About

Hi! Welcome to my travel blog and thank you for stopping by!

I’m Hannah, I’m 24 years old and a triplet – before you ask, we’re not identical and I’m the oldest (by a minute!). After graduating summer 2017 from Leeds University in Spanish and French, I moved back home to London and after spending the summer working at my local dance school, I went backpacking in South America (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil) for 10 incredible weeks. I’m not entirely sure what I’d like to do, but I’d love it to involve travel.

Where did my love for travel begin?

Travelling as a family

I’ve always enjoyed going new places. Growing up as a family of 6, family holidays were always looked forward to with excitement and enthusiasm; from traditional yearly caravan trips in Dorset to most recently a trip to Canada to see friends. Especially as we got older, family holidays became a way to regroup and spend proper time together with fewer interruptions.

Also, my dad travelled frequently for his job. Whilst it was a different type of travel, it fed my interest and I’ve loved knowing where he’s been.

Testing the travel waters – 2 weeks in China

My first far-flung trip without the family was a 2 week trip to China when I was 17. It all came about in a bit of a bizarre fashion. On the bus to college my friend asked me if I’d like to go to Beijing with her in the summer to learn some basic Chinese.

It was out the blue and honestly I hadn’t considered doing anything like that. But I was really intrigued and interested. That said, a part of me never expected China to happen. I mentioned it to my dad – almost expecting a luke-warm response despite him being awesome and a keen travel supporter – and he thought it was a fantastic idea and really supported me going.

Our China trip became a reality. From being the typical tourist exploring Beijing’s famous monuments, wandering local markets and tasting authentic Chinese food (yummy dumplings, Peking duck and crunchy scorpion), to catching Beijing’s metro and attending Chinese lessons, it was an eye-opening travel experience and really encouraged me to see more of what the world has to offer.

My university degree fuelled my desire to travel

Like a lot of people, I found choosing a degree subject for the next 4 years tricky. I chose languages and finally the Spanish and French combination. Spanish was always a certainty (to this day it continues to be my favourite language) and after much back and forth I settled on French (although even with a degree in it, French still scares me!).

Studying languages at university in the UK goes hand in hand with going abroad during the course. Spending time in France and Spain was an integral (and fun!!) part of my degree.

Term abroad in Bordeaux (2015)

My first stay abroad came in the last term of second year. Following the Easter holidays, I packed my bags and moved to beautiful Bordeaux for 9 weeks where I lived with a lovely French lady and studied at the Alliance Francaise. Bordeaux is a gem of a French city – I can’t recommend it enough!

Once the 9 weeks were up, I headed further south with a friend exploring and visiting Montpellier, Marseille, Gorges du Verdon (beautiful scenery!) and Nice.

Year abroad in Spain (2015-2016)

It was then time to venture out on the most talked about experience of any language degree: the year abroad. September arrived and off I flew to the south of Spain, Andalucia and the small town of El Ejido where I would be an English Language Assistant in two schools for the British Council.

Thanks to fabulous working hours (only 12hrs a week with Mondays off) and a well paid salary combined with an Erasmus loan, I was able to travel often. Every other weekend a friend and I would go somewhere in Spain: Granada, Malaga, Cordoba, Murcia, Alicante, Seville, Cadiz, Ronda, Madrid.

I was also lucky enough to be able to travel to Morocco (Fez and the Sahara Desert), Italy (Rome, Florence & Pisa) and Portugal (Lisbon) over Spain’s long weekends. Morocco was one of the stand out trips of that year – spending the night in the Sahara desert stargazing, watching the galaxy and the milky way for shooting stars was magic and truly unforgettable!

If you’re interested in reading more about my time in Spain, head over to Hannah in España– I wrote this blog for family and friends to follow what I was up to so apologies for the simplicity and basicness of it! I don’t think I had really grasped WordPress that well – I still might not have!

Making travel a reality: 10 weeks in South America

Graduation arrived and with it came the “What’s next?” question and mini panic of what am I going to do in life. I was pretty clueless about what job I’d like to do.

I did know however that I love travelling and I really wanted to go to South America (at one point I’d considered spending my year abroad there). So, mid-September I headed off with a housemate from uni for 10 weeks travelling through Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.

It was absolutely fantastic, I didn’t want to fly home and if anything it has fuelled my desire to travel more than ever. I won’t give you all the details now, got to keep content up my sleeve for future posts! So, watch this space for posts about my Peruvian, Bolivian and Brazilian adventures (I’m hoping I can get my act together and write!).

What now?

I’m back in the UK working for a start up travel company (so yes I’ve managed to keep travel in my life) but I have to admit, it doesn’t quite substitute for the real thing. I’ve made a loose plan to travel again come January but nothing has been fully decided. It’s all a bit up in the air at the moment. Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Myanmar, Indonesia….the list is endless! In the meantime, I’m going to have a go at getting this blog started and I’ll take it from there…

Have a look at my Introducing Me, My Plans and My Blog post to find out more about me and and why I love travelling and would love to travel more 🙂