Turbulence Expected

The Beautiful Mess of Travel: South of France & Dublin

• Meagan Inafuku and Jacq Girling • Season 1 • Episode 3

Share episode

Meagan and Jacquelyn recount their adventures and misadventures through the South of France and Dublin, from nearly capsizing in a tiny boat among massive yachts to finding paradise in the blue waters of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

• Renting a small boat in the South of France becomes a near-death experience when navigating between giant yachts and a cruise ship
• Discovering jellyfish swarms prevents swimming after finally anchoring the boat
• A breathtaking coastal hike turns into a dehydration before finding salvation at a Four Seasons resort
• Villefranche-sur-Mer emerges as a French Riviera highlight with its perfect beaches and spontaneous swimming
• A sewage situation at a Dublin hotel leads to a last-minute change with a better location
• Temple Bar delivers the quintessential Irish pub experience despite being considered touristy
• Trinity College Library provides a magical literary experience
• The unexpected lessons about travel pressure and tourist guilt while being a digital nomad

Whether you're planning your own European adventure or just living vicariously through others, this episode offers both practical travel wisdom and the reassurance that even when things go sideways, they make the best stories. So grab your comfiest chair, your favorite drink, and unpack this turbulent journey with us!

Recommendations mentioned in this episode:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlifeandtravel

Meagan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meagan_inafuku

Jacquelyn's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacqgirling

Meagan:

Hi everyone. I'm Meagan

Jacquelyn:

and I'm Jacquelyn.

Meagan:

Welcome to Turbulence Expected, where we unpack our trauma for your entertainment.

Jacquelyn:

Think of this like a Friday night on the couch with your new best friends. We're swapping wild travel stories, oversharing life's chaos and laughing our way through the turbulence of real life.

Meagan:

And today we're going to be talking about our best and worst moments in the south of France and Dublin.

Jacquelyn:

If it's your first time listening or you're listening in again today, we are so happy to have you here hanging out with us. This is our third podcast and we've had so much fun doing the last two episodes.

Meagan:

Yeah, and before we jump in to where we're going here, I just want to apologize to everybody who was listening to the last podcast. If you heard my poopapalooza story, so yeah, sorry about that, but I hope you enjoyed it and it brought you some good entertainment.

Jacquelyn:

If you haven't listened to it, go listen to it, because it's quite a story.

Meagan:

Yeah, it's a shameless plug right here telling you to go back there. A very shameful plug actually.

Jacquelyn:

Today we're going to start off with our best and worst moments of south of France, which was such an amazing place.

Meagan:

Yeah, the south of France is the kind of place where life kind of slows down. The pace feels like, I'd say, like a Sunday afternoon. Yeah, people are usually just relaxing by the beach, sipping on wine, having espressos, by slow pace cafes. It's just. It's a good city.

Jacquelyn:

It really is

Meagan:

But we know why you're here and you really want to hear the best, but also the worst.

Jacquelyn:

The worst for sure.

Meagan:

Of any travel situation is going to have both.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, we like to keep it real

Meagan:

Yeah we like to keep it real and we usually tee up with the worst story so we're going to do that.

Jacquelyn:

Let's start it off. Okay. So we have a couple of kind of worst things.

Meagan:

We spent four weeks here.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, we did, we spent some time there.

Meagan:

We got our fair share.

Jacquelyn:

So we'll start it off with the worst moment being the boat ride, the boat ride yeah, so let me give you a little bit of backstory.

Meagan:

Well, first I'm happy to be here today with you, because there was a chance after that boat ride or during the boat ride, where we may not be here, to tell this story.

Jacquelyn:

That's very true, so the boat ride. Let me give you some context here. So we decide to randomly take a boat ride and there's this town, which we will get into more, called Villefranche-sur-Mer, beautiful, wonderful town, which that's in our best. So I'll wait to tell you all those details. But we decide to take a boat from there and you can you know, it's like a couple hours you can rent the boat kind of thing. It's just like a typical boat rental. So we decide, oh my god, how fun.

Meagan:

We've totally done this in Austin Texas.

Meagan:

They've got a great lake there and we've rented lots of boats

Jacquelyn:

And Meagan has driven boats quite a bit, I have not, but she has and she has pretty good experience.

Meagan:

I grew up on the lake, so I was driving boats before I had a license.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so we felt very equipped.

Meagan:

We did.

Jacquelyn:

So we rent this.

Meagan:

But this is the Mediterranean

Jacquelyn:

So we rent this boat that was so small and not very much horsepower. I don't remember

Meagan:

No, 35 miles per hour

Jacquelyn:

That's right, that's right.

Meagan:

Which we thought, if they turned the throttle down to being only 35 miles per hour, we thought, well then it must be okay.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, we're like that's the norm, that's fine. It maybe should have, could have been, I don't really know, but it didn't work out for us. So so we get the boat we decide to, you know, take off and to. Okay, let me back up a little bit. Our goal here was to take the boat around to, and I can't even remember the name. Oh yeah, Jean Cap.

Meagan:

Gene Cap for it.

Jacquelyn:

But there was. There's this great little spot where you can dock your boat, you can get off, you can go for a swim and they even have like a restaurant over there and stuff. But it's actually like, really it's much easier to get there by boat. So, for more context, you have to drive the boat around this big I mean it was a big cliff. Our plan was to go around the cliff and that's on the other side. According to Google Maps would be where we wanted to go.

Meagan:

We just didn't know how long it was going to be, like we were thinking around the corner. It was like around the corner, it was a long way around. It was so long.

Jacquelyn:

So we, you know we get to kind of the tip of the cliff, that we were going to turn the corner and we are by huge yachts.

Meagan:

Oh yeah, everyone there had yachts. Okay, let me just say this too at one point we saw this massive yacht where jet skis. It was like little garages on the yacht and jet skis were coming out of them.

Meagan:

I think it was like three and they were jet skiing around and then they get back on the yacht with their jet skis. I saw one with a basketball goal. Basketball on it. I'm pretty sure someone had a French bakery on one of those yachts. It was crazy, but this is pretty cool. So Jacq saw the name of one of the yachts and it ended up being Steven Spielberg's yacht. Well, he sold it. Yeah, I think it was not too long before, a couple of years ago or something at this point.

Meagan:

But that'll just tell you how big these yachts were, like if Steven Spielberg once owned this yacht, you can imagine how big it was.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, and that's, and it was so big that that's why I Googled it, because I was like, oh my goodness, like that has to be someone famous, right? And sure enough, it was at one point.

Meagan:

So now you have some reference. It's us with our 35 mile per hour tiny boat next to Steven Spielberg huge, massive yachts.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so it was creating these huge wakes that made us just bob around in the boat and feel like it was wild.

Meagan:

So at this point we're just going back and forth Like we're fighting for our life in this boat. I was really afraid.

Jacquelyn:

I was very scared.

Meagan:

I was like I don't know what to do because the water was so deep, like we're out in the middle, even though we're kind of close to the cliff. They're really huge and they're so rocky and there's like little rocks coming out everywhere that we could have hit with the boat, damaged the boat. You're also not supposed to get that close to it. So we see far away the cruise ship. It was massive and I was terrified.

Meagan:

I was like Jacq, what do we do? Because if we turn around, going 35 miles per hour and this cruise ship is going much faster than that, it's going to double speed us, triple speed us and we're going to be caught in the wake really close to it. So we're like we either keep going toward it and know we're going to have it happen or just act like we actually can turn around and get from its wake, which we didn't end up doing in the end. Yeah, so we turn around, terrified, still shaking everywhere, with the boat just shaking back and forth, like basically this was our own personal version of the titanic, like we were so scared.

Jacquelyn:

It was wild

Meagan:

And we just start going back and each moment I would turn the wheel to try to get out of a wake. It's like I couldn't and water was kind of coming in and splashing in a little bit and

Jacquelyn:

It honestly, it felt like it was the never-ending ride getting back from like the tip of the cliff to back to like the area like villa franche area. It felt like the longest ride where, like ever, it was just like every time we had a wave, it was like we held our breath

Meagan:

We kept trying to get closer to the cliff, yeah, so much that we weren't paying attention to the fact that there were divers, etting, so they had a flag up and we didn't see them because we just kept watching our back and then, like, even in front of us, another yacht was coming. So imagine, like cruise ship behind us, a couple yachts in front of us, they're just both coming and they're just making it even more of a wake, and so we're getting closer and closer to the cliff. It's kind of like when you're ice skating and you're like hanging on to the side, like we just want to get as close as we could to something of civilization before we just ended up in the middle of the ocean, honestly

Jacquelyn:

And we were trying to get less far away from them, basically because it felt like if we were more in the water, we'd be even closer to the big boats

Meagan:

And if we fell out, we knew we could at least swim to the cliffs. But what I was going to say is that the guys were like all these people are like waving their hand at us and we're like what's going on? And it just made it way more chaotic. And then we were like, oh my gosh, they're divers and we're just like really close to them. It was so scary.

Jacquelyn:

It was really scary.

Meagan:

h gosh

Jacquelyn:

Everything was fine

Meagan:

But we're here, yeah, telling the story, but it was really scary.

Meagan:

Like yeah it took me a minute to come down from that and we got back and we just oh man.

Jacquelyn:

You're remembering the next part of the story.

Meagan:

I forgot about this. Did you forget

Jacquelyn:

I did ? too I remembered and I I was like shoot man, I got to tell this part.

Meagan:

So, we're in the little boat. We made it. We're like we made it, yeah we're here. So when I say we made it, we made it back to the cove of Villefranche, yes, and that's where a lot of boats who actually knew what to do when they rented a boat just dock it.

Jacquelyn:

And again, these are really big boats, like middle, medium size, huge, whatever, like if you are actually from texas and you have been to like austin, you're dealing with boats of a relative size. You're not dealing with like I'm talking like feels, like other cruise ships.

Meagan:

The yachts in texas are like, they're just not like this. I'm pretty sure the one yacht was that steven spielberg, almost like 300 million it was

Jacquelyn:

It was insane, yeah, it was crazy.

Meagan:

We just don't have those kind of yachts in Texas.

Jacquelyn:

So we're this tiny little boat and we have an anchor, a manual anchor I don't really know the correct word but that's what I'll call it

Meagan:

Which also the anchors in Texas are different

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so also if you have a nicer boat like you have like an anchor that you can literally be like, press a button and a little, you know, roll the anchor down for you. But no, we rented a really like small cheap boat so we had to manually anchor. We try it on the first time, throw it down, you know. You think, oh, just throw it down, it'll catch, oh

Meagan:

It's horrible. Then then we just start drifting off and we're like wait, why are we moving?

Jacquelyn:

We hit. Let's just I'm gonna speed this story up, okay. We nearly hit multiple boats throughout we tried to anchor how many times the

Meagan:

The old man that was laughing at us.

Meagan:

He he was laughing at us because he's like what are they doing?

Meagan:

Why didn't he come help us?

Jacquelyn:

I know seriously. So we try to anchor I'm I feel like I'm exaggerating, but I kind of don't think I am. I think it it was 10 to 15 times 15 is more like it yeah, without success. Finally, we decided to look up a YouTube video, because what else do you do at this point? And we figured out that you have to throw the anchor down and then back up. So we did that and it only kind of worked.

Meagan:

Enough to where it gave us a solid like 30 minutes, without drifting away.

Jacquelyn:

Finally, we got pretty much anchored right and at this point you're like man, I just want to jump in the water, I just need to take a load off like. This has been like a very stressful experience. And we look around us jellyfish everywhere.

Meagan:

Yeah, they call it medusa, right

Jacquelyn:

Everywhere. Yeah, is that the kind of type of jellyfish?

Meagan:

Type of jellyfish they call them Medusa.

Meagan:

Yeah, it was probably, maybe like 35. Yes, swarming all around our little boat. It was actually. I was surprised and they were like the jellyfish you see on SpongeBob, like the perfect little round jellyfish, just swimming around

Jacquelyn:

And they're everywhere, so our perfect, ideal situation, which is have a boat hop in the water, get off and on like lay out. Have a boat hop in the water, get off and on like layout. We couldn't even get in the water. We were hot, it was, it was a lot, it was just. It felt like a never-ending, like, just it was sad.

Jacquelyn:

We were like this sucks because not only did we almost die, we couldn't, we spent like 30 minutes trying to anchor this boat.

Meagan:

If we didn't look, we would have gotten stung by multiple jellyfish.

Jacquelyn:

We almost got jellyfish stings. It was just, it was a fail.

Meagan:

But luckily we were by another beach club that you order what you want, oh yeah, and they come bring you lunch by boat.

Meagan:

That was, that was a lifesaver.

Jacquelyn:

That was really, really cool, so we at least had that

Meagan:

We worked up an appetite

Jacquelyn:

Lunch was brought to us and that was fun, but it was quite the excursion I wouldn't I definitely like, wouldn't recommend it no, no unless you're very, very, experienced

Meagan:

But I would recommend renting the boat to put the anchor down, lay on the boat, and well, we were doing jellyfish season too, so a lot of times there's not that many jellyfish out, just depends on the temperature of the water.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, that's true

Meagan:

And so specifically when we were doing it, there were a lot.

Jacquelyn:

Also, if you're experienced, get a nicer boat that actually goes faster. That would help a lot, because we felt like we couldn't get away

Meagan:

You couldn't do that

Jacquelyn:

You need a license.

Meagan:

Yeah, you had to have a boat license.

Meagan:

I think you pay like I think it was like $75. You got to take a course online. That's right, which I would actually do. That now, before going, I mean, no, I wouldn't because I'm never renting a boat. Again, I will hire a captain and do that whole thing.

Meagan:

hing if I were someone else who didn't feel like this story was scary enough and you wanted to rent a boat. $75, get a license and then you can rent a boat that goes above 35 miles per hour.

Jacquelyn:

That's right.

Meagan:

That's the best recommendation we can give you

Jacquelyn:

But we'll leave you with basically no recommendation

Meagan:

Don't do it

Jacquelyn:

If you can't tell so. So that's our boat story, our our next worst story. For that, and again, Nice is amazing, so we're going to get to the best very soon, but also like the, the trains, and we're very stuffed during this time.

Meagan:

It doesn't take long to get to. This was really cool about south of france is that you can hop on a train and you can get to another beautiful beach. We'll say, like what 15 minutes?

Meagan:

Some are 30 minutes

Jacquelyn:

And from Nice, which Nice was our hub, from nice to Ville France-sur-Mer. It was actually six minutes on the train it was very short, so very very fast

Meagan:

Antibes was like 30 minutes from there. We went to Cannes. What was can maybe like 40

Jacquelyn:

20 minutes.

Jacquelyn:

Oh no, it was our longest, I think. Yeah, it may have been 30, maybe only 30.

Meagan:

Monte carlo, I mean so many great spots, you just hop on these trains but we were there when it was really busy, so

Jacquelyn:

We were.

Meagan:

The trains were just really stuffed

Jacquelyn:

The amount of people that wanted to get on the train. It would pile up, and so, by the time the train would come, it was like it was truly like Hunger Games, like get on. It was like you fight for a seat.

Meagan:

Everyone was pushing you in.

Jacquelyn:

It's just, it was a fight.

Jacquelyn:

So that was definitely like a really hard moment. I don't know if that's just summer there or if that was just the year we went, not really sure, but that was definitely a worst moment. And then to round out our worst moments it's funny because a lot of these come with like the best, because like also the fact that the trains were so short and everything was like one of the best things yeah, but it was just so hard to get on

Meagan:

And they had ac, which was great

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, but, um, one of the worst moments.

Jacquelyn:

So we went on an incredible hike. So this was definitely one of the best moments, but we'll talk about the best part of this in a minute. We went on this hike. That was how many miles, a few miles.

Meagan:

It was supposed to take an hour.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, it was supposed to.

Meagan:

It took us three.

Jacquelyn:

It did

Meagan:

It's so beautiful.

Jacquelyn:

We kept stopping

Meagan:

We kept stopping to take photos. We would go and jump off into coves and swim a little, and so we just took our time. We really took it in. It was one of the most breathtaking views and hikes I've ever done in my life. Yeah, so you know we were taking it little by little.

Jacquelyn:

I think we took a picture like every like two minutes.

Jacquelyn:

I honestly swear we were taking videos and pictures because it was so stunning

Meagan:

I don't even want to look at how many saved photos from that hike are on my phone

Jacquelyn:

But because of that so we expected to be definitely a lot flatter and shorter as far as, like the terrain, we thought it would be flatter. So we only brought like a water bottle each and we just were not prepared. So we ended up yeah

Meagan:

I think we got that water bottle from the train station. We drank half of it, probably on the train, and then we shared the other half for the hike.

Jacquelyn:

It was so bad and we got so overheated. Thankfully we were able to get in and out of the water so that helped, but we were so overheated that it was actually wild

Meagan:

We were really dehydrated.

Meagan:

I thought at one point I felt like I was gonna pass out. I was like get it together, what's your deal?

Meagan:

I was like why do I feel so terrible right now and I'm like sweating and it was like the heat was beaming down because there was no shade really anywhere. It was one of those hikes that's like, at some point, you're like going on this really tiny. It was one of those hikes that's like, at some point, you're like going on this really tiny, narrow, dirt type walkway and you could just fall over if you weren't careful. And for me, I'm also really afraid of like wasps and bees

Jacquelyn:

That's right.

Meagan:

And Jacq was like if one comes, you just keep steadily walking, because I, for some reason, my hands always go up in the air and I like move and freak out and I was like I can't I there were a lot of bees there were. So I was like it's fine, it's fine, just keep walking, just keep walking.

Meagan:

But but yeah, it was so scary. But one wrong move and we probably would have fallen.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, for sure. I mean it was

Meagan:

In the scorching sun. Yeah, no water. And we didn't eat much that morning either.

Meagan:

We got coffees so we're running on caffeine

Meagan:

Yeah, some kind of panini we split.

Meagan:

Yeah, really not a good idea. We should have gotten our own. We needed the, the calories

Jacquelyn:

We really didn't know what we were doing

Meagan:

Yeah, I mean, at least we had, at least we're in france, so we were carbed up at least. So that was helpful for everything. But man, we needed more energy than that and more hydration.

Jacquelyn:

Thankfully, halfway through we actually we ended up realizing that there was a spot where we could basically get off the route halfway through.

Meagan:

It was at the lighthouse.

Meagan:

So you'll probably, if you look this hike up, we'll link it below. If you look up this hike, there's a kind of a semi-famous lighthouse that is toward the midpoint of this hike, but really kind of the end of the hike too, I think.

Meagan:

We wouldn't know because the lighthouse was the end of it for us.

Meagan:

But we go to that lighthouse and there is, we go up top and we're like, yes, we made it to civilization. Yeah, except for the civilization was one house on a corner, no restaurants, no, uh, places to get some to drink. No water

Meagan:

At one point I was like maybe we should just drink the ocean water, drink the water of the sea, because I am so dehydrated

Jacquelyn:

I'm going to die anyways.

Meagan:

We just sat down for a minute. We were like you want to call an Uber? Yeah, let's call an Uber, yeah. So we get out the phone, we look for Ubers Nothing, yeah, too bad. So sad, because we could not get one person to want to pick us up because we were too far out.

Jacquelyn:

They kept rejecting it

Meagan:

Yeah they just kept rejecting it.

Jacquelyn:

Yep. So then we decide to walk up the hill and we found this. We figured out on Google Maps that we were like okay, wait, there's a hotel. We walk up to the hotel and we actually realized

Meagan:

Which was still quite a trek.

Jacquelyn:

It was, it was

Meagan:

And we didn't know what to expect because we didn't have good service. We couldn't really look up what it looked like, we just knew it was something better than a random house.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so thankfully we walk up to the hotel and we actually realized it was a Four Seasons s So that was the best surprise in the entire world.

Meagan:

o felt like Moses was leading us to the promised land.

Jacquelyn:

Yes, it did.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah.

Meagan:

It was good.

Jacquelyn:

It was. It was like the best surprise in the entire world to be met with this luxury hotel where you can have lunch and drink so much water and the water was super expensive, but we were so here for it

Meagan:

The water was $11

Meagan:

I got an $18 cappuccino and I'm not over exaggerating. It was really that much, and I've never been happier to be financially exploited than in that moment. I was like put it on my tab and keep them coming, because I'm about to die from dehydration.

Jacquelyn:

It was like the best meal and the best water ever. I also feel like I remember feeling like I will never have enough water to get hydrated again.

Meagan:

We went through like three things of those waters

Jacquelyn:

We did, we did and we were just like it is what it is Like we are. We need to get hydrated again. We need to eat food, but I remember feeling like it was like the best meal, because not only were we looking at the pool and by the pool area, but it was just the fact that we were so like drained that it made it even better.

Meagan:

It was such a relief to pull up to that resort. Oh it was. It turned out to be one of the best afternoons. It did, we went from a near-death dehydrating experience to relaxing by the pool at the Four Seasons. Yeah, the hike was incredible, the almost dying part not so much. But hey, the Four Seasons and the south of France I would almost die and collapse for that again.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, true

Meagan:

I think I would and if anyone asks, I now hike exclusively to expensive hotels only

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, that's a good point, like I really need the end goal to be a luxury hotel

Meagan:

Five stars or nothing, five stars or bust.

Meagan:

Yeah, all right. So now we're going to lead to our best moments in the south of France, which there were plenty of great moments.

Jacquelyn:

So many, we promised that it's not all as bad as we've made it out to sound. It's actually incredible. It's so incredible which, starting off Villefranche-sur-Mer

Meagan:

Oh, a day in Villefranche

Jacquelyn:

Yes, so that is a town. As we mentioned earlier, it's about a six-minute train ride from Nice, and it was truly a picturesque town.

Meagan:

Yeah, the day we went when this happened, super unplanned. I wanted to take film photos, so I grabbed a roll of portra and put it in my film camera and I was like, let's just go. We grabbed our books and we're like let's just go, get some film, enjoy the day, maybe grab some lunch, see where it leads us. It led us to the most magical day. Oh my gosh, it was so good.

Jacquelyn:

So I'll set this stage here about what the town is like. You get off the train, you walk down the stairs and right there is the beach area. There's beach club access and then also you can go to like a public beach area and just like, bring a towel, bring your chair, whatever you want to do, if you keep walking into town. There's also these adorable, beautiful restaurants right along the water's edge, which is so fun to just be able to get in the beach and then go right there and eat lunch or however you want to do it. It's just so beautiful. And then you walk into town more and they have more restaurants and gelato, of course, as you know, I would definitely hit that up. So it was just the most beautiful town. It was perfectly set up. It's so small and quaint and so ideal. It's everything that you want a seaside town in France to be truly.

Meagan:

We were not expecting it to be that beautiful.

Jacquelyn:

No, we were not

Meagan:

Six minutes away.

Meagan:

I mean, Nice was beautiful enough, so I don't know why we weren't expecting it, but I just think we were pleasantly surprised when we walked off that train, down those stairs, yeah, and the most beautiful blue water, all these cute little boats just docked everywhere, people eating and swimming and jumping off of the sides into the water. Yeah, and we were just like really surprised.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, that was such a core memory for me whenever we jumped in the water in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Meagan:

That was so free. I felt so free in that moment.

Jacquelyn:

Me too.

Meagan:

Because we didn't plan on having a beach day. No, did we ever swimsuits on?

Jacquelyn:

No, we did, we did.

Meagan:

Okay, we were wearing tennis shoes that's what threw me off.

Jacquelyn:

hat's weren't sure how it would go, we weren't sure if we would make a beach day out of it. We just wore swimsuits just in case, and I'm so glad we did.

Meagan:

Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah, you know, I remember this too. It was, there were a lot of English speaking people there because, a lot of people had come from London so it felt like part French, part British and I just remember like all the accents because everybody was on holiday.

Jacquelyn:

They were on holiday. I think that must have.

Meagan:

Yeah, they were on holiday.

Meagan:

They were on in Villefranche. But really it was so fun because it was me, you and these two people that were clearly from London. They had the best accents. But it was really fun because we were like, oh my gosh, we understand what they're saying because it's been French nonstop and now I get what they're saying. But anyway, we just decided to take off our shoes, leave everything on this big rock and we just jumped off into the water swimming. It was super deep, couldn't even see all the way down, yeah, but it was so cold, it was so blue. I'll never forget the color blue, and this was before the boat ride, so we had no idea about jellyfish.

Meagan:

So we were just living our best lives feeling so free, so we had no idea about jellyfish. So we were just living our best lives feeling so free, and I didn't see one jellyfish. I saw fish but I didn't see any jellyfish, so it may have been the boat being so far out.

Meagan:

Maybe there's more jellyfish there.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, it was so refreshing I'll never forget like how refreshing it was

Meagan:

I remember we just kept getting out. And then we're like okay, let's go get lunch and just kept getting out. And then we're like okay, let's go get lunch. And then we're like oh, one more time, yeah. And then we like jump back in and swim out. It was so fun we have some great photos of Jacq swimming.

Meagan:

She was like. You always see those videos where people are like they jump in the water and they do this like perfect dive and then they like get out with their hair all wet and they're like they just look like this luscious person. And jacq was like I'm not one of those people I want was like Jacq, I want to get you doing that, go jump. And she's like please don't make me do this.

Meagan:

Just do it

Jacquelyn:

And I have water shoes on, so really kills the vibe.

Meagan:

How to spot an American in France at the beach: Water shoes. No, actually I said that totally wrong. How to spot an American in the south of France is when they don't have water shoes and they're walking on the rocks looking like an idiot.

Meagan:

We brought water shoes, so you looked awesome with those water shoes.

Jacquelyn:

No, I did not.

Jacquelyn:

I looked so dorky.

Meagan:

Yeah she's got her water shoes on and she jumps in the water. I'm like that's not what I had in mind Jacq. I was thinking more of like a dive. So she tries to dive, she gets out. Kind of looked like she just saw a jellyfish when she got out, but it was a lot of fun it was. I couldn't do better. I'm just like full cannonball, like I'm not even going to try.

Jacquelyn:

Let's just say this like I don't, I won't get any points for the most majestic jump in, but I will get points for the most refreshing jump in.

Meagan:

No, we got great shots of you in that water. That was really cool. It was so fun. That was definitely a core moment. South of France, core moment was that one, that one for sure. It was a feeling. Yeah, it was just such a feeling that you almost can't describe it was so. That's why we would really recommend, if you go to South of France, go to Villefrance.

Jacquelyn:

I couldn't agree more. You have to go to Villefrance. If you go to the French Riviera, it is a must-see place. Another amazing best part about our entire time in the south of France is that because the trains make it so easy to get to all the other towns, we got to go to so many different towns. So during our time there we stayed in Nice. That was our central hub. We trained to Eze. We also trained to Cannes, monaco, as you've heard Villefranche-sur-Mer and then also Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret.

Meagan:

We should do an entire episode highlighting the differences between each town and also the transportation, beach clubs that we went to, I guess, places to eat. Yeah, we should just do a whole South of France episode, because there's so much to say that I think it would take up an entire episode.

Jacquelyn:

Yes, I definitely agree that deserves an entire episode. Another thing to note is the view from our Airbnb.

Meagan:

Oh, such a good view. I just loved getting up in the morning, stepping outside and having espresso, enjoying the view. We could see the water, all the boats coming in, cruise ships, we could see people parasailing. It was just so beautiful and especially like having to work. While we were there too, it was really nice to be able to work on that patio and just take in the sights and feel like you're still immersed in the South of France, even though you're working back on Central Standard Time at home. But yeah, it was kind of fun because it wasn't just like at a desk or having to find somewhere to work. We had a beautiful view to do that at, so that was definitely a highlight

Jacquelyn:

And it was so fun to make meals even in the Airbnb and eat them on the patio and it was so fun.

Meagan:

The produce there was so fresh. We cooked so much in the South of France. I would say we cooked the most there. I think our daily diet consisted of burrata, peaches, tomatoes and basil. Like every day, we ate that sometimes for breakfast I would eat that.

Jacquelyn:

Oh, and the chili oil.

Meagan:

Oh, chili oil yeah, we do chili oil with that.

Meagan:

So because it's on the Mediterranean, it also has, like, an Italian flair to a lot of their cuisine. We were kind of surprised by that, but the pizza was really good there we tried several different pizza places, and most places had the chili oil just sitting on the table for you to use. It's this infused oil with chilies and different seasonings, and it was so good we finally put it on our pizza once, and after that we could not go back.

Meagan:

Like every time we had a pizza, we're like, even if we got it for takeaway, we'd always ask them like, hey, can you hook us up with some of that chili oil? And they'd put in a little container. And yeah

Jacquelyn:

It was so good, so that was really fun to do all those meals at the air bb and we will definitely be tagging the Airbnb so you guys can book that if you want

Meagan:

Yeah, it's perfect, it really is oh my gosh, it must be so perfect.

Meagan:

So you guys, it's so perfect. We were in sync there ready one, two, three, it's perfect. No, do it better. One, two, three, it's perfect. Oh wait, we're singing. One, two, three, it's perfect all right yes, we're starting a band.

Jacquelyn:

Okay, last thing that we will mention before moving on to best bites is that we did talk about a lot of the downsides of the saint jean cap ferrat hike, but it was one of the most incredible things you'll ever do.

Meagan:

No better hike. I've never been on a better hike in my life.

Jacquelyn:

No, and we are saying this from a fully dehydrated perspective.

Meagan:

Oh yeah.

Jacquelyn:

Like we were fully shriveled up. We really were.

Meagan:

We really were.

Jacquelyn:

So let me just say best views, most beautiful water that you will ever see is on that hike.

Meagan:

Does it mean that we may not know what we were really experiencing. Like are we actually

Jacquelyn:

I have pictures to remember the truth.

Meagan:

No, I remember all of it was so good it was.

Jacquelyn:

That's why became dehydrated. We stopped so much to take pictures and videos that we just almost died from it.

Meagan:

I couldn't take it enough. It was so nice and beautiful.

Jacquelyn:

We turned every corner and we were like what, oh my gosh.

Meagan:

I think I told you like a million times when I saw photos of the South this is what I was looking for, this is what I wanted on this trip.

Jacquelyn:

I remember that actually.

Meagan:

Because before we went on the hike, right before you get there, there's a. Did we already mention this? I'm so sorry if we already mentioned this, but there was a beach club. Did we talk about the beach club?

Jacquelyn:

No, we didn't talk about the beach club.

Meagan:

Okay, the beach club right before the hike was really beautiful we're gonna link that, yeah sure for sure we're gonna.

Jacquelyn:

I'll put it in the description.

Meagan:

Yeah, in the description, because that was really beautiful we stopped off there. We swam first and it was a great beach club, and then the hike is really close to that. So you start there and just keep going up and up.

Meagan:

Bring water, just bring water just bring water but I'm gonna go again and I'm gonna bring water and I'm gonna do that hike again, absolutely fully hydrated, fully fully ready. Yes, but I'm gonna go again and I'm gonna bring water and I'm gonna do that hike again absolutely fully hydrated, fully fully ready, yes, and I'm still gonna stop every second yeah and take in the views, and I'm probably gonna bring a snack this time

Jacquelyn:

For sure, lots of emergencies

Meagan:

And I may go back to the four seasons, but I will not be getting their water

Jacquelyn:

No, and definitely not their cappuccino.

Meagan:

Oh, maybe the cappuccino it was worth 18.

Jacquelyn:

Okay, okay, that's good as long as it was worth it

Meagan:

It was a great hike

Jacquelyn:

It really was

Meagan:

Can't say enough good things about it it truly was you gotta look it up, because pictures don't do it justice. You get there. And you just you're so, you're so in awe that, even if you're dehydrated, you're still. It was just so good. Yeah, I'm going to stop there, yeah.

Meagan:

I've said enough about this hike.

Jacquelyn:

It was the best.

Meagan:

You're tired of hearing about the hike. We're not, but you are, and I understand that, so we're going to just move on to Best Bites. Oh, we have a song In honor of our band. That's right, ready. One, two, three, Best Bites

Jacquelyn:

There we go. We will start it off. What's our first best bite? So I will start us off with this one. There is a restaurant in Nice called Carmela and they had this burrata with bread and the burrata. It's not just your everyday average Joe burrata, we all know, it. It's a great one, right, but no, it was not average by any means. So it was Burrata, nectarine, red onion, olive oil and the star of the show, which was shocking, verbena.

Meagan:

I've never had anything like it

Jacquelyn:

No.

Jacquelyn:

And I've never really even tried verbena in like a dish like this, honestly, like my palate's just not that refined like I'm not like throwing verbena

Meagan:

I had to look up. I googled what it was it was.

Jacquelyn:

It just was perfect. It was the most perfect burrata dish I've ever had

Meagan:

You could tell it was real personal to the chef because you don't just come up with something like that unless you really know flavor. I love cooking. I grew up on watching Ina and I felt like I knew everything. Yeah, but everything in that dish I was like I hadn't heard of.

Jacquelyn:

o what is this?

Meagan:

Like I wouldn't have put these onions and the shallot mix with the burrata, and also, I don't know where they got the burrata from. Yeah, but I hadn't tasted many burratas like that there. And like I said, we ate burrata like every day. That specific burrata was so creamy it was, and it's just out of this world.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, I will say that's something in france and italy as well, like the burrata. There is way better oh yeah, so much better. I mean, of course, that's like that's where it comes from. But you know, I think that's where it comes from, like now I'm checking myself, but either way, italy, it makes sense right, yeah, yeah it was. It was just so incredible. So that was definitely a best bite. And another best bite was in Ville Franche-S ur-Mer, which I know at this point we have just really drilled it into your head that it's the best place, but it is.

Jacquelyn:

There was this restaurant called dry restaurant, which is ironic because we actually ate there after we went swimming, but it was called dry restaurant and

Meagan:

I'll tell you what it wasn't, it wasn't dry january

Jacquelyn:

That's true

Jacquelyn:

Because their drinks were amazing.

Meagan:

They were so good and you take the train after. So, yeah, drink up me hardy's yo-ho.

Jacquelyn:

No driving needed

Meagan:

Nope.

Jacquelyn:

So they had this pineapple. It was like a pineapple rum drink. It was like the perfect water side drink that you would ever want. It wasn't a pina colada, it was very it was different

Meagan:

Coconut milk?

Meagan:

Yeah, and just a splash of it.

Jacquelyn:

Yes, it was pretty strong, but it was. It was definitely different than it had other things.

Jacquelyn:

I can't even remember

Meagan:

Because you were three in and you forgot.

Meagan:

No, it was so good

Jacquelyn:

It was so good and then also, they're also a really great restaurant as well. Not only do they have amazing drinks, but we got the some of the top contenders, so we actually went there a couple times, but the top contenders were the shrimp lollipops. They had bread with like these dips, which was like so good

Meagan:

That was watermelon burrata right, do we have watermelon burrata?

Jacquelyn:

I think we did.

Meagan:

Yeah, another combo, I wouldn't have put together.

Jacquelyn:

Yes, and it was so good. Also, the lobster rolls were amazing. Those were good, and we had some other things, but those were our top ones, yeah, which were so, so good. It's a great restaurant. I would say, going there sitting by the water.

Meagan:

Even if you just get a drink

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, even if you just get a drink, yeah, great vibe and a great spot.

Jacquelyn:

So those were our best bites in Nice, which you know since it's the end of best bites, that leads us into our next spot, which is Dublin

Meagan:

Dublin.

Jacquelyn:

Apparently, we're starting to sing in this episode, so we like it, we love it

Jacquelyn:

Dublin is our next spot

Meagan:

24 hours in Dublin

Jacquelyn:

We only had 24 hours there and that's a whole story.

Meagan:

Yet we still have bad stories to tell you.

Jacquelyn:

Wait, I think because we only had 24 hours why there are bad stories.

Meagan:

I agree

Jacquelyn:

No, no, no. Dublin was actually amazing, but of course, we like to start with the worst of the stories and I'll tell you. I'll start off by telling you why we were going there in the first place. So, as you already know by now, we were in Europe for four and a half months. During that time, my sister and her family were actually going to Ireland for a family vacation and they were there for a couple weeks, so I really, really wanted to meet up with them and see them, at least for a little bit.

Meagan:

And we got so lucky that it synced up while we were in London, because it's not that far.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so they were going to be in Dublin right about the time that we were getting to London, which is part of why there's like a little bit of a bad, worst story in there. But yeah, so that's why we were going to Dublin in the first place. So we'll start it off with the worst. I'll explain the whole story. We got to London, which, of course, as you know, it was a long train day it was. We came for it wasn't too long actually it was paris to london but it was a long travel day because it was only. It was a short train there, but it just it takes so much effort and work to get out of the airbnb

Meagan:

The paris train station was a lot, yes, a lot more than I expected

Jacquelyn:

And to remind that we also so we went from paris to london, to a town that was an hour and 45 minutes outside of London.

Jacquelyn:

That was what was so hard about it. It was like such a long trip.

Jacquelyn:

It was just a long, long travel day and we were supposed to the next day, literally the next morning get up at 4 am, turn around, get on a short flight and get over.

Meagan:

What airline did we fly?

Jacquelyn:

Oh, it's like Ryanair

Meagan:

So cheap. Oh my gosh. Yeah, ryanair. Yes, that airline was a fever dream. I just sat there everything was so yellow.

Meagan:

Look up Ryanair right now. Everything is just pure yellow, yellow, yellow carpet, yellow ceilings.

Meagan:

I just felt like someone took a highlighter and just painted everywhere at one point I was like am I dizzy from all this yellow, or what's happening? yeah, I was also really tired

Jacquelyn:

No true. So actually crazy thing is that we were so tired from the travel day. We actually were like I don't think we can do this, like I don't actually think that I have it in me to get only a couple hours of sleep. But in the end we were actually able to get it together and go. But we did have to take a train from two trains. Yeah, we had to take trains to get to. I don't even remember the town.

Meagan:

I don't either, but like it. It was a train and then it stopped and you had to get off that train to get onto another train and then get the fly back on that then take. We had to get off that train and get onto another train and then get the flight and then hop back on that. Then we had to take an Uber from that place to the flight. Yes, because I don't remember why that we specifically had to fly from.

Jacquelyn:

We had to go out of a different airport

Meagan:

To get to Ireland.

Meagan:

Yes, yeah, and so it was just like a whole thing, just to get to the airport. So then we get to the airport.

Jacquelyn:

Then our was yes, remember that, this was the weirdest thing. So they basically escorted everyone who's going to be on the flight into this random room and it was like where you know, you got on the flight and everything like that. But then it was delayed and they like made us stay in the room and I feel like it barely even had it barely even had a bathroom or anything it was like, and we were like there for an hour or something.

Meagan:

Everybody's like what's happening, what? Yeah, like wait, this isn't normal.

Meagan:

I was hoping this was normal yeah, are we ever gonna get on this flight.

Jacquelyn:

It was so strange

Meagan:

So it made us run late and we were already getting there late. Why were we getting there late?

Jacquelyn:

I think, the trains ran late there was, it was like every little thing kept going wrong honestly everything it was just one of those, like it was

Meagan:

So many things were going on.

Meagan:

I'm trying to remember pieces of the story and I just can't even remember them

Jacquelyn:

Same, because it was so much and we ended up getting in at like 10 pm or something crazy. So anyways that getting to dublin was already like crazy which, but still, looking back, like so so glad we did it like I would literally go and I would relive that moment and just like be like, hey girl, like it's gonna be okay you're gonna get there.

Meagan:

Once we met up with your family, my adrenaline yeah, of just seeing people that I love so much and I have not seen people that I knew like a familiar face in so long I'll never forget it.

Meagan:

I was just like oh my gosh it was just the best feeling, because we've been there for so long.

Meagan:

Yeah, and then seeing them was just like it's such a good feeling

Jacquelyn:

It was the best, and but before we saw them, one more worst story is that we actually were going to check into the hotel first and we were only going to be there one night. Weren't we literally leaving the next night? Yeah, yeah. So we were checking in that night and we go in and you could tell there's like kind of a situation going on.

Jacquelyn:

We weren't really sure it was like really weird vibes. Yeah, it was just kind of like it was odd. They had like half of it was like blocked off by like not caution tape but like

Jacquelyn:

But you could tell they had it blocked off

Meagan:

Some kind of like yellow tape, like like don't go over here and we're like, okay, maybe they're renovating, I don't know but yeah, we're just checking in yeah, they give us our key cards. We get on the elevator and it was like they didn't have the lobby open either, so we're like checking in at the bar. Asking people like, how do we check in? They're like the bar. Yeah, like we're supposed to know that. Oh okay, you normally don't check it at the bar, but okay, okay, so we go to the bar and we go up the elevator, we go to the room. Yeah, and it was weird it was so weird everything was really dingy and dark yeah it was in a hotel that I don't remember the name of it

Jacquelyn:

Moxy Dublin

Meagan:

I think moxy dublin. Yeah, I've never stayed at a moxy before yeah never will stay to moxy again.

Jacquelyn:

I know moxy is known to be like kind of interesting but like it's very like party vibes almost, but but it looks nice, like it was a good rate for one night and it looked like like a standard room.

Meagan:

It was a hotel that had ac, yeah it was we just were like one night.

Meagan:

We'll take that one it's not too far from them, and so

Jacquelyn:

But then, yeah, but then so we feel like the bathroom smells a little and no

Meagan:

No, I didn't do it guys.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, it's not it's not from what you think it is based on the last episode so it smells a little bit like poop and so we're like okay, this is like an issue. So we go downstairs and we realize that also it's there. There's some cleaning up going on down there. We asked to get in a different room. That room also smells. So at this point we go back downstairs.

Jacquelyn:

We realized kind of the weird vibes is that they're cleaning up a whole problem.

Meagan:

They were acting like nothing was wrong, though that was what was so annoying, because when we come back down. They're like, oh really like they're so surprised. And then the more we get into this hotel, going to different places, we see someone like using this type of cleaning thing that like gets water and puts it somewhere.

Jacquelyn:

And do you remember, like by the time we're telling them like we're way far down the line, like listen, like we did just both the rooms smell like we really don't want to stay here. We see the man putting on booties. Yeah, and we were like okay, so y'all are trying to like what's going on. Tell us that nothing's happening, but we are aware that there's a poop situation somewhere in this hotel and

Meagan:

Again, it wasn't me.

Meagan:

It wasn't me

Jacquelyn:

We're out of here, okay?

Meagan:

We're out of here. Yeah, I told him he was like acting that way. I was like listen, you have some sewage situation going on. Yeah, I remember like he kept trying to give us free vouchers for drinks and things and I'm like, I don't, like I'm good, I'm going to pubs like I want to drink at the m?

Meagan:

what the moxy

Jacquelyn:

Drinking's not gonna clog my nose and not smell this.

Meagan:

No, I was like you, you have sewage issues and that's unsanitary we need to. I was kind of at that point like like we need to go because we're already running late yes and so, anyway, we book a hotel called the morgan, the morgan, the morgan, we booked a hotel called the morgan.

Meagan:

That was a beautiful hotel

Jacquelyn:

Oh my gosh, I would really recommend staying there. Actually that turned into a totally different experience

Meagan:

Which ended up being walking distance across the street, basically from where they were staying.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, so it was even better because we had an incredible experience.

Meagan:

It was kind of a blessing in disguise I think it was supposed, what was supposed to happen the whole time, and we didn't know it, because when you're in Dublin, you're going to stay out late, and so it was really nice that we didn't have to Uber back. We could just walk.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, we could walk and it was like literally like walk like a block. It wasn't even, like you know, a few blocks, it was literally around the corner. So that was so perfect, so that was actually definitely. That leads us into those are our only worst stories in 24 hours.

Jacquelyn:

We know we had too hard for 24 hours

Meagan:

I can't remember because we were in dublin drinking guinness

Jacquelyn:

That was all that we can remember.

Meagan:

No, no really, that was the, that was, that was that thing.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, the rest of the time was amazing 24 hours.

Meagan:

My gosh, if anything else happened, it's like what's going on, what's happening?

Jacquelyn:

So the morgan hotel was definitely a highlight, for sure. We will also link that in the description and definitely seeing my family was amazing. So really fun thing is that we got to go to Temple Bar and, in the vein of being very cliche, temple Bar is definitely like where tourists go, but it's so fun yeah.

Meagan:

Temple Bar was a vibe. Yeah, that's also where I had my first Guinness.

Jacquelyn:

That's right

Meagan:

And it was so fun it was so loud and amazing and like we walked into Temple Bar there's a guy playing, was he playing piano?

Meagan:

I don't even know. There's like a guy standing on the table.

Meagan:

Everybody's just swaying together, singing, yelling. I don't know what everybody's saying. We're like trying to all talk to each other. Find a table, someone finds a table, we sit there and it's just so loud and we're all yelling and talking to each other, catching up, drinking guinness, drinking beers all it was just so fun it was so fun so whoever tells you we had a couple people kind of turn their noses up to us, we went to temple bar.

Meagan:

We met a guy at the airport like

Jacquelyn:

Oh, of course you'd say temple bar, and it's like

Meagan:

Yeah, he was like you went to temple bar and I'm like, yeah, but it was so amazing he's like how much did you pay for your beer.

Meagan:

I was like I don't care, it was so fun, yeah, and like the taxi driver was kind of going, oh you want to.

Jacquelyn:

I think that's the thing is. It's probably more expensive than people want it to be but like who cares? It's like the whole experience and

Meagan:

I would highly recommend temple

Jacquelyn:

I would highly recommend it too

Meagan:

All of the movies I've seen.

Meagan:

Yeah, temple bar did it justice

Jacquelyn:

It's the vibe that you want.

Jacquelyn:

I mean, we were, you know, out super late 1, 2 am, but it's like the vibe you want at that time, like it is so packed and so fun and it's rowdy in the right kind of way. It's not bad rowdy, it was just fun.

Meagan:

And every time you're walking down and you pass a pub, you just hear everybody having the best time. Like if you walk in Dublin past a door where they're doing that and you don't smile, are you okay? Yeah, Because I'm telling you that place just makes you happy.

Jacquelyn:

It really does.

Meagan:

Everybody's just living life

Jacquelyn:

You're just having the best time, so that is a huge recommendation.

Meagan:

Oh, definitely.

Jacquelyn:

So we went to Temple Bar and then we ended up staying up super late just all talking at their hotel lobby, just having the best time being able to see them.

Meagan:

I could have pulled an all-nighter which says a lot, because I went into the day going I'm exhausted, I'm so tired, and then we just ran off of adrenaline yeah, ran off of having the best time with them, yeah and just totally refueled us and I was like, oh, we gotta go to bed. Wait, let's stay up.

Jacquelyn:

I know it was so, so fun, and and then the morgan hotel was good, and I'm not just saying that it was because, like we were dead tired and we needed good sleep.

Jacquelyn:

It was actually really good. But we got up the next day and we got to also walk around Dublin a little bit before we flew back out to London at that point, and that was so fun. The whole day there was, it was beautiful and it was actually like I didn't really know what I had in mind, but it actually like far exceeded my expectations it was such a great, great vibe and a great city.

Meagan:

I agree

Jacquelyn:

We went to. We got to see the Trinity College Library, which is. Look it up. If you don't know what it is, we'll also link it in the description. But I'm not sure if they have the books in there right now. I don't know when they're going to do that. I think they're probably back by now

Meagan:

Yeah, they might be, they probably are so they were taking them out to clean them.

Meagan:

Yes, so half of it we didn't get to see, but the half that we did, yeah, really amazing. It was just such an iconic experience.

Jacquelyn:

It feels like like Harry Potter meets Beauty and the Beast meets all the Narnia, like just all the amazing like books and libraries and you know, just like that magical library, feeling like you get it there. It's truly a must see if you're in Dublin. Also, we got the chance to go to a really fun pub. We really liked this pub. It's I don't even know if it's super popular or what it is, but we had a great experience. It's called Merchant's Arch Pub and it gave you the full vibe and exactly what you want when you're in Ireland. And we got a chicken and pie. Chicken and pot ham pie. I don't chicken and pie ham. Well, that's weird. Chicken and pie.

Meagan:

We basically got a pot pie with chicken and ham. Is that what you're trying to say? I don't even remember.

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, that's exactly what it was.

Meagan:

I remember the onion rings. Those are good.

Jacquelyn:

I was going to say and the onion rings.

Jacquelyn:

The onion rings were the realest. And we also, of course, got Guinness, or I think you got Guinness, I got a light beer.

Meagan:

This is a sweet memory. We sat there and we went around. I know we only spent 24 hours. What we did is some of our friends and family. We would get them postcards. Everywhere we went, we'd write in them.

Meagan:

We'd get like special stamps based on where we were and then we'd send them off. But we are only in Ireland 24 hours we're still going to do it. We're going to get everybody postcards. So we went and did that and when we sat at this pub we wrote in every single one and then we went to go get stamps immediately and we sent them off. And that was really special to do that because I was writing in the moment of the experience, and it's fun when you write the postcards when you're going somewhere for 24 hours, because everything's real fresh.

Meagan:

But, it was fun to be riding from a pub with a Guinness in hand. Got some really greasy onion rings, and I guess a ham meat? What do you call it? A ham chicken pie

Jacquelyn:

Chicken and ham pie. I don't know. I call it chicken and pie ham. That's really weird.

Meagan:

We're writing the postcards, and I love that. It was a moment that we took to take a beat too. It was really great, because when you go to a place where you're going to spend 24 hours only, in that town or the city you're going to go, you know, I know I can't do everything, so I'm going to pick a few things that I can do, and I'm not even going to try to see it all. We knew we wanted to go meet with Jacq's family the night before and spend as much time as we could before they left, and then they left that morning, and so that's why we went to the library, and then we went to the pub, we walked around a little bit and, because we knew we weren't trying to rush to see it all, it was like perfect perfect amount to just relax, take it easy and see what we could.

Jacquelyn:

It felt like perfectly paced and it was relaxing and fun and it was a good city. I really would recommend seeing Dublin if you get the chance to go.

Meagan:

Oh yeah, you know, what's interesting is we want to do an episode on this too is that we only had 24 hours there, and you would think that we felt more pressure by that. But we actually felt less pressure with the 24 hours than we did staying some of the places for four months, because when you're working, and Jacq talks about this a lot.

Meagan:

When you're working and you're being a tourist and you're trying to see everything, you have what Jacq calls a little bit of tourist guilt right, absolutely, she calls it that and it's so true, because you feel that a lot yeah and you're like you know you work at the hours you need to work, but sometimes you're like I just walked like 20,000 steps for the last three days, I've taken five trains and I've, you know, explored every park nearest me, and then I've also worked and tried to get a little sleep in there too.

Meagan:

I've eaten like eight croissants a day. I can't handle anymore. And you just think to yourself like, but I have to get up and go do something because I'm here. And those moments are hard because you're like I just want to rest

Jacquelyn:

Yeah it really is true.

Jacquelyn:

It's so interesting because you know, when you go on vacation and you're there for a week, 10 days, you're off work, so you're fully immersing yourself. You're kind of ready to either go, go, go or maybe you're relaxing, whatever the purpose of your vacation is. But when you are somewhere for a month and you're living life, working, doing all those things, it's just different. There's different kinds of pressure.

Meagan:

You have to find a different kind of balance.

Jacquelyn:

You really do. Like there was always for me a little bit of pressure if I ever had to say no to something or if I ever had to just take a minute to relax. Like I was always like, oh man, like what am I missing out on? It's like the highest amount of FOMO, even without like maybe we were all staying back, but we all felt FOMO with the city.

Meagan:

We're even asking each other to do something one day and we're feeling FOMO because we know how much there is. Historically, to see and to experience in these cities. So that was something we had to learn and navigate. It was kind of different.

Meagan:

Yeah, I never experienced before.

Jacquelyn:

You really have to balance it quite a bit

Meagan:

Which has taught me more about being in the moment. And it's taught me how to go with the flow, so it's made me better at traveling with other people. Yeah, because sometimes you may have all these agendas that you want to do and that you think that you need to get done, but you're like, hey, this is special and important to that person. Yeah, and you're so cool with it because you're going, oh, let's just do that or yeah okay, and then I kind of want to do this.

Meagan:

And just makes you more balanced and well-rounded with the travel pressures and stuff

Jacquelyn:

It really really does.

Meagan:

Yeah, it's maybe that's a whole other topic.

Jacquelyn:

Yes, we are. We're actually wanting to do an episode on like kind of the ins and outs of you know what nomad life was like and the ups and downs and and just kind of walk you through that. Cause it's a, it's an interesting perspective. Honestly. It's a different kind of experience, for sure, I mean

Meagan:

It's really special.

Jacquelyn:

It is, it's it's so worth it. Um, every single bit was worth it. But of course, there are hard parts, as we like to highlight. You know, because life is real and it gets real and there are real parts of it that, even in the best of things that you're doing, there's going to be things that you're like, okay, like, oh, I feel a little guilty, right now

Meagan:

New tally: How many times did I cry? Let's do a whole episode on how many times did Meagan cry in this city?

Jacquelyn:

Hey, I cried too. I cried too. I definitely had my moments. We both did, because it's real life.

Meagan:

Yeah, it's real life.

Jacquelyn:

Turbulence expected. Right, I mean, there we go. We just tie it all in with the title right. But that is it for today. That is our episode. So we are so happy that you stuck around to listen and hear us talk about South of France and Dublin and we truly are so appreciative of you taking the time to tune in and listen, like truly appreciative.

Meagan:

We really appreciate it. It's been so fun to do this

Jacquelyn:

Yeah, it has

Meagan:

And now you're getting a little bit of a singing. I mean, you don't even know what's next. We don't even know what's next?

Jacquelyn:

We should start charging for the singing.

Meagan:

We should, we should start coming up with little jingles.

Jacquelyn:

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Meagan:

That was atrocious, by the way.

Meagan:

I can sing better than that, guys. I hope you don't think that's how I sing

Jacquelyn:

Me too me too me too

Meagan:

Jacq, definitely can I maybe I probably can't.

Jacquelyn:

No, we both can do better, but that's all we'll give you okay.

Meagan:

Thank you so much for tuning in again and we are so excited for the next one.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jacq Girling

Co-host
Head Shot

Meagan Inafuku

Co-host