St. Patrick's Day in Dublin
Who wouldn't be excited about celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Ireland?! We had talked to a few locals ahead of time to get a gauge of the madness to come and many of them said Dubliners actually leave town and let the tourists aka Americans take over. Hmm.. so what was Dublin going to be like? Lucky for us, best friend Jeremy wanted to find out too, so he flew all the way from Chicago to join in the festivities and experience our very first St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. To see how we got on, read below!
This was Jeremy's first time to Ireland and so I wanted to make sure he got to experience Dublin outside of the holiday goings on. He was only going to be here for 4 days, which meant we had lots to do in little time! We managed to hit the highlights in Dublin city centre and also travel outside to see the beautiful countryside.
Thursday, March 15th:
Jeremy landed mid-morning and as soon as he arrived, we headed over to the Spire for a free walking tour. We did the South Side tour, which covers a lot of the highlights that people think of when they think of Dublin: Trinity College, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle. The tour is an easy way to see a lot of the city and learn some history in a quick 3 hours. Plus, I mentioned it's free, right? [plus tips]
One of the most interesting things we learned about was The Troubles, which is the name given to the time period of 1968-1998 when paramilitaries in Ireland and Northern Ireland participated in guerilla warfare fueled by politics and nationalism. Our tour guide, James, gave us a brief history on the time and said many people ask him if he ever thinks he'll see a unified Ireland in his lifetime. He said prior to this last year, he would have said no. However, with the rising Catholic population in Northern Ireland coupled with Brexit, he thinks it could now be a possibility. Obviously, this is his opinion, but it will be interesting to see if anything happens in the years to come.
The tour ends over by Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is right by Dublin's famous fish 'n chips spot, Leo Burdock's -- it might actually have a cult following. By 2:00 p.m., we were ready for some lunch and eating fish 'n chips was on Jeremy's Dublin checklist, so it was the natural choice for our afternoon meal. One thing about Leo's is there is no seating, so we headed back to St. Patrick's Cathedral to eat in the park. A traditional dish with a great view!
Staying on the tourist train, we headed to the Guinness Storehouse next! Fun fact, tickets are usually €17.50 per person, but around St. Patrick's Day, they charge €25 -- ouch. The storehouse is not where the beer is brewed, but they have done a fantastic job creating what is essentially a museum to Guinness. You learn how the beer is made, about the philanthropic ways of the Guinness family, there is a fun marketing/advertising exhibit, and the best part is you get a free pint at the end while enjoying 360 views of Dublin in their Sky Bar.
Following a fresh pint of Guinness, we made our way to the Jameson Distillery for a whiskey cocktail or two.
For dinner, we grabbed Chris and headed to Roberta's in Temple Bar. Normally, we try to stay away from Temple Bar because it is crowded with tourists and overpriced, but there's no denying that there are some great restaurants in Dublin's cultural district. Roberta's is beautifully designed and has an impressive bar and terrace. We had a great time with lots of laughs over drinks and pizza.
Friday, March 16th:
Just south of Dublin are the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough National Park. The area has lots of great hiking and beautiful scenery. I had been wanting to explore the area ever since we moved to Ireland, but we don't have a car and the only other way to really get down there is via guided tour. Jeremy was down to try something new with me, so I booked us two spots on the Darby O'Gill Splendour of Wicklow day tour. For only €20 per person, we got a 7-hour guided tour with the most hilarious tour guide Andrew. The tour included a couple stops on the Dublin Bay, Glendalough National Park, The Meeting of the Waters, and the Avoca Mill. Normally, the tour goes up to Lough Tay, aka Guinness Lake, and one of the spots where P.S. I Love You was filmed, but the snow from The Beast from the East has kept one of the mountain passes closed, so we were unable to go there.
There were only 14 of us on the tour, so it was a nice small group. We started the tour by visiting some of the coastal towns of Blackrock and Dalkey. Fun facts: Blackrock / Monkstown is now home to Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy and Dalkey is now home to Van Morrison and U2 guitarist David Evans. The Dublin Bay is one of our favorite places to visit with Hugo on a weekend afternoon because the views are pretty spectacular.
Next, we headed up into the mountains to Glendalough -- pronounced glen-da-lock. Only an hour outside of Dublin city centre, Glendalough seems to be in a different world. There are shades of green you've never seen before, sheep galore, and the quaintest villages along the way. We got more time than usual to explore Glendalough, which was to our benefit because Jeremy and I loved the national park. The first thing to see in Glendalough is a 6th century monastic village / cemetery. From there, the hiking paths start and lead you into the scenic mountain valley. We set out to see the Upper Lake, which was supposed to be an hour and 15 minute walk. However, we got so swept up in our walk that we didn't keep the best track of time and ended up having to run a good 7-8 minutes back to our tour bus so as not to be left behind. Who can blame us? There's waterfalls, crazy tree forests, mountains, lakes, and boulders.
Side note: I loved Glendalough so much that Chris and I rented a GoCar and drove down with Hugo the next weekend and hiked the entire path around the Upper Lake. We hit an elevation of about 1,500 ft / 400 m and hiked a total of 8 miles / 13 km. We were a little concerned if Hugo was going to be able to do it, but he was a champ and didn't slow down once. The terrain of the path takes you through pine tree forests to grassy fields to climbing down boulders to waterfalls. I mention this because I am including pictures from both the hike with Jer and the hike with Chris and Hugo.
On our way out of Glendalough, we passed through the town where Daniel Day Lewis has a house. Apparently you used to be able to see him walking his dogs alongside the road, but now he has been spending his time in city centre teaching upcoming actors at the Abbey Theatre.
The next stop on our tour was The Meeting of the Waters. This is where the Avonmore and Beg rivers come together to form the Avoca River. It has been made famous by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who wrote a famous melody called "The Meeting of the Waters".
“There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet!
Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart”
The last stop on our tour was at the Avoca Mill. The Avoca Mill was founded in 1723 and is Ireland's oldest weaving mill. Avoca is best known for its blankets. In fact, Queen Elizabeth II, will only wrap the royal babies in Avoca blankets. When she made her official visit to Ireland in 2011, she made sure to stop at Avoca to pick up a few of her favorite things. I will not leave Ireland without having bought one of these blankets!
We were able to tour the mill, shop in the store, and enjoy a piece of cake in the cafe. So so cute!
Overall, this tour was so much fun! We got to see lots, got a light jog in, and laughed our faces off with our tour guide. Highly recommended!
When we got back home, we grabbed Chris, and headed back to Temple Bar to go to a new restaurant that I had been dying to try -- Klaw Seafood Café. As the name suggests, this is a seafood joint that makes me harken back to Smack Shack in Minneapolis. The menu dons fresh oysters, lobster, fish 'n chips, and my favorite: the lobster roll. All of the seafood is locally caught. Everything was delicious and I would eat here once per week if it wasn't so expensive.
Besides fish 'n chips, the other item on Jeremy's checklist for Ireland was to see live music in a pub, so we headed to O'Sullivan's in town to catch the two-man-band that plays every Friday and Saturday night. They play traditional Irish drinking songs along with classic hits. It's a guaranteed good time at O'Sullivan's on any given night!
Saturday, March 17th - St. Patrick's Day!
Woohoo!! St. Patrick's Day in Dublin! We were so excited, got dressed in our green, and donned some of the ridiculous accessories Chris and I picked up at Euro Giant [equivalent to a Dollar Store in the States]. We had originally planned on getting to the parade by 10:00 a.m. to get a good spot, but we were a little slow moving and needed to get a sufficient amount of Jameson in our systems to brave the cold for a few hours.
The parade runs down O'Connell Street and starts on the north side in Parnell Square, so it was a quick walk for us over to the route. We were able to get a decent second row spot by getting there at 11:00 a.m. The parade started a little after noon. Mark Hamil, who plays Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, was the equivalent of the grand marshall for the parade. Liam Cunningham, the actor who plays Davos in Game of Thrones, was also in the parade. Each year, the parade has a theme and communities around Dublin will put together a creative, larger than life, performance as they march through the parade. There were some bagpipers, which was very cool, a drunk St. Patrick, but the biggest surprise was the large amount of American marching bands that were in the parade. WHY? I am not in Dublin to watch American marching band after American marching band. Sorry not sorry. But, shoutout to Lakeville South who got to march.
Here are some of the few pictures we took at the parade and a video mashup of some of our favorites.
We made it about an hour and a half at the parade and called it quits when we couldn't feel our toes anymore. We headed back home for lunch, Hugo cuddles, and to warm up before heading back out to find a good pub to watch the Ireland vs. England rugby match. This was a huge game. Not only are Ireland and England rivals, but it was Paddy's Day, and it was the last game of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament and Ireland was undefeated at this point. Nothing would make St. Patrick's Day sweeter than kicking England's bum! We ended up at a pub called O'Shea's. There was a great atmosphere, it didn't take longer than a minute to get a pint, and there were real fans to watch the match with -- it was perfect! The cherry on top was Ireland won the match! Ireland got the Grand Slam, which is going 5-0 and won the 6 Nations Championship!
After the match, we made it back home again to check in on Hugo and get some dinner. Chris somehow found his way to bed and wasn't to be seen again until the next morning. Meanwhile, Jer and I cracked open a bottle of rosé and belted the entire soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, complete with a dance off on the balcony.
Hyped up on wine and showtunes, we hit the streets. We made our way to the Dawson Lounge, Dublin's tiniest pub that David, Nico, and I had visited back in January. To my surprise, it wasn't crowded at all and lucky for us, was patroned by mostly locals. We ended up meeting and hanging with two Irish gents, who were great craic, who also introduced us to others. We spent the entire night telling stories, singing songs, and laughing a ton. We managed one more pint at O'Donoghue's and then Jeremy and I walked home in the snow-covered winter wonderland that was Dublin.
Note: there are no pictures from after the parade and probably for good reason :)
Sunday, March 18th:
Sunday was a brutal one, not only because of the hangovers, but because the snow was still falling. It was cold, snowy, and windy outside. We managed to grab brunch, but spent most of the day recovering. We had planned to go hike the Howth cliff walk, but that was not going to happen with the weather at hand. Jer and I did get out for a walk later on so Jer could pick up a few souvenirs at Carroll's and do a little shopping at Penney's, but other than that, it was the perfect day to hang around and reminisce about how great the last few days had been.
In the end, celebrating our first Irish St. Patrick's Day in Dublin was a blast. Yes, there were tons of tourists, but that's what makes it fun. It was one giant party. Everyone was in a good mood and wanted to have a good time. Plus, Jer and I found locals to hang out with at night, so we had a good balance of both worlds. There wasn't any green beer and the Liffey didn't get dyed green [I honestly don't think they could get it green, it's so dark], but Dublin lights up all of its iconic buildings in green and everywhere you looked, there were festive decorations. We also learned its St. Paddy's Day, not St. PaTTy's Day, for Saint Pádraig, the Irish name for Patrick. So Americans -- learn that one and stick to it. :) #themoreyouknow
I'm so so happy that Jeremy came to visit. It is the best when a friend comes to town because I get to feel like my true self and feel a piece of home. We packed a lot into those 4 days and we both agreed the day trip to Glendalough was our favorite.
Next up, my parents and Aunt Diane land in less than a week and I couldn't be more excited!!
Also, here is an updated look at our upcoming travels and visitors:
April 1-11: My parents & Aunt Diane will be here
April 19-22: Amsterdam to visit Hanna
May 4-7: Stockholm & Helsinki
Sometime in May: Alisa & friend Katie will be here
June 1-5: Istanbul, Turkey
July 3-17: Shawn will be here
July 18-26: Aunt Chrissy, Uncle Andy, Aunt Ann, & Uncle Andrew
August 4-12: Slovenia & Croatia -- not yet booked
Until then, Happy Spring!!
Cheers, xo
