21st Birthweek | My Trip To Dublin

Hello my loves,

So as you may or may not have known, I turned 21 on Wednesday (3rd Feb) and to celebrate I went to Dublin for 4 days as part of my birthweek, and let me tell you now, it is the most beautiful, relaxed city I have ever been to. I took quite a few pictures so I thought it would be nice to share with you what I got up to whilst I was there and maybe even give you a few ideas if you ever decide to go.

Day 1:

Our journey began very early on Monday morning so we could travel to Bristol Airport and everything ran smoothly and we got there with plenty time to spare. Little did we know we spoke too soon. Basically because our good friend Hurricane Henry was in the midst of blowing all over Dublin our flight was delayed. What a nightmare, I just wanted to get there. BUT he must have known it was my birthday as we were only delayed by half a hour. FINALLY WE'RE IN DUBLIN. Yeah .. that was short-lived excitement when we got lost and ended up roaming the streets of Dublin trying to find our back alley hotel! It doesn't help being in a different country with no data so we had to find Wifi to figure out exactly where we were every 10 minutes. But eventually after 12 hours of travelling we were in our hotel finally able to relax. Just down the road we had a giant Spar shop, which to be honest I don't really rate in the UK but it seems Dublin corner shops are slightly different. They serve hot food, have seats to eat in, they have a deli counter and a coffee shop as well as convenience items, this was our go-to place all week! Amazing.

Day 2:

Our first full day in Dublin, we planned to go to on a City Tour of Dublin but first of course, food! In our trusty Spar shop we purchased a breakfast roll, something the Irish highly recommend. It's basically boiled egg, hashbrown, sausage, black/white pudding, bacon and whatever else you might want to add and it's just 3 Euro! Bargain and it filled us up most of the day! We then went onto O'Connell Street to find the City Tour bus. There are 3 Hop On-Hop Off buses to choose from; Red, Green and Yellow. Some can be pricey but the Yellow bus CityScape is currently on offer for 10 Euro each for a 2 hour and 35 minute tour and I highly recommend it!! The journey is enjoyable and the commentator is warm and friendly and very Irish, and luckily the sun decided to make an appearance along the way! Also with a CityScape ticket you can get discount off other attractions including the Guinness Storehouse and you also get offers such as 2 for 1 Meals and a free glass of Guinness in a pub.

Guinness StoreHouse

Dublin's smallest pub. Capacity: 25 

Oscar Wilde statue

Ha'penney Bridge

Kilmainham Jail

The Spire or "Stiffy By The Liffey"

Aviva Stadium

Also, we came across the amusing trend of heels on electrical wires!

The city is surrounded by beautiful Georgian buildings and parks it is definitely worth a tour to see everything!

We ended the day with some Retail Therapy and a few drinks to bring in my birthday!

Day 3:

It's our last day in Dublin, (boohoo!!) but it's my birthday, 21 to be exact yaaaay! Yesterday we were informed that every first Wednesday of each month access to Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Jail is completely free saving at least 20 Euro so it is well worth knowing about so obviously today we took advantage of it and went to Dublin Castle which was right down the road from us. I recommend having a Guided Tour as apposed to a Self-Guided because you also get access to the remains of the Gun Powder Tower, the Records Tower and the chapel which is pretty amazing to see. Then you see the inside of the castle with the multiple rooms, absolutely majestic.

We then came back to my hotel and there was a bottle of Presecco delivered to my room, how cute of them! But we decided to save it until after we went to dinner with my two Irish friends Soph and Megan who I haven't seen in almost 5 years. It was so lovely to have a catch-up and eat Eddie Rockets (Irish version of Ed's Easy Diner) and boy it was goooood! Then we went for a wander to Grafton Street and Stephen's Green Shopping Centre which looks incredible.

I can't do a post without mentioning Twitter so I'd like to thank everyone for their birthday messages and my favourite part is the balloons that come up on my profile, so adorable!

And that's about it. I know this is a bit lengthy so thank you for sticking through this post, and thank you for taking the time to read all my posts. So happy. Here's to the rest of my 2016!! 

Love you lots

Katie x

How Has The First 7 Days Of 2016 Treated You?

It's a week into the new year and some may say that's a little early for anything significant or important to happen but that my loves is where you are wrong.

These past 7 days has seen break-ups, make-ups, laughter, sadness and excitement. If this is anything to go by, 2016 is going to be a very bumpy, eventful year!

To be honest it's amazing how one moment, one second, one message can change everything. Very early on I've lost friends that I thought I meant something to but like I said just one message can prove that can change in an instant. Backstabbing and outright rudeness is not something I'm going to tolerate this year, but I'm taking a different approach to it. Yes of course confrontation is necessary just to find out the reasons for turning their back on me but I think life's too short to constantly argue, either they make the effort or I'm removing their toxic attitude from my life. This is a way of boosting my postive vibes this year.

However onto a more exciting happier note; my 21st is creeping closer and closer and guess what? I'm celebrating it in Dublin! I know I said my heart was set on Prague or Italy but it just was not practical for the short space of time we have. 

I've been to Dublin before and it's a very beautiful city and we're staying right in the centre where I'll be able to visit all the landmarks, go shopping and best of all, there is a nightclub attached to my hotel(!?) amazing. Also I haven't seen my best friend Soph who lives there in over 4 years so meeting up with her will be so lovely! You can definitely expect a detailed, blogpost on this trip this time next month!

So there we go 2-3 of my goals for 2016 have been actioned already in 7 DAYS and I hope the rest of the year helps me achieve so much more, and that's what my message is to everyone. Why wait? Just go for whatever you want, make changes in your life NOW, because there is no room for regrets anymore. However there is room for bad choices and those are what make the best stories to tell! 

Hope you all survived your first week back to work/college/school too!

Much love

Katie x