This Life Diary : 2014

Wednesday 19 November 2014

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

Tuesday 18 November 2014

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

Wednesday 15 October 2014

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.