St. Patrick's Day in IRELAND

St. Patrick's Day in Ireland is about a week long celebration. Don't let anyone in the States fool you, it is definitely isn't an Americanized celebration.  St. Patrick is actually an extremely celebrated figure in Ireland, with several cathedrals and monuments named after him. In my Irish art history class he comes up in artwork on several occasions.

Sam and myself started the celebrations on the Friday with a traditional St. Paddy's day pub crawl, which ended up being one of the most fun nights out I've ever had. I was skeptical at first for having to pay for a ticket to essentially follow a group around, yet it included a fair amount of drinks! Our night ranged from traditional pubs and worked their way up to bars with dancefloors. I ran into some friends at the time too! It was such a wonderful night.

Jessica!

Sam and I forever silly

Next on our St. Patrick's Celebrations included the Cork City annual parade. The weather was lovely, which was basically unheard of given the current rainy season. Sean the local butcher told me it was the first rainless St. Patrick's Day in 10 years! After a morning filled with Irish breakfast and us poorly singing traditional music, we headed down to the parade, which drew the biggest crowd I had ever seen in Cork. The food vendors weren't only just random street food vendors, but also from the local restaurants.  There was definitely a large authentic feel to this celebration. We had debated to taking a bus up to Dublin for the day to participate in those celebrations, yet we decided not as it was one of the biggest tourist magnets of the year. We definitely enjoyed the authenticity way more.

We all took a long nap after stuffing ourselves with street food and spending the majority of the day in the city centre.  We all sat at the kitchen table trying to pump ourselves back up in order to spend the night on the town. It was such a silly situation as were so disoriented from how hard we slept. We later went out to our usual bars and danced the night away. It indeed was a St. Patrick's day to remember.

The best roommates a girl could ask for!

I HELD A BABY SHEEP

The Ring of Kerry is a common tourist route along the Kerry peninsula. Two of my roommates joined me on this heavily packed weekend trip filled with drool-worthy food, picturesque landscapes, as well as baby farm animals which almost brought me to tears. This trip essentially consisted of a long bus ride along the coast of County Kerry filled with stops where we got the freedom to wander and to admire the expansive beauty.

The first day was insanely packed full of locations including the Valentia Island, Geoghan Mt & Fogher Cliffs, Killarney National Park and Skellig Experience Centre. As I'm reflecting to myself as to what to describe at each place I can't particularly chose the right words in terms of how to describe these experiences. The majority of the time was spent just taking in the vast beauty of these locations. In particular the Fogher Cliffs captivated me the most as it just gave me such a strong sense of awe. I swore I could spend the entire day just staring and walking along this area. It was a peaceful experience even though I was easily with 50 other students. The landscape was so vast it felt as if my mind could easily escape. 

I thoroughly enjoy petting animals, it is pretty much a hobby for me at this point. Just ask any of my friends, it's a low-key issue. I can barely walk down the street without stopping people to ask to pet their dogs. I got to see and pet baby cows and sheep! They bred for milking purposes, so I could rest easily at night knowing they weren't going to the butcher shop anytime soon. It was interesting listening to the farmers about the dairy and meat industry in Ireland. Apparently it was recently approved for Irish to export dairy and meat to the United States. The family I talked to was part of a family business, yet it's common in Co. Kerry to raise animals as a hobby. 

The second part of this trip was full of silliness with Sam and Katie. I don't know what was in the water in Kerry, but it inclined us to take a variety of ridiculous photos with Cahergal Stone Fort and Ballycarbery Castle. The stone fort and Castle was more adventurous as we go to climb up and down these structures, allowing for *gasp* MORE breathtaking views. It was more than fun as there wasn't really any boundaries as to what we could climb. It was a bit different than the usual structural barriers and confines of structures in the States. It was truly an adventure!

                            

Cahergal Stone Circle

I don't know why I have two water bottles.

Ballycarbery Castle

Exploring the Castle

This was the last trip I got to experience with my roommates. It was bittersweet in a way, as all we had known up to that point was how to travel with each other. Soon we all would be traveling with others or by ourselves. This trip in a way marked the halfway point through my time in Ireland. Time was moving so fast. It was scary in a sense, yet also gave incentive to treat the remaining time as precious.