Things We Learnt In:

In April 2017 we hit Australia, and we hit it hard. My beautiful cousin, V, emigrated 2 years ago and is now a fully fledged Sydney Sider. She skilfully helped us to arrange an itinerary: Sydney, Uluru, the Whitsundays and Melbourne. This was an unusual trip for us because we were bouncing around the country visiting family and friends rather than going rogue alone like usual. Time was a commodity that we could not afford to waste with 3 weeks to cram in all that Australia had to offer us. We fell off of the plane at Sydney Kingsmith airport, full of complimentary cheese and galaxy chocolate bars, ready for a nap. But a nap was not on the cards- we had 6 days and they had been filled to bursting with activites. V and her equally photogenic husband collected us from the airport and took us back to their house to shower, caffeinate and lay on the floor with their labrador puppy (who ignored me, by the way). That was the last time our feet touched the grou...

In 2014 I moved jobs. Part of that move meant that I had to leave one of my best friends behind at the office. We soon missed our constant contact and by Spring 2016 it had got too much. We decided on the only sensible course of action- a full throttle adventure trip to Iceland together, and to drag our partners into the mix with us. My friend started the planning process and came across some fantastic activites to fill 4 days in Iceland. So we decided to do them all. Day One Arriving: We arrived in Reykjavik at lunch time. The airport is roughly 50km from the city centre and you can prearrange a transfer through Flybus or Airport Express, which we did. There are also taxis available outside the terminal, but we wanted to save our hard earned spending money! Northern Lights Cruise Having settled comfortably into our rooms it was time to pile on the layers and head out into the night. At 9pm a coach arrived at the hotel and drove us to the harbour....

Things we learnt in Iceland 1. Our friend Charlie organises a wicked itinerary 2. It's not as cold as you think. Marginally problematic when you only packed thermals. Which brings us smoothly onto number 3... 3. There is nothing quite as sexy as chin to ankle thermal undies. 4. Bus drivers believe that speed bumps happen to other people. I'm waiting for my kidneys to descend from inside my brain and back into position. 5. "I rode a Viking horse" is a cool way to say "lool at this tiny pony I made stagger up a hill and really fell off" Beautiful Viska who let me kiss her on the nose 6. The Gullfoss waterfall path was closed due to ice and we got to watch some contestants for the Darwin Awards risk life and limb for a selfie Gullfoss- one of the worlds most beautiful health and safety nightmares 7. Snowmobiling= YES! Thanks for reading the first part of our Iceland Adventure- next time I'm going to explain the ma...

My travelling buddy has always been a big fan of Viking history. For his birthday we agreed a trip to Oslo for the Viking Ship Museum would be perfect. In order to throw something a bit unusual into the mix, I decided to look for an outdoor activity that would give us an opportunity to get out and about on the fjords. After a bit of research (read as “3 days googling, a migraine and an emergency gin to make it all stop”) I settled on kayaking. I made contact with Oslo Kayak Tours who were swift and friendly in booking us a three hour tour from Sjolyst Marina on a Sunday morning. When the day came for our fjord adventure we jumped on a train from Oslo Central Station. It quickly became apparent that we’d made a typically strong start- our train was heading in the wrong direction. A change of train and a quick apology phone call to Oslo Kayak Tours and we were back on route. On arrival we were met by Annett who was taking our group kayaking. She swiftly fitted us out in...

When I first met my travelling buddy just over 10 years ago we were both students with no money. Our first attempt at foreign travel together was a trip to Florence after almost a year of dating. We learnt a few things that holiday, but the most important was that neither of us can bear dragging a wheely case more than 100m without the urge to drop kick it off a bridge. Over the past 10 years we've been fortunate enough to build up our travels together. In 2016 we hit up 6 new countries together and we started to joke about whether we could manage 12 destinations in 12 months. We decided to use the rest of our annual leave to visit Australia which put paid to anymore destinations that year. Now, the travelling buddy will turn 30 years old next August. It’s prime time to see if we can finally hit 12 countries in 12 months. Credit for the idea goes to a colleague who attempted the same thing for her honeymoon, and I have ruthlessly stolen her brilliant plan. The rule...