What would I do?

Most of my childhood travels are made up of countless all-inclusive food, pool lounging, 11 o'clock water-aerobics and salty crisps. I loved it. I wanted nothing more than sunny, worry-free days surrounded by smiling people.

I still see the benefits of holidays like these. I recently went on an all-inclusive trip to Greece and spent my days, like before, in a lazy and incredibly satisfying haze of books, good food and the occasional dip in the sea to cool off. It was lovely.

My experiences this past summer did however open up my eyes to another type of holiday, one which ticked boxes I didn't know I had. I experienced cities instead of beaches, stayed with locals who didn't speak Swedish nor English, (making basic sign language more useful than ever). There was no blonde, tanned, smiling girl pointing us in the direction of the buses or flights we needed to catch, it was all on us. It was exciting.

STA Travel currently has a competition going where you could win a travel experience around the world worth up to 5.000 pounds. 5.000 pounds (!) Seeing this made my mind go wild imagining all the places I'd go if I had that kind of money to spend, and what experiences I'd make myself dare to try.

Asia is an obvious first choice, as we I've yet to make it that far. My new bit of thrilling adventure would probably be a good ol' bungy jump (though merely typing it makes me dizzy, promising!) Paired with that I'd most likely want to settle for something a tad less adrenaline-pinching, perhaps socialising with some locals and finally finish off with a bit of trekking or a cool safari. Go and check it out for yourself on their website to see what you'd choose!

Growing up

The past two years have been very odd for me. I've started performing chores I normally relied on my mother for. I find myself paying bills, writing grocery lists and even mowing our lawn. Yes I have an actual lawn. One time someone else (we have no idea who or why) mowed our lawn for us and I caught myself feeling disappointed for being robbed the job. 

The cause of this newfound satisfaction from garden work might stem (pun intended) from the inevitable fate of turning into my dear mother, or my way of procrastinating is simply just a tad more mature than others. Whatever the reason, this new obsession recently resulted in myself wanting to buy a rake. An actual proper green and solid rake. It caught me completely off guard, but as me and my flatmate stood and admired our lawn (as you do), I was suddenly unable to conclude nothing else but that a rake purchase was inevitable. My flatmate looked at me, followed by the lawn and solemnly agreed 'yes, I think you're right'.

It was like that time when me and my group of friends were having pre's before a night out and realised to our dismay that almost everyone was drinking wine. Not even out of cheap plastic cups but from proper wine-glasses as well. This continued throughout the night as one of our most thrilling conversation topics concerned the different internet providers and their tedious waiting times for installation. What an exhilarating life I live.

I guess I'll have to come to terms with the fact that things are bound to change as I grow older. People will soon start to get engaged and have little kiddos of their own. I'll dance at weddings and hopefully properly figure out how tax actually works. Let's hope the latter kicks in sooner rather than later. It can't be that hard to figure out right?

I realise this post does not give any credit to my youthful side, but I have a slight feeling that in a year from now I will add even more grown up things to my list. Maybe by then we'll have put the heating on in our flat. And who knows, I might have actually bought the darn rake. 

Australia calling?

Though I am lucky enough to consider myself a rather well-travelled person, I’m yet to visit the great land down under. After graduation, when many friends jetted off on daring adventures in the land of perpetual suntans and shimp-barbies, I took an alternate route and ended up in the bustling streets of London. Although I have never regretted my decision, the thought of someday enjoying a taste of the Aussie lifestyle has always lingered in the back of my mind.

My previous reasons for not taking the plunge were founded in issues concerning price, timing and the fact that it's literally on the opposite side of the world. However, I’ve recently discovered that I wouldn’t have to spend as much as I initially thought, and that despite being a full-time student, I still have about 4 months of free time in the summer to do as I please. 

I think because of my very magical summer of 2015, I was a bit reluctant to plan for new adventures as I would rather just live in my cozy Euro-trip bubble a little while longer. I've however realised that there is of course the chance that the summer of 2016 can be even more magnificent, and with that in mind I'm now very excited to start planning for it! We'll see where I will actually end up going, but to top last years' trip it's going to have to be pretty spectacular, so I better get to it.

STA Travel is a great help when you’re in need of some travel assistance, be it with activities, inspiration, flights or current good deals. They currently have a great offer on trips to Australia! But if the great down under doesn’t tick your boxes there are plenty of more deals to find on their website.  

Autumn

I've always thought of myself as a true summer-loving kind of gal. Someone who desperately tries to salvage every last bit of all the wonderful things a slightly warmer climate hopes to bring. But summer gal no more I tell you. It might be just a crush, but I am as of very recently absolutely smitten with multi-coloured leaves, cozy sweaters, fairy lights, boots and pumpkins. 

This sudden change of heart might be due to the fact that I this year have a flat of my own to transform into a little autumnal heaven. I plan to have both candles and blankets placed in every nook and cranny of our place very soon. Incidentally, these will multi-function as survival gear as my flatmate and I are still too stinchy to put the heating on. 

Of course not all autumn days look as magical as this, but recently Aberdeen has seen quite a few of them which I'm obviously very excited about. It's like every lovely day we get might possibly be the very last one of the year, which means I can therefore not waste it indoors. It's a very poor set up for studying as the rainy, windy days forces one to find references or actually read that darn Shakespeare play. 

And then there's the beach. Ah, my love for this ol'thing will have to be expressed in a much lengthier blog post. But for now I shall just say that it is by far my favourite place in Aberdeen. It's a place for running, walking, sitting, thinking, reading and surfing. I'm hoping I'll be able to do most of it all through the year, excluding the surfing. It was kind of a twice in a lifetime and never ever again sort of thing. 

Sundays

I love Sundays. It's the day where I finally have time to put my life back into order again after an often quite hectic week. I write 'to-do' lists where 'go for run', 'do food shopping' and 'sort out my room' often needs to be ticked off first. I like the first part of the day to be busy, trying my very hardest to complete the majority of my list before 4 pm. That's when my productivity comes to a sudden halt and my chill Sunday finally begins, usually with a cuppa and catching up with my youtube subscriptions.

These wonderful Sunday afternoons have during the past year had a succinct highlight, something I find myself looking forward to all week. This is when I get to sit down and watch 'the Michalaks' on Youtube. They are this amazing young London couple, vlogging their life together with their son Grayson. The father Steff is an incredibly talented editor and brings an artistic elegance and beauty to their ordinary everyday life. It might only be a trip to the supermarket or a walk in the park on a gloomy day, but somehow they make it all look absolutely stunning. I'll be ever grateful that through them, I'm allowed to travel back to London for about 30 minutes every Sunday, a much welcomed break from nice, though very grey and sometimes quite dreary Aberdeen.

Here is their channel on Youtube
Have a look, I promise it's well worth your time.

Happy Sunday!

Win a blogging trip to Thailand

I love travelling and was lucky enough to get a job where I can promote it (and somehow actually get paid, crazy stuff) So occasionally I will share some good deals and current promotions that STA Travel has on. If you're not a keen traveller and would like to hear nothing of it, then please look away for a bit and wait for my many other oh so thrilling posts to come (got one about my newfound love for autumn coming up that's a real page turner haha)

But if you're into good travel deals and would love to hear more about it, head on over to their website and have a wee gander. Right now you actually have a chance to win a blogging trip to Thailand!

Sign up here!

Good luck! 

Something new

I have tried to run a continuous blog many a times. At one point I even surprised myself and succeeded to vlog for a whole year (film versions of blogs) Thankfully those videos are carefully hidden away from public view, only to be occasionally watched while cringing at my very happy, but oh so embarrassing 16 year old self.

I have however decided that I will try again and join the people who document their lives for others to read. I say others, but truth be told, the only one who's likely to be reading this is myself, and perhaps at desperate times also my mum (as a last resort for entertainment)

I have no idea what to fill this blog with. Unfortunalely, I don't get up to many exciting adventures but I'm hoping that maybe this blog will push me to try new things which will hopefully result in me stumbling upon something thrilling and noteworthy in the process.

Wish me luck!