oxford wandering

While I was on a trip down south to visit Carys in Coventry I took the train to Oxford for the day. I'm not really sure what drew me to wanting to go there, maybe just another one of those places I'd been hearing about as long as I could remember. So why not?!

An old clock tower in Oxford

ye old england - a day in york

York has been used as an area of settlement from before even the Romans time. It's also somewhere I've wanted to go for a long time, for a fairly bizarre reason. When I was in primary school we used to have "computer units". This was when the class would divide into groups and we would get a certain amount of time per day to play an educational computer game. I remember one of the games went back in time to York, England, and it always stuck in my mind so that when I thought of cobbled streets and old England I thought of York. 

So in December I finally made the journey to walk the streets I have seen in probably terrible 90s computer animation as a child. It was obviously much better than I imagined. 

York Minster

krakow - welcome to history

This trip was a bit of a strange one for me. It came about because I needed to leave the country for a couple of weeks when my UK working visa ended. While Krakow and Berlin had always been on my list of places I wanted to see before I left Europe, it was a weird feeling planning an enforced trip. Luckily my amazing Mum came over to do the trip with me, after putting off thinking about it and planning it for so long I finally sucked it up and did so in just enough time for her to book and join me. It wouldn't have been the same without her and I wouldn't have enjoyed it even half as much! 

Travel buddies reunited!

on the road again

- To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,

To gain all while you give,

To roam the roads of land remote,

To travel is to live - Hans Christian Anderson 

everything is grand in ireland

Since my Mum was a school girl it has been her dream to go to Ireland, and since it is less than an hour flight I couldn't let her leave the UK without making the journey.

Countryside in County Kerry

15 things i learned in paris

There is so much to do and see in Paris, and much of it well known, so I don't really need to do a blow by blow account of our time there.

Instead, here are 15 things I learned on our family trip just after New Year.

Eiffel Tower! Just as awesome in real life

road tripping scotland

While my family were over we had a car between Christmas and New Year, which gave us a really good chance to explore some of Scotland. There is so much to see but you can see a lot in a short time as well.

St Andrew's Cathedral

hamburg weekend: guten tag germany!

In November I took a trip to Hamburg to see some of Germany for the first time and meet another friend I met in Thailand.

Downtown Hamburg

oh the places you'll go

- I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list - Susan Sontag

 

 

Edinburgh sunset out my window

im going to wichita

- You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place - Miriam Adeney 

Kansas field at sunset

When I was 16 I left the bubble of my life in small town New Zealand and took a leap of faith into the utter unknown. Looking back at this time I dont know how I even managed to get to that point. It seems like a completely different person when I think about it, and I guess it was. I don't remember the specifics, but I had heard about the AFS exchange and decided it was for me. I'm not sure I actually intended to follow through but I tested the idea on my parents and when they didn't shoot it down it seemed logical to keep testing the boundary, until before I knew it I was on a plane flying away from all that was comfortable into what could have become anything. 

life goes on in edinburgh

I don't have anything particular to write about this time, but lots of little exciting things have been happening so I feel like it's time for a bit of an update.

Walking through Holy Corner at 10.30pm

edinburgh - home sweet home

- What is the world's greatest lie?... It's this: that at a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate - Paul Coelho (The Alchemist)