Urban Dictionary defines a "Nashville Party" as: A phrase used to describe a lame party where nothing happens. It is used by Miley Cyrus in "Party in the USA" to contrast LA parties with lame, horrible, boring, Nashville ones.
But I have to disagree with Miley, as I do on pretty much everything.
Living in Music City has been incredible. For me, it's been a refreshing change. Something about it is just what I needed. It's the perfect grown-up city for an almost-grown-up. It has a big-city feel, great food, remarkable music, and plenty of southern charm. Also, this city slightly relieves my upcoming-post-grad anxiety because it seems there are plenty of job opportunities to take hold of. I could definitely see myself having a career here one day. Nashville is a party, and I am just lucky enough to be invited.
I think everywhere that I have gone in the last year has significantly impacted how I view my life and my future. Going abroad taught me more than I can write--but above all, it taught me that you grow most when you step outside your comfort zone. Going to the University of Tennessee Knoxville has taught me that "jumping through the hoops" is a necessity, but you should definitely be having fun while doing it.
But Nashville... there's just something special about this city. Maybe it's just the timing of it all, but living here and working at the Tennessee Legislature has taught me that "the real world" is not something that follows graduation. It's something that we live in every day, and we should embrace it. Not only should we embrace it, but we should actively engage in it.
Eat. Drink. Dance. Sing. Work. Play. Vote.
Nashville is a party, but it's not THE party. Life is. So participate and enjoy.
Are you ready for another adventure? Because I always am.
Awesome. Strap in.
So right after I got to England my boyfriend, Adam, decided he couldn't go 5 months without seeing me. Isn't that the most precious thing, ever? I'm really glad he decided this because...I didn't want to go that long without seeing him either (but shhh...don't tell him). Before I left for England, we talked about the possibility of him coming to see me, but we determined that it wasn't the best financial decision.
Well thanks to his extremely hard work and the help of his loving family...he made it happen anyhow! Oh, how lucky I am!
So on March 22nd (his spring break at UT), he flew into London Heathrow! It had been almost 3 months since I had seen him! I was so anxious at the arrivals gate waiting for him. His flight got in at 9:25pm, but it took a little while for him to get through customs. I was like a child waiting for their mom to pick them up at school. Every time the doors would open I'd get super excited...and then someone would come out that wasn't him. Eventually...IT WAS HIM. I was happy as a clam. Maybe I'm getting a little too mushy...but that first airport kiss... was a darn good kiss.
I had the whole trip all planned out from that point forward (I'm a "Monica" in that sort of way).We hopped on the blue line on the underground from Heathrow Airport to Warren Street in Central London. That's where our hotel for the night was. I got a really good deal on this 4 star hotel because I booked it quite in advance. We walked in and Adam immediately said it was "swank"...which I think is a good thing. This hotel even provided robes and warmed our towels for us! Fancy Schmancy! Well Adam and I were really tired so we hit the hay as soon as we got in.
London, England: The next morning I made him get up super early so we could see as much of London as possible before our plane to Ireland that night.
We got up and got ready and headed out for a quick breakfast. It was so nice to just chat with him in person instead of on skype. At breakfast I gave him a british money lesson...which wouldn't apply for long since that night we were going to be needing euros in Ireland.
We made our way out into Central London. Of course it was snowing. We took the tube and headed to the Natural History Museum. We just goofed off and looked at all the epic stuff inside.
After the Museum, we headed to all the outdoor sights. First Buckingham Palace (where I think we say a little bit of the changing of the guard), next Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, River Thames, the London Eye, Trafalgar square, and Covent Garden.
At Covent Garden we met my friends Sarah and Lauren for lunch. I was so happy that they got to meet Adam! Especially since I've talked their heads off about him since I met them (shh..don't tell him that either, haha). We got traditional fish and chips for lunch, and Adam (my sweet gentlemen) bough all of our lunches. Like I said...I'm a lucky girl...and Sarah and Lauren didn't come out too badly either. We then went back into Covent Garden to get some sweets such as Ben's Cookies and macarons from Lauduree. After that we headed to Victoria Station to catch our train to Gatwick airport. We had a little time so we decided to go get a drink together because I actually can now! We had a beer and then we went to Yo Sushi before we got on the train. Eventually we made it to Gatwick airport where we got on our flight to Dublin!
Dublin, Ireland:
When we got to Dublin we took a random airport transfer bus that took us to the city center. We decided to get off at the last stop which was on Talbot Street. I looked at the address for our Bed and Breakfast, and guess where it was....Talbot Street! How lucky were we? It was almost 1am by this time, and we were both extremely tired so we just went and checked into our B&B called the Celtic Lodge and headed to sleep.
The next morning we woke up and had a traditional Irish Breakfast including toast, beans, blood sausage, sausage links, bacon, and fried eggs. Adam wasn't a fan, but I loved it. He claimed it was because my taste buds had had more time to adjust to European food. haha.
We went out that morning to pick up our Dublin Passes...similar to the Paris Pass in that it got us into several tourist things for free. We didn't want to activate our passes until the next day so we just went around Dublin enjoying each other's company whilst getting acquainted with the city and it's culture. We grabbed some lunch at a local place called Urban Picnic. It was fantastic! We just spent the day going around little shops and spending time together. It was so wonderful. There's no place I'd rather be. And when I say that I'm not talking about Dublin. <3 We decided to go back to our B&B and get cleaned up to go to dinner. We went to Temple Bar, which is an area with a lot of night life and good restaurants. It can be a real tourist trap if you're not careful though. We had some burgers and then decided to go on a traditional irish pub crawl. However...when we began the crawl we didn't realize how expensive it'd be so we just decided to go to two places. Both places were packed and had live Irish music. We really enjoyed ourselves. After we had a few drinks we walked back in the freeeeeezing cold and sleet to our B&B. I guess since Ireland is such a small island the coastal weather blows across the whole surface because the whole time we were there I was freezing to death...and this is coming from the girl that's been in England for four months.
The next day we had a much needed sleep-in day. I think Adam liked the sleep more than the Irish breakfast for sure. We then got up and headed to St. Patricks's Cathedral, another smaller cathedral, and the Jameson whiskey distillery and Guinness storehouse (all of these included in our Dublin Passes). We didn't really care about the tours, but the free stuff was nice. At the whiskey distillery they talked about Jack Daniels which I thought was funny because Adam and I were the only two Tennesseans there. Also at the Guinness storehouse we got served our free drink at the gravity bar which is the highest bar in Dublin complete with all glass walls. It was such a beautiful view, and I felt so blessed to be overlooking yet another beautiful European city with my best friend/ boyfriend.
We stayed there just enjoying ourselves until they began to close. We decided to grab a taxi in hopes that our taxi driver could suggest a really great chinese restaurant Yeah...yeah...I know we were in Dublin, but you've got to understand that chinese food is like mine and Adam's thing! It's both of our favorite food! So our taxi driver took us to the "china town" of Dublin and told us to just pick a place because they're all good! So Adam and I just walked in somewhere! It was the best food we ate the whole trip! We were the only non-chinese people in there! So it was definitely authentic. Yum. It was so good. By the time we finished we were so sleepy. We decided to walk back to our B&B, and we immediately went to sleep. I'm pretty sure we were dead asleep before 10pm.
The next day was our last day in Ireland! How sad it was! We decided to take the dart train to the coastal town of Malahide.
Malahide, Ireland: We arrived by train, and we made our way to the cutest little coastal town! We went to the castle grounds first because they were included in our Dublin Passes. We got an amazing tour of the castle, and we got to spend as much time on the castle grounds as we liked! It started to actually be a bit sunny!
This setting with Adam was probably the most romantic thing I've ever experienced. I mean I just couldn't grasp that I was at a 900 year old castle in a small coastal town in Ireland with a man that flew across the world for me! God is so good! After walking around the castle grounds...we walked down to the coast and took a few quick pictures because it was so cold by the water.
We then went to grab some lunch. We discovered that Ireland food is pretty much the same as England food...except the beer is better. So we decided to order fish and chips again! These fish and chips were even better than the ones we had in London! We then walked around the small town of Malahide until our train came. Adam is just like me in the fact that we both adore book stores. He and I can spend hours upon hours in them. So of course we went into pretty much every book store we saw in London, Dublin, and now Malahide. We then caught the dart train back to Dublin.
Dublin, Ireland: We were back in Dublin again. We made our way back to our B&B to pick up our luggage. Of course there were several book stores that we passed that we HAD to go into. One in particular was a Christian book store where we decided to buy books for the plane. He bought the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and I bought the sister book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge. I really love that Adam isn't just dedicated to our relationship...but he's dedicated to our relationship with God as well. We picked up our luggage and caught the paddy wagon airport shuttle to go hop on our plane.
London, England: We got into Gatwick Airport and immediately caught the train to Canterbury (where my temporary home at the University of Kent is).
Canterbury, England: We got home by taxi around 1:30am...so we basically crashed as soon as we walked in the door. The next day however...we went all around Canterbury. It's a really cute and quaint little cobblestone town. We went into the Canterbury Cathedral, and we saw so many cool things! For example, where Thomas Beckett was murdered, the black princes tomb, and King Henry the IV's tomb, etc. We even took some time to pray in the cathedral...since neither one of us had done that before. It was so nice to have Adam walking around with me.
He was basically like a tour guide because he's a history major and knows WAY more than I do about British history. My only knowledge is Shakespeare based! haha. Even though I had been in the Cathedral before I learned and saw so much more than I did before because I had Adam there with me! I told you I was a lucky girl, didn't I?!
We continued walking around the historical streets, and then we decided to take a tea break. We got some tea at one of my favorite cafes in Canterbury. Then we grabbed some groceries to go home to cook and hang out with my roommates. My roommates instantly loved Adam. I knew they would....A) I've never met anyone who dislikes Adam B) I've told them all about how wonderful and sweet he is for the past 3 and a half months. We hung out with my roommates basically all night just laughing and having a good time. Me, Sarah, and Adam even taught them a little bit about how Americans do things. haha.
Broadstairs, England: The next day Adam, Sarah, and I took the train to a small coastal town in England called Broadstairs. It is so precious! Charles Dickens and some royalty spent/spend their summers there! In Broadstairs we....yeah you guessed it...we went to some book stores. We also went down to the beach, and ate at a delicious restaurant right next to the beach called Wyatt and Jones. This restaurant is Sarah's friend's (that she met in class at Kent) family's restaurant. A few weeks before we came someone found a pearl in one of their oysters! We didn't get so lucky, but we did eat really amazing steaks! We hopped back on the train and made our way back to Canterbury!
The next evening Adam had to leave to go to London City Airport because that is where his flight was leaving from. His plane left so early the next morning that he had to go and stay the night in the airport. Unfortunately, the coach or train to get there was super expensive so I couldn't go with him. Besides, he didn't want me to have to travel back to Canterbury by myself the next day. So I watched him board the coach that night...it was so hard to let him go. He got on the bus and headed out. Luckily Sarah was there to ease the pain, and we went to our favorite mexican place (out of 2) in Canterbury!
Adam had to leave from London, have a 40 minute layover in Switzerland, another 16 hour layover in Canada, and then flew into Charlotte, NC on Easter Day! Then he had to drive all the way back to Knoxville, TN. Whew....he traveled all that way for little ol' me! If that isn't love...then I don't know what is!
I am so blessed, lucky, and thankful that I have such a kind, wonderful, funny, and Godly guy in my life! I hope to never take him for granted. I know we will both remember this trip for the rest of our lives. Taking this adventure with him just makes me so excited for the many more adventures that I hope we get to experience together!
Below is a video I made from our adventures in Ireland!
Thanks again for reading! My next post will be about my last big trip while abroad: Barcelona!
