Pocket full of Shamrocks

               

St. Patrick's Day Parade on St. Patrick's Street in front of St. Patrick's Building on St. Patrick's Day.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!    We had a fun, long day.  I had visitors from California, an ex-coworker and her sister planned their trip around the holiday, so they could be a part of the festivities.  We had a busy few days leading up to the weekend.  I had the week off as well so I got to play tour guide, but opted out of my 5th trip to the Blarney Castle and Killarney.  But I couldn't miss out on the Patty's Day parade.  Talking to Kevin and other locals, they made it rather clear that they had no interest in joining the hoards of people lined up at noon on a Saturday.  The party had started the night before, so most (smart) Irish people were still under the duvet as the parade came and went.  But we, along with all of the other tourists, Spanish, French, Italian and fellow Americans lined up, pushed through and waited for it to start.  It was great people watching.  Lots of green, lots of painted faces and Irish paraphernalia, but as I quickly learned, few of these revelers were Irish!

Well, the parade was pretty basic.  I'd say the California parades are flashier and grander to be honest, and our visitors might have been less than impressed to see that 75 percent of the parade was local kids teams of sports they had never heard of.  It was good to see the community spirit, but I had more fun people watching than watching the parade itself.

Following the parade and the subsequent downpour (I guess it ALWAYS rains on Paddy's day) we grabbed sausage sandwiches and ate them on the street corner, before heading into the first pub of the day.

We started off in true tourist fashion, by ordering 3 coffee with Bailey's.  Sorry Mr. Bartender.  Now, don't judge me, Corkonians, I was just trying to pretend I was a visitor for the day so all bets were off!

After walking around the wet streets for a while, we headed out of town to Glanmire to have dinner with Kevin's parents.  The girls and I went to the local pub to watch the Ireland vs. England rugby match and continue our drinking taboos.  We ordered a round of Murphy's (hey, when in Ireland on St. Patrick's day...) then noticed to our delight that they had pitchers of beer on promotion.  This is the first time I've seen pitchers in Ireland, so yes, Mr. Bartender, we'll have a pitcher of Carlsberg.  It wasn't long before we had people talking to us, asking us where we were from, because "Irish girls don't drink pitchers of beer, especially after stout".  Oops.  Yeah, I'm just visiting!

After a delicious meal at the Bambury's we headed back into town, and continued the revelry.  Meeting up with friends for a few drinks before the night was over.  It was a long day, but a memorable one, and I even ended up with a shamrock painted on my face:)

Sláinte