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St Patrick’s Day!

This post is a bit delayed as UCD is currently on spring break and I’ve been taking the time to travel to both Italy and France! That’s a post for a different time though. Today’s blog is going to be about the joy it was to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. I chose to study abroad in Dublin because of the amazing city, the 1/8 Irish in me, and because UCD has a great English program (i.e. what I’m majoring in). But a bonus for studying abroad in the spring was that I would be in the homeland for St. Paddy’s Day! Before we even left for the semester, my friends and I had planned to meet in Dublin on March 17 to celebrate. Coming from Holy Cross, so many of us have Irish heritage and what better way to pay homage, since we couldn’t be on The Hill, than by being in the Emerald Isle itself?

Soon enough, March 17 was coming up quickly and we were set to have visitors for the big day! I can’t believe how lucky I was to have my best friends join me. I would have to say it’s the luck of the Irish indeed. We had people visiting from Oxford, Florence, Paris and Barcelona! It’s sadly a little bit true that the U.S. has Americanized St. Patrick’s Day so the city was overrun with Americans and other study abroad students. It was the most crowded I have ever seen Dublin. Regardless, it was such a unique experience to see people from all over the world coming to The Island to celebrate.

The roads closed up pretty early for the parade so we had to make sure we got into the city in the a.m. We got all decked out in green with shamrocks painted onto our faces and burrowed our way through the crowds, packing onto the sidewalk to watch the parade. What an incredible thing to say I’ve done. When the parade ended, swarms of people made their way to the pubs where we spent the rest of the day. Listening to live Irish music, chatting with friends, meeting new people and overall just celebrating. The Irish know how to have a good time for sure. Sláinte sláinte sláinte!
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Paris!

Even though Ireland never ceases to amaze me, it has been a dream come true to travel around other parts of Europe while studying abroad. In my last blog post, I had just visited England and Northern Ireland. But most recently, I took a weekend trip to the City of Love! Paris was incredible. I was anxious about traveling in a country where I didn’t speak the language, but I got the hang of basic words and phrases quite quickly. It certainly helped that my travel buddy took French for 12 years though.

We went in with very little planning, all we knew was the hostel we were staying at and that we wanted to see as much of the city as possible. Paris is huge! Way bigger than I thought. But even so, we packed a week’s worth of sights into just two days. When we arrived at the airport Thursday night, we had plans to meet up with a friend of ours who is studying abroad in France. I have to say, those Metro lines are quite tricky, but after just a few hiccups, we found our way to a restaurant in the third arrondissement. French food is incredible. I swear I did not have one even mildly sub-par meal while there. The first night started with a bang: tagliatelle with roasted vegetables.

Our first full day began bright and early. We got up and out for our first stop: Notre Dame. Although it’s still being reconstructed after the tragic fire in 2019, we were still able to gawk from the outside. We even had breakfast at a little cafe nearby. I got the most amazing crepes that I have ever been graced with.

The next item on the bucket list was taking an hour-long walk along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. Buying tickets ahead of time made them relatively cheap and so we were able to take the elevators straight to the very top. I was in awe of the view around us. Paris sprawls for miles, this is when I realized just how big the city actually is. I felt as though I could see Ireland from where I was standing; the buildings rolled out for miles. It’s so lovely that the Tower remains the tallest structure in the city. Where New York City has a skyline of scrapers, Paris’ is the Tower and a line of buildings composed of spectacular architecture.

After the Tower, we grabbed some lunch and went to Musée d’Orsay to see the impressionists. I felt like a little girl all over again looking at Degas’ paintings of the ballerinas. From there it was time for a reset back at the hostel before going out to a late dinner. Paris is so alive into the latest hours of the night, it’s comforting knowing how much there always is to do.

Day three consisted of lots more walking as we explored. A bit of Paris shopping, popping by the Louvre, the Musée de l’Orangerie to see Monet’s lilies, and then the Eiffel Tower at night! The food on this day may have been even better than the last two because for breakfast I had a croissant and a ham omelet that genuinely melted in my mouth. I didn’t know eggs could do that! Lunch was a traditional French dish: beef bourguignon and dinner was a heavenly salad auvergnate.

Genuinely, there aren’t enough words to describe how magical the city of Paris is and I’m so lucky to have been able to casually pop over there for the weekend. Traveling through Europe is a priceless experience. Cheers!