What a month! I had quite a few fun plans this October that kept me busy. A great weekend trip to the Peak District and a long weekend in Northern Ireland meant that I had a lot of time to explore. Here’s what all I got up to this month!
Where I Went
York, Bakewell, Monsal Head, Ashford-in-the-Water, Youlgreave, Hathersage, Burbage Moor, Horton in Ribblesdale, Pen-y-ghent, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Cushendun, Bushmills, Giant’s Causeway, Dunseverick, Ballintoy, Carrick-a-Rede, Ballycastle, Glenariff Forest Park (United Kingdom)
Best Moments
Having my first (paid!) guest post be published. I wrote this piece for Thrifty Traveler, all about how to save money in Eastern Europe. This is a huge step for me, and a monumental leap forward for turning my blog into a business. I’m so proud of the piece—I’ve been following Thrifty Traveler for years, and genuinely think they’re one of the best resources out there for flight deals in the US. And while it’s not all about the money, getting paid to do something you love is pretty cool. I’ll be a regular contributor for them, so keep your eyes peeled!
An amazing road trip around Northern Ireland. I visited in 2011, on my first trip to the UK with my best friend after my high school graduation. I haven’t been back since and had the best time! Adam and I hired a car and got to explore so much of the Causeway Coast. The scenery was beautiful and I was really impressed that it still seems a bit of an underrated UK destination. Blog posts to come!
Exploring the Giant’s Causeway at sunrise. The highlight of my trip to Northern Ireland, and of the month of October in general, was seeing the Giant’s Causeway. Adam had never been, so we woke up before sunrise and headed out to see it in its morning glory. Besides one photographer guy, we had the entire place to ourselves!!! We walked around the rocks, I took ALL the photos, and then we walked along some of the trails to get some pretty amazing views. It was just incredible to be there (essentially) alone in the stillness of the morning.
A great weekend in the Peak District! For Adam’s birthday, we went to the Peaks for the weekend. I had a blast exploring a lot of new places! We visited some cute villages, went for a good walk, and had a spectacular pub meal to celebrate his birthday. It was a combination of some of my favorite things and the Peak District, which I loved!
My Navigation Course with Pure Outdoor. For my birthday last month, Adam got me a Navigation Course for this October with a company called Pure Outdoor. The course was so much fun, and I learned a lot! It was a great way to learn new skills and gain a whole lot more confidence with hiking routes. I’ll be writing a full blog post on this soon, but I would highly recommend the course!
Hiking Pen-y-ghent. Another great walk I did this October was the hike up Pen-y-ghent in the Yorkshire Dales. Pen-y-ghent is one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, along with Ingleborough and Whernside, which are the highest three peaks in Yorkshire. Pen-y-ghent is surrounded by beautiful scenery, and the weather just about held out for us (it started raining as soon as we got in the car). It was a great way to get outside and get outdoors on one of my days off!
(Relatively) good news about Adam’s ankles! You might remember that Adam was in a pretty serious car crash in January and broke his leg and his ankle. He’s been struggling with ankle pain for months now, and finally was able to self-refer to a physical therapist. (He was never given any physical therapy after the surgery/recovery period??) While the issues aren’t fixed, ultimately he has a good plan for repairing some of the damage done and (hopefully) being able to do the things he enjoys without pain. It’s a big relief.
Worst Moments
A very stressful and busy few days of work. October will generally be the busiest time of the year for my work, and this year it was condensed into about three days of chaos. Because of the exhaustion from those shifts and talking literally non-stop for about 8 hours every single day, I started to get really sick from it all. I started losing my voice and genuinely felt wrecked. Luckily, I was able to combat it by going to bed super early, drinking a load of orange juice, and having a pretty quiet rest of the month.
There weren’t very many other bad moments this month, and for that I’m very grateful.
Posts Published
I’m still trying to smash out all of my content from my trip to the Balkans this summer, and catch up with a lot of older posts too. My goal was to publish at least 8 posts this month (that’s twice a week), and I’m happy to say I did just over that! Here are the posts I published this October.
How To Visit Gracinica As A Half-Day Trip From Pristina
Hiking Snowdon: The Highest Mountain In Wales
A Guide To Exploring Lake Ohrid In North Macedonia
York To Bishopthorpe: A Perfect Short Walk From York
The 8 Best Bars In Tirana, Albania
3 Years Of Living In England: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Exploring Wharfedale: Hiking From Grassington To Hebden In The Yorkshire Dales
13 Things You Must See In Tirana, Albania
Visiting Berat As A Daytrip From Tirana
Instagram Top 3
These were my most popular photos on Instagram from the month!
Coming Up In November
November will be pretty hectic! I’ve started the month on my trip to Northern Ireland, rounding out the weekend before heading back to the UK. One of my best friends is visiting for a few days the first week of November, which I can’t wait for! Then I’m headed to Finland for a week to see another one of my best friends (I last saw her in Zambia in 2016!)—I’ll be in Oulu and Rovaniemi. The rest of the month will be pretty laid back as I try to recover from the busy times of the first few weeks!
What are your plans for November? Share in the comments!
