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Published: August 9th 2007
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(ive have updated this blog at the end incase you have already read it)So after another loong bus journey i arrive in Brisbane on St Patricks Day at around 1pm. Now anyone who knows the traditions of this day especially to an irish person will know that this is extremely late in the day to try to get into a bar back home but since we were in Brisbane i thought it might be a bit easier.....eh WRONG! I ran down to the hostel (passing lots and lots of people of every race and culture dressed in green singing and laughing which just made me run even faster) flung the bag in the door, threw on the ireland jersey and was back out on the street running towards the city centre. When i got to the main pedestrian street it was madness....there were 1000s of people all over the place in green wigs and hats and your usual paddys day stuff.
So i arrived at the first irish bar...the queue outside it was small....only about 20 meters long (and this is at 2pm)!!! It took about 40 mins to get in and another 40 minutes to get to the bar
Paddys day Irish club
and a get that first beer. I had to choose a Harp beer as my first being from dundalk and all than although 1 Harp a year is quite enough thank you very much!!! But there was way too many people here and the heat was suffocating so off i headed to the Irish Club of Brisbane. There were about 3000 people in here. It was madness. There were 2 bands playing and everyone had a good 3 or 4 hour start on me. I liked it here coz although it was packed it was full of genuine irish people out celebrating. Alot of old people who had left our shores many decades ago and their families were all here. It was packed but there was a great atmosphere and it wasnt just another bar of people seeing who could get the drunkest.......well eh maybe there were one or two in here also! Then it was off to another Irish bar. This was packed again and everyone was partying and trying to out do eachother with the most rediculous green outfit they could find. In here i bumped into Deidre and Sarah from dublin who i
travelled with for a
Roo
few days back in vietnam and cambodia. It was great to see them and yet again another mad coincidence on meeting people on my travels. So we spent the night partying and having the craic. For a while i was getting an earfull from some guy who said he used to play for the Marys(a team from ardee near to where i live) and he kept going on about how deadly he was and how he used to batter everyone on the Glyde Rangers team(my local team), i just rolled my eyes to the heavens and told him that even though i had played against all his team mates i had never heard of him before which he wasnt too impressed with but it was all in good spirits.
Come midnight most of the city had gone to bed after a loooong day partying. Brisbane was a great city to celebrate St Patricks Day.
The next day i shool off the groggy head by visiting a Koala and kangaroo sanctuary which was pretty cool. I only spent 2 days here but it was a city where i definately could have spent more time exploring as
there was a really good
Paddys day
buzz about it.
Another over night trip later i was in Byron Bay for a 3 or 4 days. This is basically another party town with surfing included. The beach was nice and surfers were everywhere. I took a "boogie board" out for a while until i nearlly ripped my nipples off and decided surfing wasnt for me. At night every was going nuts in Cheeky monkeys where standing anywhere else except on the tables is not allowed. It was good craic there. On one of the nights we were all playing cards when a frong jumped from the tree above us and landed right on the table......you should have seen the scramble some of the girls made....youd wet yourself! We also visited Nimbin.....a hippy town where you could openly buy weed, hash and that sort of stuff over the counter basically. I dunno how the law works in these places but it was a mad little town where everyone was feckin stoned. I asked an old woman who was running a cafe and looked as if she had been here quite a few years for a taosted sandwhich........it took a feeckin
hour to make!!!! There was nothing we
Paddy in the arcades
could do but laugh.....
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