How to spend 3 days in Chicago

Not long ago I travelled to Chicago with my friends Ellie and Elly (yes very confusing) we had a 3 day trip planned and had booked an AirBnB just outside the city centre. We arrived in Chicago late afternoon so after a trip to the local supermarket to stock up on food we went back to our AirBnB and got cleaned up before heading out for famous Chicago deep dish pizza, unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place. The restaurant was a fair walk but reviews said it was the best place around and they weren't wrong! The pizza was incredible so much cheese covered with fresh tomato sauce and the server even gets the slices out of the pan for you. The servings where so big none of us finished it. After our meal we headed home to sleep off our food babies and get ready for our first full day in Chicago.

On our first day we headed into the city centre using the public train which was at the end of the street, the public transport in Chicago was so easy to use once we'd bought our travel cards. (Work like Oyster cards for anyone that's been to London.) After arriving in the city we wandered with no real plan, out towards the waterfront where we ate the remains of our pizza from the previous night. This lead us to stumble upon Navy Pier. This is a 3,300ft long pier on the Chicago water front, there is a fun fair, several boat tours, cafes, restaurants and much more as well as some stunning views.

That same day we visited the famous Chicago Bean other wise know as The Cloud Gate. This is a massive sculpture, you can walk right underneath it and the reflective surface makes for great photos like mine where you can see the city reflected in the surface. It is situated in the AT&T plaza in the Millennial park which is a beautiful open space in contrast to the city. There are many art exhibitions, sculptures and the Jay Pritzker Pavillian where regular music events are held. The only down side to the Bean is that it is so popular that it was very crowded and as you can see from my photo impossible to get a picture without lots of people in my shot.

That night we headed to downtown Chicago for a free comedy show, before the show we went to a bar just off from the subway and the amazingly friendly bar tenders started our night off in the right way! Typical us turned up late to the comedy show so after getting drinks we missed the first part but what we did see was a hilarious improv show, which included a surprise engagement at the end! (she said yes) We headed back to the bar afterwards and spend the night making great friends with the bar tenders who after adding them on every social network possible invited us to a party the next night.

The next day slightly (very) hungover we headed back into the city to enjoy our last day in Chicago and what a day it was! We headed to the Willis/ Sears Tower Sky Deck (official name Willis but our bartender friend told us off for calling it this and said real Chicagoans call it Sears.) In all honesty I wasn't too keen on going up there, I was on a tight budget and what's one city view from the next right? But I was so so wrong this place is spectacular and I will let the photos below show you why. Here is the link to their website http://theskydeck.com as you can see we also went super touristy and bought Chicago t-shirts. 

The very last thing we fitted into our stay in Chicago was a baseball game! The party we where invited to wasn't really possible for us to get to so we had a last minute change of plans. After living in New York and seeing the Yankees we had caught the baseball bug, not even for the game but for the incredible atmosphere. So we found ourselves some cheap tickets and headed down to the Sears Stadium. Upon arrival we learned that it happened to be Elvis night which apparently meant fireworks, flamenco dancers, Elvis impersonators and sky divers! This really topped of our visit making it a pretty exciting night.

On our last night we also saw the most beautiful sun set over the water and I am honestly in love with the below photo.

Hope this gave you some ideas of what to get up to in Chicago, if you have any more suggestions let me know in the comments! 

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

Tips & Tricks: Who to fly with in the USA

Now I by no means claim to be an expert but in this post i'll tell you about my personal experience of both short haul internal flights and long haul international flights for the USA.

I myself am British but during my time working at a camp in New York and the subsequent time afterwards travelling I definitely picked up some tips when it comes to flying in America.

All I can say for internal flights is book with Southwest! They are by far the best that I have experienced especially for budget travellers and here's why:

• No extra charge for baggage - some airlines will be charging $20 plus on top of your ticket price for luggage where as it's completely free with Southwest!

• 2 pieces of hand luggage - during check in when our cases where way over the weight the lovely check in lady at Washington Baltimore airport informed us we could check our bags, have our rucksacks AND an additional piece of hand luggage! She even went to her locker to grab us a plastic bag for our extra piece. I've never had such great service from a member of staff from an airline before.

• Free snacks on board - every Southwest flight i've taken has had free snacks, either pretzels or peanuts which is such a nice added bonus for a budget traveller when airplane food is so expensive there was even free water and orange juice. 

• Flight prices -  in my experience even with all the extras Southwest tend to have the cheapest ticket prices especially if you consider what you'd spend on baggage with other airlines.

• Frequency - Southwest fly so many places internally and flights are super frequent meaning you can almost always find one with them.

International flights are slightly more tricky and often price is the biggest decider, however when possible British Airways will be my #1 and here's why:

• The food! - I'm a big foodie and as we all know airplane food is not the best but I have always been impressed by BA's long haul options on my flight from London to NY and San Fran to London I received 2 meals, multiple snacks and as many drinks as I could manage all included with the price.

• Seats - there's only so much comfort you can get on an 12 hour flight but arriving at your seat to a pillow and blanket as well as a TV in the back of the seat fully loaded with all the latest films, TV and multiple games definitely helps.

• Now this one is a bit bias but being British, flying with BA is sort of iconic, growing up it was by far the biggest, most well known and fanciest airline so flying BA feels special even if like me you're flying economy!

• Frequency - like Southwest, BA fly everywhere all the time meaning it's not difficult to find a flight with them, they are also one of the only british airline to offer frequent flyer miles, although this isn't quite as straight forward as with American airlines. It does require you to sign up for a specific credit card.

As I said, my international argument is less fact based and more opinion but I hope this at least gives you a little insight into making you airline decisions and what to expect.

Let me know what your favourite airline is in the comments!

Disclaimer the airlines have not asked for this promotion i'm just a big fan!

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 

Post Travel Money Worries

If you've read my other blog posts you'll know I worked in New York at a summer camp teaching horse riding in 2016 and after finishing the camp I travelled for a month. This included a 2 week partnership with Intrepid Travel on their Wild West tour.

However, this post isn't about the travelling but about my final days and months that followed. As you will probably know you don't work at camp for the money. It's all about the experience of being in America living and working, making amazing new friends. If you then add on a month of travel you might have guessed that I came home flat broke.

My last stop when travelling was San Fransisco where I flew home from, by the time I got here I was pennyless and had to make the dreaded phone call home to ask for money to pay for a hostel. I am beyond grateful that my parents where able to lend me the money as I know many people don't have this option!

So as I lived out my final ays in San Fran living off pasta, cheese and bread that i'd bought at trader Joes my time of wracking up debt started. Again luckily only off my parents meaning no interest but debt is still debt either way.

Once arriving home I started back at the shop I had been working at during my time at university, but as it was coming into the quiet winter period I was getting hardly any shifts. I was making between £350 and £500 a month sometimes only working one day a week. This meant that my parents had to pay for my car insurance and a few of my car payments as I payoff for it monthly. I did what I could to earn more money selling stuff on Ebay and taking a second job working at Centre Parks giving children pony rides. This was only for a few weeks over Christmas but it helped. Even with all that I was not able to start paying my parents back.

Having so many money problems as a result of travelling did put a downer on my memories, I sometimes think about how I wish I had been able to do more things while I was there and if only i'd had more money I could have. I without a doubt I had an amazing time. Yet if I was to do it again I would be more careful. I didn't start to budget until I became low on money. I had relied on my camp pay to fund my travelling but it didn't stretch anywhere near as far as I thought after having to use some of it while at camp. In fact I don't even know how much money I went to America with, thats how little I planned.

Therefore the moral of the story and this blog post is that yes looking at money, budgeting and doing the practice things like that may be boring but they are essential and I may have been able to save myself worry and debt if I had invested more time into having a sensible plan.

Have you experienced any money troubled during or post travel? How did you cope with it? Let me know in the comments!

What to do in Berlin!

Last weekend I was away in Berlin for 3 days and had an amazing time!

My flight went from East Midlands Airport at 6.30am meaning a very early start. As I was travelling with my boyfriend we paid for airport parking. Splitting this between us made it cheaper than public transport to the airport.

We arrived in Berlin at 9.30 and made our way to out hotel via the Tier Garten, We stayed at the Fjord hotel Berlin and paid £243 for 2 people making it £40.50 a night. The hotel was lovely to say it was on the cheaper side. We dropped our bags off as we where too early to check in and then when we went back they had been taken to our room which was a nice bonus. There was free fruit and infused water daily. Also extremely friendly staff which really helps. I'd 100% recommend this hotel.

After going to the hotel we headed out to join a free walking tour from this company: https://originalberlintours.com/tours/free-original-berlin-walking-tour/

Our guide was great and showed us all the main sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall, Cathedral and The Palace as well as a few places that we wouldn't have known about such as the site of Hitlers war bunker. I love walking tours as you can really get to understand the history where as by myself I may see the building but I wouldn't know the story behind it. Such as the 2 domes in the Gendermarkt, one French and one German. The Germans where angry that the French finished their dome first so the Germans decided to make theirs 1 meter higher to get back at them! He also showed us where the burning of the books happened at the university library which foreshadowed the start of the war.

We left our tour at the Brandenburg gate and went for a much needed sit down in a cafe at this point we'd been up 14 hours and where pretty tired. So we decided to head back to our hotel via the supermarket where we picked up breakfast and snacks for our trip to keep our food costs a bit lower. After checking in we went to our room to unpack and shower before heading back out for dinner.

Our hotel was close to Potsdamer Platz where there was lots of restaurants so we headed there and ate at Que Pasa. As you can probably guess from the name it was a Mexican. We shared nachos for a starter then I had a burrito and my boyfriend had tacos as well as 2 cocktails for me and 2 beers for him. The bill came to €56 which we thought wasn't bad!

On our second day we headed out early to the Topography of Terror (Berlin Wall), we spent hours reading all about the history of the wall and the wars. I was really interesting and definitely a must do for anyone heading to Berlin. 

After that we made our way towards Check Point Charlie stopping at an italian where I had the best spaghetti Bolognese i've ever had! Unfortunately I don't know the name of this restaurant but this was the best meal I had while in Berlin.

We then headed to the Check Point Charlie museum. We where actually pretty disappointed in this one, it was all very cluttered and didn't seem to follow any real plan. There was lots and lots of information shoved in random places and covered everything from World War 1 to Korean Torture camps. I think they had tried to cram too much into a small space and it just left us confused and a bit bored.

After leaving we headed to Fassbender & Rausch a famous chocolate shop in Berlin. They have models of Berlin landmarks such as the Reichstag made of of chocolate and weighting 300kg! There was also the Titanic, a plane, the Brandenburg gate and a volcano erupting chocolate! We bought a small things to sample back at our hotel.

We headed out again that night for a nice meal, this included us getting dressed up a bit! We went to a restaurant called Meredo. The service here was pretty poor it took a long long time for our drinks to arrive and then our food. Luckily when the food actually arrived it was really good! I had a chicken caesar burger which came with an amazing salad and was in fresh ciabatta bread with rotisserie chicken. My boyfriend had a traditional beef burger. The food did redeem the restaurant a bit but after waiting so long I don't think we'd go back there.

For our final day the heavens opened and it rained a lot! So instead of heading to the zoo as we had planned we went to the spy museum via a watch tower left from the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately because of the rain we where not able to go into the tower. The rain also meant the queue for the spy museum was huge! However, it was well worth the wait once we finally got in. It was the best museum we visited by far. There was so many interesting things to read about and lots of spy artifacts to look at such as cameras, modified umbrellas and suitcases. We also received money off vouchers for their cafe when we paid for our tickets so after spending a few hours walking around the museum we had hot chocolate and lemon cake. The hot chocolate was incredible to say it was a small museum cafe. I'd recommend going here just for that.

After the Spy Museum we headed back to Fassbender & Rausch to buy some more chocolate! We bought hot chocolate and a mix of their different types of chocolate. We then made one last stop before heading back to our hotel and that was Dunkin Donuts. We don't have these in England so we wanted to try it! We got a box of 6 doughnuts for €7 which we thought was pretty good value and meant we had breakfast for the next day.

As we where running low on money we headed to Pizza Hut for dinner haha. It was close to our hotel and cheap so after eating pizza and chicken sticks we headed back to the hotel for an early night as our flight was at 9.30 am the next day meaning leaving our hotel at 6am.

We got up at 5.30am and left our hotel at 6am to walk to the Berlin Central station for the train to the airport. We attempted to make our way back through the Tier Garten as we had done the first day only to find it all fenced off meaning we had to go all the way around. This may have taken us a long time but meant we got another look at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag which turned out to be a nice little send off for our weekend in Berlin.

Have you been to Berlin? Would you like to? Let me know in the comments!

6 Reasons to Visit Berlin in Photos

Here is a selection of photos that'll hopefully inspire you to visit the beautiful and historic Berlin!

Berlin Cathedral

Jewish Holocaust Memorial

Reichstag

Berlin Wall

The Food

Fassbender & Rausch Chocolate Shop

Keep you eyes out for my full blog post on Berlin coming soon!

Which of these places would you most like to visit?