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A city filled with Borek (Istanbul Oct 2024)

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  And She’s Off For this trip I booked flights and a hotel through BA. Worth doing as you get checked luggage included at no extra cost. I would normally have taken the underground to Heathrow as I just had a backpack and small case but it was an early flight and I didn’t want to take the risk if there were any delays. Booking a hotel a short bus ride from the airport was less than half the cost of a taxi so that’s what I did. When I set out around 5am the rain was relentless. BA’s quick self-service bag drop - they really are getting rid of humans wherever they can. My bag was 12.5kg; you could tell I definitely wasn’t going to Barbados - you know where you’re quietly praying they’ll turn a blind eye to the 25kg of stuff you’ve packed for Mum.  One hour in the lounge and then I was off. 3 hours 20 mins to SAW airport.  My first purchase was an Istanbulkart - equivalent to London’s Oyster except it can be used for up to 5 people and gives you about 40% off standard fares so it was well
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A last minute break from home - Sep 2024

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I haven’t posted since 2018 so there are a lot of countries for me to catch you up on, in between my current travels. For now, I’ll kick things off with last week’s staycation just over an hour’s drive from home. A couple of years ago I did a lodge stay in Cornwall and thought this caravan stay might be similar. Harts Holiday Park, Leysdown-on-Sea was easy to find. While it couldn’t compete with the luxury of the lodge, the caravan was as it looked online. It was meant to house 6 people but in my opinion, anything more than 2 adults and 2 small kids would have been a stretch. I stayed Mon - Fri and it was more or less 5 days of doing nothing; okay, very little. So everyone says I never relax - and it’s true, there’s always something to do, somewhere to go. Even on holiday, I rush around trying to cram everything in. But there seemed very little to do here, especially as it was off-season (not the kind of place I’d visit in the summer or school holidays). The great British weather was b
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Location: Isle of Sheppey, United Kingdom
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An island wedding (B'doJun-Jul 2018)

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Well last year was epic and as much fun as I had setting myself the challenge of 12 travels in 12 months it’s not something I’ll be doing again in the near future. Firstly it’s highly disruptive and secondly it’s costly. In comparison, 2018 started a lot quieter.   The focus was on house renovations and my first trip didn’t happen til June    - Barbados for my sister’s wedding. I’ve mentioned Barbados countless times so won’t talk about the beaches, the food or the amazing people. Much of the time on this trip was taken up with wedding prep but after the wedding, there was a small window of opportunity for ‘holiday stuff’. There were a few highlights to the wedding itself. The Hen party stands out - which I organised and will NOT post details of on this blog. Then there was the bravery of my sister, trusting me and 2 of her friends, who had never baked scones before, to bake over 200 for her wedding; which came out ‘interestingly’. Or her being the first of all my siblings
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New year in DC (Dec 2017- Jan 2018)

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So once again I’ve fallen behind on my blog. But happy to say I did my 12 travels in a   year as I had set out - back in 2017. The last   place to write about is America. It was a fairly late decision to fly over and spend Christmas in Atlanta with the in-laws. But as I’ve done Atlanta and the US so many times I decided that my next trip had to take me to a state I hadn’t yet visited. Which better than the capital. So it was a week in Georgia and then Washington to see in the New Year. I don’t think I can say much more about Atlanta than I’ve said before. The highlight of this trip was ‘drone chasing’ which saw a car full of us chase what we believed to be our nephews drone which had   gone astray for almost an hour before reading it only had 10 minutes of battery life! So who's drone had we been chasing?... This was followed by the car the breaking down and hence we got to the cinema to watch The Greatest Showman late. The drone was subsequently found in the neighbour
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A Wonderful Experience & a Nightmare all in one - Israel and Palestine OCT 2017

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I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT'S TAKEN MORE THAN A YEAR TO POST THIS BLOG. And as such, it will be more of just a sketchy overview... For years I’ve wanted to visit the Holy Land but knowing it was also my mother’s dream, I determined I wouldn’t go without her. My sister decided she wanted to come too and a church she knew of were organising a tour which they did annually. My first mistake. Large group tour holidays are not for me. I’m a seasoned traveller and don’t need to be babied when travelling. I’m also a punctual person so waiting half an hour for the rest of the group to straggle back to the meeting point or blatantly disobey orders by stopping to shop when we were told not to really annoyed me. There was a constant, daily struggle between those who were keen to follow the itinerary, timings etc. and those who were set on doing their own thing despite the affect on the group.  As it’s been almost a year this will be a quick summary. We stayed predominately in Jerusalem
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