Pink Bunnies on the Streets of Dublin

So this last weekend was the great adventure in Dublin on the day/night of the Ireland vs France rugby match. Like I mentioned on my past blogg, Steph and I decided Friday night to book a place (the last 2 hostel beds in all of Dublin...really) and get our North American butts up to the city for one of the most hectic times. This meant that we had to catch our bus at 10 a.m. and one transfer later we arrived in Dublin around 2:30. Now let me tell you that I LOVE all the cobble-stone roads in Ireland and find them very aesthetically pleasing....but when you are on a bus for four hours and all you want to do is sleep you really start to hate them. Really, really hate them. Because we stop through all the little towns along the way (why it takes so freaking long) we do get to see a lot of the countryside and towns. There was one point where we both had fallen asleep and when I woke up I looked out the window and noticed that my green fields and clover hills were covered in snow! At this point I threw my jacket at Steph's face to wake her up and look out the window. Now see a part of me was really excited cause I had just woken up to snow outside, where it hadn't been before. This is an exciting event to a native southern Californian...but I kinda forgot it would be depressing for a Canadian who came to Ireland to escape the snow....sorry Steph!

When we arrived into Dublin we found out hostel right in the Temple Bar section and checked in. With about 2 hours before the match started the streets were filled with people and it was hard to tell if you were in Ireland or France...except for the mobs of French walking around with blue (their team color) big and furry chicken hats on (why I don't know) and all the green and Irish shamrock hats and shirts. Not to mention big pink bunnies.. but we will get back to them later.

Temple Bar basically lives up to its name. A block devoted to bars and pubs, and this is where our hostel was. Sweet huh? Now, I would recommend Temple bar for a night or so when travelling through Ireland because it's a fun and outgoing atmosphere, but it is also very touristy and priced higher than other places. If you can book a B&B in Dublin as they have more character and an authentic Irish feel (what we are doing this weekend). We decided to grab some lunch since at this point we were starving and in need of a good meal. I hate to admit it but we did eat at a more touristy place, Thunder Road, which was like a Hard Rock (ironically across the street from one) but we didn't want to mess with our already low blood sugar levels.

After eating and a bit of walking around we had about an hour before the rugby match began. So we did probably the smartest thing yet and went back and took a quick 30 minute nap. This was the only thing tat saved us from passing out somewhere between 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. Yeah, it was a late night...or I guess you could say we had an early morning start?

After napping our plan was to meet up with the guys we knew who were at the game at Croke Park, about a 15 min walk from where we were. So Steph and I decided we were going to have a mini pub crawl from Temple Bar to Croke Park. We dubbed it "drink til Croke pub crawl" and wished we could make shirts. At our second pub the game ended (IRELAND WON!) and the guys decided that they were going to come toward us so out pub crawl kinda fizzed out, but the night kept going. The streets suddenly got busy again and sure enough the blue chickens were walking around again...however much sadder than before.

We met Ollie (our Irish friend) at the O'Connell Bridge statue (see picture below) and during our waiting we saw a clan of kilts (I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!) and some straggling pink bunnies! This is when we decided we must find the bunnies by the end of the night and take a picture with them. We ventured into Hogans pub where we met up with about three other friends before continuing onto another pub/night club.

Now to really get a feel of this pub-club you need to picture a Metallica concert mosh-pit crowd on a dance floor the size of a classroom where mysterious liquids and beer bottles fall from the ceiling. By the end of the night Stephanie and I became expert 'moshers' and found out that pints should NOT be allowed and only bottles in that environment. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to come out of there alive and with both shoes but by 3:30 we were wondering back to good ol' Barnacles (the hostel).

After almost getting in a fight with 14 year old punks in the Centra (7-11 type store) we took our early morning breakfast back to the hostel where we happened to run into three of the nine pink bunnies!! We were so excited to see them but felt really bad since we clearly realized they were sad French pink bunnies. To answer those of you who are wondering why pink bunny outfits for the rugby match, the answer we got back from the bunnies was "why, not? It's funny." And that it was my little bunny friends, that is was.
I don't know these people...clearly everyone wanted pictures with the bunnies

After eating in our hallway because the kitchen and common room was closed, we passed out in out smelly hostel bed room around 4 a.m. We didn't realize how much we hated life until 9 am when we had to wake up for our free hostel breakfast (aka toast and orange juice) and check out. Once again when I looked out the window it was snowing---It snows everywhere I go with the Canadian. After breakfast the snow started to clear and we went wondering a bit through St. Stephen's Green park which was now covered in a light layer of snow, but that didn't stop the strolling of people and frolicking of ducks. This was probably my favorite location so far in Dublin, which reminded me a lot of the scenery and a bigger version of the park like area surrounding the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We came across a fountain where we both tossedin a coin and made a wish, and also found a sign which outlined all the rules and regulations while being in the park. Among some of the obvious rules was also no cursing, musical instruments or theatrical performances of any kind or dancing. This is when Stephanie and I both said each others name at the EXACT same time and started dancing where we stood. "Hey Stephanie!" *wiggle wiggle wiggle*
Imagine explaining that one to your parents as you are deported.


Exhausted and needing to head back to Dungarvan for work in the morning, Steph and I caught the bus back and didn't even notice the cobblestone road this time.