St. Patrick's Day in Cork

My St. Patrick's Day experiences have never been all that exciting, I don't think I've ever gone out for one or had a green beer or anything...but this year I decided that since I live in Ireland, it might be a good time to make an effort.

In the early afternoon on St. Patrick's Day we went downtown and waited patiently for the parade to start. This float was my favorite (The Mighty Zeus!)
The whole of downtown was covered with stalls selling food, elaborate hats, and various keepsakes. It's the busiest I've ever seen downtown Cork.

(Quick nerd moment: much of Cork city used to be underwater, and this street was where the old harbor was. The diagonal street lamps you see are meant to represent the ships waiting in the harbor.)

After the parade we went to a pub, and watched Wales win the Six Nations rugby tournament, and later watched Ireland's team get throttled (sounds depressing, but was still really fun). My friends and I went out to dinner at a great Tapas Bar (not a very Irish tradition) and rounded out the day with a few homemade Irish coffees. All in all, a great day :)

*All photos courtesy of my friend Tacy Kennedy, who said I could steal her pictures when I discovered I'd forgotten my camera...