So now I’m in Madrid and I’m here to stay for a while, YAY! It was wonderful and amazing to see so many iconic cities and I’ve definitely gotten a feel for where I’d like to return some day (Edinburgh and Bordeaux for sure!) as well as the cities I’d probably skip next time (South of France)! Now I am so happy to be able to stay in one place and get to know the city I fell so madly in love with last summer. But before I start talking about Madrid, I’ll go back to where I left off in my last post.
I think we left off in Dublin, and I was telling you about my amazing walking tour! Again, I highly recommend a walking tour in the cities you are visiting! You will glean such cool and interesting tidbits about the city! After my walking tour I was dying for a dance class. Unfortunately I could not find a single Zumba or Cardio Dance class in Dublin that fit my schedule. SO, luckily I had my handy dandy bluetooth speaker, my Plyojam playlist, my resistance band, and I borrowed my host's yoga mat and went to town. I am so thankful that Plyojam is something you can take with you anywhere. As long as you have several of the routines memorized, you can pretty much dance anywhere! I got my sweat on and it felt great!! That night I was not keen on going out for dinner as I had already maxed out my daily budget. So it was beans for dinner!
For my trip to Ireland, I definitely knew that not only did I want to explore the city of Dublin, but I also wanted to see some Irish countryside. After doing some research and reading several reviews, I booked a day trip to County Wicklow and the gorgeous Wicklow mountains. Along with very interesting history, I did learn that Daniel Day Lewis lives in County Wicklow. Ha! Mr. Lincoln himself! :) I’m not going to lie, going on a tour alone can be a tiny bit intimidating at first. Most people are with friends or family or their spouses. However, it only takes me maybe three seconds to get over any weirdness I might feel and then I just choose to really enjoy the fact that someone is going to tour me around and tell me totally interesting stuff about the land! Also, I have found that most people are really warm and welcoming when they know you are traveling alone. And when all else fails, buddy up with the tour guide! On this tour we visited Glendalough and Kilkenny City. Glendalough was absolutely stunning. We saw beautiful lakes, took a gorgeous walk through the woods, and eventually arrived at a 6th century monastic settlement to visit the monastic ruins. There were spectacular graveyards and multiple ruins of churches. One church even had it’s original windows dating back to 1225. Unbelievable!
From Glendalough we journeyed across the beautiful Wicklow Gap and saw spectacular landscape. If you ever saw Braveheart or P.S. I Love You, parts of these movies were filmed in this area. We arrived in Kilkenny City, the medieval capital of Ireland. I had noticed another girl on the tour who was alone, but I heard her speaking Spanish and had zero confidence in trying to communicate with her. Imagine my surprise and happiness when she came up to me as we were getting off the bus in Kilkenny and introduced herself! Monica spoke enough English for us to communicate and was the sweetest and cutest thing! And the major bonus is that she lives in Madrid! We ended up having lunch together and hanging out the rest of the tour. We exchanged information so that we can meet up in Madrid! I can’t wait to see her again and I am SO glad she came up to me! Bravery and taking initiative are going to make a world of difference in your solo travels! So thank you Monica for introducing yourself!
Kilkenny was lovely and we saw a magnificent church called the Black Abbey. Our tour guide gave us a wonderful walking tour of this little city and the stories were fantastic. It was a chilly grey day, and our guide told us folklore of black magic and witch trials. It was so much fun and I loved every second!
As we headed back into Dublin it was pouring rain. I now understand how everything stays so beautifully lush and green! It rains a ton! Monica and I shared an umbrella back into the city and could not stop laughing and giggling as we got soaked in the rain! It was a wonderful day and I felt that kind of happiness that feels like it’s going to bubble right out of you!
That night I bought a delicious falafel from a tiny stand in Temple Bar that was INSANELY delicious, did some laundry and slept like a log. I knew I needed to rest up for London! The next morning I cleaned the flat, packed up my suitcase and boarded the bus back to the airport. Off to London I went! I was SO excited to meet up with Erin at Heathrow!!!
Ok, more on London in my next post! Toodles for now!
Travel Tip #3 - Pack light! If you are visiting multiple cities, no one is going to know that you have been wearing those same darn jeans and those same shoes in every city! ESPECIALLY if you are staying in places with washers. Also, be aware that most places in Europe don’t have dryers…just washers. So if you plan on doing laundry, do it the first night you are in a place so that you give your clothes a day or two to dry!
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