Top o' da mornin' to ye

Paddy's day started out with a local snowboarding sesh, followed by a meal with Paul's mates Avi, Barry, Mark and Julia in which I ate easily the MOST sushi I've EVER had in one sitting.

I've probably got a live aquarium in my belly right now.

This was quickly followed by a raucous night in a nearby Irish pub listening to some Canadian singer-songwriter belting out a mixture of U2 , Thin Lizzy and Scottish highland jigs (?!?) surrounded by scantily clad drunken locals throwing back green-dyed beer.

Paul and I had a Poland vs Ireland competition, to see who could outdrink the other.. I think we ended up drinking so much we pretty much forgot about the race toward the end of the night! The hangover on Sunday wasn't nice at all!

I was somewhat overwhelmed by the attention I was receiving that night tho.. being the only legit irish person in the bar (probably)
Ah the other lads weren't THAT jealous cuz most of the gals were crazy and drunk

Toronto was generally quite insane on the 17th.. normally conservative Torontarians just let loose and let out all the pent up energy they usually bottle up.. so there were lots of random shrieks to be heard in the subway etc...

I went to the parade by myself on Sunday at 12pm (18th! .. they had the st paddy's parade the day AFTER for some reason... prolly because most people would be drunk off their ass on 17th and trying to set fire to floats).. Paul crashed out till around 6pm!

I gotta say.. the parade was nothing particularly amazing. just a lot of local majorettes and the police force/ firefighters, etc.

There were a lot of Irish and county-level flags though... and most counties had their own float (although no Leitrim and Wicklow ones though.. sorry folks!). There was definately a lot of pride in the air and it rubbed off on me. It was cool how an Irish parade could be transformed to include all the communities in Toronto... there was even a Falung Gong march!

The parade went down Yonge Street (pronounced "Young") which is apparently the longest street in the world since it starts at the bottom of the city beside the lake and stretches for a couple of hundred kilometres north of Toronto city.