En route to Dublin - Part Trois

Despite the late night revelry the previous day, we managed to drag ourselves outta bed at 8-ish AM to get ready for breakfast. Our aim was to start driving into Dublin by 10plus AM so that we could squeeze seeing at least ONE tourist attraction instead of cramming everything to Sat. The drive was to take us approx 2 1/2 hrs so by 1030ish, after saying our goodbyes to Meiling's family at their guesthouse (they put up at Blessingbourne, a service apt-type/cottage accommodation away from Valley Hotel), we set off quite on schedule.

MeiLing's aunties had asked if they could trail our car into Dublin so they could do more sightseeing. We agreed to have them follow us. But in the end, this put quite a bit of stress on both Dee and myself... (more on this later).

Armed with a Dublin map/guide, AA online-directions and a compass, I took on the navigator role again. But darn, it was nerve-racking! Getting to Dublin was OK but once we were in the city... oh.my.god.

There's a reason why the Dublin guide told us it would be better to walk within the city. Many of Dublin's streets are ONE-WAY! To get somewhere, you might have to go around the street to get into the street. A driver's nightmare! In addition, it didn't help that the Dublin guide/map I had borrowed from the Balham Library seemed to be out-of-date. Whenever Dee drew my attention to a streetname on the right, it appeared on the left in the map instead! As you would imagine, in such dire situations, tempers flared. And to add to the mounting stress levels, we also had the aunties tailing us...

After an hour of going round in circles, we FINALLY found Harcourt Road and with it, our hotel - The Harcourt Hotel. A bit of background regarding the choice of hotel - besides choosing it based on price (49 euros per pax), I'd chosen it coz it was the former residence of celebrated playwright - George Bernard Shaw (think Pygmalion, on which My Fair Lady was based on). Thought it'd be quite cool to see what it was like and perhaps, it could serve as another tourist attraction for us?

Anyway, as they say in Chinese, 'yi fen qian, yi fen huo'. The room, though spacious, was modest and looked like it served backpackers better. Dee was slightly disgruntled but I defended myself that we weren't going to stay in the room v much anyway. And it was, for just ONE night. That appeased him somewhat, or perhaps he was just too pooped to get into a debate... kekeke. But I had to agree with him on one thing - the makeshift or 'fake' ceiling for the toilet was rather unsettling. And the fact that the window could not be locked became a safety issue, not something a family should be faced with. So, in retrospect, I should have chosen a mid-range hotel that would have been safer for the family... Another lesson learnt!

Danielle had woken up with a slight flu that morning and throughout the car journey, she was having problems breathing properly. Poor thing... didn't know how to blow her nose. Got her some Vicks VapourRub when we stopped for some water supplies, and that helped slightly... :( But becoz of this, we decided to have an early night. No point stressing the lil' one too much and potentially waste Saturday. So after scouting around for a pharmacy for some quick-fix flu medication, we had dinner at a nearby lounge called 'The Village' (that played some of the weirdest lounge music I'd ever heard!), then headed back to the hotel. After dawdling about for awhile, we climbed into our beds at 8pm.