Dad & Mum in Ireland Part 2

We started our tour around Ireland on Wednesday. Left Cork after brunch and drove up to Dublin. We spent a night there in Abbott Lodge on Lower Gardiner St, just off O'Connell St. It was a really decent place and was really close by to the Spire and Henry St. We did a little bit of shopping, had coffee, continue shopping and had briyani for dinner @ Madina. =)

The next day, left Dublin after breakfast and head up to the OUTLET in Banbridge. It was heaven-on-earth for Mum & me but a living-hell for Dad! LOL. Dad allocated 2 hrs for shopping but we were there for almost 6 hrs!! How time flies when you're shopping! So we bought some duvet covers from Sanderson, GAP for nephews and for myself of course, and we spent hours and hours in Clarks and went in other shops as well (you can click the link for the list of shops there). So Banbridge gave Dad headaches and left him with thinner wallet. *wink*

After Banbridge, we went up to Belfast and spent the night there. We went to Queen's University and drove around city center and passed by the port where the Titanic was built. We stayed in Holiday Inn Express, nearby Queen's University and had world's greatest fish & chips (they claimed it themselves) heh. I had the scampi instead. =P

The next day after breakfast, we headed up to county Antrim up to the Giant's Causeway. It was breathtaking~! Even when the weather wasn't really on our side, it was still worth all the hours spent driving up north.
From Giant Causeway, we headed towards Galway on the same day. We drove through Londonderry city and stop by for lunch.. we had Fillet 0'Fish from McD!! haha. *don't forget to ask for toasted buns for Halal, my Muslim friends*. We also stopped by Sligo town for Dad's cigarette break and to empty out our bladders. heh.

Arrived in Galway quite late and had some trouble finding Ocean Crest B&B on Salthill because we did not have the city map and the roads are really confusing. But it was a really nice place with serene view of the Galway Bay. For dinner, we had Indian cuisine as we are all had enough of fish & chips. (we can't live without rice really) =P. With our full stomach, we did a quick drive-thru Galway's city center and too tired and full to stop for pictures. *sobs*

The next day after breakfast, we took a walk along the waterfront on Salthill before heading off to Cliffs of Moher. The routes to the cliffs from Galway was unbelievable!! Although the road was really bad (poor Dad had to drive all the way), but the scenery was indescribable!

From the cliffs, we stopped by Limerick and visited the landlady I stayed with during my ENT rotation in 4th year and Surgery rotation in March. She made us a really nice home-cooked meal and had a really great time chatting with her. After we said our goodbyes, we headed back to Cork and ended our "Touring Ireland in 4 days".

We literally go AROUND the island driving with no GPS.. all we had was a good driver (my Dad is 65, mind you.. and he drove by himself all the way) and a great map reader with great sense of direction (that's ME!) =P


Our route in RED

*pictures will be uploaded later. anyone has Sony MSPro card reader that I can borrow??*