St. Paddy's Day!

Hello people! So...yesterday we celebrated a national holiday of Ireland's called St. Patrick's Day. It was lots of fun. We actually started out our St. Paddy's Day celebration Tuesday night at out neighbor, Katie's, apartment. She made traditional Irish stew for us and invited some Irish people over to dine with us. The stew was delicious and the company was grand!

Around 4 am on St. Paddy's morning Chelsea's friends finally arrived from London to celebrate with us! So they of course settled in and got some sleep right away because we had an early morning. Around 9 am the ten of us from Dunaras journeyed out to the other side of town where we had "Eggs and Kegs" with some friends. Num! They cooked us eggs and toast and we had some mimosas and Irish cider. After a fun morning of chatter and food the even larger group of us walked into town for the parade.

The parade....apparently the American rule of whoever is there first gets the best view does not necessarily apply in Ireland. There were several groups of people (mostly mothers with their children) who thought that they could push and shove ahead of us. Annoying. There is a reason we got there a half hour early....but we have learned and next time we will just show up whenever we feel like it and shove our way to the front. After the parade we stopped at McDonald's where we thought it would be extremely appropriate to enjoy a Shamrock Shake! NUM!

After a full morning and afternoon we took a few hours back home to rest up for the evening. We headed out to the pubs around 9:30 and had great fun with great friends. All in all, I couldn't have imagined a better St. Paddy's!

With LOVE from across the pond!

What can I say...?

St. Paddy's day is in two days. Awesome? I think so...

My Birthday!

So last Monday I turned 21, and it was pretty spectacular.

We got up early in the morning so we could do a day adventure to one of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. The Aran Islands are located off of the west coast of Ireland, not far from Galway. In order to get there we took a 45 minute bus ride to the ferry port. From there we took the ferry to the island which was about another 45 minute journey. The island was beautiful! We rented bikes and explored! Fun Fun!



So....my birthday.....we started the evening out by walking down to a pub called Monroe's. The whole Dunaras gang came out to help me celebrate! My first drink as a 21 year old was actually a shot at a neighbor's apartment on the way to the pub. The entire apartment area was crazy on Monday night to kick off a charity event called RAG (Raise a Grand) Week. Basically, students from NUIG binge drink all week and proceeds go to charity. Another reason why Monday night was sure to be grand! Everyone was out! ...So where did we leave off...oh yes, Monroe's. At Monroe's Katie and Chelsea asked the bartender to make me a special birthday drink. She did and it was really good. With my drink, Katie and I split bacon cheddar chips (fries). NUM! After Monroe's we went to a few pubs and ended the last couple of hours of the night at a place called BAR 903. Overall, the night was a great success! And, I celebrated my 21st in Ireland, could it get much better?