Category Archives: Travel Diary

February 1, 2018 Travel Diary 2 Comments

January Travels

I can’t believe January is (finally) over. It equally feels like this month has gone on forever and gone by so quick.

In recent years January was a fairly quiet and slow month at work. It usually meant physically being in the actual office for most of the month with hardly any travel, but at last with some spare time to clear your desk, work your way through that endless to do list and finally get that filing done.

Somehow this year this all went a little different. I have probably mentioned it before, this year January did not have just one or two travels, I actually did five trips this past month… to five different countries.

January 29, 2018 Travel Diary, Travel Tips & Advice, New York City 6 Comments

Visiting Brooklyn – Dekalb Market Hall

When heading to New York, chances are you’ll spend most of your time in Manhattan. But New York has so much more to offer. Venture out to the other boroughs and see for yourself. And whilst you are out there, try the food on offer. Brooklyn has become a bit of a trendy area over the last decade or so. Plenty of individual coffee shops, local craft beers and organic food places.

So, if you find yourself in the area of Flatbush Avenue / Dekalb Avenue, I would recommend you visit the Dekalb Market Hall.

We stumbled across it by chance during our recent trip to New York.

January 24, 2018 Travel Diary, New York City

Exploring Times Square by Night

Battling jet lag the first night, we decided to make the most of being wide awake at 4am. So we wrapped up warm and headed out into the night. To experience the city that never sleeps first hand and explore Times Square by night. More so as it was just a few blocks away from our hotel.

Any time of day or night Times Square is a weird world of its own. The lights, the hustling and bustling, cars, noises and millions of people. For sure a place you have to see for yourself once in your life.

To see? Yes. To actually enjoy? Maybe not so much… unless you are the kind of person that loves being shoved around… not this girl though.

So obviously we’ve been there before both during the day and in the evening. But going there in the middle of the night? Totally different thing. You can actually walk around and, believe it or not, you can see the ground.

January 22, 2018 Frequent Flyer, Travel Diary 4 Comments

Diary of an eight-hour flight

What to expect on an eight hour flight in economy - Travel for a Living

I fly on a regular basis – now there’s a revelation; who would have thought – but pretty much all of my flights are short haul. Just an hour, two hours tops if I have to get to Central Europe or Nordics. But to actually do a long haul flight? Nah, not on a regular basis. But as I told before, hubby and I are New York bound again this month and as much as we were looking forward to it, it does come with a long flight at the start and end. So what to expect on an eight hour flight?

I am fairly relaxed about it all, I spend so much time sitting around airports for hours at a time that this flight couldn’t be any worse. Just make sure I have a fully charged laptop in front of me and I potter away forever (if I run out of things to write for the blog, I could always catch up on work, if and when I get very desperate). Hubby on the other side? Well that’s a different story.

You all remember that scene in Shrek when they travel to the Kingdom Far Far Away and donkey sits in the back, asking ‘are we there yet?’ every other second? Yep, that’s my other half (nah, he’s not a donkey obviously). He’s fine for the first hour, two tops, after that he gets a little restless.

So, I decided to share the pleasure with you all with my ‘diary of an eight-hour flight’. To give you a better idea what to expect on an eight hour flight, if you’ve never flown long-haul.

January 18, 2018 Travel Diary 2 Comments

My little travel companion

Spoiler alert – not much travel advice to be found here, this is just a fun little anecdote around my travel.

Last day in the office before my trip to Oslo my colleague left a little plastic pony on my desk.

Why you wonder? Well so did I.

Turned out her daughter put it in her bag a while back and little pony travelled to Italy with her (unnoticed). When it was eventually discovered, her daughter was so happy about little pony having been to Italy, that my colleague decided to send it travelling some more.

So in my bag it went to accompany me to Norway.

January 17, 2018 Travel Diary, Sightseeing 6 Comments

Visiting Oslo for the first time

Somehow I’ve always neglected Nordics as a travel destination (despite actually really wanting to see them). Therefore covering maternity leave for a colleague and occasionally going there came as a nice perk of the job. As one of my last trips in 2017 I had my first ever trip to Norway… for work only, but nevertheless. And thanks to things going anything but planned, I ended up with an extra night there, although without actually seeing a thing (if you don’t count hotels and airports). So I was delighted when Norway showed up on my travel itinerary again for January. The prospect of actually visiting Oslo for the first time and staying the night and not just changing flights there got me rather excited.

December 31, 2017 Travel Diary

2017 – my year in numbers

As 2017 is in its final hours, it seems like the perfect time to re-cap and take stock.

It’s been a good travel year with lots of trips, both for work and leisure.

But let’s take a closer look at the where, when, how often and why (if this bores you, I do apologise, I am aware this might be more for my own sake than anyone elses… I promise there will be something more interesting up on the blog soon).

December 18, 2017 Travel Diary

Queen at Wembley – a Childhood Dream come true

With my parents and aunt being huge Queen fans, I grew up with their music. And with the dream of one day seeing them live.

Back in the days – when dinosaurs still roamed this earth – they went to see Queen live not once but twice… and refused to take me with them. How dare they say I was too young to come to a rock concert at the sweet age of eight (ok in hindsight maybe they had a point, but I refused to believe that). Then the unthinkable happened and Freddie died.

Fast forward 30 years. Queen + Adam Lambert live in Wembley.

Too good a chance to miss.

December 16, 2017 Frequent Flyer, Travel Diary

Things to know about connecting flights

Last trip was a trip of firsts. First ever trip to Norway. First ever flight with Norwegian Air and SAS. And – believe it or not – my first ever connecting flight. Yes, I am as shocked as you are. Despite being a frequent flyer, I have never before changed planes. I have had days when I took a flight in the morning and then continued with another flight in the evening, but never direct transit. So here I was. Ready to do this not once, but twice in as many days. No better time to tell you all the things to know about connecting flights.

November 26, 2017 Travel Diary, Germany 2 Comments

Swimming pools and spa hotels… travel done right

Every now and then the choice of hotel or location turns out to be just perfect, making an otherwise standard work trip that little bit special.

I am usually in charge of my own itinerary. So within limits I can pick and choose my preferred dates, flights and hotels. But saying that…. When it comes to hotels I am regularly at the mercy of the client, as they confirm the appointments with the dealerships, pick me up from the airport and drop me at the hotel (often the case when they actually stay at the same hotel). This can be a bit hit and miss obviously. Sometimes I am informed before where I will be staying (or even get a say in where I want to stay), other times I just have to hope they actually remembered to book me a room.

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