MY FAVOURITE TRAVEL MOMENTS OF 2015

2015 has been a great year full of memories I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. There’s nothing I enjoy more than flicking through old photos and remembering exactly how I felt at that very moment. The moment might have been and gone, but the memory will always be there to make you smile. Making memories that you can cherish forever is what life’s all about.

With that being said, here are my best travel moments of 2015 :)

1. PARTYING IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

2015 got off to a bang when I flew to Sydney on New Year's Day for a Contiki tour along the East Coast of Australia. We were staying in a hotel in Kings Cross so headed out to a local bar where things got crazy pretty quickly. Lets just say it involved a lot of alcohol, pole dancing and making lots of new friends! I can remember thinking 'oh my frigging god I'm partying in a bar in Sydney 9000 miles from home' and I literally felt like I was living my dream.

2. STROLLING THROUGH THE OLD MARKET SQUARE AS THE SUN SETS
IN LEUVEN, BELGIUM

This photo doesn't really do the moment justice, but you can get a feel of how beautiful the Old Market Square in Leuven is in my vlog here (skip to 8:30) The sun was setting, it was lovely and warm and the streets were filled with people eating, drinking and enjoying themselves. It was such a lovely atmosphere - a combination of the buzz of a city with the architecture and beauty of a small Belgian town.

3. BATHING IN THE BLUE LAGOON IN GRINDAVIK, ICELAND

An obvious choice! What's not to like about chilling in 38 degree water sipping rosé whilst the sun sets behind you?

4. DRINKING GOON ON THE BEACH AT SURF CAMP IN COFFS HARBOUR, AUSTRALIA

You've probably seen this photo 100 times before but it's honestly one of my favourite photos ever! It sums up exactly how perfect that evening was... sat on the beach with new friends, watching the sun set, drinking goon and just feeling completely content. We then got extremely drunk whilst playing drinking games and spent the night partying on the beach. Absolute heaven!

5. TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS & DRINKING WINE IN OUR DRESSING GOWNS

IN CHESHIRE, UK

As much as I love going abroad, I've had some equally amazing moments throughout 2015 at home in the UK! Me and my uni gals try and meet up as often as we can, so in the summer we all went to Emily's house for a BBQ and spent the evening sat around her outdoor fireplace (which is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!) toasting marshmallows and drinking wine. It was honestly one of the loveliest evenings I've ever had!

6. HAVING A BBQ AFTER SWIMMING IN LAKE MCKENZIE ON

FRASER ISLAND, AUSTRALIA

After a relaxing afternoon swimming in Lake McKenzie on the stunning Fraser Island, my Contiki tour group were led to a private area for a BBQ lunch. For some reason, I always remember this moment as being an absolutely perfect way to end a very special day. I love crystal clear water, I love 30 degree weather and I love BBQ's, so I was completely in my element!

7. WHITE WATER RAFTING DOWN THE TULLY RIVER IN CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

I think this photo pretty much sums up why white water rafting down the Tully River in Cairns is one of my favourite travel moments of 2015! I loved the adrenaline of feeling like you were going to fall out of the dingy on the grade 4 rapids, but equally loved floating around in the tranquil water surrounded by some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen in my life.

8. RIDING AROUND LANGMORN STATION ON A TRAILER
IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

I'm sure you're beginning to notice that the majority of my favourite travel moments of 2015 are from my trip to Australia! I was there for 2 weeks and, as it was a holiday of a lifetime, I did pretty much every activity there was to do! So it's not surprising that I made a lot of amazing travel memories :) One of my favourites is riding on the back of a tractor around Langmorn Station wearing cowboy hats and drinking vodka in true outback Aussie style!

9. CLIMBING THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE

Please excuse my Rudolf nose... the sun did not like my pale English skin haha! Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge was the one thing I always wanted to do, so I was a bit lost for words when it actually happened! I'm so glad we ended up doing a night climb as we got to see the sun set over Sydney half way up the bridge and the Sydney Opera House all lit up against the black sky at the top of the bridge - the best of both worlds!

10. SKYDIVING IN SURFERS PARADISE, AUSTRALIA

You might think that jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft having only had 3 hours sleep (oh and did I forget to mention I was still drunk as it was my birthday the night before?) sounds like hell, but trust me... DO IT.

What are your favourite travel moments of 2015?
xxx

HOW I VISITED 4 COUNTRIES IN 1 YEAR WHILST WORKING FULL TIME

Don't you just love how unpredictable life is?

A spontaneous trip to Australia in January is where it all started.

From that moment on, I was determined to travel. I made it my mission to see as much of the world as I could on a graduate salary and 27 days holiday.

In March, my mum and I went to Paris, France to celebrate her birthday and my new job. In August, me and my friends went to Brussels, Belgium to visit a friend we met in Australia. In October, two of my friendship groups joined together for a winter getaway to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Visiting multiple countries in one year isn't actually as difficult as people think. If anything, the most difficult thing is finding people to go with. Luckily that problem was eradicated for me when I met my 'travel friends' (as I like to call them) in Australia at the beginning of the year. If I hadn't have met them, there's absolutely no way I would have had the adventures I've had this year. I was extremely lucky to meet a group of people who share the same desire to travel as I do, and who are in exactly the same boat as me when it comes to working/studying full time. Trust me, it can be done!

So, if you're lucky enough to have a partner, family member, best friend or group of friends you can go away with - grab the bull by the horns and do it!

TRAVEL. LIVE LIFE.

If not, don't panic! This is how I visited 4 countries in 1 year whilst working full time...

1. DON'T WASTE YOUR ANNUAL LEAVE

27 days + bank holidays (the amount I get) might sound like a lot, but stretch it over the course of a year and you'll find that it runs out very quickly. I've purposely been very sensible with mine. Want a 4 day mini break to Paris? Don't book 4 days off - that's a waste. Go over the weekend so you only have to take the Friday and the Monday off. I flew to Brussels and back in just 2 DAYS and only needed the Friday off work. Trust me, you don't need as much time off as you think you do! Save your annual leave for a time when you'll really need it. There's nothing worse than needing a good holiday but not being able to book one because you've used all of your holidays!

Alternatively, if you HAVE to use up your annual leave by a certain date - make the most of it! Don't sit at home being bored (everyone else will be at work and daytime TV really isn't that great...) Use that precious time off to visit a new country because, lets be honest, who would choose to stay in the UK when they don't have to?

2. EUROPE IS CHEAP - MAKE THE MOST OF IT!

Granted, it isn't as cheap as Asia but still... Europe is so affordable! We're lucky that us Brits live so close to mainland Europe that it literally costs nothing to hop on a flight or jump on the Eurostar and we're there. I'm pretty sure my trips to Paris and Brussels cost no more than £200 (return transport and accommodation) for 2 nights, which ANYONE can save if they put their minds to it. Trust me when I say hostels and airbnb are the way forward! Don't bother with overpriced hotels - they aren't worth it. If you're going away to enjoy yourself and have fun, chances are you won't be spending a lot of time in your room anyway. I'd much rather rough it in a hostel for a couple of nights than pay an extra £100 for complimentary shampoo and conditioner that I won't use.

As for flights, always fly from London. Yes it may be inconvenient getting up at 3am to get the 4 hour coach down to Heathrow (you don't even wanna know how many times I've done that journey), but again it will save you a bomb on flights compared to flying from your local airport (East Midlands why so expensive?!) Do your research and you'll soon realise how cheap holidays to Europe can be.

3. NO ONE WILL GO WITH YOU? GO ALONE!

This decision was the best one I've ever made. You might have the time off work, you might have the money... but oh no! You have no one to go with. I think this is something that holds a lot of people back from travelling as much as they want to. A lot of the time you can't rely on other people because everyone is off living their own lives and have their own schedules that will never match up with yours. You're skint when they have money... they're going back to uni when you have money... you both have money but want to go to different countries. It really is impossible. As I said, if you're lucky enough to have someone to travel with then you're already halfway there! But if you don't, there's nothing stopping you from going on your own! There are SO many tour groups out there and, although they're not for everyone, going on a Contiki tour to Australia was the best thing I've EVER done in my whole entire life! Read about my trip to the land down under here

4. JUST BOOK IT!

One of my pet peeves is hearing people go on and on about how much they want to go somewhere, yet they never actually book anything! What is stopping you? If you can get the time off work/uni and have money saved up (which everyone is capable of doing! Read my tips here) then you've got yourself a winning formula! When my manager at New Look said I could have 3 weeks off to go to Australia, the first thing I did when I finished my shift was go to STA Travel to book my flights. £1200 gone just like that, but I didn't bat an eyelid because it was something I really wanted.

Don't say... do. I could reel off a million and one travel quotes from Pinterest right now but I'll try and refrain myself. But honestly, anything is possible if you put your mind to it :)

xxx

THE TRAVEL POST / BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (& I ACTUALLY VLOGGED!)

My friends Polly and Connor (who I met in Australia) and I went to Brussels a couple of weeks ago on a weekend getaway to visit our friend Bruno (who we also met in Australia). Polly and Connor are just as obsessed with travel as I am so it was basically an excuse to visit a new country whilst having a mini reunion with everyone. My friend lives opposite Nottingham Coach Station so I stayed at hers the night before as I was up on Friday morning for the 6.30am coach to Heathrow. The 5.30am wake up call wasn't fun but I wanted to make sure I was at the airport extra early just in case we hit traffic on the way down. Luckily everything ran on time so I had a couple of hours to kill at the airport before Polly and Connor caught the train in from Portsmouth. A glass of wine at the airport followed by free wine on the plane meant that I was pretty drunk by the time we arrived in Brussels... so naturally we got the beers in as we were waiting for Bruno to pick us up. We checked in to our hostel (which was a 10 second walk from the main square in Brussels) and sipped on sangria surrounded by the stunning architecture of Grand Place. I've been to a lot of European cities but Brussels is by far the prettiest! It's not somewhere a lot of people would think to visit but I would 100% recommend it - for scenery and atmosphere!

After dinner, Bruno left us for tennis club so the 3 of us headed out on the cobbled side streets for some Belgian beer (which FYI is double the strength of English beer!) We asked around for where the best youth bars were and came across a place called Delirium which was SO good. We got chatting to these guys from London and at this point Connor had bought me about 8 beers so everything turned into a giant blur!

The next morning, we took our hungover and sleep deprived selves (8 bed dorm + snorers = NO SLEEP) to breakfast at an outdoor cafe before heading off to explore the city. Who knew the Smurfs originated from Belgium ay? I did my research before we booked the trip and knew there was a water park and place called Mini Europe we could go to so we decided to go there to make the most of the boiling hot weather we were blessed with! The water park was so much fun and had the craziest slides with triple rubber dinghy's and outdoor cannon balls (watch here)!

We went back to our hostel (which had the coolest historian themed common room!) to get ready and then Bruno drove us about half an hour out of Brussels to Leuven - the city he went to university. The place was absolutely stunning and had such a great atmosphere with tons of people sat outside eating and drinking under the sunset. We went for a lovely meal at a posh restaurant followed by a few drinks outside in the main square. It was perfect.

Bruno took us to his very swanky apartment (did I mention he's a 30 year old real estate lawyer?) for more drinks before we headed back to Brussels to pass out on our not quite as luxurious bunk beds (talk about going from a 10 to a 4...)

Our flight wasn't until the afternoon so we squeezed in some last minute sightseeing to the 'Pissing Boy' (don't ask) and bought some souvenirs from Pandora and the Belgian chocolate shop. Connor bought us all matching bracelets from the Hard Rock Cafe too which was really cute!

TOTAL COST OF THE TRIP

City centre hostel (bunk bed in an 8 bed dorm) = £22 per person per night

Flights with British Airways from LHR > BRU = £140 return

Entrance to Mini Europe + Oceade water park = £19
Spending money = UP TO YOU!

Vlogging my travels is something I've always wanted to do but unless you're 100% committed to it, it's REALLY easy to forget! I made a conscious effort to film everything when we were away in Brussels and I'm so glad I did! Just goes to show that you don't necessarily need iMovie and an expensive camera to make decent videos - an iPhone and Movie Maker can work just as well! I'm hoping to improve the quality of my videos each time I go away but let me know what you think of my first attempt!