Eurocco Day 2: London to Dublin

Day 2 was largely spent in the airport in London, but not as much as it could have been. When we planned our trip, we wanted to fly into London so we get direct up to Cambridge, where we are staying with our friend Jessica. But when we were looking at flights, we found that flying into Dublin, with a stopover in London was a lot cheaper. We thought and read online that we might be able to get off at London, especially without any checked baggage, but with threats of canceling our return trip, the airline kept us on our original plan. There was going to be a 10 hour layover in London, but Cait talked her way onto an earlier flight and our layover was reduced to 5 hours or so. We found a great play area in the airport (Heathrow) and played there for an hour or two, and then found another play area closer to our flight area after that. The kids were great on the layover and Tallulah loved having some room to explore (although she was sad she didn't get into the second play area, because she was too small).

 

The flight to Dublin was a little difficult, but short. The kids were tired and not interested in being on a plane again, but using tried and true strategies we made it through.

 

We got off in Dublin with zero plans, as we had hoped to spend the night in London or on a train to Cambridge. At least everyone spoke English and we found some free wifi, so we were able to find a nice hostel that was somewhere along a bus route. We either got off at the wrong stop or the bus didn't go that close, but we had a nice walk after getting off the bus to get to the hostel, but it was fun to walk through a different city. Dublin was a little grungier than I had expected (sorry to any Dubliners out there), although, admittedly, we are happy to avoid the nice parts of town in order to get a cheaper bed to sleep in, and Gaelic was used alongside English in more places than I expected, but overall, it was a very nice urban center, with a diverse crowd and an orderly flow of tourists and citizens.

Here's how Lulah decided to rest her head on the walk around Dublin. It looked really uncomfortable, but she insisted:

 

 

 

After setting up in the hostel and putting a sleeping Atticus to bed, I went out in search of food, armed only with a credit card and American dollars, which apparently isn't a great combination for finding cheapish food in Dublin where cheap food is easiest bought with hard currency. So combine that with me getting lost in a nicer part of town, kept me from bringing back food in a rapid manner and Cait and Tallulah were ravished by the time I got back. We ate and then all fell asleep.

 

The restaurant where I got food

 

The hostel itself was very nice. It was, of course, simple as hostels are. But we got a private bed with 3 rooms, free wifi and a place to charge our electronics, and a bathroom, so pretty much all we needed. It was run by a very nice Spanish family (pretty much every shop we went in was manned by someone from Spain, as were most of the people in the hostel not sure if that was coincidence or a trend in Dublin, or at least the part we were in) who were eager to make us feel comfortable.

 

Day 2 summary: End flight to London, layover in airport, flight to Dublin, walk to hostel, eat, sleep.