This month flew by! All in all, May has been busy with work and busy squeezing in a few trips around that. Here’s what I got up to this month!

Where I Went

York, Nottingham, Drigg, Wasdale, Scafell Pike, Eskdale, Hardknott Pass, Ambleside, Loughrigg Fell, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Brougham, Brough, Higham, Bolsover (United Kingdom)

Best Moments

A spontaneous weekend trip to the LAKES! Last Tuesday, I found out that I’d have the entire weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) off work—so we found an Airbnb and decided we’d have a last-minute adventure to the Lake District! And what an amazing weekend it was. We visited a lot of places that were completely new to me, did some amazing hikes, and just in general enjoyed the amazing weather. It was fantastic. (Check out my post on Airbnb here, and sign up for Airbnb here and get £25 or US Dollars equivalent off your stay!)

Hiking up Scafell Pike and Loughrigg Fell. Of everything we did and saw in the Lake District, the hikes up Scafell Pike and Loughrigg Fell were definitely highlights, although for different reasons. At 978 meters, Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England, and the highest I’ve ever been! It was a tough walk up, but fantastic to (finally) cross off my first of Britain’s Three Peaks—especially since I had to turn back from Snowdon in February.

Loughrigg Fell was a much shorter hike (only about 335 meters up), but the views around the area were stunning. You could see Rydal, Grasmere, Windermere, Coniston, Loughrigg Tarn, and more. It was very different from the hike up Scafell, but another fantastic experience! I would definitely recommend this as a good medium-level hike in the Lakes.

Visiting old and new places in the Lakes. Besides Scafell Pike and Loughrigg Fell, I loved seeing Wast Water and Eskdale, and visiting the Castlerigg Stone Circle again. I loved literally everything about this weekend. I’m so grateful I was able to get 2 days off to enjoy it!

Seeing my friends in Nottingham. I managed to have 36+ hours from all my jobs during the first weekend of May (a long weekend here in the UK), and went to Nottingham to see my friends. I had a blast hanging out with them, enjoying the sunshine, going to Taco Bell, having picnics and just spending time together. I am so lucky to have some truly wonderful friends, and it meant so much that I got to see them, even though it was for just a short time. I really want to make going back to Nottingham a priority as I go forward with travel plans this year, so hopefully I’ll get there at least once more before the end of the year!

Springtime in York. The city is absolutely glorious in the spring. The weather has been getting warmer and sunnier, the flowers are in full bloom now, and I just love it. My favorite place to enjoy the sun? Museum Gardens—especially if you bring a picnic!

The Harry Potter tours are going well! As I’ve said before, one of my (many) part-time jobs is running Harry Potter tours in York. This month I did 3 tours, and they all went really well! I feel like I’m really improving, and getting a lot more confident with them. I’ve also gotten a few good reviews, which always makes my day! If you’re looking to book a Harry Potter tour in York, you can book on See Your City here. Use the code “MAJA30” for a 30% discount!

Days off in York. In case you hadn’t noticed, I love living in York. It is such a fantastic city, and I had an especially great day off the other weekend. I visited the Nice Cream Factory on Fossgate for nitrogen ice cream (highly recommend), discovered a secret garden with Minster views in the always-closed York Medical Society, and just in general enjoyed experiencing new things in a city I know well. There is always something happening in York!

A nice trip to Derbyshire and the Peaks. This last weekend, I actually had the public holiday off work like the rest of the world, so Adam and I met up with some of his family in Derbyshire. It was a really nice day, and nice meeting new family members! We stopped by Bolsover Castle on the way back, which was really fantastic—especially in the sunshine. It was a really nice day off!

An amazing month for the blog! I’ve more than tripled my monthly blog views since December. My goal for May was to hit 3,000 monthly views—and at the end of the month, I had over 3,400 views!! This has been a HUGE leap and has meant so much to me. I really feel like I’m (finally) getting somewhere with the blog, which is so exciting!

I finally started my Pinterest! You heard it right—your girl is finally on Pinterest! It’s been a long time coming, but I realized I needed to get serious with Pinterest a few months ago, and finally put that into a reality this May. Send me your tips and give me a follow here!

Big news coming soon. I’ve got some really good, AMAZING, news to share, but I can’t share it quite yet! It will change a lot of things about my life, and I’m nervous but excited. I can’t wait to share with you all!

Worst Moments

Working a lot. Juggling 3 jobs is not easy. Generally, I’m working 6 days a week (and running the blog on top of that). In all reality, that just doesn’t leave much time for anything else. It’s also been very stressful trying to figure out schedules and availability, and which job I’ll be working when. I’m hoping that as things go forward, it’ll get easier. But it’s not easy, and sometimes all I want is to be able to have a weekend off like a normal person (which I had this month!!).

The shower broke. While luckily we got it fixed and working again, there were a few days there where our shower wasn’t working. It is a big hassle to go to a nearby friend’s house and shower (thanks Lisa!), which thankfully wasn’t for long. It’s been more or less fine since then, but it was a major downer this month.

The fridge/freezer broke too. Unlike the shower, this problem wasn’t able to be fixed, and so we had to get a new one. Luckily, we rent and our landlord paid for it! But we were without a fridge/freezer for one week, and it was a miserable and expensive week. I never thought about just how much I take refrigeration for granted, until suddenly I couldn’t put my leftovers in the fridge the next day, or have cereal with milk in the morning! We got a new one on Sunday and so far it’s been great.

My train journey to Nottingham. Trains in Britain are honestly pathetic. They never run on time, they cost an absolute fortune (even if you have a railcard, and even if you travel at off-peak times!!), and you just can’t depend on them. The train situation in this country has worsened significantly since I studied abroad 4-5 years ago. On my most recent train journey to Nottingham, my second train was cancelled. I had to get a train to Chesterfield, where instead of waiting about 10 minutes, I had to wait over 30 minutes, since the first train to Nottingham was delayed by an hour. I ended up getting into Nottingham over half an hour late. While it’s not the end of the world, it is such a massive inconvenience. And it is just one more reminder that you can’t rely on trains in this country to run on time and get you where you need to go.

Hiking mountains is hard. Doing Scafell Pike was really physically difficult for me. While the hike up was hard, I had a much harder time coming down and putting so much pressure on my knees. I have a bad right knee, and so I really struggled at times, and had to take it really slow. It was definitely worth it though!

Posts Published

I’ve been busy this month, and definitely haven’t published as much as I’d have liked! I still have content from my spring trips to Belgium and the Baltics to come, as well as more on the adventures I’ve had in the meantime. Here’s what I published this month:

How Much Does It Cost To Spend 4 Days In Belgium?

A Daytrip To Antwerp

What To Do With 1 Day In Helsinki

The 12 Best Daytrips From London

Hostel Review: Knight House Hostel, Tallinn

Instagram Top 3

I’ve really been slowed down with Instagram with how busy I’ve been this month. And for some reason, I’m not able to embed my top photos, so you’ll just have to pop over to my account and see which ones were the most popular here!

Coming Up in June

June is going to be another busy month, and I probably won’t have much time for adventures. As of now, I have essentially no plans this month! I hope to visit a few places around Yorkshire on my days off. The most exciting part of June will be my Canadian friend visiting for a few days next week. We haven’t seen him since he visited last November, so it’ll be great to have a friend visiting York again! As I mentioned before, I’ve got big news coming that I can’t wait to share—but it’ll have to wait just a few more days!