Since we had 3 weeks off for Winter Break, we decided to make the most of it and visit Europe! Part 1 of our travels took us to Dublin to meet up with Rob, Kathy, and Jake. We haven’t seen Kyle’s side of the fam since summer, so we were pretty pumped.
Flights out of Cairo often leave in the middle of the night or a stupid early time of morning, so our expeditor picked us up from our apartment at 1:45 IN THE MORNING for a 4:45am flight. I have no idea what we were thinking when we booked these tickets. On the plus side, we arrived in Dublin with lots of time to still enjoy the day.
First thing on the agenda – enjoy the basket of goodies and a stocked fridge that our Airbnb host left for us. By far the best host we have ever had!
The kids were especially excited about all the chocolate. Kyle and I were pumped to have some non-Egyptian wine and Irish beer!!!
Next on the agenda was to cozy up in the comfy beds and catch up on some rest.
The next day, Rob and Kathy were set to arrive. Jake would come the day after. However, if you asked Kyle, he would have told you that Jake was set to arrive the same day as Rob and Kathy because this is what he promised the children and they woke up with vigor on the planned Saturday morning only to find out that instead of arriving in 20 minutes, Uncle Jake would be arriving in 24 HOURS and 20 minutes. After that colossal letdown, we sought to make amends by taking the kids to a local park.
Just waiting for our family to arrive!
Finally Rob and Kathy arrived! And then Jake got to town! We celebrated by taking them to a pub, of course! While the adults enjoyed the pub menus very much, there was much opposition when it came to the children. We used lots of bribery and resorted to packing crackers in my purse to keep everyone happy. Hot chocolate also helped. Pretty solid health food.
Cheers to Guinness!
Speaking of Guinness, another fun outing was the Guinness Factory, though the kids said that was their least favorite. It was more like a museum meets a brewery meets a giant gift shop and each time we thought the tour was almost over, there was another floor to explore… so I see what they mean.
They were troopers.
A Guinness tasting? Don’t mind if I do!
Some of our CAC friends happened to also be in Dublin while we were there, so we met up at Guinness and had a great little time but it was SO bright in that room I wish I had packed my sunglasses.
Another super exciting outing was when I spent millions of dollars on a bus tour to see the Cliffs of Moher and it was completely socked in with fog. I was so pissed.
If you look closely, you can see the cliffs in the background. Just kidding. You can’t see them at all. There were no cliffs to see.
Blakely was obviously disappointed to have spent hours on a bus to finally get off the bus in a perpetually drizzly cloud of fog like what the hell?
Thankfully our lovely family did not say anything mean and were very positive about the whole experience. After (not) seeing the Cliffs of Moher, we set out for Galway. Since I am no stranger to disappointment whilst traveling, I set my expectations fairly low.
And the two hours we had in Galway were lovely! I treated it like a pilgrimage since my mom’s side of the family has Joyce ancestors and I like to pretend that James Joyce and I are long lost cousins.
Other fun Dublin components included Grafton Street, St. Stephens Green, the Dublinia Viking Museum, the Hop On/Hop Off Bus, and Trinity College.
Dublin was a wonderful way to start our break and reconnect with the fam! Next time we visit we’re hoping to actually see those elusive Cliffs of Moher.
