IRELAND ROADTRIP GUIDE

After a really short flight from Iceland to Ireland we had finally landed in Dublin the start to our crazy week and a half in Ireland. Honestly I hadn’t heard or seen much about this beautiful country until a few months before when I found cheap tickets out of Iceland to here.

So when we first booked our tickets we knew we wanted to stay in the heart of Dublin for our first night to get the true Irish experience. We did just that by staying at Abbey Court Hostel - literally walking distance from everything. Touring all the bars, shops and cafes I realized one day in the city isn’t enough. There’s so much to see. After about 6 hours lost in the streets we got back to our hostel just in time for the pub crawl.

Travel GuidesNiki HerringJuly 27, 2019irelandComment

6 YEARS OF DREAMING AND I FINALLY MADE IT

“My confession is I fall in love with so many places I’m always half broken-hearted by goodbyes. And I don’t believe in non-attachment. There’s no passion inside of that. I believe in burning, in longing. And I believe we leave tiny pieces of ourselves in every place we’ve loved.”

Photo DiariesNiki HerringJuly 25, 2019iceland Comments

I LEFT MY HEART IN ICELAND

It’s crazy how at one point I had only seen photos and videos of all the beautiful places I was just now running through. Wanting to be there and making my own memories and photos.. And then 6 years later I made it happen. It all felt like a blink of an eye but when my eyes shut in between - it was a dream. Iceland has this crazy way of making you feel like you’re running through your own imagination. Where the coast meets mountains around every corner, being able to stand at the foot of a glacier casually, seeing waterfalls that spray a mist on you from the second you step foot out of your car.

Iceland is just a crazy vast dreamland of every nature scene you could ever come up with.

Travel GuidesNiki HerringJuly 23, 2019iceland Comments

THE TRIP I'LL LOOK BACK ON FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?”

Photo DiariesNiki HerringJuly 19, 2019thailand Comment

IT FEELS SO SCARY GETTING OLD..

It was 11PM and I could feel the warm humid air of Thailand kiss my cheeks as a slight breeze came through the nighttime

The sound of tokay geckos still echo in the back of my mind as I reflect on that night..

I was just laying there taking it all in..

I hit shuffle on my music and the first song to come on was Ribs by Lorde. A song I haven’t heard in years.. You know the one right?

I can feel the same goosebumps right now as I did in that moment as the song started to pick up.

As it changed from each verse.. until the goosebumps turned into slow rolling tears..

LifeNiki HerringJuly 14, 2019thailandComment

CELEBRATING SONGKRAN IN THAILAND

Songkran.. The most cultural experience I’ve probably ever had. The moment I had been talking about my whole life without even knowing it.

“I don’t want to go to college - I believe there’s so much more to witness and learn in life by just stepping out into it”

That would always be my answer on why I don’t want to go to college. How there’s so much to experience in the world and so much to learn it’s all right in front of us. You just have to immerse yourself into a different world than you’ve known, a complete new place and a complete new surrounding of people/scenes.

LifeNiki HerringJune 28, 2019 Comment

CHEOW LAN LAKE - A DREAM OR REALITY

I just really felt myself getting lost here and feeling small.

Like I didn’t matter in that moment of time, because the only thing that mattered was what was right in front of me and the time I had with it.

I just was so appreciative of life this day and kept holding on to every little moment - I didn’t want to let it go.

Travel GuidesNiki HerringJune 22, 2019thailandComment

CANOEING THROUGH KHAO SOK NP

Khao Sok National Park was the time of Thailand when I knew I had truly fallen in love, like I ripped a piece of my heart to leave here forever. Probably because it was halfway through my time in this beautiful country and it seemed more real to me that I was there. Probably because it’s the furthest I’ve ever felt away from home and the rest of the world.. Khao Sok just was the true reason for my loving of Thailand. We went from beaches and island hopping to a place that felt like Jurassic park.

My TripsNiki HerringJune 9, 2019thailand Comment

KO LANTA - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THAILAND

Once I left Krabi I was honestly scared.. Scared to not have moments like the ones I just did, scared that transportation would be hard to find, scared I would get sick of island life. But everything I was once scared of just turned into everything I loved about Ko Lanta.

Ko Lanta is such a quiet island and so small you can get from one side to the other within probably 2 hours - that’s if you’re not making any stops.

Travel GuidesNiki HerringJune 5, 2019thailandComment

Life

LIKE WE WERE YOUNG AGAIN.

I’ve felt like more childlike wonder these past 2 months than I did all of my last year total. You see, I always have a young spirit and I love spontaneity, adventure, always being on the go, you name it. But with that, also comes an old soul in me; the worrying and figuring out of the future. I sometimes forget the slow down period. The period of looking around and taking in everything that this moment offers. I forget to scream to the world just how happy I am when I feel like it, to laugh out loud to the point someone could mistake it for a dying seal, to cry when I feel something. Sometimes I just forget to really live. Like how we did when we were young.

A YEAR OF LESSONS

Here we are again. End of December looking back at everything that happened throughout this whole year, that bittersweet reflection of everything you’ve done throughout the past 365 days. That sort of painful sit down of looking back knowing it’s about to be nothing but memories in the past. Knowing all those moments were literally once in a lifetime. It’s so bittersweet.

WINTERTIME BLUES.

Some days are better than others.. I’m sure if you suffer with depression or anxiety like I do, you know that sometimes you’re on top of the world and it feels like you could scream to it just how happy you are and how great life is.. Sometimes the world feels like it’s crushing down on you instead. To a point you just want it to suffocate you, to take away the uninvited thoughts and feelings. Right now it feels a lot like being suffocated.