Oh Hoboken. A truly interesting second experience I had with you this weekend! This weekend was Hoboken’s annual St. Pattys day celebration. From what I know about Hoboken, which admittedly isn’t much, my understanding is two of their claims to fame are their St. Pattys Day celebration and Carlos Bakery. So, as the true explorer I am I felt it was necessary that I head back over to check out what all of the fuss was about!
On Saturday, I met up with some of my friends at Grand Central around noon to head downtown, on the PATH train and to Hoboken. From the first step on the train at the 77th street station you could already spot people heading for the celebration dressed in head to toe green. Their numbers only grew until we were downtown catching the PATH. Green EVERYWHERE, people chanting, and plenty of clearly excited people. Once we made it off the PATH we linked arms and tried staying together in the sea of people trying to get out of the station.
Once on the sidewalk, we were welcomed with more green! Green balloons above the waterfront bars and street vendors capitalizing on the holiday selling everything green. It’s amazing how otherwise tacky merchandise seems logical with a holiday attached to it. Crazy green horn made out of cheap plastic? $7 would otherwise seem steep, but attach a holiday to it and suddenly it’s the best $7 you ever spent. In contrast.. you could have wished that person blowing their cheap horn the whole day had saved their money and your ears by making another decision. All comes with holidays.. especially ones that people are drinking at I suppose.
We got into the city around 1 o’clock and it was crazy for me to see mass lines waiting outside the bars already. Apparently the bar scene and alcohol is the part of the holiday that Hoboken is most known for. As for us, we stepped around the stumblers and to Washington street just in time to watch the parade. With front row seats mind you! That was one nice thing about people being so consumed with their alcohol consumption.. less people to watch the parade! It was a nice little parade though. Nothing too big, but some fun things to see. It kind of reminded me more of a parade from home which was comforting. Check out some of my pictures above!
After the parade I have to admit I wasn’t too sold on staying.. With the crazy lines outside every bar, which let me also add that most had $30-$40 covers, and the wild and crowded house parties nothing looked too appealing to take over my afternoon and evening. So I ended up just heading back across the river to New York. I had a lot of fun with the girls seeing what the event was all about and watching the parade, but I ended up feeling like I was in a never-ending bad frat house party nightmare. Nonetheless, I’m glad I at least gave it a chance and saw what it was all about.
If you’re a bigger partier than myself and enjoy a good day of day drinking though Hoboken’s St Pattys day is definitely for you!
