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!!

 

Surviving a road trip

How do you survive a road trip?

After travelling 5044 miles across America on my road trip with my best friends, I think I have a few answers as to how to survive the long, sometime’s seemingly endless journey. At least, these are what helped with my journey; hopefully they help you too.

 

Firstly, you need some good music in your life. When you’re driving long journeys especially, you can’t rely on the radio to keep you going because you’re constantly losing signal and having to jump between stations, believe me I know. Our music was all on my phone, so whenever it crashed or when I’d lost/left behind my wire’s to charge it the radio was all we had. We had to make do at these times. When my phone was working though, oh we were in for some good times. I’ve already given you a glimpse of our playlist in my previous post but we listened to such a variation and loved every minute of it.

Now good music is great, but great company is better. If you happen to be heading on this journey make sure it’s with people you get along with, people who can hold a conversation and give you some laughs along the way. There’s nothing worse than being bored, especailly when you’re confined into a tin can with people who aren’t making things any better.

Tying into the company, having someone else that can drive is a massive bonus. Depending on the length of your trip you don’t want to be the one constantly stuck behind the wheel. On our trip, we had 3 drivers in total and we all took our turns behind the wheel, with a month long journey and some drives being upwards of 7 hours you want to be able to relax and let someone else deal with the driving part.

Make sure to stock up on snacks and water before you hit the road. You don’t want to be on a long drive having to stop more regularly than needed/wanted all because someone feels peckish and wants a packet of crisps. Bulk buying water is a must, not only will it last you a good while, it will also save you money rather than continuously buying single bottles.

Fill up yout tank. It’s just common sense, make sure you have a full tank before you hit the road and have a limit for how low you’ll let the gas go before you stop to refuel. For us, we wouldn’t let our tank get below a quarter full, just to be on the safe side we also checked where gas stations were along our route so we knew where to top up if the next one wasn’t for a good while.

Music and conversation are good but sometimes you’re not in the mood for either. Bring some books, make sure to have some good apps on your phone/ipad or whatever to keep you entertained, car games. Just things to keep you sane really.

Stop whenever you want to. Don’t just stop because you need gas, the toilet, stock up on some snacks or stretch your legs. Some of the best places you’ll find will be the places you don’t intend to stop. I know we stopped at a random wee gas station in Texas and found they had some maps on the wall (both a map of america and rest of the world) along beside the maps were pins and they asked you to put a pin where you’re from. It was amazing to see where everyone had come from to this random gas station, more amazing that we were the first Scots.

The best thing you could do, take pictures. I don’t mean just to post on some social media site either (instagram, facebook, twitter, tumblr, wherever), I mean yeah it’s great to share your pictures with everyone but sometimes it’s best to take some random snaps just for yourself. Make a scrapbook, pin them on a wall, take pictures of the memories.

 

 

Do you have any good road trip ideas? Leave a comment of them below to share with us all.

Road trip : New York City

June 1st:

We had left Boston behind and were moving onto our next stop; NYC. We had stopped off on our drive to New York to grab a bite to eat and like mentioned in a previous post about our bad luck, we arrived only to be told our reservation had been cancelled. 

We were staying just outside NYC at the Super 8 North Bergen/New Jersey. So we arrived and they only had a room for the one night (we were meant to be staying 3) and we should check with them the next morning to see if they had any cancellations. Not exactly an ideal situation especially when you’re meant to be staying for 4 nights!

June 2nd:

We were up and at it relatively early, headed downstairs in the motel for some breakfast (we were completely loving our frosted flakes each morning) and to ask about the room situation. Fingers crossed things would work out! … which of course they did. They were able to offer us a room with a king bed which they would then also put a single bed into for us, we would have probably taken anything so obviously we snapped this up as it saved the hassle of trying to find another motel.

It was great as there was a shuttle that stopped right outside the motel to take you into NYC and at like $3 each, each time we used it we couldn’t complain.

So we hopped on the shuttle and off we went. The shuttle would go to the Port Authority but we would get off round the corner from here. I’d been to NYC once before so although it was a few years ago my memory of where things were was actually pretty good. Our first stop for the day was Times Square of course.

We done a little bit of shopping, walked around a little and then headed back to the motel to get changed as we were going to see some shows that night.

Myself and Ellé went to see Les Misérables while Shona and Clare went to see Chicago.

I had been looking forward to seeing Les Mis so much, and it was just as incredible as I thought it would be. After it finished Ellé didn’t feel so good so we headed back to the motel. 
June 3rd:

We were up, ready and out to get the shuttle into NYC relatively early again. Getting off our shuttle and today our first stop was Carlos Bakery. With 2 of us being big fans of Cake Boss we were so excited to head here and try some of their cakes, which did not disappoint, I had one of the best donuts of my life.

I got the chocolate custard filled donut and also it both an original and chocolate cannoli for later. They were all amazing.

After we stuffed our faces with cakes we started our tourist duties for the day, heading firstly to the empire state building. I’d been before but we were planning on going up as far as we could 103rd I think? But it was a bit foggy so we couldn’t go up as far unfortunately. Still a fabulous view though. We headed to ground zero after, which had changed since I was last there. For me the experience of going there was the same as before, I could literally feel my heartbreaking for everyone and their families. It always gets to me when you read their names and it says “and unborn child” beside their name. Even thinking of it now I feel such strong emotions.

After a short walk towards the Hudson river and for my friends to see the Statue of Liberty (from this distance was enough apparently) we decided to get some lunch and found a lovely restaurant on the riverside. Merchants River House; it was amazing. We got beautiful food along with a few cocktails, we’re Scottish we start drinking early. The food was just incredible, I had got sundried tomato crusted cod with a vegetable risotto and I scranned the lot!

Our next stop for the day was the Brooklyn Bridge, we walked down to it, grabbing an ice cream along the way. We also quickly discovered Clare has an obsession with bridges which we didn’t give up the entire trip; everytime we seen or crossed one it was pointed out to her. We then got the underground to Grand Central Station before deciding we had done enough sightseeing for the day and we needed a drink in our lives. We headed towards a a Scottish bar (as you do when you’re Scottish and see one elsewhere) I can’t even remember the name of the pun but it was just off times square with an Irish pub literally next door? Anyway we had one drink and left to go to the Irish pub because the service was atrocious! Needless to say we had more fun in the Irish pub!

Being slightly tipsy we felt it was time for some food in our lives, found somewhere selling pizza,  our eyes were bigger than our bellies. Then headed back to the motel. 

June 4th:

Our last day in NYC! Once again getting the shuttle in and we went straight for food, heading to Applebee’s! I got steak (the first of many on this trip) followed by s’mores churros which unfortunately weren’t as good as we thought they would be but still good nonetheless. We hit up Macy’s first and then Central Park was on the agenda for us today we we walked up there and walked our way through a small part of Central Park before stopping at a lovely wee bench and enjoying the view around us. I was so glad I was back here, and I got to see parts of the park I hadn’t seen last time. 

 

After relaxing for a while we decided upon going to Coney Island and headed towards the subway (after some detours along the way) we got to Coney Island at least an hour and a half later if not longer. We mostly walked around, enjoying the view in front of us before grabbing some food and then heading towards the big wheel. Now being someone that’s scared of heights I tend to stay away from these monstrosities but somehow I found myself on it, the experience not being too bad if I’m honest. Now back home we’ve tried our deep fried Mars bars, so when we seen deep friend items on a menu we had to try them. We decided to go for the oreos, which was definitely a good choice! After getting the subway back and the shuttle back to the motel that was our time in NYC over and done with. 

Our first week in America was almost complete.. 

Everyone needs a road trip play list

 

 

You can’t go on a road trip and not have an epic play list to sing along to in the car. Whether you’re on your own or with friends, whether you’re driving for an hour or ten. No car journey is complete without music.

With our month long trip across America, we would be in the car for upwards of 70 hours; so we definitely needed music to help us through. Luckily for the four of us the majority of our music is liked by the other three so we would rarely find ourselves listening to things we didn’t know or like. What we did listen to, well I’ll share with you all.

Below is a list of our top 10 songs that were, without a doubt, played almost if not every car journey.

 

• CHVRCHES – Empty Threat.

• DMX – Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.

• 50 Cent – Life’s on the line.

• Kings of Leon – Back Down South.

• The La’s – There She Goes.

• Eazy-E – Boyz N’ Tha Hood.

• Eve – Let Me Blow Ya Mind

• Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californication.

• Twin Atlantic – Oceans.

• The Proclaimers – 500 miles.

500 miles, a true Scottish classic. Although we travelled slightly more than 500 miles (5044 to be precise) that didn’t stop us from belting it out.

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You can take the girls out of Scotland.. #scotland #500miles #america #roadtrip #friends #travel #travelling #proclaimers

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So, there you have it. Just a small selection of the hundreds of songs that were on our playlist.

 

What songs are on your road trip play list? Leave a comment below and let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travel quotes that make me want to get on the next plane to anywhere.

There’s something about hearing people talking about travelling that makes you want to drop everything; it makes you want to get on the next plane or drive into the unknown. Whether you’re listening to someone tell the story of their travels or it’s a made up fantasy from a book, it inspires and encourages you to pack a bag and leave.

There’s so many quotes in the world relating to travel, so I thought I would share just a few of my favourites. Everytime I read these quotes, I just want to leave. Leave my commitments and worries behind, find myself in the unknown and search for the adventure I’m longing for in life.

 

1. “But that’s the glory of foreign travel, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to know what people are talking about. I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.” – Bill Bryson.
2. “Personally I like going places where I don’t speak the language, don’t know anybody, don’t know my way around and don’t have any delusions that I’m in control. Disorientated, even frightened, I feel alive, awake in ways I never am at home.” – Michael Mewshaw

3. “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” – Pico Iyer.

4. “The wanderlust has got me… by the belly-aching fire.” – Robert W. Service.
5. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain.
6. “Cities were always like people, showing their varying personalities to the traveller. Depending on the city and on the traveller, there might begin a mutual love, or dislike, friendship, or enmity. Where one city will rise a certain individual to glory, it will destroy another who is not suited to its personality. Only through travel can we know where we belong or not, where we are loved and where we are rejected.” – Roman Payne.
7. “It’s not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way.” – Penelope Riley.

8. “To me travel is more valuable than any stupid piece of bling money can buy.” – Raquel Cepeda.

9. “Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” – Ray Bradbury.
10. “I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher.

 

Is it time for my next adventure yet? I want to be back on the road.

Do you have any favourite travelling quotes? Maybe they’re not travel related at all, but just something you feel speaks to you. Comment below and tell me.

Travel Plans 2016/17

I don’t know about you but one of my favourite times is when I first start planning a trip somewhere. It’s all the excitement of where to go, when to go, what to do and see etc.

Like I’ve previously said, after coming back from my month in America I 100% have the post travel blues. So much so, that I was back not even 24 hours and was already planning next years big travels, but I’ll start off with the not so distant future first.

 

• Dublin: Nothing is booked for Dublin as it was literally just brought into play a few hours ago. With one of my friends having time off work in the middle of August she mentioned she didn’t want to be off from work and not do anything so, Dublin. I’ve been twice before and I loved it, so why not go back? It will just be for about 2 days, but 2 days away from here and away from work is better than nothing at all.
• London: The weekend after I plan on going to Dublin, I’m heading back down to London. I cannot wait, London is a favourite place of mine. I’m going to London for 4 days, why? Comedy of course. You may not have heard of him but I’m going down to see a comedian from Boston (so fitting after my last post) who is based in NY. I unfortunately didn’t get to see him when I was in NY as he had shows in Princeton. Anything for an excuse to go to London for me.
• Kraków/Reykjavik: It will be one or the other, I’m still waiting to see if myself and my 5 best friends are going away for a weekend, but if not I might just have to head off to one of these places myself. It will be October/November time so it will be a good end to the year as my last trip of 2016.
• London: Again? I hear you ask. Again. Like before I’m off to London for Comedic reasons, two weekends in a row I’m going down to see the Impractical Jokers. The excitement I have for these shows is something else. If you don’t know who the Impractical Jokers are I beg you to find out. They are 4 of the funniest guys ever, from Staten Island. Check them out.
• Thailand: Camp Thailand to be precise, and possibly some travelling afterwards. I’ve applied for a new job and it all depends on the outcome of that as to whether I go for 3 weeks or 3 months (just a small jump in time). All I do know is, I plan on heading out at the end of August and am so ridiculously excited as Thailand is somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a few years now.

 

Well that’s my travel plans so far! I cannot wait. Leave me a comment and tell me all about your future travel plans! I would love to hear about them, maybe our paths will be crossing at some point?

Road trip : Boston

 

May 3oth:

We landed in Boston and headed straight to our Motel (without our luggage). We were staying in the Super 8 Watertown/Cambridge/Boston area. The motel itself was like many others we stayed in and what we expected for the price. We stayed in a double queen room, which was spacious enough for the 4 of us, but let’s be honest most of the time I don’t care where I stay, you’re only sleeping there afterall.

Almost as soon as we arrived, we were out the door again and headed to find the nearest clothes stores as without our luggage we had nothing but the clothes on our backs. After a half hour walk we found ourselves at Watertown Mall, we went straight for some food, nothing fancy just a burger king. Then straight to Forever 21 and Target to get clothing essentials.

May 31st:

So, this was it. We were in Boston, our road trip (after over a year of planning) was finally here.

Our day started off with breakfast in the motel, cinnabun’s and waffles started us off for the day ahead. We got into a taxi into Cambridge, we weren’t staying directly in the centre of Boston, tactical for us really. It’s cheaper to stay just out and the price of taxi’s around was never that dear either. Harvard. It was just as beautiful as I thought it would be, although the grounds were mostly empty apart from other tourists like ourselves, I could just imagine what it would be like throughout the year. The buzz of people walking about, I mean, it’s Harvard afterall. We headed for a coffee in Crema Cafe, just along from Harvard. I’m not always a coffee person but it was good!

Next on our to do list was to head to the Prudential Centre as we had pre-booked ourselves onto one of the Boston Duck Tours, what better way to see Boston afterall?

I always love getting driven around, sightseeing places and when you have someone that’s full of banter like our guide was it makes it a good trip. Our guide was called “Tim Burr” he was really quite funny and made it even more enjoyable. We visited many places that we probably wouldn’t have had we not went on the duck tour, so it was great to see and learn about them. The best part was probably when we went into the water, seems like nothing, but people got a shot of driving in the water. My friend Clare being one of them, she’s not able to drive the car but at least she got to drive a boat!

 

We were back for lunch time and the place we were very excited to visit was The Cheesecake Factory. This was the first time we realised just how big the portion sizes are, wow. I got the chicken parmesian sandwich, it was really nice although just far too much! And who can go to The Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake? Well not us, of course we got cheesecake. I opted for the red velvet, I did not regret my decision.

While on the duck tour earlier we had driven past Boston Common where there was a part that was covered in small flags, we decided we wanted to head here next.. We asked someone where they were and they pointed us in the direction, although when we got there, there wasn’t any there and we presumed they had taken them down. We chilled in the park for a little while before we headed off to walk the Freedom Trail, which took us a while to find. Actually, we didn’t even realise we had found it at first. Here we were, walking along the Freedom Trail with not a clue in the world, looking for the Freedom Trail. We walked along it for a while until we got to a wall that had a map of the Freedom Trail on it and we decided we wanted to head towards the USS Consitution, which of course was in the opposite direction. So back the way we went.

We got there about 10 minutes after the place had closed unfortunately, so we hung about for a short while taking some pictures before we decided to call it a day and get a taxi back to our motel.

Remember how we got to Boston but our luggage didn’t? Well about 11pm our luggage arrived, with one case missing. The hassle of trying to get this case back probably deserves a post of it’s own I’m not going to lie, so you will likely get that in the future.

June 1st:

If only we knew how this day would play out, I think we would have stayed in. Ellé, Shona and I headed to pick up our car from Enterprise rental while Clare headed to buy more clothes (as it was her case that didn’t arrive). Smooth sailing at first, we got there, paid the rest we had to pay, signed the paperwork and got sent up a few flights to get our car. Picked Clare up and decided to head towards Salem. We were so excited to go and do some witch stuff. But, that didn’t happen did it? And honestly, I don’t think I can tell the store again so you can read it here. Short lived trip to Salem, and back to Boston we went to get a new car and get the hell out of there. We were informed by the woman at the car rental that drivers in Boston were some of, if not the worst and were actually known as ‘MASSHOLES’ = Massachusett Assholes. What I didn’t mention before was that when we got back to the rental company they didn’t have another car there for us, we mentioned we could come back later on as we planned to go back to the airport to try and find our other case and they were so amazing. They (I can’t refer to anyone by name as unfortunately we never got the womans name that helped us, but she was so incredibly lovely) drove us to the airport and picked a new, bigger, better car for us. They really went above and beyond.

Our time in Boston was over, and it was off to NYC where we thought we would be starting a fresh and leaving the bad luck behind. 

Boston, it was a pleasure. 

Post travel blues

I was atrocious at updating this while I was road tripping across America but honestly, I was just trying to enjoy my time there and only spent time on the Internet when I was adding occasional photos to our instagram have a look here if you want.

Basically, as the title says I now have the post travel blues.

Driving across America with my best friends was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life (despite the couple of hiccups we encountered at the beginning of our trip).

I’m still in total disbelief that we actually done it. We drove 5044 miles across America. We seen and done some amazing things, I think the best parts were definitely the beautiful sights I seen along the way.

Below is just one picture from every place we went.

Boston, MA.

Above is our (second) car. We called her Monique; there is a story behind why we called her this but I’ll save that for another time.

New York City, NY.

Obviously you all know where we are. Times square baby!

Washington, D.C.

Obviously we found ourselves visiting big Abe L.

Abingdon, VA.

Abingdon for us was just a stopover, Needless to say I didn’t get many pictures apart from this from our motel window. 

Nashville, TN.

Are you from Tennessee? Cause you’re the only ‘ten I see’ .. Unbeknown to ourselves (until we stepped out a taxi in the main streets) we were in Nashville during the CMA Music Festival which did mean for us there was an epic crowd of people. We didn’t get to see too much as we were in 2 bars before my group of friends got absolutely steaming and I had to drag them home.

New Orleans, LA.

I completely fell in love with NOLA, and with the Frenchmen Art Gardens especially. What a beautifully magical place. The work from local artists is just something else, they’re all so very talented. We also found ourselves in Cats Meow on Bourbon St. Needless to say (being Scottish) we found ourselves singing 500 miles by the proclaimers on stage.. who doesn’t love karaoke?

Ennis, TX.

Ennis was a small town stopover for us, and we’re all so glad we did stop over with here. We popped into the taco bell before we left and the staff were so lovely! They had never met anyone from Scotland before and so asked to get a picture with us. Made us feel so so welcome.

Amarillo, TX.

Cadillac Ranch. I was really looking forward to going here, and I definitely had so much fun. Spray paint in hand it was fun leaving our mark here, at least for a little while.

Farmington, NM.

We just had a little overnight stop in Farmington so there aren’t many pictures. 

Grand Canyon, AZ.

My fear of heights kept me well away from the edge but it meant I got to take beautiful pictures like this while we watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodges, if you book early enough to stay here it’s work it. Such an incredibly beautiful place.

Las Vegas, NV.

When in Vegas.. it always lands on black. 

Los Angeles, CA.

We got to spend a few days exploring this beautiful city, although I know I have to go back as there’s so much more for me still to see. We made sure to find a set of angels wings. Because who can leave LA the city of angels without becoming an angel?

San Simeon, CA.

Beautiful little place. We spent the previous night on the beach watching the sun set, drinking a cider and running into the sea.

San Francisco, CA.

Can you say you’ve been to San Fran if you didn’t go to Alcatraz? We went on the night tour and it was amazing seeing this place, hearing what things were like, learning more than we previously knew. We spent 3 hours in this place, on this island and it was eerie. I can’t imagine how it felt for the prisoners.

I had the trip of my life and I’ll be sharing more stories and pictures from our month long road trip in the future.

Have you been to any of these places? Are you going? Tell me your favourite parts or what you’re most looking forward to!

I just want to do it all over again. 

American road trip: day 8

It seems like just yesterday we got on our plane to head to America and now here we are; it’s day 8 of our trip already.

We’ve done so much yet probably so little at the same time.

We’re currently in Washington DC, well Arlington. Drove in last night and we’re excited to spend our day being typical tourists going to see The Whitehouse and the likes. We’re excited to see Washington DC, excited to explore the place and see everything it has to offer.

If anyone has any suggestions of things to do or see, feel free to comment and let me know!

I’ll try do a proper wee post later tonight to let you all know how the past week has been.

American road trip: bad luck comes in threes, not for us.

Now we didn’t quite expect every single detail of this month long trip to go to plan but considering we’re on day 3 and everything that could go wrong has, well luck just isn’t on our side.

So it started off in Glasgow airport, we hadn’t even left and things were going wrong. I feel like I need to list this all to show the extent of how unlucky we’ve been so far (and bear in mind, we’re 3 days in).

1. Firstly we get delayed by 2 hours because of the weather in Amsterdam. Obviously we’re like this is shite but whatever. It’s a delayed flight we’re not going to cry over it.

2. We ALMOST and when I say almost, I mean the minute we got off our flight in Amsterdam we had to run through Schipol airport to get to where our flight to Boston was. We got on the plane and 2 minutes later, and I mean 2 minutes they shut the gate!

3. Now if you know anything about the process of planes and airports you’ll know what’s coming next. Yep. You guessed it! We arrived in Boston, but our luggage didn’t. Obviously once again another bummer but we can deal with it.. Until, we enquire about it and only 3 of the 4 cases were found and going to be on their way to join us.

4. So you’re thinking, what else can possibly go wrong for these 4 girls? Plenty. We pick our car up, all is going well. Shona drove it to the motel, we picked up clare and then I drove us to Salem. All was going well and then BANG! (And I do mean that literally) someone fucking crashed into me. So not only am I driving in another country, on the opposite side of the road, in the opposite side of the car and then someone crashes into me. Not to mention, the same accident had happened 2 minutes previous so the police witnessed it and it was all the guys fault as he was doing an illegal manoeuvre. We had to drive back to the rental company, luckily they were great and gave us another car.

Car number 1 (bye bye).

Car number 2 (hello beautiful).

5. Surely by now you’re thinking, we’re on number 5? They’ve only been there 3 fucking days, what more could go wrong? Oh little do you know. So we’re in the car driving to NYC (no crashes this time), we stopped off to grab some food and water etc only to check our emails and see an email from the motel saying they tried to take the payment which was cancelled as it was an old card and to contact them by 1pm; it was currently almost 9pm. Our phones can’t phone american numbers either so we had to go into burger king and asked to use their phone which they kindly let us, phone the motel and they inform us the booking is still there. Everything is all good!

6. Is it fuck! We get to the motel, thinking great get in, pay, get to sleep as it’s almost 12. Nope. The guy tells us the booking was cancelled and he only has a room for 1 night; we’re meant to be staying 4! So we’re currently in the motel patiently waiting to find out if there’s any cancellations etc for us to stay our next 3 nights here.

FML.

Every time we seem to say “surely things can’t get any worse” they do. So you know, whatever. I’m over it all now. I just want a little bit of plain sailing for the next 4 weeks, please.

Has any of your trips ever went this terribly wrong? Leave me a comment below and tell me. Make me feel slightly better about our situation.