Couchsurfing

I got my Couchsurfing verification postcard today and it made me think- I must do a post about Couchsurfing as it is one of the best things I have gotten in to, despite my initial fear, and has lead to me meeting some great people as well as enhancing my travel experience.

My first taste of Couchsurfing was through a friend who was hosting a few people and I went to an outdoor film festival with them. We got to know each other, swapped travel stories and I spoke to them about my future travel plans. My favourite part of the experience was meeting people who were enthused about travel as I was. I think it's experiences like these which inspire you to pursue your interest in travel and with you ultimately catching the travel bug, which then stays with you forever.

I already had a profile but had not really used it before. So I started to build it up, filling in all the sections, putting up a few photos and asking my friends to write references for me to, show I am a trustworthy sort of person. These steps came in handy when I would then go on to couchsurf myself during my time in the US.

I have to say I was nervous about going to stay with strangers at first but from their profiles they had a lot of positive references and seemed to have host many people before. I took the added procaution of telling my sister the address I'd be staying at and set off, vegan cookies in hand, for my first night of Couchsurfing.

 I stayed in a very lovely shared house, sort of like a housing co-operative really, near Cambridge in Boston. They were very hospitable, chatting to me in the evening, offering suggestions of places to go the next day and even letting me share a meal with them. My next experience of Couchsurfing in Philadelphia was equally as good. My host invited me out for her birthday dinner and took me for a beautiful walk to the art gallery.

Couchsurfing has not only been great for the actual surfing bits, but also for meet ups. I went to a couple of Couchsurfing meetings at the pub during my time living in Melbourne. They were great chilled out evenings, where everyone was friendly and wherever you sat down you became part of a conversation. It something I will use again in the future, as I'll be moving to a new city in September and it is fantastic way to meet like minded people.



Melbourne

So... The plan was to travel around Australia, starting with Melbourne and blog on all the places that I visited. I arrived in Melbourne five months ago now and apart from a couple of day trips in Victoria; a weekend road trip to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians; plus Christmas/New Years in Sydney, I have rarely left Melbourne.

I have no regrets though, I came to Melbourne and fell in love with the place. I've met amazing people, managed to score an awesome job and generally I've just had a really good time, which is hopefully going to carry on for a few months more before I leave to actually travel in Australia.

Melbourne at Night by Andy Walker

I wanted to post about some of my favourite things about this city that I love so much and for this to kick off some Melbourne related posts- travel stuff and quite a lot of vegetarian food stuff (I have been experiencing the cheap veggie eats all over the city). I have not been taking many photo's, I did not bring my good camera fearing breaking it (rookie error- you need to use your things without fear and taking photo's is something I have really missed doing here). So the photography in this post is a group effort from all the great people I have met in Melbourne, which is mainly from living at The Nunnery for 2 months and meeting a ton of people who passed through there- some who are lasting friends and who I'm sure I will cross paths with in the future.

Jake Mann

Graffiti Art:
As you're casually walking around Melbourne, you will come across a quite a variety of graffiti art adorning the walls of buildings, particularly in little lane ways, like Hosier Lane, where not an inch of wall is exposed. It is really so beautiful and reflection of what a cool arty city that Melbourne is.

Freddy Fuller

Jake Mann

Lane ways & Cafe Culture:
I must have put on about half a stone since being in Melbourne and this is credited to the fantastic food here, especially the amount of great coffee and cake. I love the little interesting lane ways which are full of little cafes and restaurants, they're so interesting and intimate.

Centre Place by J.J.Lum

Federation Square & Flinders Station:
Not everybody agrees that Federation Square is architecturally beautiful, but I disagree, I really like to contrast of it next the older buildings around it like Flinders Station. Federation Square is a brilliant meeting space, day or night it is filled with people. It also hosts a ton of free events, from festivals; to meditation and yoga classes; as well as free film screenings. I have had any happy times here and love on a sunny day just to sit in one of the deck chair, reading a book, watching the world go by.


St Kilda Beach:
Maybe not the most beautiful beach in Australia, but it's good enough for me! I love that in addition to having a brilliant city, that St Kilda beach is only a 20-30 minute tram ride away from the city centre and it also has a cool bar scene. Another little special thing about St Kilda- at dusk at the end of the pier you can so see cute little penguins coming home from a days fishing (and also a few water rats if that takes your fancy!)

  
A big thank you to everyone who helped me out with photos!!

Up Up and Away!

Today starts a new chapter in my life- where I will be taking some time off to travel and work in Australia! It's all very exciting and I'm not quite sure where things will take me- but today I am starting my journey by flying to New York and travelling in the USA before moving on to Australia.

I will still be posting though and my blog will probably take a turn to a travel theme- at least for a little while! While I find my feet though and an internet cafe where I can blog to you from- some of my lovely blogger friends have agreed to do travel themed posts for you to enjoy and to ignite the travel bug inside you!

Tata for now!!

My Passion: Travelling

My biggest dream, over any other dream, is that I have wanted to travel and see all the world. I find the notion of being a traveller very romantic and as a child I used to dream of running away with the carnival. I am past the carnival bit now, but still the love and passion for travel is at my core. I love hearing stories of when others have managed to centre their lives around travel, even for a year or so, and wish that I could do that.

I've decided to make my passion my reality! To take a year off and to go backpacking around the world!

As you can see from the picture above, I have been doing reading around the subject of travelling and trying to get ideas and practical tips of how to make it happen. The Rough Guide book: 'First-Time Around the World' has been borrowed off a friend of mine and it has been absolutely brilliant for helping me make this big decision. This dream is also why my love of thrift has increased, although I always hope to keep my thrifty principles, these skills are very useful to learn so that I can save for this bigger goal.

I think it is easy to put off big decisions like this till 'the time is right' and to then never fulfil your dreams. Practically this isn't the most perfect time to go, I am just finishing university and could do with gaining some experience to kick-start my career. I've had some opposition from others, saying I may struggle to find work when I am back due to competing with new graduates, which may be true. However, I have this overwhelming feeling that if I don't do this now, I never will, because there is never an ideal time to take a year off work and additional commitments may make it seem like an impossible task in the future.

I am very much looking forward to the idea of living out of a rucksack, feeling very free, seeing new things and meeting new people. I hope that I can blog my way around the world too and also meet some international bloggers!

My rough plan is to keep it simple, flexible and stay places longer; I'm thinking of getting a round the world airplane ticket. I'd like to go to the USA (so any tips of where to visit will be greatly appreciated); I'd like to work/travel in Australia or New Zealand (recommendations of which would also be greatly appreciated) and then to go around South East Asia, which I am receiving a lot of advice from my close friend A as well as borrowing his travel book!

I'd love to hear what your dreams are? - I honestly believe you can make them reality with a bit of hard work!

New York!

It has been a pretty long time since I last posted and this has been for a multitude of reasons. First I was ill, I had a horrendus cold/flu/cough/chest problem, which really knocked me out for a little while and as it happened around the time of my birthday, I didn't get much chance to stop and fight it so it lingered around. Secondly, it was my 21st birthday on 1st June, yay!! Lots of celebrating had to be done so I was partying and doing family stuff and being quite ill at the same time. Then, the day after my birthday for my summer holiday I went to New York for 11 nights, which was fantastic and I have only really just got back!

I thought I would do a post on New York, which will hopefully be interesting seeing as though I haven't blogged in a while. I very much intended to be very blog orientated in New York, I had a new camera in tow as well and I wanted to review vegetarian restaurants and ethical boutiques, but I didn't stick to this. I'm just not disciplined enough and when someone puts tasty food in front of me, I eat it before taking photos. So one round up post is unfortunately all I can post! I did love it and I will have to go back soon to document the best veggie and ethical places in New York.

First day in NY on 3 hours sleep

Statue of Liberty Trip

Trying to look good in the heat @ Statue of Liberty

The view from our hotel's rooftop garden

GIANT Chinese takeaway and NBA finals! Woop Dallas!

In a cool spot on the hottest day of the holiday

Foggy view from the Empire State Building

Veggie Sushi: Yum Yum

Yummy Magnolia Bakery: NY has the best food!!

Beautiful structure of the Guggenheim

Not looking good in the rain

More fog, but my favourite view from the Rockafella

Times Square at night

From the car park when we got home. It's so fun seeing them take off!

Photo Diary of Wales Trip!

Cardiff

Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time here, I'd like to go back and look at the castle and parks. There is good shopping there though, I loved the shopping arcades, RB loved all the rugby shops. We saw some of the newer architecture of Cardiff: The Millennium Stadium and Millennium Centre. In the evening we had a drink on Mermaid Quay, looking out onto the water.

Pembroke Dock

There didn't seem to be a lot in Pembroke Dock. We went to visit because some of RB's family are from there and one of my ancestors is buried in the Military Cemetery. Apparently it is a hidden gem of Pembroke Dock, it is very well hidden indeed, but its a pretty quite place.

Tenby

This pretty seaside town has a harbour and two beaches. I loved the pretty colourful houses, I would like a little terrace that is pink! The beaches are beautiful and we had lots of fun playing on them.

Carew Castle

An absolutely beautiful castle. We stopped on the way back to the campsite so we couldn't go in but it looked so lovely from the outside.

Freshwater East

We stopped here for a look on the beach and it was lovely.

Off to Wales!

I shall be going off the Wales for the next week-ish for my last break before uni. I have been a lucky girl this summer and had quite a few breaks away! Me and RB are off to Cardiff and then we're going to Pembrokeshire camping in the cold weather.

Lake Garda!!

I have just come back from Lake Garda and it was wonderful! It is honestly one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, so I thought I would share it with you! I went to Torri Del Benaco which is so gorgeous and amazing. I got invite to to C and I's wedding, C is RB's sister and I is her now husband! They got married in the Torri Del Benaco Castle in the Lemon Groves, it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to, I will do another blog soon with some of the wedding outfits. I am going to approach this systematically and look at the place, then food and then clothes!

Torri Del Benaco is just up the coast from Bardolino and Garda, it is sort of a small town/village which is on the lake. Our hotel looked out onto the lake and we had a beautiful view onto the lake from our balcony.
These are views of the lake from Torri Del Benaco, how gorgeous is this? We sat an ate our dinner looking at this view most evenings.

This is a day trip we went to Garda and Bardolino. We went to Garda and had a look around and some lunch, before walking along the coast to Bardolino. We did a spot of shopping and I got some Bardolino wine for souvenirs and a really pretty snake bike lock, which I thought was amazing.

We got the boat back from Bardolino to Garda and this is a view across the lake.

We also went to Verona for the day which was about an hour and a half bus ride away, I really wanted to go to Verona because I love Romeo & Juliet. This is a picture of the town from the main square.

We went to see Juliet's balcony and we wrote on the wall nearby as this is meant to bring you everlasting love. Ours is the small thick lined red heart towards the top.

This is a picture of Verona Coliseum, where they have operas on. It is pretty much complete and is absolutely beautiful, inside and out! It was amazing to go in and think about what used to take place there and how it would have been bustling like people.

This is another picture of the main square, all the canopy's you can see are little restaurants.

I found the food pretty good while we were in Italy, and this is one of the meals that we went out for. To start I had Caprese, which I like to make it England because it is so yummers! I had a gorgeous balsamic glaze on it.

Me and RB then had a few mains between us to share. Tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, spaghetti with chili, garlic and olive oil and a pizza but it had raw ingredients on top, which we weren't used to, but we thought it was amazing.

Now onto clothes! It was pretty hot in the daytime, so I wore main shorts and vest! These are some new shorts from Howie's that I wore on a day when we were going swimming in the lake. I am wearing a nautical bikini underneath.

I have blogged this dress before, which is by Reko, but I thought it looked like a beautiful picture with the lake behind me.

This is on our day trip to Verona, also a very hot day so I wore a vest top and new shorts from American Apparel.

Finally, the best outfit of the trip! My outfit for C & I's wedding! This beautiful pink dress from Oasis, with metallic accessories!