10 Questions About…

It’s 28 degrees in Dublin today. There’s almost an inch of snow on the ground and the kids are off school again. It’s a snow day.

The girls were supposed to start school yesterday (Thursday). But on Wednesday the announcement was made that the school would be closed on Thursday and Friday. Rumor has it that it will be closed Monday too. Criminy! (Update from Saturday morning – schools have been closed in Ireland until Thursday!)

The temperature in Dublin has been hovering between 23-35 degrees since we got here. It has snowed 1-3 inches. The girls went sledding in the park. I’m not sure how they did it with such little snow – but they took pictures for me to post.

Aside from the boon in sledding, in many ways the city has come to a dead stop. Yesterday we were thinking about going into town but I vetoed the plan. I was worried that the buses might quit running and we’d be stuck in town. And you know what – the buses did quit running yesterday so we dodged a bullet.

The sidewalks are treacherous! No one shovels; no one even brushes the sidewalks here. So the snow melts and freezes. The path in the park across the street has about 2 inches of ice over it. The driving seems worse. Most cars seem to have rear wheel drive. None of the side streets have been sanded or salted. They call that grit here. And the government reports that they have one day of grit left for Dublin. You can watch the cars not making it up inclines in the road.

It’s funny to hear people complain about the extreme cold her, except that we can see what a difference it makes to live in a place that’s prepared for cold. To start the heat here is kind of a binary – it’s off or on. It’s on during the day but off at night, which makes it brutal to get out of bed in the morning.

Also we’re bored. The girls have watched more TV in the last week that the previous 2 months combined. Tomorrow (Saturday) the whole family is going to into town if I have to capture stray dogs and a carriage to get there!

We got a call from the doctor yesterday. The radiologists found an infection in her lung. So the good news is we got antibiotics. Hopefully she will be feeling better soon!

Last summer when we came to Ireland Kate was kind of sick the whole time. A couple of months ago (in Minnesota) Kate got pneumonia. So this time around I’ve been watching her more closely. We’ve all been sick. Aine threw up our first day here – but no one loves a barf bucket like Aine. I’ve been sneezing nonstop and Lily has been coughing her head off. But none of us breathe like Kate. She sounded terrible this morning. So we decided to take her to the hospital. (No doctors’ offices available on a Sunday.)

So we took the cab to St Vincent’s. It’s not too far from the house. Unfortunately, Vincent’s does really take kids. Also their outpatient department isn’t open on Sunday. Fortunately they would at least triage us. In fact they were very kind. The oxygen level in Kate’s blood was too low. So they sent us to Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital.

When they found out that we didn’t have a car they arranged an ambulance. They even put on the sirens so we could get through the lights more quickly. I’ve never been in a moving ambulance. Kate was nervous but the EMTs put her at ease. And when we got to Crumlin, they wheeled us right into a room. Vincent’s had called ahead and warned them that we were coming.

So at Crumlin they ran a bunch of tests, including a chest x-ray. Her oxygen level never really got better – but she didn’t have any other signs of sickness. They gave her some oxygen and that made her feel a ton better – but in the end they sent us home. So we’ll keep an eye on her.

We ended up taking a bus into town from the hospital, having dinner at Bewley’s, then bus home. Nothing like a bus home from the hospital to make you feel like a really quality parent!

For folks who are keeping tabs on healthcare policies throughout the world. Our trip to the hospitals cost 100 euros. I let Patrick talk to the accountant types. They knew that we were from Minnesota and that Patrick was Irish but there didn’t seem a ton of questions. There were no questions about payment until we were leaving Crumlin. Credit card was fine. A trip to the doctor would have been 60 euros. Apparently from the doctor we could have received a referral that would have taken care of the hospital bill – but I have to say for the service we received 100 euros was an amazing price. (I’ll post an update if we get an unhappy bill in the mail.)

We flew out on December 29. It was the worst flight ever. No TVs in the seat; turbulence the whole time. And the plane was way too small to be crossing an ocean. I hate flying – but when the flight is good I’ll admit it. This one wasn’t.

We arrived to a day of rain. Ugh!

Then on New Years it started snowing! We know what to do with snow! We like snow!

For New Years we all walked up to the pub for dinner, the pub being a place where you don’t need reservations, even on New Years. The food was good and there was a fun buzz in the pub. I hope you can see the snow on the way there.

On New Year’s Day we saw that the snow had stuck. In fact here it is January 2 and the snow is still here. It’s not a lot of snow maybe an inch or two – but apparently enough to shut down the city. Yesterday Patrick was going to take the girls to see a movie (the only thing open on New Year’s) unfortunately, the buses were not running.

The fun thing is that everyone thinks I’m very tough here because I don’t mind being outside when it’s 28 degrees. It’s better than when we lived in Spain and everyone thought I was such a good eater because no one ever served me fruit or vegetables.

So we’re here and that’s good. We’re a little trapped in Cabinteely. Everyone is a little sick so that takes the edge off being trapped. I told Patrick we were going to the pub tonight no matter what – so that should lighten the mood. The girls start school on January 7 – despite what they might say, that should help make the transition here a little easier.

Our final days in Dublin were kind of a blur. The girls and I moved from Monkstown to Irish Grandma’s on Tuesday. Partially we moved because Kate had woken up with hives 2 days in a row and I thought the cats might be the culprits. Partially we moved because I wanted a full day to clean the sheets and make the beds before we left the house to the owners.

There were several nice things about moving back to Cabinteely – including the fact that Lily was able to invite her friends to meet her at the local park, which is a really great park. So one the of the last nights we played in the park and I got to talk to the moms.

The next day we moved into a hotel by the airport. Our flight was early and Cabinteely is really the other side of Dublin so since we were already packed up it was just easier to stay there.

It was a day where we could have used a car. The girls and I went to Monkstown to pick up Patrick and the luggage. Patrick realized he forgot out Minnesota keys in Minnesota. So we took all of our luggage to the airport hotel. Then he went back to Cabinteely to get the keys then we met him in town. That round around took 5 hours.

So while Patrick ran around – the girls and I went to the Horse Show. The Horse Show is kind of a big deal. It’ was fun – it’s like a mini-State Fair. We got to see horse jumping contests, a Punch & Judy puppet show (great for Aine, stinks for me) crafts, horse products, and food.

Then we went into town for our last day. We had a drink (hot chocolate/diet coke) at Bewley’s. We waited, waited for Patrick. But when we met him we took the girls to our favorite French restaurant. They all tried snails, terrine, pate and each liked at least one.

We took a bus to the airport hotel. Saw a big fire – finally got to sleep and left the next day.

Our last Sunday in Dublin we wanted to do something different so we headed to North Dublin – to the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. First – they’re huge. It’s amazing to me that you find these great gems in the heart of Dublin – but you do.

First we had a nice lunch at a restaurant (the Washerwoman) in a building from the 1700’s. Clearly the host a lot of family events – but they had room for us (a sign of the economic times) and we had a nice lunch.

We were able to walk from there to the Gardens. So we were cheerfully walking, looking around. There was a derelict house on the road, boarded and broken windows. Otherwise the neighborhood seemed nice. So the girls and I were looking at it and we all spied an old woman looking out at us. Picture the old woman/witch who gave the apple to Snow White – that is exactly what this woman looked like. Super creepy – made even creepier by the fact that we were all busted looking at her!

Anyways, we had visited Belfast Botanic Gardens a few days before – but Dublin Garden could eat Belfast for lunch! There are some greenhouses – and we’ll be re-visiting them in the winter. Nothing better than a hot humid conservatory in January!

Oh quick fancy us story – the conservatory at the house where we stayed was built by the same person who designed the conservatory at Glasnevin.

We saw a huge heron in a tree. That was fun. The rose garden was beautiful. The girls got to run around, climb trees and take pictures.

So after our pleasant day Patrick had to creep it up with a visit to the Glasnevin Cemetery. Glasnevin is best known as the burial place of Daniel O’Connell – the Liberator, responsible for Catholic emancipation in 1829, which gave Catholics the right to vote, join the professions and own property. (Description as dictated by Patrick.)

His tomb is *huge*. You can see the big round tower in the picture. I wish I could have captured the whole picture better. The tomb consists of a big tomb topped off with the round tower and a moat-like walkway that leads to 42 crypts. You can walk down into the moat-type area to see into O’Connell’s tomb and the crypts. In fact one of the crypt doors was open. And we saw the same old lady looking out! Not really – but the crypt was open and we saw coffins. Cool but creepy.

Another fancy us story – the house where we stayed is owned by a decedent of Daniel O’Connell.

On our last Saturday in Dublin we went into town. We met Irish Grandma and did some shopping. She helped Patrick pick out a really nice jacket. I bought a ton of boots.

Then Irish Grandma went home and we went to see the Urban Circus. It was fun. There were several street performers, a nice crowd, and some treats. The weather was pretty good. Mt favorite act was the trapeze artists who performed together on one trapeze sort of thing. I was especially impressed with how well the show went in the wind.

Saturday night we had a nice bbq at Tony Roche’s house. Tony is Patrick’s advisor at school and he has been tremendously supportive of Patrick. They have 2 boys about the same age as Kate and Lily. The girls were happy to enjoy the boys, the kid family atmosphere and the brand new puppy. We stayed way to late – but had a fun night.

Not to be braggy but we got super special member-only tickets into the sneak preview of the latest exhibit at the Science Gallery: Bubble, Don’t Burst It.

So we headed into town in the afternoon. I had heard about some cool sand sculptures at the Dublin Castle so we started here. And they were cool. What I find amazing is how well they seemed to weather the weather.

Then we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I actually thought it was Chinese and I had heard that it was a good place for kids. Luckily our kids are pretty adventurous and everyone enjoyed it.

Finally it was time for the bubble show, which was great. Talking with one of the organizers, she said that this is the first time that they have really focused on an exhibit for kids. I didn’t have the heart o say that we always bring the kids – but once in I could see what she meant. The staff (who are students from Trinity) seemed pretty prepared for kid questions and kid activities.

We learned that you can predict when a bubble is going to burst by noticing when it starts to lose its color near the top. We learned that a laser can’t go through a bubble. (I don’t really remember that but Lily says it’s true.) The kids made some bubble art. They were incased in bubbles.

We enjoyed it so much we brought Ailbhe and Cait back the next day. Well we liked it so much and it was raining too hard to go swimming at Sea Point.

So did I mention that we went to U2? We got our tickets here. A bunch went on last minute sale. They weren’t on the pitch/floor but they were good. We were on the first tier (row 20 or so) on the side. The show was amazing!! They always do an amazing job of new and old songs. The stage and the lighting and everything was very cool.

As we approached the stadium we saw a rainbow. It had rained all day but not one drop during the show and we could see the sun set as we watched the show.

It seems as if everyone in Dublin is going to one of the three shows – but no one we knew was going to the first night with us. In fact the population of Dublin is about 500,000 (that’s just Dublin, not greater Dublin) and with 3 shows 240,000 people will see U2. That being said – much of the crowd is not from Dublin. Tons of people just flew in for the show. Funny enough we ran into Joe Dowling and his wife while we were there. So that was kind of fun.

I took some video and pictures. One thing I have to mention about Croke Park, where we saw them, it’s an outdoor sports arena. It holds 80,000 people. It’s plopped right in the middle of a neighborhood. So while the show ended at 11:00 – we couldn’t really get anywhere for a while. The streets were just wall to wall people.

(or you can see them all here: http://tinyurl.com/lq67ho)