The Young and the Traveled

Traveling internationally with Eamon has been quite the experience.  We've taken a lot of road trips over the years so I thought I had a pretty good idea of his travel temperament and so far he hasn't disappointed - other than his newly acquired motion sickness.  :/  There have been a lot of other things that traveling with a kid has taught me these past few weeks so I've compiled a handy-dandy list! 

• Flight attendants will give you all kinds of free drinks and snacks to keep your kid from puking on the flight!  :D  

• Cabbies in Belfast (at least the ones named Marty!) will ply your kid with candy and give you a fiver to buy him junk food if you promise not to take him out of the hotel on a politically iffy night.

• Your kid makes the perfect mule for sneaking fruit and mini jam jars out of super fancy breakfast buffets - especially if you make sure he's wearing cargo pants!  Bonus - if he's caught, you can just pretend that you're horrified at his juvenile behavior! 

• The questionable cleanliness of a hostel won't faze your kid at all (unless you've got one of those weird kids who likes showering, then I can't help you!).

• Your kid will adapt very quickly to staying in 5 star hotels and B&B's, especially if they have complimentary robes and slippers!

Exhibit A ;) 

Worst Travel(writ)er Ever

Now that we are on Day Five (FIVE?!) of the trip, I guess it's time to update my travel blog.  Why I haven't done this sooner, I don't know.  Oh, perhaps it's because every time I've had my laptop out and a wifi connection, Eamon has been at my elbow asking, "Can I get on?  When can I get on?  So about those video games..."  Also, I think it took me a few days to recover from the trauma of The Toronto Incident, as it shall forever be known.

What, you ask, is The Toronto Incident?  Well, let's just say that in one of my most spectacular travel debacles ever (and there have been quite a few), I [subconsciously] decided that I quite enjoyed the international lounge at Toronto's airport, so much so that Eamon and I spent about 5 hours at the wrong gate in the wrong concourse and nearly missed our flight to London.  Actually, after the slowest, shortest, most non-effective airport shuttle ride ever, we were told that we had in fact missed the flight but after about 10 minutes of tears and ticket agents trying to reroute us, they told us that they might let us on after all, if we felt like running.  I guess the airport gods were sufficiently pleased with our grief and contrition - or the ticket agents just didn't want to bother trying to find us alternate flights.  Needless to say, my "seasoned traveler" image was a bit tarnished after that.  I will say that after running through the airport with a 14.7 pound backpack and a fully-laden purse, I feel like I might be ready for one of Mark's crazy races!

Marti & Eamon, BTTI (before The Toronto Incident)

UPDATE:  Wow, I'm so bad at this that I posted this on the wrong blog... :P

Tripped Up Advisor

My tripped up advisor...

It's only been a week or two since our Friendly Swede sleeping bag/bed liners arrived so I guess it's about time to test them out.  Too bad I'm swamped with bill paying and school work...  But, wait, I have an official product tester on staff!  And if there is one thing he likes more than attempting to break things, it's rolling around on the floor wrapped in a sheet.  No, really.  

So after cocooning himself in one of the sleeping bag liners and hopping up - and then down - the stairs in it, and it still being in one piece, we're going to call this a successful product test! ;)   

Eamon or giant microwave burrito?

And let's not forget the real Trip Advisor.  Their suggestions for Aberdeen, Scotland have been much less depressing than the ones for Dublin and Belfast.  Marischal College (gorgeous!) and Haig's Food Hall (do they know my kid or what?) look pretty good.  There's even a beach in their list and not one jail or cemetery!   

Marischal College

Belfast Bound!

Belfast Bound!

Travel reservations are done*!   Yes, despite massive amounts of school work that I needed to do over the weekend, I managed to find time to shirk it all in favor of the much more enjoyable task of sifting through travel websites and hostel reviews.  Shocking, I know!  

Bus tickets are booked, hostel reservations are made, and airline tickets are purchased.  Now I just have to figure out what we're going to do there.  Of course, if Eamon has his way, we'll just visit all of their ice cream shops.  

Trip Advisor also has some suggestions and in their typically morbid fashion, they've suggested the following:  

Crumlin Road Gaol, which operated as a jail from 1845 until 1996.  Nope, not depressing at all...

Titanic Belfast, which admittedly looks cool in this photo but we all know what happened later... 

Ok, I'm kidding about the last one because I would really like to see where the Titanic was built but Trip Advisor really does need to step up their game and give some non-depressing trip advice!  Has anyone been to Belfast?  Where would you recommend that we visit?  

*Yes, grammar-nazis, I know that "done" is what a steak is and that the proper word would be "finished" - trust me, my 6th grade English teacher Mrs. Long is rolling over in her grave right now - but "done" just sounds better in this context!

Dublin, Dublin, Toil and... Troublin'?

Dublin, Dublin, Toil and... Troublin'?

Well, the ferry passage is booked, the hostel is reserved, and ground transportation is sorted.  Looks like we're headed to Dublin!  Now I just have to decide what we're going to do while we're there!  Obviously my mini-me is no help at all when it comes to trip planning.  However, TripAdvisor has TONS of unsolicited advice about where I should go and what I should do while I'm there.  (How did they even know?!) Their list includes the following:

Kilmainham Gaol, which appears to be where Daniel Day Lewis was imprisoned in "In the Name of the Father."  

Glasnevin Cemetery, which "houses" 1.5 million Dubliners - the non-living kind.  (Hmm, I'm sensing a really depressing theme here, TripAdvisor.  I'm going to need you to try a little harder to ensure that I have an enjoyable trip, not one spent weeping into a beer at the bar!)

St. Stephen's Green, an historic park and garden in the center of Dublin.  Ok, somewhat better but we can't forget the Famine Memorial in the park, which is still going to bring down the tone of the vacay.  TripAdvisor, I'm going to need you to step up your game.  Think of the children!  (Ok, just one but still, we don't want him weeping into his ice cream the whole time!)

What Dublin travel suggestions do YOU have?

Car Hire: Higher & Higher

Car Hire: Higher & Higher

It turns out that hiring a car was higher than I expected.  And since I wasn't expecting to hire a car... ugh!  Well, I knew that there would be some car hire happening but I was hoping I could put it off until the third or fourth country visited.  No such luck.  With that in mind, I feel that it is only fair for me to provide the following public service announcement to the United Kingdom:

People of England and Wales, take heed!  I will be criss-crossing through your lands like a soccer mom with a broken GPS who's late to the game and not sure what side of the road to drive on (because that's essentially my life anyway!) so please do us all a favor and move aside when you see me coming and don't curse me too badly. I promise to ingratiate myself to you with my effected yet believable southern charm!  

While I'm cheaping out and planning to make my 10 year old ride on top of the luggage, does anyone know if US GPS devices work in UK rental cars?  Enquiring/frugal minds want to know! :D

Btw, notice anything odd about the daily price and the total?  Considering that my rental period was only for five days and not ten?! :P The UK knows I'm coming and is already out to get me - and hopes I can't count. 

Legoland... London?!

Legoland... London?! 

Did you know that there's a Legoland outside of London?  We certainly didn't - until we started looking for lodging near Heathrow Airport and came across a lovely little hostel called Heathrow Lodge which, according to its web page is, "...in close proximity to the airport and Legoland..."  Um, what?!  

Eamon has only been dreaming of visiting Legoland since he was old enough to scatter little plastic bricks across the floor for us to step on.  And to visit a Legoland in London?  I mean, who needs to see the actual Parliament and Big Ben when you can see a Lego facsimile!  So with that little tidbit of tourist information, we have our first day's activity and lodging handled.  Just another 12 days and nights to sort out.  :)

I will admit that I am having a little trouble with the idea of skipping the wonders of London.  I've seen them but this would be my son's only chance on this trip.  What do you think:  would you forgo a day trip to downtown London to take your kids to an amusement park or nah?