My Favourite Travel Vloggers

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but this is the season when the travel bug really starts to bite me. As soon as Spring appears, I start day dreaming about all the places I could go and remembering all the ones I've visited in the past. This month my wanderlust has only been made worse by my recent discovery of travel vloggers on youtube. These vloggers go anywhere and everywhere and capture the world in beautiful detail. I can't stop watching their videos and so I thought I'd share my favourites with you, so that you can armchair travel and marvel at the World as well:

1. Hey Nadine

What I like about Hey Nadine:

Hey Nadine has been to 5 continents and over 40 countries [I'm envious of the number of countries she's been to, and I'm working on catching up], so even though she's only in her mid twenties she's a very experienced traveller. Her videos reflect the way that a lot of young people like to travel - for instance Nadine often travels on organized tours with the tour operator Contiki, who specialize in adventure travel for 18 to 35s. As a result of this, Nadine can  often be seen doing interesting outdoor activities such as zorbing, zip-lining down a mountain or deep sea diving, which makes for fun viewing. I really love her can do attitude and enthusiasm, and her openness to trying new things - she's always the first in her group to eat unusual food for instance. Her travel videos are contemporary, colourful, and never boring, and often have great music accompanying them like in the one above. She makes me want to get on a plane. Now.

2. Sonia's Travels

What I like about Sonia's Travels

Sonia is incredibly practical about travel, and I love practical people [because I like to think that's one of my best traits]. If you need travel advice about anything [and I mean anything] from how to pack to how to save money on flights then Sonia should be your go to person. I also like the fact that Sonia can speak five languages [she really gets involved with the locals when she travels] and the fact that she always makes the effort to learn about a new place. Sonia's videos flow at a slower pace, and as such, they really give viewers a sense of what it feels like to be there.

3. The Travel Muse

What I like about The Travel Muse

Like Sonia, The Travel Muse is very practical and she offers great tips - for instance, I particularly like her guide on how to pack for the tropics and her guide on the best places to find Asian food in L.A. Each video really seems to provide an insight into the local way of life and they look really professional. Having said that though, the travel muse doesn't sugarcoat what life is like on the road. She is all too happy to talk about the pitfalls of travelling and that makes her seem even more approachable.

4.  Migrationology

What I like about Migrationology

As someone who really enjoys eating, this youtube channel is fascinating to me. Mark's philosophy is that the best way to experience a new culture is to eat its food, and I'm inclined to agree. Mark loves street food and he eats likes the locals do - you won't find him in a Macdonalds or a Burger King unless there's really nothing else. Watching his videos lets me see food I've never dreamed of - and eating or even looking at new foods is one of my favourite ways of exploring. I like that Mark isn't afraid of slumming it either, for whilst he does occasionally visit five star restaurants, more often than not you'll find him on a street corner chomping away in the middle of chaos, which makes his travels seem really authentic.

 

Wanderlust

My Book of Birthdays, says that February 19th is the birthday of wanderlust, and people born on this day love to travel and have new experiences. This is certainly true of me. However much I love living in London, there's always a part of me wanting to go off and visit somewhere I've never been, and so I thought I'd share my top ten places I'd really love to visit [in no particular order]:

1. Finland

I love Northern climes, perhaps because I'm always physically a couple of degrees warmer than most people seem to be - in Summer, I often feel too hot and uncomfortable, so I'm attracted to places that most people associate with Winter. I also want to go to Finland, because it makes me think of one of my favourite fairytales, The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.

2. Greece

Greece appeals to me, because I suffer a little from islomania, which means that I love islands. The idea of hopping from island to island, finding new treasures on each one sounds like the perfect holiday [although it might be too hot for the likes of me!]

3. Tokyo

I want to go here because I think it's the closest I can get to visiting another planet - I just think it would be so different to what I'm used to. I think it would be a fascinating treat for my mind - incredibly stimulating.

4. Singapore

I primarily want to go here for the food - I love trying new foods [although no insects please] and Singapore is famous for having a huge variety of different types of cuisine. Yum!

5. Estonia

One of the reasons I love Europe so much is that there are numerous magical looking cities just waiting to be explored. Eastern Europe in particular has an edgy energy that Western Europe lacks [although I like both] and given how much I enjoyed visiting Riga and Krakow, I think I would also enjoy visiting their sister city Talinn, which has beautiful architecture.

6.  Sweden

When I think of Sweden, I think of running through meadows picking flowers [is that just me?]. I think this Alpine wonderland would be a breath of fresh air [literally] after months in my lovely but polluted city.

7. Bruges

Since I live in a great big behemoth of a city, I like cities that are easy to walk across and Bruges is tiny so it fits the bill. Plus it's absolutely stunning, and I can get the Eurostar there [if I change at Brussels] so it's very accessible as well.

8. Luxembourg

I want to go here primarily because it's novel. Despite being a lovely little country, Luxembuorg isn't on many people's travel lists - which is precisely why it's on mine - even though it's easy for me to get to, it's feels like its somehow off the beaten path...it's not a must -see destination for most people, but I think it looks charming!

9. Bali

Yes, this is a result of watching [and reading] Eat, Pray, Love. It seems like such a free-spirited and bohemian place that I feel drawn to it like a magnet.

10. Alaska

I loved the rugged countryside of canada's national parks and I think the wilderness of Alaska would be even more wild. I think there's something innate in all of us that makes us stand still in the face of natural beauty, and I think Alaska would leave me breathless.

I can't wait to go travelling again - but luckily for me I'm jetting off to Switzerland soon! Happy travels everyone...

Life after travel

It's a been a while since I posted anything on here, and there's two reasons for this. Firstly, for the last three weeks of my trip, I had virtually no access to the internet [news just in - there are no internet cafes to be found in North America anymore because everyone has a smart phone....apart from me!] and also I was so busy, I didn't really have time to sit down and contemplate life, the way I usually do.

Secondly, even though I have been home for two weeks it's taken me a while to get back into my usual routine of writing every week, because my normal routine has undergone a lot of changes recently, and it's taking me a while to adjust. Besides, part of me is still in travelling mode; whilst I am glad to be back in London, [it's so lovely having my bed back for one thing] there are certain things I miss about being on the road:

1. Meeting new people on a regular basis

I do meet new people when I'm out and about in London, but not that frequently. When I was travelling, every day felt like an adventure because I never knew I was going to meet. Even when I was travelling with my friends, I still stumbled across a whole range of characters that I wouldn't normally meet such as an overly aggressive exhibition attendant or an exceptionally kind hostel receptionist. The longer I travelled, the more it seemed I came into contact with interesting people.

Just one of the intriguing people I met whilst on holiday...

2. Living in the moment

When you're travelling, you have to make a lot of tiny decisions throughout the day, and making these decisions can really help you live in the present, because when one is at home, there is a tendency to just do things on autopilot. It's invigorating deciding where to eat, what to visit, who to hang out with - each decision, whether good or bad gives you a sense of control over your life. You are doing what you want to do, you're not following orders. You don't have to be anywhere at a particular time, you don't have to do anything, the way each day unfolds is up to you.

    

This breakfast was a good decision!

3. Going Outside of My Comfort Zone

I tried a lot of new things this summer, some of which I absolutely loved and would do again without hesitation, such as jet boating, and some things that I loathed such as eating haggis, but either way each time I tried something new I was expanding my comfort zone a little further and it felt good to be pushing myself in this way. I felt like I was growing in confidence a little each time I tried something I hadn't before, and I look forward to that feeling of empowerment on my next trip, wherever that may be.

I love jet boating, even if it makes me look like a Teletubby

4. Seeing new scenery

I love to explore. I make a point to visit different places even when i'm at home or at work. In fact one of my most annoying traits is that I'd much rather go somewhere new than revisit the same places again and again, though I do have a few old standbys that I return to when I'm feeling lazy. When I was travelling, everywhere was new to me. I loved not knowing what was around each corner, loved that I hadn't walked the streets before, loved that I didn't know what was coming - I could only imagine what I was going to see and experience. it's the same feeling I get when I'm reading a new book; I don't know what's going to happen to the characters....I can only guess, and I like that element of surprise, though at times I did get homesick because nothing was familiar.

You don't get views like this in London...

Emotions are accentuated when you travel. When I travelled I felt frustrated, bewildered, curious, joyful, lonely, bored and uplifted, but above all I felt alive. I wasn't just living my life on repeat [although to be fair, there is a lot of variety to be found in my job and home life] and I was experiencing everything more fully than I often do at home. This trip showed me just a glimpse of what the World has to offer, and I'm hungry to go back out there and do it all again!   

Greetings from Zakopane!

I did promise more pics of Northumberland [and they are coming! but in the mean-time, I thought I would briefly update you on my time in Poland - I'm going to sum up each day in a small paragraph or less, no overtly detailed travelogues here!]

 I arrived very late on Sunday, got lost around the bus station, wandered around for a bit like a loon, until I gave in and got a taxi. Turns out my hostel was only about 10 mins walk away, but I never would have found it, given my lack of proper directions. The hostel was a bit strange - it didn't have any curtains, nor did it have locks on the shower. I kept expecting people to barge in and catching getting dressed or washing myself, but fortunately they didn't.

No curtains?

 On Monday, I just walked about, getting the lay of the land, and actually went to the cinema, and saw the film Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson [it was a bit of a ridiculous film if I'm honest, but nonetheless entertaining]. I like going to the cinema in foreign countries, I find it infinitely more enjoyable than going in the UK, as foreign cinemas tend to be a lot smaller and people tend to be better behaved in them. I spent the evening chatting to American and Canadian travellers in the hostel common room. The Canadian asserted that he wasn't 'travelling, he was living'; which was a statement I found both amusing and inspiring.

A small cinema full of well-behaved people.

On Tuesday, I did a free city walking tour around Krakow [always a great way to meet fellow travellers]. The tour was very interesting, consisting of lots of local knowledge and local legends about dragons/ people dying by arrows. I met a boy from The Netherlands, and an Australian guy and we grabbed Western food in a cafe clearly aimed at the likes of us. In the evening I met the boy from the Netherlands in A polish jazz bar [Polish jazz is very good, the language meshes well with the music] and then he introduced me to more people from the Netherlands, who partied very hard indeed!

I promise the walking tour was fun, I don't know why these people look bored...

On Wednesday I was slightly the worse for wear, but I was due in Zakopane [ a famous ski resort in the winter months] so I took a bus directly there from Krakow. I spent the afternoon recovering from the night before [oh dear!] by napping, and then I went for a walk that seemed to go on for hours and involved lots of scary dogs barking at me!

My Zakopane hostel - a good place to recover!

On Thursday, I headed up to a local campsite, which was about 5km from the town of Zakopane. I ended up getting drenched, walking in the rain the entire way. When I arrived, a very concerned looking owner of the campsite berated me for not having a coat, and she kindly leant me her umbella.
In the afternoon, I headed back into town, this time via a scary looking bus that seemed more like a mini-van. Once in town, I explored the town's markets and then took a funicular [love that word] up a mountain [sorry, not sure which mountain!] At the top of the mountain, there were more people hawking their wares, but the views were still lovely.

A beautiful view from the top of the mountain?

On Friday, I visited two museums [one about a dead poet I'd never heard of] and one about family life in the mountains before the communist period. During Friday afternoon I felt a bit lonely, as I hadn't really met any other travellers since Tuesday night, so I decided to go back to Krakow the next day [but I left my suitcase in Zakopane as I still needed somehwere to stay until Aug 27th].

Dead Poet's house...

On Saturday, I took the bus back to Krakow and was so pleased to be there again it almost felt like coming home!. I checked into another hostel [the first time I've ever stayed somewhere without booking in advance -I will definitely do that more in future!] The plan was to meet more travellers, and within five minutes of booking in, I met an Italian guy [I didn't meet any solo female travellers all week - where are you guys?!] and we went out for coffee, at a place I had discovered earlier in the week. The Italian guy and I did another free walking tour, which was similar to the other one, but showed me the more Bohemian areas of Krakow that I hadn't seen before.On the tour I met an Australian couple, who were very concerned for my welfare, but I told them not to worry, and set about doing a mini- pub crawl with the Italian guy in tow. 

The free walking tour taking a break at Krakow's 

beautiful University.

On Sunday morning, I got up having not slept all night [someone was snoring like a buffalo in my dorm] and met two British guys in the common room. Mission of meeting people accomplished, I headed back to Zakopane, and again spent the afternoon napping.

Another good place to nap...technically this place is at a campsite, I just opted for the indoor chalet option...

Today I went to a water park and swam around outside for a bit, and then I did a mini hiking trail in the local Tatra mountains and then I came here [to Zakopane's internet cafe] to fill you in a bit! Phew...even writing that all briefly was an undertaking!

A sign about bears, which I scarily saw on my hike today!

More Polish pics to come - at the end of the trip, I'm just going to do posts with hardly any writing and lots of pictures!

National Trust Working Holiday in Northumberland!

Hello, am currently in the beautiful city of Krakow, acting like it's 1999 and writing this from an Internet cafe. Last week I took part in a National Trust Working holiday, which took place at Cragside, in Northumberland. It was hard work, but good fun [albeit incredibly muddy fun] and I met some interesting people, including a man who had done over 100 working holidays, which just goes to show how addictive some people find them. The group's main task was to clear overgrown paths around a lake, which basically meant chopping down every Rhododendron in sight, and then burning the buggers. We also had to pull reeds out of a lake, because they were threatening to take over, and chop down the odd tree to let more light in [although I must confess I was too much of a wimp to actually fell a tree myself...but I did saw through the odd branch]. Evenings were spent walking round the property like we owned the place [since the visiting public had all gone home] and playing jenga and bop-it [which I was surprisingly good at!]. We even got a day off, where we acted like extreme American tourists by seeing one island [Holy Island] two castles [Lindisfarne and Bamburgh], one seaside resort [Seahouses] and one idyllic village [Craster] in a day. Click to find out more about working holidays!

 

       Bamburgh castle

Getting ready to go in the lake...with my leader looking on. I have never looked more like my father! I only shared this because I'm committed to honesty on this blog...but I don't think I ever felt less attractive...oh well, it was at least satisyfing clearing the lake!

Yes, Cragside had a Labyrinth, a real one in which two people got properly lost!

And the labyrinth had a wizard in it, which is always good!

It was a bit spooky at night though...

As a side note, you would not believe how much of a struggle it was for me to upload these pictures following Polish instructions...oh the perks of travel! More Cragside pics to come!

I don't Enjoy Writing About Travel

My title for this blog post might be a little confusing, especially to anyone who knows me. I think most of my friends would assume that since I love reading about other people's adventures, and love travelling, therefore I would also enjoy writing about my own trips. In truth though, I find it incredibly tedious and difficult writing about my own escapades, and that's why I'll probably never be a travel writer. That's not to say that I don't jot down my thoughts when I'm on the road - I do, usually in a private notebook. However, the thoughts I tend to jot down on the road are scatty and unstructured and wouldn't be of much interest to anyone but me. Or they might be interesting to other people if something a bit saucy happened whilst I was travelling, in which case I wouldn't want to share the details anyway.

Another reason I don't like writing about my own travel experiences is because it's incredibly hard not gush if I really like a place, which makes for really boring reading. Conversely, if I don't like a place, it's even harder to be objective, and I don't want to offend people when I'm writing -  I never want it seem like I'm slagging off a country or a particular group of people, because that would not sit well with me. The final reason I don't enjoy travel writing on a personal level is because it calls for a high degree of accuracy - if you misspell a place name or give false information about a place, people tend to get really annoyed, and I'd rather not have to contend with that. I also feel that good travel writing requires a great deal of research, and to me doing research is the least enjoyable part of any kind of writing. which is why this blog consists mainly of opinion pieces like this one, or information about things that I already know something about. I do like learning about new things, and I have done research for articles on this blog, but if I'm honest, I always try to keep the level of research to a minimum, which is why I like novel and play writing best, as you can basically just make things up, and you simply can't do that with travel writing. The reason I'm telling you all this is to say that I won't be posting a proper travel diary on here whilst I'm away, as that simply doesn't sound like fun to me. I will however let you know briefly each week what I'm up to [just not in that much detail] and there will be pictures if any of you like armchair travelling, [though my Mum thinks other people's holiday pictures can be a bit dull] but I promise I will try to keep them interesting....

 

Au Revoir!

   

Every Woman's Travel Journal

My lovely friend Mimi got me this as a present for my birthday last year and I'm really looking forward to using it on my next big trip abroad. It is packed full of inspirational travel quotes from women, including quotes from famous female authors such as Jane Austen and Barbara Kingsolver. When I first recieved the book I read all the quotes back to back, and they certainly helped to ignite my wanderlust. In addition to inciteful tidbits from writers, the journal also includes packing and health tips, World maps, information about shipping,currencies and languagues, as well as an essay on writing on the road and a space to journal your own thoughts. I think it would be a useful addition to any travel aficioando's library. Click here to buy a copy.  

 

'As I passed a window, a young woman with a glowing tan and confident gaze

 stared back  at me. I was looking in a mirror'. Madeleine Cary.

'Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely 

lengthens the conversation'. Elizabeth Drew.