WHY I DECIDED TO GO HOME AFTER 9 MONTHS OF TRAVEL

No one in their right mind would choose to go home after weeks, months or even years of travelling unless they absolutely had to. I guess the most common reasons for going home are a) you've run out of money or b) your visa has run out or you have commitments at home like a job to go back to. Yes it's normal to get homesick and it can make you want to go home, but usually backpackers tend to stick it out and the pulls from home ease with time. So why did I decide to go home when I didn't have to?

My Australian working holiday visa was still valid for another 7 months, I had no time constrictions, plenty of money in the bank, plenty of friends and it was easy peasy to find a job. A few of my friends couldn't understand why I wanted to go home when I was in a better situation than most, but the truth is... I was fed up.

I'll start from the beginning. My first 4 months of travelling were amazing. My savings took me to Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, the Australian outback and New Zealand and aside from giving up my time to do a bit of volunteering, my time was completely my own and I had no commitments whatsoever. It was 4 months straight of partying, exploring and meeting new friends. IT. WAS. WILD.

Of course all of this partying comes at a price and in 4 months I'd spent around 70% of my savings. I had enough money to continue travelling but I knew it wouldn't last long and I was nowhere near ready to go home, so I decided to get a working holiday visa for Australia. After 4 months of enjoying myself I was more than ready to slow down and commit to working full time - that was until I ended up living and working at a hostel.

For the first 2 months things were great. I met a guy (who just so happened to be a party animal and a big drinker) and before I knew it a huge group of us were going out every night and I was so content being smitten that work became less and less of a priority. I even called in sick one day cause I'd been invited on a road trip to the Great Ocean Road, and there was another occasion where I had an interview for an amazing office job but decided to turn up smashed because I'd drank too much the night before. As irresponsible as that was, I don't regret any of my decisions because those first 2 months in Melbourne were so much fun - which at the end of the day is the most important thing.

When I finally decided to get my act together and dedicated myself to working as many hours as physically possible, that's when everything started to go downhill. I'll talk more about my job situation in another post, but at one point I was working 3 jobs and basically ended up running myself into the ground. I wasn't getting a lot of sleep, I wasn't partying as much or having as much fun and getting treated like shit at one of my jobs was slowly taking its toll on me. Over time I noticed my mood was changing and it basically got to the point where I couldn't pull myself out of it. I eventually quit one of my jobs so I had more time to enjoy myself and to see if it would improve my mood, but the damage had already been done.

A period of transition was also taking place at the hostel I'd lived and worked at for 4 months, which definitely played a factor in why my mood was so low. The hostel used to go through 'waves' of new guests and new employees every few months as people would inevitably leave to move into flats or move to a new city/country. When I first started working there, they had just taken on an influx of new staff after the last lot had left (including the guy I was seeing) so we all bonded and formed an instant friendship group that lasted a good few months. But when everyone slowly started to leave, the whole mood of the hostel changed and it stopped being as fun and exciting as it once was. Dare I say... it became boring. We knew there would be an influx of newbies soon, but as my mood was already low from everything else that was happening, I knew I needed a fresh start so decided to move to Brisbane.

Turns out, Brisbane didn't make me happy either. If anything, it made me even more miserable. There aren't as many job opportunities in Brisbane because there isn't much of a backpacker scene and it's a smaller city compared to Sydney and Melbourne. So although I found it easy to get a job in hospitality (2 in fact, although the hours were ridiculously low), that wasn't what I wanted at the time. I was dying for an office job that paid well and would give me a stable routine with my evenings and weekends free, but it was honestly impossible. I didn't leave 3 jobs in hospitality with good hours to work another hospitality job with rubbish hours.

Me and my friend Russell (who I moved there with) also found it hard to make friends because Brisbane isn't really a place where backpackers stay long term - it's more of a stop gap between popular destinations like Byron Bay and Fraser Island. I knew this before I moved there, but I guess I thought I'd get a full time job quite quickly so I could move into a flat with either long term backpackers or Aussies. Because that didn't happen, I was forced to live in a hostel with a bunch of guys who were never there and a bar that never seemed to be full. It was certainly different to the party hostel I was used to back in Melbourne where it was easy peasy to make friends. It probably didn't help that I moved to Brisbane with a friend (who already had a full time job secured) because 1) he was always at work so I spent a lot of time on my own and 2) because I knew I had my friend there for back up, it made me more anti-social and less bothered about making friends of my own. So what happened? I spent most of my days feeling extremely lonely but unable to drag myself out of my room to make friends. Seeing snapchats of my friends back in Melbourne having a great time made me feel ever worse and I started to really miss them.

After numerous phone calls home and plenty of tears, I decided that Brisbane wasn't for me and there was no point sticking it out just for the sake of it. But that was when my dilemma unfolded... did I really want to go back to Melbourne? I mean, I wasn't happy there either and a lot had changed at the hostel since I'd been away. It felt like my friends had moved on. Melbourne will always feel like my second home, but part of me knew it would be different second time round and I knew I wouldn't like it. The thought of moving to Sydney or Perth didn't really appeal to me either and eventually I realised what the issue was.

I was kinda over Australia.

It didn't excite me anymore. 

I was bored of working rubbish jobs and didn't see the point in staying somewhere that wasn't necessarily making me happy anymore. My mum and dad kept repeating the same sentence: "If you aren't happy, just come home." At first I wouldn't listen - going home felt like giving up and I'm not someone who gives up when the going gets tough. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had been away for a bloody long time and it has to come to an end at some point - so maybe the 9 month mark was the right time? After all, I never set out to go to Australia on a Working Holiday Visa like a lot of people I knew did - I went away to travel. To visit different countries and experience different things. I couldn't compare my intentions with others as everyone was out there for different reasons. So yes there were people who couldn't understand why I was leaving when I still had 7 months validity left on my visa, but I knew what I left the UK for and it wasn't to set up a new life down under. In fact, the only reason I came straight home instead of continuing to travel was because of the weather in the countries I wanted to visit. I could have flown to Japan or China or the US if I wanted to, but I had my heart set on going when the weather was lovely and warm so decided to be patient instead of compromising on the experience I wanted.

So it was decided. I would spend Christmas in Byron Bay and New Year in Sydney before flying back to Melbourne for my birthday where I booked my flight home. As I predicted, everything at the hostel in Melbourne had completely changed and if I'm honest, I really didn't enjoy it. Luckily I only spent a night there before moving in to my friend's apartment, which gave me the opportunity to spend my last week exploring parts of the city I hadn't seen before and generally just staying away from the drama. Being back at the hostel, even on just a few occasions, assured me that I was making the right decision by going home and shutting the door on that chapter of my life. I wanted to leave on a high remembering the amazing time I had there with the people that shared the same experience as me, and I knew that if I stayed (with a group of people I didn't know and feeling completely out of the loop) I wouldn't remember it as fondly. Sometimes you just know when to call it a day, which is why a lot of people who arrived the same time as me all left around the same time too.

So that's why I decided to go home after 9 months of travel. Did I make the right decision? I think so. You're never fully going to know if you made the right choice in life, but right now I'm happy being home and slowly but surely my mindset is changing to a whole different way of thinking compared to when I was away. But that's for another blog post haha!

If you made it to the end - congrats!

Sorry it was a long one x

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

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 3

(Last two photos were taken on my friends camera the night we climbed the Harbour Bridge. INSANE right?)

Today was our last full day in Sydney before we began our travels up the East Coast of Australia. Having only had about 4 hours sleep, I woke up at 6:30am still horrendously drunk and wondering what the hell had happened the night before. Whilst everyone else was downstairs having breakfast, I clearly thought it was a great idea to stay in my room and drunkenly whatsapp/snapchat my entire friends list with all of the post-night out gossip. Typical ay... an 11 hour time difference and I still found the time to update the girls (they wanted to know EVERYTHING). Girls will be girls!

When I eventually made it downstairs (read: stumbled), I couldn't bare the thought of breakfast so I headed out with the group feeling rather sorry for myself. The coach took us to Manly beach where we spent the first part of the day sunbathing, listening to Ed Sheeran and watching the guys play Aussie rules (and by play Aussie rules I actually mean showing off and competing for the most ripped award... I think it's fair to say the Aussies won hands down!) We went for food at a Mexican place right by the beach but I was SO disappointed because my burrito was vile! Burrito's are my absolute fave so I was not impressed that I had to pay $20 for something I hadn't even eaten.

Inevitably the group split up into friendship groups so me, 3 of the English girls and the only Kiwi guy headed over to a secluded part of the beach via a path surrounded by... wait for it... WATER DRAGONS. Google them now and tell me they're not absolutely TERRIFYING (I'm petrified of reptiles if you hadn't guessed already...) Obviously I wasn't expecting to see them so when one appeared right in front of me I screamed SO loud, at least 20 people must have stopped and looked at me!! Everyone else seemed to think it was completely normal, like they were walking past a group of Labrador puppies or something! That's Australian wildlife for you folks.

That afternoon was probably one of the funniest of the entire trip. We just sat there for a good 4 hours teaching Curtis English slang and what 'banter' was, then watching him incorporate it into EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE. I've never belly laughed so much in my life!! We were given tickets to make our own way back to Sydney so we caught the Manly ferry to Circular Quay, which sails under the Harbour Bridge and right by the Opera House (which is where I took the photos above). The majority of the group were booked to climb the Harbour Bridge that evening so we headed straight there after a quick stop at McDonalds.

Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been number 1 on my bucketlist for so many years now, but when I was up there it didn't even feel real!! The whole climb takes around 3 hours so we started in daylight, watched the sunset from halfway up then got to the top for the view of Sydney at night. It was honestly so breathtaking... we just sat there at one point and was like WHAT THE HELL. We recorded a video at the top of the bridge which I will post on Day 15 with a montage of all of the clips from the trip! Generally, the bridge climb wasn't scary at all. The only part which was slightly terrifying was when we had to climb up and down a vertical ladder right next to the speeding traffic on the bridge, and when the double decker trains were going past and shaking the ladders we were climbing on! The loud noises and vibrations were making everyone feel a bit uneasy!

It was quite late by the time we got back to the hotel so we all went straight to bed!
On the agenda tomorrow, SURF CAMP!
xxx

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 2

Today was the day the tour officially started and the day we met everyone in our tour group. I think there were around 38 of us in total, but a Contiki tour can sometimes have groups as large as 50! We met for breakfast at 7am pretty much every morning, so if you can't get up at 6am this tour probably isn't for you haha! Australia is a HUGE country, so to see everything you want to see and travel 1,500 miles up the East Coast in 2 weeks, early mornings were a necessity! I never found it a problem though. It's almost like going on a school trip! It was the height of summer and you were spending the day having fun with a huge group of friends... if that doesn't make you wanna get up at 6am then I don't know what will!

On the agenda today was a trip to the Blue Mountains and to see the 'Three Sisters' rock formation. We hopped on the coach and drove 2 hours out of Sydney, which gave us plenty of time to chat and get to know each other! I wasn't prepared for the amount of walking we were going to do today... I'm unfit at the best of times but hiking in 30 degree weather was seriously hard! Even so, I was hardly going to complain considering where the bloody hell I was! The scenery was absolutely beautiful, as always the photos do not do it justice! I brought my selfie stick with me so I guess you could say we all bonded over our first selfie together!

That afternoon, we headed back to Sydney for a coach tour of the city. I didn't realise at the time but our tour guide Mark was actually the same tour guide who did the same Contiki tour with 2 of my favourite Youtuber's FunForLouis and HeyNadine! It's probably a good thing I didn't know actually as I probably would have spent the whole time annoying Mark with questions about Louis (awks)!! If you wanna see the video of Louis and Nadine doing the same tour I did with my tour guide Mark, click here.

After our tour of Sydney, the coach took us to a lookout for the best view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge where we all had a group photo and took some selfies. We headed back to the hotel later that afternoon and got ready for our first dinner as a group at a 'cook your own steak' restaurant. We all stood around this huge grill and cooked our steaks exactly how we wanted which was pretty cool. After dinner we went to the same bar we went to the night before and lets just say the wine and cocktail teapots were flowing! We continued on to a different bar across the road and everything else from that point is a blur! I can remember there being poles and all of us standing around watching one of the Canadian girls put on a show for us... you can't beat a bit of pole dancing to break the ice between strangers!! I can remember thinking pretty much the whole night, "Wow, I'm actually partying in Sydney. THIS. IS. INSANE."

Check out my next blog post for Day 3!

xxx

CONTIKI BEACHES & REEFS / AUSTRALIA DAY 1

As some of you may know (mainly those who follow me on Instagram), I went to Australia from 1st - 19th January after finally taking the plunge and booking my DREAM trip along the East Coast! I've been meaning to post about my experience for a while now so sit back, relax and grab yourself a cuppa - this could take a while! Let's start with the flight...

By a long shot, the flight was the one thing I was dreading the most. I LOVE flying, so it wasn't the length of the flight that was concerning me... it was what could go wrong! I had visions of me missing my flight, missing my connection, having the incorrect paperwork, getting my visa refused at border control - you name it, I was worried about it! Luckily, things couldn't have gone smoother and I sailed through the whole process without a glitch! It's true what they say, it really is so much easier (and less stressful!) flying and travelling by yourself. Making your own decisions and taking everything at your own pace is pure bliss!

The flight itself was pretty standard. I was lucky enough to be flying the first leg of the flight with Emirates and the second with Qantas (on the Airbus A380 which is their double decker plane for those of you who aren't plane nerds like me!) I was prepared to pay a bit extra for a decent airline considering how long the flight was - I really wanted to make sure I felt as comfortable and safe as possible!! Not gonna lie, it felt like I'd made it when the Emirates cabin crew started handing out hot towels to refresh ourselves with. The little things ay... Our flight left at 8:30pm, we had dinner and then I probably should have slept the rest of the way so my body clock wasn't out of sync but yeahhhhh, didn't happen. I got chatting to this lady next to me and 7 hours, 2 meals and several rounds of drinks later, we arrived in Dubai! Let me tell you now, Dubai is the BIGGEST airport I have ever seen in my entire life. I honestly have no idea how I made it from one gate to the other without getting lost! I'm talking lifts, trains, more lifts, walking, escalators... it was actually insane!! I finally made it onto my second flight but boyyyyy did it drag. You know those set of 4 seats and you always feel really sorry for the people sat in the middle? Yep, that was me, for 14 HOURS. I can remember getting excited when we hit the 9 hour mark (YAY SINGLE FIGURES), before reality hit me that I still had ANOTHER BLOODY 9 HOURS TO GO. NOT FUN. Aside from the boredom, it wasn't actually that bad. It's definitely doable and I certainly wouldn't mind doing it again if it meant I got to go to Australia!

I got chatting to one of the girls on my tour on Facebook before we left so we decided to meet at the airport as our flights were getting in at the exact same time (lucky eh?) I met Sarah at arrivals, we jumped in a mini bus and got dropped off right outside our hotel at around 9am on 3rd January. Baring in mind we had left the UK on New Year's Day, we were both feeling pretty grim! All we wanted was a bed and a shower, but we couldn't check into our hotel for another 5 HOURS!!! Rocking the greasy hair/haven't slept in 24 hours look, we had no choice but to ditch our bags, throw on some shorts and head into Sydney for a spot of sightseeing! We caught a cute little local bus into the centre, got up close and personal with the Opera House, gazed in awe at the Harbour Bridge and kept telling ourselves how incredibly lucky we were. When you've waited your whole life to go to Sydney and there you are, experiencing it in person... it's indescribable. In true Brit style we headed straight to the nearest McDonald's, watched a few street performers then headed back to the hotel around 1pm to check in.

By the time we'd had a quick shower and spruced ourselves up, we had to be back downstairs again to meet our tour group in the lobby for the very first time. For those of you who don't know, I travelled the East Coast of Australia with the tour company Contiki (more info here). Only half of the group had booked in to the hotel for an extra night so we were missing quite a few people when we first met everyone. I always find it so fascinating meeting people from other countries and on the first night alone we were greeted with Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis and Danes. After awkwardly introducing ourselves (and realising how bloody posh the English sound when we say "I'm from England"), we agreed to meet some of the guys in their room for pre drinks before we all headed out for a group dinner. We went straight from dinner to a bar (and like an idiot I forgot to bring my ID to Oz so had to take my passport out with me EVERY NIGHT - risky business) and had a few beverages there. At this point I was literally falling asleep at the bar as I still hadn't slept since I set off from the UK almost 2 days ago! We called it a night at around 10pm and headed back to the hotel for some well-needed shut eye.

I realise that this post went on for way longer than I intended it too, so thank you if you've made it this far!! I'll try and keep them a lot shorter from now on but come back tomorrow if you want to hear about day 2! I promise it gets more exciting as the days go on...

xxx