St. Patty's Day & a Trip to Scottishland

Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts? TBA
New Years Eve in NYC? TBA
Mardi Gras in New Orleans? TBA
Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland? CHECK!

A few bus loads of students from UL and I woke up bright and early the Thursday of St. Patty's day to make the journey from Limerick to Dublin in order to catch the parade. When we arrived, the streets were littered in green and I felt like a little kid going to Disneyland for the first time. Except, I feel like that every time I go... even if my wallet doesn't agree.

 O'Connell Street, the main street in Dublin

 Me, Emily, & Kelly waiting for the parade to start... hour 1 of 3.

 Enthusiasm.

 The parade consisted of... I have no idea, really. The strangest artistic costumes and creations from each county.

 You see what I mean? What's worse, no eye or one that is glass half empty?

 Of course dancing skeletons would be followed by a big pink dog with two heads, that's only logical. ?!?!

 Next, we took a tour of the Guinness factory. It was a lot of fun & packed with people dressed up and some of the marching bands and bag pipes from the parade even came in and played on the main floor.

 "Everyone's Irish on March 17th"

Paige, who I mentioned is my extremely good friend who is studying in Florence but was visiting Dublin for her spring break, & me.
Sad story short, we missed each other by 5 minutes meeting up before the parade and then a fat list of other things went wrong, including her forgetting my cell phone number and busses not working out, delaying our reunion until the following evening. Come to find out, we were about a 5 minute walk away from each other the  entire night of St. Patty's. It was just too good to be true, right? At least we got to spend one night together and I'll see her in Florence in less than a month!

On to... Edinburgh, Scotland!
John, Emily, & I bought our tickets weeks ago and finally the day came this past weekend. We also got the chance to couch surf! If you've never heard of it, its a way for people traveling to connect with people living in the area, and vice versa. Some people may be free for a coffee or tour of the town, but others are even gracious enough to offer their homes! So after attempting to couch surf around Ireland and in Sweden and nothing working out, a super sweet American girl studying in Edinburgh offered us space in her flat. It makes traveling an entirely new experience and it was so fun just hanging out with her and her friends and walking around the city.

 In front of Edinburgh Castle

 It wasn't as pretty as Irish castles, but shhhhh, don't tell Scotland.

 This gentleman here immediately asked us if we've seen "Pineapple Express" after he learned we were American. Apparently, he went to see it with his mother and just loved it. You don't say?

 Saturday we climbed Arthur's Seat, a hill in the city that provides a panoramic view from the top. This is a view looking back while climbing up.

 John at the top, probably pointing out his house in Illinois.

 Here's to girl power hour and not packing any exercise gear, because of course I own a plethora of that.

The only semi-decent picture of us 4.

Its been a busy last couple of weeks and every second of it has been on a scale ranging from some sort of enjoyable all the way to absolutely amazing. What's next? "SpRiNg BrEaK 11'!!!!!!" Otherwise known as Easter break and reading week (a week of no classes left open for students to travel... er, study). Emily, Kelly, & I have Rome, Florence, Venice, (hopefully Switzerland), and Paris on our minds and on our itinerary. Then back to school for 2 weeks of finals and then 2 weeks to travel around with my roommate Lauren (who I got to see in London) and .... dun, dundunDUN... my other roommate Vanessa who is planning on flying out early before studying in Dublin for the summer!! I am so, so thankful for this opportunity and am excited for every single stinkin second.