I survived Dublin on St. Patrick’s day.  Let me preface this Bridget Jones-style by listing what I ate:

– Bowl of cereal
– Banana
– 1/2 pear

Pretty stupid, eh?  My rationale was that Guinness is basically a meal.  So I had a lot of meals.

I slept in a bit, had the breakfast I previously mentioned at the hotel, then walked to the parade around 11:30am (it started at noon).  I wandered up the parade route until I stumbled upon people waiting in line for a pub on the route.  I thought, “here are some people with a plan,” so I decided to jump in line.  Sometimes just copying people who look like they know what they’re doing is easier than planning.

I waited in line with a couple traveling with their daughter from Cleveland, then 4 of her friends joined them, and their group adopted me for the afternoon.  I ended up having some pints watching the parade with them until they left to grab their flight to London.  Rachel is volunteer farming in Leeds, Mindy is a nurse, Danielle used to make out with old men, and Kristen throws awesome theme parties.  So impressed I remembered their names.

And here’s part of the parade we watched.  It was very paradey.

But before they left, we were joined by Erik and Anna from Indiana.  They were on their honeymoon… and had gone ring shopping two weeks after meeting.  When you know, you know, I guess?  They both wanted to go to the Craft Beer Festival, so I became their honorary best man for the evening (which scored me a number of complimentary drinks).  Anna was extremely nice and treated me like a child that she didn’t want to get lost.  Her hobbies included showing off pictures of her wedding, and… that is all.

First we went to Temple Bar and another bar in that area.  They were playing some live Irish music which was fun.  Many people there seemed to have consumed quite a lot of beer.

And then we made it to the Craft Beer festival.  This is where I met Padraig and his friends and we had a jolly time.  There was live music here as well.  Erik knew he was going to like the beer because it’s the “beer that got him his DUI”.

I also talked to this girl who painted crap on my face with her makeup.

During St. Patrick’s day, they turn all the old buildings green, which is cool.  Here’s a picture of one of those old buildings looking old but having green on it taken on my trek back to the hotel.

And so yeah, I survived and made it back to the hotel.