Mary and Damien
We are a fun loving couple embarking on a life changing trip in the search of enlightenment and self development. However, the reality is that we are both probably mad giving up our jobs in a recession to go jaunting around the world encountering hair raising coach journeys and unwelcoming doses of the trots!No Filth Please
I am the more highly strung of the 2 who is always late where Damien (Dim) is more laid back but a stickler for timekeeping... good job that opposites attract - I can already feel a few heated debates coming on! Anyway I anticipate the majority of those looking at this will already know us so need I say more - except, expect an honest account of the good the bad the ugly on this trip with personal mentions to those of you who we get reminded of on the way - Lets go rambling!!!!
Travel Blog Posts
Last Stop; New York, New York
Published: January 8th 2012North America » United States » New York » New York » Manhattan
October 16th 2011
We have now been home for over a week but the memories of this amazing city are fresh as ever. We cannot believe this is it our final stop on our year long journey; we had mixed feelings about going home to face reality so we made the most of our last few days. We arrived by the Mighty Megabus mid afternoon downtown NY; laden with bags it was a bit of a nightmare making our way to Helga’s our final couch-surfers. For some reason we found it difficult understanding the ticketing system on the underground and a 30 minute journey turned into a 2 hour one eeekkk!! We arrived at Helga’s tired and hungry but our first impressions were great; a lovely home, our own room and an interesting host. Helga took us on a ... read more
Washington DC
Published: October 19th 2011North America » United States » District of Columbia » Washington D.C.
October 11th 2011
So we know we are already home but we need to finish this blog off so here is what we did in Washington D.C; We were sad to say goodbye to Janice and Helen but we also felt ready for a break; the farm living is a full time job that we are not sure if we could do so we take our hats off to Janice and Helen. The 9 hour journey on Megabus wasn’t too bad; we had free internet and the trees were starting to turn beautiful colours so it was a nice journey. We arrived late and had not eaten so we found James our couch surfer’s house and then went straight out to hunt for food; James recommended a South East Asian place; kind of fast food but healthy style and ... read more
Musick Farm - WWOOFING experience
Published: October 10th 2011North America » United States » Kentucky » Williamsburg
October 8th 2011
So after feeling fed up with the travelling lark we were ready to get our teeth into some hard work on the farm. I have left Dim in charge of a few of these blogs as I was losing a bit of enthusiasm and I can’t see if he explained the concept of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). The idea is that we will work on the farm in exchange for food and board; pretty good exchange we think; see this link for more information if anyone is interested http://www.wwoof.org/. When Kayla left us at the market we were feeling a bit apprehensive going into an unknown world but we were also excited. The journey once we went off the Freeway, took us through some stunning countryside and it was nice to be in ... read more
Atlanta, Memphis and Knoxville
Published: October 1st 2011North America » United States » Tennessee » Knoxville
September 24th 2011
Atlanta; home of the Olympic Games (1996), home of Coca Cola, a huge sprawling city known as the Capital of the South and the home of the incredible and inspirational Martin Luther King Jr;. We were only passing through on our road trip back to Memphis where we had to return the damaged car and face whatever consequences lay ahead. Before arriving at Danielle’s; our next couch-surf host, we stopped off at the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site. This comprised of his birth home, his grave and a museum dedicated to his work - all in the same block as the Ebenezer Baptist Church he used to preach at. Unfortunately we only got just over an hour before the museum shut, but it was still well worth the visit and we wish we could ... read more
Charleston
Published: September 24th 2011North America » United States » South Carolina » Charleston
September 19th 2011
We made tracks towards Charleston but very slowly, no couch-surfers had yet accepted us, so we hoped that after the few hours’ drive we would get an offer of a couch. We went to the office aka McDonalds for about 3 hours to use the internet and sadly there were still no couch available; we did find Francis Marion National Forest which was about 20miles from Charleston and decided to head there to camp for the night. The sun was setting, we had had no tea and the forest was huuuge...we kept driving, kept driving, and kept on driving until we eventually found a campsite in the middle of nowhere. To our surprise there was another tent there with no one in, but with the large set up they had it seemed they were living there ... read more
Asheville and Congaree NP
Published: September 24th 2011North America » United States » North Carolina » Asheville » Biltmore Village
September 12th 2011
So we made it to Ashville tired and hungry after our big walk in the Smokie’s but we made it to David Castro’s (couch-surfer) house and got on with making pie, beans and mash with gravy some nice home comfort food. Mr Castro was an interesting fellow; he was a TV writer and had written for such shows as Married with Children so over a bottle of red wine, he shared a lot of interesting stories with us. We watched some American football with him and it was good to understand the game a bit better. The next day we were both feeling better than we had in a while so we set out to explore Asheville; a really lovely town. We visited the farmers market and got some fresh vegetables for tea and then headed ... read more
Smoky Mountains - Eye to Eye with Mrs BEAR!
Published: September 18th 2011North America » United States » Tennessee » Great Smoky Mountains Parkway
September 10th 2011
We were both looking forward to getting back to nature as we were missing our long walks, and Jell had talked a lot about how nice the Smokies were so were trying desperately to stay positive, although, it was difficult as our morale is pretty low at the moment. We are finding it difficult to keep going as travelling a lot has started to become hard work which is difficult for others to understand as we should be having a blast not having to work etc but not knowing where we are going to lay our head every night and cooking meals in one pan is wearing thin! Anyway, less of the moaning and more of what we have actually been doing; we made it to our next couch-surfers late evening as we had stopped to ... read more
Memphis and Nashville
Published: September 14th 2011North America » United States » Tennessee » Memphis
September 7th 2011
Another long Greyhound journey sat in front of “The Twits” (overweight and smelling a little on the pungent side) a mother and son duo with a girlfriend, sister, daughter or cousin (we couldn’t tell; very in-bred) in tow who didn’t say a word but the other 2 sure made up for it, talking about the same things over and over for 10 hours – GREAT! We were relieved to reach Memphis where we had a couch-surf set up with Chris, who lived about 20 miles from the city so we caught a cab and nearly had heart attacks when it cost $40!!! Chris was very welcoming and he lived with 4 other house mates (Vance, Baker, Tom and Bret who were all nice blokes) and his dog Cooper who’s nature and mannerisms reminded us so much ... read more
September 3rd 2011
After an 8 hour journey we arrived in The Big Easy where our first sights were a lot of homeless people under the motorway. Our next host Louis came to collect us in his ridiculously small car and took us to his house. As we were knackered we chilled out for the evening and Louis cooked us some pasta so we went for a walk and bought bread and desert to accompany the meal. It did not take us long until we realised Louis talked, A LOT and enjoyed interrupting you mid sentence to tell you his stories. We listened to Louis for the rest of the evening before going to bed. He told us about the effects of Hurricane Katrina which was actually interesting to hear about it from a New Orleans resident and still, ... read more
August 31st 2011
We were knackered after our 30 hour bus journey so it was great to be collected from the bus station by Josue our couch-surfing host. After getting refreshed Josue took us out to try some authentic Mexican food and it was delicious. Melanie, another couch-surf host, joined us and then we went to an English pub for a beer where we met some more of their friends. Although we were tired it was a really nice night and a great way to unwind. In the morning Josue cooked us some breakfast and then we went for a drive to Houston Space Centre; we had been told that the tour of the Space Centre was not very good value for the money which was backed up by reviews on Trip Advisor, so we went to the Rocket ... read more
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