Sorry it’s been a while since the last post, internet connection here is far too slow for uploading new photos. However it was my birthday last week  which also marked one year to the day since I gave up my job and we set off on our adventures.  I thought I would celebrate by writing a post summarising what we’ve been up to since then.

Going through all these old posts has been great fun! I can’t quite believe all the things we have done! Years ago with nothing to base it on I had a thought that when I was 30 I was going to have the best year of my life. I had no idea why I thought this, but somehow it turned out to be true. If anyone needs any encouragement to quit that job they hate and set off with no plans this is it. It’s been an amazing year.

We began the summer trundling from place to place around the UK in our little Cinquecento, enjoying sunset meals looking out over the sea in Devon, bbqs in fields of sheep at Abbey Home farm, sampled some of the best cheese boards in Cornwall and drank lots of cider.

We then spent some time house sitting at a lovely farm in Devon where we became chicken keepers for a week. We ate lots of eggs, I made my first ever quiche, a  fantastic brocolli and stilton, baked bread, visited the amazing Pannier Market at Barnstaple and celebrated our 2 year anniversary with a spanish style feast.

We went WWOOFing in Cornwall at Plan-it Earth, an environmental education centre and also in Herefordshire at a beautiful manor house, Canon Frome. During our stints as woofers we milked goats, learned how to make Hallumi (YUM!), experienced life as part of an intentional community, peeled and chopped 30+ evil artichokes (a task that took over 2 hours!), made a delicious summer pudding, slept in a yurt and learned so much about growing and living.

We went on a trip around the Western Islands of Scotland where we met an amazing inspirational lady called Patsy in Arran, went to a small holders gathering in Kintyre, found wild watercress and mint and a lovely folk festival in Colonsay, got rained on and bitten in Jura and went wild camping in Islay.

We got into mushrooms in Scotland, with our new skills we were able to identify over 60 different types altogether and with our friends John and Viv in Glen Coe enjoyed a bounty of  orange birch boletes, ceps, chantarelles, hedgehog mushrooms and more.

After that a 3 month European city break.. in Liverpool (ok then so it was actually Birkenhead, but what’s the difference eh Andy? ). I spent most of my time wandering around Birkenhead, exploring the great selection of independent fruit and veg and international food shops it boasts. When I wasn’t doing that I’d hang out with the Wright family, took on a new student – Andy’s Mum and had fun teaching her how to make some lovely veggie food.

Pretty soon though it was time to set off on “The Big Trip”. An amazing start in Paris our friends Bruna, John and Viv were with us for some of the time. We enjoyed magical Christmas markets, delicious cheese, a typical french onion soup John says he’ll never forget and best of all Andy and I got engaged! Woop!

We spent New Year with friends in Berlin, had an amazing time dodging fireworks and then set off further across Europe through Warsaw, where we did some couchsurfing, ate lots of Pierogi and were introduced to the gentler side of the snow that was to come.

From there into Lithuania (beautiful, snowy and meaty), before we arrived at a friends’ house  in St Petersburg for a quick visit before we began our journey across Russia on the Trans – Siberian train.

After a couple of stops (where we saw a lake freeze and went dogslegding)  we finally arrived in Harbin in China where we were greeted by a freezing -25c city of crazy people sliding around in the snow giggling.

We went to incredible market selling frogs, snakes, sea cucumber and all kind of unidentifable things. We went to an ice festival and enjoyed lots of crazy food, most of which seemed to contain meat.

Through the rest of China- we enjoyed another new year in Beijing, climbed a mountain, taught at an English school, ate lots of street food, and saw more crazy markets.

From China we went to Vietnam where we accidentally spent 2 months. We rode on scooters through Hanoi, ate lots of fruit, met an inspirational man who lived with his wife and kids  in Hoi An. They taught us about all about Karma, Vietnamese soups and gave us some greats tips for busi-ness (that thing that keeps you busy!).

We also saw the sadder side of Vietnam. A trip to the War Remnants museum in Saigon opened our eyes to the awful history and ongoing effects of the American war.  It effected me in a way that will probably stay with me forever.

Before we left Vietnam for Cambodia we had a few days in the Mekong Delta. A beautiful, green place it provided us with a very picturesque last few days which were spent exploring various towns and islands mostly by boat. We got to see the more traditional way of life – floating markets, fruit farms, rice paper making and lots more.

That I think is where I left off. Pretty incredible really. And lots more has happened since! It really has been the most amazing year of my life… so far.