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.

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.. 

Liebster Award.

So, the lovely brokeatlas nominated me for this Liebster award!

It was a surprise and I’m so truly grateful. Just to know that someone’s read and enjoyed at least one of my posts enough to choose me for this is so great. Please make sure to check out her blog – brokeatlas.wordpress.com she has some fantastic posts which I’m sure you’ll all enjoy; one of my favourite’s being I heart Zagreb.

 

What is a Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award originated in 2011 as an online award that is given to travel bloggers by travel bloggers. You take your award and pass it forward. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. It’s a great way to explore new blogs and expand your network in the blogging community whilst also showing others that you appreciate their hard work and talent.

What next?

The official rules of The Liebster Award vary, but generally it is agreed that if your blog has been nominated and you have chosen to accept it you must:

– Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you.
– Display the award on your blog by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”.  Images you can use for your 2016 Liebster Award can be found here.
– Answer your nominator’s questions and create 11 questions for your own nominees to answer.
– Nominate 5 to 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 200 followers.
– Give 10 random facts about yourself.
– List these rules in your post.

Once you have written and published it, you then have to: Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

My 11 Questions:

1.What is your best piece of advice for new travel bloggers?

Blog. You’re just starting out, you have a few blog post ideas lined up but then you think you don’t have much to write about, you do. Look to others for inspiration, but don’t copy their posts. There’s so much for you to blog about, even if you think “Someone’s wrote a post on this before, so why should I?” someone may not have seen any other posts and be waiting around for yours. My problem when I started out was I thought I had nothing to write about, I was terrible at updating my blog and creating new posts. Don’t do what I did, it’s taken me until this year to try and sort my blog and myself out but I’m so glad I finally did.

2. If you had to write a blog about another topic what would it be?

I would probably write about food, you can’t go wrong with that, everyone in the world eats afterall.

3. If you could attend any festival from anywhere in the world what would it be?

Probably, Just for Laughs, Montreal Comedy Festival (Montreal, Canada). I’m a big lover of comedy, and had I already been to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Edinbrugh, Scotland) I would have chosen that because I do believe it is the best comedy festival going; true I may be biased as I’m Scottish, but hey what you going to do? Therefore I’d probably hit up Just for Laughs, it would also take me travelling and to somewhere I haven’t been.

4. What is the one thing you can’t travel without?

Hand sanitiser. I’m not someone that has a massive issue with germs or anything, but when I’m travelling I feel the need to have as much as I can carry. I’ve left toilets all over the world where people don’t bother to wash their hands, which honestly disgusts me, so the thought of them then touching me or something I will later touch gives me the boke! No thank you, sanatise your soul.. and hands.

5. Who is your favourite travel companion?

I think I have to say one of my best friends, Clare. She’s someone that can always make me laugh and although sometimes she doesn’t have the best of luck with certain things (we went on a girls holiday in 2011 for 2 weeks, we were near the end and she asked another friend to see her camera and the pictures she had taken. She deleted them. Not one or two pictures, every single one. She’s never been trusted with a camera since. She can be a bit ditzy, but she would make me laugh non-stop so it’s a small price to pay. Example A how she made us laugh in America.

View this post on Instagram

Life lesson number 1 by @clarehallxo #lifelesson #weather #california #america #travelling #friends

A post shared by road trip bishes (@usaroadtrip19) on Jun 25, 2016 at 7:48pm PDT

6. What is your funniest travel memory?

Oh Lordy, I have so many. I think I’ll choose my most recent from the end of our American road trip. We were in San Francisco (having been to Universal Studios in LA the week before where both Clare and Ellé had picked up wands at Harry Potter), outside the painted ladies with many other tourists snapping pictures and locals walking dogs etc. When Clare and Ellé produce their wands and start shouting spells from Harry Potter at each other, one of which saying the excruciado spell and the other then falling to the ground. I could not contain my laughter, although I think everyone else around us thought they were mentally unstable.

7. If you had to move abroad permanently where would it be?

I think would move to the States. Especially after my road trip, I could see myself living in New Orleans or Nashville.

8. If you could teleport to another country right this second, where would you choose?

Australia. It’s the furthest away, the longest travelling time. Obviously I’d chose there and cut that out. If you’re going to teleport, you do it right. No point going somewhere that takes a few hours on a plane.

9. What is your favourite type of cuisine? (E.g. Spanish, Italian…)

I like so many. I think at the moment I would have to say Mexican. I love spice.

10. What country would you least like to visit and why?

Least like to visit? That’s a difficult one, I don’t ever really think of not visiting places. I’m going to go for Sudan, only because it’s one of the hottest countries in the world and I’m not a big fan of the sun (I’m Scottish, I just burn).

11. If you could travel with any celebrity who would it be?

I would probably choose a comedian, someone who will always have a joke or story to tell on the journeys. If I go home grown, it would be Kevin Bridges, a fellow Scot. At least I would know he wouldn’t have any trouble understanding anything I say, us Scots and our Scottish accents sometimes are hard to understand.

 

10 random facts about myself:

1. I love art. For as far back as I can remember until I was 16 I wanted to be an artist when I was older (only for me to realise I’d probably never make any money from it, so I let that dream go).
2. I have 9 piercings on my left ear, 3 on my right and my nose pierced.
3. I absolutely love cacti.
4. Tiramisu is my most favourite dessert. If it’s on the menu, it’s in my belly.
5. I have an obsession with notebooks. I buy a new one every few weeks, even if I haven’t even used the previous ones.
6. I’m a trained first aider, but hate being the person that has to give first aid. I’m scared I do something wrong.
7. I didn’t get a promotion to Security Section Leader in work because I “wasn’t confident enough” according to my manager. I catch the most shoplifters and am not afraid to deal with any situation. I know I really didn’t get the job because I’m female and the other person going for it was male.
8. I have 4 tattoos but say I really have 3 because my first one has half disappeared from my foot.
9. I can’t deal with bad grammar, even through text. It infurtiates me when ‘ppl txt like ths’ you’re just missing out the vowels, put them back.
10. I voted no when Scotland had their Independence Referendum because I believed it was best for us at that point. If we were doing it again now, I would vote differently.

 

My Nominations:

Bee Wanderlust  – Becca makes me want to pack up and move to Australia.

Kiwi Girl Gone – great blog, great posts, great adventures.

Wanderlust Ladies – from travel tips to many countries visited you’re sure to find some great stuff on their blog.

Finding Tom – he always has great posts, and you’re sure to love his recent ones of his drive across America.

 

My 11 Questions:

1. What inspired you to write a blog?
2. What was your first travel experience?
3. Are you more a morning person or night owl?
4. Describe yourself in 3 words?
5. Upload a photo from a recent trip and tell us why you chose it?
6. What is your favourite film?
7. If you could describe your life right now in 5 words or less, how would you describe it?
8. Who is your favourite music artist/band to listen to?
9. If you could learn one new skill, what would it be?
10. Give your best travel tips?
11. Tell us your favourite travel memory?

 

 

Thanks for reading guys!