Take every chance. Drop every fear.

If you told me this time last year I would have had my first day as a postgraduate over and done with I would have laughed! I thought I would still be wandering aimlessly through life as a deli girl heading nowhere pretty fast all the while still shacked up in my parents house with no internet yet an endless supply of free food. 

Now fast forward on to the present day and I am part-time deli girl and full time student! Living with four random people in a not so warm house. BUT it is one of the nicer college house's I have experienced (except the one weird housemate but I will leave that for another day!)
Orientation day was a daunting experience but I walked every inch of the University of Limerick campus with 14 other Journalism post grads and a few Law students and it actually went pretty well! The day has been a long time coming and even though I do not know a sin or soul in this college or county it has been a less scarier day than expected! Plus the pints at the end of it all made getting to know the class a bit easier. 

That's not to say I am not already shitting myself about the 15,000 word dissertation that we already have the title of that's due next August or the fact that I might not see my friends or family for a while because I got a part time job in Limerick as *DUN DUN DUN* a deli girl (we're the best kinda girls)

I know Sligo isn't a million miles away ( 138.5 miles to be exact and five and a half hours on a bus I'll have you know) and what really threw it into perspective today was the fact that a girl in my course has moved all the way from RUSSIA ( that is 3759 miles......give or take a mile). And here I am whinging about the bus trek home!!

Having officially had my first day of lectures over with I can say how PETRIFYING it actually was. And I think the lecturers take a slight satisfaction in warning us that this year is going to be SO INTENSE. It's a little shock to the system being back in a lecture, and having to take notes and also realizing half way through your notes that your spelling has deteriorated significantly since your last stint in college.

As if the swamp load of information wasn't enough to send my brain into overdrive the course director asked me to stand up in the middle of the room and answer; 'Where do you see yourself in five years?' To which I not so confidently answered, 'um hopefully writing somewhere as a journalist'.  Now if I just repeat the mantra, 'I am a journalist' twenty times a day hopefully I will start to believe it, and in myself. I've always been the type of person to look around and feel a bit lost while also thinking that ever one else has got it sussed out already. It is time to have confidence and in this type of career it is key.

Now I am off to write a two min radio essay piece on Game of Thrones that is due tomorrow and then to start doing a presentation due Wednesday. Yes first day and we already have work.

Any one else start there first day as a fresher or post grad?

x

Inter-railing Tips

Last year I went inter-railing around Europe for one month.
Three girls, four weeks and endless trains.
Let me tell you it was the best decision that I have ever made and I would be going again this year if I wasn't starting my masters in Limerick this coming September.

 One month, riding around on a train for hours, in countries where you don’t speak the language, lugging around a back pack that weighs more than yourself may not sound like everyone’s cup of tea. But believe me when I say this, it is worth it every sore muscle.

We traveled through many different countries, check out some of my blog posts about them here and here.  

So I thought I would share a few tips that might help other people who have decided to take on the big bad world of inter-railing this summer. I used many blogs for tips before I went so I thought it might come in handy to share my experience.

The Bag:

I thought I would have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a high tech savvy rucksack that would last me the month. BUT boy was I wrong, check out this back pack.

Lidl’s finest.

Price: 29 euro.

And not one thing broke on it! And this got thrown, sat on, and pulled all over the place.

If that doesn't take your fancy and to save yourself even more dolla, ask around and see if anyone you know has one gathering dust on the top of their wardrobe. Borrow instead of spending a ridiculous about of money on a Bear Gryll's type of rucksack that you might never use again.

Clothes:

So I will be the first to admit that I am the worst packer in the world, and I am sure I am not the only girl out there. I went out on Saturday night to my friend’s house and had to bring a suitcase because I had so much stuff with me, I.e two items of everything ( a girl needs her back up outfit and her back up back up outfit.)  So you can imagine how hard it was for me to pack for a month travelling around thinking not only about comfort but also practicality and style.

In the end I ended up wearing NEARLY everything I brought with me, but if I was going again I would not bring half as many clothes.

The essentials for me would be:

A zip up hoody because even if the country is hot, it does get cold at night (I used mine to cover my pillow at night, some might find this weird but I preferred breathing into my hoody then a pillow used my many many people even with the fresh pillowcases!).

A rain jacket, once again not everywhere is sunshine and lollipops.

One pair of practical trainers, for me it was black converse.Because believe me you don’t want to be running for a train in flipflops or flimsy sandals.  

Two pairs of sandals (feet need sunshine too yanno)

Leggings (light, easy to pack and they go with most things)

A few versatile t shirts, shorts and your good to go.

An adapter

A blowup neck pillow-easy to store and your new best friend for the next month.

   

Money, money, money:

It’s all down to you and your travel buddies where you want to stay when travelling around, you can go for cheap hostels or you can go for expensive hotels. It’s all down to yourself.

People have asked me how much spending money you would need when going for a month and I would HONESTLY say that 2000 euro was what I would have. I know it does sound like a lot of money to spend in a month, but between paying for your hotels (our hostels collectively came to around 500 euro WHICH is not bad for a month) getting buses, taxis, metros, paying for activities and eating out for all our meals, and going out drinking it actually was not THAT much.

Keep in mind you can do it more cheaply. You could go for cheaper hostels, etc etc.
 But each to their own.

Now another tip, I am from Ireland so we use Euro, as do a lot of countries but not ALL the countries we visited used euro so we did have to exchange our currency a few times, thankfully if was only 3 times. SO before you go check out what countries you need to exchange your money in it will save you a lot of hassle.

Another tip would be to buy a bum bag.

Not the most fashionable ones going I KNOW but there were so handy.
We each had one which we used when we were going on trains and for certain day trips, our passports, interrail ticket, money AND phone fit in it perfectly and where easy to hind under clothes. I slept with mine under my pillow at night and believe me you need too as one night the two girls I went with got robbed as they left there’s beside them in the bed. So get one, there easy to conceal as they are so flat, you cant even tell I am wearing mine in this picture

The trains:

I thought that we would get a lot more lost then we did. But in fact every train ride went smoothly for us.  It was all thanks to the interrailing app which is available to download on the app store. It works off line and was so easy to navigate!
It told us how long the train journeys were, the name of each stop and this was important because they don’t let you know when your stop is coming up and if they do it’s in a different language.

The one thing I would say is reserve your seats for your train journeys.  The only time we didn’t was when we were travelling from Warsaw to Berlin and we ended up sitting on the ground for 9 hours.

So when you get to your first destination, go to the train station find out the times the train goes and reserve your seats. The price is not included in your inter-railing ticket but to reserve is only a few euro! So every time we got off the train at our said destination we went to the ticket desk reserved seats and then we were set up for the next train trip. 
It is every man for themselves at train stations and don't forget to ask questions, there are so many people interrailing along similar routes so asking other people can help you get on the right track.
Keep in mind trains do get delayed we had several delayed by a couple of hours and if you have connecting trains it can mess things up. At one stage we had 2 mins to get from one train all the way across the train station to the next train. But thankfully it only happened the once!

Last but not least enjoy every second of it, because the time does fly. Talk to the people in your room at your hostels, you'll meet so many people from different walks of life it will open up your eyes to the rest of the world. Also realize you’re not going to be able to do every single thing in every place that you go, we learnt this the hard way. But we still had a ball!

If anyone has any questions or wants any links to hostels, you can email me on

Sineadhealy5@gmail.com I would be more then happy to help.

 Anyone else have any travelling stories?

X

Them Pearly Whites

So I am late to the band wagon with this one. Charcoal powder to make your teeth whiter?

I heard the old "saying" that back in the day people used ashes from the fire on their teeth but I thought it was another old wives tale!

Well I was severely wrong when I stumbled upon several bloggers raving about 'activated charcoal'.

So before purchasing the charcoal powder I thought I better do my homework and see if this method actually worked before possibly wasting my time and money.

BUT every blog post I read all came to the same conclusion. 

YES activated charcoal powder DID make your teeth whiter.

Now before you all start rooting around in your fireplaces there is a simpler method to obtain activated charcoal. I got mine at Holland and Barrett for around 6 or 7 euro.
You get 100 capsules in the container and the method is quite simple.

Take 1 or 2 capsules and open them up. 

(WARNING this stuff will stain your clothes if you get it on it. I cut the top off 

my capsules which can get messy as the powder puffs out of it but beauty is a pain right?)

Empty the contents into a glass and put in a teeny tiny drop of water so the powder goes into a paste form. Using a different toothbrush then my everyday one I put some of the charcoal paste of my brush and brush it onto my teeth.

SIMPLES.

Now this isn't a pretty sight as your mouth goes black as does your lips. 

But fear not its all in hope of them pearly whites. 

I leave the stuff on for a few minutes whatever you prefer yourself. It is recommended around 2-4 mins is enough time for it to work.

I then rinse my mouth out several times with water. 

The charcoal leaves your mouth feeling extremely clean.

Then taking my everyday tooth brush I wash my teeth as normal using Beverly Hills Perfect white BLACK tooth paste that contains activated charcoal.



I got this in a local pharmacy on sale for 3 euro. I know Supervalu does this tooth paste for around 6 euro!It does seem a bit steep for a toothpaste but it is worth it.

This toothpaste is again BLACK but fear not it is not as messy as the straight powder and it turns to white foam eventually and tastes just like any other toothpaste. 

Then I just floss as normal.

So is the mess of charcoal powder worth the hype?

YES.

I have been using both the powder and toothpaste for a while now now and I can see a significant difference especially when I wear lipsticks!

 I didn't take any photos before I started using it as I would prefer if my teeth were a bit straighter and didn't want to broadcast them to the world.

After a while I wont be using the powder every night as I read that twice a week would be fine after you notice a difference. But I will keep using the toothpaste as normal!

Anyone else try this method or have tried any other teeth whiteners?

x

15 pictures of 2015

January 

1. We said goodbye.

2. New year, new me crap.

3. Rediscovering my love of books.

4. Lena Dunham showing me it's ok to be a little lost.

February:

5. Day one. It snowed.

6.  It's my birthday I can cry if I want to.

7. The year of Alex and Ani

8. First flight of 2015

9. London Eye and Big Ben 

10. First time at the Zoo

11. The year of 50 shades, Pints and the Parody 

12. Ginger Jesus

March

13. It snowed. Again.

14. Too early for summer shopping?

15. Who knows what's in store....

Sinéad

xo

Putting yourself out there...

The hours go by too fast, days off seem to be over in the blink of an eye but the days working seem to go on forever. Wishing our lives away instead of turning those dreams into a reality. I am constantly looking around at people my age who seem to have everything figured out and here I am making sandwiches in a 'glorified' coffee shop. Working long hours to only scrap by each week. What am I missing out on? Did I miss that day where they handed out the

 'grown up guide'.

I am 22 (the WRONG side of 22 I should add) and if I keep it up one day I will wake up and be 40 single, no career, still driving a shit car, going out three times a week only to scrap by until the next week. This post was not initially meant to be a depression session. I realize that I don't have it bad, but I can't but help compare myself to other people i.e my friends and fell like I have failed. There I gave said it. Failure. After three years in college and a lot of money I have a degree that doesn't get me very far. Now like I said this post was not intended to make me sound like a moaning myrtle. And as the quote above would suggest I am making my way to were I want to be.

So on a more POSITIVE note. I have decided to put myself out there realizing that if I want to be a writer I need to get more experience in writing (duh.....). So last month thanks to a friend I got to write a piece for the Galway Independent on my Interrailing experience.

You can read the full piece here.

As well as that I decided to get in contact with a local magazine in my area Sligo Now.  

I thought to hell with it I might as well put myself out there and the worst thing that can happen is that they can say is no? And the best? I can see my name in print. 

After a few weeks of no word I had given up hope but I got an email back from the editor himself who arranged a meeting and low and behold I have an interview piece written for Decembers issue.

Here's to putting yourself out there.

To not being afraid. 

You can fall on your face....

 but then again

you could get exactly what you've always wanted. 

Sinead

x 

Look its my face on a website......

HOW DID I NOT MENTION THIS?

Well better late then never.

But never under estimate the power of social media and a #hashtag . 

I may have only a mere 190 followers ( it tends to fluctuate quite regularly). 

But when I do use social media outlets to promote my posts of my blogs or photo's the hashtags 

#fblogger #bblogger #lblogger #irishblogger 

tend to be splattered all over the place I am sure to the annoyance of anyone having to read it. 

BUT nonetheless that is how you spread the word and last month I was posting more pictures and links and I got contacted by a woman on twitter saying that she was working for Irish website shemazing!

Now I was a little bit sketchy as her twitter account did not seem affiliated with the website but I tweeted her back and said it straight out and she kindly replied through the shemazing! twitter account.

Long story short they do a segment called Beauty Blogger of the Month and every two weeks they feature a beauty blogger. Now I am by now means claiming to be a beauty blogger but I do have an interest in beauty and I wasn't going to pass on an opportunity to showcase off my little blog.  

You can check out the piece here. 

Hashtags may seem like something small but without using them I would not have been able to be featured in the segment. I know this piece is something small and it may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people but it gave me another boost to keep on writing and doing what I love. 

Don't forget the power of a #hashtag

Sinead

x 

  

Munich, Prague, Bratislava!

We arrived in Munich on June 20th and after a three hour flight, a one hour bus journey in a dead heat so the first thing we did was jump in a taxi which brought us straight to our first place of rest, Mercure Hotel . I know what some people might be thinking, a hotel on our first stop of the journey? But believe me whatever was going on in Munich the few days that we were there the hotel was the only decent affordable place we could find and it was still several stops away from the main street, Marienplatz in Munich!

Our first day in Munich consisted of an early start rushing to the train station jumping on an inner-city train that we hoped was heading in the right direction. After finding a place that did a "decent" 'American' breakfast.

After we had our fill of Nutella and bread (this became a popular thing for us and other interrailers..) we raced off to find the meeting place for Mike's bike tour.

Being the optimistic Irish people that we were on holiday and seeing a slight glimpse of the sun we threw on shorts and t-shirts that morning only to arrive to the bike tour group and see most people wearing trousers and rain jackets. After complaining several times that "Shite why didn't we bring a jacket" we grabbed a €2 poncho and began the bike tour.

Now in Ireland you would rarely catch me in a bike in the sunshine never mind the rain but here we were three pasty paddy's cycling around Munich in illumionus yellow ponchos in torrential rain cycling through nudist gardens all the while trying to dodge cars. What made it all worth while was being brought to the Englischer Garten where the stereotypes in everyone who wasn't Irish came out and believed we were at our happiest, in oue most natural habitat.

 Beers and Rain!



Drowned raaaats!

 

That night we went in search of (shock) an Irish pub. After consulting Google maps we found the Dubliner Irish pub where we meet a group of Americans who told us we cursed a lot and in exchange we told them about our 'potato' fruit bowl.
 We then meet a Paddy(ironic) a Steve and one of us fell in love with a BrenDON.
And if the Bulmers and Irish craic wasn't enough to make us feel at home the barman knew one of our good friends from back home! That night set up our expectations for the next few places. We met people that night who we 'promised' we would see in the next place, drank too much but laughed twice as much as that.

 The morning after the night before........

We died a thousand deaths the next day.

 We saw the last of what Munich had to offer (meatballs and the 'infamous' Glockenspiel) but we were more then ready to head off to our next destination. 

It was on to Prague we went........

The journey to Prague saw us taking our first train journey using our inter-railing ticket. So with tickets in hand, croissants in the other we jumped on board blew up our travel pillows and sat down to enjoy our train journey
(this is where I discovered I had left my headphones at home)
 *que the cursing*

We arrived in Prague at a train station that we thought was an airport (don't' even ask!) We ran to the first Burger king and searched for free Wi-Fi and dealt with the awkward 'new' money exchange. After a tram ride 6 stops in the wrong direction and 30 degree heat  'Dora' got us back on track and finally got to our hostel, Old Prague Hostel. It was our first time in a hostel on the Interrailing trip after a slight mix up with rooms, two of us in one room and one in the other we went and explored the town square which was right at our door step!

On to Bratislava we go.....

Having no expectations or not really knowing what was in the place we settled into the Patio Hostel. Note to anyone travelling to this place in July:
Never get hung-over in this country, 30 degree heat and beer fear do not go hand in hand.
Doing the usual exploration of the city we discovered how pretty and historic it actually was. It would not be a place I would re visit as I felt we seen everything we had to in the two days.

On the last night we packed and went to bed at a reasonable hour of 12 as we had an early start the next morning. Little did we know we would be woken two hours later only to discover that both Mairead and Laura's hand bag were both taken and searched through with all their money gone. Our roommates 'hot ed' and 'mute matt' had only come in an hour earlier but it was hot ed who noticed someone in the room. The people on reception where not helpful in the slightest they didn't seem to care that some random guy was still in the building as with out a key you couldn't get up the stairs!

We left the next morning happy to be leaving the place and headed off with lighter pockets but we still had our health so it was off to Ljublana we went.

A little bit of Austria....

 

My next post will feature Ljublana, Zagreb and Budapest.

Some of my favourite places.

Hope you've enjoyed them so far I know there very long but I hope you stay tuned!

Sinéad

x

Total of items lost so far:

1 pair of converse
1 adapter
1 pair of headphones
Several pairs of socks
A little self respect