TOUCHED DOWN IN DUBLIN

I am back from what I saw as my last summer holiday before the Halloween & Christmas talk! After a four day long trip to the land of Guinness, wild pub life, shamrocks and leprechauns, I have returned to London for a manic week of wonderful work, training, events and of course catching up on some writing.

Dublin, where do I start?? I basically went with the minimal expectations and prepared for the worst weather of ice cold winds and rain and returning with a smaller version of my dads beer belly. Optimistic to the max right?

As you may have guessed already, I was pleasantly surprised. Dublin, is just a city with a great social scene and energy. Plus, the Irish culture is a whole bunch of fun and so distracting from the seriousness of London. Day drinking, singing and dancing with anyone and everyone is hard to turn down really. As I say, if you are going somewhere, you really do have to embrace it in full force. (beards, beer & and accent in place!)

Dublin really does have enough to offer for a full 4 days, which people suggested would be too long a time to spend in such a small city, but they were wrong! We found plenty to do and see and a bit too much walking for my liking. 

We visited a beautiful fishing village called Howth, an outer suburb of Dublin and only a short train ride away. Short being around 20 minutes, which felt like it was 5, merely due the the UH-mazing free wifi pretty much everywhere you go. I know I know, it is a bad habit to get into. I should have embraced the whole 'digital down time' thang, but then how would I look up the best places to go and of course keeping up with my scrolling of social feeds #sociabunny. Anyway, back to Howth, we took a long romantic walk along the dock towards the lighthouses and stopped off at the only rooftop bar in the village for a very traditional Bellini and spot of lunch.

 We covered off all the major tourist attractions, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Temple Bar, the fashion district of Grafton street and best of all the Guinness Store house a couple of min away from the city centre. Making our way through the tour, which was pretty interesting to be fair, we picked up a few facts about the iron rich drink. One, 67% of Guinness is exported. Two, Arthur Guinness and his wife Olivia had 21 children, 10 of which survived to adulthood. Three, The roasted barley is what gives Guinness the deep red colour which to us gives it that black look. Shall I go on? I wont! The best bit has got to be the tasting rooms, where you learn how to actually drink and enjoy a Guinness the real way. Too bad if Guinness isn't you thing, because following from that you can head up to the 7th floor for the 360 rooftop bar to enjoy your full pint, overlooking the whole of Dublin. Could you handle it?

Each evening we headed down to Grafton street to hit the bars around the south William Street and Georges Street area. There was a fab bar there called the South Williams bar, with a really chilled vibe. Not sure on the mixed match of music on a normal night but for their live music nights, it was the perfect place and atmosphere to enjoy our first set of drinks in the city before heading to Pygmalion  for a full on night of clubbing. There were a few days, we kept thing quite traditional, heading to a few local Irish pubs, full of beer and all their live Irish music glory. For a bit of an exaggerated Irish scene Temple bar is huge with all the tourists and offers pub after pub with the craziest of music. It was probably ones of my best nights. Get loose, go wild & basically don't mention you are from London. they hate that.

If you are a major foodie like me, places to dine at and coffee houses to chill in are a must for any country or city I visit. It is the first thing I do as soon as I book my flight. Sad I know, but if you are travelling with me, you will be thankful. 

______________________

DAY OF A FOODIE

Start your day right with a breakfast at KC Peaches

Stop off for a coffee at Fallon & Bryne

Sit outside and enjoy the Graften Street view from Balfes at the Westbury Hotel

Refuel for the evening at The Alchemy Juice Company

Enjoy a cocktail at The Marker Hotel, while the outfits and make up is still fresh

Enjoy a cute dinner at Saba

Late night snacks and Mojitos at pop-up Taco Taco

IS IT TIME FOR THE SHAVASNA...?

I am officially having withdrawal symptoms...

It has been just over a week since being back in London from my much anticipated trip to Ibiza for my yearly ritual of a yoga retreat at the Lotus Pad with the amazing Wendy Buttery, followed by a couple of days roaming around the island hitting up incredible beaches, small towns and mayybee just a few clubs, which ultimately leads to going out every day.

 It’s funny and getting pretty irritating when anyone questions me going to Ibiza for a yoga retreat. Their response is almost questioning my choice of place, which granted does go against the norm. Well the norm in their eyes, but I see Ibiza as the perfect place to go on a yoga retreat. I mean, do you know the other side of the island?? Obviously not.

The low-down in short is…the southern and western side of the island are known for mad cubbing with highs off drugs and alcohol, but to everyone’s surprise the rest of the island is actually very tranquil, inviting romantic breaks for couples, relaxing family vakays and yoga and spa retreats for the singltons. For me it has got to be the pared down hippie style paired with a healthy green (sometimes all veg) organic, superfoody diet that makes Ibiza the spot to hit every summer.

So anyway, back to my actual trip, another year of the most amazing hatha/vinyasa yoga and meditation in the outdoors, faced with scorching heat in the morning and evening helping to warm up and stretch out my very tight muscles. After all the training I did to look and feel my best for this holiday, it was much needed. I mean if going to the gym twice a day following a very strict high protein, low carb, vegetarian diet 3 to 5 times a day with very little or no sleep can’t do it, then what will? I am not going to complain because I actually loved it and surprisingly waking up at 5:30am naturally and sleeping at 12:30am gave me more energy than ever!! I was (and I say cockily) in my ideal shape! But 1 week later and 4 extra days on the other side of the island and I am now back to normal and at the gym twice a day. I will not complain.

I now sit everyday at my desk obviously appreciating the incredible life and adventures I have living in London, but secretly looking at flights to one day make that one way trip with no return mwah ha ha.

Spending my days doing yoga, reading, talking, listening to music, swimming, eating, eating and eating sounds prettty perfect while you are soaking up the sun (which I have to admit I do run away from a lot of the time), especially when I had no worries and care for what was going on back at home. I go on and on about how I love a routine. But really for at like 4 weeks a year I think breaking the mould and going against that routine can do wonders for our digitally hectic, socially over active and professionally strained minds and body.