No hand can deter me from my battle for the truth.

On Friday, December 20, 2013, I embarked on an eighteen day adventure and traveled to more countries in a few weeks than I have in the past ten years. I'm excited to share my experiences with you, and I want to start by clarifying one thing. I know what some of you might be thinking: "Whoa, that's cool, but I couldn't do that. I don't have the time/money/energy." I used to be one of those people! 

When I'd read a friend's blog about traveling, look at pictures, or hear the highlights from their trip when they returned, I'd always think to myself, that's awesome but I don't have the time or money to do something like that. End of story. But here's the truth. If you really want to travel, whether it's to see something you've always been curious about (for me the Northern Lights!) or just because you've never been there (um, Washington D.C.?!), the only thing really keeping you from going is yourself. I've never fancied myself as a vagabond or full of wanderlust, even though my mom calls me her little moonbeam. So as a recently converted travel junkie (it's really quite addictive), here are a few reasons why you should make the time, save the money, and go. 

First, you can better understand who you are and where you come from by visiting new places. I've always had the misconception that the United States is a conservative country compared to Europe. That was foolish to lump together all countries in Europe and believe that the entire continent is more progressive socially and politically than where I'm from. The first place I visited was Dublin, Ireland. I took a walking tour with the hostel I stayed at and learned a lot about the history of Ireland. I was particularly interested in the feminist movement in Ireland. It's only been in the past twenty-five years that women were given the right to divorce, contraceptives, and equality in the work place. Here are a few pictures I took on the tour, including the skyscraper of Dublin, the River Liffey, the Royal Palace,  and Temple Bar, a popular neighborhood in the city.

This is Veronica Guerin, a journalist who was murdered in 1996 for exposing crime and the drug trade of Dublin at the time.  “I vow that the eyes of justice, the eyes of this journalist will not be shut again,” Guerin said. “No hand can deter me from my battle for the truth.”

Of course it started raining during the walking tour, and I left my umbrella at the hostel. So with soggy feet and wet hair, I took cover at the Guinness Storehouse with some friends I met on the walking tour. Here I am with Madeline who's from Australia.

Afterwards we headed back toward Temple Bar to find somewhere to eat. I met a girl at the Guinness Storehouse rooftop bar who is a pastry chef and was on Top Chef Masters. She gave us a list of her favorite restaurants in Dublin.

And that's another reason why you should travel. You can make friends everywhere you go. One of my biggest fears when planning my trip was that I would feel lonely. But the fear of being alone shouldn't keep you from traveling alone. Luckily it was pretty effortless to make friends while in Dublin.  We all related to each other in that we were away from home for the holidays, whether because of school or work, and were excited to be traveling but also missed being with our family. Here I am with Anul, Madeline, Javi, Kevin, Santi, and Olaf.

We ended up at Pit Bros for dinner and I was the happiest girl in the world to be having slow cooked BBQ brisket. The owner of the restaurant told me to give him an honest opinion of how the BBQ was since I told him I grew up in the south. It was good, but obviously not better than Whole Hog Cafe or Matt Miller's.

I also happened to be in Dublin the weekend before Christmas which is when everyone dresses up in crazy Christmas sweaters and outfits for the 12 Pubs of Christmas. And when I say crazy Christmas sweaters, I don't mean just a tacky sweater with a reindeer on it. People went all out, dressed from head to toe with twinkle lights and tinsel. 

The next day I took a bus to the west coast of Ireland to see the Cliffs of Mohar in County Clare. It was incredibly windy that day and I was left speechless by the coastline and luscious landscape.

Before heading back to Dublin, we stopped at this abandoned church and cemetery. I didn't want to leave. The bus almost left without me.

I'll continue in my next post with Christmas in Edinburgh, Scotland!

What I've been listening to lately:

No Swords or Masks by Ninjasonik 

Self-titled album by Bettye Swann

Self-titled album by Wet

Moon Tide by Pure Bathing Culture

When here and now cease to matter

Thanksgiving seems like so long ago now since I've traveled so much since then, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The last weekend in November, a group of us expatriate English teachers went to Malaga, Spain to celebrate. It's about a two and a half hour train ride away from Madrid. There are 4 or 5 teachers from my program that live and teach there. 

We obviously didn't have Thanksgiving day off work, so we got together Friday afternoon and prepared quite a feast. Although we weren't able to scrounge up a turkey, I hardly missed it. 

Speaking of missing, before I moved to Spain I was primarily worried about two things. 1) Learning the language. Obviously, this is a valid thing to worry about since many foreigners move to another country for a year without ever learning the language. And it's easy for this to happen because there are many people who speak English or want to practice with you. 2) Missing my friends and family back home. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate missing out. I have major FOMO (Mom, that means fear of missing out) and I typically end up spending an evening trying to do what all my friends are doing, or saying something like, "I just really want all of us to be together all the time." 

I do miss my family in Arkansas and friends in New York, but what I didn't account for was making new friends here in Spain. Good friends who I will also miss dearly when summer comes and school ends. It's true, there will always be someone to miss, and as I get older, there are continually more people to miss.

Back to Thanksgiving. I made this sweet potato appetizer, a favorite Smitten Kitchen recipe that I've made for past three years. It's always been a crowd pleaser, but this Thanksgiving, my friends chanted my name they loved it so much! Needless to say, I was thankful to have friends who truly appreciated my contribution to the meal.

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring Malaga. We went to the Picasso Foundation, which is the house where Picasso was born and grew up. There are photographs of his family, paintings by his father, as well as early works and sketches by Picasso. I didn't make it to the Picasso Museum (I'm still kicking myself), so I'll have to go back. We had dinner at Bodega El Pimpi and then went to the AC Hotel Malaga Palacio rooftop bar and had a lovely view of the Cathedral. 

The city was decked out in Christmas lights, which honestly I liked more than the Christmas lights in Madrid! Madrid is lovely at Christmas, but the lights seem too small to fill the space of the street and end up looking like that one house on the block that half-assed putting up the light on their roof. Some are blinking, some are white, some are multi-colored, and you end up just criticizing their work ethic rather than enjoying the view. Maybe I over analyzed my appreciation of the Christmas lights in Malaga (surprise, surprise), but it's worth noting that you don't always find the best and brightest things in the biggest city in a country. 

Here is our first attempt at making a family Christmas card picture,

and the second which was a success.

We had brunch together before we went our separate ways. The weather was the warmest, first day of December I've had in a long time. And the next day at work, my coworkers asked if I went sunbathing in Malaga. 

I'm going to let T. S. Eliot have the last word. If I were a good, dedicated blogger, I would find an inspirational poem by an author from Malaga. But, I was reading my friend's blog which she named from this poem and I find it quite appropriate.

Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty

desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast 

waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end 

is my beginning.
- T. S. Eliot


Lately, I've been listening to:

Cupid Deluxe by Blood Orange

  

Jetlag by Milosh

True by Solange