My American road trip – Cost.

From the moment I got home from my road trip across America, I had people messaging me asking how we did it and how much it cost, asking advice etc.

Bucketlist – Win money in a Las Vegas casino.

Whether you’re an avid gambler or not, I personally feel you cannot go to Las Vegas and not gamble away money in a casino. You just can’t. It’s all part of the experience of Vegas.

Gifts for people with wanderlust.

I’m the type of person who really thinks about the gifts I buy someone, I go for personalisation mostly. As someone who loves to travel I constantly come across gifts that are travel related that I wish people would buy for me or that I had someone else in my life who loves travel to buy them for.

These are just a small selection of some of the things I love:

Give in to Wanderlust.

Wanderlust: an irresistably strong desire to travel or wander the world.

With that feeling of wanderlust embedded deep into you, why aren’t you acting upon it? Now is the time to go, the time to see those places that you once thought could only be reached in dreams.

Pack a bag.

Grab your passport.

Leave all your worries behind for just a few weeks, if not longer.
Travel.

Travel for travels sake. Think of all the things travelling brings to your life and give me one genuinely honest answer as to why you shouldn’t travel? You can’t. Of course you can’t. 

“To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Anderson. 

There are a ridiculous amount of reasons as to why you should jump on the next plane out of your hometown or get behind the wheel of your car and drive until the surroundings become that of somewhere your eyes have never seen. New sights, new people, new foods, so many things to discover and all you have to do is have the sense of adventure to discover it all.

Why should you give in to Wanderlust and travel?

– Travelling opens your eyes. If you dare to voyage out into the unknown you’ll discover so many wonderful things. You’ll see things from a new perspective. Once you have travelled, returning home will never be the same. You’ll have experienced a new way of living, seen things you’d never have imagined and returning home to the norm will be sorely disappointing.

– Ah the adventure! Do you remember when you were a child? You used to dream up a life of adventure. You’d make up games and pretend to be in a far away land discovering things for the first time. Well, just because you’re a bit older now doesn’t mean you have to give up on the adventurer you once sought to be. 

“I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travellers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.” – Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

– You are 100% guaranteed to meet many new people and make many many friends along the way. And you’ll meet them everywhere. Travelling America we made so many new friends! 

From making friends in the workers at Taco bell in Ennis, Texas (as pictured above). To befriending a newly wed couple in the Honky Tonk bar in Nashville, Tennessee. To meeting a few not so far from home, a group of guys from Edinburgh on a similar trip at the 4 Corners monument. Making friends with a bunch of hens on a hen party in Cats Meow in New Orleans. (FYI the bride to be is now married and the wedding looked amazing!)

Sure, you could venture not so far from home and make new friends but why do that when you can have friends from all over the world?

– Think of all the incredible memories you’ll have and stories to tell. Not everyone will have experienced the things that you do when you travel, but I can guarantee everyone will love to hear the stories of your adventures. Not everything goes to plan, trust me I know, but sometimes that’s the best part. Who wants to look back on their life in 50 years time and say, “I wish I’d done that.”? I’d rather look back and say, “I’m glad I done that.” 

So go on. Stop putting it off. Get out there and see what the world has to offer, I promise you won’t regret it!

Leave a comment below telling me why you think people should travel! Maybe your words will inspire someone to do so. Thanks for reading!

What is it like driving in America?

From the moment we had decided we were going on a road trip across America one thing played on our minds; “what is it going to be like driving over there?” 

As 3 Scots who could drive here in the UK, the thought of not just driving in another country, but that country being America and us having to adapt to driving in the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the road! Well it was daunting to say the least.

So, we’re in Boston at the car rental dealing with paperwork and all we have to go on is the 2 or 3 taxis we’ve been in since we arrived. Who I might add, all drove like they were insane. So now we’re just about to be handed our keys to a car that was bigger than any of us had ever driven before and the woman starts to tell us, “now if the police pull you over, move over straight away, hands on the wheel. DO NOT get out the car unless asked, get this paperwork and show them that along with your license” we were stood there like shit this sounds scary.

As I mentioned in a previous post our journey with our car didn’t start off the best as 2 hours into having it we were crashed into. Hence wee Monique in the picture is our second car. So I mean apart from the crash (as it wasn’t my fault) we were doing not too bad, we got a system going and that helped us a lot.

One person driving, whoever was in the passenger seat was in charge of making sure the driver didn’t drift into other lanes and helped when merging was needed. 
The actual driving though? Well it was so much easier than we expected. I don’t know how people don’t like driving automatics, life was a breeze behind that wheel because of it. 

The one thing though that I will never get my head around? Being able to turn on a red light??! What the hell is this all about?

All in all, driving in America is nowhere near as bad as we thought it would be. 

We got lost once and that was because we weren’t paying proper attention to our Sat Nav.

We never got pulled over by the police, in fact the only time we dealt with police was in Salem, MA because of our crash and then in LA because my friends were crossing the road when they shouldn’t have been apparently. But that’s another story.
If you’re thinking of getting a car in America but are unsure of anything, feel free to ask. Honestly though, it’s super easy! 

LDN: comedians, tourist duties and a drunk Yasmin.

London for me is a place that holds a lot of great memories. It’s somewhere I don’t tend to visit as often as I used to, so having the opportunity to go down for a weekend was delightful. I tend to only go down to London if I have a reason to, my reason this time? To see a comedian.
Who’s this comedian? And why travel from Glasgow to London to see him? Questions I hear you all ask. Well.. his name is Mark ‘Jiggy’ Jigarjian and he’s an american comedian. If you’ve heard of him it’s probably because he supports the Impractical jokers on their tours across the states usually. I love any excuse to go to London and the fact Jiggy was coming over to the UK to do one show down there, well I just HAD to go.
I travelled down my bus (megabus) it is always the loooongest journey ever but I’m constantly skint so cheap and not so cheerful way to get down there it is for me. Leaving Wednesday night I arrived on Thursday morning. I tend to stay in Travelodges when I go to London, mainly because that’s where I’ve always stayed, this time was no different staying in the King’s Cross Royal Scot Travelodge where I’ve stayed before. Hey, it has a bed and that’s all I care about.

On the Thursday Jiggy decided to do a podcast in a pub not too far from my hotel so of course I was going. He had brought 2 friends over with him (Tim Brierley and Mike Charette) so they performed a small comedy set first and then the three together done a podcast. These are 3 seriously funny guys, so please check them out! 

Afterwards we said hey, got a picture and I did buy one of Mike’s shot glasses because I have a thing for them. Whenever I travel somewhere new that’s what I buy myself so I have a small collection now. Everyone then headed upstairs to the pub and we all got drunk.

I’m really not fond of this photo but Jiggy is a just a complete babe.

The Friday was payday and a day of sightseeing. Shopping was first on the list, myself buying make up, make up and yet more make up. Usual! I’ve seen London many times before so all I seen was big Ben and the London eye because when you’ve seen them once you’ve seen them a million times.

Sightseeing over with. I then met up with some friends that were down in London, we ended up in Zebrano it was 2 for 1 on cocktails as well so I was in my element. I can’t even remember the cocktails I had (I think I had about 4) but they were all delicious!
Saturday called for camden market to start the day off! 

And I’m not going to lie. The best part was finding somewhere to get cocktails and the food. I wasn’t all that impressed with the place I’m not going to lie. After a change we headed to Jiggy’s proper comedy show, where I met up with another girl from Glasgow and some other really great girls. We laughed, we drank, we had fun. I won’t go into details about the rest of the night because it was fun yes, but it was also ruined slightly (that’s a story for another time though) let’s just say I ended up in Beckys hotel  (the girl from Glasgow) till about 8am drunk af. Good times!
My trip to London ended by meeting up with jiggy and everyone else and going for a nandos then hanging with some girls before leaving to get my coach home.

No matter what I’m down there for, I always have such a great time. Can’t wait to go back in October now.
Until next time LDN!

Thailand or America?

Guys I need your help!

After coming back from my roadtrip across America I decided I wanted to go to Thailand next year. But the past few days I’ve been thinking; do I go to Thailand or do I go back to America?

There’s so much of America I obviously haven’t seen yet and I have family in VA that I didn’t get to see on my trip in June. But, I do really want to go to Thailand. 

If I go to Thailand it’s mainly to do ‘Camp Thailand’ and then I would maybe travel for 2 weeks or so after. All in all it would maybe be a 6 week long trip.
But the thought of going back to America, hiring a car and driving around again. Although this time on my own.

I don’t know what to do! I need some help guys.
Please feel free to comment below and give me your opinions on what you think I should do? I’m so stuck! Thanks.

The best time to visit Edinburgh

Edinburgh itself is an absolutely beautiful city and I would suggest everyone visit it at least once in their life. I don’t suggest you visit at just any time of year though, there’s a few times that are best to visit Edinburgh and right now is one of them!
The month of August in Edinburgh isn’t like any other, for the month of August brings music, theatre and comedy to every inch of the city through the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

With so much to do and see at this festival you’ll discover some amazingly weird and wonderful things. 

I happened to find myself travelling through from Glasgow for the day. With less than  £4 on the bus and the promise of a car journey home thanks to my friend I was more than happy to go.

We planned to do so much but when it came to it, we done very little. My one major piece of advice would be if you have certain things you want to see? Work our where they are beforehand. We missed 2 shows we wanted to see because of poor planning on our part. But we still managed to make it to our two main ones.

The first of which was the Big Value Comedy Show. £10 for 2 hours worth of comedy from 3 comedians and a host? Where could you go wrong and honestly there was very little to fault. We went to the early showing at half 7 and I’m not going to lie, I’ve completely forgotten the comedians names unfortunately but 2/3 were amazing. We started with the host coming out and he was seriously so so funny, really warmed you up from the start for hours of laughter ahead. He introduced the first act, a woman who used to be a school teacher, she was really really funny. We thought if she’s the starting act we definitely have high hopes for the rest! 
There was a short break in between all the acts, so after her set and the break the next comedian appeared. And well, praise da lord he didn’t open because no-one would have come back for the rest of the acts. Now I’m one of those people who have a seriously good sense of humour, even if you’re the least funniest person on the planet if you’re around me you’ll feel like a world famous comedian because all I do is laugh! In saying this, I didn’t laugh once at this guy, not once and neither did any of my friends. From his voice to his stage presence to his jokes it was terrible unfortunately. Somehow some people found him funny at the back but most people were left unimpressed. Needless to say after the break from him some people didn’t come back again!
We then had the last act who was American and he again was so incredibly funny. I doubt I stopped laughing for even a second during his whole set he was fantastic. (I’ll actually need to find out the comedians names and shall update this when I do because they deserve the appreciation).

First show done, we were then off to our main act of the night. 10pm, Daniel Sloss. Now, Daniel is a Scottish comedian who has been on the circuit for about 8 years I believe and he is incredible. I’ve seen him on a few shows before on TV and always found myself laughing away so when I seen he was at the fringe I knew he had to be seen. His ticket was £13 and he was on stage a little over an hour.

Now I highly highly highly recommend anyone and everyone to look Daniel up or go see him if you can. He’s such a talented, young comedian with so much potential and it upsets me that he’s not bigger than he is because he’s seriously that good!

Everywhere you go in Edinburgh when the fringe is on there is something. There’s hundreds upon hundreds of free and ticketed shows, many of which are so incredibly good. I loved the fringe that much, even though I didn’t fully experience everything I wanted to that I’m going back next weekend!

Please visit Edinburgh. Please visit the fringe. You will not regret it one bit! If you go, or if you have been leave me a comment below and tell me what you seen/are going to see! Thanks!

Road trip : Family First.

June 5th:

Our time in NYC was over, so with Ellé driving and myself in the passenger seat making sure to listen to our sat nav properly we were well and truly on our way, saying goodbye to NYC. But where were they headed first I hear you ask? We actually were planning on spending the afternoon near Brodheadsville, PA. Why there? Well Clare has some family that live there! Her cousin (Rita) and her family, so off we were to visit them. And all was going well, until we got to a bridge, that was closed. We had no idea where to go now, after a few phone calls to her family we managed to agree on us finding a place that her cousins husband would pick us up. We eventually found where we wanted to be but didn’t know what this guy looked like.. After all, Clare had never met them.

Next minute this guy is pointing at us, it was him! And oh my god, we all loved him! His name is Dennis and he was just something else. He gave us all hugs and started chatting away to us before we decided we better get on our way to their house. We followed him in the car and about 10 minutes later pulled up at this lovely house. We were stood outside talking when the front door opens and Dennis and Rita’s son opens the door, pulling us all inside and introducing himself as Thomas. We met Rita and the rest of her family, her youngest son (forgot his name) and her eldest George and his wife and kids.

They gave us all the warmest welcome ever. Shuffling us into the house, offering us drinks, chips and dip (that Rita had made herself, it was dyno). We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting mainly to Thomas about everything as he was a year or 2 younger than us. He would tell us about things in America and we told him about Scotland; constantly comparing the differences between the two. Which was highly interesting. It was amazing seeing just how different our lives actually are, and to know so much that we see in films that are featured in America is actually true and real. Crazy.

They set our a big spread of food for us, which we happily ate while chatting merrily. Before we knew it it was almost 16:00 and time for us unfortunately to get back on the road. We got a tour of the house, some group pictures and then said our goodbyes. Which I can’t tell you how sad it was to do, we loved them loads and didn’t want to leave, but we unfortunately had to.

They were the most welcoming family ever! It was amazing seeing my best friend meet some of her family for the first time and incredible how welcoming they were to her 3 friends tagging along. 

I think the 4 of us would love to see them all again. We had an incredible time.

Is jet lag still hanging around?

As I start writing this, it’s Monday 11th July 02:41.

 

 

After completing my trip from Boston to San Francisco, it was time to head home. I got on the plane in San Francisco on Wednesday 29th June at 14:00, travelling to Amsterdam first (9 hour time difference) we arrived Thursday 30th June at 10:00 (approx). A few hours to chill in Amsterdam before our final flight back home to Glasgow, getting us in Thursday 30th June at 13:00.

I was awake from 08:00 on the Wednesday until 20:00 on the Thursday, minus about 2 half hour snoozes (one on each flight). I thought this was a good thing, I was thinking “get to my bed at 20:00, if I can sleep till 08:00 tomorrow I’m fine! I’ve bet the jet lag.”

 

20:00 I fall asleep.

22:30 I wake up.

01:00 I fall asleep.

11:00 I wake up.

 

I looked at this and thought, “I’ve done pretty well. I think I’m going to be okay.” I spoke far too soon.

 

Friday 1st, or should I say Saturday 2nd as I didn’t get to sleep until 08:00. I then woke at 12:00, napped for an hour and a half later on and that was me up until 03:00. So Sunday 3rd I slept until 12:00 again, how bad could this really be? Sunday or should I say Monday 4th 05:00, I managed to fall asleep. I wouldn’t have cared as much had I not been starting work at 10:00, so 4 hours sleep before my shift wasn’t the best way to start my shifts back at work.

4 nights I’d been home at this point, I couldn’t imagine this sleeping pattern to continue much longer. Once again I spoke too soon.

 

Monday, nope Tuesday 5th: didn’t get any sleep, started work at 8am.

Tuesday, nope Wednesday 6th: fell asleep 05:00, woke up 09:00.

Wednesday, nope Thursday 7th: fell asleep 05:30, woke up 09:59 (late for work as I was meant to start at 10:00).

Thursday, nope Friday 8th: fell asleep 06:00, woke up 12:40.

Friday, nope Saturday 9th: fell asleep 08:20, woke up 13:40.

Saturday, nope Sunday 10th: fell asleep 04:15, woke up 09:00.

Sunday, nope Monday 11th: (today, it’s currently 03:03 and I’m awake). I start work at 10:00.

 

 

 

When will this sort itself out? I thought I’d done well, I thought I’d bet the jet lag; yet here I am 11 nights later and I still can’t sort this out. Truthfully, I was never a great sleeper anyway. I’d get about 4/5 hours a night at best, but I’d be sleeping at 02:00/03:00 and awake from maybe 07:00 so it didn’t effect my work or anything and honestly I could cope. Now though, now it’s effecting my job and I need help.

Does anyone have any advice on how to help me sleep?  I would appreciate it so much for any advice you could give me? Thanks in advance!!