The day started off with my alarm clock ringing at 8:45am. Man was that early since I couldn't fall asleep the night before because of anticipation. It was like the night before Christmas! I started getting ready for my big day and friends started arriving around 9:30 to make our breakfast feast! All in all ten of us ate cheese and ham eggs, fruit, pancakes, and soda bread along with our drink of choice! This started our day off to a good start. :)
We then headed off to the parade in the city center. With ten people it takes a little while to get everyone going and we missed the start of the parade but with a little side road maneuvering we were able to catch up with it and see the middle to end of the parade. It was a lot different than any parade I have ever been to. The floats were literally walked down the street! There were poles coming out of the sides of the floats and people were walking them along! Even though that was the case for most floats there were still some pretty exotic ones as my picture shows. There was nothing incredibly Irish about the parade such as leprechauns and
four leaf clovers. But the funniest part of the whole parade was kids dressed up as grass! The best way I can describe this costume is to pretend the kids were wearing ninja turtle costumes and then imagine large pieces of fake grass sticking out of the shells. Unfortunately, I do not know of anyone that got a picture of the grass children.Overall, the parade was very politically correct in that it had no religious or Irish symbols in it. Since St. Patrick's Day is originally a Catholic holiday and the Irish have adopted it as a national holiday, religious symbols are avoided to minimize the tensions between the denominations.
After the parade we went to a local Irish pub called Kelly's Cellar, which is one of my favorite pubs in all of Belfast. It has a really nice Irish feel about it and is more relaxed and homey than the other crowded bars. I had my Guinness for the day at Kellys. That drink was for everyone who asked me to have a drink on Patty's Day for them! While I was drinking my Guinness in this genuine Irish pub, one of songs from ps I love you came on and regardless of the cringes from my Irish friends it made me smile and get really excited to be in Ireland drinking a Guinness on St. Patrick's Day! I am pretty sure it was Galway Girl that was playing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWjyP1iW3vs . Everyone should watch this clip and pretend they are in Ireland drinking a Guinness with me, Cheers! :)
After the traditional Irish pub we walked down to the city center to see what was going on there. We went to another pub called McHughes. It was a really nice pub all decked out in green, but my favorite part was the country music they played! I have not heard country music since I have been here and it was a little bit nostalgic for me and a few friends. We found ourselves singing the lyrics very heartedly a few times! :)
After McHughes a group of us went back to Grant, my house, to relax and enjoy a few cheaper drinks. At about seven or eight we headed back to the pubs for the night. I ended up dancing and having a great time that night but was soundly asleep at midnight because I had a paper to write the next morning!
St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was a fun experience and I have officially checked it off my bucket list. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but I am also excited for St. Patrick's Day in Iowa next year.
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