Our weekends so far in Dublin have followed a similar pattern: grab a late morning brunch and then do some kind of outing, exploration, or play in a park around the city. It’s always a balance with how much we, as adults, can fit into our day vs. how much the boys can handle, so we try to find a happy medium.

Saturday, we went for a nice brunch at a restaurant near where we’re staying called Herbstreet. We sat inside, but the doors were open to the patio so we got some sunny views of the Grand Canal dock, where the restaurant is located. It was an interesting mix of young professionals having leisurely weekend brunch and families with young kids like us, but the restaurant was very accommodating and everyone found something they liked to eat.

After brunch, we got a few errands done around town. I finally got my Irish cell phone number! My dad had helped to get my iPhone unlocked, so I was able to take the US sim card out and get an Irish sim card for while I’m here. Thanks Dad! We also got a little gift for our realtor, Veron, to thank her for all her help. It was amazing — we thought she was just going to help us find a house, but she also looked into preschools for us (called them up and took us to visit them all in her car), looked into doctors for us, and probably would have helped out with anything else we needed too. We weren’t expecting that type of full-service experience! So nice of her!

Sunday was not as sunny of a day, but we still wanted to get out and walk around. After brunch (of course :)) we walked around and decided to go to the Dublin Oktoberfest. Isaac and I went on the merry-go-round a few times, Jeff and I shared a beer, we got pretzels, and Jeff got a bratwurst. It wasn’t super crowded, probably because it was around 1 in the afternoon, so it was mostly families 🙂 I think once it’s evening, it gets busier, and they actually require you to eat food in the evening (so you don’t have an empty stomach for all the beer). Not sure how they enforce the eating policy, but I thought that was kind of interesting.

We walked home along the river Liffey and saw some interesting things, like the Famine Statues, commemorating the victims of the Potato Famine in the 1800’s. Then we just came back to the apartment and relaxed. It’s been a busy week with Jeff starting work, Rafi’s birthday, Rosh Hashana, deciding to switch Isaac to a different school (starting this week), and continuing to explore Dublin. Only 2 more nights in our temporary apartment…we are very ready to get to our house and properly unpack and settle in!