Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Dublin, Ireland
Yes, that's Paddy's with dds, not Patty's. Apparently Patty with tts is a girls name, which would just be insulting to dear St. Patrick, patron Saint of Ireland. Anyhow, here is a little snapshot of my Irish St. Patrick's Day.
People were crowding onto statues to get a height advantage to watch the parade. Anna and I had to walk a long way before we found a suitable vantage point. This is near the start, on O'Connell Street by the spire, and it was mobbed.
Well, really, the whole city was mobbed. Absolutely saturated with people. Even on Dame Street, where we ended up, there were people standing on window ledges to get a good view.
...And the parade. Nothing like American parades, with simple boxy floats and people smiling and waving. It was artsy, interpretive, and kind of confusing. This might be a firebird?
If you look over the viking hat, you'll see flamingo dancers on stilts. Don't know why.
But the flamingos liked to come say hi-- this one bobbed its head right over the top of us.
Fluffy's girlfriend, perhaps? A giant, pink, 3 headed dog, with moving, blinking heads.
Post-parade, the slow movement of the masses of people was insane. Everyone was trying to get somewhere, no one was going very fast. The pictures don't do justice to all the green-- it was like a sea of kelly green people.
The ferris wheel set up outside of Marion square park. It looked really cute all lit up at night, but apparently it stopped traffic for days. Guess its worth it for the Paddy's Day festival.
St. Steven's Green Shopping Center was just one of many buildings that switched to green lights for Paddy's day. In fact, even the ambulance had flashing green lights in honor of the occasion.
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