youtube, a chalk horse, and stonehenge

Happy Wednesday! 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 your thing is 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, paddle boarding, refurbishing furniture, tooling around with some new tools, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but 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 - “31 lessons for 31 years” - you can click here to read my reflection on the 31 main lessons I learned in my 31 years of life! Before that was Sunday’s post, “science tea and pure comedy,” about spending my 30th birthday eve in London. Picking up where we left off, I figured it’d be good to bring the duration of that mini Eurotrip to its fun, bittersweet end! My 30th birthday in England included waking up to a homemade breakfast at home with my friends Joe and Kristen and their dog Listom. We spent most of the day lounging around, having cocktails, talking about life, and watching soccer and youtube videos, which felt like we were in college again, just hanging out. It was a perfect, easy day that culminated with a toast together with pints of Guinness at Prince of Wales and dinner at a delicious local Indian restaurant. We spent the rest of a quiet night at home, chatting and watching “Come Fly With Me,” a British mockumentary set at London Stansted Airport (where I was flying out of the following night). It was low-key fun with two of my favorite people and the perfect introduction to my 30s.

The day after my 30th birthday, we spent the day out and about in the English countryside. We started our morning with a hike to the Uffington White Horse, a prehistoric chalk figure drawn into the hill side and spent the rest of the day visiting various stone figure-based landmarks, ending with a definite highlight: Stonehenge! I was bummed to find out that although I believed (for basically my entire life) that the Druids were responsible for building Stonehenge, that “fact” is actually a myth. Big thanks to the audioguide for the new knowledge and to Kristen for totally understanding exactly why I huffed and went, “what?!” out loud. Seriously. She heard me and went, “oh, did you just find out about the Druids?” That’s a real friend, y’all. The day after my birthday was full of adventure, laughter, love, friendship, and lots of serious musical jams on our car rides through England. But as all vacations and Eurotrips must come to an end, we said our bittersweet goodbyes as I started my journey back to Dublin.

Have you ever found that some of your favorite memories are when you and your friends are just sitting around not necessarily doing anything crazy or adventurous? Like how Joe, Kristen, and I watched soccer and YouTube videos on my birthday? It was something pretty ordinary that we used to do together at Villanova, which is what made it special about getting to do it together in England. Our lives have all changed in a number of ways, but we haven’t changed so much that we’ve lost sense of what real friendship actually looks like - enjoying each other’s company in our PJs and glasses as much as we do when we’re at Shakespeare’s Globe or visiting Stonehenge. If you’ve experienced what I’m talking about, 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! 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/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, 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.

Sincerely,

Johny

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