East Coast Trip

I previously wrote about Boston and how much I loved it, well that was part of a larger trip that I did over the summer. Anyways, due to slight insomnia...and a very bad habit of finding anything to distract me from uni work I made a wee video using a number of photos from the whole trip. Forgive my editing, I'm still learning when it comes to iMovie so there is the odd (slightly obvious) bad music edits, either way hope you enjoy! We had a great time and it has been nice to look over all the photos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/u23ab6?feature=mhsn#p/a/u/0/M5_3xsm6pMA

Let it snow....

It seems everywhere in the UK has gotten snow, not Liverpool though, we just have cold weather and frost :(. After spending the last 4 years in Aberdeen, being the only place to not have snow (or so it seems) is very strange! Aberdeen has been having massive amounts of snow this past week, something which from memory gets old quite quickly, especially when the snow turns to ice. Still have to love a snowy build up to Christmas.



Fingers crossed for some snow over the next few weeks...and a white christmas!

Ax

Golden Grahams!

I just thought I would share my excitement with you that they have started to sell Golden Grahams in the UK again!



This may not seem like a big deal to many..if not most people, but I love this cereal! I always get my parents to bring some back when they go to Florida. Wonder how long until we get Lucky Charms. Sadly this has been the upside to my week so far, deadlines loom so its been work work work at the moment. Only 2 weeks to go until the christmas holidays!

Ax

Boston

So this summer I did another wee trip, this time down the east coast of America with a group of friends following graduation. Not the most adventurous of trips I know but it was fun none the less and enabled me to find my current favourite city in America, Boston! Initially we had toyed with the idea of doing the whole trip up around New England (after we decided a transamerica trip would cost too much, poor students and all) rent a car or RV and go explore.....sadly this idea was quickly stamped out when we realised how much it costs to rent a car under 25. We are talking a daily charge of around £25 dollars (per driver) on top of the normal rental which adds up. So our American road trip quite quickly turned into an American bus trip with the odd flight thrown in, not nearly as cool. Never the less it was still an amazing trip. For those of you who are lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on your point of view) to be over 25 and in possession of a driving licence here are a few of the websites I had looked at:
http://www.roadtripusa.com/
http://www.cruiseamerica.com/
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/road-trips/overview.html

And for those under 25's, the cheapest was to get around was by bus, we used Megabus who were dead cheap! also a great site for train travel, in all countries, is seat61.com.

Boston really is a beautiful city! Our first night there we went exploring and ended up walking through Boston common at twilight, there were buskers playing saxophone in the background, crickets chirping, couples walking hand in hand...incredibly peaceful and right in the middle of the city. It also felt very safe which is unusual for any big parks that I've been to. The whole of the center of Boston, it has to be said, has the same atmosphere, relaxed and beautiful, there was always something to see and most of it was free. I think the only 'tourist' thing we payed for were the duck tours which are worthwhile, a word of warning though, book in advance! We spend a few hours hanging around in the end because we didn't. Outside of the city center there are quite a few places worth a visit, Harvard is one, while not as impressive as I had anticipated it still had nice grounds and was a nice town. Another area which I really wanted to explore more and hang around in was Fenway, sadly the rest of my companions were not as keen as myself so we didn't spend long here, neither did we get to see a tour of the grounds which had been on my to do list as there was a game on while we there so I will have to do that on my next visit. Hopefully it is worth it. We also did a day trip to Salem,

While it was nice to see a different part of the state...Salem really was a bit of a tourist trap. Unfortunately what I had anticipated as a historic town, cobbled streets and so on... was just a town with lots of over priced, and frankly bad, museums. Perhaps this was my own fault for having preconceptions, but they were in part inspired by the websites of the town. So I think for Salem, if you are driving, give it a go as its not a bad place, just don't bother with the museums. However a novelty photo is a must!

As far as accommodation in Boston...I really wouldn't know where to recommend. We ended up staying in a place called 40 Berkley which was a YWCA and a bit odd. In fairness for what we payed it wasn't bad but no air con in summer and sharing a small room with 3 other people made it a bit uncomfortable. We also had a few mad residents in the rooms next to us. Made for some interesting stories at least. A great site for hostels though (if you do not already know it) is hostelworld.com. I've booked all my accommodation here for Thailand and this trip and I've never had a problem.

So I think that is all I have to say about Boston for now, other than I love it! I think everyone on the trip at some point stated " I could live in Boston" which says a lot. If you have never visited do! and if you have well I hope you've been reminded how great it is!

Ax

Thailand

Sleeper from Singapore to KL

So was going through some of my photos to add to flicker (seeing as I have completely forgotten my sign in details) and realised I never did blog about my South East Asia trip. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to remember as much, but it will be nice to try! The initial reason behind the trip was that my sister was going to be in Singapore for a few months on her Medical elective, good enough excuse to travel anyway!

Singapore was a perfect base on which to start, and I daresay the place most people will, seeing as all flights go through here, it's a great city with quite a few hidden gems, though they are easy to miss amongst the skyscrapers and shops! A great place to go for food is Chinatown, and in particular a noodle place which sadly I can't remember the name of now, but it was easy to find nestled in amongst the street food vendors, which are also worth a try! One of my favourite places however was out of the city, as it can get a bit much at time, was the botanic gardens. Even in the humidity you should definitely check them out if your ever in Singapore. 

I was only really here for a few days, seeing as our time on the trip was limited and we were trying to do the majority of the trip using public transport rather than flying (a theme which was sadly broken by the time we were in Koh Samui). However it did give the trip the backpacker feel I was trying for and resulted in meeting some interesting people and seeing some unexpected places. 

Penang. Malaysia was next on our trip, a place which had been recommended by my parents. It is a largely Chinese island just off the coast of Malaysia which was at one stage largely westernised which can still be seen in the majority of the building in the small capital Georgetown. 

Temple in Penang

One of the major themes of our stay here was the diversity in the temples scattered around the island, from Thai to Sri Lankan to temples which breed snakes! It was the first real taste of the different cultures that I got on this trip.  As always food was a major part of the trip and we found a great called Ecco (not very traditional) but it had the best garlic pizza bread I think I have ever had!

The over all highlight of the trip was Koh Samui! A total tourist spot but I think it was here where me and my sister had the best experiences and memories. Getting there was a bit of a challenge from Penang but it was definitely worth it! The trip up also gave us an opportunity to get lost in places and meet some new people, one who was a lovely wee guy travelling on his own from England who had decided to go on a spiritual retreat outside the city where we got our ferry. I suppose being stranded in towns between buses and ferries also gave us a chance to see the city side of Thailand and various bus depos which haven't been modified for the benefit of tourists.

Ferry to Koh Samui from Surat Thani

If you ever do visit Koh Samui a stay at Penzy's Guesthouse is a must! Extremely friendly owners who were very good to us in organising everything and helping us out on where to go. Was such as nice place here, lots to do if your wanting to relax for awhile and just enjoy yourself on holiday! While most of the excursions on offer are a bit of a tourist trap, they were still enjoyable! Just don't be expecting to find things away from the tourist trail here.

Elephant ride in Koh Samui

Despite that it was amazing for the few days we were here and in my opinion much nicer than Koh Phanang which was simply dominated by the full moon parties (which are worth going to though!) If I could have spend all my time on the islands I would have in a heart beat! great atmosphere and plenty to do, especially if your into diving and adventure sports.

The only other place we visited in Thailand before we ended the trip in Bangkok was Ayuthaya. The least westernised stop on the trip for sure which was a nice change!

It was a great trip, and looking back at the photos one I would quite like to do again although I think I would try to go more off the beaten track this time and visit the likes of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, hopefully next time I will be more of a seasoned and adventurous traveller! Was a great introduction to backpacking though and has gotten me mildly obsessed with journeys and traveling rather than going on holiday!

A

Yearly update!

Just remembered about this thing and thought I might attempt to give it another go, seeing as I am yet again finding any source of procrastination.

Well i suppose a wee update is in order. I am now in Liverpool, studying for an MRes, pretty much biding my time in joining the graduate job market! Which is looking bleak as ever. But yeah here I am, getting accustomed and acquainted with a new city. Been rather busy since I got here (in my 5th week now) joined the surf club and went to Newquay which was an amazing experience

Stayed in a great wee hostel that the club uses regularly was really nice and laid back, only downside was a lock on the doors, wasn't an issue when traveling with a large group but still. Best thing about this place too is the sauna in the kit room, which will be getting used more and more as the weather gets colder I'm sure!

Unfortunately I didn't really bring my camera out with me, hand my phone at least thankfully, which takes pretty good picture, with the help of the odd app here and there :). This is really the only one I took of the area (Think this is Towan Beach) .

So other than traveling down south, I also found time to venture up to Newcastle and stayed with some family friends just by Hadrians wall, really in the middle of nowhere! had an interesting meal at a local pub, was a bit of a league of gentlemen moment, us being not local!

Then there is Liverpool itself, with my new handy photo app, I may try to take some more photos of the city. So far I only have these two, one of a bombed out church (WW2) and the other of one of the Lion statues in chinatown.