The Pleasures of Travelling

Pinned to the wall behind my desk is a map of the world where I have marked every place that I have visited on this planet. Looking at it, it’s quite an impressive collection, but there’s one problem: I have no or little memory of visiting some of the locations, especially the exotic ones, as I was just too little at the time. I for sure had a great time there on holiday, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve cheated. When I first started “creating” my map I wasn’t even sure whether to put a pin to those countries but now when I look at them, they are a motivation for me to make sure that, one day, I will go and experience them properly.

Today, I got to put a new pin on my map. I got back on Thursday from a ten-day Ireland trip with three friends and I still feel enthusiastic thinking about how amazing these ten days were. First of all, I had great company. Just going through the pictures to pick the one for this post makes me all warm and fuzzy inside because I hold those three crazy ladies so dear to my heart.

 

Secondly, can we just talk about what a beautiful country Ireland is? I mean, we only saw a small part of it but on more than one occasion did we come across things that made us wonder if this could be real.

Trinity College

 

We then took a train to Galway and again, stayed there for two nights. What I liked most about Galway were the street performers, some of the musicians seemed really talented and I have never seen such amazing balloon animals! Just saying…

Then the adventure began and we went to collect our bikes, which would be our means of transport for the next five days. Our trip took us from Galway to Cong, to Letterfrack, to Ougherard and back to Galway with a day trip to the island Inishbofin. If you ever find yourself in this region, I highly recommend taking the ferry to Inishbofin. It’s a calm, quiet place and we even saw dolphins on both ways while on the ferry!

Back in Galway we returned the bikes and went back to Dublin for the last day and to catch our flight.

I can’t really put into words how much I loved these ten days so I’m just going to leave you with some pictures and hope that I will be more coherent in the next post. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Galway

Cliffs of Moher

Lough Corrib

Inishbofin

Kylemore Abbey

Making Memories

What’s your favourite memory?

If you asked me that question, I would probably tell you about that time I was in Prague with three friends and we got completely soaked on the way back to our hostel. We had been out until the early hours of the morning and when we finally decided to go home, it was raining so heavily that the streets got flooded. We stood under the roof of the entrance for a short moment, considering our options. Then, we took off our shoes and started running. As we were making our way through the old part of Prague towards our hostel (that was luckily not too far away) we were laughing so much it was hard to breathe, trying not to slip on the wet stones and splashing each other with even more water. It really didn’t make a difference at that point.

It might not look like an extraordinary special moment to anyone else, but to me it’s just priceless and my three partners-in-crime seem to feel the same. Just the other day one of my friends said that it was one of her favourite memories – the reason why I had the idea to write this post.

What makes a moment so special that you would put it in a box if you only could, seal the lid so that nothing escapes and just every now and again take a little look and relive it as if it was happening all over again? 

John Lennon memorial wall, Prague 2013

 You are constantly making new memories but only a few of them get stuck in your brain, possibly forever. I’m sure that my friends and I will still be thinking about that particular night in Prague in many years to come, but first, it’s time to make some more memories.

My bedroom is currently cluttered with clothes, sunglasses, a sleeping bag, a straw hat and other things that I should be packing, as I am getting ready for some new adventures. Fingers crossed that there will be at least one moment to add to the list of favourite memories.

Two sorts of friends

Having friends is, in my opinion, on the list of the most valuable things you can have in life. Having friends means endlessly discussing what you think is a problem when it’s really just you making a big deal about something. It means talking nonsense for hours on end, apologising for talking nonsense, and then happily talking some more nonsense. It means having insider jokes. It means an endless amount of postcards.

It means having a movie night and discussing the highly important question of sweet and salty popcorn. It means having a Disney-themed dinner party.

It means sharing secrets (your own and other people’s. Even though you “promised to never tell anyone”. But they are your friends so it’s ok to discuss other people’s secrets with them.) It means hugs, laughs, memories, plans for the future.

source: http://etsy.me/QG5O1c

Some friends you have known for years. They have known you through all your weird phases, band obsessions, crushes, school troubles and just general decision making. You might not have always been super close, maybe one of you left the path of your friendship for a while and walked with different people but you never really lost sight of each other.

Some friendships form later in life, but they can be just as precious and after just a short while you feel like you have known this person for ages.

Of course, not every friendship is the same and sometimes you come across people who make you question if they care about you as much as you care about them.

They never text or call back. As soon as they find someone else to hang out with, they will just abandon you. They only call you when they need you because they know you will always make time for them and listen to their problems. They will make promises and not keep them.

But for some reason you will always welcome them with open arms if they decide to take a step back into your life, no matter how many times you tell yourself that you should just let them go.

I’m lucky to have more friends from the first kind and they really are the best, I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. There’s a different connection to every single one of them and while we might not talk every day, we surely know that there is always someone around. There are some of the second sort (three to be precise) but I’m trying to just accept is the way it is because there really is no point in being upset.

Now go and give your best friend(s) a hug if you can. And if not, text them, call them, write them a letter. You don’t have to go deep with all your feelings and tell them in detail how much they mean to you. Just a little note, a random smiley face or whatever happened in your life today.

And please do me a favour: don’t be a friend of the second sort.