This was taken some time in July on my first and only visit to Central Park. I remember it has been scorching hot and the park was packed with tourists and locals alike. One thing I noticed was the amount of people playing the Pokemon Go app. The contrasts stuck out to me the most.. how Central park itself looked like a wildlife reserve, a huge landscape of green and rocky hills. Then if you looked behind you all that was seen was towering buildings and you could hear the familar noises of New York, beeping cars and concrete. Megan and I only saw less than ten percent of the park but I can see why it has been the location of many scenes in films. This is the place where people come to do early morning yoga. Visiting it seems almost like a rite of passage to tourists yet for some New Yorkers this is their local park. That's what intrigues me. Some day I will spend more time in this place.


The sky is just phenomenal in this photo, one of my favourite things to photograph is the sky at different times. Be it nightime, dusk or the sun's rays lighting up the blue sky. This beach is Robert Moses Beach,  a beautiful location near Fire Island. This beach is absolutely heavenly during the day when the sun lights up the pale sand. However.. my favourite time has to be when the beach is near deserted, the sun is beginning to set and all you can hear is the crashing of the waves against the shore. I went once with someone, just the two of us and it was honestly a really lovely experience, talking about growing up; how we had grown up on opposite sides of the world and had extremely different childhoods. I think I'll always remember it. One of the great things about Long Island is the fact that the sea is never too far away for me, someone who feels at peace by the ocean.


One of the few museums we got to see in New York. Despite living 45 minutes from NYC it is actually hard to get to see all you want to visit in a few hours every Sunday. My wish to visit the Museum of Moving Images hasn't been fulfilled. The Met or The Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of our stops. What a building. It was gigantic and again myself, Patrick and Megan only saw a small piece of it. But what we saw was just intriguing, educational and beautiful all at once. We passed through the Ancient Egyptian section, Modern Art section, Photography section, Met Gala Fashion section and the Byzantine section. So many priceless artefacts were on display.. including an Egyptian tomb. I kept the map of the Museum for my scrapbook. My brain honestly hurt from trying to take in all the beautiful sights. But I also felt so inspired. The excellent thing is that this museum is suggested donation so you can pay as much as you can afford to enter the museum. My friends and I were lucky as the fact that we were college students meant that our suggested donation was a reasonable $12 so we decided to pay in full.


An area within the Met. When we stepped into this room I was immediately awestruck. There were so many glass windows, allowing the natural light to shine in. It was amazing to see the different art displays. Humans are visual beings so if I had to pick my favourite section from the exhibitions that I got the opportunity to visit it would be this one. I think we need to appreciate more just how phenomenal these artworks are, some of them centuries old. These artists were living, breathing people and these works were created in times where the materials we have available today were not in existence. I don't lose my sense of wonder for these things because it shows us a world that we can never experience.


One thing that strikes me about America on a daily basis is how patriotic its citizens are. An American flag adorns every house, the pledge was said on a daily basis in the camp that I worked at. The American flag symbolises so much. The pledge speaks of liberty - freedom of all. The America of today is a very interesting place. I can't help thinking as an outsider.. how so many Americans are persecuted for being themselves -members of the LGBTQ community, the African American community. These people are killed for being who they are.. in the land of the free. This is what I think about every time I see an American flag. I think of my own country's flag. I often see it in this country and it invokes such a sense of pride in me. So many Americans that I have met have Irish ancestry and speak of wanting to visit my beautiful little country. The American flag is a symbol of a nation that can and should be better.


This is such a familiar sight to me now. I have spent many an afternoon lying on a recliner watching the water ripple in the wind. I am very lucky to live in a beautiful house while I'm in America. I come out to this place when I want to relax and when I want to think alone. Lately I've just been giving too many chances to people who don't deserve it and I'm trying really hard to maintain a positive attitude about life. I think I am stuck in a bit of a rut but I am going back to Europe soon and that thought alone makes me smile. There's something terrifying and amazing about being left alone with your thoughts. It's important to train your mind to be positive and I spend a lot of time outside in this spot listening to music that makes me happy, just thinking.

You can't help but think.. COLOUR when you see this. I am obsessed with colours. The shade of someone's eyes.. the colours of the sky. Every so often I like to remind myself how beautiful the world around me is. I look up and see the blue sky above me... the brightest blue. Blue is a colour that remains special to me. Each person here on earth brings their own colours to the world.. no two colours are alike. It's easy to get lost in the every day and not appreciate the world around you. The brightest art on a building in New York city can capture my attention.. or the grey limestone of the Burren back home in my lovely Ireland. People see colours in a different way. I really want myself to focus on the brighter colours... I want to make a conscious effort to do so.

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Thanks so much for reading! If you managed to get the whole through I salute you. This was a rambly blog and an insight into how my brain works. I am such a visual person.. despite being devoted to words and I do appreciate every bit of support on this little blog. Sometimes I forget why I write this blog in the first place... but I think.. if someone gets some sort of enjoyment from this then I am happy. Someone told me recently that I was cursed with a poet's mind. Blessed or cursed I don't know. Thanks so much again :)

There's something incredibly sexy about this song, but I can listen to it while getting ready for a party atmosphere or when I want to feel good about myself. I used to think of one person in particular when I listened to it, now that person has changed and I am shocked. The beat is great, Selena's voice is breathy, the lyrics are sensual. Overall the song is about feeling good. I really think Selena's voice has improved as time has gone on and she has experimented with her music sound. I think she should stick with this type of music. 

I have been in America for over forty days. Last week I visited New York City for the fourth time.
Instead of doing a generic travel post talking about my visit to the 9/11 Memorial and walking across Brooklyn Bridge, I've decided to use these photos and talk about how making the move to the US for the summer has really made me open my mind. You have no idea how absolutely terrified, reluctant and anxious I was about the idea of spending three months - a quarter of a year no less - on the other side of the world. It had been at least five months planning to get to the point that I was able to legally live and work in the US. Do you think I had mentally planned for the move? Absolutely not.

The nerves hit me when my parents said good bye to me in Shannon Airport. I was actually leaving my safe place of green fields, familiar faces and most of the people I loved best. Could I manage it? What if I hated everything? I knew my blog would benefit from the move, having new and exciting places to share with you all. I was excited of the prospect of creating unforgettable memories. But I was so afraid. My fear was that this summer would be a repeat of last year when I WASTED it, feeling absolutely disgusting about myself. I am my own worst enemy, it wasn't healthy. So what if I went to America and did not let myself truly enjoy the experience?

9/11 Memorial Fountain

Piece of steel from the zone the plane hit in the North Tower

Something I have noticed is that I have well and truly left my comfort zone behind. This is a scary and thrilling thought. I certainly am not the same person that stepped on to the plane just over forty days ago. From time to time I sit and marvel at how my opinions of things have changed, just by moving to a different environment and immersing myself in new cultures. It really astounds me.

Megan and I - for some strange reason- were under the impression that we would not make any friends during this three month long trip. We laugh hysterically about it now because we were so so wrong. On day two of starting work in country club Southward Ho I found myself on a beach with a bunch of new people, all of whom were interested in interacting with us and bombarded us with questions on my home country. I am now terrified of leaving these people behind when I leave.

I now have memories of talking about love at two o' clock in the morning during a swim outside while rain poured down around me, dancing the tango badly to Spanish music and drives to lighthouses in the dead of night. I told myself that I would stay away from any sort of wild summer romantic thing - but Eilís' life never goes exactly how she plans it. And that is one thing that surprises me most. I thought I knew what I was drawn to... but I find myself in uncharted territory.

Near the World Trade Centre

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

I can say with some certainty this is mostly down to the fact that I hear it a lot of the time, but this is 
music that I would never have listened to before. What music do you mean? Spanish club - esque music, hip hop.. rap even? I have no idea why, but I have started to enjoy this. A lot of my co-workers come from countries such as Belize, El Salvador, Peru and other places that I have been nowhere near to. These co-workers are now friends, but it has been amazing to get some insight into their music, their language and culture. I still listen to my electronic, rock, folk, acoustic familiarity, but my goodness has my taste expanded. 

I suddenly have an interest in learning the Spanish language, despite having told people countless times that I had no inclination to start learning Español whatsoever. So I have enlisted the help of those whose mother tongue is Spanish to teach me bits and pieces of this lyrical and beautiful language. As you can expect I only know words at present and the odd phrase. Such as : sky, one, but, my blog's name, how is everything, and funnily enough, cookie. It is honestly such a beautiful language and I love hearing it being spoken, despite not knowing the majority of what is being said. Learning American slang has been fascinating too. Examples such as "lit, dead-ass, turnt" etc. I am also saying words like "kid" and "store". My pronunciation of the word "what" has changed. All things I swore I would not do or take on. But I don't care and that's what surprises me. 



I cannot tell you that I know what my aim in life, or pretend that I understood why my life is turning out the way it is, but I know for sure that I am learning so much. Lyrics from an my favourite artist who means so much to me are :

There are many stores on the island, ones that I visited were touristy, yet there were interesting vintage and antique items on sale. There were beautiful driftwood artworks on display and it really added to the seaside atmosphere of the whole island. We ate in Michael's Ristorante and Pizzera, it was absolutely delicious. They bake fresh pizza of every flavour imaginable and you can bet that the pizza slices were huge.

The ferry was such a pleasant trip. Our tickets cost $19 for a round trip (return trip) and it took about fifteen to twenty minutes from the mainland to the island. The weather was absolutely stunning. Even if you are exploring New York city on your holidays I would highly recommend travelling out to Bay Shore to visit the island. The bay was full of people canoeing, travelling on speed boats and jetting across the water in jetskis.  There really is something on the island to suit everyone's interest.




The town of Ocean beach is gorgeous. All the houses are tightly packed together yet it doesn't give off a cluttered feel. The architecture is beautiful as the houses are all so unique, boasting high balconies, verandas and porches. I can only imagine what the scene will be like tonight on Fire Island for the 4th of July. The gardens of each house have different types of sculptures, artwork and designed pieces relating to the sea and nature. It was fascinating to see. There were children selling painted sea shells for $1, stalls selling different types of tie dyed clothes. Some shops were selling beautiful clothes so if you're looking to do a little bit of shopping there is actually places available.



We went to the island very early in the morning, so the sun wasn't high in the sky. However the beach was gorgeous. The water was actually icy green blue and looked heavenly. Just to let you know though, the beach does not also people to use bicycles, drink or eat to minimise the damage to the natural area. The heat soon became too warm for us Irish people so Megan and I took to the town to get some air conditioning and sample some of the local products.



As I said before there were beautiful displays of artwork throughout the down. So for a photography obsessed person like me it was heaven. People proved to be really innovative and experimental with the materials used in created their art. So I really enjoyed looking at it, so much so that I went out of my way to take this photo. If you're interested in art and architecture, Fire Island is the place for you.
I met an interior designer since we've come to America and he has shown great examples of how inventive people have been to decorate their homes on the island.


For those who may want to actually spend time on the island, as in live over there for a period of time, there are plenty of hotels and accommodation available. I did a little bit of research on them and there are hotels, cottages and an assortment of guest houses available. You can find those here.
As for getting around Fire Island, the only cars available are that of the Fire Department and the local police. You can avail of the many bike rental schemes on the island let me tell there is great selection of the bikes there. Tourists can also rent boats so that they can explore the bay around the island.

There is plenty night life available on both parts of Fire Island. Fire Island is home to a huge cultural scene and the gay nightlife is in abundance. There are amazing clubs on the two parts of the island that you can take the opportunity to explore if you're of age. 

I hope you've enjoyed this post, I really do think Fire Island is a must see visit if you're in the New York area.

Surprisingly one of my favourite trailers in this list is animated which is interesting. I don't think I usually go for animated films unless they have a quirk that catches my eye. As I've said in countless blog posts I am so fussy when it comes to liking films. But these ones caught my eye for a reason.
These are films that I am interested in so perhaps you'll have different opinions.