About Me
Follow my adventures, and you too can find out how to travel the world, meet new people, in strange new places and party with them. Without having to give up a 6 figure job, sell your house, your blood or do anything you’d be ashamed to tell your mum about (well maybe just a little).
I grew up as a 90s child with a normal family, (well I thought they were normal) in a small Village in Northern Ireland. I had a wanderlust and a sense of adventure at an early age; all I needed was a passport. But back then a trip to the next village was an adventure, never mind the next continent.
When I turned 18, the inevitable happened, I left the country and moved to Glasgow to study at university. Here I learned the ways of the natives and how to survive on jaeger bombs and raw pot noodles. Since then, things have changed, well, I no longer eat pot noodles.
My love for travel, The Travel Bug
Everybody loves to travel, chill out in the sun and drink an exotic cocktail. Me too but I like to vary my sunbathing from the top of a Tibetan mountain to a lost beach in South America.
I started my backpacking odyssey drinking my way around Canada and the U.S. in 2008 and just kept going! That trip was the catalyst for me in this quest of visiting every country in the world.
From there it was onto Oz and Bali in 2011, then a few years later a 6 month trip through South East Asia turned into 2 years around the world where I decided, why not see everything? So I took the leap to visit some of the less visited countries for the first time. Travelling to these remote places was a way to escape my comfort zone and certainly made a change to shotgunning beers in Banff!
But most importantly, I wasn’t just visiting places; I was visiting people. What’s a special moment when you have no one to share it with? I have made friends and memories on every corner of this globe; throw a dart at a map, and I’ve probably been there, danced with locals or had an encounter with the authorities and have the photos to prove it! It’s not such a big or scary place when you have friends.
FAQs
Yes, there has been a few edgy situations and people are always surprised to hear that America is usually the culprit. My buddy John and I got into a confrontation in Austin, Texas and it was probably the closest to death I’ve been. Unfortunately John bared the brunt of the attack and has two nice scars along the side of his head to show for it. A few others include being questioned by Police in Peru and having guns drawn at us by American police, not an ideal situation.
The more countries I visit the more I ask myself this question and although every year the number gets less, with visas and other issues it just seems to get more difficult. If it takes me until I’m 70 or 80, then so be it. Its all about the journey, not the destination.
Solo yes, alone, no. Sure you leave on a jet plane on your own but with the options to meet fellow travelers and locals you always have plenty of company. Smartphones and social media are a great way to stay in contact with friends and family at home or even to help meet people at your next destination. But staying at hostels and going on their trips are the best way of making a new circle of friends. See my tips on this here.
Firstly I’ll let out a huge sigh of relief! Then I’ll go back to all my favorite countries! What is more satisfying than going to the best countries in the world as by then I’ll have visited them all. Everyone always asks what’s the best country in the world, well by then I might actually know all while continuing to work on my ever expanding bucket list!
After all my travelling I still don’t have a second language and know enough Spanish just to get by, ola, gracias and una cerveza mas por favor. I tend to find that where there’s a will there’s a way and just because we don’t speak the same language doesn’t mean we can’t convey a message. Also I’m pretty fortunate that English is the most common language across the world, so a lot of the time it’s pretty easy.