A Saturday at Malahide Castle and Medieval Mayhem

Again, based on the advice of an Expat in Dublin with Kids, I organized a trip to Malahide Castle located North of Dublin along the coast. Malahide Castle is one of the oldest castles in Ireland and dates back to the 12th century. Home to the Talbot family for 800 years, it website promised a glimpse into their life and history on the guided tour. On the particular weekend that we went, the castle was also hosting a Medieval Mayhem which seemed intriguing and our family loves a good festival.



For this trip, we went on our first Dart train ride. The Dart runs up and down the eastern coast of Dublin along the Irish Sea from Malahide (the north) down to Wicklow (the south). It was exciting for the kids and they found it interesting to wait on the train platform for the train to arrive.

The train ride was relaxing and interesting as it was our first chance to see the Irish coastline and our first trip north of Dublin, not counting Ikea. The kids enjoyed looking out the window and being able to move around a little bit (compared to being strapped into a car). The most challenging bit was keeping Lulu Belle in her seat. At almost two, she is most insistent at doing her own thing.

When we arrived at the Malahide train station, we exited to a little car park. There was a small tram there picking up people and giving them a ride to the castle, but we decided to walk despite the drizzle. It was a short walk to the entrance to the castle grounds and then a walk to the visitor center. From there, we found out that we could purchase tickets for the castle tour which started every half hour. The visitor center also housed the lovely Avoca Cafe and lots of interesting shopping. We decided to wait to the tour after we attended Medieval Mayhem. So, we walked down further to find the festival grounds.

After some wandering around on the large fields, we found the festival and realized that we were a bit too early. The festival was a bit disorganized and we let the kids run around the fields for quite a while while we waited. Once we got into the festival grounds, it was about 12pm and the kids were starving. It had also started raining. Luckily, the festival organizers had set up a tent with some blankets for families to hang out and several groups waited there for the rain to stop.

While we were waiting for the food booths to open, the kids decided they wanted to explore some of the other booths which included a cupcake booth, sweets, and several "Viking" related booths. There were a lot of people dressed up as Vikings and tents set up to to mimic Viking life with displays of armor, weaponry, falconry, clothing, etc.

Playing an game with a Viking child.

The children found it all interesting, but found the archery demonstrations the most fun. Mr Puffles paid 5Euro for me to participate in a demonstration and I got to shot a few arrows off. The kids were most impressed.

As part of the festival, the Vikings performed at mock battle at 1pm. The kids enjoyed the boasting and silly jokes and found the fighting interesting. Miss Piggy quickly determined that they were just pretending! It was good fun and the participants seemed to enjoy hitting each other with wooden swords and pretending to kick each other in the butt (literally).

Viking battle.

After we had exhausted all of the booths and displays and finished eating our cupcakes, we headed back to the castle. We were caught in a torrential downpour and took cover under some trees. Then we made it back to the visitor center to buy our tickets and walked over to the castle.

Walking to the castle.

A view from the side of the castle.

The castle is lovely from the grounds.

To summarize the guided tour, it was definitely not what we were expecting and we were a little disappointed. The tour was definitely not child friendly for very young children. There are no lifts. The lady at the front door kindly watched our buggy for us and we carried Lulu Belle through the tour. Unfortunately, we found oursevles huddled with the two other families with toddlers in the back corner trying to keep our children from touching anything. The acoustics of the castle made it difficult to hear the guide and our screaming toddlers did nothing to help. The tour guide was also very specific that we shouldn't touch anything. Hello? I have four kids under the age of eight. It was not a relaxing tour. The tour was only a few rooms and after it was done, I felt like I wished I had seen more of the castle! Still, it was interesting and the kids loved the part about the ghosts the best. I think if you have older children, then it might have been very interesting and you could take time to look at the beautiful furnishes and decor and listen to the interesting history of the Talbot family and the castle itself.

We didn't have time to play at the playground afterward, but we did stop for hot chocolates and coffee at the Avoca restaurant. It was very busy and a little bit confusing as there were several lines you could get into depending on what you were ordering. This may not have been confusing for other people, but if you have four small people wandering around in a crowded cafeteria, it can be difficult to organize them and figure out where you are supposed to go at the same time! The food was lovely and the displays of the beautiful dishes and kitchen items for sale definitely made me want to go crazy and buy the china. But I restrained myself!

It was late in the day and we headed back on the Dart. We didn't have a chance to explore the village either, but we will have to check it out next time!

A Saturday at Marlay Park

Our first and second weekends in Dublin, I took the advice of Expat with Kids in Dublin and made plans for our family to explore Marlay Park, located in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16. We had scheduled viewings to look at a houses in the area and decided to trek to Marlay Park as part of exploring the area and determining whether or not it was reasonable for us to manage without a car. 

Marlay Castle from the green.

On the first weekend, we looked a house on the southwest side of Marlay Park and tried walking up to entrance and the closest shopping center with a grocery store. It was a long walk uphill that left Miss Piggy crying and whining the whole way. It was definitely not a easy location for walking on a daily basis to shopping and easy access to local transportation. I had forgotten that there was a weekend market in the park. So, we ate at the convenience store at the shopping center first and then headed to the park to look around. We were so sad to discover that there was a gorgeous little market with delicious food and fresh veggies for sale after eating all that bad Centra food. So, we vowed to return soon to sample the yummy food.

On our first trip to the park, the weather was sunny but turned a bit chilly while we were hanging out on the green. Despite the chill, LuLu Belle quickly made friends with another little girl playing in the park and her mom was friendly and chatted with us.

Lulu Belle and her new friend. Or maybe she just chased the other baby around.

During our chat, she recommended that we walk through a bit of a forest grove in the middle of the park because along the trial there was a Fairy Castle. The children loved the idea of this and we quickly went on our way to explore. It was a fun little walk, do-able with a stroller, through a nice little wood and after a while, we found the Fairy Castle. It was very intriguing to the children.

Walking through the woods in Marlay Park in search of the Fairy Castle.

Fairy Castle in Marlay Park

Top of the Fairy Castle

On our second weekend in Dublin, we went to look at another house near Marlay Park. This house was closer to the LUAS. So, instead of taking a bus, we were able to take the Green LUAS down to the Balally Stop and walk from there to the house. After the viewing, we walked about 20 minutes through some nice neighborhoods and stopped at the Marlay Park market for lunch. The children decided on Sausages on a roll and it was a huge hit.

Seconds on the yummy sausage rolls.

The boys each had two and Miss Piggy chose a giant cookie the size of her head for a treat. We tried some of the non-dairy soy ice cream. The kids said it definitely didn't taste like ice cream. But I thought it was nice!

Wow. Cookies as big as your head.

After lunch, we went out to the green so the kids could run around a play. While we were there, we noticed someone riding a Dutch bike around the paths that curve around the green. I love the Dutch bikes! We never bought one because they are super expensive and because we never had a garage in Seattle. Storing a giant bike without a garage is a huge pain. I found the booth with the bikes and was able to take the bike out for a spin. The owner, Astrid Fitzpatrick, owns DutchBikeShop.ie and is very happy to lend out the bike for anyone to take a spin and it creates free advertising for her! The bike was great and I was able to ride it around with all four kids inside. It was much easier to ride than my vintage pedicab since it had gears. The kids loved it! I would have purchased one, but the house we are renting doesn't have a garage or garden access.

Testing out the Dutch bikes. All four kids fit!

For comparison, here's us a few years ago on my vintage pedicab! So sad that we had to sell it when we made our move!

Riding along on Mother's Day 2010.

Irish Life. Sorted. Ha! Not.

As you all know, our family has embarked on the chance of a lifetime - to live and work overseas. Due to a wonderful job opportunity for my husband, Mr. Puffles, we moved our family of 6 from Seattle, Washington, to Dublin, Ireland, in May 2013. The move wasn't without the stress and anxiety of what you might imagine goes along with such a move. We made the decision shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday season in November 2012. So, we went into the holiday season determined to allow our children their birthdays and holiday fun without accumulating additional stuff as we tried to desperately purge the stuff we had.

We waffled back and forth on whether or not to store our things or ship our things. I googled shopping over in Ireland and old forum posts (from 2007) scared me into thinking that I wouldn't be able to find soft towels or sheets or other things. But in the end, we decided to sell most of things (because who really needs to store that Ikea chair for 2 or more years), to store just the things we really loved, and to ship nothing because we figured we'd need it when we came back. Besides, we were moving to Ireland. Not Uganda. I'm sure between Ikea and TK Maxx, we'd be able to find the stuff we would need.

Luckily, we discovered that most rentals and properties for sale are listed online on daft.ie and we were able to scour the listings to figure out the cost and general amenities of typical rentals. Turns out that Irish rentals generally are furnished. Bonus! That meant that we could generally eliminate buying all new furniture from our budget spreadsheet. I worried the most about finding the right neighborhood to make sure that we were close to good schools. We also decided to not buy a car right away and try to use public transportation. I tried looking up "good neighborhoods for families" in Dublin, but the forums weren't very helpful and other expat blogs weren't very forthcoming on which neighborhoods were the best. Clare of An American in Ireland mentioned that she loved her rental in Raheny which is a coastal town on the North side. Jason's Dublin colleagues recommended South Dublin. We just didn't know what would work for us for transportation and shopping. So, we decided to wait until we arrived to secure a permanent lease.

We took a chance and reserved a short-term flat in the city center for 4 weeks and hoped that would give us enough time to find a rental. Mr Puffles' paperwork took a bit longer to complete than we had planned and we ended up staying in Seattle until May instead of leaving in February as previously expected. The downside was that we were homeless for a few months since we had rented our house quickly. But we were glad that the kids were able to finish most of the school year and were able to leave without worrying about re-enrolling them mid-year. My sole goal was to get them enrolled into a school for the fall. I will do a separate post on finding and enrolling in Irish schools.

The extra time also gave us the time to pack and sell anything we didn't want to store. Everything went. Bikes, clothing, furniture, spatulas. We held moving sales and sold most of the items on Craigslist. Thank goodness for Craigslist, but who knew there were so many flakes? We gave stuff to friends and family, and carefully boxes up everything else.

We planned to pack up our things, drive it all cross-country, and store them at my MIL's house in North Carolina. As time went by, we realized that we could only tow a 6'x12' u-haul trailer on the back of our suburban. When I say "realized", I mean that Mr Puffles casually mentioned it on day. What?!? 6 feet by 12 feet. Our whole lives minus luggage had to fit into that small box. So, we rented a 5' x 15' storage unit and proceeded to fill it up. Mr Puffles was totally not helpful as I packed box after box as he ominously told me "this isn't all going to fit." So, I purged and purged. If you know how much I like to save stuff, you would understand that this was tragic!!

The storage unit after everything was packed.

But moving day came, and after two hours of packing, we were overjoyed to discover that it did in fact ALL fit into a 6' x 12' trailer. I was ecstatic! I had been desperately calling my brother and friends to see if someone would come to remove anything that we couldn't fit into the trailer. But it was all in there!! It's funny how detached from your stuff you become after you are separated from it. I still fondly remember things boxed away in North Carolina when I'm trying to cook or do something and remember my favorite apron or favorite pie plate. But for the most part, getting rid of all your stuff is incredibly liberating! If you are interested in being more minimalist, read Miss Minimalist for some inspiring stories.

Almost ready to go on the road. Everything is packed into the uhaul.

After three weeks of driving and visiting with family, we finally packed up our luggage for the last time (actually the second to last time) and got ready to fly to Dublin. This is the first time we've flown with all 4 kids. The last time we flew, we just had 3 kids. With a 20 month old, we knew it wouldn't be relaxing, but we were determined to make it as stress-free as possible. For our family, flying on red-eyes works the best for us. Our kids are able to sleep on the flights and we prefer sleeping children to bored, cranky children. So, we forked over the extra $700 for a seat for little Lulu because really. It. Is. Worth. It. She is 20 months old and wild. We also ordered a $70 Child AirplaneTravel Harness. It was dreamy. It kept her buckled in for the most part and in her seat instead of climbing around AND we didn't have to lug around a giant car seat to a different country. For the most part, she sat happily reading and coloring and then passed out.

Pretending she is a calm and quiet toddler. Thank goodness the fans on the plane block most of the noise.

For the most part, the kids were great on the trip. On the Chicago to Dublin portion, we flew Aer Lingus and I realized too late that we had paid extra for their "premium" dinners (steak and chicken) and the children still didn't want to eat them. Mostly they just ate the rolls and dessert. Grrr.

When we arrived in Dublin, we were the last off the plane and the kids slept until we started our descent. We were the last to go through customs. But our luggage made it all through and it took three carts for all the luggage and bags. We exchanged the last of our US cash in the airport since it was easy. We decided to take two taxis to our flat and met our landlord at the Pearse Hotel a block from the flat. Our landlord, Sean, was great and very friendly and helpful. Our flight arrived at 5:30am and the group in our flat weren't planning to checkout until 11am. So, Sean allowed us to stay in one of the other flats in the building for a couple hours while we waited for our flat to be ready. We didn't want to ruin the clean flat for the next tenant. So, we spent the morning having breakfast at the Pearse Hotel which puts on a nice buffet. We enjoyed some coffee and a full Irish Breakfast (eggs, rashers, toast, grilled tomatoes, baked beans). They were very kind and didn't charge us for the children. So, it cost us €20.

After that, we decided to go to the Jervis Shopping Center to the Tesco Mobile kiosk to buy our new sim cards for our phones and set up our accounts. We both have Samsung 3GS phones and they were both unlocked. After all that, we headed back to the flat. The children were so exhausted that they passed out immediately. I was desperate for a shower and decided to walk to TKMaxx in St Stephen's Green to buy towels. Halfway there, I got a desperate call from Mr Puffles that the Monkey had used the toilet to do a doo and there was no toilet paper. I'm not sure why he wanted me to come all the back and buy toilet paper for him, but I did. I could go on, but then I'll get all pissed again that I had to do that!

The Puppy passed out as soon as we returned to the flat.

Anyway, while I was back, our flat became available and Sean's girlfriend, Claudia, was very nice and helped me carry our things from flat on the second story down to our flat on the ground floor. Our Flat 3 was a bit smaller and the kitchen more awkwardly laid out, but it was easier to deal with the stroller. The young man renting Flat 4 (the one we were using temporarily) arrived while we were moving and helped move the rest of the bags. He was German and coming to Dublin for his summer internship with Google.

At last, a place we could call our own for at least 4 weeks! I walked down to St Stephen's Green and bought as many towels (and they were just as soft as in the US - no worries) as I could carry back. By then, it was too late and there was no time for a shower as I made dinner (sandwiches) and we all passed out by 8pm.

Carpet under the dining table? Terrible with a toddler.

How many kids can you fit in a double bed? Three was the right number for us!

Home for 4 weeks!