Surviving Dublin

We had a feeling that it wouldn't be an easy undertaking to bring both a baby and toddler across the Atlantic. But that doesn't mean we weren't willing to try!

I did my best to plan a trip that would be fun for us but not too strenuous for them. Step #1 of my plan was to secure an airplane bassinet for Rosalie. At least step #1 worked out well- baby Rosie slept like an angel for almost the entire flight.

Sweet little Magnolia was thrilled to be on the airplane and really enjoyed herself... but only slept for an hour on our overnight flight. That would come back to haunt us later.

In an effort to have a calm first day after traveling all night, we decided to stay outside of the busy city. Malahide is a ritzy and relaxing seaside suburb of Dublin, and I highly recommend it!

Our hotel was lovely, and right by the water.

The whole town seemed very cute and charming.

We started out our travels by meeting up with David's parents and having a great meal that was one of our favorites of the week. At that point we maybe should have quit while ahead, but since it was only early afternoon we wanted everyone to adjust to the local time zone a bit. 

Plus I wanted to see Malahide's castle.

Rosalie is young enough to still sleep pretty well on the go, but poor exhausted Maggie started to struggle.

The castle is surrounded by a huge park. While beautiful (and made even better thanks to the perfect weather!), the walk was longer than anticipated. 

We eventually made it to the castle. But was it worth it? Probably not.... 

At that point the night of almost zero sleep hit Magnolia pretty hard. She decided she could only be carried by Mama. No stroller, no walking, no anyone else taking a turn. 

We made many attempts to convince her otherwise, but they were unsuccessful. Somehow I found the strength to carry my 30+ lb baby for most of the 30 minute walk back to the hotel (with David giving me a few short breaks while she violently thrashed and sobbed trying to get back to me).

Things were looking up after we got her to bed... until Rosalie spiked her very first fever soon afterwards. Thankfully we were able to find the Irish Tylenol equivalent, but we had an extremely unhappy baby all night.

We had plans to visit Dublin the next morning, but decided to let the girls rest for the first half of the day. Our only outing was to get a little fresh air with Magnolia and her two grandmas.

Rosie's fever was gone by the afternoon and she seemed to be acting like herself, so we decided to be brave (and maybe crazy) and take the 30 minute train ride into Dublin.

Our first stop was Christ Church Cathedral. Nearby St. Patrick's Cathedral is a bit bigger, but Christ Church is older. I knew we would probably only have time to visit one of them, and I mostly chose this one because of its unique bridge that I thought was pretty.

My favorite part of our visit was how nice the employees at the entrance were. Magnolia was grumpy and didn't want to go inside, but they told me they wanted her to come in and make all the noise she wanted to, and even that we could come back for free the next day if she didn't cheer up. I'm not positive the other visitors also wanted her to come in, but it was nice for a tired mom and toddler to hear that we were welcome.

Please note my jet lagged child in the midst of throwing herself on the floor..

Afterwards we walked over to Temple Bar St. for dinner. This is the area where people (other than us lol) go to party in Dublin! 

Temple Bar itself looked loud and crowded. We may check it out for the Irish music (and maybe dancing also?) if we come back someday with older kids, but this time we had a nice dinner at a nearby quieter pub called the Old Mill.

Our time in Dublin was much too short, but we did get to see a few more sites on our long walk back to the train station. 

My favorite things we saw along the way were the Customs House and the Ha'Penny Bridge.

We had big plans to see a lot more and were especially disappointed to miss out on Trinity College and the Book of Kells (plans derailed not by babies but by stupid pro-terrorist college students). In the end, we're just thankful we survived Dublin. :)

Poor babies.

We can't complain too much because this was our 5th trip with a baby and the first that didn't go smoothly. It's still worth it to us to travel with our babies... we already have some ideas brewing for what to do differently next time.

On the bright side, we left the capital behind the next morning with a healthier baby and a {slightly} better rested toddler. Stay tuned for more interesting Irish adventures!