Killarney and St. Patrick's Day

I am so late with this post again, but I guess it is not a surprise to anyone anymore :D. So, St Patrick's day was over a month ago, March 17th. It is a public holiday here, and so is the next day (probably because everyone would be too hungover to get to work that day). It is both cultural and religious day, and dear Wikipedia told me that it is celebrated in more countries than any other national holiday! The dude was not even Irish, some say he was Welsh, some that he was Roman born in Scotland. He was kidnapped to Ireland, spent six years here, and then later returned to Ireland to convert the lousy pagans to oh so amazing christianity. And slaughtered a lot of people naturally. And that guy is now an Irish saint? The legend tells that he died on March 17th. The legend also says he got rid of snakes here, but there has never been snakes here. Good place for me considering my snake phobia.

The celebrations for that day started in US, and in Ireland it started in 20th century, so even the celebration of that day is not Irish! On that day it is tradition to wear shamrocks or something green, every town has a parade with marching bands, fire brigades and various charity organisations. I went to see the parade here in Limerick of course. It is also tradition that it's bloody freezing cold that day!!!

Anyway, here's some pics of the parade

After the parade we (I was with my flatmate) went to St Mary's cathedral, and for the first time in my life I actually stood in line to get in a church :D. The reason for that was Museum of the Moon, made by artist Luke Jerram. That was very impressive, worth waiting in line! After that we hit the pub for a couple of drinks :).

Here's a couple of pics of it

A week after that I did a Sunday day trip to Killarney, a very beautiful town a couple of hours bus ride from Limerick to south west. It is a small town, tourism is the main industry and it has perfect location on Ring of Kerry. It is known for the national park and the garden in the city centre, and also for jaunting cars. That is the best way to see the garden, but I actually haven't done that (yet). I just walked around the town and the garden, had lovely lunch… my kind of Sunday! Definitely a place worth visiting!

And here's some pics

There, finally done this post. I still have 2 more posts to do, and I am leaving to Central Asia on Saturday! Next post will be about another day trip, to Kilrush and Kilkee, and then Ring of Kerry. Stay tuned... :)