Summer plans

I've always wanted to do a travel blog and I think this summer is the perfect time. I have left sixth form and have officially finished education (exams included) as of the 19th of June. I think many of you will understand my relief because they're over. I will be starting my foundation level art and design course at Leeds College of Art at the end of September to start fresh and so I thought it would be a perfect time to start this blog, especially since it's basically my life dream to travel the world. After my foundation level, I am going to be taking a gap year in order to travel and get some relevant work experience in preparation for university. I will be in Australia for about 6 months (the majority of my family live in Perth and so I hardly get to see them and so spending a lot of time with them before my degree is pretty important to me) mainly in Perth, but also travelling around because I want to see Darwin and revisit many places like Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane etc. (I'm also hoping to cut some things off my bucket list such as cage swimming with Great Whites). For about 3 months, I will also be travelling around South East Asia (I need to cut down the list as I only have 3 months but I'm thinking about - Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia). I thought I'd just stick to having one single blog where I mix travel and fashion but if you want to just see one kind of post, flick onto the "tagged" pages! 

My summer plans are currently as follows:

Italy (5th July - 19th July): We (my brother, mum, dad and I) are planning on road tripping around parts of Italy (Pisa, Florence, San Gimignano, Mount Vesuvius, Siena, Herculaneum, Rome) for the first week and then we're are staying in a lovely boho hippy chic hotel/villa in Agropoli. 

(all photos from Google - but will be uploading lots of my own pictures when I'm there)

I only decided to join this holiday yesterday so my knowledge of what is happening is pretty small (also doesn't help that my family are pretty 'go-with-the-flow' - which is in no way a bad thing, I actually prefer this kind of attitude - and so their plans aren't at all finalised. The stops on the way down to our final destination (Agropoli) are estimates... except for Florence. We ARE going to Florence. I haven't been since I was a little girl, when although I appreciated the beauty, didn't appreciate it to the full extent possible. Also, my love for geography is really pushing for the visit to Mount Versuvius. And let's be honest, I want to go everywhere. 

Inter-railing (23rd July - 13th August): My closest friends (Aneesah, Lauren, Annie and Lewis - although he's joining us slightly later) and I are going inter-railing around Western Europe this summer rather than doing your bog-standard "party holiday" to islands like Kos, Kavos etc. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with getting drunk every night and sunbathing all day if you're into that kind of stuff (which I am most of the time. The boat parties look hilarious too!) but being enriched by multiple different cultures, whilst still experiencing the night life in some of the best clubs/bars around Europe for 3 weeks which costs almost the equivalent of 1 week on the strip of Zante sounds more appealing to me. 

The plan is: Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Venice, Rome, Milan, Barcelona 

We are aware that all these places are reasonably expensive (Italy probably being the worst - therefore we're spending relatively less time in Italy) but we're trying to do it on a reasonable budget, so if you have any tips... let me know!

Places which have (unfortunately) been cut: Split/Zagreb, Vienna, Florence (...as well as some others which I can't remember) 

Hopefully this will be one of a few inter-railing trips I take in my life (hoping to do Eastern Europe in the summer before my gap year) 

Anyway, that's just a summary of my plans for the summer as of yet. 

Would love to hear about your inter-railing experiences/advice/places to go or not etc as this is all of our first time doing this or places/things that I MUST see/visit in Italy on our road trip. 

I will try and upload daily updates from when I begin travelling or update any knowledge about planning every so often. Also, I might begin a 'vlog' as a channel on Youtube, which I will link in my posts but I'm not too sure yet (I don't like talking to a camera, I get nervous haha) since I've been telling myself I would start a channel for my fashion and I'm still yet to do that! 

Hopefully I'll be updating my travel posts daily as well as my fashion posts so wait to be bombarded with posts! 

Hope you enjoy this as much as I'm going to...

G xxx