energetic and fun! Our next stop, Guinness Storehouse! Yei!! The ticket includes a Guinness to try! Plus, there were areas where you can have a small sample to taste. It was fun to take a look around, drinking with my friend, getting to know about this local beer and enjoying the great view to the city from the Gravity Bar where they gave us our free sample.

photo (1)

Guinness5

DublinDesdeGuinness
View from Gravity Bar
2014-03-18 14.53.42
Cheers!

 We saw everything we could from the bus, my friend was also feeling sick. We went to have dinner, some Irish food of course, with beer and we went to Porterhouse Central that it was a recommendation from some local friends. It was great! Delicious food, lots of drinks and good ambience. After that, I felt I had to do more things on my birthday, so we went to the Temple Bar area again, it was looking emptier than on Sunday 16th, but nice for a couple of drinks and music. This time, we just went to the actual Temple Bar. The place is huge with various rooms and it was crowded still.

photo

There are so many things I would like to see again or see it, that I just couldn’t this time around. I think I needed more days or not having a cold. I know I’ll be going back any time soon!

Check out AT29’s video about Dublin here.

Keep the city clean! 🙂

Share Button

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *