I'm in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day!

Today was an incredible day! I got up early and walked down to the bus to meet Steph. She greeted me with a St. Patrick's Day gift, a Kit Kat bar! There aren't many candy bars here that we are familiar with, so it was a great gift. The wrappers look different, but they still taste delicious.

We rode the bus in to Dublin to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade! It was crazy! There were so many people shoulder to shoulder walking around and celebrating. Some had their faces painted, some were dressed like leprechauns, there were lots of funny hats, some were wearing leis and boas; almost every person was dressed up in some sort of way.

Steph and I weren't well prepared, neither of us had any sort of green on. We felt very out of place so we decided to get shamrocks painted on our faces for 2 Euro. The girl who painted them was very kind and asked us some questions about America.

We walked through several shops that sold St. Patrick's Day gear, but most of the other stores were closed due to the holiday. There were some people selling things on the streets. Some people were trying to get us to donate to "kitty cats in need." When we said, "No, sorry" one of the guys said, "What would St. Patrick do, eh?" I thought that was pretty funny. There were some bands playing and people performing several types of entertainment on the street.

We made our way up to the parade route and waited for about an hour for it to start. It was like a concert at The Murat. People were SO close and trying to nonchalantly shove their way up closer, but Steph and I stood our ground! We were about 4 rows back. There were lots of interesting things and it was very high energy. My favorite were the bagpipes:) A few people got lots of cheers as they rode by. I think they were some sort of important people, but Steph and I couldn't figure it out.

After the parade we were really hungry, but there wasn't much open. We had to settle for McDonald's again because it was the only thing open. Everyone else in Dublin seemed to have the same idea. The line was extremely long and there were guards keeping track of how many people were inside to ensure that the maximum capacity was not passed. It was a madhouse, but the cheeseburgers were good:) On our way home we took the "Dart" instead of the bus. This is sort of like a subway, but above ground. There are several beautiful views along the way. We were exhausted by this time! Then we walked to the Middleton's to spend the rest of the evening. We had to walk through Killiney to get there. It's a small village with gated homes. It's beautiful and so neat. This is the community Bono lives in, but we didn't see his home.

When we got there Diane and Nola were making costumes for Girl's Brigade. Diane made us some really good omlettes. We sat and talked with Diane and Steve for a long time. It was a nice close to a wonderful day. The weather was beautiful, everything went perfectly, and all-in-all this is the best day I've had so far.

A few random things:

-I have noticed that there is quite a bit of cussing on TV. I only watch TV in the evening, so I'm not sure if it's allowed during the day. I have heard about every curse word imaginable.

-Public restrooms and trash cans are very hard to come by. There is a lot of trash on the ground too, my guess is because there is no where to put it!

-People often don't pick up their dog's poop in public. It's everywhere in some areas.

-Trash is called "rubbish" or "litter"