MAY 2019 – Lined up a trip to Europe for the month of May to visit relatives and see some new countries and sights! Always exciting to step outside of your comfort zone and experience new places, with sleep sometimes being the trade off for such adventures, haha. Visited Ireland, Belgium, and Spain on this go to the old world. I love going to the UK, seeing the well-worn cobblestone streets, architecture from across the generations, and visiting sights you have seen only in photographs is very inspiring. Landed really affordable flights into Dublin and out of Madrid, so that helped immensely in making this excursion possible.
Dublin was fantastic, saw a lot of street art, parks, visited Trinity College, Dublin Castle, and ate loads of good eats. The people were so kind and generous with their time and attention, it made quite an impression on me, would definitely like to go back. Enjoy walking around the city center and finding tiny hole in the wall cafes to pop into and spend the days taking long strolls, people watching, and hearing the accents and observing the locals (or frequently in these large city hubs, other tourists) going about their daily lives.
Between Ireland and Spain the most wonderful portion of the trip came together, visiting Belgium. Medieval cities in general are such a delight to amble about and Bruges (pictured in this photograph) was a flawless choice for this type of venture. The Flemish city of Bruges was a thriving merchant city in its heyday, with canals a la Amsterdam, and today is known for its chocolate shops and postcard worthy views every which way you turn.
The city square in Bruges is a Unesco world heritage site and made me want to build castles out of legos immediately, haha. The balance of time spent in Belgium was in the capital of Brussels, with its lavish royal parks, delicious waffles, perfectly cooked fries (and matching flavors of mayonnaise), and whimsical European charm.
Madrid, Spain capped off the trip and heated things up with some 10/10 warm weather and blue skies. Plaza after plaza, it was a vibrant city of color, grand scale, and exceptional majesty. The gardens and splendor of the old city made me understand the pull this Spanish capital has to world travelers and locals alike.
Picked up a familiar read during my travels ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, by J.D. Salinger. Have read it several times before but find I can revisit it, like seeing an old friend, and pick right back up where I left off. Holden Caufield’s musing are always a delight and have me chuckling as I am not so removed from his experiences myself. Plus the paperback copy I have is easy to tuck into a carry on piece of luggage, so it became an easy choice for the trip. As I have a strict, no library books on trips, rule, so I often have to leave behind whatever tome I’m working on, if I’m going to have the book leave the safe confines of my apartment, haha.
That’s the latest, here’s to some brilliant relaxed days out in the sunshine in your future, cheers!
~ CS
