Cork, Ireland (otherwise known as Detroit, USA)

While this may be a broad assumption, I will say that Cork, Ireland has been (and will be) my least favorite stop of this entire trip. After being in Dublin, where there was quite a lot of attractions to see and then being in Galway, where I found the traditional Ireland that I had pictured in my mind, Cork was less than fascinating to me. We arrived in Cork, after three train changes, and our immediate impression was that this was not a glamorous city. I personally found it to be very dirty, with litter and graffiti almost anywhere you look...highly disappointing.

To make our stay in Cork even more interesting, we were "couchsurfing" with an Irish local. Admittedly, he was a nice host, who showed us some fun in Cork...just about the only fun we had while we were there! He took us out to a local pub/bar on a Sunday night (who knew people were raging on a Sunday?!), where we met a bunch of new Irish friends and danced to some Irish music played by a local band (ever seen P.S. I Love You? It was just like the pub and band scene from the movie!). Then we got invited to the "after party", where Michael taught an Irishman how to do an Irish Car Bomb (nope, Irish people don't do those...true story) and I got hit on by several Irish guys.I think my hair color threw some of the guys off...I do look like an Irish girl...until I start to talk ;)

New Irish friends

The biggest reason we decided to visit Cork was to go to Blarney Castle, which is in Blarney, about 5 miles outside of Cork city. Our lovely host told us it was "only 8k" to get to Blarney, and asked if we were going to walk there. Never one to turn down exercise, I said sure and went along with it. The first half was up a brutally high hill (at least the views were pretty!), and the second half had no sidewalk. So we were on the side of a busy road that had no shoulder, having to stop every time a car was headed toward us, in order to not get hit. Adventurous? Yes. Fun? Ehh, not so much at the time. To add insult to injury, when we were about 5 minutes outside of Blarney, it started pouring rain...and hailing. Luckily, we did have umbrellas, so only the bottom half of our jeans and legs got drenched. haha. Once the rain started, I knew we had an interesting story that we wouldn't forget.I mean, (a) who can say they walked all the way to Blarney Castle from Cork (because only idiots like us would do that...HA), and (b) it was like a scene out of a movie: bad luck, then cue the pouring rain (more bad luck).

Kissing the Blarney Stone!

 Once that fiasco was over, the rest of the day ended up being gorgeous and we had a great time exploring Blarney Castle, almost forgetting about our insanely bad luck getting there! The castle itself was gorgeous, but the gardens really stole the show. With a bright blue sky as the backdrop (haven't seen too many of those since we got to Ireland!), the grass seemed to be a radiant green color and the flowers were extra vividly colored. I think I took more photos of Blarney than I took of the entire cities of Dublin and Galway! And kissing the Blarney Stone, well, that just made it even better. Not everyone can say they've done that...which makes it even more neat! I admit that I was terrified to lay down backwards and lean over the turret's edge...heights are not my friend! Its safe to say that Blarney is what made our stay in Cork worthwhile. I expected it to be quite "touristy", but it really felt authentic and not nearly as commercialized as a historical site in the U.S. would be.

While we had planned to spend three nights with our host in Cork, we found out that the buses and trains to the airport do not start running early enough in order for us to catch our 6:00am flight on Wednesday morning, so we are currently camped out in the airport ALL night. Talk about an exciting evening. ha. Sadly, we were actually excited about spending out last night here in the airport, because we did not find Cork to be a very exciting destination. I hate saying that, but it is unfortunately true. I compared Cork City, Ireland to Detroit...enough said.

I can't say ALL bad things about this place though, because we did meet some really cool Irish friends and partook in some authentic Irish things, like drinking and dancing to Irish music at an authentic pub. I'll take it. Now we get to look forward to our next adventure: getting around countries that speak languages other than English! My biggest concern is getting around The Netherlands and Germany. I'm an intermediate French speaker, and from that I can understand some Italian, and I've had some experience with Spanish, so I am not overly concerned about those countries. Since Amsterdam, Berlin, and Munich are our next stops, I guess we'll be finding out real shortly how well we can get around  those cities! Only a little bit longer before our flight leaves...maybe I should get some sleep...on the airport benches. My next blog post will be from Amsterdam! :)

-xoxo                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Galway: Best Place Ever

Oh Galway. I don’t even know how to describe how great this city is. I’ve wanted to visit Ireland for years and always hoped to see the traditional and authentic culture that makes Ireland so unique. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, Dublin was not quite what I’d expected. It was far more urban and modern with a few traditional qualities thrown in. That’s why, ever since we first arrived in Ireland, I looked forward to our stay in Galway. Honestly, I didn’t know much about Galway before staying here, but I had a notion in my mind that it would be much more of a traditional Irish culture. Well, it certainly didn’t disappoint! From the moment we stepped off the train, we were surrounded by a cultural charm, a small Irish city with lots of tradition all around. 

Despite asking for directions to our hostel, we ended up wandering the (wrong) street looking for it. A local stopped and asked us what we were looking for (we’re quite obviously tourists, with 20 pound bags on our backs…ha) and that was the first sign that the locals in Galway are much friendlier than locals in Dublin. I had one goal in mind for our weekend: go to a pub and listen to traditional Irish music. So we did. We asked the locals which pub had Irish food and music, and we were pointed in the right direction. The music was loud and inviting when we stepped into the pub, and the alcohol was flowing quite early in the night! Although this is a country proud of its Guinness, neither Michael nor I really find it enjoyable (sadly, I know). So we settled for Irish coffee and rum with sparkling orange. We considered having bacon and cabbage for dinner, but ended up getting vegetable soup…and fries. What a combination. Eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches for every meal will make you crave weird food combinations every now and then! 

Saturday, we headed out on an all-day tour to the Cliffs of Moher…or as they are known in The Princess Bride, the “Cliffs of Insanity.” Yes, I’m a huge fan of that movie, and no, the Irish do not associate the Cliffs with it. We asked our tour guide and he said that the Irish tend to focus more on the history and preservation than on pop culture, basically. So, completely opposite of the U.S….haha. The Cliffs were breathtaking. This was one of the main reasons why I’d always wanted to go to Ireland, along with the cultural experience. It was amazing to these natural-made cliffs with the Atlantic Ocean breaking against the cliff edges. If geography fascinates you, its definitely worth taking a trip to this part of Ireland. First, we drove through The Burren (limestone mountains) to get to the Cliffs, which was incredible in itself. After spending time at the Cliffs, we drove along the coastal road (reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway…but less sunny...ha). I would say that this excursion was the highlight of our trip so far. 

Cliffs of Moher

Next, we are headed to Cork for our last four days in Ireland. I’ll be sad to leave this beautiful country, but excited for the next places we are traveling to (like Amsterdam, on Wednesday)! While in Cork, we plan to head to Blarney Castle (touristy, yes…but it’s worth it. Not everyone can say they’ve kissed the Blarney Stone!), explore a new Irish town, and hang out with some locals. I hope Cork will be as fascinating as Galway!

-xoxo

Highlights of Dublin

As I’m sitting here on the train from Dublin to Galway, I’m looking out at the countryside of Ireland and being reminded how beautiful this country is. We had a great four days in Dublin, and actually had no problem finding out way around the city! We even gave a few other people directions while we were there…haha. I thought Dublin was pretty and very eclectic. What I didn’t expect was just how urban it was. Obviously it is the capital of Ireland, but I guess I stereotyped it too much and expected it to consist of straw-roof flats and lots of green. In reality, there were stores everywhere. One thing I’ve noticed about Europe: just about every store (including department stores, like the equivalent of our Dillard’s/Macy’s), has a café…and some even have a supermarket. There is never a shortage of food OR variety around here. Believe it or not, I’ve only had Starbucks twice since we left the States, because the coffee shops over here are excellent!

If you’ve never been to Ireland, I’d definitely recommend a stop in Dublin. After all, it is the capital city, and it has many of the major attractions that Ireland is known for! I will admit that I’m looking forward to being in Galway and Cork for the rest of our time in Ireland, as I’m hoping it is more “traditional” in terms of Irish culture…and maybe slightly less touristy. I still had a great time in Dublin, and I am looking forward to the rest of our trip! I can’t believe we’ve only been gone for five days…it seems like its already been a lifetime. I get the feeling that this trip is going to FLY by, but we’re going to have so many great memories :) 

Highlights of Dublin:

Christchurch Cathedral

Old Jameson Distillery

River Liffey

Learning how to pour the "perfect pint" of Guinness

Guinness

-xoxo

The Beginning of Backpacking

Backtracking a little to the beginning of our adventure...

After a fun night this past Saturday (which involved too much alcohol and staying up too late...ha), we woke up Sunday morning and drove to D.C. to catch our flight to London Heathrow. I didn't know what to expect as I'd never flown on Virgin Atlantic before...but the flight ended up going smoothly. We left on time and had clear weather the entire trip. I'm not a fan of airplane food, but the food on this flight was actually edible...haha. Even though the alcohol was free flowin', I certainly wasn't feeling it after the previous nights' drinking, so I stuck with water...and British tea! When we boarded the plane, we were given a pack with a pillow, blanket, eye mask, and toiletries. The eye mask certainly came in handy as I tried to get some sleep during the flight! I prepped for London by watching The King's Speech (loved it), drinking hot tea, and listening to Ellie Goulding and Adele while I attempted to nap :)

Our plane to London

The flight actually arrived an *hour* ahead of schedule in London, so what was supposed to be a 7-hour flight turned into a short 6-hour flight. I'm not complaining :) Because we're taking this backpacking thing semi-seriously at least, we tried to take the cheapest route in getting to Gatwick, where we planned to stay Monday night before catching our flight to Dublin. That meant we had to find the right bus outside Heathrow, which we rode for an hour. We then hopped on a train for a short ride directly to Gatwick Airport, and took a shuttle to our hotel. That was approximately 3 hours of traveling. Once we finally got to the hotel, we both slept...almost the entire day. When we woke up around 7pm, we ventured out to find food. We ended up at Tesco, which was like a British version of Wal-Mart. We quickly found what we will be eating for the next two months: peanut butter, bananas, and pita bread. Its actually really good, and its also really cheap. Win.Since the Tesco adventure, we've been fascinated with all of the different grocery stores in the UK and Ireland, and we've stopped in to about 5 different ones. My favorite? Marks & Spencer. If you've never been, or never heard of it, you're missing out. Heck, America is missing out.

Flight to Ireland from London

After making the transatlantic flight to London and finding our way around without any trouble, we went into our next flight as experts. Apparently even more so than UK locals, who clearly didn't pay attention when TSA stated its carry-on limitations. Security lines were long because people had all the wrong things in their carry-on bags. Enough about that. We booked our flight on RyanAir to Dublin for only 20 Euros for BOTH of us. However, we didn't "book our checked luggage" online, so we ended up paying 35 POUNDS to have it checked once at the airport. Moral of this story: if you think you'll have to check your bag, say so online...its only 15 Euros/Pounds that way. No fun paying more for your bag than your actual flight!

Dublin

By the time we arrived in Dublin, we both felt like seasoned travelers...and we're just gettin' started! Its only the end of Day 3 and we're pretty comfortable with this whole travel thing. Of course, as often as we'll be moving onto new cities, I suppose we won't get *too* comfortable ;)

Admittedly, after staying in a fairly nice hotel in Gatwick on Monday night, I was anxious about trying this hostel thing out. Its definitely a change of pace, and you certainly have to get used to it. We've had decent roommates so far, but one snored extremely loud last night and two others came in really late and kept the lights on for a while. Luckily I had my trusty Virgin Atlantic eye mask and some cheap earplugs! We'll see how the rest of these hostel experiences go......

I'm still thrown off by the time difference, especially because its 10pm here and its still not dark outside. Extremely weird. I'm currently laying here, listening to the rain, and trying to be quiet since Michael and one of our roommates are sleeping. Already. Being on-the-go all day will do that to ya! Maybe I should get some sleep too...we have many busy days ahead! Until next time ;)

-xoxo

We made it!

The past three days have been a whirlwind! We got to London on Monday morning at 6am, and after about 4 hours, made it to the hotel...where we slept almost all day. Talk about jet lag. haha. The highlight of my first day in London was a trip to Tesco's and walking around Surrey (we stayed near Gatwick for our flight to Dublin this morning). Today's flight was an experience...I've never flown RyanAir, but I knew it was a "cheap" airline...no joke. It was a completely stripped-down version of a Boeing 737, everything cost money, and there were advertisements playing over the speakers before the flight. But it was only an hour flight, and since it was a sunny day, you could see the pretty landscape and ocean during the whole flight. And luckily it wasn't cancelled because of the volcano eruption in Iceland...just about every flight to Scotland was cancelled though!


Dublin is amazing. The first place we headed to after checking into our hostel was the Old Jameson Distillery. Good choice. It was really fun and Michael was even chosen to be a "taste tester"...and got a diploma for it. Awesome. Internet access is not the greatest over here, I've learned. We finally found a Starbucks and that's where I am right now, trying to catch up on emails and finally update the blog a little :) Tomorrow: onto the Guinness Factory. Can't wait!


-xoxo

The Countdown Is On

Who knew planning a two-month trip took so much time? ;) I feel like I've spent much of the months of April and May doing some sort of planning almost every day. And its *finally* almost here...Sunday evening, we'll be on a plane headed for London!


I definitely have a busy few days left...there's so much to do and not much time to do it in! I think I have finally purchased everything I need (fingers crossed), so now the fun part is attempting to fit everything in my backpack and carry-on bag. Should be interesting ;) I will definitely learn a thing or two about packing light!


As excited as I am, I know I will miss home while I'm gone. Of course, we're going to be on-the-go pretty much the entire trip, so I'm sure my mind will be occupied :) In the past week, I've really tried to fit everything in that I won't be able to do for the next two months (definitely NOT complaining of course...Europe is going to be amazing!). I love being busy, so its been fun...especially since my schedule has consisted of shopping, a concert, an amusement park, and next up, a party...the day before our flight leaves!

6 days!


-xoxo

Dukan Diet Review

After reading article after article about The Dukan Diet, I decided I'd give it a try, just to experiment with it. I wanted to see if its really all its cracked up to be, so I went out and purchased plenty of lean protein and prepped food for the week. Yes, its the French diet that the Middleton family made famous in the UK and the US from the time that Kate began prepping for the Royal Wedding. And yes, it is pretty restrictive. That's why "diets" are not really a good answer to losing weight. Balance and moderation are the keys to a healthy lifestyle. That said, if you are struggling to lose some weight, the Dukan Diet could provide motivation to jumpstart the weight loss process.


The key to this plan is low-carb and low-fat, but LOTS of lean protein. For example, during the first phase, I ate things such as:

• Egg whites
• Fish, like Mahi, Salmon, and Tuna
• Grilled or baked chicken
• Nonfat greek yogurt
• Nonfat cottage cheese
• Lean ground turkey
• Tofu

Mahi Mahi and Scrambled Egg Whites...definitely a new combination!

In the first phase, the "Attack" phase, you can only have lean protein. That means no veggies, no fruit, no carbs, etc. And according to the plan, you can eat as much lean protein as you'd like, plus 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran per day (in order to get necessary fiber). I tended to have breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner, although you can essentially eat whenever you're hungry. With an all-protein diet, I found that I was often satiated and didn't ever get hungry between meals. This can definitely be a plus to dieters who have tried other plans and failed because of always being hungry while dieting!

Since I was doing this Dukan plan just as an experiment, I decided to enter my daily food intake into Sparkpeople to check the stats, and I was shocked to see that I was taking in only 700-800 calories per day, but around 100+ grams of protein! Obviously, taking in such a low amount of calories is NOT good for your body, but I was pleasantly surprised at the protein intake. For someone like me, who could live off of vegetables and fruit, I know that I don't eat enough protein every day. If I learned anything from eating on the Dukan plan, it would be that I've learned how to incorporate higher amounts of protein in my daily diet.

After 3 days on the "Attack" phase, I was technically able to move on to the next phase, the "Cruise" phase, which allows you to incorporate low-starch vegetables into your diet every other day, alternating with days of pure protein. At this point, my body craved vegetables, salads, and fruit so much that I gave in and ate a "balanced" meal. I came to the realization that I don't think its good to truly deprive our body of healthy foods, and on the Dukan Diet, you are doing just that. I've always eaten a balanced, healthy diet, and with this diet plan, I was not getting any vegetables, fruit, complex carbs, or healthy fats that I should be consuming.

I chose not to restrict myself anymore with this experiment, but I have been more conscious about including more protein into my diet. I still consume some "pure protein" meals, like a cup of non-fat greek yogurt or a protein pancake for breakfast, or an egg white scramble for lunch. I do not, however, restrict myself from eating fruits and vegetables, because that is just not right.

As I mentioned, if you're looking for a "quick fix" or a way to jumpstart and motivate you, this could work. I did lose about 5 pounds in 3 days, which is a lot for someone who already eats healthy and is very active. As the diet progresses, you would eventually be able to add in other "healthy" foods, like fruits and veggies and complex carbs, but during the actual weight-loss portion, you can only consume the "pure protein" and alternating days with the addition of vegetables. I say, restrictive diets are NOT the answer, and a balanced diet is the way to go!

Have you ever tried the Dukan Diet? What is your take on this or other diets?

-xoxo

Celebrations

This has just been a fun week all around, I think! First, the month of May means our trip is just around the corner...2 weeks from TODAY! Then it was Cinco de Mayo, boyfriend's graduation on Saturday, and Mother's Day today. So, a fun and busy weekend for sure ;)

Graduation Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day Breakfast

New netbook to take to Europe, thanks to my Daddy!

-xoxo

May Days

Life is starting to get busy...and I have a feeling that its just the beginning! We officially leave for Europe in 17 days, and I feel like there's SO much going on until then!
Let's see...this weekend:

• NC tomorrow
• I'm supposed to be at a graduation ceremony & a wedding on Saturday...which unfortunately, I have to pick one since I can't be in two places at once!
• Mother's Day on Sunday

Next weekend:

• Dierks Bentley concert
• Relay for Life...starts Friday night, same time as Dierks' concert...so I'll be headed there like right after the concert is over with!
• Fish fry/bon voyage party on Saturday
• Busch Gardens on Sunday

The following weekend (the one we'll be leaving on!):

• Meeting at work on Saturday and then a pig pickin' afterwards (can't wait to drink and then ride 4 hours to D.C. to catch the plane the next day...haha)
• Sunday: Flight to London! 

Umm...I didn't leave any time in there to pack and get my life in order...so hopefully I'll have a completely open schedule on the weekdays! I can't believe I'm leaving the States for TWO whole months in just a little over two weeks. Craziness ;)

-xoxo