En route to Exeter

I've just got on the bus to Exeter, where I'm heading for my second UK trip and visiting one of my super awesome travel friends, Louis. We met briefly in Zagreb this summer and have been in touch ever since. And last weekend I got to spend the entire time with the wonderful Mani who I met in Peru, again rather briefly. That's TWO of my favourites in one week, I am one lucky girly. It just goes to show you that making friends should be effortless if you really click with a person.

I think Exeter is possibly the most South I've ever been in England and if not, at least the furtherest way from my home town, which is pretty exciting. I'm not really sure what to expect from the weekend; I've heard it's a really beautiful city, so I'm going to use the couple of hours before Louis gets out of uni to do the touristy things. Apparently there's the standard castle and cathedral combo, so at least I'll have some sights to take pretty pictures of on my trusty disposables.

For now though, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the four hour stretch on the bus, with Taylor Swift for company. Don't judge, I'm not even ashamed.

Get Busy Living

The past week has been a bit of a blur. I'm now back at uni, though my classes don't start until the 30th, as I'm President of my university's German Society this year. It has been a fantastic week, I don't remember being this busy since I was in high school and I used to take on absolutely everything and anything I could get my hands on! Today is my first and only day off in the next couple of weeks, so I'm spending it relaxing and catching up with my flatmates from last year. Oh and of course gorging on Nando's lovely lovely chicken.

As much as I love the freedom of travelling, it's nice to have a little routine and grounding at the moment to get my head back into gear for my second year. I've had a society event/meeting/talk pretty much every day so far and I've surprised myself with how much I've loved having structure in my days. I find that sometimes the laid back (sometimes borderline lazy) attitude can actually become a little tiresome. Even when I'm travelling I love to plan things for each day and find if I spend too many days just chilling out I become irritable and start to inhabit characteristics one would associate with someone who has far too much on their plate. It's almost like I get tired of being lazy.

However I suppose once term starts and I have to forfeit sleep time for work time I'll look back at this post with my 'What was I thinking?!' expression and pray for the days when I could choose exactly how I wanted to spend my time. I suppose it's like anything else; having a balance between the hectic organised lifestyle and the chilled-out-do-what-you-want attitude is key. Plus it makes you appreciate each one a little more (I think my liver in particular would agree on this point).

Our first event of the week was Oktoberfest last Saturday night, at which I took it upon myself to cover everyone in German face paint and a fair few people ended up dancing on the tables. We held the event at Bierschenke, a German pub just off the Strand that is run by the wonderful Oliver. I suppose it's not a particularly great place for tourists that want to experience a traditional 'English' night out on visiting London, but to be fair, as London is one of the most international cities in the world, you could claim you are getting the true 'London' experience. Also it's a lot of fun especially for those who prefer a slightly more chilled out pub-like atmosphere to that of a sweaty, crowded club.

(instagram @kclgermansoc)

Table dancing to the live Oompah Band.

I had planned my first trip in the UK for this weekend, a short night or two stay in Bristol, purely because it's only a 2 hour drive and £4 ticket fee on the Megabus from London. However I managed to party myself into a coma (surprisingly not from alcohol but just plain exhaustion) on Wednesday night and managed to oversleep and miss my bus on Thursday morning. I do plan on starting my weekend trips soon though, though I reckon I'm less likely to miss them once I've settled back into uni life a little more. If you have any suggestions on where is nice to visit please let me know! I've visited pretty much no where in the South or East at all.

So after a rather crazy week I'm very much looking forward to having a few days off and the opportunity to get myself ready for starting back at uni on Monday. Somehow I think I've managed to have a busier Freshers this year than last year and my body isn't best pleased about it... I'm getting far too old for this :P

We finally got some ribs

And they were AMAZING. We went to Smokey Bones Bar and Fire Grill and had to share a meal between us because the portions were so good. I'v been craving ribs since Nashville (we couldn't get into the places that sold them there because we're not 21 ><) so that probably helped to make them extra tasty.

Apart from that all we've done today is browse the supermarket across the road and sleep. Those over night Megabus rides really seem to take it out of us. It's a shame that we're not here for longer - the hostel is really nice, has a like a mini beach and a pool and the owner is really helpful and friendly. I mean it's a proper touristy area and I wouldn't recommend spending ages here if you're not planning on doing the whole Disney World thing, but for a couple of days to just chill it'd be pretty nice.

Proper looking forward to Miami and the BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEACH.

Coca Cola World is WEIRD.

Sorry for the two day lapse, we've just had a very lazy two days in Atlanta!

We started off Thursday by doing some washing. I never thought I would be excited about doing washing, but I'd managed to get to the point that the only clean clothes I had were the ones I was wearing. I got extra excited to discover that it only costed $2. Yay for not having to look like a tramp anymore!

In the afternoon we went to Coke World with Pieter and Brent (from Holland and Atlanta) from the hostel. It was an interesting experience, startinng off with an over-enthusiastic south american tour guide attempting to crack a series of un-funny jokes before we watched this film that is definitely designed to brainwash children. The tasting room was fun though, there were coke products from all over the world, but I wouldn't say that the whole experience was worth $16. For anyone visiting Atlanta, apparently the aquarium is amazing but we couldn't really afford $35 :/

Once back at the hostel we just played cards and chilled for the evening. Suzie from the hostel made us all hot dogs for tea which was lovely and those of us under 21/who weren't interested in going to an old lady strip club stayed in and watched Coach Carter, until the others got back and told us all sorts of weird and wonderful stories...

I also got into an interesting conversation with a few people about global development, injustice etc. Kinda cool to be inspired by people from different parts of the world and find out that you hold similar views! :)

Friday was pretty much more of the same, we played cards in the morning with some of the lads and then headed out to a real life american shopping mall with Pedro (from Brazil). I got a MASSIVE ice cream for lunch which was really yummy and managed to last about 4 hours wandering around the shops. Considering I'm not a fan shopping, I was rather impressed that I lasted so long. Plus I got some cool new converse because I'm already SICK of wearing my flipping walking boots.

Back at the hostel we played cards AGAIN (I said it was a lazy few days!) had tea and just chilled out for the evening until we had to leave for our bus at 10.30.

Even though we didn't really get up to much in Atlanta I really enjoyed it, I'd defo recommend the hostel (Woodruff Inn/Atlanta International House) and we met loads of really great people :) We also found out that Pedro is heading down to Miami when we are so we already have someone to hang out with there :)

We've not been in Orlando long but the hostel is pretty cool! It seems we've had our room upgraded for free (we now have 4 beds and a fridge) AND we got discount for it being the holidays or something. So not a bad start at all. Currently trying to convince Aimée that we should go to the magic lights parade tonight at Disney World. I don't think I'm going to succeed.

Durham, Bristol and Dublin?

It's silly o'clock in the morning but I can't sleep because my knee hurts and every time I come close to dropping off the bus driver turns the lights on and gives some announcement. I have to say though he does have the COOLEST voice I've ever heard, like a mixture between Morgan Freeman and Michael Bublé.

So far we've driven past signs for Durham, Bristol and Dublin... Which is sehr confusing when your half asleep. I think that the USA is just so big they just ran out of place names and had to borrow some of ours.

We've also been lucky enough to meet a cool guy from Knoxville called Brian, who has given us a big list of things to do whilst there, which was rather lovely! So now we've no need to worry about having nothing to do (my guide has like one page on Knoxville and the majority of that is about how it's the underwear capital of the US...?!)

I'll stop rambling now and try and think of something constructive to do with my last three hours... I should probably get some sleep but there's a guy snoring proper loud behind me... I don't know how I'm going to survive the 21 hour journey from Lima to Cusco without my iPod.

Face Plant #1

We're now on the bus to Philadelphia but I managed to have a little episode as we got on. As we were power walking to try and get to the front seat of the bus I tripped over a bus stop sign and fell face first, giant backpack and all, and face planted on the ground. Somehow though nothing hurts but my right thigh, I must have done some kind of not-so-graceful twirl on my way down. So of course I looked flipping hilarious. But the weirdest part is, nobody laughed. All I got was genuine concern... Awkward! Obviously american humour is a little different to ours because once Aimee had picked me up and realised that I was ok, we both fell about laughing.

A great start to our backpacking adventures.

The journey isn't too interesting so far. We're sat behind a guy with the biggest ear plug IN THE WORLD. Ok slight exaggeration, but it's pretty impressive. But the roads are really just motorways with lots of none-descript factory type buildings and fields. Though I am pretty chuffed that we get free WiFi on the buses and power on the buses, not bad for $3 eh?