Our excitement for Dublin was largely based around
the fact that we would be staying with another single parent unit through 'couchsurfing'.
For those of you who don't know, this is an
amazing worldwide community where you can host and/or surf with people from
various backgrounds from all over the World (it is the way to travel, dahlings)
see more at www.couchsurfing.org We discovered it just in time for our Latin
American backpacking adventure, and have not looked back!
Our hosts
were lovely. I did not have any expectations about the Irish manner, but I
think if I did, Deidre would have exceeded them. Deidre was an absolute Gem;
her soft Irish accent made us feel all cosy inside, and when she smiled she
reminded me of Anna Friel. On arrival she made us feel at home straight away
and packed J off to bed with thick toast and hot chocolate.
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| Howth |
The next day myself and J, having made no
particular plans, headed off to Howth, a small fishing village, with Deirde and
her delightful four year old daughter Laine. Howth is a pretty little place,
which has its very own natural attraction; a seal couple who can be spotted at
the harbour, if you look closely. There are plenty of little coffee and ice
cream shops, and of course, plenty of fresh seafood (I sampled the Calamari,
but there was fresh fish and chips, and
a good few fishmongers too).
To get around Dublin, your options are really the tram,
a bus, or the DART. Children over 5 have to pay.
That evening we had a fun Barbeque and the girls
enjoyed each others company. We were the first couchsurfing family to stay with
Deirdre, which felt quite special, and I could hear J imitating the Irish accent,
which I found adorable!
On the Sunday, I took J into Dublin city to have a
look around. In truth, there is not much specifically for children that we
could not have done elsewhere (think zoos and parks), but we did walk around
Temple street, and had a nice enough meal in a commercialised Irish pub (I
proudly ordered my first ever Guinness).
A
Although Dublin city is largely for
shopping and drinking, it was fun to walk along the river, crossing the many
bridges, and to see the castle. The castle has a fun modern twist, and may be
really interesting to explore, but after our hours of traipsing around the
city, we simply went there to sit on the grass and relax in the sun.
On our last day we were genuinely sad to be leaving
Deidre and Laine; they had made us feel so at home, and Deidres Irish
hospitality had not ceased; she made us a beautiful packed lunch to take away.
The night before, I had looked at options for our
last day; we desperately wanted to see the irish countryside, but the buses did
not fit in with our flights, and I realised I should have gone to do that the
day before, and that perhaps in the future, as I have said many times before, I
ought to plan these trips a little more! So, we decided to take the DART down
to Greystones, where there was reportedly a nice beach. It was a lovely beach
but it was painfully windy that day.
To our good fortune, we stumbled upon a
local fete, and spoke with a few lovely locals.
Then we went to Bray, a couple
of stops down, to look at another beach, and get some greasy salt and vinegary
chips in paper. We stumbled across a quirky market there and I entertained the
thought of getting off at each stop to see what else we could come across.
The journey from Dublin to
Greystones on the DART really displays the beautiful coastline, and was
particularly pretty as it was a gloriously sunshiny (but windy) day. I caught
older local passengers reminiscences of when they used to visit the seaside as
children, and the inevitable comments of how times have changed, and I
reflected upon how often you get a real glimpse of history not from a museum,
book or documentary, but from the people who lived that history. It is there
that you see and feel the emotion of the time and the land, and you really know
a place.
In short.... we loved Ireland and need a much longer visit soon to see the beautiful countryside!!
