Aloha! If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you will know that I recently went on a long-weekend trip to Dublin. Mikey has a lot of family in and around the Dublin area so it was a nice opportunity for him to see them all, and for me to meet them all!

I thought I'd do a little photo diary for anyone who is nosy like me!
So here is what I got up to!

Dalkey. About a 40 minute train ride out of Dublin. Mikey says on a hot summer day you could be in the South of France. It was a really pretty little place, definitely worth a day trip to if you are ever in Dublin. Lots of lovely little places to enjoy a bit to eat and a drink!

Mikey enjoying the first of many pints of Guinness that weekend.

After 2 nights in Dublin, we headed out to a tiny little place called Ballylanders. Mikey's dad is from that village, and his Auntie and Uncle were having a 40th Wedding Anniversary party nearby which we went along to. We spent the night there, then went for a nice long walk through the countryside to walk off our hangovers (I think I was still drunk when I woke up thanks to the barman giving us free pints!) These cows thought I was coming to feed them...sorry guys!

After travelling back to Dublin, we spent our last day having a walk around (the weather had finally cleared up), and visiting the Guinness Storehouse! 

The Storehouse was really interesting. They've done a really good job of making it an attraction which is really worth visiting. It's a must if you are in Dublin! Here we are enjoying our free pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar on the top floor. With panoramic views across the city, it's a lovely place to sit and enjoy a drink. 

Afterwards we had a wander around Temple Bar.

And I ended up in a sweet shop...obviously. I just love traditional sweet shops. I got a bad of tutti fruiti cubes and fizzle sticks which are 2 sweets I used to enjoy many years ago when I was a little girl!

And on our final evening we went along to Mikey's cousin's Ukulele club which is held in a bar in the city centre. It was a great night and they were all really good. We even got them to play 500 miles by the proclaimers which got everyone in the pub up dancing and singing! 

We had a great time in Dublin. It's definitely somewhere you should visit if you haven't already. I'm sure I will be back soon to see Mikey's family again.  

Amsterdam: Part 1

If you follow me on twitter, you may be aware that last week I took a little trip to Amsterdam! I booked it as a birthday present for my other half away back in June! Here is what we got up to on our trip!

We arrived in Amsterdam rather late on the Tuesday night thanks to Easyjet changing our flight time from 11am to 7pm! We were staying the NH Grand Krasnapolsky hotel right in Dam Square. It was a beautiful hotel. Our room was newly refurbished to a very high standard! The bed was so comfy I could have slept for the whole trip but that would have been a waste!

We arrived too late to go out for a meal so we got some famous dutch chips with mayonnaise to take out! 

The next morning we headed down to breakfast. The breakfast was served in the most beautiful room I've ever seen (see last photo). We enjoyed some eggs benedict followed by poffertjes (dutch pancakes)

After breakfast we decided to take a walk down to the zoo! 

The zoo had an amazing butterfly pavilion  where you could walk about whilst they fluttered around you. 

On the way home from the zoo we stopped in this quirky little bar for a drink, then grabbed a waffle at a bakery. 

After a quick change, we went to this awesome cocktail bar called tails & spirits. They did these amazing cocktails, including the Zombie which is so strong they only serve 2 per person! 

After a few drinks we headed on to an Italian restaurant called Vasso. We had researched the place and knew we wanted to try it. I had the Salmon Tagliatelle which was probably the best pasta dish I've ever had. It was so flavoursome! I then had lemon sorbet and strawberries for desert. The sorbet was creamier than your usual sorbet. It was devine!

We then headed off to Freddy's Bar. My other half collects and occasionally smokes cigars and he really wanted to try this bar which has an indoor smoking room. It was such a cool place to just relax with a glass of vino!

So that was day 1 in Amsterdam! Part 2 is coming up soon! 

xx