Tips for Dublin, Ireland: St. Patrick's Day

Oh my goodness you guys! I was in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day and it was AMAZING. Well, not the day of, but I did celebrate the weekend before. Honestly, this was not my normal "Tour Like Crazy" weekend. We mainly just beep bopped around and socialized the entire weekend. It was so nice to have that kind of vacation. Every single one of my trips has been: do such and such by this time, eat, do this, do that, sleep, etc. It was a never ending checklist of things I HAD to do because what if I never came back? For Ireland, I didn't feel that way. I don't know why. I hadn't planned on going back (although a co-worker and I are impulsively going back two weeks later). But it ended up being the best weekend ever because I didn't feel rushed. I just went with the flow. I did pick up some tips that I thought I should pass onto you though!

Tips for Ireland

Taxis are typically easier to use than the bus system. They are building a Tram system right now to go around the center of the city, but there are so many stops on Public Transportation.  So, it takes two hours to get across the city.

The main airport is good distance outside of the city so prepare for that! I nearly missed my flight because we forgot to take that into account.

Most pubs close their kitchens down around 9:00 PM, but if you do eat something at a pub, get the Fish and Chips!

Do a bus tour to view a lot of Ireland. I'll be doing a separate post on this later on!

Guineas Storehouse: buy tickets online! It's typically a little cheaper and the lines are shorter when you show up.

Jameson: You should book in advance for a guaranteed spot! We showed up thinking it was like Guiness where there would be plenty of room. However, all of the tours were booked. You can shop at the gift store and do your own personal tasting at the bar though.

Cliffs of Moher
These cliffs rise around 400 ft above the Atlantic Ocean and is one of the most popular tourist attractions for Ireland. I highly recommend this. It had breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean and the fields around. If you would like to learn more about the cliffs, look here.

Baby Cliffs - smaller versions of the Cliffs of Moher (was included in our bus tour)

Temple Bar Area - where the tourists go.

George Street - a lesser known bar area that is right across the street from the Temple Bar area

Know your accents- I was talking to a couple I met and I thought they were Irish! However, they were actually British. #fail



These are some of the restaurants we ate at. I highly recommend them!

Gallagher Boxty - great authentic Irish food and great atmosphere

O'Neils - They do Sunday Buffet. Its a Pub with hundreds of beers to sample

Acapulco - Mexican with great Margaritas!



Learn something new about their culture. The Irish have such a rich culture. For example, did you know their ancestors believed in Faeries? Not our sweet little Tinkerbell's. Their Faeries didn't like to be messed with. They even had Faerie rings, which were raised, circular, flat hills. Their ancestors would avoid them because if you messed a Faerie, they got you back twice as hard. You can read more about them here if you want!

I'll be doing another post on my second trip and the bus tours soon. Have a great day!

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Crazy Love: April 3, 2015

Source

I can't tell you how many times someone has told me "You can't do that because of XYZ". This causes two completely different responses from me. I either say "Okay, that makes sense" and downplay how much I am hurt. Or on many, many, many occasions, it lights my inner fire to prove them wrong. It is always good to light the inner fire. You can find inspiration, motivation, and a drive to accomplish anything.

If you haven't heard of Todrick Hall, let me introduce you to him. His Beauty and A Beat always makes me smile no matter how bad my day is.

Don't forget about that Dark Lord Funk for my HP Fans.

I wish Atlanta had a Feline devotion blog. Felines of New York is my new crazy cat lady crush.

Lastly, Lilly Pulitzer is coming to Target. My dreams are coming true and I won't even be in America. So sad. See the look book here.

Binder of Manuals

Do you have so many manuals that you don't know what to do with them all? Are they just thrown in random corners of your house or thrown away? Well, I have a solution for you!!!

Wow that sounds like a info commercial, but this is a really good idea that you should start doing. First, go find a really big binder that you like and buy some transparent sleeves. Or you could buy folders that can go in a three ring binder. Those work too.

Then you just start filling the binder with all of those manuals and random pieces of paper you needed to keep about furniture, electronics, etc. I love this idea because now I know where all of my random little manuals are and any scrap of paper that I need to keep that has important information. I also used Post-Its to write on the outside of the sleeve to tell me what it is.

As part of my command center, I also have a butterfly clip marked as 'File Me'. Then, I can store it in my command center until I have a chance to file it. Its so nice and makes my life a lot more organized!



Happy Organizing Everyone!

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What To Do In Paris Part 1

I recently took an impromptu trip to Paris, France with a co-worker and her sister. My first experience of Paris was a couple of years ago and, well, it was just plain awful. So, naturally, I was kind of apprehensive. During that horrible trip, I was with thirty other high school students and it was a gigantic cluster of bad manners and yelling a lot. This is probably why we were treated so rudely every where we went. Thankfully, this time it was so much better. Since there were a total of three of us, we weren't treated like tourists. We were just English speaking people in France. 

Unfortunately, we weren't in Paris all that long, and there is so much to do in Paris. We only did a snippet of what is possible:

Catacombs

The catacombs were originally disused limestone quarries underneath Paris.  It now houses the remains from the Ossuary of the Innocents. This is not a walk for children who are afraid of the dark or any type of human bones. You can see from the images that the people who created the ossuary were very bored and started to create different designs with the bones. You can read more about the catacombs here. 

Eiffel Tower

Created for the World Fair in 1889, it is the symbol of Paris. You can ride to the very top for about 30 Euro or you can ride half way for around 18 Euro. I remember from my high school days that the view from up there is breath taking. You can buy cheaper tickets ahead of time here. It also twinkles on the hour every hour once it gets dark. I think it stops sometime around 1 AM. 

Louvre

Oh I can't love the Louvre enough. I have to write a separate post about it though. All I'm going to say is that they weren't kidding when they said it would take three days to see every single piece of art. 

Notre Dame

The inspiring place that prompted an author to write about an unfortunate soul called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" or in my Disney terms, "The Darkest Movie Disney Ever Created". You can read more on this cathedral here. 

Zero Point plate

From this plate, all points in Paris are measured. According to legend, if you touch this plate in front of Notre Dame, you will be blessed with the opportunity to return to Paris. Another tradition is perform your own personal ritual on top of it for good luck! You can read more about it here.

Arc De Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe was originally commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor the Grand Armee and the many victories they had won. He had conquered most of Europe at this time and so there were a lot of battles to honor. A total of 128 to be precise. It later became a World War I monument to honor the ceremony of the unknown soldiers.  You can read more about the Arc de Triomphe and how to by tickets here

Pont Des Arts

Pont des Arts is the famous "love lock" bridge in Paris. Since 2008, tourists have been placing locks on the bridge to declare their undying love to each other. However, the weight of all the locks has started to cause harm to the bridge. There is even an instance of when part of the bridge fell due to the weight of the locks. I was kind of sad to see this bridge all boarded up. I completely understand why they are trying prevent the locks on this bridge. You can see how the bridge bows in certain places from the weight. The Paris Mayor's office has even created a social media hashtag #lovewithoutlocks to help tourists find alternatives to placing a lock on the bridge. Read more about it here. 

Just take in the scenery

And really. Don't forget the Eiffel Tower. Its just so beautiful!

This is actually an unedited shot I took. Look how far my skills have come!

I'll be traveling back to Paris again with my mom in April. I'm sure I will have more to add to the list of things to do!

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