THE QUINN'S FRENCH ODYSSEY

As I lie here on a plush bed on a sunny Sunday afternoon in a boutique hotel in the south of France, pretty shuttered window ajar, a cool summer breeze caressing my recently sun-beaten skin, and the bells of a nearby medieval church sounding a forte, disjointed chime, I reflect on my past week here. And I suddenly feel what I haven’t felt in a long time: inspiration. I immediately whip out my laptop from my backpack. The slick material feels unnaturally cold in my hands despite the heat of the afternoon, perhaps from being left undisturbed for a whole seven days. I rapidly input my password and click on a few things. Eleven months. That’s how much time has elapsed since I last posted any content. My hiatus from blogging, it seems, was about to come to an end. You must be wondering where I am exactly. Or maybe you follow me on Instagram and you already have an idea. Regardless, let me begin…

A HIDDEN GEM

Between Loughshinny and Rush in North Dublin lies a secluded secret: Drumanagh Promontory. The area is a small peninsula surrounded by the Irish Sea on three sides and features a 19th-century Martello tower. It is an important archaeological site in which several Roman artefacts have been found and it's of huge significance in terms of Ireland's relationship with the Roman world. Fingal County Council acquired the site for €1 million in 2016 in hopes to preserve the place and protect it from vandalism. But guess what? Barely anyone actually knows about it.

GOODBYE, NEW YORK.

Hey guys!

So this may come as a shock to some, but I have decided that on the 1st of May, I'm flying back home to Dublin for good. For those of you who don't know, I have been living in New York City since December on the Graduate Visa. The past few months have been equal measures of good and bad, and I will probably talk about this in a bit more detail in a future post. However, New York still remains my favourite city and I will always be drawn to it.

TOP 7 SPOTS IN NYC FOR THE PERFECT INSTAGRAM SHOT

This week I had my friends Barbara and Rachel visiting me from Ireland. I can't tell you how nice it was to see two familiar faces! While I'm loving living out here, it can also be incredibly tough and lonely, at least while I settle in (more on this in later blog posts). Seeing them was just what I needed to nurse my homesickness and also to make me fall in love with NYC again by doing some sightseeing with them. I have compiled a list of what I think are the BEST spots for the perfect shot for the gram and I hope this may help some of you who are looking to go to New York and are feeling a bit overwhelmed about where to start.

I MOVED TO NEW YORK!

Hello there! It's definitely been a while since my last post and I do apologise for that. Today marks 10 days since I've moved to New York which is crazy to think. It feels like I've been here for way longer than that. I thought about which kind of post I wanted to do first, and I think the most appropriate one for the moment is to tell you how to move to New York and how I did it. I could tell you my thoughts on the city, but I feel 10 days is still a bit premature to form proper opinions and I'm here for a whole year, so there will be blog posts galore in which I will share all of that!

A TRIP TO THE NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS

Hello there, it's been a while! I've been consciously trying to spend a little less time on the internet and trying to read more so apologies for the long delay since my previous blog post, which you can find here.

SOUTHEAST ASIA PART III: SINGAPORE

Hello there,

I hope you're all having a luverly Sunday and aren't too hungover from Longitude. This is my final blog post of my trip to Southeast Asia and if you've managed to stick around to read them all, I salute you!

SOUTHEAST ASIA PART II : MALAYSIA

Hello again :) thank you all for the love on last week's post, much appreciated! Our next destination on our journey through Southeast Asia was Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I have always wanted to visit this amazing city. Between the famous and impressive Petronas Towers, the world renown street food and the clashes of different cultures, Malaysia is definitely a unique country within Southeast Asia. 

SOUTHEAST ASIA PART I : THAILAND

Hello there blog, it's been a while! So myself and my bestie Barbara had been talking about a trip to Southeast Asia for quite some time now, and in the past few months, we started to finalise the locations. We would start off in Thailand, in Bangkok for 2 nights, then move on to Koh Samui for the week. Then we would jet off to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and finish the journey in Singapore. The duration of the whole trip was three weeks, because we both work, but it was definitely enough to get a taste of Asia, and we definitely want to go back! With so many countries to see, I took far too many pictures so I'm going to split the blog posts by country, starting off with Thailand.

LOUGH ENNELL | WESTMEATH

Holla :)

Hope you're all enjoying the 5 days of glorious Irish summer! Supposedly tomorrow is the last day of it so have to make the best of it.

NORTHERN IRELAND WEEKEND ESCAPE

Happy May Day/Labour Day everyone! 

I don't know about you but I'm really starting to get used to bank holidays and four day weeks...

THE GOODNESS OF GLENDALOUGH

Ah. Wednesday, the midweek slump...

You're half way through the week and you're not feeling too positive about things and are stressed out with work or life in general. The weekend still feels like it's ages away... One way (and in my opinion the best way) to combat this is to go outside.

AMSTERDAM ADVENTURES!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

My second trip of the year was to the lovely and crazy city of Amsterdam. A couple of us (Barbara, Lisa and Mary) went over to celebrate Barbara's birthday, around the weekend of St Patrick's Day. This has been my second time travelling with Barbara and Lisa on St Patrick's Day (flashback to Valencia in 2014 below); we have a tradition of leaving the country every year around this time.

NEW YORK | A CHILDHOOD DREAM

Hello Again!

I know it's only been a day since my previous and first post, but I thought I might as well do another one seeing as I'm off today for Holy Monday. On that note, Happy Easter everyone! Hope you're having a chilled time at home with family & friends, that's what this season is all about.