Review: Sperrin View Glamping Pods

To celebrate David's birthday this year we spent 2 nights at Sperrin View Glamping Pods in Cookstown! They are super cute glamping pods in the middle of the countryside, in a designated Dark Sky spot of Northern Ireland - perfect for stargazing! The pods are designed with this in mind, with a huge window tilted towards the sky so you can lie in your cosy bed and watch the stars to your hearts content. I wanted to review our stay here as we loved it so much & are already planning when we can go back again!

Starting The Journey // 24-7 Ibiza

I'm sat in Belfast International Airport,

and my flight has been delayed by like, 2 hours.

To the point where, I don't even know what Gate I'm supposed to be at,

and that isn't being announced for another 1hr45mins!

So I figured, what better time to start recording my journey with 24-7 Ibiza.

I have a solid wifi signal, a hot coffee, my laptop is all charged up and I'm settled at a table with a clear view of one of those Flight Update screens that everyone seems to flock around at the airport!

Why I Quit My Job To Travel

At this moment in time, as I'm putting pen to paper, 

I'm sitting in a froyo cafe (my current place of work) on my break, 

looking out the window at the torrent of snow that's probably blanketing my poor wee car,

(side note - later on it took me a solid 15 mins to de-ice my car...)

and all I can think of is roughly this time last year when I officially "handed my notice in" 

and let my old job know that I was leaving to go travelling. 

That was quite the day.

There were so many different feelings, all these different kinds of emotions

all tied up in that one act of voluntarily leaving a stable place of employment, 

all for 3 months of the unknown.

The Secret Garden & Stormont Estate

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that we are now a whole week into November.

It's practically Winter, but tell me this: what happened to October?!
I barely remember the last month, to the point where I'm not even really sure it happened.

It feels like only yesterday it was Summer and we were enjoying whatever meagre weather

Northern Ireland has to offer and now it's pretty much Christmas!

Sorry. Is it too soon for Christmas talk?

Hello Again...

Hi there! I'm back!

Travelling SE Asia // A Little Life Update!

Hey, how's it going?!

As it's taking way longer than it should for me to keep you guys updated on our travels, I thought I'd interrupt standard proceedings with a little rambling life update, as the title suggests, of where we are, how we're feeling and so on!

Travelling SE Asia // Sleeper Train To Chiang Mai

The next leg of our journey to the north of Thailand was made via sleeper train. Most people seem to get the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, but luckily for us it also makes some stops along the way, so we were able to catch the 12 hour train from Lopburi!

Travelling SE Asia // Lopburi and The Monkey Temple!

After spending 2 amazing days exploring Ayutthaya, we decided to get the train to our next destination, Lopburi. I'm pretty sure this is another town that people usually visit on a day trip, but again David and I decided to stay for a couple of nights! We didn't want to feel like we were rushing through these towns on our way to the north of Thailand, and even though there isn't much to Lopburi, we really enjoyed our stay here!

The train lasted about an hour and a half, and the tickets cost 680 Baht, which is roughly about £14. We were so confused when the train attendant starting handing us free juice and a packet of cookies each, but as it turned out we had somehow managed to buy 1st Class tickets without even realising! The cookies were so good though, and massively appreciated after an early morning with no breakfast!

Travelling SE Asia // The Ruins of Ayutthaya

So it turns out that keeping a blog updated while traveling, isn't the easiest thing in the world to do! David and I are almost halfway through Month 2, so I have plenty of stories to fill you in on!

Travelling SE Asia // 4 Days In Bangkok!

Sawadee-ka from Thailand!

We started our travelling journey a week ago today, which is so hard to believe! It's Monday evening here right now, the sun is going down so the sky is a lovely pastel colour and the heat is still intense, but not as melt-inducing as this afternoon.

Travel Lessons Learnt So Far

Image from Unsplash 

Planning to go away anywhere for a long period of time can be stressful enough, but I have found preparing to go backpacking pretty difficult. There are so many more things to factor in when backpacking for a couple of months than with a standard 2 week holiday, things that I wouldn't normally consider or even know about!

6 Weeks To Go: Preparations For Backpacking SE Asia!

Image courtesy of Pixabay

It's officially less than 6 weeks until David and I make our way down to Dublin and board a plane for the biggest adventure of our lives to date! We leave home on the 1st March and on the 2nd March we will land in Bangkok, Thailand for the first leg of our 3 month journey!

Vague Adventures: Update 2 - Backpacking Southeast Asia!

We finally did it!!

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you may have seen this already, but...After months of talking, changing our minds, saving money, and changing our minds again David and I are finally, definitely, officially on our way to travelling around Southeast Asia for 3 months!

Vague Adventures: Update 1

Well, it's been a quiet wee week over here, hasn't it? Apologies for that, I fell off the blogging bandwagon for a bit there. I've tons of half written posts in my notebook, and a few more ideas besides so hopefully I'll be back on track this week!

This Week: 5 Things

Camping
David and I went away on a camping trip, from Sunday to Thursday of this week and it was absolutely glorious! To be honest I wasn't too keen on going for so long, I kinda thought that 2 nights, 3 at a push, would be more than enough time spent in a tent...after all, when we went to Gosford in May we only camped for 2 nights.

David's Birthday - The Highlights!

On 22nd July David turned the grand old age of 23! Cue many tears and much crying, from him. I'm perfectly happy, because it means for the next 5 months I am only 1 year older than him! It's the simple things in life, right?

#WeBlogSummer: Travel!

This is David's map of North America, and all the stops he wants to make on a massive roadtrip!

Welcome to Week 3 of #WeBlogSummer! If you haven't managed to catch Week 1 or Week 2 you can find them both here, for an introduction into the project and to have a look at the other blogs that have been featured each week!

Mini Adventure - Glenoe Waterfall

Two weekends ago, David and I headed out for a wee drive, and we ended up at Glenoe Waterfall. We weren't heading anywhere in particular, but it felt like it had been ages since the last time we went on a little Saturday adventure! 

Camping in Gosford Forest Park

Last month over the bank holiday on the 25th May, David & I actually went camping. I say actually because it was one of my May Goals, as David had been wanting to go for ages, and I'm quite proud that we actually went! We decided to head to Gosford, as it's my favourite place in the world (well....maybe just in NI), and I know how to get there easily enough, so there would be no directions drama, which is always nice!

We borrowed my brothers’ tent, filled the car with as many blankets, duvets, pillows & food as possible, and set of for 3 days camping in the beautiful forest.

Fernweh

Fernweh – An ache for distant places; the craving for travel.

David is a dreamer...