Being on the road for two weeks, I have come to know American hotels. I have always loved hotels. I might not be revered like those who rough it and sleep outside in tents, but I have a deep appreciation for the simple luxuries the American hotel provides.   When you are on the road all day, stopping to sightsee, your level of fatigue skyrockets from the normal day at home. The hotel should provide respite. It should be a break so that you can recharge and begin the next day of traveling. For those not from the United States, you might not be used to some of the simple luxuries the American Continue Reading

I was attempting to kill some time in Ireland. The area I had selected to stay in didn’t have a wealth of attractions. I had read about a beach nearby I could drive to, along with an intense mountain thoroughfare. I had thought I would be killing time, but in reality I was being somewhat adventurous. It was the first time I shut off the GPS and decided to just go where the road would take me, not where some squawking box told me to go. I ultimately arrived to a deserted beach, or so I thought. The beach was set up in such a fashion that you had to walk several minutes to reach the water. I Continue Reading

For my birthday, they hand me a big slice of lasagna and a bejeweled tiny picture frame, something I would have loved at 14 years old. Having celebrated very few birthdays away from home, in that Florence apartment, home didn’t seem so far off. Over a year later, I walk into a café in Clifden, Ireland. As the chatty owner tells me about the state of Ireland, of its troubles and triumphs, she asks me how long I am here. I say I’m “just visiting”, and with that I’m gone, out of her life and seemingly Ireland’s in a few days time. These two travel scenarios could not be more different. In Continue Reading

I was just days away from going home after my first time trying solo travel. I had a certain confidence I didn’t have when I left Colorado. I managed to drive all the way around Ireland by myself, navigating solely on roads that should really be called sidewalks. I talked to strangers. I drank Guinness. My Ireland trip was a success in all regards until I hit Belfast. I checked into my guesthouse, right near Queen’s University. I was already impressed by Belfast. I had driven through years ago with family, but I was more preoccupied by men with machines guns and barbed wire than getting a Continue Reading

Sometimes, it is not the destinations we remember, but how we arrived. As travelers, we are always so preoccupied with destinations. I want to go here. I have to see this and that. However, I didn’t fall in love with destinations at a young age. I feel in love with traveling to them. My first memories of traveling are in the back of a blue suburban. Sometimes under the cover of night, my four other brothers and sisters and I would pile into this monster of a vehicle and head out where our parents had planned for us to go. From exploring the U.S. north, east, south and west, road trips were Continue Reading

I sit in a dark pub sipping Smithwicks as I receive a few stares. As a woman traveling alone, walking into a pub in Ireland is not the easiest thing for me to do. I believe it is the idea of wanting to involve myself in pub culture, but at the same time I don’t want to attract creeps thinking I am alone for a reason. I walk into this pub in Doolin, Ireland, perhaps incredibly self-aware and assured, but I fumble. I watch two local twenty-somethings giggle at me as I ask if I can sit anywhere. Of course you can, you pub novice fool. It’s a pub, not a five-star restaurant. I head for a table Continue Reading

From a young age, I always had something to say. Even at 2 years old, I changed my name and that was that. I was no longer Suzanne, but Suzy. When my words go quiet and I have no comment, no suggestion, no request, I know it is just a block of some kind. This too shall pass and I will be filled with words again. Lately, not only have my words grown quiet, but also my ideas on travel have silenced. After returning from my first complete solo trip to Ireland, I was left empty. It wasn’t that the trip deflated me or left me uninspired. I just couldn’t see past this roadblock. Much like Continue Reading