Helpful tip #1

Something I learnt straight away when travelling alone - if you are staying in a Youth Hostel, try book in to a single sex, small room. It may be a little more expensive, but it is easier to meet people as some hostels have co-ed dorms of between 16 and 18+ people. This can be a little challenging to make friends as generally I found people in larger dorms are there in groups or couples, and thus don't find it essential to make friends with the random lone traveller. I made much better friends when I stayed in a single sex room with about 4 people. Just something to think about.

London's calling....

So the first place I visited on my trip was London. Heathrow International Airport was crazy intimidating and the "tube" a little overwhelming. However, this is easily overcome and is a great way to get around. London is extremely clean and efficient, and put simply... everything works. The people can come accross as a little cold and unfriendly (no offence guys), but this is mostly because London is a business orientated city. I also found it to be quite expensive. Youth hostels are decently priced, but eating out and getting into the site-seeing places (Tower Bridge, London Eye, Westminster Abbey) is rather pricey... especially if you are a student. I found the best thing to do was to choose the places you really wanted to go into and then just look at the others from the outside.  

Positives - Everything you want to see is relatively close together and thus it's easy to see a lot in a short period of time. You could walk (as I did), use the undergrounds or the buses. I suggest investing in a day pass if you plan on using public transport as then you can get on and off all day.
My favorite places were St James's Park and although a little more expensive, the London Eye. This is a must see/do, particulary if you a blessed with a nice day.
I wasn't overly impressed with the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but I do think it is something you have to see at least once... plus it is free.
Overall I really loved London, and believe it is a must see for all. Check out some of my photos of some of the places to visit in lovely London.


St James's Park

Near Piccadilly Circus

Random statues that look very realistic - street art.



You see this all over London - still working out how to rotate.



Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

London Eye

Houses of Parliament from the London Eye.

Trafalgar Square

First post! Yay me!!

Hello everybody. :)

I've been saying for months that I want to start a blog, and have finally got around to doing it. Before I dive in to what this blog is all about... a little info about myself. I am 21 years old and have just finished studying a degree in Science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. I am from East London and am kind of a small town girl at heart. I love life, and am a super positive, always happy type of girl. I LOVE photography, but am still picking it up, so please let me know what you think of my photos.

Ok, so what is this all about? Well earlier this year I was lucky enough to go on exchange to Stuttgart, Germany. Before arriving there however, I did a bit of travelling as it was my first time leaving S.A. I visited England, Ireland, France and Italy (a couple of hours in Austria too)...all on my own. This trip increased my love for travel & provided the perfect opportunity to take tons of photos. So basically this blog aims to give a little description of the amazing places I visited, and to show you some photo's I took. As I mentioned i’m an absolute amateur, so feedback is appreciated. Every so often I will put up some "helpful tips", basically things that I learnt while travelling, particularly for those of you travelling alone, for the first time, or both. I hope to blog as often as possible... but we'll see how it goes.

I really hope to do a lot more travelling in the near future, and already have a long list of places I would love to visit. At this point I am trying to save the money to travel again in June 2013, but until then I'll mostly blog about the places I have visited and those I wish to visit.

Sorry, I tend to talk a lot, so bare with me... for now, please share this link with your friends and enjoy!! :)