Little adventures

You can blame procrastination for my lack of posts over the past six weeks. I get busy, I have some adventures then I get busy again and then when I finally feel ready to write about it I get overwhelmed by everything that I put it off and get busy again. So here I am, a week away from my Scotland trip and writing my latest fun down so I don't forget about all this in my Scotland hype.

Lately I have been working some five day weeks so I have been very much in a bit of a working mindset and settling into the routine of that. However on my weekends I do have some fun things to report.

A while ago myself and two other aupair friends went to Dublin for the day and went to the National Leprechaun museum. We were honestly going because we had a voucher for a free gift and we were wondering what it could be. However, we had a fantastic time! the tour basically took us through Ireland's folk history and it definitely sparked a curiosity in me to buy and read some folklore stories!
That day was also followed by dinner and a few pints in the city at a lovely Irish bar with some great music!

National Leprechaun Museum

I've also had two really lovely nights in Dublin. One I went to see Aus comedian Adam Hills and another I went in to see one my my fav musicians Passenger.
Adam Hills was great! He was hilarious and so good with the audience! and the night was even better as I followed it on by having a few drinks and danced away with some of my aupair friends in the city!

Adam Hills @ Vicar St

Passenger is a musician that I have been trying to see live for years now. I heard about him through a friend when he used to just busk on the streets. She has seen him in Fed Square in Melbourne. I never got around to seeing him live and when I saw he was in Dublin just recently I booked my tickets right away! He was such a great artist to see live and definitely going to be a concert I will always remember!

Passenger @ Vicar St.

I have spent a weekend in Northern Ireland with my original aupair girls. Ioana and Martina were just finishing as I started but we became good friends very quickly. Ioana is now living in Northern Ireland with her husband so Martina and I caught the train up to Belfast and spent the weekend with Ioana! I enjoyed being with these girls again, I have missed their presence in wee Stamullen! We had a good time exploring Belfast. It was great to see a new city. We took one of those 'hop on, hop off' bus tours and it was such a great idea because the weather hasn't been too kind lately, coming into winter and all, and those tours are an easy way to get your bearings and learn about the city you are in. Belfast is laden with an interesting past (and present) and it was such an eye opening experience to learn more about it.

Ioana, Martina and I.

Peace walls that are still needed in Belfast

In between all my little weekends away I have also managed to go off and visit my lovely cousins!
I always enjoy going down to visit them and I love that I get to see their gorgeous kids grow up in the time that I am here.
One weekend that I was over we had lovely weather so Cathy took me to a place called Glendalough. It is very near to them in the gorgeous Wicklow mountains and it has been the backdrop for many movies over the years. The sun shone, so we had a lovely picnic overlooking the gorgeous lake!

A grave yard in the mountains- not a bad little part of the world to be buried in ay?

                                                                  

'the money shot'- Glendalough

and finally, just this weekend gone, Ciaran took me off to a place called Newgrange- which is actually very near to where I am living, just hard to get to on public transport!
Newgrange is part of a set of 'tombs' or 'chambers' that are older than the pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge. These, what look like mounds in the landscape or as a part of the hill are an amazing piece of work that has been well organised and constructed by its people. There are lots of theories to why these were built but it's believed that they were used for ceremonial and religious use as there were skeletons found in them but also mostly likely used for farming and agriculture as a way of counting the seasons and time. The chambers are not only known for their precise and unique construction but also for their beautiful stone carvings inside and around them. Newgrange was definitely a very special experience!
               

Newgrange- the outside fully reconstructed however the inside, despite a few beams, left untouched.

the entrance and some beautiful original carvings

more carvings

In other news I have been doing a bit of house keeping lately such as I changed my flights for back home. January 16th- save the date! and I am mid applying for university. It's crazy to think I have just four months left. I have so many things coming up that time is just going so quick. I love my little life here and I have don't like that I don't have long with it left. My heart is torn in two and I just wish that I had a little bit of clarity. 

oh, and in case you were wondering what that free gift was? Pins. They would of been handy when I was a Rotary kid ay!