If it isn’t already obvious, I’m a big fan of vests.  In my opinion, vests are a 3-season staple.

 You can layer ’til the heart’s content, including throwing a jacket on top!  

What’s not to love?  

And if you travel (to a non-tropical destination), you’ll be so glad you threw a vest in your suitcase!

I’ll tell you a story…

Once I walked uphill for miles in the cold rain in Western Ireland, dragging my thoroughly soaked bag of clothes, crying, and thinking I might give up, lie down, and die by sheep stampede.

This is the sort of thing that happens when you’re 19 and decide to “wing it,” buy yourself a ticket to London, and hope for the best. [don’t do that]

Dublin Woes

One night I had to decide between sleeping in the Dublin train station or hopping a train to who-knows-where during a Bank Holiday.  

I called my mother, she said “what can I do?  You’ll figure it out.”  She had a point, but damn.

My parents are the type to throw you in the deep end of the pool to teach you how to swim.

Anyway, I opted to hop a train and begged a Gaelic-speaking woman to let me stay at her B&B in a town called Sligo.

And then immediately I invested in a tour group for students, hoping to avoid that situation again, which turned out to be a worse idea.

The Tour Bus from Hell

Our original bus broke down and our “replacement” was a van and trailer (seriously, we were towing a trailer full of our gear).

And it was very clear that our Australian tour guide not only had no knowledge of Ireland, but also no knowledge of driving with a hitched trailer on the narrowest winding roads I’ve ever been on.  

Think of cows in the road, high-speed turns, and F-bombs flying from the driver’s seat.

It Could Be Worse

The first night someone busted out the passenger window to steal our radio.  

So the next day, traveling across the country in driving rain, which was coming through the open window because the duct-tapped garbage bag had obviously fallen off at mile 1, I was literally sprayed in the face all day with cold rain.

When I finally got to my destination, I looked in the trailer to see that my bag was on the very bottom and laying in several inches of water, hence the thoroughly soaked clothes.

FYI, what American’s consider a tropical storm is simply the month of May in Ireland.

Life Lessons

I have about a blog’s worth of insanity from that trip alone, but I’ll stop with this last tidbit:  

Once I made it up the cliff/mountain the view was breathtaking, but I found out that the farm-house-hostel I was staying in had no heat, only a wood stove, which had no fire in it, so it was freezing!

I tried to take a hot shower, which required me to pre-heat the water for 30-minutes and I got maybe 3-minutes of lukewarm water.

So take this as a cautionary tale, pack a vest!

Plus Size Vest Outfit

Shop the look:  Plus Size Vest // Plus Size Sequin Sweater // Plus Size Plaid Shirt // Faux Fur Beanie (sold out, similar here) // Aviator Sunglasses // Handbag // Earrings // Plus Size Belt // Plus Size Jeans // Slip On Sneakers

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