Hey Guys,

Hope you’re all having a great week?

I never would have thought I would be writing this blog from Kilkenny- where I’ve been for the past seven weeks and counting! Who knows when I’ll get back to London, but for now I’m trying to make the most of my time at home.

So here I am, writing this post, a year after moving to London. What a fantastic year it’s been……up until Corona virus rudely interrupted! When I think back to last April- my first week of London life, I literally only knew a handful of people, I was living at a friends house in West London and I had started my first full-time job the day after I moved over!

Looking back, I am so grateful that I took the plunge to move because my friends and family all know how hard it was to make a decision before I left. But there’s no doubt in my mind that all the opportunities I have gotten, with work, my blog and through friends, have been absolutely amazing and wouldn’t have been possible in Ireland.

Fast forward 12 months and I’m living in a house in a lovely area of London with a new job that I love, working with the most amazing people… and that’s just the start of it! I absolutely love London, there’s always so much to do and see and I’m so lucky to have the best friends that make it feel like home*(my second home!).

A lot of people ask if it’s an expensive city to live in and to be honest with the prices that some of my  friends are paying in Dublin, it’s not a whole lot more! Food and coffees are relatively the same but the exchange rate does vary quite a bit so I take that into account sometimes when buying bigger purchases. I use Revolut which means I can have both my Euro and GBP accounts on the one account and it’s so easy and accessible. I suppose in general I definitely spend more than I would in Ireland, but wages are slightly higher too so it all evens out.  Even with the cost of moving to London last year, I managed to travel to Paris, Berlin (twice) and Lisbon both for work and holidays, not including all the flights home! So you can still enjoy life and not be scrimping if you have a good job. And with London being so well connected, I had planned on 2020 being my year for travelling as much as I could, but unfortunately with the current state of the world, that’s not going to be the case.

So if you’re thinking of moving abroad, whether it’s to London or not, just do it! Worst case scenario, you won’t like it and you can move home again, but at least you tried it and it was an experience. In my case, it was and still is one of the best experiences of my life and the more I stay, the more I don’t want to move home. Obviously I know I am really lucky to be able to go home whenever I want which makes it so much easier. It’s about 7 hours door to door which isn’t actually that bad and thankfully the flexibility of my job means I can WFH (in Ireland) if necessary.

Over the year so many people said to me how good London looks and that I was having such a great time, and there’s no doubt, I have been! But that’s not to say it was easy! There’s obviously times when I still get a bit homesick – it’s inevitable when your boyfriend lives in a different country. So if you are thinking about moving, don’t assume it will be all fun and games right from the start. It takes a bit of perseverance but you will get everything sorted and it’s important to remember that.

So that’t it from me for today. I would love to answer any questions if anyone is wondering what living in London is like or anything at all really!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the week!

Eva xx