Ireland bound

August 11th -- We had an early wake-up this morning in order to catch our 7:10am train. The hotel provided us breakfast bags so we left the hotel at 6:30 and walked across the street to the train station. We picked up some drinks and a paper and found our way to our train. It was nice to be in an English speaking country for the first time in 6 months. Our first train ride was non-eventful with everyone enjoying breakfast and a little nap due to our short night. We arrived in Chester a little after 9pm and changed trains. The next train was a pretty basic local train. It made quite a few stops along the way to Holyhead, Wales. This was the port where we would catch a ferry to Dublin. Upon arriving, we walked into the train station and the ferry check-in was right there. We checked our bags, hoped on a shuttle and were off to the ferry. Luckily, we only had about 30 minutes between our arrival and our noon departure. The ferry was nice and much like a miniature cruise ship. It was the "fast ferry" so the ride was just under 2 hours. We found a table and grabbed some lunch from the restaurant. They were playing the movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" so Abby and Austin were entertained for most of the trip. When we arrived in Dublin, we grabbed our bags and hopped in a taxi. A short 15 minute drive and we were at our apartment. The apartment is actually in a residential apartment complex, like what you would find in the US. The lady who runs the apartment, Naomi, met us and showed us around. She was super nice and very helpful. We were asking all our standard questions about the apartment and had to be constantly reminded that everything was in English. For example, one of our first items we normally ask about is instructions for the washing machine, since we could never read the buttons. So we were asking Naomi how to use the washing machine when it dawned on us we could read the buttons. It will take a little time to re-adjust. Once we got settled in, I asked Naomi to help me find a computer repair shop. We decided since we were here a week, this would be a good opportunity to get the computer fixed. She drove me to a nearby shop while Amy and the kids went to the grocery store. I had to leave the computer for them to fix. Once I got back, we all walked a block over to find some dinner. We found a restaurant called Eddie Rockets. It is set up like a '50s dinner and the kids were excited. Honestly, it was nice to have a burger, fries and a milkshake in an English speaking country (even if it was Irish-English). After dinner we headed back to do some laundry (especially since we hadn't had a washing machine in over a week), baths, and bedtime.