dún laoghaire ice cream

Well hello there! Happy Tuesday! How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe it’s yoga, meditation, running, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends. Whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “dublin bog bodies” - you can click right here to catch up on the marvelous science that is the peat bog-preserved remains of people from hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Also, if you didn’t get the chance to cast your free daily vote for me to be the next #MaximCoverGirl, you can click here to vote or click here to read about why it’s important to me (and then vote!). You can vote once every twenty-four hours for free, and I am so grateful for your support! I'm still in the running and in the top 10 of my group! Voting for round 4 ends this coming Thursday night June 25th and will see 5 more women eliminated from my group, so I’d love your support to make it through to the next round! Thank you for everything so far!! If you’re all caught up on the adventures thus far and Maxim Cover Girl voting, then buckle up! I think it’s time we explore some more of Ireland and the greater Dublin area! Sound good? There's ice cream involved!!

When I was living in Dublin and training for the Dublin Half Marathon, Barcelona Marathon, and Wexford Marathon, I got to see a lot of the surrounding Dublin area by virtue of having long running routes upwards of distances of 20 miles on weekends. It was a really great way to get to know my new homeland one run at a time. One of my favorite runs I have mentioned before was one I would take along the coast. I would run through parks along the same DART line I took to Bray with my dad, through amazing little coastal towns, and into neighborhoods I might not have had the time to otherwise explore unless I had to run a 20 mile loop - 10 miles out and 10 miles back. I’ve written about running out to Sandymount Strand before, many of my longer weekend runs took me out of metropolitan Dublin and into the suburbs.

One of my favorite seaside towns I got to experience while running (and later revisit on the DART so I could spend more time there) was Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Done Leery). Whenever I would take my weekend runs in nicer weather (I qualify this because there were many occasions where I was running in rain... but that's Ireland for ya, whatcha gonna do?), there were always people out and about. Whether they were running errands, dining at a number of delicious-looking restaurants, getting ready to sail, meeting up with some friends for some pints and some craic, enjoying some local trad music, taking a nice stroll along the promenade on their own or with others, admiring art installations, skipping rocks into the sea (a personal favorite), feeding the massive seagulls (not a personal favorite), taking yoga or pilates classes (of which my fellow Master and friend Yasmin is a wonder), or enjoying some absolutely delicious ice cream at Teddy’s, I think you be as hard-pressed as I was to find an Irish person who didn't seem to be happy and at peace along the seaside.

Isn’t it funny how the things we miss the most during these times of uncertainty are the simple things like being able to dine out, walk along a populated boardwalk or street, and eat ice cream - all without a mask? What do you miss the most? I’m willing to bet it’s one of life’s simple pleasures. Let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe from all different chapters of my life! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/coffee shops/ice cream joints you would recommend in other countries, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

And please, if you have 10-15 seconds to spare, I would really appreciate your daily vote for me to be Maxim Cover Girl 2020. Click here to vote! Voting for round four ends this coming Thursday June 25th, and I would really appreciate your help and support as I continue to try and become the next #MaximCoverGirl by moving ahead into round 5! Thank you for your support! Click here or on the photo above to vote!

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my