There's no denying that returning to your home country after having spent time away either living in one place or travelling around all over can be a hard transition to cope with to begin with. The initial stresses of finding a job and a flat and buying a car and realising that you need grown up 'proper' clothes now to go to work in can be overwhelming at first but what is surprising is how easily you'll find yourself slotting back into the routine of the daily grind. This will seem OK for a while as you play 'being adult' and when the pay cheque comes in that is significantly larger than your travellers minimum wage that you earned whilst abroad you'll feel great.
But slowly you'll notice the tell tale signs that creep up on you without you knowing at first; you'll start to research places, read blogs, watch vlogs and buy guide books to destinations that are next on your list. You'll feel that little tug, that insatiable itch, that longing right down to your toes that screams 'GO OUT AND DO SHIT'.
I'm not just talking about backpacker style travelling here though folks, I'm not necessarily referring to years away at a time but simply about that urge to explore and see the world outside of the confines of your town regardless of whether its 2 or 2000 miles away.
The desire to see what's out there is something that should never be tamed or controlled in my eyes and with that in mind please find below my list of destinations that are next on the hit list, enjoy:
The Big Apple, The City that Never Sleeps, The Capital of the World, the home of Carrie Bradshaw and Jay Gatsby, Annie Hall and Jack Kerouac, where you can have Breakfast at Tiffany's and party with The Wolf of Wall Street. Whatever you want to call it...I want to go there! More than anywhere else on this planet!
I'd love to go in the autumn when the city is cooler than the summer months but still sunny and I want to be the ultimate tourist- I'm talking hotdogs from a stand on the street, basketball games, coffee in Greenwich Village, bagels in Brooklyn the whole hoohah! I want to be the one that commuters tut at when I get in their way whilst I'm trying to get the perfect instagram of a yellow taxi going past a steaming subway vent...people of New York I warn you...I will be your worst nightmare!
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| A snippet of the poster that is at the end of my bed that I wake up to every morning |
2. Canada
Yup the entire country. I think I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the WHV scheme whilst I still can so it's only a matter of time before I get on a plane to the country of maple syrup and mispronounced vowels.
I met Sam at a ski season in NZ in 2012 and due to personal reasons I didn't quite get to live it up as much as I'd hoped to so I'd love to work up a mountain again in Canada and up the standards of my snowboarding skillzzzzz (which wouldn't take very long TBF).
I follow a fella called Ben Brown on youtube and if this Visual Vibes video that he made in Canada doesn't make your bits go tingly then I don't know what will.
3. Edinburgh
A little closer to home with this one but the loss of geographical miles does not dampen the enthusiasm, not one bit. If not for the literature or the whisky (and what else do you need quite frankly!?!) its the fact that the city just seems like an absolute feast for your eyes.
There's good food, good coffee, good entertainment and hopefully this summer there'll be a Ruth there having a good time too.
I mean check out the sixth photo in this sequence over at Emma's Travel Tales blog if you needed any more convincing.
4. New Zealand
I have mentioned in many previous blog entries that I did live in New Zealand for nearly 3 years before returning to the UK last Feb so it may seem like a bit of a bizarre one to add to a 'dream destination' list having already been there for a long time but hear me out. Yes I did live there for a number of years but no I did not get to see half of what the country has to offer, for example I visited the South Island only once in my entire stay and that was for a ski trip to Wanaka. I simply did not have enough money whilst living there to travel as much as I'd like.
I arrived in NZ in January 2012 completely broke due to the 6 months of travel and I must add, overspending, that I'd done prior and I needed a job pretty pronto aka the day after I landed. Now, I had some rotten luck in terms of work in New Zealand; I worked in an apple packhouse in one of the worst harvests that the country had had in a decade and I worked at a ski season which had the lowest snow fall in a number of years and when working on zero hour contract this meant little to no money for my pocket. I then went on to work for a surf shop for a year which was really fun but again was a zero hour contract and a rather low wage and therefore any holiday that I took would significantly affect my bank balance as I would go without pay for a week.
Therefore I want so desperately to go back to this beautiful country, to catch up with friends that we made over there and finish off a trip that I started over 3 years ago.
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| The Mount where Sam and I used to live |
5. Paris
Oh Paris you wonderful place.
Again, I have been to Paris twice before so it may seem like a strange choice to add to this list but I have never been there with Sam (who has never been there at all) and I want to relive it for a third time with her. The first time I went was with my family aged 16 and the second time that I went there was as a backpacker on the first stop of my interail adventure aged 20 in which i stayed in a hostel and ate McDonalds most nights.
I'd love to go back for a weekend trip, stay in a nice hotel, eat at the fancy restaurant, drink cocktails at the trendy bar and maybe even catch a rudey show at the Moulin Rouge all things that were prevented in previous visits due to age and budget (and in reference to the last one...being there with family would have meant a visit to the Moulin Rouge would have been totes awks).
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| Me, back in 2009 |
6. Hawaii and West Coast USA
I forgot to mention this earlier in the post but I have never been to the States. Never. Not even as a child to Florida. The land of Stars and Stripes merely exists in my head right now which brings me to No. 6 on my list.
I'm talking the ultimate surfy trip around Oahu, roadtrippin' up the state of California with the dream culminating in attending Pride weekend in San Fran.
7. Reykjavik, Iceland
Hell yeah I wanna walk round this absolutely stunningly coloured and quirky town only to relax in the natural spring and spread some of that gloopy mud stuff on my face. Oh and if I could see the Northern Lights too I'd rather like that.
I mean it just looks beautiful doesn't it?
8. Pembrokeshire, Wales
Closer to home with this one again but I've only scraped the surface of what Wales has to offer and I can't imagine anything better than rocking up with a tent, a surf board and a camping stove to re-heat beans and make god awful coffee with and seeing some of the beaches that this part of the country has to offer.
9. Hossegor, Biarritz and San Sebastien
Another road trip that I'd like to do as although I've been to France multiple times, I've never visited this part of the country and as for Spain...I don't think that you can count my holiday at 4 years old to a resort in Majorca to be honest...so it's a territory unexplored for me. The main draws are the beaches and the food and the accessibility from England is a major bonus too.
10. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
You've just got to visit the land where Pitbull describes the women 'with they big ol' booties and thongs- blue, yellow and green'. I'm kidding, I'm kidding ok folks...about the song...not the wanting to see the country bit. The song is a sexist pile of shite but the country I'm sure is much nicer.
As with most visitors, Carnival season would be an amazing time to go but I will take just about any time of year to come see this beautiful country to chill on the beach, visit that big bearded man on top of the hill and some rainforest and waterfall action wouldn't go a miss either.
Hello and welcome to This Ruth Is On Fire, a UK blog which is a haven for random thoughts and sarcastic observations.
I'm also into books, clothes and visiting places too.
