Kristins Adventures in Wanderland

So here we are, one year into this global pandemic. Is anyone else ready to be done with this already?! Mask-wearing disputes aside, the past six months of “Covid Times” have seemed dimmer than the first six, at least in terms of my writer’s block. I’m sure the winter blues haven’t helped, especially when I’m used to being warmer places! But I genuinely did intend to publish this blog sooner, and then found my motivation to write absolutely lacking. I guess I’ve found it easier to express myself through media other than written word, but mostly I’ve been upset that this is the last travel story I have to share...at least for now. I still can’t believe it’s been over a year since my trip to Egypt. I didn’t know then that the world was on ... read more

Hello strangers! If you’re a friend, family member, or former subscriber, thanks for checking back in on my travels. If you are new to my page, that makes two of us ha ha! As you can see, it’s been three years since my last blog entry, an awfully long time to go without writing. Those years were not without adventures, though some of them a bit more internal than international, if you follow my rhetoric. Personal ups and downs aside, let me catch you up to speed since my last entry. I returned to the U.S. early summer 2016 after working as a divemaster in Thailand. I spent some time at home with family before departing on a road trip with my partner at the time. We began in Boston and zig-zagged our way down the ... read more

As a self-proclaimed nomad, I have had the pleasure of trying many different forms of transportation throughout my years of travel. It is so hard to select a "favorite" anything, but my recent trip to Indonesia will forever stick out in my mind as one of the best adventures. My girlfriend Rochelle and I decided that Bali (aka "Australian Cancun") was the perfect place to start our backpacking excursion around Southeast Asia. After a week of fighting the mindless mobs of Bintang-singlet-clad tourists that flock to Bali each year for the winter holidays, we decided to escape to the less frequented neighboring island of Lombok. While this equally large and beautiful island has a variety of activities to offer, this was not our final destination; Lombok was our starting point an activity-packed the four day/three night ... read more

For the past two months I have repeatedly thought to myself "I need to sit down and write a blog," but alas the days have slipped away from me, faster and faster. I feel like I blinked my eyes in July and opened them up in September. My life has moved so quickly that I haven't even been able to notice the passing of time. I've managed to Skype with some friends and family over the recent weeks, but I know that for the most part I have been off the grid with very few updates via email/facebook/blog etc. I figured it was time to break my silence, even if I don't have much to say. As I wrote last time, I am now gainfully employed on a live aboard dive boat in Cairns. I spend ... read more

This is long overdue, per usual. I suppose I'm not getting any better about that, but if you've been following me at https://leaveandexplore.wordpress.com/ you'll understand why. I have finally made it over to Australia on my working holiday visa! While this is very exciting, I would like to back up several weeks to my departure from California. The goodbyes were extra difficult this time, but my mother planned a one-of-a-kind road trip to return me, my car and my personal belongings to the east coast. No, this was not your ordinary mother-daughter, dramedy-esque adventure where we took a wrong turn but ended up finding ourselves, blah blah blah *yawn*. We weren't clearing the skeletons out of our closets; we were searching closets for skeletons. Or ghosts, to be more precise. Behold the brilliant, chilling tale of ... read more