Ireland - First Day

Today, my family and I went to Ireland. It’s the first time Moa and I bring our son Frode abroad. We're traveling together with Moa’s sister Hanna and her boyfriend Mattias. The plan is to travel around for a week. We’ll start with two days in Dublin and then we’ll go to the Dingle Peninsula in the west. When the others go back, I’ll stay two weeks in Cork to study English for teachers. 

When we landed in Dublin Hanna and Mattias got themselves into an adventure. Instead of taking the shuttle bus to get to our rental car, we briskly decided to walk even though it was raining. We reached a hotel where we thought the car would be, but no. The car park was further away, so Mattias and Hanna walked while the rest of us stayed in the cosy hotel lobby. Apparently, they got completely lost, but manage to ask for help at the airport luggage office. A sympathetic fat man forced one of his employees to drive them to the right place. The young driver cracked jokes about not having a drivers’ license and dodged our itinerary. He said that Dingle is a tourist dollhouse where we were likely to get ripped off. What a dork! how does he dare to question my master plan! Anyway, I wished I was there. 

I’m enjoying traveling with Frode. It’s completely different from any other journey I've ever made. We have to pack twice as much as usual and watch him constantly, but its so much fun. Today, he has used every possible occasion to walk. He took his first steps just a few weeks ago, so it must be quite amazing for him. He especially likes stairs, although he needs a bit of help. I'd never thought I’d enjoy walking up and down a set of stairs four times in a row.  But with him it’s like climbing a beautiful hill.

Frode is also a social magnet. He flirts with people all the time, and a new world of social opportunities opens up to his parents. You can always talk with fellow parents: We ask each other about our children’s age, we compliment our wonderful kids and we mean it, we smile at each other, we help out with practical things and share experiences. I love it. Frode seems to enjoy it too. A nice waitress, told us he was ”an adorable child” after he had caught her with his blue eyes. 

Right now Frode is asleep, the others are out and I get time to do what I want. Life is great.  In the next post I hope to describe why we chose to go to Ireland. I’ll see if that happens.