It is off to Ireland we go...........

We are off to Ireland

Today we were up bright and early to catch the metro to the main train station and then the bus to the airport.  We were at the airport within the hour and checking through to catch our flight on Aer Lingus.  We only had one “checked” bag, but then I got asked to put my carry-on bag into checked as the flight was very full - ok I said!!!!

Flight was great and we arrived in Dublin with ease………and what a great place to be! 

As we were coming through passport control the lady who let us into the country was great, saying she had been over to New Zealand in 2011 for the rugby and loved the country.  When Karl said he was here for both work and leisure, she asked what conference he was attending and when he said it was  Metabolomics  - she looked blank, then looked at us and said “send him away” - very funny!

Right now we were off to get our bags, our big bag was the 2^nd bag out - then my little one arrived about 15 minutes later!!!!! I think next time I will keep my cabin bag with me in the cabin!  We headed straight out to find the man with a sign saying “Karl Fraser” - he was not hard to see standing at around 6 foot 6 inches! He said “it was a pleasure for us to meet him” and that really set the scene for our ride to the check in location and then to our apartment.  He was very funny - gave us shite about the All Blacks (and him being from Ireland - really!!!) - we gave it back pretty well! He swore like a trouper, and generally had good “craic” for the whole trip, particularly at Karl’s expense about his job and conference.  Mum particularly was in fits of laughter.  The drive into town was fabulous, today there is the “Pride Parade” occurring so there were lots of people in awesome rainbow colours, carrying flags and generally looking like they were having a great time.  Due to this however, there were road closures all over the place which did not impress our taxi driver! I thought it was great -

Anyway got to our apartment which is very cool and will be a nice place to base for a few days and it is only about 200-300 metres from the Dublin Conference Centre which is where Karl needs to be! Perfect! 

Lachlan and mums room - two really comfy single beds..........and check out the picture below - it is this room that has the en-suite bathroom - what is that all about!!!!!  Lachlan was very happy with himself............

 Poor ole Connor gets the bed in the hallway........still, at least it is a bed and he feels like he has his own room!

The apartment is great, nice and spacious and modern.........

 Here is a picture of mum trying to dry Connor's shoes - story to come!

 

We settled in, had a coffee and got ourselves sorted - putting warm clothes on - temperature in Marseille today 32 degrees, temperature in Ireland 17 degrees - mmmm bit of a change which mum is very pleased about after a very hot few weeks!   We are on the third floor and have two balconies which is great.  The kids headed outside and down to the grass for a play - about 20 minutes later they were back with Connor being absolutely drenched - shoes and all after falling into the little man-made stream trying to follow his brother!  It was into the shower for him, into the washing for his clothes and his shoes hang up to dry.  Lachlan had one wet shoe and he was then tasked to use the hairdryer to dry it - as Connor only had one pair of shoes and so needed to use Lachlan’s jandals as his shoes for the day.  

Views from one of the balconies.........