Emma Joan

While still in Slovenia, we decided to take a day trip to Venice. We took the train which took us five hours, we left at 6am so we got there early enough. Venice is a beautiful city. It is obviously a very old city and it does have that medieval feel to it. However, as beautiful Venice is, it is really hard to navigate around, a lot of the streets look somewhat similar and there really are no proper signs that point in certain directions.

Morning Dolls,

Lake Bled has to be one of the most breath taking places I have ever visited. The photos do not do this place justice. This lake is hidden away in between Slovenian mountain, though it is popular among backpackers many other people have not even heard of this place before. For people who are after beautiful scenery, adventure sports or just looking to escape everyday life then you need to go here. Okay enough on trying to sell you this place, I’ll get to what we got up to on our trip there.

Afternoon dolls,

I hope you all are having a very lazy Sunday. As I sit and look outside at the dismal Irish weather it got me reminiscing back on sunnier times, so I decided to write up the next instalment of my travel diary. This time on Budapest.

Okay, can I start with a question, what is the deal with Hungarian currency? My god it was so confusing, casually taking out 30,000 out of the bank! You definitely need to be on the ball when dealing with prices over there, though it is cheap it is easy to miss a 0 on the tag and end up paying more than you realise. Trust me it happens.

So to start it off, we took a night train from Krakow to Budapest (those trains are great craic and would definitely recommend taking them if you can), so we got there in the morning and had all day to do whatever we wanted. It ended up being really hot so we went to the Baths. We went to the main baths in massive park. They have three different outdoor baths at different temperatures and loads of different pools indoors along with saunas and steams rooms all set a different temperatures. The perfect place to wind down after a lot of travelling wouldn’t you say. It was the equivalent of 15 euro to get in for the entire day but it is worth it. After traveling around a load of cities in a short space of time it is nice just to be able to lay out in the sun for a day.

We went on the free walking tour of the city the next day. It was good and you get to see the main touristy areas of the city, and learn some of the history. I will say it was not as good as the tour in Berlin but that may have been because Berlin had a lot more history plus the guide was brilliant so it is not fair to compare.

The next day we wandered around the city and went out to Margret Island which is in between Buda and Pest. It is just a massive park, where the locals seem to come for jogs etc. It does have a massive fountain as you come onto it where the water is synchronised with music, and you can just sit around and watch it.

As for going out we went on a pub crawl the first night in the Jewish district and the second night we went on a boat party on the Danube which was amazing. Both these events were organized by our hostel. For the boat party there was a couple different hostels in on it, so there was a load of people on it. Plus the boat gave out free booze! Where could you go wrong?  Our Hostel was called the Sexy Tractor, yes that really was the name of it. It was run by an Irish guy so I suppose that explains the name! But I would highly recommend staying there if you’re thinking of going. It was only 7 euro a night and was really good craic, so definitely check it out.

So that is it for Budapest. It is not just a party city (though they know how to),it is good for shopping and it is also really pretty to wander around in. although if you do decided to go wandering maybe stay on the Pest side as its laid out like New York and not that hard to navigate around. However the same cannot be said for Buda. Even Brad Pitt got lost there and had to ask his own photographers how to get back to Pest. It has all that plus it is really cheap therefore I would recommend going there for a break. You will not regret it. As for the rest of the posts I promise to have the last three up in the next week hopefully along with two outfit posts if I can find the time. I am actually moving to New York next weekend so I am trying to sort myself out for that. I want to get back into writing and blogging and now that I am going away I hope I will have a lot to write about.

Emma x. 

Hey Dolls,

So the next stop on our trip was Amsterdam. The train from Brussels went fine it only takes like 2 hours to get there so it was grand. The hostel was actually a boat called the Christina. It was way over priced though for what it was! But then again Amsterdam is super expensive, so I suppose it was reasonable enough for there.

What we done:

A definite must for Amsterdam is to rent out bikes and cycle around the city, the city itself is really big and you cover more ground by cycling rather than walking. Plus it is what everyone does over there. There is even separate roads for cyclists, not many people drive over there. We rented bikes from star bikes near the central station, the only cost 7 euro for the day which was unreal, most places are around 7-10 euro anyways. We ended up cycling around the city to Museumplein which is where all the museums are, including the Van Gough Museum. And it is also where the IAMSTERDAM sign is! We went to the Stedelijk museum which was all about contemporary art. I would defiantly recommend checking out this museum if you’re interested in contemporary art. It was really inexpensive to only 8 euro for a student and I think it was 12 for an adult.

We were only in Amsterdam for a day and a half because of how the train times worked out so we did not make it to Anne Frank’s house. However I would recommend booking it a day or two in advance before you go because of the queue.

Nightlife:

We stayed just on the docks outside the red light district which is possibly the tackiest place I’ve ever been (& that is during the day). However at night it is shocking. I’m not going to get into it too much. But the way the girls were in glass windows and people were just passing them by staring reminded me somewhat of a zoo! It literally was degrading for the women to be stared at behind these glass windows! That part of Amsterdam I was not at all impressed by. It really is something you must see though if you go it is crazy to think that kinda shit is legal.

As for the actual night life, it is for stag dos really. The ratio of men to women at night is probably 10:1 (excluding the ladies of the night of course)  There are some really good pubs there though, and of course if you want to try something different to drinking there is always the coffee shops which the city has no shortage off. There is a more chilled out vibe in them than the pubs which can be a nice change, especially when the city is filled with lads on holiday. We all know they can get a little cray!  

That’s about it for our Amsterdam adventure. Berlin will be coming up shortly.

                                                                Emma x. 

Evening dolls,

As college becomes more stressful and the end of my degree looms closer with every passing week, I am often left thinking what the next step is. For the first time in my life, I do not have a plan. There was always something to go back to once the summer had ended. While September always meant a new year be it school or college, it is no longer like that. Therefore, what am I to do, what is anyone to do when the time finally comes to dawn that cap and gown and step out into the real world. I have always had very high aspirations in life anyone who knows me will be well aware of this, but I have always felt a little discouraged in going after these dreams in fear of FAILURE! I think failure is one of my biggest fears, and it is stopping me from actually going out and giving my dreams a shot. I know I cannot be the only one that feels this way. Therefore, from now onwards I am going to take small steps in trying to work toward my goals and try to kick the fear of failure in the face. I wanted to share a bit of knowledge that helped me to be able to come to this positive realisation! I hope it can help you in coming to the realisation that you can do whatever it is you put your mind to! So without further ramblings the question I would like to pose is:

What if money was no object?

If you could do anything, you wanted what would it be?

Majority of people follow a safe guard in life and go for a career that they do not really want because they see getting the money as the most important aspect of a career. If you do this then you spend your life completely wasting your time. Do things that you enjoy doing, follow your dreams. The older you get the more you realise that life really is short. Each year seems to go faster than the next and life as much as we would all love it too has no pause button. Being in a job you do not enjoy in order to go on living really is not living at all. By doing something you love, you will eventually become a master in it. There is somebody interested in everything. You just need to find what it is you love doing. The real you is not a puppet not something the whole universe pushes around, to you, you are the whole universe. Everybody is an I. When it comes to your life, you are the only one who can truly know what path you should follow. Your parents only want to see you in a successful job with a stable life. However as stability is something most people crave it is not something that can guarantee happiness. Is it not better to do something you love than to do something based on how much money you make?

I believe that if you have a dream follow it otherwise you will be left wondering in years to come 'what if'? I do not believe that once you made a choice you should regret it, at that time in your life that is what you wanted! Something good always follows the choices you make no matter if you cannot see it at the time. Trust me you will eventually see that it was the right choice. It normally leads you to something or someone great. I don’t think that you should follow the norm if that’s not what you want to do! Do you really want to go through life hating your job? I do that already (it’s a part time job to feed the shopping addiction) but I have learned from it that, that is not what I want to go through for the majority of my life.

Not everyone is going to support you in your choices; they may even try to change your mind. It is just a matter of being confident in your decisions and knowing what your goals are. You can achieve anything you put your mind to and don’t let others tell you otherwise. It is important to remember that everyone started somewhere, and you don’t have to be great to start, but you need to start to become great.  People will always discourage you in life, but chose to ignore it, it’s not their life after all.

I think another think that is important to remember is for the most part you are not going to succeed on your first try. It is okay to fail, failure makes us stronger as people and makes us that little bit more determined to succeed. Life is a journey not a destination. Always keep that in mind.

I hope you can relate to this post and gain motivation from it. Everyone has aspirations; the question is what steps are you going to take to achieve them?

Emma x 

Hey dolls,

I hope ye all had a fabulous Christmas. Sorry I have been MIA lately, just after  exams I lacked any motivation for facing any form of writing, including blog posts. I have also been flat out working and pretty much going nowhere to do any outfit posts. However, I am heading back for my last semester now (cannot believe how fast it is going) and I am getting back into the swing of things. I wanted to write a post on my new year’s resolutions, I have read a couple of posts like this and I find some of them quite inspiring so I thought I would share mine If not to inspire others then, to inspire myself. I never can stick to resolutions; it is hard to get out of your comfort zone.

First off, I need to go for things more, I need to stop holding back from doing something. I am very lazy at times (most of the time actually) and if something requires effort on my part I more than likely will not do it. I want to be more open to everything. As Oscar Wilde once said, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist, that is all.” Life passes you by in the blink of an eye, one is to enjoy every day because that is living. It is harder that it seems when you have work and college and you are just existing day after day trying to get through your next assignment, exam or whatever it may be. This year I am going t try and take whatever time I can to enjoy the little things in life and do something that terrifies me. No more will I stay in my comfort zone.

I NEED to be organised! Oh sweet baby Jesus I am the most unorganised person ever. From my room to my college work I need to get my life together. My room at the

Lastly, I want to look after myself more. Get up and go for a walk. Eat properly. I got sick recently were my body decided to reject all my piercings because I was not eating properly. It was not a fun experience, the doctor told me that our body is like a car if you do not but in the right fuel in, it will not run properly same goes for the body.  I am very bad for eating properly so I am going to try to make a really effort in looking after my body more. I do hate exercise, but God loves a trier right?

Other aspirations for 2014:
·         Travel More
·         Move to a different city
·         Start working on goals to accomplice my career
·         Start yoga
·         Start taking more photos
·         To let go of anger
·         Drink less caffeine (I consume an unhealthy amount)

That is it for my 2014 resolutions. Here is hoping that I stick to them. I hope I was able to inspire you in some way and I promise I will not leave it as long next time until my next post.

Wishing you all the very best in 2014,

Emma x