How To Fund My Next Trip

Firstly I'd like to say I don't actually know where i'm going to go, maybe back to camp in America and travel afterwards, maybe a trip round Europe or potentially further.
Whatever I choose to do i'm going to need money and after travelling in America with almost no money and missing out on things because I just couldn't afford it was pretty awful. So I don't want to be in the same situation again.

1. Live at home -  I could probably afford to move out into a 1 bed flat and live by myself, however that would mean all my money gone. I'd have nothing left for meals out, drinks, clothes etc... let alone saving. I think this is a standard one now on most people saving lists.


2. Transfer half my pay check to savings - if it's not in my current account I won't spend it, also when I look at my account and see that I don't actually have that much money in there it'll make me think twice before spending on things I don't need.

3. Be minimalist - just cut down on things, I don't need new books when I have loads I can re-read, I don't need another pair of shoes that are pretty similar to some i've already got and I don't need a going out top i'll wear very rarely.

4. Make full use of student/ work discount -  I have 3 year NUS card with about 2 years left on it, and while 10% discount isn't massive it's still something and I will be using this at every opportunity. Also after 3 months of working at my current job I will get a rather large amount of discount on the business products and it will make a massive difference as it's products I use every day multiple times and things that can get pretty expensive. The also included cards such a nectar and advantage points.

5. Drive carefully - recently I made a massive mistake and got caught speeding, so that £91 gone on a driver awareness course! So firstly no more of that, by driving carefully I also mean driving economically. Petrol is a massive out going for me especially with having a boyfriend that doesn't live in the same city as me so the less I spend on petrol the better.

6. Pack lunches/ snacks -  where I work there are so many food options in the building, 2 Starbucks stands, a Costa shop, a cafe and the company store meaning it'd be so easy to buy breakfast and lunch every day. A packed lunch will sae my budget and my waist line.

do you have any other ideas for me?

Free things in London: Natural History Museum

As you'll know if you've read my previous blogs, my boyfriend has recently move home to London after being at university so over the next few months I will be travelling to London a fair bit.

On this visit we went to the Natural History Museum. Getting to the museum was a bit of a nightmare after all north bound tubes where cancelled so we had to get a train to Victoria station in the centre and walk from there. It took us about 40 minutes to walk, although we saw some amazing London boroughs this way, including Chelsea and the amazing houses and hotels there.


We eventually made it to the Museum and ate a picnic outside as we are on major budgets right now, we then made our way into the museum. Now the reason I initially wanted to visit the Natural History Museum was for the dinosaurs, when I was in New York I desperately tried to get the the Natural History Museum there but never got chance and as you'll know they have a T-rex in their entrance hall and I presumed Londons museum would be similar.

I was however wrong, although we did have a great time there. The main hall was actually dedicated to mammals and there is a massive model of a blue whale that sits above the full length of the hall. It's difficult to actually take in how ginormous the whale is, especially when it is situated next to elephants and rhinos you can really see just how much larger it is than anything else.

In this hall they have all types of mammals from goats, to dolphins and huge elephant tusks unfortunately for me the giraffe wasn't on display which I was disappointed by as they are my favourite wild animal. Although the horse exhibits made up for it as they showed some amazing parts of their evolution. This first room goes on forever, over 2 floors and it is so easy to miss bits if you aren't careful. They even have a scale that tells you how many time more you favourite animal weights than you, 49 of me makes a giraffe apparently.

The next section is a human biology exhibit this part has loads of interactive stations such as optical illusions, machines where you can see hormones moving around the body and computers that test your memory. This room took us the longest there was so much information and we ended up skipping some parts as it was a bit much in the end and we had gone more for the animal skeletons and models rather than human biology.

Next we entered the dinosaur exhibit, this was small but great fun there is a room with a life size moving T-rex which was crazy to watch (if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen a video of it https://twitter.com/MLTravelBlog)You then follow a pathway zig zagging through the displays learning about dinosaurs and their timeline, I was surprised to learn how little we actually know about this part of time and how a lot of the things we know from films and TV is actually guess work. They where a few dinosaur fossils and life size model skeletons which was incredible to see the size that some of these creature grew too.

We where at the museum for about 4 hours and didn't see everything but we where knackered by this point and had seen as much as we wanted too so decided to go home for the day.

The museum was great and I definitely recommend it, theres something for everyone no mater what age and if you like animals then this is perfect. They have so many animal exhibitions such as wild cats, polar bears, whales, lots of elephant, sea life, extinct animals and much more! Then of course dinosaurs which will peak almost anyones interest!

Here is the link to the museum website if you would like to visit: http://www.nhm.ac.uk

Exploring London!

Recently I travelled down to London to visit my boyfriend who lives there and as I am going again this week I thought it was time to write about my first trip! My boyfriend has just recently moved back so this was my first of many visits.

Right off the bat I made a massive mistake; I drove. Never ever again will I be driving down to London. He lives in South London meaning not only did I have to travel all the way down the M1 which was actually ok, I then had to drive through central London and it was the worst experience of my life. It took hours to get virtually no where! It was so so frustrating being that close but it taking so long. This was me being a bit too confident and not listening to the advice I was given to not drive! Well lesson learnt and the train is going to be my new best friend from now on.

The drive did put a big downer on the start of my trip as  arrived frustrated and about 2 hours after I thought I would but luckily it did improve!

That night I met his family for the first time and we had a family dinner, which was a little overwhelming as my boyfriend has a family of 6. Meaning it was a lot of people to meet and talk too!

 On my first full day there we went into the centre of London! I have visited London several times before with school, my parents and an ex but always with a set plan for example school trips. So it was nice just to wander, I had no idea what I wanted to do so we started off at Buckingham Palace and just walked around from there. 

We went down the mall to horsegaurds parade as I am an avid horse rider and owner and for those of you that have read my other blogs will know I went to live in New York for 3 months to teach horse riding. 

We then had a mandatory pub stop before going to Trafalgar Square. There where several bike races happening that day so the roads where cordoned off making it a little more difficult to get around than it usually would have been. However later on the bike races did pay off for us.

On out way to china town we stopped for the most amazing lunch! London is expensive so when we saw a lunch menu at Steak & co for £7.95 we didn't think twice! My boyfriend had the steak which you cook yourself at the table on a hot stone and I had incredible chicken and bacon mac & cheese. We then had pudding as well in total it was under £20 each which is a bargain for 2 course and drinks in central London.

Loving the identicalness of these 2 photos including my boyfriends hiding behind his drink in the background 

We then headed to Leicester square and went in the Lego shop and M&M world, I have never seen so many different coloured M&Ms the walls where lined with them! 

We finally made it to China town where we had been heading before lunch where we saw the famous bubble wraps which I definitely plan on going back for on my next visit, then to another mandatory pub stop.

As mentioned before there where lots of bike races happening and as we entered Piccadilly circus the final 3 laps of the women international was going so we stopped to watch the finish! I know nothing about cycling but it was fun to watch and the atmosphere was great!

Our last stop was green park to sit and relax for a while before heading home! Overall it was a really nice day, very relaxed and it being sunny and warm helped as well!

Have you visited London? Any ideas of what we should do next time i'm there? I'd love to visit the natural history museum 

Wekend Away: Pickering

This weekend I visited Pickering in the North of England. It is a small country village near Scarborough. 

My boyfriend and I arrived in Pickering before our check-in time so we wandered down to the main street which was full of local shops many selling antiques and collectables and then various local business such as butchers and cafes. At this point, after being roasting hot and sunny during our whole drive north it decided to chuck it down! So we had to hide in some shops for a while before heading back to check in.

We rented a cottage in the centre of Pickering called Bramblewood cottage, it was a gorgeous stereotypical quaint English cottage with lots of interesting features like little windows and cubby holes but also had all modern features including a huge shower and a beautiful garden.

After power naps on the sofa we headed out for the evening and worked our way down the pubs on the high street, due to Pickering being so small we found it difficult to find a place to eat as everywhere was fully booked. However, we then stumbled across an Indian restaurant called Cilantro and had an amazing meal! The food was great and we ordered way too much which meant we ended up coming home with a doggy bag. I had a chicken and chickpea curry in a tomato sauce which was great but along with our rice, sides, nann bread and starters I couldn't finish it. The great thing about Pickering being so small is that it is only a few minutes walk from anywhere in the village to our cottage.

On our second day we headed to Scarborough the closest beach to our cottage, the day started out scorching hot again so once we found parking we headed to the sea front and walked along the promenade. This included stopping at a fudge shop which had all kinds of flavours in the end we settled on, Mint Chocolate Chip, Oreo Vanilla and Mango. The fudge was disappointing not quite the melt in your mouth fudge you can get but it was ok. However, no one apart from me liked it at all so I've been working my way through all 3 bars since! We then carried on along to the pier where we sat and took in the beautiful view on the pier!

The big attraction in Scarborough apart from the beach is the castle. Which like all castles is on the top of a hill so we started our climb up many many steps to reach it. As you can see from these photos the view from the top is pretty amazing!

After the castle we headed down the hill to a fish and chip shop which is a British seaside classic and we had an amazing lunch. The cod was great covered in thick crispy batter. I really wish i'd taken a picture to show you how good it was. Before heading back to our cottage we wandered to the beach and sat on the sand for a while which resulted in us getting a bit sandy and wet as we didn't go prepared with towels but it was all good fun as well as getting to stroke the cutest donkey called Marvin who was there to give children rides.

The sun and walking had tired us out so we headed back and ended up having a nap before eating dinner in the cottage and getting ready to head out to one of the pubs we had visited the night before which was holding a quiz. We had a few drinks and did the quiz which which somehow managed to win getting 32/40 questions right! It was a great end to our weekend.

For anyone looking for a quiet weekend away Pickering will be perfect for you!

Do you have any trips planned? Tell me in the comments!

I'm off to Berlin on Friday 

Tips & Tricks: What to pack for a weekend break

This weekend i'm going away to a cottage in Pickering. My aim is to pack light which is definitely helped by the beautiful weather we're having in the UK right now. However I am awful at taking far far to much stuff so here is a list of what i'm taking. I don't think it's too bad for 3 days

Tops 
-  T-shirt to sleep in
- long sleeved body suit for the evenings
- Flower vest top for day/ evening
- Aztec vest for the beach.
- Jumper - because you never know with British weather

Bottoms
- Black Denim Shirts
- Blue ripped Jeans (this may change to black jeans)
- Black cotton shorts for the beach
- Blue PJ shorts



Others
- Underwear
- Socks
- Belt
- 2 x bikini top, 1 x bikini bottom
- Sandels
- Nike trainers

Extras
- Make-up
- Straighteners
- Hair Brush
- Dry Shampoo
- Deodorant
- Shoulder bag
- Book
- Sunglasses
- Toothbrush
- Face wash
- Make-up wipes
- Book





What would you pack for a weekend away? Is this too much or too little?