One month in India complete! Compared to the Europe portion of our trip India has not been about sites or the specific places we have been. It has been about absorbing the culture and the sheer madness of it all. Our original plan was to start in the south and work our way north but with only 30 days that was proving difficult. If you want to travel cheap in India you have to travel slowly. So with that in mind we gave the south a good go visiting Varkala, Kochi, Munnar, Mysore, Madikeri, Kannur, Goa, Hampi, Anantapur, Bangalore and Chennai. These are the parts of Indian culture that touched me the most.

Hi friends, while I have decent internet access and a computer to use - here is an update on what Willem and I are up to these days. From my last post you will know that Willem and I left Edinburgh in December after two wonderful years due to Willem's work visa ending. A while ago we decided it wasn't quite time to go back to New Zealand so looked into other countries for work visas and Canada came out on top. During our time in Edinburgh we didn't get to see all the places in Europe we had hoped so thought we'd do a couple of trips on the way to Vancouver. Well, that couple of trips has now turned in to 7 months backpacking through the UK, Europe, India, and South East Asia before eventually landing in Vancouver. I am one month into unemployment and am loving it. Here are a few highlights of the past month. 

I have made life long friends here, been able to travel to beautiful countries which are only a couple of hours away, emerge myself in the strong Scottish pride and try my hand at a few different jobs. Walking around a city with a castle perched high upon volcanic rock has become normal, but I will never take it for granted how truely unique and magical it has been to gaze up at Edinburgh Castle on a daily basis.

I take with me amazing memories, some great Scottish slang, and the thought of one day reconnecting with old pals somewhere else in the world. Thank you Edinburgh for a magnificent two years.

Morocco was the trip of a lifetime and we did so much during our week there that I am going to have to split up the blog posts! This post is going to focus on the city of Marrakech where we spent the majority of our time. Photos of Marrakech have been coming up a lot over the last few years due to more European airlines making it a destination. Each time I saw a photo of Marrakech, be it the colours, the markets, the spices, or the people, my heart told me I NEEDED to get there. It wasn't until I saw flights pop up through easyJet for £44 return that I knew getting my feet on Moroccan soil was in reach!

I mentioned in my last post that this was my favourite New Years ever and that was not an overstatement. I'm not really a New Years person because it gets so hyped up and never meets expectations. Last year Will and I had a disastrous night losing each other in a crowd of 80,000 and spending the whole night trying to find each other when we were completely wasted - not a good idea. Because of that fateful night, I decided that this New Years I wanted expectations low and to just get a house somewhere with friends, that somewhere turned out to be Spain. I didn't want it to be a clubbing night or an expensive night, just a good time. This was one New Years that worked out perfectly how I expected. 

Since moving to the Northern Hemisphere I have decided that a winter Christmas is magical but New Years should be spent in the sunshine. Hence why we hopped on a plane and headed for Spain. A few days before New Years Eve myself, Will, Jamie, Scott and a last minute but valuable addition of Tim, flew from Stansted to Barcelona where we would then make the journey on to Sitges. This was my first group travel experience with friends and although trying to pick a destination in Spain was stressful, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. 

Last weekend, I had never even heard of The Highland Games then this weekend I was making the trek up to Braemar in the heart of The Highlands, to see men in kilts toss a caber. We were offered the tickets from our new landlord who could no longer make it. Tickets, accommodation and meals were sorted we just had to get ourselves there and back.  This was the tricky bit. If you look at Braemar on a map it is in the middle of a national park. At first glance we thought it would be impossible to get there, but we were determined and searched every possible way. It turned out we could catch a train to Aberdeen and then a bus from there. Leaving after work on Friday, we knew we had to be in Aberdeen by 9.45pm to catch the last bus across to Braemar. We left ourselves plenty of time between the train and the bus, booking the 6.33pm train arriving in Aberdeen at 9pm. Everything was going to work out swimmingly. But, as we turned up to Waverley station, we saw that dreaded word that ruins everything – delayed. Due to a signaling outage between Newcastle and York our 6.33 train was delayed by 5 hours.  This meant our 9.45 bus would be long gone. Thinking the Virgin train staff would be able to help, we went to them seeking guidance.