A girlie day in Dublin

Jessica is doing Romeo and Juliet in English this year and her teacher suggested that the kids make an effort to see the play at the theatre. As Malcolm was not too keen I decided to take the girls while he is in Florida. I called the Abbey and booked the tickets earlier this week for the Saturday matinee, which also happens to be the last day of the production –cutting it a bit fine!!!
We do not go into Dublin often enough so I planned to make it a great day out. We caught the bus, I love sitting upstairs and enjoy the view, luckily we catch the bus at the beginning of the route so the front seats upstairs are always available.
Once in town we popped into the theatre to collect the tickets, I was fairly sure I could find a decent spot to eat nearby too. Sadly this was not the case, there were a couple of pubs but I felt a bit strange going into a pub alone with the kids for lunch – just not the done thing in South Africa, I am sure I will have got over it by the time Jess is old enough to order her first pint!
I often see a place in Temple Bar could Eliza Blues and love the look of it so we decided to walk back to the Southside for lunch. The girls were impressed with the place I had chosen and after a long discussion they decided to share – Jess would order the burger, Kirstin the chicken and bacon wrap, I had been craving a steak and the sirloin on the menu seemed .like a good choice. The waitress was back within 5 minutes, very sorry but there are no burgers today, how the hell can a restaurant have no burgers???? I was annoyed, Jessica absolutely loves burgers, and if there is a burger on the menu you can rest assured that she will order it. She decided on the wrap. Our food arrived and we all tucked in, my medium rare steak was medium well and tasteless, my potatoes were barely cooked and sweet. Usually I send food back, but we had a time limit so I ate my bland meal quietly, the kids did enjoy their wraps and chips so all was not lost. Suffice to say I will not go back, The Shack in Temple Bar serves up very tasty fare and next time I do not know where to go that will be my fall back.
After lunch we speed walked/wobbled back to the theatre, I am fascinated at the pace of my youngest daughter, her legs are shorter than ours and she MOTORS, I had to jog to catch up! The play was okay, it was fairly basic, no new scenes or wardrobe changes really, Romeo wore jeans, a waist coat and a white T shirt and Juliet started in a cute pink dress but ended up in a pair of jeans too. I certainly did not feel cheated, the tickets were cheap so I guess the budget was very low, and Jess absolutely loved it. Kirstin got confused, but still thoroughly enjoyed being there and watching a live performance.
I often walk past a little café called León, there are quite a few of them in Dublin and their windows display an array of wicked desserts and cakes and the opportunity for tea and cake after the theatre with my girls in such a lovely setting could not be passed up.
The place was very busy when we arrived but we got the seat of the house – next to the fire and after a long cold walk it was just perfect! The girls ordered hot chocolates and the assortment of ice cream – I KNOW!!!! I opted for an apple and pear tart topped with cinnamon ice cream and a low fat (LOL – after the tart!!!) latté. We sat there all cosy and warm, our order took an age but it really did not matter, the setting was great and we enjoyed each others company and the ambience of the café. I tasted the kids ice cream – Haagen Dasz is better, I hate to say, but the hot chocolate was divine!
After tea I stopped in at a grocery store I had walked past and wanted to poke around in called Fallon & Byrne…. I had no idea that it was a bit of a tourist attraction. According to the lady behind the cheese counter people pop in just to se the place. They do have some wonderful things, EM would lurve it. I bought some parmigiano reggiano cheese – in fact Kirstin also bought her own little piece to nibble on for her bus trip home and I spotted fluff (melted marshmallow in a jar basically) too so I bought a jar of that for the kids to try. After wondering around checking all their goodies out for about 30 minutes we decided it was time to head home.
The kids loved the bus trip so much that they did not want to get the luas so we stood and waited at the bus stop for 25 minutes! While standing there we started chatting to this tiny lady, she really made me feel like a giant – if I sat and she stood we were about the same height!!! When the bus finally arrived we all got on and I headed upstairs, our new friend did not follow, in fact as we were heading up she had told Jess that she would not come upstairs. And so it was that the kids proceeded to nag me to go back downstairs. I felt a bit idiotic going back down and told the kids that it was a bit weird. They begged and pleaded and eventually Kirstin went to peak downstairs to see if there were seats next to Deena. She came back saying that yes there were, and how cute their new friend looked, so small on the seat of the bus, her bags next to her nearly as tall as she. I told them to go and sit downstairs but they wanted me to go down too. Eventually I caved in and feeling like an utter weirdo made my way back down.
The kids were sitting in the seat behind Deena, I slid in opposite them, she was reading a magazine oblivious to the two giggling girls behind her. They started chatting to me and she put her magazine away and turned to see us (Me feeling utterly stupid) sitting behind her. I told her the kids had decided that they wanted to keep her company. She was very pleased and so we all chatted…until she realised that she had missed her stop!!! Luckily it was only 1 further so she made a mad dash for the door wishing us all a Happy Easter and hope to see you again sometime over her shoulder.
Our stop was next and we wearily and happily walked home after a wonderful day out in Dublin.