dublin to Royal Portrush

Happy Thursday! 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, paddle boarding, 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, 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 - “a dance lesson in Dublin” - you can click here to read about an interesting experience I had with one of my classmates from The Lir Academy. Otherwise, let’s continue our travel adventures, taking a break from the girls’ road trip, and head back to Northern Ireland for The Open!

When I lived in Dublin, I was excited to learn that The 148th Open Championship was going to be held at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland. I splurged and bought myself a ticket for Sunday’s final round, eagerly awaited my pass in the post, and planned my day trip. Getting to The Open was quite a process. Because I needed to take a bus to Belfast in order to take the earliest train to Portush, my morning started at 2 AM. I woke up, showered, had a quick breakfast, and walked my way over to the bus stop that I usually took to get to Dublin airport and waited patiently for the 3 AM Aircoach. When it came, I was one of only a handful of people on it. We rode quietly to Dublin Airport where I transferred onto a different bus in order to get to Belfast. Having taken many buses to Belfast at this point in my time living in Ireland, I picked a seat and passed out for the duration. When I woke up, I was pleased to know I was very close to the necessary train station. I walked over with about 45 minutes to spare before the 6 AM train’s departure and could see it waiting to load its passengers. When I got to the train terminal, it was packed. Most people had pre-purchased their tickets, but I hadn’t, so a small inkling of panic set in. I waited patiently to see what the ticketers would say, and since they’d noticed I’d been there 45 minutes early, I received priority for the non-ticketed. I luckily made it onto the train, found myself a comfy seat, and started the ~2 hour train ride to Portrush. I napped for the majority of the 2 hours, knowing that I’d have a long day ahead and that I’d get to see the countryside through the window on the train ride home.

And to read about the amazing time I had drenched in the pouring rain at The Open, tune in for tomorrow’s post! 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.

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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):