Friday night was a city-wide (and actually I think all across Ireland) event called Culture Night. We had been seeing signs all around for it since we got here, so we were excited to check it out. It’s a night, once a year, where all the museums are open late and from 5pm-11pm all across the city, there are a ton of various artistic and cultural experiences. Art installations, music, theater, dance, poetry readings, etc. There were even music performances happening on buses/trains (though we didn’t see any) as they traveled around the city.

I wasn’t quite sure what would be the most kid-friendly, since we would be bringing the kids along, and given the time of day (approaching dinner/bedtime), I knew we couldn’t partake in culture for too too long. So we decided to walk the area around Merrion Square, where they were having something called “Dublin downstairs.” In many of the basement levels of the buildings around the square, on the outside patios, there were a variety of things to see and do. There was a mini movie theater (complete with popcorn), a bookstore where you could pick a random book to unwrap and keep, and a blind taste-test experience to taste food cooked by well-known Dublin chefs. This event had a long line and wait time (as did the movie theater), so we didn’t do either of those. But just walking around and observing the atmosphere was interesting. There were lots of people of all ages out and about. Inside Merrion Square park there was a big tent set up for concerts all night. Unfortunately, it started to rain pretty hard (the first real rain we’ve had), the boys were getting tired and hungry, and we all have a bit of a cold so after about an hour, we decided to get some dinner and head back home. I would have loved to check out even more…maybe next year once we are more settled we can find a sitter and head out on our own (though it was fun bringing the kids along too to give them a taste for it).

When we woke up Saturday, we didn’t have any plans, but we had heard from a local family we talked to in a coffee shop about a nice park south of the city. It was going to take us two buses to get there, but we decided it would be a fun adventure. Marlay Park is a large park in the south suburbs of Dublin. It has nice wooded walking trails, huge green areas for running around, playgrounds, and farmers market on the weekends. During the summer there are apparently big concerts in the park too, so maybe we’ll look into that next summer. The park is set right up against the Dublin hills that lead into the Wicklow mountains, and the park is actually the starting point for a 132 km hiking trail called the Wicklow Way which extends up into the mountains and all the way towards the south of the country. Isaac had actually fallen asleep in the stroller by the time we got to the park, so we didn’t check out the playground there, but instead just strolled around the farmers market. There’s also a beautiful Georgian house there and the gardens of the house were a nice surprise to stroll around.

We headed back toward town on the bus and decided to get off in an area called Rathmines. It’s a neighborhood of Dublin that we had heard about but hadn’t had a chance to explore yet. Historically, it was an area that provided rent accommodation to newly arrived immigrants and students, so it has always had a more international feel to it. Even as it’s become more gentrified lately, it still retains a cool, funky, young, and international feeling, with lots of cafes, shops, and ethnic restaurants. After refueling with some lunch and coffee, we continued on to the next neighborhood called Ranelagh, stopping first at a park for Isaac to run around (since he had slept through the last park!) We then started the walk back to our place, which took about half an hour, and we walked along what is called the Grand Canal. I didn’t realize, but the canal actually has a series of locks, so we got to see a boat go through some of them, which Isaac found fascinating. He was so interested in following the boat’s progress that he walked the whole way home (over a mile, which for a little guy is a lot)! When we got back, we were all exhausted!