Arriving in Dublin too early

This is the first blog post. What to write? What comes to mind first is the flight to Dublin. We left Newark, New Jersey, about 9:30p, with a scheduled arrival at 9:00am on March 1, 2008. Our new life in Ireland was about to begin. The four of us consumed row 1 of our Boeing 757; Alexander and Daniela looked small in the oversized Business Class seats. Due to some strong tail winds, we arrived Dublin in about 6 hours, too short for much rest on an overnight flight.

And so it began. We came with 16 bags (you don't travel lightly with 2 small kids) and called home a very elegant 2 bedroom apartment in an Elizabethan-inspired corporate housing oasis, that until the mid-1990s was the British Embassy.

And fast-forward to today. We're settled in a house we're renting in Ballsbridge, which is in central Dublin. For Brian it means a 20 minute walk to the office, while the kids and I are close to parks, shops and other places of interest (such as the Doctor's office). Walking is a nice perk if you're uncomfortable driving on the other side of the road (thankfully, this now comes naturally - the scrape of the side of the car was from a "transition" period). Actually, we now think driving on the right side of the road would be difficult to adapt to.

The post will focus on our life in Dublin, getting used to the Irish quirks, and pointers for those making the crossing (which seem to be many given how many American's we've met and the number of multinational corporations here).