Evie Daintree: Evie in Ireland, Part 1 (5/6-5/8)

Day 1: Tucson to Dublin

We left Tucson at 1:00 PM and flew to Atlanta. It was a rough flight for all of us - I ended up throwing up all of my milk! Luckily, Mom and Papa caught it in their hands and transferred it to a barf bag, and none ended up on their clothes. Still, we all smelled pretty badly for the rest of the night. We had a tight connection in ATL but made it to the Dublin flight in time. Mom and Papa had booked the bulkhead seats, so I had extra room to run and play. None of us slept terribly well, and we all arrived in Dublin pretty tired.

Here we go!

The Ireland Itinerary

Day 2: Dublin to Rathdrum

After immigration, we picked up our campervan and stopped for supplies (a mobile broadband stick for the computer, food, etc.) at the nearby mall. Malls in Ireland (and Australia) have grocery stores, so it was a nice one-stop shopping excursion. The mall was packed because it was a bank holiday, and most people were off from work (imagine the malls in the U.S. on a typical holiday). We then drove south of Dublin through the Wicklow National Park to Rathdrum, a quiet little town in the mountains. After exploring the caravan park, we headed up the street to the main part of town for a delicious meal of fish and chips and Irish stew.

Our camper

Driving through County Wicklow

Our first rainbow

Wicklow National Park

Bundling up

Wandering around the caravan park

Walking around Rathdrum looking for our first Irish dinner

Day 3: Glendalough

The next morning we woke up quite late (by Papa's standards at least). Our plan was to drive down the road to Glendalough, home of a very famous and well-preserved ancient monastery. We had to fuel up first, and Papa had trouble opening the fuel cap. Unbeknownst to us, we were supposed to use the ignition key to unlock the fuel cap! Papa finally figured it out, and we were able to get on our way to Glendalough. It was beautiful! We all took a nap in the campervan prior to hiking around and exploring the grounds. By the time we left the monastery, it was nearly 6PM, and we still had a bit of a drive ahead of us. We got a bit lost (and had to ask a couple of local Irishmen for directions, which turned out to be pretty ridiculous directions mind you), but we made it to our next destination: Kilkenny.

Mobile pajama party!