Ireland: Home of the Good Craic

I spent one week in March travelling through one of the greenest countries I've ever seen to go to the world's supposedly greatest St. Patrick's Day party in Dublin, Ireland. Like many of the places I've travelled to over the past eight months, this place showed me a lot more than my expectations had imagined.

When you imagine what St. Patrick's Day might be like, you might imagine something very similar to what I would have guessed. Irish music, Irish people, Irish flags everywhere. A parade to showcase it all. Drinking in a day-long street party. 

The only thing that really happened the same from my imagination was the Irish flags. Tons of them, everywhere. But the Irish people? They actually leave to have their own parties for the weekend, taking with them the music and culture that I was hoping to see. Instead, loads of exchange students from around the world (myself included) rolled into town to party in what turned out to be one of the biggest tourist shows of my life. Even the parade was mostly marching bands from American universities.

Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun and I'm glad to say that I was able to experience such a famous event first-hand. But next St. Patrick's Day you'll likely find me in Chicago instead (the second best party in the world... also supposedly). 

Now the fun didn't stop there. Next, we ventured to the other side of the island to Galway. And man-oh-man was this the cutest. Sometimes, I find when walking around European cities, it feels like I'm on a Disney set because everything is so perfect and adorable. Galway was one of those places that gave me this feeling. 

From Galway, we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. If I told you that our day started off with a kid throwing up on our feet in the bus, continued with a cloudy view of the cliffs and followed with our bus driver leaving without us... I'm sure you'd imagine we had the worst day. But really? I think it turned into one of our best memories. Another friendly Irish bus driver offered to let us sneak onto his bus in exchange for two quality Trip Advisor reviews. His tour bus took us through new towns and even pulled over for a photo op with a rainbow and green hills. Now, that is what you call good customer service, no? Also, maybe you could call it really good luck for us. 

While this trip certainly had a lot of ups and downs (especially on that road out to Cliffs of Moher), I'm left remembering Ireland as a stunning little country with a lot of heart and a beautiful landscape. I hope you all have a chance in your lives to see the little lambs in the fields surrounded by stone fences and have a sip of their famous Guinness.

Until the next post,
Al