When I visit different countries I like to find out about their customs and traditions, talk to the locals and do the things they do and, of course, try the local food and drink. I wouldn’t say I’m a big eater…no okay I take that back…I love eating! Almost everywhere I go my mind somehow ends up drifting to food. Mr Ayla almost always ends up telling me to stop thinking about my stomach for a second but I can’t help it! My belly wants food so I want food! And Poland was no exception.
Living so close to the O2, or the Millennium Dome as it used to be known, climbing it was something I just had to do when they started running the activity. I often go to the O2 for a night out and Alex always comments on how much he loves the view of London from here so I thought the climb would be a great idea as a birthday present for him.
This weekend has been a pretty fun one so I thought I’d update you on my latest antics and adventures around London.
On Friday night I went to Traverse Mingle, a big event for travel bloggers and anyone in the travel industry to get together to socialise, network and have fun. It was held in the plush Cumberland Hotel on Oxford Street and we even had a mini red carpet to get our pic snapped on! So of course I had to put a pretty frock on! Everything was free all night – entry, canapés and drinks so it was bound to be a messy night for most!
From the moment we stepped off the bus from Krakow, everything about Zakopane, a small town in the south of Poland, was like a fairytale.
Nestled in the Tatra Mountains close to the border of Slovakia, Zakopane is a destination popular for its snow-covered peaks during the skiing season and its green rolling hills for hiking in the summer. I was hoping that in April the ground would be clear of snow so we could do some of the great hikes and see the fantastic views and lakes the area had to offer but we were met with snow that had fallen almost as deep as my waist and more still was falling from the sky!
During our time gorilla trekking in Uganda we stayed in a quiet little village up in the mountains of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. All we could see for miles around was the lush green jungle and mountains covered in a foggy mist. It must be one of the quietest places I’ve ever been to – away from the constant hum of the big cities and towns in Uganda, no beeping horns of trucks and bikes, or the hustle and bustle of people everywhere. It was blissful and made a nice change to the noise we had become used to in Kenya and Tanzania.
After a short drive out of the city and into the bush in the back of a dusty truck, I found it hard to believe what I was seeing. Inside a fenced off area a group of people were sitting on a picnic bench chatting away and…wait…what…this can’t be right…several lion cubs and two full grown cheetahs sitting within a few feet of them? Was I seeing things?!
But no, my eyes were working perfectly fine it seemed, as we were shown to our room within the fence. Yep, our little cabin at the lion reserve was actually inside the lion enclosure. I knew that we would be working closely with lions – that’s what we’d signed up for when we decided to volunteer at a lion sanctuary in South Africa that looks after orphaned cubs – but this went far beyond what I could have imagined.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten” Tony Robbins
I’m the type of person who likes to live life to the fullest and make the most of every day. If I could, I’d travel the world, see every corner of the earth and do everything out there there is to do, but sometimes, with a mortgage, bills to pay and a full time job that can be a bit difficult. I was getting fed up of having the same routine – wake up, work, home, eat, sleep, with the occasional night out or trip to the cinema and I wanted to do something more exciting around the normality of a routine life.
The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to.” Richard Mullin
For my first post about one of my adventures, the only thing that I could possibly talk about is somewhere that is very close to my heart. In fact, it’s somewhere so close to my heart that I’m pretty sure I left it there when I returned home and it’s been calling me back ever since.
Since I can remember I’ve always had a passion for travel. I’m not sure where it came from – it could be that my family took me on regular holidays since I came into existence, or that I lived abroad for a while with my mum when I was little, or just the fact that the world is a wonderful place.
Whatever the reason, I love it. I love everything about it from the excitement of rushing to the airport to stepping off the plane into a completely different world. The landscapes, buildings, culture, wildlife, language, food (always the food!) but most of all the incredible friendly people of every place I’ve been to. No matter where in the world I go I’m always welcomed with open arms and big smiles (sometimes even with a ukulele) and the people are usually the biggest memory that I’ll take away from a place.
Mama Ayla's Adventures 