Parting thoughts....

Our lives could have been so completely different if we hadnt become a couple, but eventually our paths met and we followed our hearts :) ....and its because we did this we have experienced this wonderful trip together and made some amazing memories to last a lifetime. We have overcome many obstacles together before and during our trip that have really tested us as a couple, and things that have tested us on our own and have come out stronger for getting through it together. Nothing stays perfect and we are not perfect but together we are a good strong team and thats very important. 

I have learnt a lot whilst travelling and i am sure luke has to. A lot of things that have happened in my past (with boyfriends, car accident, family feuds etc) used to bother me and stress me out and its not until we have come travelling that i have truly realised that all of that doesnt matter and it is not worth all the horrible feelings that go with the stress. You live once and once only dont spend it being angry with yourself or others if something bothers me i will confront it, my life will not be affected by what others say and do, I will be putting myself first as i always should have done and as luke always tells me to do. Sometimes it takes something massive to happen in your life to give you a kick up the arse that you should of had a long time ago. I am so lucky to have a wonderful family around me which alot of people dont have and i have a great group of friends who i am bless to have. 

Unfortunately me and my sister havnt always seen eye to eye but i am hoping this will change now that we have had some time apart. I missed her and her family whilst away, i am proud of what my sister has achieved so far.....a mortgage, marriage and two absolutely amazing kids she really has been blessed with the best kids ever i love them so much :) we are two different people with two different personalities and i am the best auntie i can be to my niece and nephew they are my world. We are two very lucky girls with the best parents anyone could wish for who support us in everything we want to do and we had a Great childhood and were very lucky. Its time to forget what bothers us as lifes to short. Lets enjoy our future as sisters. Your my only sister and i love you to bits.

We want to give a massive thanks to my mum and dad, without your support, guidance, love and encouragement we would have struggled to go on this trip it was always a dream of ours to go but havng you both there has really helped give us the extra confidence we needed to go on this trip, your constant advice and support througout our travels was also a huge help. I feel so bloody lucky to have the parents i have what a inspiration they are, they have always helped, encouraged and supported me and my sister in everything we have always wanted to do, never been negative and bought us up so well that we both will always enjoy a happy life. People say there is no perfect parent but our parents are perfect and i feel extremely lucky to have them. So thank you mum and dad for being the best of the best.

Travelling has really made me think and feel differently about life in a good way! and whilst travelling i sat with my thoughts and this is what i was thinking.....Everybody has bad things, bad experiences they have had to live through in their life which is why you should never judge someone by there cover everyone is fighting a battle that you dont know about just be kind to everyone. No body is perfect as everybody finds faults in everyone else but believe your life is as perfect as it can be as if you are happy you life will be perfect in your eyes, and isnt that all that matters? 

Things happen in life and they often present you with a choice you may make the wrong choice at the time and wish you hadnt but there will be a time that you can make another choice and make a right turn instead of a wrong one, these choices will appear regularly and its down to you to eventually choose the right path for you and follow your heart as when you do you will be rewarded with a fun, happy and relaxed life. Getting to the good times through the hard is a challlenge but when you get there....god its worth it. There was a time in my life where i just wasnt happy and didnt know what to do i thought i was going know where and i am sure my family and friends thought that to! But i am so glad i am now on this path which is by far the best path and right one for me! Follow your heart and your dreams will come true :) whilst travelling i really was thinking very deeply and it made me just reflect on certain things that have happened in my life already and the paths i took, but one things for sure i am so glad my path finially took me to luke and we have experienced travelling together.

I have found my prince after kissing far to many frogs ! and am so happy and am looking forward to our future together, finding someone to spend your life with isnt about finding someone you can live with its finding someone you cant live without and finding someone that you can have fun with, travelling as a Couple is a make or break thing and i am glad we have become stronger, we appreciate each other much more now and have had such a laugh finding each other and finding ourselves its been a great journey! And one we will never forget! Would we do it again.......no! Once was enough! Well.....maybe but very differently. The memories we have made together will last a life time and we have talked about the things we have done many times since being back, we really tested our limits whilst away and really pushed ourselves to do different things and having the support of each other really made a difference, what a epic 10 months and trip of a life times one we will never forget. Now to get excited for the next big chapter....saving for a mortgage & buying a place of our own. We cannot wait.

Our conclusion to our world adventure....

Wow.....what a amazing 10 months we have just had :) we have experienced so much in that relatively short time and seen a lot of different culture & countrys. Luke has always wanted to travel and its also been my dream since i was little to travel so it has been a dream come true 10 months and i feel so privileged and happy to have created these wonderful memories with my best friend.... my boyfriend luke. 

We have had a absolute blast together and seen many different countries and cultures. Lukes fave country was fiji followed by new zealand and then america. He absolutely loved fiji, it was calm, peaceful and the fijians were so friendly it was very him. My faves were new zealand, fiji & america were next on a par! Everyone knows that america is and always has been my fave country of all, but new zealand was just gorgeous. We both really loved asia but we didnt realise just quite how much until we left asia and moved on. When we look back now and when i eventually read through some of my earlier blogging i am sure we have moaned about asia but as we reflect on our time there we realised we loved it more then we first thought & we had a pretty good time there, sometimes it takes time to realise what you really did enjoy and what you hated!!

Unfortunately we didnt like australia and even when we reflect now we still hate it :( it doesnt make us as angry now but we do feel a bit bitter about it, however it was our choice to be there that long, we really thought we would enjoy it but it turned out to be everything we hated :( others parts of oz may be different and we certainly enjoyed sydney and new south wales but in general it is not somewhere we would really go back to.

We learnt some very valuable lessons travelling some useful lessons other lessons we learnt the hard way. It took a lot of planning for this trip, the best part of 18 months and a lot of saving and although we were very very organised there were still things we missed out, mistakes were made and there was also still a lot of things we had to sort out and book whilst we were travelling, a lot of the time this proved difficult as wifi was either very expensive or crap! We often wondered how other travellers coped with the amount of things you had to organise for travellng in advance! However it didnt take us long to realised most other travellers didnt organise bugger all and just drifted from place to place! It really mythed us ! We just couldnt do that! I suppose everyone is different we like to know where we are going next and where we are staying! 

Living out of a bag for 10 months was undoubtedly one of the more difficult things we had to cope with, and it was one thing we didnt even think about before we left!! Never underestimate how stressful it is living out of a bag for a long amount of time!!

When i read through my blog at some point i am probably going to think "god i moaned alot!!" But the fact is travelling for a long amount of time, making sure we always have somewhere to Stay, budgeting for different countrys and trying to do as much as you can on a small budget is bloody hard work and very tiring! Yes we were so lucky to do what we have done and i feel bloody proud we did it, but would we do it again.....no!!

Travelling has made us appreciate all the lovely things we have at home and all the lovely people we have supporting us and encouraging us, without all the constant love and support of our fam and friends this journey could have been very different so we couldnt thank them all enough :)

We want to explore more of the world but would never leave again for that amount of time, it was a bloody good experience and we loved it but i am a home girl at heart, luke couldnt really care and would leave again with no problems! But if we ever did do a smaller travelling trip we would save a lot more money and do things how we like.....in luxuary!! Travelling certainly is a experience you will never forget and pretty much a once in a lifetime oppourtunity and despite our moans and groans at certain points we really enjoyed it.

So are we sad its all over?....yes we are, but we also feel slightly relieved! We are excited to get back to normality and work actually!! We both really enjoy our work and cannot wait to get back and start saving for the next chapter in our lives :) 

Before and after our travels !!!!

Cant believe its home time....

So here we are at miami international airport awaiting boarding our flight home and we just cannot believe its time to fly home! We are having mixed emotions! We are so pleased we got to the airport checked in our bags with no problems and are now just waiting patiently to board ! I feel like the stress of our journey is over and we can now relax and get excited to see everyone at home :) 

We havnt told many we are coming home as we are hoping to surprise a few ! The first candidates being chester and millie! And we just cannot wait to see there little faces! We are surprising chester by picking him up at school! He will be very surprised, next we hope to surprise lukes best friend matt, then my nan and hopefully my cousin becky if we have enough time before going to my parents! 

Its a very exciting time and been a long time coming! We are missing so many small things that most people do not even think about.....hanging your washing on the line and having nice aired clothes to wear, having a oven! And having a bath! All small things but things we cannot wait for! Whilst we are sad our adventure is coming to an end we are so ready to come home. This last 10 months have gone so quickly we just cant believe its home time !

The first person/people we will see will be my auntie alison and uncle garry they are very kindly collecting us from the airport and we cannot wait to see them, a great start to our return home :) we have kept in contact but neither of them have facebook so it will be nice to have a catch up before we get really busy with sorting things out on our return.

We had a minor drama at the airport, whilst boarding security came and evacuated everyone as there was a security breech which was a little scary but it worked out ok in the end apart from the 1hr and a half delay ! I was so worried we wouldnt get to my sisters in time to collect chester and surprise him.

Before we knew it we were nearly home, the flight had been ok although it was a rather small plane with limited leg room, which we were shocked about as it was virgin atlantic and they were usually pretty good. 

We couldnt believe this was it! We have lived a dream for ten months and now we were going home, we were very ready to see our friends & family and go back to a "normal" life. We were actually looking forward the next chapter.

Last minute worries....

We all no that going on holiday can be stressful! The holiday is relaxing its just all the prep, this trip has had its ups and downs and for some reason a lot of stress and panic was at the end! The first thing i will talk about is packing!

I am soooooo fed up of packing and unpacking, packing and unpacking! Its really grating on me! And packing to come home is no better! Obviously we had to much and the cases were over weight! AGAIN! And the handluggage bags were 10kg + each! It took a lot of rearranging of heavy things and some hard decisions to leave things behind to get the weight down and they are still 1 kg overweight! But theres sod all i can do about it i really have given up! I cannot wait to go on a normal holiday where i just take my handbag to the airport instead of breaking my back with a 10kg+ backpack and handbag and a jumper to carry! Its not glamourous and its not me! 

Next there was Lukes car :(..... Now most people with a "older" car will more then likely have a Few repairs a year to do, due to wear and tear etc, it feels like it never ends amd they always think "why does this always happen to me!" We think that sometimes! But it cant be helped cars break and thats that really! Lukes car needed a repair due to corrosion and it was just sods law it has happened a few days before we come home and we have no money until we start work in a couple of weeks! After feeling stressed about this for a while we chatted to both parents and felt better :) its so hard when things happen and they are completely out of your hands, and its hard not being there when something like that happens ! Because you are helpless! However hopefully things will be ok when we return.

The next and quite serious worry was a electrical fire in our room the evening before our departure! We had just finished chatting to lukes mum luke went to the toilet i Was sitting on the bed, he came out of the bathroom and said there was smoke coming out of one of the plug sockets....i thought he ment the smoke was coming from a socket with something plugged into it, but there was nothing plugged into it but there was thick black smoke pouring out of the socket, i quickly jumped up and said we need to get out, i grabbed our phones, lukes wallet, the ipad and video camera! All the important things!! Luke grabbed our shoes! And We went outside to our balcony, i was in my pjammas! Luke ran down to reception and informed them and they said they would send someone!! Well time ticked by and nobody came, meanwhile this most awful smell was seeping out to the balcony, luke ran back in to grab our passports ! We really did think the worst and just thought we needed to get our passports! Luke was very concerned about our luggage ! I really wasnt even thinking about it! I was so concerned about the electrical fire that was happening! Still no one came. So i bolted down there in my pjs and spoke to someone on the tickets desk as she was the first person i saw, they were really concerned and said i had to speak to someone on the front desk which luke had already done! I just bardged into the que and litrally said we have a fire upstairs and no one has come and to make it worse the smoke alarm had not gone off! They assured me someone was coming i went back to luke who was still waiting and eventually the security guard and maintanence man turned up! They walked in and it stank! And then the maintanence man proceded to do something so dangerous i cant really believe it! He plugged in the hairdryer to the plug socket that was smoking and turned it on! I couldnt believe it, he was crazy he could of been electricuted ! He tried two plug sockets with the hairdryer for what reason i dont no! Because the fact of the matter is the smoke had poured out, the room stank and it was pointless and dangerous! He then unscrewed the plug with a normal screw driver not even a special electricians screw driver! And thats when he saw inside the plug and saw there was water running down the electric colum in the wall! When he saw that he said you will need to be moved rooms....which we already new ! We were not going to stay in there it was dangerous and it stunk, he said someone would come up to help us with our luggage and help us to another room, well we quickly got our stuff out of the room luckily i had nearly finished the packing so there was only a few loose bits to pick up, then we waited on our balcony and waited and waited, it was getting dark i was still in my pjs and no one came! We was both so so angry and i went down to reception again in my pjs and was fuming i litrally told them how angry i was and what had happened and that i wanted a room sorted out now and then i want to speak to a manager about a refund. They gave me the key for the new room and the manager was busy so said he would ring me, i just wanted to get our stuff to the new room, finish the packing and have a bath ! It was gone 9pm now and we had a long journey tomorrow, we got all our stuff to our room on our own no one came to help us, and as soon as we got there luke went to get us a pizza and i rang the manager fuming! I explain i wanted a refund and he said he would be contacting virgin as we booked through them i took his full name and assured him i would be in contact and i would be contacting virgin myself, he gave us free breakfast and a fruit basket! But we was un happy, this was not what we needed or wanted before travelling and besides that it was so dangerous, we went back the next morning to take so pics of the room etc to support our letter of complaint! And to our horror nothing had been done or touched, the room was how we left it, all lights on no body had enusred the room or the enviroment was safe, and it still stunk, what a evening! 

The last thing that stressed us out was our journey and luggage restrictions, it wasnt the flight tho! Our flight was departing from miami international. We had to get a public bus to the lynx central station in downtown orlando and then walk to the megabus stop to catch our bus to miami, we was worried about relying on public transport and also the megabus had really strict guidelines on size of luggage and weight and people had been refused! So i was really worried about being refused onto the bus and then panicking about how we would get to the airport that was 4 hours away!! However we got the public bus fine, then walked to the megabus stop fine and then got on the bus fine! No problems! Worrying over nothing!! And then we got to miami airport fine and we decided there to take stuff out of   Our cases and put them into another bag to prevent all the worry and stress of the case being over weight! 

So theres it is the things that we most worried and stressed about just before our return! What a looooong 24 hours it was and of course we didnt sleep as we never do before we travel! So that was a stressful 24 hours and now we were going into the next 24 hours which would be very tiring! We had a hour journey to the lynx central station a 4 hour journey to miami airport and then a 6 hour wait for our flight then a 9 hour flight and 2 hour journey to my sisters ! Its going to be tiring but oh so worth it when i see my little chester and millie! And the rest of the fam ! Cannot wait its all a surprize and they are going to be super excited!