Paddys Day IN Ireland? Who should dare accomplish such a task? We should and we did!

Ok, so Im gonna level with all you folks at home. Going into Ireland I was expecting big things. GRAND things. I was thinking up some pretty crazy stuff. In my mind I had us drinking and laughing in a pub somewhere watching a leprachon doing an irish jig to someone playing a fiddle, girls with red hair twirling around to the music and Irish lads clapping along to the beat. Not to mention all of us breaking out into song singing "When Irish Eyes are smiling" or some cliche Irish hymn like that.

So back to reality. Needless to say it didnt really turn out like this. In fact it was nothing like this. But it was a pretty darn good time regardless, and theres not too much I didnt like about Ireland. Except maybe the weather, seeing as we had just come from sunny skies and heat. But I digress (finally got to use that phrase, yes!!!).

So we landed in Cork, Ireland on Friday night after a LONG day of travel. We had taken a 3 hour flight from Marrakech, Morocco to Luton airport outside London. We then took a bus from Luton airport to Stansted airport which took about an hour and a half. And finally we took another flight from Stansted in London to Cork, followed by a fairly decent cab ride to our hostel. It was lots of fun..........not (cue Borat).

Luckily though, the fun started the minute we arrived at the hostel. We immediately made some new friends from Minnesota there and proceeded to drown our travel sorrows (or lackthereof) in a few pints of the finest beers Ireland had to offer.

We also met some native Corkians. They introduced us to an Irish phenomenon the Irish have in regards to their fellow neighbours. Apparently everyone in Ireland hates the other towns in Ireland. Well, maybe hate is a strong word but whenever we would say we were going to somewhere else everyone would say "Uhhh dont go there, that town sucks ________ town is the place to be in Ireland." Yes Janet, you are part of this phenomenon too, despite your injected Canadian blood lol.

So anyways we had a great time in Cork and immediately proceeded to party in Kilkenny. It was just our luck too, because the Catholic Church had decided to move Paddys Day to the 15th (the 17th coincided with some Irish religious holiday). Well, some people in Ireland werent too happy about this but I said what the hey, God Bless the Catholic Church, because now we got TWO St. Paddys Days as Dublin was still throwing it down on the 17th!

So Yadda Yadda Yadda, more fun ensued in Kilkenny. We met some Dubliners in Kilkenny for the weekend who hated Cork, and some more friends from around the world who we partied with. We even met a semi obnoxious Irish lad who made some pretty funny comments but slighty (by slightly I mean extremely) politically incorrect statements about everyones countries, Canada included (he kept calling us yanks and when I told him thats like me calling him English he kinda realized lol).

So when all was said and done in Kilkenny we had accomplished a pretty successful FIRST Paddys day and we were on to our SECOND Paddys day in Dublin. We took two nights in Dublin, the first at a bed and breakfast and the second at a place I like to call Chez Dublin Airport were we slept on comfortable beds of concrete, but that is neither here nor there.

The first night we took it easy and didnt do too much so we could rest up for our extravaganza. So in the morning on the 17th we immediately scoured the city looking for a place to put our bags because apparently in this day and age where you can buy food almost 24 hours you cannot pick up your bags at the airport any time at night....ridiculous. Luckily though a hotel manager took pity on us and let us store our bags at his joint.

So we went to the parade in downtown Dublin which was CRAZY!!! People were climbing on statues and street lights just to get a glimpse of the action. We stayed and watched for a little while but time was "a wasting" so we went straight to the pub right after and grabbed some pints.

The pubs in Dublin were absolutely slammed, as Luke would say. You could barely move. To some this would be a bad thing but on this day it was great, cause we met people from everywhere. Apparently everyone from everywhere else other than Ireland goes to Dublin on Paddys Day but it doesnt matter cause there were a ton of cool people.

We partied at the pub for the night and downed a bunch of pints but actually left a bit early cause we were absolutely dead tired, and we still had to kill like 5 hours at the airport cause our flight was at 6:30 am.

So we used our bags as pillows and ATTEMPTED to sleep on the concrete where we were "woken" up, or kicked I should say, by the airport cops at 4 am. So we checked in at 4:30 and boarded our plane at 6 and I can honestly say it was the most hung over/sick I have ever been on a ride home. I even asked the stewardess for a barf bag ewwwww, but luckily I didnt have to use it. And yes moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas and all responsible loved ones.............I deserved it.......................................but it was well worth it.

Finally on the morning of the 18th of March we arrived back in the UK after our whirlwind tour of Ireland, where we saw practically no sights, soaked up hardly any culture (well tons if you count drinking) and saw practically nothing of Ireland. I therefore offer my sincerest apologies to Mother Ireland, and vow to not do it again....................................................not (cue Borat again).