Bucket List Bi-Weekly

We all have bucket lists nowadays, don't we? A giant life's to-do list of all the places we want to travel and skills we want to learn and experiences we want to have. 

For all the excessive pinning of bucket list items on Pinterest, I genuinely hope we all get to do them one day. But as with all things in life, if we want something to happen, we've got to happen to something, and sometimes I don't think bucket list items are as much of a priority as we'd like them to be. As always, life, work, school all get in the way. 

I am, however, utterly determined to complete my ever-growing bucket list as much as possible before I kick the bucket myself. And I thought I'd share the journey with all of you. Hence, welcome to Bucket List Bi-Weekly! Every two weeks, I share 5 items from my life's Bucket List, and we'll see how many I can check off!!

1) Edinburgh

Photo credit: Antonio M. Mora García / Via Flickr: toniomora

I booked a ticket to Edinburgh to visit a great friend of mine while she was living there last year, but in a sudden turn of events I wasn't able to go. Desperately upset, it's still on my bucket list. Hopefully before Christmas.... !!

2) Climb a mountain

Photo credit: http://coffeeinthemountains.tumblr.com/post/95283260577

I've climbed a mountain before - in the Blue Ridge, in Trinidad, in Ireland. But I'm always up for hiking more. And one day, I will have to properly climb a mountain, hiking gear and all.

3) Newgrange

Photo credit: Pecold/Shutterstock

I've lived in Ireland for a long time, and I've never made my way to one of it's biggest wonders. 

4) Learn to surf

Photo credit: Trevor Moran

The boy and I went surfing at the beginning of the summer together, and I've gone a couple of times since then. Surfing is epic, and I aim to learn to catch the wave every time. After all, I want to live on a beach someday... 

5) Play the villain in a Disney animated movie

Photo credit: Buzzfeed.com

This has been my tagline on the internet since Xanga, and it's as true then as it always has been. When I was a child, I remember someone telling me I had a good witch's cackle sometimes. Instead of being offended, it sparked a dream in me. And I can sing the entirety of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in the style of Ursula.

Check out SEDivaAbroad's Bucket List on Pinterest!

Any suggestions for bucket list items? Give me a shout! I'd love to hear them

xx

Inspired by A Southern Gypsy's weekly bucket list updates. Every week she shares 10 more items from her ultimate bucket list.

Welcome to Getaways and Dublin!

As a full-time student and current working girl, my weekend getaways have been limited. But as an American living in a foreign country, I have always wanted my weekend getaways and extended travel trips to be a constant presence. 

A few months ago, I shared some of my Favorite Irish Adventures to date. When my dad and brother visited, I got to take a few more adventures around Ireland and another weekend to Munich. 

Though I don't get to travel as often as I'd like to, there are many trips in my arsenal that I'd like to share with you on the blog, from weekends to weeklongs and from real-life, actually-happened adventures to it's-gonna-happen-just-you-wait-and-see ones. 

Welcome to Getaway! In these posts, we'll share some of my favorite short-trips.

There are few Getaways that stand out to me, whether for the epicness of the place visited itself or for the epicness of the time I personally had there. And there are a few places that I've got my eye on for near-future weekend getaways as well!

So here you go,  check out Dublin and the first of many Diva's Getaways!

Dublin

My most recent jaunt to Dublin last March featured an epic Jason Derulo concert and the boy (an adventure for another post), but I've been to Dublin many times.

A small enough city, the Irish capital is like a teaser trailer of real Ireland for tourists who haven't gotten into the countryside yet and bigger cities for expats missing their homeland. Dublin has a big pub and club scene and enough shopping to satisfy a desire for retail therapy. There are so many little nooks and crannies to explore, but every time I go back all I want to do is wander the streets, visit the Queen of Tarts (best tea shop ever!), and soak up the city life. 

Components in a good Dublin Getaway:

1) Hostels
Used to the luxury of a hot shower, we are often turned off by the idea of hostels. Hostels get a bad rap from films and our parents' stories of backpacking across deserted islands. But you can rest easy in an Irish hostel. The standard of living here is fairly high, and that often translates to lovely little hostels. The hostels outside of Dublin are undoubtedly better, but in the big city, they are better than most you'd find outside of Ireland. So go ahead, book a hostel, you (probably) won't regret it. Check out Kinlay House Hostel near Christchurch and Temple Bar.

2) Bus It
Dublin City has a good public transport system, which includes a tourist option. A hop-on, hop-off bus tour may sound ridiculous, but there is no better way to see Dublin. With no grid system and a sprawl of about 45 square miles, Dublin can be difficult to master your first time. Dublin Sightseeing Tours offers an inexpensive and easily accessible bus tour. Buy a ticket for the day, do the full route (45 minutes to an hour), get your bearings, and then start picking places you want to stop on the second round. Some favorite Dublin landmarks to explore include Christchurch, Dublin City Gaol, Trinity College, Grafton Street and O'Connell Bridge, and, of course, the Guinness factory!

3) Pub Culture
Pub culture is a colloquial term often used by Irish and Irish connoisseurs to describe the insatiable desire of Irish and Ireland lovers to congregate in a cozy pub and laugh and tell stories for hours and hours over a few good pints. Dublin's pub culture is no different. Many of the pubs in the city are very well decorated and include (often loud) Irish music every night. From mid-afternoon to early evening, pubs in Dublin can be chill and relaxed, a great atmosphere to unwind after a long day of touristing. After 8PM, Temple Bar area is alive with tourists and the music can be heard echoing up and down the cobblestone streets.

4) Nightlife
The pub scene might not appeal to you - perhaps you've had your fill of pubs elsewhere or perhaps you've just spent too much time in them this afternoon! In this case, the Dublin nightlife might satisfy in other ways. If you're up for a nightclub of adventures, check out Coppers - but just beware, it gets a little crazy. You have been warned.

5) Do Something City-Like
Whether Dublin is your first or only stop in Ireland or it's your weekend away from the Irish countryside, one of the best parts about experiencing Dublin or any other city is living the city life. Each city has its own aura, its own culture, and it is an awesome thing to explore. Do something super normal in the city you're visiting. Go to a show, go shopping, visit a museum, or just walk around the neighborhoods. Get down and dirty in the city and enjoy not only the novelty of a new place but also the buzz that is city life. 

Best Things About Living Abroad

As my month-long trip home comes to a close, it's time to start thinking about returning to Ireland. And though I'll miss my family, friends, and Costco, there are some awesome things about living in Ireland. I rarely admit that - that Ireland can be awesome, too - so I figured I'd document it now lest someone argue that I am only ever complaining about missing the peanut butter and such I can't find in Ireland. But Ireland really is lovely, and some of the best things about living in Ireland have everything to do with the fact that I am simply living abroad.

Like so many others, I love traveling. But living abroad has given me many things that simply traveling - no matter how lengthy each trip - has not. Living abroad has taught me to love both where I am every day and to love where I've been, my home, my family and friends. It has given me the opportunity to travel and to explore, and it has allowed me to meet some amazing people.

Allow me to share five brilliant reasons why living abroad is epic, in case you didn't already know!

1) Learn to Love

Living abroad has taught me to try to love every single moment. When I'm outside of my comfort zone, sometimes the most comforting thing is to remember to look around and enjoy where I'm at. Thousands of miles from home, I've learned how to love a place by challenging myself to explore it, to find my niche that feels like home, to reach out to people and really pay attention to the kind of friends I'm making rather than just accepting people I've known forever.

2) Connect with the Motherland

Living abroad makes my homeland seem a million times more awesome than it probably is. I have American flags hanging all over my room, and I am sure to celebrate every patriotic holiday with my Irish friends. Every time an Irish person recognizes my accent, I get to have a ten minute conversation about America, which often ends in a new self-deprecating reflection from myself. Living abroad gives me the opportunity to really think about an identity when at home I only took being American for granted. With a picture of all the things that I would take advantage of if I were living at home hanging in my apartment - such as my puppy and my parents' house - living abroad once again teaches me to love and appreciate every small thing.

3) Different Foods

There will always be things about home I miss. I always miss my mother's cooking and good Mediterranean food, but there are certain foods that are just more common and more interesting in Ireland. Scones, sausages, and millions of potatoes, it's the home of comfort food. It's no okra, but sometimes those potatoes are just darn homey.

4) International Friends

Something about being a foreigner makes it incredibly easy to find and connect with other foreigners. Not to mention all the locals. And I'm always missing my friends back home and around the world! People think I'm good at keeping in touch. This is false. I'm better about keeping in touch simply because I'm so far away. I don't live near some of my dearest friends, and therefore I very deliberately try to keep in touch. When I don't live near everybody, when I know I won't be living near my currently near friends forever, I never take a conversation or a friendship for granted.

5) Treat Life as a Daily Adventure

Every day is a once off gift. Too often, people seem to spend their time doing jobs they don't really enjoy, studying subjects they're not really interested in just to fulfill what we all feel are our life duties. But our life duty is not to be miserable, to just fill the days. I think that a lot of us wait around expecting to have a life-calling revelation or something, when we suddenly realize exactly what's going to make us sublimely happy. But that won't happen. We have to find our own happiness, we have to work at being happy, and loving what we do, and at finding the adventure in every day. Living abroad has taught me that; no matter how miserable and homesick I am, I am still on an adventure. You just have to treat it that way!

I freely admit that I complain about living so far away from home often. Homesickness is real, and there will always be things that are better in either my home country or my adopted one. Sometimes it feels like by living abroad - and particularly studying for a Masters degree abroad - is just a shorthand for avoiding reality. But I'm living the dream right now, and I've learned so much about myself and the world from living abroad. This is as real a life as working 9 to 5 back in the States. But unlike a lot of people, I've chosen my path.

And never let it be said that living abroad means chasing pipe dreams or constant homesickness. We're chasing adventure!