Give Me Flowers or Give Me Kilts!

I believe a photo montage is the best way to begin the explanation of my weekend...

It was a 6 Nations Rugby Weekend! Ireland vs. Scotland!

Now for the story.

My friend Liz from Bryn Mawr is spending the semester in Galway. We planned to get together this weekend in Dublin for general merrymaking. Liz called to say that she would be arriving around 1 on Friday, so I took myself into the city to meet her. While there I saw a couple people wearing kilts, but figured it was just a tour group of some kind. I then turned a corner and saw that they city was FILLED with men wearing kilts. It was like my experience with the Brazil-Ireland soccer match, only on crack. I stopped in my tracks and thought "oh...this is going to be a GREAT weekend". 

After finding Liz we walked around the city. I must admit I was a horrible tour guide because I kept muttering "ooo, another one!" anytime a group came by. Instead of pointing out my favorite Dublin sites, I pointed out anyone wearing any form of tartan I could find. Dogs included. We went back to UCD to drop off her stuff, but decided that we had to go back into the city that night in order to watch the match and be with as many kilted men as we could. Imagine our surprise when we got home and found out that the match wasn't until Saturday! We sat in silence for a second until Liz said 

"Well you know what this means.....its going to be AMAZING tomorrow"

and it was.

We went into the city around noon and it was as if Christmas had come early. Everywhere we looked groups of gorgeous men (annnnnnd not so gorgeous men, but we'll let that one go) were parading around in kilts. We sat ourselves down at a coffee shop on Grafton St and watched the entertainment. 

However kilt watching can quickly become sketchy, so we decided to head out and do some touristy things. I had asked Liz what she wanted to do 

Liz: "Well, everyone says I should go to the Guinness Factory..."

Me ".......offffffffff course...........lets...er...go...there..."

Liz:" But what I really want to do is go to Kilmainham Gaol (jail)"

I was pumped, Kilmainham Gaol was on the top of my "To Do" list. So we hopped on the bus out to the Gaol (henceforth referred to as the jail). The jail is extremely important to Irish history as it played a huge role in the 1916 uprising. It is also an amazing building. Here are some pictures

After leaving the jail we walked across the street to the Museum of Modern Art. This is housed in an old building which I heard was either the old military hospital or barracks. The museum itself is fairly small, and everything you'd expect a modern art museum to be. Lots of white walls, pretentious video art, etc. They are my new favorite place for one reason, however. They have a craft room. Thats right, you walk in and there is a closet full of paper and glitter and scissors and everything for you to go nuts with...oh and I did. Lets just say I finally have an exhibit of my paper cuttings at a museum. 

Liz works on her saran wrap flowers
Cutting paper...as per usual
My exhibit, now on display at the Dublin Museum of Modern Art
A few additional pieces of mine
With my exhibit

As much as we loved the craft room, it was approaching kick off (is that what it's called?) for the rugby match, so we had to get back to town. After careful deliberation we decided that since we were looking for as many people in kilts as we could find, the touristy sections were where we needed to be. Onward to Temple Bar!

We stopped first in the most touristy of the Temple Bar bars, Oliver St John Gogertys. Unfortunately it was filled with people who had the same idea as us. Everyone wanted to watch people watch rugby...so everyone just sort of stared at each other. It was awkward. So we went to the other touristy bar, THE Temple Bar. Here we only found 2 guys in kilts, but the atmosphere was a little more lively. So Liz and I grabbed a pint and stood around watching rugby. It was at this point that I realized I had NO clue how rugby is played. Zero, nilch, none. Also, football players are pansies. Rugby players would take hits and I would cry out WHOA! and everyone would just stare at me, as if to say "what...that? He's breathing, he's fine"

Needless to say I left that pub a rugby fan. GOOD TIMES. After the game Liz and I continued our kilt scavenger hunt, before returning home for a good nights sleep. 

Liz was leaving this afternoon, but we decided to hit up the Dublin Film Festival before she left. So one more trip to the city was in order. Once there, MORE KILTS! Ok people, did you not remember to bring pants? Our kilt hunt ended with this picture

As the guys caught us taking their picture and then we had to endure 30 seconds of awkward eye contact. Kilt hunting was officially over. Oh well. It was fun.

The movie was lame. It was called "Mr. Lonely" and was about a colony of celebrity impersonators. Do not recommend. 

Oh! Ireland won the rugby match by the way. Woooo!