Our first few days in Dublin

Today is January 1st, 2013 and we have now been in Dublin for 5 days. We have spent our first few days settling in to our temporary home and seeing some of the sights. We are staying in a lovely home in the southern seaside suburb of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) while we look for something more permanent over the next week or so. The house used to be the home of Ronnie Drew, who was a member of the famous Irish group The Dubliners.

Pia and Ella at our front door....

 

and in our backyard.

On our first full day in Dublin, we caught the DART (the train) into the city and had a walk around Grafton St (one of the main shopping streets) and went looking for squirrels in St. Stephen's Green. Unfortunately, we didn't see any but we have been assured that they are here, so the search will continue! St. Stephen's Green is a lovely park in the city. It used to be a place for public hangings and whippings but fortunately today there are much more pleasent activities like feeding the ducks, birdwatching and playing in the playground - all of which Pia and Ella enjoyed! 

 

Pia and Ella in St. Stephen's Green, and below, some views of the park and the playground. As you can see, it is cold, but at least we have seen some sun!

We have also spent some time looking around the suburb of Dun Laoghaire itself. It's about 20 minutes on the train from the city centre and we are staying quite close to the harbour and the shops. Being Christmas, there is still a Christmas fair on selling all kinds of food and with rides for kids. We seem to be able to find a merry-go-round every time we travel!

 

There is a lovely walk around the harbour - there were fireworks here last night but sadly jetlag still has us falling asleep at about 8pm so we missed that excitement!

We have been quite lucky with the weather so far - it is cold but we have had some sun each day (along with a little rain!) The hardest thing to get used to it how long it takes to get light in the mornings. Below is the view from our backyard at 8 o'clock in the morning - and yes - that is the moon still shining brightly! The first morning I woke up thinking it was still the middle of the night only to discover it was 8am!!

 

On New Year's Eve, we headed to the city again, this time to visit the Natural History Museum, only to find it closed on Mondays! Fortunately, the National Gallery was just next door so we spent an hour or so visiting the Irish Galleries and the girls did the kid's art trail. On the way home, the girls enjoyed a cuddle with a leprechaun and we enjoyed our first visit to an Irish pub for a new year's eve drink! Ella also managed to chip her front tooth bumping into a pole on the train so that now means a trip to the dentist will be one of our first activities for 2013!! Happy New Year!