and we're here!

Last Friday we left for Ireland on an overnight flight. It was only a 7 hour direct flight from Chicago to Dublin. Charlotte hated trying to sleep the last few hours so I held her the entire time while she squirmed this way and that. I maybe slept for 45 minutes. Total.

We arrived in Dublin on Saturday morning and picked up our car. I'm the only driver since Ben will be working at the hospital for the first month and won't need to use the car.

Great.

I have driven a stick shift a handful of times in my life.

Never with my left hand, on the left hand side of the road.

Let's just say that the first 200 yards of driving were interesting. And I may have cried, uttered a swear word, and yelled at Ben for talking too much while I needed to concentrate.. =)

Oh, and the one time I drove into oncoming traffic. Woops...

After the first few hours I definitely now have the hang of it and only have to remind myself once in awhile "left, left, left".

We went to the "grocery store" to pick up food for our apartment and loved buying 'biscuits' instead of cookies and 'nappies' instead of diapers.

Some accents are sooo thick I honestly can't understand what they're saying. Usually the older guys smoking and having a pint of Guinness are the nicest and most helpful ones.

I still can't believe we'll be living here for a month and a half.

Sweet.

Our plane behind us before we left from Chicago. Charlotte was a wee bit excited.

Charlotte playing at a local playground in Galway City where we'll be living the first month.

For Easter Sunday we went to the Galway Cathedral for a Catholic service. It was beautiful and absolutely packed full of worshippers. Afterwards we walked around to familiarize ourselves with the city and got a traditional Irish-Easter meal. Think potatoes. Lots of potatoes.

Nana below (who will be with us the first two weeks) and the cathedral we went to mass at.

Overlooking the Corrib River in Galway.

Today, Ben (who doesn't have to go to work until tomorrow) and I went to Clonmacnoise while Nana hung out with Charlotte. Clonmacnoise is a monastic site founded in 548 by St. Ciaran along the river Shannon. The original buildings from that time were made of wood so they are long gone, but the majority of the ruins there today are from the 12th century.

The most and best preserved high crosses of Ireland are at this site.

Below is a castle ruin that was built in the 13th century.

This was called Nun's Church. Close by there was a stone path called the Pilgrim's path where people would make long pilgrimages to Clonmacnoise.

Tomorrow Nana, Charlotte, and I are headed to Connemara National Park.

Hopefully I'll be good about blogging every night, or at least every few nights.

I'm off to bed.

'Oiche mhaith'

{goodnight}