I am a firm believer in "you learn something new everyday" and the day I went to Monaco was no exception. Of course this day I learnt probably the most general knowledge trivial pursuit question ever asked of "is Monaco a separate country?" and to my surprise "Yes … it's the second smallest country in the world." About a half an hour bus ride out of Nice, Monaco certainly had a different vibe to its neighbouring country France. The cars, the yachts, the coff...

Waking up in Paris and seeing my mum next to me was just the strangest but loveliest feeling. I didn't even really want to leave the hotel room cause the beds were just so warm and comfy. But then the other part of me was like "OMG you're in Paris - one of the most famous cities in the world!" When we walked out of our hotel it was much cooler than we expected -definitely a jeans and jumper kind of day. Off we set to find the Eiffel Tower which we were able t...

As the last week of our African adventure slowly came to an end, I had never experienced so much anticipation and excitement in my life to start my European journey. Not only had I missed my mum more than I thought was humanly possible, but the awareness of not having to pee in holes in the ground, and sit in overcrowded minivans on endless bumpy dirt roads, and watch goats being tortured on the side of the road by children, was all but reassuring that Europe w...

Uganda is described as the "Pearl of Africa" and wow did it live up to this expectation. We came to Uganda with no plans, ideas or time limits about what we were going to do. We arrived in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, late on a Tuesday night after a 14 hour bus ride from Nairobi. As you can imagine I was pretty exhausted as we jumped into a cab and headed to Kampala Backpackers, approx. 2km out of town. My first impression of Kampala was not a good one becau...

When dad asked me what country in Africa I would most like to go to (back before I left to travel Asia last year) my response was Rwanda. I'm not exactly sure what attracted me to this country, as it does not have an outstanding feature such as Victoria Falls or the Pyramids of Giza, however it was the country in Africa I knew the most about. Back in 2010, my teacher Miss McCarthy of Year 10 elective geography spent a term teaching us about the horrific genocid...