Ireland – Week 1

Note to our subscribers…we have been having some difficulties with our automatic posting, so please do check the blog for Mikhaila and Zoe’s posts.

After a fairly uneventful 6 hour flight we arrived in Dublin at approximately 11am, cleared customs (so far most friendly customs official we have EVER met!) and made our way to Paddy’s Palace, the hostel we decided to stay at to start off our trip.  It turned out to be a pretty good choice, with a small, clean room and staff who were very friendly and helpful.  We would recommend staying there to anyone.  Accessibility is a bit of an issue – our room was on the 3^rd floor, and while we were all able to carry our packs/suitcases up the stairs, it would not be possible for someone with accessibility needs.

We were really enjoying our time in and around Dublin…in fact, on Thursday we went on a fantastic walking tour of Dublin, and really stopped paying attention to things like the time of day…and details like “your car pickup time is at 12 noon”.  After a nerve wracking ride to the airport, we arrived to discover that they had held our reservation and that the vehicle was ready and available.

Dublin Castle

Lush gardens and paths

Project Arts Centre – where U2 got their beginning

Project Arts Centre – where U2 got their beginning

Dublin flower boxes

Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Gardens

Glendalough

Irish skies are smiling

We then made our way to the home of Alix, Michael, Max, and Hannah.  Katina had met this wonderful family of four online through TrustedHouseSitters.com.  As the name implies, this is a site where people who are going on vacation can look for a “trusted house sitter” to take care of their house and animals (if needed) while they are away.  Katina responded to Alix’s request, and after some emails back and forth and a Skype video call (in the grocery store parking lot via mifi!!!), our connection was made and we were ready to take on our first house sitting assignment in lovely Ireland!  Our trip to their house was fairly uneventful, though it took Oliver a bit of time to get used to driving on the left hand side of some very narrow roads.  A combination of Alix’s directions, asking locals, and a bit of GPS got us to our destination.

The kids hit it off immediately.  Hannah and Zoe are practically the same age, same with Max and Mikhaila.  One of the first things the kids did was to compare notes on music and dance.  Max was preparing for a competition to represent County Clare in tin whistle, and so played a few pieces for us.  Not to be outdone by her big brother, Hannah got out her Irish dancing shoes, we pushed back the furniture, and she demonstrated some of her fancy footwork.  It was like Riverdance right there in front of us!  Encouraged by the show of talent, Mikhaila pulled out her flute and demonstrated a few pieces, followed by Zoe, who ran through her jazz solo piece using her music on her iPod!  Follow that up with some piano pieces and before we knew it, it was almost midnight.  The next day we received some hurling lessons (Irish sport which seems to be a combination of field hockey and lacrosse played on a large soccer-sized pitch).

One Flute, One fiddle…

Two flutes

Hurling practice

The Hurling team!

Our first night’s sleep was outstanding, and we felt we were starting to get into the time zone.

Friday was spent getting accustomed to the house and surroundings.  Figuring out where things are kept, where to get groceries, etc.  We did some grocery shopping and found the prices to be similar to Canada – BEFORE the foreign exchange conversion!  For instance, a bag of carrots which we might pay $1.50 CDN was 1.50 Euro, which converts to roughly $2.25 Cdn.  The “rule of thumb” conversion we are using is 1 Euro = 1.5 Cdn.

Fuel is very expensive as well, with diesel costing 1.45 Euro/litre.  Fortunately you can get a lot of mileage out of a tank of diesel fuel.

Fun at an Irish Ceili (pronounced kay-lee)

With Alix and family off to their summer holidays, we set out to explore the surrounding areas.

We are in Ireland during a fantastic time of the year.  There are all kinds of events and festivals happening almost daily.  We drove about 35 minutes west from our “base” and came to Castleclare and explored the “Ceili at the Crossroads”.  We found an Irish Dancing workshop where about 25 people were learning new ‘set dances’ (similar to what we might call folk-dancing, or square dancing).  We were not of the same dancing caliber as the participants, so the four of us got up and did our own version of the dances that the larger groups were doing.  Some of the dancers would come over and give us pointers to make our transitions smoother, and at the end when we left they gave us a nice round of applause.

In the evening, we found an international Limerick writing competition where over 40 entries were read aloud to the audience.  As the judges deliberated, a trio of men got up and sang a number of Irish songs, which was lovely to hear.