Hi Lovelies,

I hope all is going well with you. Today I’ll be sharing another travel diary from the States! Only two more to go after this one and then I can look back at them whenever I want.

Following Thanksgiving, the semester began to die down as we were starting to prepare for exams. This gave me the desire to travel again quite shortly after arriving back in Indiana. My travel buddy Adrian and I met up and started drafting ideas when I came back from Chicago. I was craving a bit of sunshine and thought about going to Miami which is definitely on my list for when I return to the States, but we ended up deciding to head to the Capital, Washington DC. The flights to Baltimore, Maryland were pretty inexpensive for a quick impromptu trip and Baltimore was also on a very handy transport route. I booked the flights, while Adrian found cheap accommodation in DC. Coincidentally, my friend Gillian was in Washington DC at the same time as me but unfortunately, we didn’t bump into one another.

Washington was a lot different to what I was expecting and initially, I thought it looked fairly European. It lacked the tall skyscraper buildings that Chicago, New York and the likes had. I actually think they have a law about how tall buildings can be there. We spent four days in the city which was more than enough to see and do everything in DC. We even went to Virginia to go to the Pentagon memorial which was another area affected by 9/11 during this trip. 

There was a great selection of food in Washington DC. Out of any of the trips I’d been on, I definitely had the largest variety of food here – chilli, pancakes, Mexican food and Indian food. The main areas to see in DC are around the park area in the city’s centre. When we arrived and settled into our place, we then headed to the centre to explore. On our first day we saw the Washington Monument which is surrounded by vibrant American flags, the White House where we took some mandatory selfies and touristy pictures at Obama’s gaff, the constitutional gardens, and the Lincoln memorial. I absolutely love the building where the statue of Lincoln was. It’s a beautiful pearlescent white colour with gorgeous large pillars. It got dark quite early, so following this we went to a Christmas market and got some Indian food.

On our second day, we decided to explore some of DC’s museums. Our first stop was The Smithsonian National Air and Space museum. Adrian is studying aerospace engineering so this was completely his idea. There were parts of the museum I particularly enjoyed. Some man who worked there showed me what the stars would look like on the day of my birthday and I also went to my first planetarium which was an Einstein Planetarium. That was pretty cool! Best of all, entry to the museum was completely free of charge. Following this museum visit, we had a walk around the city, I saw an albino squirrel, fed some squirrels chocolate and walked around the National Mall Park a little more. We ended up stumbling across the United States Capitol and took a few pictures. We then did a little more exploring around the park and went to the Botanical Gardens in DC. When it got dark again we went to one of the Art Museums in Washington. This featured a lot of Van Gogh paintings and was again free of charge.  That night we went to a Mexican place for dinner. I miss the abundant free nachos you’d get in places like this. This isn’t the case in Ireland.

Our last day exploring was pretty interesting also and the day we refer to as the Memorial Day of our trip. We decided to head out of the area for awhile and got the subway to Virginia. I just had to add another state to my list. In Virginia, we visited the Pentagon Memorial which was in memory of those affected by 9/11. We also managed to visit the air force memorial and then bought a cheeky Nandos. Nandos in the states was nowhere near as busy as what I’m used to when I go in Dublin. After we filled our stomachs, we got a taxi to Jefferson Memorial and decided to walk a long path back to the city centre. Jefferson Memorial was another beautiful building like the Lincoln Memorial. We also saw the George Mason Memorial, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial and the Martin Luther Jr Memorial. We ended our day with a night-time Christmas lights festival at the Zoo in Washington DC. The fourth day consisted entirely of travel back to Indiana.

Washington DC is a must-see and very different to a lot of the places I visited. It reminds me lots of Europe and has a unique quality and lots of character to it.

Hello lovelies,

I hope all is well. I’ve not been blogging in such a long time, but it’s something I really would like to get back into. Between working full time in my internship, tackling college assignments and making up the time to be social and plan things in my spare time, it can be pretty difficult to make the time to blog. I’ve just submitted a pretty big assignment so it is the perfect time to get back into the swing of things again.

I’ve still not completed my diaries of destinations from the states, and I really hope you aren’t bored of them. I really want to finish writing about them so I can look back at them in the future. So I hope you don’t mind that I am writing a few more US travel diaries. I’d also like to write about my recent trip to Scotland, but I’ll probably write about the top things to do there rather than a diary to mix things up a little.

One of the highlights of my time spent studying abroad was when my mum decided to travel to the states to meet me during Thanksgiving break. Before I even departed on the biggest journey of my life, my aunt Patricia told me about our American relatives Dick and Judi who lived near Chicago, Illinois. When I started studying in the states I decided to start emailing Dick. I told him I was studying abroad and that my mum and aunt were his second cousins. After a while, we decided that we would meet up during my time in the states and eventually, on a whim, my mum wanted to come to join the family gathering.  

November came surprisingly quick. I’d updated Dick on all the life-changing trips I’d done like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and Las Vegas by email and we discussed the arrangement for my upcoming visit. My mum flew into Chicago on the Monday of Thanksgiving week and I arrived the following day.

Meeting family I never knew I had was very interesting, to say the least. Dick, quite like myself is a lover of all things travel and he showed us his cherished photo albums. On my first night in Chicago, he and his wife Judi brought us to his son’s house to introduce us to his nuclear family – his wife, three children and his son’s girlfriend. They were all so lovely and I’d love to come over to meet them again. On this first night, we had a small little discussion about what we’d get up to during the week and I also went to see Moana with my cousin Jack. On our first proper day in Chicago (the day after the family introductions), Dick and Judi went to the Natural History Museum with us. This is well worth the visit. There is so much to see and do, depending on your preferences and you get to see a movie with your standard ticket. We saw Su the Dinosaur (of course!) as well as a room that was an ancient Egyptian pyramid which much of the ancient Egyptian history and much more.

Dick was a very good tour guide. Although not as young or fit as myself or my mother, he volunteered to drive us to the main area of Chicago and show us the main sights in Evanston which is close to where he lives. One of the most striking and memorable sights in Evanston was definitely the Baha’i temple which is one of the few in the world. It was a gorgeous white dome building with beautiful detailing, something I will always remember. We visited it on Thanksgiving following a brisk Thanksgiving morning walk on Evanston beach. It was absolutely perfect. That evening, we headed to Dick’s son’s Jeff’s house for dinner where he prepared a delightful feast for the whole family. Not only did we have a crispy, cooked-to-perfection turkey with vegetables, but we were also served both apple and pumpkin pie. Honestly, I don’t understand American’s obsession with pumpkin pie, I much preferred the apple.

On Black Friday, instead of heading out to the shops with crazy women to fight over highly discounted clothes, we had a girl’s day out and headed to the Shedd Aquarium. Much like the museum, this is somewhere I’d highly recommend going, although if you only had one day in Chicago you definitely wouldn’t have time to see anything else as the aquarium is so large. The ticket price includes entry to the aquarium as well as the chance to see a mesmerising dolphin show and a 3-D film.  

My mum and I had one proper full day of exploring and sight-seeing. We headed to the Bean in Millenium Park first. The shape of the Bean supposedly represents a gate way to the heavens. I don’t understand why it is such a popular tourist attraction but it was cool to see what the fuss was about. Following this, we had a walk around and found some many other sights like the Buckingham fountain. We also went to the Christmas market which was absolutely adorable. The stalls were full of lots of different things, from little german houses to wickless candles, to mugs and much more. I ended up getting a cute bobble hat as it was cold and a candle which was called "monkey farts". 

On our final day we were meant to head to Willis Tower. However, the weather was not in our favour and the views were pretty much non-existent. However, I did get a chance to go to the John Hancock building in Chicago while I was in Chicago on another occasion, preparing to get a flight. Instead, we headed to the Chicago Art Institute which has a huge array of art. I personally loved this section on the bottom floor that had these cute little miniature rooms of different styles. There were also lots of beautiful paintings by Claude Monet.

Chicago is most definitely one of the top places I visited and I’d love to go again. It is an absolutely wonderful city that is right next to the sea and is absolutely perfect for someone young and bubbly.

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.