Isla Mujeres Under Water

 Isla Mujeres has some amazing snorkeling. The water is such a beautiful blue and full of life.

 We found this crazy crab under the boat!

 John didn't even flinch to pick it up. I wanted to eat it, but I don't think we have a pot that big. Do you see the size of that thing? John is a big guy too.

 These jellyfish lay on the bottom upside down. I stirred this guy up from snorkeling over him. I didn't get stung this time but I got a couple little stings later, nothing a little vinegar doesn't sooth a little.

These three cuddlefish were our favorites. They were about 30 feet from the boat and just as colorful as ever. They weren't very scared either. I kept putting my hand up to them so they would light up.

If you missed my video last week,  check it out here.

Isla Mujeres, Mexico

    This trip is all about family and friends. Although I loved my adventure traveling alone, I also enjoy sharing my trips with people I care about.

    Isla Mujeres has a lot to offer. I spent most of my time playing with my adorable neice, goofing off with my sister, and enjoying the sunshine and water. More on the water activities in the next blog. For now let's stay above the sea.

    There is a very touristy side of Isla Mujeres, but that is easy to find, I'm all about showing you what you wouldn't be able to find as easy. For my first little day trip, we headed out to the Tortugranja, or turtle farm. If you have kids or just love to see turtles, this is the place to go. If you continue walking, you will get to see the sharks nearby (or even swim with them). For $3 and a nice bike ride, I was happy I went.

    On the boat, I was eager to help out. Most of my skills are in throwing together food, but when they asked me to change a light bulb 20 meters up at the top of the mast, you bet I was up for it.

 And the view was a thrill.

     On a different day, I headed out to check out the end of the island, or Punta Sur. This is the first place in all of Mexico that the sun hits when it rises. I didn't go see it during sunrise, but I bet it would be special. The entrance is only $3, but we wanted to walk our own path, so off we went, wandering the cliff side and enjoying the views.

      The more south you go on this island, the better the prices will be to eat and do things. Stay away from the tourist traps if at all possible. Our favorite restaurants included La Lomita, Oscars (which is kind of more spendy but if you split it with lots of people for pizza, it's not bad), Mango Cafe (for the jalapeño margaritas and split because it is spendy and you get lots of food), and some hole in the walls by the salina walking from Oscars (sorry that's the best I can do, turn right at the gas station on the corner and look for red chairs).

Overall I enjoyed the Island.

Europe Over All- Lessons Learned, Tips, Budgeting

      I learned so much on my trip. Most of what I learned was about myself, but some of my newfound tips can be shared.
     If you are living in the United States and are looking to do a big trip to Europe, you can do it for cheap. I spent one month and spent less than $1500 including 6 different flights, 4 hotel rooms, and food and doing tours. Your flight will be the spendiest part, but if you are studious about it, you can find great deals, with a few tips and tricks, but be patient.  Actually, that applies to everything on the big trip plans.

Tip #1 Be Patient
       I booked my flight from Boston to Iceland for $79, still under $100 after all taxes and fees were handled. Now, I know what you are thinking, "but I don't live in Boston." This is where the patience and tricky tips come in. I used http://www.travelpirates.com/ to find a cheap flight to Boston. I used my phone to book my Boston to Iceland deal, and my tablet to book from Minneapolis to Boston. Now I still live 7 hours of winter driving to Minneapolis, so that was where my hotel #1 came in. I booked both tickets at once to make sure I have the perfect, 3 hour (don't cut that short! You need every second to get out of security, and back in with your next airline ticket in hand) cut between flights. Now it doesn't always work. My trip back things didn't work out as planned and I didn't make my connecting flight, which takes me to tip #2

Tip #2 Don't Stress Over Every Penny
     So things don't always go as planned, you buy a bottle of booze and it's cheaper at the next place you go, you miss your flight because it got delayed and you have to book a room in a strange city and the cabs are expensive, you get ripped off on your room because you booked it on the weekend. Things go wrong, it will cost you money, but you can't stress over it.


Tip #3 Go With The Flow
     I arrive in Iceland with no plans, I didn't book a hotel, I didn't book a tour, I put my name out there on couchsurfing.com and it all worked out. I did come across a couple of kinks in the road, like when I went in the wrong house and made it in the news. Which leads me to tip #4


Tip #4 Laugh At Yourself
    So I was horribly embarrassed at the huge misunderstanding and apologetic despite the language barrier, but we all make mistakes. It's unhealthy to take it too seriously.


Tip #5 Try To Learn A Little About The Languages Spoken Widely
    This goes along with the laugh at yourself. Even if you don't learn a few phrases, at least learn to read it, it is incredibly hard to get directions to a place if you don't know how to read the word to ask people where it is, or even what you would call the first letter in the word such as when I went snorkeling. Also, people appreciate your effort, even if it just hello, thank you, and goodbye.


Tip #6 Talk To People
     If you are traveling alone, or even with people, talking to people is the best way to get tips on what tours to do (or not to do), the best or cheapest places to stay, and just great places to eat or walk.

Tip #7 Don't Make Plans
    I didn't plan ANYTHING for my trip, and it was the best trip of my life. When you don't make plans, you leave yourself open to do new things with the new people you meet. Because I didn't make plans, I was able to stay up late and go out with a group of 13 new friends I made that day and I got to do all the tours that other people payed hundreds for, for wayyyy cheaper. Which leads me to Tip#8...

Tip #8 Make Your Own "Tours"
    Rent a car, buy a map, and make it your own. When you google the tours, they tell you all  the main stops, but I can not emphasize enough how great it was to do these tours with just a couple people. I saw whole buses full of people arrive at the places we saw alone. We made as many stops as we wanted, we packed our own lunches instead of paying a fortune for the tour box lunches, and we spent only about $20/person.

Tip #9 Make Friends With EVERYONE
     This ties in nicely with tip#6. The more you talk to people, the more you will find that most people, especially travelers, are AWESOME! I really liked couchsurfing for meeting people too. Thru couchsurfing, I was able to make friends with some awesome locals that know the area and people from 6 different countries. Hostels are another great place to make friends, as well as free walking tours. You will make friends for life, you will have friends who you can visit and can visit you, and you will have a blast.

Tip #10 Do What You Want!
     You know what is fantastic about traveling alone? When you get sick of being around people, you can get a hotel. When you want to spend the day in hot springs, do it. If you want to run run run all over the place and never stop until you are asleep, go for it. Traveling alone is a beautiful thing. Check out my video below.

WWOOFing Ireland

      I wanted to try everything when I traveled. I heard about this idea of WWOOFing and decided to give it a shot. The idea is, you work on these organic farms in exchange for rooming, food, and an opportunity to learn. I loved my experience and I feel like I learned so much about the vegan lifestyle (not all wwoofing farms are vegan, but it will say when you look at the individual page, I just thought I'd like to try it out) and a lot about Ireland and living on a farm. She had the two cutest pigs I have ever seen named Rebekah and Legend. I'm pretty sure they think they are dogs. It absolutely cracked me up. She also had a nice pony named Magic.
    I shared in many duties such as cleaning up equipment for making the place off grid, working on her Eco-friendly fence, helping out with her horticulture studies, and feeding the animals. We took a couple nights off and enjoyed Latin dancing in Kilkenny and we both learned a lot about the lifestyle differences from Europe to North America. You should absolutely check out her blog out at http://healingbyfranc.blogspot.ie and listen to her radio show here to learn more about what she knows. You might learn something!

I'm glad I was able to enjoy this opportunity.

Kilkenny Ireland

 Kilkenny is a green, beautiful town with a castle with beautiful grounds and so much to see. I could walk around this place for days!

 I feel like Ireland is so much greener then I could ever imagine!

 I love seeing the buildings nature is taking back. I wish I could've spent more time walking around more abandoned buildings.

 Everywhere you look in town you see old awesome buildings.

 This courtyard is so pretty.

 Even the public library is such a cool old building.

 Can you believe these flowers were in bloom in the winter?!

 Everywhere you look you see beautiful things.

It's hard to resist these streets. Don't forget to get a pint or an Irish coffee at the World's End!

Cliffs of Mohor Tour

 Ok so before I left Dublin I decided to take a tour to the Cliffs of Mohor via Wild Rover Tours.

 On the way, the bus stopped so we could take a picture of Drimnagh Castle, the only castle left in Ireland that still has a moat. I thought that was nice of them.

 The cliffs of Mohor would have been awesome, unfortunatly, the day was crazy foggy. Sometimes that happens, so you just have to go with the flow. I still walked along the edge and barely saw anything.

 I hiked up to Hag's head anyways.

 Since we couldn't see the cliffs, they let us stop and see the ocean below the fog. I thought that was a nice place to just sit and enjoy the view. If you end out here, please don't spend your whole time taking selfies. It is very embarrassing to the rest of the travelers who want the locals to not be completely annoyed by us.

      The burren is a really cool place that inspired JRR Tolken and CS Lewis to write their books. I would like to come back and hike this whole area to get inspired myself.

 Here you see a famine wall. It is really sad how England was having people build these while they starve to death. They separate nothing and lead nowhere.

 We finished our tour in Galway. It was a nice town to walk around.

 The Quay Street Kitchen was a really cool restaurant with awesome lamb and oysters!

Ireland- Malahide Castle and Howth

    Malahide Castle was pretty neat. I went there during a dublinsightseeing.ie tour, which was not my favorite of the tours I had been on, mostly because I didn't have much time to see very much because our group was larger and the castle stop was a bit too short. I still enjoyed it, but it was more of a sampler of a tour I would like to go back on my own and really spend time here later.

 I couldn't get over these grounds, if I get to come back I would love to explore this beautiful green area.

        I like that this castle stayed in the same family for so long that it kept to the original house and castle look on the inside. I'd much rather see that than a museum. I liked having the tour guide tell us about it rather then just reading plaques the whole time. They also had audio recordings in other languages.

      This is the oak room. The entire room is made of hand carved oak, there is a secret room in it that does not have a key to it yet so it will be a new discovery once they get it open. The original room was supposed to be made of ivory, but they decided it was too expensive, so they made it oak and painted it white. The smoke from the fireplace discolored the walls and they thought it was way too bright in there so they painted it black. It's a cool room and it smells so good.

This room had millions of dollars of paintings and italian marble in it.

 I so want that tub.

I just thought this looked awesome.

There even was a farewell peacock on the walls.

Howth is a cool fishing village full of neat shops, beautiful views, and delicious food.

This view is like a dream come true. I liked that I booked this tour for the coast part even if the castle part was a bit rushed because this town was the best part.

I had a fun time with my new friends I made on the free walking tour here.