Through the park or around the park - but which plug?

After an exhausting 17 hours of airports and flying (plus 7 hours of time change that wiped out the rest of the day), we landed this morning in Dublin.  All signs pointed to a great trip when we walked up to baggage check and immediately got our bag, then walked right up to the waiting bus to our hotel.  Could not have been easier.

The fantastic Bewley's Ballsbridge Hotel even had our room ready at 10 am.  After a quick refresh, we went off exploring to find a place to have lunch.  Out the door, and turn right.  Why not?  We walked for over a mile through embassies and ambassador residences.  It was great, but did absolutely nothing to satisfy hunger.

Finally, we found a great pub that clearly hadn't seen any tourists in quite some time.  Guinness does taste better here.  Then exhaustion set in and the kids went berserk.  Under the table, around the table, kicking, squirming, cracking their heads on a large oak table and incessant silly giggles.  And a waitress who really didn't care if we ever got the check.

Patrick Murphy, manager on duty, came by to check if we had any biscuits.  "Uh....no?"  "Wehl, have some biscuits then, wohn't ya?" he brogued while passing out cookies.  By this time, Daniel had completely passed out in Jessica's arms.  "Do ye have yer boogy?"  Patrick asked.  The blank look on our face showed we had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.  "You know, yer cart," he added while making a stroller motion.    When we explained that we walked, he mumbled and brogued something that must have meant we were the dumbest people he'd seen in quite a while.

Jessica, knowing full well that Doug had absolutely no idea where we had gone or how to get back but would pretend that everything was just fine for at least another 3 miles before giving in, asked Patrick for directions back to the hotel.  "Oh, Bewley's in Ballsbridge?  Ye go through the pahrk.  It's right over theere.  You go through the pahrk or around the pahrk.  5 minutes."  Sounded easy enough.

Remember, things sound easy when you're not dragging a slap happy 6 year old, and lugging a 35 lb. brick named Daniel.  Then you realize that "around the park or through the park" doesn't make any sense at all when you come to a 4 way fork in the trail.  

10 minutes later, we're through the park but nothing looks familiar.  Without hesitation, Jessica immediately found a bus driver who pointed us in the right direction...we thought.  Another 20 minutes later, we're back at the hotel after taking the longest possible route to get back.

With kids napping, Doug wanted to charge all the electronics that were run down on the flight.  Jessica had outlet adapters from her grandma.  But we thought we needed a voltage converter.  The friendly, but not so smart, folks at RadioShack helped her find the right one.  We left the adapters behind, thinking the converter covered it all.  It didn't.  

Ireland has different plugs than Germany.  Luckily, the hotel fixed that for us.  Then, we also learned that the converter is for small appliances only - no electronics.  With the thought that he carried a laptop bag all this way for nothing, Doug frantically looked online with the last few moments of battery power for an answer.  Google has the answer to "Will 240 volts fry my laptop?" - turns out the adapter is all we needed and another crisis was averted.  

It's quite likely that with a full night's sleep, there would be no story here at all on our first day in Dublin.  We were so sleep deprived that we even almost forgot that today was our 9th wedding anniversary.