Hey guys!

I hope all is well. Let me know how you’re doing in the comments below. Studying abroad in the state of Indiana, I really wanted to visit all of the states surrounding it. I had already been to Ohio when I went to Cleveland, I’ve been to Illinois many times and I had the chance to visit Ann Arbor on my way back from Toronto on the weekend of my 21^st birthday. The only state that hadn’t been crossed off that list was Kentucky. When you’re studying abroad, it is often enough where you don’t know what to do with yourself on the weekend. Sometimes I like to give myself a break after having a long week filled with assignments and tests, but I also like to look up different cities and see how realistic a trip there would be. A friend and I looked up different cities on the greyhound website and found that Louisville in Kentucky would be the most realistic option for a weekend trip! 

We headed there on a Friday evening in early November and decided that we would spend just the Saturday in Louisville and head back to Lafayette early on Sunday.

We started our day with a walk across the four point bridge which would allow you to cross the Kentucky Indiana border. It was a very pleasant walk and had some nice views of the skyline of Louisville. Afterward, we headed towards the center and walked through the waterfront park which eventually led us to the Belle of Louisville which is the oldest steamboat in the world. To our dismay, the boat wasn’t open to the public after October. As well as this the city was practically like a ghost town! There were some places that were closed such as the KFC Yum Center, which was unfortunate but it couldn’t be helped. Apparently, Louisville has some laws about when businesses can be open.
There was this one street that was completely deserted and not a soul was to be seen.

We went for a meal in this restaurant called “The Old Pasta Factory” where you got a decent feed for a fairly good price. Then afterward, we decided to explore the place a bit more. We went to the Slugger Museum which is a baseball museum. We didn’t do a tour, but we had a quick look around and I bought a magnet to add to my collection and got a postcard to send to a friend!

At around 3 o clock, we visited Old Louisville which looked absolutely stunning in the fall weather. I just loved the beautiful blend of red, orange and yellow tones of leaves that made the park look beautiful. It was here that we visited a Victorian House called “Conrad’s Castle” and got a cheap tour around the place. For five dollars, a student got access to a tour of all three floors of this historical Victorian house. I absolutely love exploring old houses where people once lived and delving deep into the past. I also really like the Victorian style of décor. Following this, we went down to a fountain that was close by and had a walk in another park in Old Louisville.

The evening was spent at Fourth Street Live, the Louisville entertainment street which had lots of pubs and bars. As Louisville is famous for bourbon there was also a bourbon bar and store we visited before getting a drink in one of the bars on the street.

My friend Gillian, who is currently on study abroad in Connecticut decided that she would meet up with me in New York. I was so excited to jet off and finally see New York for myself as I’ve been waiting to go there since the age of 12. At that age, my parents took a break to New York but never took any of us with them. I don’t think there is a moment where I have ever felt as jealous in my life.

On Friday October 21^st, I took a 5 am flight from O’ Hare to New York (LGA) where I was about to have one of the best days of my life!

I spent full days in New York and came back to Chicago on the third and spent one full day with Gillian and my first day alone. I used to have a fear of travelling alone. You really have no idea how nervous I was flying to America in the first place! But flying to New York seemed like a breeze. I could just have a snooze or calmly read “The Girl on The Train” (which is amazing upon finishing it) while jetting off into the sky and to a fab new destination.

New York greeted me kind of sourly with rain. I get enough rain in Ireland and in the most bi-polar state of Indiana (weather-wise!) and I really didn’t want it here. It pretty much rained for the whole day but I didn’t want that to dampen my spirits. I got a bus to a train station and then the underground to the middle of Manhattan. I started my day walking the majority of Central Park in the pouring rain which really wasn’t that bad once you had an umbrella. Although my white converse got very damp!

Afterwards, I started to explore the city a bit more and found Time’s Square which was so cool! I loved the large variety of lights. I didn’t spend a terrible amount of time there as I knew I’d be going back later on with Gillian! Instead, I spent a few hours in the Empire State building. This was absolutely the highlight of my trip. Looking at all the buildings was seriously so cool! There’s no other way to describe it. It was definitely the best use of 30 dollars in my life just to be on two floors of the Empire State.

Meeting Gillian took a lot longer than we originally anticipated due to a bus delay, but we found each other in the end. After meeting up and heading back to a guest house in Brooklyn we had a really fun second day in New York.

That second day was spent exploring lower Manhattan. We went exploring Wall Street and we also visited the 9/11 Memorial and the New York Stock Exchange. We decided to take the walk from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan which involved crossing Brooklyn Bridge which was very pleasant. We managed to spot the statue of Liberty which is a lot smaller than it is made out to be. Following our adventures in lower Manhattan, we went exploring around the Brooklyn area as we heard that there were some super cool thrift shops around the area. We ended up finding Urban Jungle among many other vintage and thrift shops which offered a huge variety of things. I didn't end up buying much but it was fun to visit nonetheless. Following this we headed back to Times Square and had some food.