Location: Dublin, Ireland
Our slice of the St Patrick's Day action in Dublin was brought to us by the Fanatic's tour company. They run short trips for Aussies to sporting and festival events around the globe, evidently in true backpacker style.
Instant friends were made as we unlocked the door to our ten-bed mixed dorm room. The craic came rolling in as we changed into our souvenir tour t-shirts which most of the group would wear religiously for the following three days, regardless of the amount of Guinness, cider and other unmentionables that had been spilt on it from the previous night.
Modelling the new fashion on the first evening we headed out to Temple Bar joining in the pre-festival party amongst the tourists and locals. 
Squished like sardines, had it been any other bar, in any other country, at any other time, I would've packed up my bat and ball. This was St Paddy's weekend, in Ireland! We checked out out the drinking skills of our young Aussies. An Irish Car bomb (3/4 pint Guinness stout,1/2 shot Bailey's Irish Cream, 1/2 shot Jameson Irish Whiskey), downed in under ten seconds by one of our group was put to shame as a local opened his gullet and downed a beer in under four!
And so continued the rest of the weekend, drinking and dancing from the early evening
to the wee hours of the morning. The routine was only broken with visit to the Guinness Factory (free beer included), a walking tour of the city and a hustle amongst the crowd as we waited for the St Patrick’s Day parade on the Monday, only to give up due to the lack of view and the call of the closet pub.It was a messy weekend. With the busy crowds, it was unfortunate to find ourselves too freqeuntly in the up-wind position of the many people who were on the "Guinness-Only" diet. We’re old enough to know that it’s not “whoever smelt it, dealt it”, and it would’ve been good if some people had remembered that it’s not a competition, it’s not funny and it bloody stinks!
Item 20: St Paddy's Day? CHECK!
