Howth you doing?

Haha sorry I couldn’t help myself, its terrible I know.

After spending a whole day exploring the city, I thought I’d seen most of Dublin city center or at least what I wanted to. If you’re wondering why you didn’t see pictures of the Guinness Storehouse or any beer refinery for that matter, its simply because I just do not like beer. The wheaty after taste is … well to put it simply, gross, sorry. Believe me I tried! I spent a good 5 months getting acquainted to beer and then drinking it at every city in Germany, I even gave Guinness a go and now I’m not sure if I hated beer more before studying abroad or after. Dark beer is not something I can handle but the advice is to apparently keep drinking light beers and eventually I’ll come to like it (sounds a lot like settling to me).

Anyhowth (see what I did there haha, okay I’ll stop) I decided to venture out of the city, on my own this time since the others had orientation, and Google suggested Howth: an easy one day hike about 30 minutes from the city.

The views from this place are absolutely breathtaking. At certain points, it really feels like you’re standing on the edge of the world. When you look out and all you can see is the horizon and the ocean encircling you. I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude and awe at the scene before me. Then I also got really sad because I realised most of my family and friends were on the other side of that ocean, but grateful, mostly grateful that I had the opportunity to embark on this journey.

Dublin Diaries:

I was a little disappointed we were leaving Italy so soon for Dublin as I had only just arrived. But alas, my friends’ school terms had begun and they had to fly to Dublin to settle in. To be fair one of my friends, the palest of us all was starting to resemble a brownie (in skin colour). Unfortunately once I left Italy that was the end of my Summer I barely saw the sun again … and that’s not even an exaggeration. Little did I know I would return home 5 months later, 4 shades lighter.

 

I’m glad I went to Dublin before heading to London and then settling in Sheffield (where I was studying abroad for 5 months) because even though it did rain incessantly, it was periodic. We got an hour or two of sunshine and then it would rain and then the sun would come back again.

Despite warnings from basically everyone I knew, I had yet to find a waterproof coat and refused to bring or buy an umbrella so I returned home everyday drenched. My converse shoes suffered a beating too and I burned through the rest of my clean socks.

Regrets? Only one: not going to Galway

Little Lecco:

My, am I glad to be posting this one. Lecco has got to be my favourite little get away place in Italy. No need to gasp I have yet to visit Rome, Florence, Cinque Terra or the Amalfi coast (although none of these places are little get aways) but if you have and you still think Lecco is better I would love to know. My only regret is only spending a day there. Here’s a small glimpse of the beauty that is Lecco:

Too much gelato in one day? Never!

Bellisimo Bergamo:

Before coming to Italy, I’d never heard of Bergamo and asked my friends (who planned the entire trip, yep I’m that person that just tags along) why it was on the list. Turns out there is an airport here which we would be using to hit up out next stop and its close to Milan. Luckily for us Bergamo had just enough for us to see and do in a day. Bergamo is split into two parts the Alter (upper) city,

Hello Milan:

My first impressions of Milan was “oh, this is it?”. After Venice, no city could really compare but Milan has its own little charm. Unfortunately, we only spent a day in Milan, I think a few more days and I really could’ve fallen in love with the city.

48 hours in Venice:

Okay so I may have gotten home a month ago and not posted anything at all but hey ya gurl needs a break, vacation is more stressful than being at home for me. Is that just me? You know when you feel like you have to see everything, do everything and make that thousand dollar plane ticket worthwhile. That was me for most of Europe BUT I can honestly say I have zero regrets.

Going Big but Not going Home

Now that I’ve found my routine and stabilised everything in my life (or tried to), I’m finding it hard to stick to the promises I’ve made. Its even worse when you write it all down and you just can’t tick them off (there’s nothing like ticking off something)

Off to the Hill tribes

The second week of my trip whilst not as epic as the previous was still packed full of fun and life changing experiences.

Chasing Elephants

You know you have a serious backlog of posts when you find photos from last year that have not gone up… oops.

Many months ago I participated in a volunteering trip to Thailand as part of a Uni extracurricular kind of thing. My uni involvements and thus resume was really lacking you see. (Probably because I hate uni). But this activity promised travel so I was intrigued.

Rashays

My last post was a bit long. Apologies! I recently read a post on balancing writing with photography, when writing a blog post and I definitely focus more on photography whenever I can; but sometimes as you can probably tell with these photos, I can’t.

Generally I’ll try to read the atmosphere. This time round, everyone was tired and hungry and I didn’t want to get in the way with my phone. After all not everyone appreciates photos, especially hangry people. If I’m being totally honest though