Methinks this is Ireland

Well, we're here and it wasn't easy but we're happy to have made it across the Atlantic safe and sound. We left Wednesday night at 9pm. The red eye was the cheapest option so I never thought of not doing it and I figured that since my kids go to sleep at 7 every night they will be wiped out by the time we're on the plane and would fall asleep shortly after taking off. First off lets just say that I was wrong, dead wrong. It wasn't that the kids were bad, because they were actually quite good, considering. Sadie fell asleep about 2 hours into the flight, the flight attendants took so long to do the rounds (they were very attentive, but is two or three rounds of coffee and tea and little much?) and so the lights were on for about the first three hours which was half of the flight. The kids were so tired but couldn't fall asleep due to the cabin being so bright, so when I asked when they were going to turn off the lights the flight attendant had the idea of making a tent out of a blanket for the kids to make it darker for them. We did that and it worked for Sadie but I think Andrew was way past tired at that point and didn't fall asleep until about 20 minutes before we landed. Nick was able to get some sleep next to Sadie but even though Andrew was being good I couldn't fall asleep knowing that he was awake not to mention every time I had my eyes closed for more than a minute he would ask me what I was doing and tell me to open my eyes. Nick switched with me but it didn't matter at that point. Oh, and the last 20 minutes that Andrew slept were not peaceful, poor Andrew had a night terror that lasted for a good five minutes although it felt like 20. Kudos to Nick for trying so hard to get him to clam down and being so good about it. Finally, we get to the hotel, change and head into Dublin at about 10:30am. It was chilly and rainy but we were still able to enjoy the city quite a bit, it actually reminded me a little of Boston with the old buildings mixed with new modern architecture. We didn't have any plans and we even left our Ireland tour book back home so we just walked the whole city, going sign by sign. I think we missed some of the things that are "must sees" like the Trinity Library and St. Patrick's Cathedral but it wasn't for the lack of effort. They have a ton of signs pointing the tourists in the different directions of the historical sites but some of them we just couldn't find, probably because we didn't know what they looked like and I'm sure a map would've been helpful. We had a blast and I think for one day and literally zero sleep we saw a lot of the city. We had rented a car so the next day we drove out to the country to the county of Wicklow. It is known as the garden of Ireland so you can imagine how beautiful it was. The day before we went into a tourist office and grabbed a brochure about a bus day tour through the area, so we just followed the tour that the bus does, we missed one or two spots but considering we didn't have a gps we did really well. The first town was called Enniskerry, it had the largest waterfall in the country and around the waterfall were nature walks and parks. The kids didn't want to leave and if we had had more time in Ireland I think I would've been tempted to spend all day near the fall, it was truly breath taking. Then we were off to Sally Gap (or Sally's gap as I referred to it until Nick corrected me after I had said it wrong for the millionth time) we had no idea what Sally Gap was at the time and we didn't know we'd even gotten there until we had seen a sign indicating that it we had passed it. :/ We later read that it is the highest crossroads in Ireland and the place where St Patrick is said to have died. Continuing our drive we went to the monastic city in Glendalough. It was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. The story goes that there was a monk (St. Kevin) who lived in solitude in a cave in this area and somehow word got out and monks started coming to him to study. Soon there came such a following that they created this city. We then drove to some other places on the bus tour that we couldn't quite understand why they were on the tour. the Meeting of the Waters, and the town of Avoca. They were pretty but the towns themselves were not noteworthy. But we did enjoy the ride and it gave the kids much needed nap time. Due to the lack of gps (not even a good old map) and lack of signage in this country we had to rely on our gut instincts and luck. But to our great surprise we were going the right way and eventually made it to signs of life! Take that guy at the airport telling us that whatever we do we MUST get a gps because we will surely get lost. I didn't take his advice because I had over heard him saying to the woman at the counter how he put unleaded in his clearly marked diesel, he was clearly not qualified to tell me what to do! I told him that we're coming from Boston where signs basically don't exist and the streets were made by the way of cows so I think I can handle Ireland. (don't judge me, I had zero sleep at this point) We finished the day with a very nice dinner even though I threw up in the parking lot just before(I was a bit car sick). Ireland will also be remembered as the place where Sadie learned how to crawl out of her crib. There was no keeping her in there and the both of them just played and played when they were supposed to be sleeping! The next day was our 6:20am flight to Spain and the kids didn't fall asleep until after midnight.