A Lucky St. Patty's
When in Europe over the spring semester, what better place to celebrate St. Patty’s day than Dublin itself! Lots of abroad students thought the same thing, and we booked our flights to the Island. Since USC spring break was the same week, lots of USC students met up with all their friends abroad, visiting different locations in Europe for the first half of the week and ending up in Ireland in time for the festivities.
Let me tell you, Dublin is one of the most social, lively, friendly cities in Europe I’ve ever been to. The city is alive to begin with, with a couple of main streets closed off to cars and people wandering about to the many restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and donut stores. On St. Patty’s day, this social energy was taken to the next level. From 8am in the morning, there were police stationed around the city cutting off all access to any streets in preparation for the parade.
We woke up at the crack of dawn (9am) to head over to the streets to grab a bite to eat and get the best spot for the parade. At around 11am, the parade began! The streets along the parade were packed with hardly any room to move. Every single person was decked out in St. Patty’s attire, with green leprechaun outfits, green beard hats, Irish flags, lucky clover glasses and beyond. The only thing I could compare it to is the 4th of July in the US, but St. Patty’s day was even more fun and chaotic in Dublin as such a central celebration location. After about an hour or two of watching, we relocated to a restaurant, Trinity, with 4 levels, each with windows giving a perfect view of the parade from the comfort of breathing space and a seat.
St. Patty’s day brings in about half a million people, and with it being the first St. Patty’s day celebration in two years, even the locals were beyond excited for the day (typically the locals avoid Dublin on St. Patrick’s day because of the crowds and the chaos, but not this year!). To finish up the weekend, we took some time to visit the cliffs of Ireland and the castles and beautiful architecture around. So much of Europe relish their cultures that have existed for centuries, and it was an unbelievable experience to experience a tradition that’s lasted for over 10,000 years.
Bis zum nächsten mal!
Kara