Day 15 ~ Adventures in Dublin

I had a bit of trouble deciding on a title for this post. So many ways to describe day 15 in Ireland. Two other options would have been: 'Why NOT to Take Children to Europe' or 'As Green as the Rolling Irish Hills'.

Let's begin our story.

We were abruptly woken up around 6:45 am to the sound of Nate retching in the bathroom. NO!!!!!! He got sick. Very sick. Now is the time I was thankful for the hose down feature of the bathroom as he made quite a mess. So we were up. Liam was a cranky bear now because he was woken before his time and Chad wasn't feeling too hot himself. Fast forward an hour later and Chad decided to hurl too. Keith and I were dumbfounded. WHY WHY....finally we are ready to explore this amazing city and we have a cranky infant and two nauseous children. Unfair to the nth degree! Clodagh had an upset tummy the day before but we thought she had gotten carsick. Appears it was a virus that was inadvertently shared. That being said we got everyone up and dressed to see if some fresh air would improve the boys disposition. They moaned and groaned but really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. It was a truly lovely day with no rain in sight. A short distance from our hotel was a Burger King so we stopped and got the boys each a Sprite to see if that would settle their tummies. With instructions to 'sip slowly' we went in search of some breakfast for Keith and I. We found a great bakery but the boys had to leave it quickly as the smell was bothering them. I stood outside the bakery with the kids as Keith bought us some pastires. I had told the kids to keep me up to date on how they were feeling by giving me a 'number out of ten'. Ten being, I'm going to puke and One being, feeling great. At this point both boys got real panicky and said they were tens and started puking in the street! Now I was panicked, embarrassed and most of all feeling very sorry for my wee lads who were feeling like death and really only wanted to crawl back in bed. Fortunately, they both said they felt a bit better after that hurl and we decided to continue on with our walking. We said we'd walk slow and we did. I pestered them with asking how they were feeling every 5 minutes. I really didn't want a repeat of puking in the streets.

We were only a short walk from the Liffey and the below picture is the right before the bridge crossing the river.

Here we are waiting our turn to cross. You can either wait for the crossing light or walk across if safe. It's not often safe!

Note that Nathan was ill and it was written ALL OVER HIS FACE THE ENTIRE DAY! Chad perked up a bit by this point.

Here is beautiful flower stand.

The famous shopping district, Grafton Street. I didn't get a chance to peek in any of the stores. Had to keep moving or the kids would have dropped into a heap.

I didn't know that Aldo was international!!

Chad, my brave boy. The breeze kept them at about a 'six' for most of the morning.

At the end of one of the streets was a Church of Ireland. We went inside for a little peek. It was very beautiful in there.

The boys waiting outside Costa Coffee for Keith to get his fix.

The entrance to the famous 'St Stephen's Green'. It's a very old and large park in the middle of the city. We had also passed Trinity College (where the Book of Kells is on display) on the way to the park and I longed to go in and explore but it just wasn't going to happen. Next time!

Just taking a rest. The kids kept asking to go back to the hotel to lay down. I felt so bad for them. We decided at this point to start walking back for a rest.

Excellent advice. When in Ireland you must re-learn which way to look before crossing the street and looking both ways can improve your chances of staying intact greatly.

This 'live' statue was amazing! He even had pigeons landing on him. I would have loved to stop and stare for much longer but we had to keep-a-moving!

Now crossing the Liffey back to our side of town. Lots of people out and about. It's a very international city and we heard many languages. Plus you could hear an American tourist a mile away. They really stuck out!

It was windy but beautiful. So thankful it wasn't raining.

Back at the hotel room we gave Nathan a Gravol and let him have a little nap.

After about an hour we couldn't stand sitting in that hotel room anymore and headed back out. This time we crossed the Liffey to explore the Temple Bar District.

We really used those maps Cormac had provided us. They were very helpful! Nate was so doped from the Gravol he could hardly keep his eyes open!!!

Some very old establishments.

If you like to party this is the place to be in the wee hours.


We poked our noses in all the streets and alleyways. It was great fun aside from the constant complaing of not feeling well coming from the gang. Late afternoon we headed back to the hotel and let everyone have another nap. At this point Keith and I were desperate for dinner. We thought it wouldn't be fair to drag the kids out yet again and just ate at the hotel bistro. Chad said he was hungry now so we ordered him some fruit and an omlette which he mostly ate without a problem. Nate picked at a few pieces of fruit and had water. The virus hit him much harder. Keith had some lamb stew and I had lasanga. The lasanga of Ireland is different but very tasty. They use a Bechamel sauce, not tomato sauce. And it came with chips of course!!!!

We went back up to our hotel room and tossed the kids all to bed. Unfortunately we couldn't meet up with Cormac and Jessica like we wanted to that evening. We just prayed tomorrow would be a MUCH better day.