The most bizarre St. Patrick’s Day parade ever

I haven’t been to too many St Patrick’s day parades because where I live up parades aren’t a thing on that day; but drunken parties are. My only exposure to St. Pat’s parades are the few years I lived in Brooklyn in New York. Brooklyn’s parade usually starts with local police and first responders and other local dignitaries, then there are bands and other groups but there is one common theme – lots of green. When my friend and I decided to meet up in Dublin it also happened to be the week of St Patrick’s day. What a fantastic thing to celebrate in the land the day originated!

There is a website and lots of tips around town to tell you the parade route and times. We just had to pick a strategy of where we would stand. We decided on a spot not too far from St Patricks Cathedral. We get there a little early but not as early as one person tells us – three hours early. I am pretty sure at three hours early most of the route would have still been a ghost town. Considering the parade didn’t get to us until over an hour after start time that would have made a very long and uncomfortable wait.

We thought we could pass the wait time with a couple of beers. We don’t know the street laws and asked the nearby police doing crowd control about alcohol consumption and they say no alcohol is allowed to be consumed on the streets *although I am sure it happened when the crowds thickened. We contemplate visiting a bar for a pint and switch off getting a beer while the other saves the spot. That plan soon falls through when we find out the no alcohol before noon rule that I thought only applied to Sundays applies to bank holidays as well. So it will be a dry parade for us. No big deal but it is a long wait for the parade so it would help pass the time. Luckily some pre-parade aerial arts entertainment starts up.

House music starts pumping from the make-shift DJ booth and aerial acts one by one flys around in front of us suspended by a large crane. The performance goes on for a long time, even leading into the start time of the parade. I read the parade pamphlet and it seems like this whole day is an ambitious combination of arts groups. I am expecting a parade with an art flair but I wasn’t expecting it to be only that. Arts is pretty much all we got.

There is the standard grand Marshall, local officials, and police and first responders along with many bands. Most of the marching bands are from high schools and colleges in the USA. We see one or two multi-cultural groups such as Venezuelans and break dancing French but just about zero Irish heritage groups: No Irish dancers, no St Patricks themed floats, and no kitschy leprechauns. All we see is costumed performances of different themes, all impressive in their own right, but none having to do with the theme of the day. The only groups remotely related are the ones that have pagan themed costumes and performances. At least those can be explained as how Ireland was before St Patrick came in and spread christianity (no he did not chase out the snakes….there are no snakes in Ireland).

It is all so confusing and poorly executed that no one really knows when the parade is over. There is no finale float. The last group we see is a biodiversity group and they come by in bicycles nicely decorated. There is no indicator that they are the last group. We wait for a few a few minutes but everyone else seems to leave so we leave too. Perhaps there was more but we aren’t sure. We head off to guiness to get lunch and get ready for our visit time there this afternoon. The parade lasts longer than we anticipated so we are starving.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

My aunt visited me in town for Thanksgiving and she really wanted to go see the Macy’s parade. I have seen it once before but not loving crowds I had little desire to go.
However I noticed a friend who is a Macy’s employee had extra tickets for stadium seating. I didn’t have to stand up the whole time? Sign me up. One catch, it will be the coldest parade on record.
We meet at 3:30 AM to get in line for the stadium seating. There are already many people in line. We try our best to keep warm.

We end up right up front at the beginning of the parade. It is lots of sitting and waiting and we are very cold. Our blankets and hand warmers are not enough. We might die out there. We watch them rehearse and tape the beginning of the parade

And as the sun comes up it gets even colder.

Luckily the parade starts. We hear all the announcements as the balloons line up.

We didn’t get to see any celebrities perform but we did see them go by in their floats.
Here is Diana Ross.

And then we reached the end and Santa. Despite the cold, the whole experience was a treat and we had a great time.

Peru 2018! Aguas Calientes

After our day at Machu Picchu we journey down to Aguas Calientes or Machupicchu town to meet for a celebratory meal and get our bags. I arrive early because I am beat and a cold is starting to take me down. I look around for some medicine and water and find a nice place to sit after wandering for only a few minutes.

Luckily where I chose to sit has a great view of a parade coming through town.

Soon it is time to meet up with the group again. There are pisco sours and there are congratulations.

We try some guinea pig. It is amazing.

For my meal I chose the trout. It was very good as well.

The tour leaders just discovered that we have a newly engaged couple (at machu picchu) in our midst. We toasted this adorable couple!

A couple drinks later and we are running with our bags to catch our train.
From the train we take a bus back to cusco. Many got beers but of course I had a headache and was already buzzing so I skipped getting more drinks.
Music was playing on the ride. We sang aloud. So much fun and great way to wind down.
2200 Steps

The next day in Cusco was a waste. I am so tired and so sick at that point. I did almost no sightseeing.
Another one to add to the “I must return” list. We are now off to the amazon.

Just another day in New Orleans

I traveled to New Orleans in January 2010 for a wedding. It was a fabulous wedding that I will talk about in another post.
One thing that is for certain in New Orleans is that you will either run into a parade or party or both. While we were there one of the parades we got to see was Buddy’s Brawds. That year the Saints finally made it to the superbowl. A local celebrity so frustrated with the Saints never making it to the superbowl proclaimed that he would wear a dress if the Saints ever did make it to the superbowl. Unfortunately Buddy Diliberto (1931 – 2005), the voice of the New Orleans Saints, died before he had a chance to make good on his promise. In January 2010 the Saints did make it to the superbowl and thousands of other men made good on that promise in his honor. It was a fun parade to watch.