It popped up on my 'On This Day' app that my one year anniversary in Australia has already come around. This crazy year has flown by and I now feel like a proper Sydneysider! I've somehow survived being an actual adult, packing up a suitcase and figuring out how to keep myself alive all on my own - half way around the world. Well done me.

I bagged myself a sweet job 1 month in and have spent the past year living on the beach in Bondi, discovering something new everyday. E.g. I've discovered how much gluten scares people here and how you can apparently make a bloody mary out of quinoa... Really? The Hills Eatery, I'm looking at you.

There's countless bars, cafe's, brunch spots, beaches, adventures and road trips to discover and I've barely scratched the surface. New places constantly pop up to add to the list and there's always an excuse to get drunk in the daytime. Sydney's buzzing and I'm not sure you'll ever be able to beat walking past beautiful, bronzed, barefoot surfers running to the beach on your way to work.

Getting sponsored by my awesome employers has meant I'm one of the lucky ones and don't have to wash cucumbers or pick nuts in order to carry on with my Australian dream. I've made some beautiful friends who enjoy adventures just as much as me, so I've spent the last year causing trouble and making a lifetime of memories.

I have too many highlights to list already, like walking to Sydney harbour on my lunch break to sit in the sun and stare at the opera house in awe, strolling along the beach after work and heading to Icebergs for wine whilst watching the surfers bob around below, watching the candy floss sunsets Bondi always delivers, showing old friends around my now home city when they come over from England, watching Bondi Rescue on TV then heading down to the beach to see it for real, not having to wear a jumper for the majority of the year, hopping on a ferry/bus/plane and finding new places to fall in love with, the weather, the air con, the beautiful people and the countless pop up events that appear around the place constantly. There's always a gin bar to drink dry I tell ya.

I've been to some incredible events over the last 12 months too like Wine Island - an actual island of wine where we got so drunk we nearly missed the boat off the island. I've seen Ellie Goulding and Coldplay, dressed up and drank wine on the beach for Australia Day, worn a santa's hat, listened to Wham and drank mulled wine in July for Christmas in July, spent an afternoon drinking with NRL players without realising who they were, been to a mansion party overlooking the harbour for my housemates birthday, been to Ramsay Street, seen Irene from Home & Away in Palings whilst drinking on a school night, been whale watching, celebrated Melbourne Cup, dressed up as a bag of jellybeans for the Sydney 7's in 41 degree heat, cheered on my housemate running City to Surf, partied on a boat in the harbour for my Christmas party, had copious amounts of day drinking sessions in the sunshine, experienced too much delicious food and put on about 12 stone. The list goes on.

I love you, Bondi. Here's to continuing the adventure and drinking all of the wine you never fail to supply.

The perks of living in Sydney seem endless and one of my favourites is being able to hop on a plane to explore new beaches for the weekend. Myself and my housemate Faye often run out of work on a Friday night, hand luggage in tow and jump straight on a plane from the office to have a 48 hour adventure somewhere new.

This time we chose Byron Bay and it did not disappoint. I'm in love. I want to be a beach bum forever.

After a major storm in Sydney it was touch and go as to whether we'd actually make it out of the airport, as all flights bar ours were cancelled. With a stroke of luck, we boarded on time and ordered a glass of wine after taking off only 10 minutes late. The flight was seriously turbulent and I nearly had several meltdowns, but I downed my wine and grew a pair.

We finally arrived at our hotel around 9pm, dumped our bags and headed straight to the nearest bar for a celebratory G&T. Byron has such a chilled out, laid back vibe with live music most nights... Absolute perfection. We listened to some tunes, had a few drinks and caught up on our previous week (I never see Faye in the week as she's a lawyer and works too hard) and then called it a night before we got carried away.

On Saturday morning we took a stroll from our pad along Belongil Beach to town, which was about 15 minutes away. We fuelled up at Byron Fresh Cafe for brunch before we trekked up to the lighthouse viewpoint; exploring many beaches and coves along the way. The views from the top were stunning and we were lucky enough to see some dolphins larking around below which was pretty sweet. Faye thought they were fish. Oh no.

After dodging bluebottles, noshing off all the ice-cream, getting rather sunburnt and dehydrating ourselves, we explored the town and headed back to Treehouse on Belongil to refuel with pizza and wine. By this point it was 7pm and time for us to find the best local haunts and cause some trouble. If you have only one night in Byron, here are my suggestions:

Start off at The Railway bar where there's live music, a good mixture of locals and tourists and long tables where you can chat with strangers over a G&T. It's really laid back and the perfect place to start the evening. People were up dancing at 8pm and there were no pretentious people in sight.

Then move on to Balcony Bar for a cocktail or two looking over the town. It's a perfect people watching spot if you get a seat at the balcony. It's very chilled and they have a beautiful interior. We came back on Sunday for a (non alcoholic) beverage to cure the hangover.

We took a pit stop next at Ozy Mex which could possibly serve the best burrito that ever has existed. I could have eaten alllll of the pulled pork however I would have been asleep in a delicious Mexican induced coma, so resisted.

To carry on the Mexican theme, we went to Miss Margarita's for some strawberry margaritas to keep us nicely topped up. Very cool, budget friendly cocktail bar with lots of options on the menu. It was shutting up fairly early (standard Australia) but we managed to see off a few before the tequila was shut away.

Next we went to Beach Hotel as everyone seemed to be flooding there and this is where things start going hazy for me. It was rammed, played a mixture of 5ive, Backstreet Boys and music with no lyrics (I need a lyric so don't know artist names). At some point one of the bar women had several buckets of ice water poured over her by the other bar staff. I'm unsure if that's a regular occurrence or if it was a novel way of sacking someone. Either way, you get an idea of the kind of establishment it is.

Finally we went to La La Land to end our night. I don't remember much apart from there was a lot of dancing. I think. It'll forever be a mystery. Then we ate pies before passing out in a happy, slightly sunburnt and terribly drunk haze.

Sunday started at 10.20am when we were woken up by a knock at the door as check out was 20 minutes ago. We jumped in a cab to The Farm for lunch as food was the only thing to help us now. The Farm is beautiful, they have a mini cow, a wishing well, an ice cream cart, a barbeque area, other animals dotted around and Three Blue Ducks restaurant which had a pretty long waiting list. After an hour wait, we finally sat down and ordered some mussels and pork ribs which took too long to arrive! It was lovely food, however I'd recommend going to the cafe next door or take a picnic.

After an afternoon napping on the beach, it was time to hop on a plane back to Sydney and to wave off yet another gorgeous weekend.

I couldn't recommend heading to Byron enough, even if it's just a short stop off like us... Go! I want to go back already. I've 100% fallen in love.

Since I last posted on my once again completely abandoned blog, some major excitement has occurred. Not only did I have the dream holiday with one of my best friends to the Maldives, but I also made the utterly petrifying decision to try and start a new chapter living in Australia!

So, as I write this I am sat in my cute little house on Bondi Beach and am feeling pretty damn smug with myself actually.

It all happened pretty quickly and the last few months have been mad, but it's the best decision I've made in a long time. I'm a happy bean and am on a mission to hunt down my Bondi Lifeguard husband whilst drinking Sydney's whole supply of gin.

Since I came to Australia with my best friend 8 years ago, I've always wanted to give living here a go whilst I could still get my Working Holiday Visa. I'm getting old, fast, so thought 26 was a good age to give Sydney a bash.

On my post-Christmas escape in the Maldives with Charlotte, I decided 2016 was the year to leave, and a month later, I was on the plane flying half way around the world.

I didn't have a plan at all really and didn't know how long I would be away for or when I'd go home. I thought I could arrive and really not enjoy myself and be home within 2 months, or I could stay for my 2 years and see what happens. It was the scariest and most exciting decision I've made.

Having a really, really close knit group of friends at home made it super difficult as I didn't want to say bye for a year and be forgotten. Also being really close with my mum made it doubly as hard, but walking through departures at Heathrow was the most invigorating feeling ever. I did have a little cry over a bottle of champers, but I had to show some emotion ya know!

I had a smashing couple of leaving events and got showered in love and well wishes by my favourite people in the world, before being let loose on my own to try and survive. So far I am surviving. Great news.

I landed in Melbourne and Jacky G picked me up at the airport to begin my adventure. Fresh off the plane, we went for breakfast and caught up and got terribly excited. After an epic nap, we decided the best idea was to check out Chin Chin for some deeeelicious nosh and ended up getting royally smashed in true Brits abroad stylee. Woke up with a major hangover and minor jet leg. Great combination.

Melbourne flew by and a week of catching up, sightseeing, eating, drinking and napping was over too quickly and I hopped on my plane to meet Jamie in Sydney and start setting up my new life!

As soon as I met J at the airport, I felt like Sydney was the place for me. We caught up, reminisced about our old London life and drank champagne whilst looking over Bondi Beach. Life is better in Sydney than Streatham.

I've been in Australia for 3 months now and I've got myself a swish job, a beautiful beach side lad pad and some fabulous friends. If I could transport all of my family and friends from home to Bondi, life would be pretty perfect right now.

I was given a GoPro for my birthday last year and it's possibly my favourite gift ever.  I have documented mine and Sarah's travels since we first missioned around the world in 2009, but started off using a low quality, oversized handheld camera.  Which did the job, but my GoPro has taken my future travel filmmaking to new levels.  My first travel video is so old, it's on a DVD and I can't figure out how to upload this to You Tube, but below is our Asian adventure in 2014 and South American dream trip this year (first use of the GoPro).

Fabulous.

South America - 2015

Asia - 2014

xx

This morning I woke up with a severe case of wanderlust.  My body doesn't allow me to have a lie in on a weekend, but in the weekday's I can sleep for England.  What is that about? So, I woke up at 7am with itchy feet and big dreams of my future adventures.  I spent my morning how I spend the first few minutes of most mornings... Lusting over Jay Alverrez and Alexis Ren's Instagram pages.  They are basically two absolutely beautiful human beings, who travel the world being all in love and filming it all as they have the most epic adventures in countless countries.

Living my dream.

Check them out...

I want everything in this video. The adventure. The sunshine. The locations. The music. And her bod/face.

Life's not fair, Zazu.

So, this morning got me overly excited for my future adventures and got me looking back at my past explorations. Bring on the Maldives Jan 2016. I'm going to make my friend Charlotte recreate the above video and we are going to become the new Jay and Alexis. GAME ON.

I have lots of exciting adventures in the pipeline and I can't wait to make them reality. 2016, you will be my year.

I have managed to survive two whole weeks back in the real world. It's been tough. I get the post travelling blues really bad and it doesn't help that for the past two years, Sarah has carried on travelling for three more weeks after I get home. Daydreaming of her adventures whilst trying to throw myself back into being a working professional is never good for my emotions.

Sarah headed to Cuba on the day I headed back to London and there is no internet there, so I've not just had to cope with three weeks worth of travel envy; I also haven't been able to speak to my best friend for three weeks! Texts cost a fortune and Whatsapp is out of action until she gets to a wifi spot. I'm sure she's loving not being contactable, but I need to send her random messages about the weird pigeon I just saw or how I've got a pain in my little finger and I think I'm dying. Now I've got to keep this information to myself and it is less than ideal.

For the brief moments I have stopped crying and having a strop, I put together our annual travel video. This was my first adventure with the GoPro and I think it might just be my favourite thing I have ever owned. I want to have it constantly strapped to my head to capture all random moments in life, because it is awesome. I did however film some clips when we had a big night out in Buenos Aires and I had to turn it off because drunk me is probably the most annoying person I've ever come across. I even considered stopping drinking after I watched it. But then I realised I didn't give a shit and poured myself a gin.

Have a watch if you desire by clicking HERE

My new found friend C.C who we met in Buenos Aires introduced me to a word the other day that quite possibly might be my new favourite word. It sums up my feelings perfectly and it's probably my main emotion 99.99% of the time:

Saudade - (n.) a nostalgic longing to be near again to something or someone that is distant, or that has been loved and then lost; "the love that remains"


Now that is just beautiful. I think it might be time to book the next adventure you know.

There are certain places that I've been in the world that now hold the best memories, simply for the people I met in that specific town or city. Buenos Aires is one of those places for me and I would go back in a heartbeat if I could collect all of the people we met and take them back with me.

We arrived quite late at night and grabbed a taxi to our hostel. We landed to horrific storms and Sarah's plane came in an hour after mine, she turned up looking pretty shell shocked and utterly relieved the plane landed in one piece. There was an electric storm going on outside which I'd never seen before but the whole sky lit up as if it was midday momentarily.

After forty minutes and lots of lightening later, we arrived and proceeded to take the ancient lift up to the sixth floor. I'm pretty sure the lift was from the Titanic and you had to slide two doors open and closed whenever you wanted to use it. Safe.

We checked in and decided to sleep to prepare for a big one the next day. This is when we met two of our roommates, CC and Lewis, who were getting heavily on the booze. They left us to be boring and we slept like a dream until we woke up to even more rain and I knew my tanning days were behind me. That day we decided to chill out, drink all of the Argentinian red wine, eat good steak and go to an Argentinian tango class. The hostel sorted us out and we were booked on for a night of embarrassing dancing that evening.

We braved the weather in the day and headed to Cafe Tortoni for a coffee and some churros. I drank the most incredible iced coffee which was flavoured with cinnamon and orange. I was in heaven. I highly recommend. By the time we got back to the hostel, we decided to get ready for our tango class and wanted to drink alllll of the wine. Argentinian red wine is the best and what better place to drink it in large quantities, than Argentina itself. We roped in Lewis and CC and headed to the wine shop to stock up. Me and Sarah decided to treat ourselves to the good stuff which came to a hefty sum of £3.00. Best place ever.

Our hostel had a pretty awesome rooftop with incredible views of the city, so we headed up with some tunes and some mugs to have a few glasses of vino before we went dancing. A few more guys from New Zealand joined us and we all chatted and laughed as the sun set.

Sarah, myself and Josh from Canada all danced off feeling rather rosy from the wine and went to our tango lesson which was hilarious. We were all rather drunk at this point because after asking Sarah to grab us a GLASS of wine to share before our pick up arrived and she ended up getting a bottle. We'd had about a bottle each by this point before the night had even begun. Dancing was brilliant and terrible at the same time. I was useless but it was fabulous. We all got a certificate at the end so we are now fully graduated tango dancers. Get me to that stage immediately.

After the lesson we were treated to a show and more wine and dinner. The wine was free flowing and the steak was to die for, so by the time we left we had rosy cheeks, red teeth and the drunk giggles. We headed back to our hostel where everyone else were happily drinking away ready for a night out. We of course taught them some tango and got back into more drinking, which escalated quickly. I love nothing more than being in a hostel, drinking with people you've only met that day and feeling like you're a group of life long friends. It's my favourite thing in the world.

After even more wine, we all headed out to a club which I can't really remember much of apart from there was a lot of gin, a lot of dancing and a lot of fun.

It was CC's last night, so shots and toasts were had to end his travels in style. There's nothing worse than the feeling of going home after time away travelling, no matter how long you've been away from home it's never long enough. We made it our mission to make him forget by supplying him with alcohol. I think it momentarily worked. 

After far too much to drink, we all headed back to the hostel to sleep off the gin and wine. Me and Lewis headed up to the rooftop to check out the views of the city at night. This certainly did not dissapoint. Beautiful scenes.

We eventually admitted defeat and headed to sleep for a few hours before being awoken by the horrific hangover that was looming over us. I woke up still drunk and couldn't find my phone which is the worst thing to happen when away, when your phone is also your camera. I had a mope for a bit, ate some food and we settled down for the first nap of the day before heading out to attempt to see some city sights. We were all lying there quietly when there was a faint sound of an iphone ringing. My phone was alive! It was luckily in Lewis' pocket from last night, safe and sound and I was back in my happy but hungover place.

A small nap later, we dragged ourselves out and in convoy headed to the Recoleta Cemetary, which isn't the most uplifting place on a hangover. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there and I thought I may pass out on the regular. It was awesome though, very very grand.

After meandering around trying to act impressed, we gave up on culture and wanted a second nap, so jumped on the bus whilst trying not to be sick. Sarah had caught my cold, so she was struggling with both a hangover and my illness which I felt terribly guilty for. 

When we finally got back to the hostel in one piece, we made ourselves horizontal rapidly and slept off the remaining hangover. Lewis couldn't sleep, so I took one for the team after a small nap and kept him entertained. Because I'm decent like that you see. We planned steak for that evening and everything started to feel better at last.

Once everyone had awoken and felt fresh again, the Kiwi's had to run off to get their 18 hour long bus to Iguassu Falls. Not at all jealous. Myself, Sarah, Josh and Lewis headed out to exchange some dollars to pesos and ate our weight in steak. It really did melt away all hangover and all worries, apart from the fact I was heading home tomorrow but I tried not to think about this minor inconvenience (Nooooooooooooooo!)

Feeling utterly full and tired due to overeating, we headed back home via the shop because the crazy bastards Lewis and Josh decided they were heading out again that night. They stocked up on beers and we all chilled in our room whilst the boys drank and introduced us to some new tunes and told tales of their previous adventures. Sarah was struggling with the cold so nodded off and I wasn't far behind her. Lewis and Josh headed to the kitchen to get drinking with the others but it didn't last long as I heard Lewis get into bed at 10.30ish. Couldn't handle it. Weakling.

I awoke to more storms on my last morning which mirrored my feelings perfectly. So depressing. Me and Sarah headed out for a stroll and a coffee, where we reminisced and laughed about our South American adventure which I didn't want to end. We fitted so much into such a short amount of time, but I want to travel forever.

We went back to the hostel for the final time and waited for our taxi to the airport. We said our goodbyes to everyone and got in the Titanic lift with a heavy heart and my suitcase packed up for home. I had another unforgettable trip away, met some gorgeous people and had some truly unforgettable times. Getting to spend two solid weeks with my best friend is such a rare but amazing treat and I spent the whole journey home feeling completely gutted but also very lucky that I get the chance to travel so much. 

Until next time, world. You've been utterly mind blowing once again and I've fallen even more in love. 

Today I woke up absolutely dying a death of cold which was very unfair. Colds hit me hard and I look like I've been crying for 2 days straight which is a strong look. Sarah was a champ and went to buy me some pills and an industrial sized packet of tissues and I soldiered through the day. Obviously still moaning about how shit I felt, sorry Clifford!!

We were leaving in the afternoon to head to São Paulo for one night and a day stopover before my final port of call, Buenos Aires. In the morning we missioned to see the Brazilian side of Iguassu Falls which did not dissapoint. It's much quicker to do than the Argentinan side as it's only a 1.5k trail whereas yesterday, we walked 10k. If I had to chose one side to visit if time was short, it would be Argentina purely because you see the falls from every angle possible and it's mind blowing. However, if you have time it is SO worth doing the Brazil side as you get to walk down a platform which takes you into the spray of the falls and you get absolutely drenched. It's so much fun and it certainly cleared my cold for a few minutes. 

So impressive! Walls of water with countless rainbows all around. Somewhat magical. With drenched feet and feeling pretty damn cold, we headed back to lie by the pool in our hostel for half an hour to warm up before we headed for our brief trip to São Paulo. I was feeling pretty ropey so was looking forward to an early one to recuperate. Two flights and a taxi later, we arrived at our VERY strange hostel. We were in a 6 bed dorm and luckily we were the only ones staying in there as I've never seen a room so small. We had to somehow drag our bags up a ridiculously small windy staircase, which didn't feel secure. How 6 people and our backpacks would fit in this room, I do not know. But anyway, we luckily had the room to ourselves which was a treat and settled down for an epic sleep. 

I woke up feeling fresh as a daisy and we decided to sunbathe by the pool for the day to soak up the last of the sun on my holiday. This however, was not possible. The pool was a small square of water, full of rubble and trees and the walls were so high that no sun would ever creep in there. It was like the place Mufasa tells Simba to avoid. Terrible. 

We admitted defeat and decided to find a park to lay in instead. Couldn't find one anywhere could we. São Paulo has parks that are more like small forests. No places to sit in the sun. We finally found a small park type place but it wasn't grass, it was concrete but we had been wandering around for too long so plonked ourselves down and pretended it was ideal.

Half an hour passed and we were soaking up some sun at last, but then we got bloody kicked out for having a bikini top on! We couldn't understand a word he was saying and I'm still not completely sure what the problem was, but we decided to hide our obviously hideous top halves and go get a coffee instead. Starbucks saved the day and we sat eating chocolate, drinking coffee and chatting for the rest of the day before catching another flight to ARGENTIIIIIINA!! Three days left and the last stop on my travels so let's do this, bitches. Bring. It. On.

Woke up at 5am after the Spanish witches had ANOTHER mothers meeting at 2.30am for a good hour. So I made lots of noise to make up for it because I'm bitter and a bitch. After three flights and three ham and cheese sandwiches courteousy of Tam Airways, we landed in Iguassu Falls. The weather was beautiful which made me terribly happy as I thought we had finished with the sun this trip. 

Iguassu is the weirdest place ever. We hopped on the bus to our hostel and gazed out the window for 40 minutes at the sights and scenery which was like going back in time to an era I can't even put my finger on. Shop names are painted on the front and everything seemed a bit deserted - all very, very strange. I think it's only tourists enter this town as it seems like the most depressing place to live. Rather eerie.

After managing to suss out which stop to get off and having walked around looking like proper lost tourists (a regular look we adopt) we saw the front of our hostel which didn't dissapoint! We were expecting shipping containers and shipping containers we got. The hostel is called Tetris and on the front door it said 'to enter: press start and begin' which was pretty cool. Inside was amazing, it was really modern and even had a swimming pool built with a shipping container in the outside area. We were handed a free Caiprihana voucher which was just the ticket, popped our bikinis on and spent the afternoon lapping up the mid afternoon sun. Tetris played some awesome music, so we were in our absolute element after a long days travelling.

We spoke to a few people around the pool who had signed up to the Argentina Iguassu tour the following day so decided to do the same. They pick you up from the hostel, drive you there and take you around the best views of the falls so it was a no brainer.

We headed to bed which was easier said than done. The rooms were so small and apparently shipping containers have zero ventilation, so I thought we might die of heat. Sarah, who always gets cold, was overheating at the serious rate so decided to soak her towel and use it as a duvet. Innovative problem solver that one. I woke up the next morning to her with an actual cover on as she somehow got cold in the middle of the night... Crazy bitch.

We got up and ready to attack the free breakfast with force and all piled into our ride. Our tour guide took our passports and we were off to the Argentine border to quickly cross and go jump in waterfalls for the day. However, the systems were down at the border and our tour guide got us in trouble as she didn't have the right paperwork for the van (you had ONE job Vivienne) so we had to sit in no mans land for an hour whilst a new, certified van swooped us up and took us on our way.

Eventually we made it and started on our 10k trail around the park. There were signs everywhere warning us of coaties (which look like cute fluffy animals but can actually rip your face off), jaguars (good) and snakes. Reallllly feeling safe. We were also shown spiders along the way which really made me jump for joy, I tell you now.

I got over the fact that I could be killed by a wild animal at any minute when I first set my eyes on the falls. Truly stunning. We came on a day with exceptional weather and where the spray of the falls was in the air, there were countless rainbows around. Full rainbows, mini rainbows, double rainbows... All the rainbows you can imagine. It looked beautiful and as we got further into the day, Vivienne took us to more mind blowing spots with even better views.

I didn't think I would ever be that impressed by a waterfall, but it's sheer size was overwhelming and it went on for as far as the eye can see.

We stopped off for five minutes in the courtyard where there was a lady completely surrounded by coaties. She seemed completely unphased and carried on eating her sandwich with no care what so ever. She literally had about 12 on her and suddenly one lept at her face, causing them all to freak out and start fighting with each other. Me and one of the guys, Phil, were terribly freaked out and pretty much handed over our belongings to these vicious animals and ran for the hills. Terrifying.

After that horrific escapade, Vivienne said that the coaties hang around until about 5pm when the tourists start to leave and then go and hide because that's when the jaguars come out and see them as food. I'm not being funny, but surely jaguars could wake up early and eat us? I wasn't taking the risk and headed for the water. They can't swim I'm sure. Definitely can actually but I had no choice.

Our final stop of the day was called 'the devils throat' which was a 15 minute trek over the river to the ultimate view spot of the falls. You could see right over the edge and it looked over a solid, super fast flowing wall of water for what seemed like miles and miles. You couldn't see the bottom of the waterfall because the power of the water was causing such a splash, the mist and spray was being thrown right up to the top. It was beautiful and didn't look at all real. Really, really stunning.

After soaking up the views and taking a few minutes to talk about how awesome it was, we hopped on an open sided train back to our van. On the train we drove through a few clouds of what looked like leaves all around us, but as we got closer and right into it; it turned out to be hundreds of butterflies in one massive group swarming around the place in a colourful haze. Beautiful.

Luckily we all made it back to the van without losing any limbs or lives to a jaguar/coatie/snake/spider/all of the above. We then headed to our final spot which was a place where you could see three countries from one point. You could see Argentina (where we were stood), Brazil and Paraguay. We should have popped across to Paraguay to have visited three countries in one day, but the bar was waiting and I needed to feed Sarah before she turned into a gremlin.

We ended the day at our hostel bar, with achy feet and a camera full of beautiful pictures. Chatting to two brilliant guys from Birmingham, we saw off a few Caiprihana's and laughed until the Brazilian heat turned to evening chill. What a stunning day all round. 

Today was our day to be tourists, soak up some sun and get really rather drunk in Lapa. Friday nights in Lapa are mental apparently. They call it 'Lapa Loca' which I think just means crazy Lapa. It's terribly exciting and we are ready to drink allll of the gin.

We decided to sign up to the day tour with our hostel which takes you to Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain and also some other bits and bobs we've already done like the colourful stairs, but it was the most convenient way to see Christ and Sugarloaf. We had the morning to go drink coconuts and sunbathe on our favourite spot at Ipanema and we got so lucky with the weather. As I was really, really burnt in the face and didn't want it to fall off, I had to create some sort of turban/face mask to hide myself from the rays. Sexy lady.

After hopefully becoming a good couple of shades darker, we went and got ready for Christ! We were really lucky with the weather to go up and see him as a couple of guys we met went up when it was cloudy and only got photos of the bottom of him. Which made a hilarious photo but I would not have been impressed.

We drove seriously high up and the sights were absolutely incredible. You could see the whole of the city and just how huge it was! Then we got our first glimpse of Christ and it was so awesome. Normally with attractions that are supposed to be absolutely mind blowing, I feel a bit like Karl Pilkington: underwhelmed. But Christo was epic. We became full on tourists and got out my selfie stick to get proper angles. Note that I'm not a selfie stick user on the regular, but there are times it helps. I promise. Don't judge.

Isn't he a sexy bastard! Not sure if you can stay that about Christ, but I just did.

Next up we headed to Sugar Loaf mountain as the sun set. Saw this beaut en route. There he iiiiis!

It was absolutely freezing and the clouds were rolling in like they always did in the evening, so it did not look like it was going to be a success. We were quite miserable at this point as it was cold and we couldn't see a pissing thing, but when the cable car came out of the clouds at the top, we could see everything and it was so beautiful. The whole city lit up with Christ the Redeemer glowing super bright in the distance. So, so pretty! 

The pictures don't quite do it justice, but with the clouds rolling below the mountain and all of the lights shining through, it was stunning. You can just about make out Christ in the top left of the photos.

Going down in the cable car was like the beginning of a horror story though as it was super dark and super misty. Jurassic Park all over again. We survived though and headed back feeling content and in our super giggly mood that makes me cry and my stomach hurt. Perfect start to a night on the booze! 

We got back to the hostel and were told there was a huge bucket of free Caiprihana in the garden for us which was music to our ears and we equipped ourselves with straws and got straight on it. We made a bit of an effort with our appearance which was a nice change. Actually straightened my hair... What a treat. And then went hardcore on the 'skinny bitches' which involve a lot of fresh lime, vodka and fizzy water. Refreshing and lethal.

After a few too many, we all jumped on the bus to Lapa which took forever. The buses in Brazil are mental and they drive like lunatics. I don't think suspension is a thing and mixed with an hour journey and lots of vodkas, I needed a wee desperately. We had to make a pit stop at a petrol station where they actually charge you for the pleasure of urinating. 

Anyway, Lapa really was crazy. There's people everywhere just drinking and partying in the streets, bars that are scattered all around selling cheap booze and just drunk people on a rampage. We all stopped off at a street bar for a couple (whiskey was involved. Vom) and then headed to a club which was a pretty scary experience. We were getting grabbed left right and centre by overly confident men. I don't know what they thought they would achieve, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. Luckily after a few bevvies I can hold my own so I was grabbing Sarah back and the guys we were with were being our bodyguards. Beside that, it was a great night. So much booze, so much dancing and too much fun. We got in at 5.30am and had a couple of hours sleep before dying quietly on the beach the next day. I say quietly, my hangovers are not quiet. I am very vocal about every feeling and emotion. There's a few when I feel vulnerable.

I thought I was going to throw up caipirinha all day but luckily I narrowly avoided it. I napped on Thiago for the afternoon before heading to bed ridiculously early in preparation for getting up at 5am again to head to Iguassu Falls! We're staying in a hostel made of shipping containers called Tetris, which sounds pretty damn cool to me.

My journey from Brazil to Argentina deserves it's own personal blog post because it has been oh so fabulous. Firstly, it was my first solo journey of our travels as Sarah had to take a later flight as it worked out cheaper (I don't get it either). So I was let loose in South America for 3 hours on my own and my homing pigeon skills sucked me in to Michael Kors. With no voice of reason to keep me in check, I was handing over my credit card and got a beautiful new purse. It is amazing but I'm scared to tell Sarah when I meet her in arrivals. I'm out of control. She normally keeps me on a tight leash.

As I'm wandering to my gate with a big I've-just-bought-some-designer-treats grin on my chops; I walk past a Margaritaville. This is a place from the BEST SCENE IN CINEMA HISTORY EVER where a guy runs away from dinosaurs in Jurrasic World and doesn't leave his margaritas behind, even though he's going to get eaten. Man after my own heart and a scene that still tickles me now. If I'd had time then I would have reenacted the scene but alas I did not.

Things just keep getting better from here. Firstly, I got an aisle seat which means ultimate leg room and I can pee as often as my little bladder desires. Secondly, there are full on TV's on the back of the seats. This kind of magic normally only happens on long haul flights. This is only 3 hours. I'm already in heaven. 

Right, thirdly, THIIIIRDLY... The captain comes on and talks us through how it's going to be a smooth flight (I'm typing this as turbulence is occurring, so one negative is he's a blatant liar but I digress) anyway, he's ENGLISH. Edward is his name. Beautiful British name. I haven't heard a British accent in over a week and I feel instantly comforted. Edward will keep me safe! Cheers Ed. Love ya.

The next reason. I think we're on four now. Is the humoungous selection of films on offer... It's a 3 hour flight so I must make the right decision here. Stressful times. I chose The Longest Ride which is a Nicholas Sparks film (creater of should-have-won-an-Oscar classic 'The Notebook') and I'm sure I'm on to a winner. As I recline my super comfortable seat and settle down to ride the emotional rollercoaster of my chosen film, the food cart comes round. This is the best moment of any flight BUT I'm in the exact seat that means I get served first. It's all too good to be true right now. What could top this I hear you cry?! WELL, I shall tell you. They serve gin. Beefeater London gin. Actually, they don't just serve it; they free pour the gin. No measurements. Just pouring it right in there until they feel like stopping. She poured in half a glass of gin, 3 ice cubes and a dash of tonic. If anything it's too strong but I'm seeing it off out of politeness. I'm too polite, me.

So I'm sat here happy as larry, sobbing into my Qatar napkin because the film has just got totes emosh, sipping on a G&T. Everything is wonderful right now. Apart from I think the child behind me just shit himself. Apart from that, I couldn't be happier. See you in a while Argentina... If my mate Ed can land this bitch in one piece. I'm relying on you buddddy! Over and out. 

EDIT: Edward landed us in one piece but it was touch and go. Storm a plenty and I thought we were going to die. He apologised though so he's back in my good books.

After another sleep disturbed by 3 crazy Spanish bitches having a mothers meeting at 3am in a dark hostel room, we made as much noise as possible at 8am as we started our journey to an island paradise called Ilha Grande. We said goodbye to Lemon Spirit and their resident hottie, Thiago, for a couple of days but we would return. With a vengeance. 

Our drive out of Rio was awesome as we whizzed past Ipanema Beach, Copacabana, Sugar Loaf Mountain and even got epic views of Christ the Redeemer. Sexy bastard. 

It took about 5 hours to get to Ilha Grande including a bus and a boat and then a trek half way up a bloody mountain to find our hostel. The weather wasn't what I wanted but then again, it was the evening. The island looked like Jurassic World and I was sure we'd be eaten before nightfall.

Because it was shit weather we decided to eat something on the beach, book a beach tour for the next day and have a super early night to recuperate. We found a nice looking place on the beach and both decided to go for the falafel salad which sounded divine. What wasn't so divine is waking up at 11pm to sounds of chundering and regret as the falafel was making a reappearance from Sarah's body. She was struck down horrifically with food poisoning and I was just waiting by the minute to be sick on myself as I too had eaten the salad. 

Luckily, somehow I had managed to avoid it and wasn't ill. Must have a stomach of steel. I got serious food poisioning a couple of years ago from Chicken Cottage in Streatham Hill when me and my then boyfriend decided we needed some cheap, undercooked chicken after a night on the booze. That took relationship bonding to a new level. So luckily my body didn't flinch at a bit of dodgy water on a salad leaf. 

My poor little pea was an empty shell of herself (literally) and having never been poisoned by food before, it hit her hard. She had stopped being sick in the early hours and decided she was still ok to chase the sun around the most beautiful beaches the island had to offer. 

We had a convoy of about 3 or 4 speedboats and whizzed around at super speed. I felt like I was either in James Bond or close to death at any second. Sarah was concentrating on not chundering everywhere which was not easy I tell you now. At one point the driver (who I'm not entirely sure was actually looking where he was going half the time) smashed into a wave, took off and all of our arses left the seats as the boat and us were mid air. I grabbed Sarah's leg and everyone looked at each other in what felt like super slow motion, all with fear plastered on our mugs. Thankfully we forcefully smashed down to the seats with only a fractured coccyx to moan about. No biggie. It's not actually fractured but I think my back is definitely a few inches shorter. The drive had a smile on his face but it was obviously hiding his relief that he hadn't just killed 12 tourists and would subsequently be on the Daily Mail the next morning. Health and safety isn't a thing in Brazil. 

After that debarkal, he made up for it by plonking us on 5 or 6 stunning beaches where I was completely in my happy place and lapped up the sun whilst grinning like a Cheshire cat for the whole day. Sarah felt exactly the same.

You pull off food poisoning so well darling. Food poisioning is the new black. You saw it here first.

I continued to bronze away whilst checking my poor little sick pea was still alive on a regular basis. She survived and pulled through with style.

We finished off on a tiny little beach where everyone ate whilst we stole the last of the suns rays, and sped back to our base camp beach feeling sun kissed, salty, bruised and content. Sarah was feeling a little bit more fresh albeit exhausted so I tucked her up in bed to charge her batteries whilst I devoured Brazils supply of crisps.

On Thursday, Sarah woke up feeling like a new woman so we had cake for breakfast to celebrate. Any excuse. We then decided to soak up some more sun which resulted in me looking like an actual tomato, before catching our boat back to Rio. I was super excited to get back to Lemon Spirit and catch up with all our new found chums/chumettes who were hanging around Rio for a few days with us. 

We got back Leblon and went to nosh off a classic Brazilian dish which includes all the carbs you can imagine. Literally my heaven. Chicken, chips, rice and refried beans. Dribbling now. Gimme. We went to bed feeling full, bronzed (really fucking burnt actually) and excited to go be tourists in Rio and drink all of the Caiprihanas the following day. I'm too in love with life when travelling.

We woke up fresh as a daisy on Monday morning and I did a little cry of joy that I was waking up in Rio and not having to go to work. That really is one of life's little pleasures.

It was still cloudy outside (so emotional right now) so we decided to go and look around the largest favela in Rio, Rocinha. I thought it was a bit harsh paying money to go and see where the less well off live for our personal enjoyment, but we were told the money we paid went towards their community which is great. I felt happy to be a tourist again after that. We got a bus to the top of the favela and walked right down to the bottom, talking to people and learning about their lives as we went.

We saw some absolutely gorgeous sights from above the city and also some very eye opening sights. They don't all have electricity, so take it upon themselves to wire their own houses up to pylons and the result is terrifying and probably the most unsafe thing I've seen. Very scary.

I learnt an interesting fact about favelas too, because I'm all about the culture, me. If the son/daughter of a family start their own family, they don't move out into a new abode; they actually build a house on top of their parents house. No escaping the parents. Bad times, bad times.

When we were walking through the favela and down the steep, windey steps to the bottom, it was mind blowing to look up and see the houses piled high on of top of each other in a never ending health and safety nightmare. If one fell down, the whole place would fall down in an enormous domino effect.

We strolled past houses upon houses all painted in different colours and all condensed into the smallest of spaces, and came across these 3 guys dancing and singing so we stopped to watch. They were doing a local dance which was some sort of breakdancing, martial arts, singsong mash up and was rather impressive. They were incredibly strong and tried to get us involved which ended terribly. We were flayling all over the place and nearly got kicked in the face several times whilst sweating profusely; which I blame on the sun coming out rather than the stress of the situation. It was definitely the stress of the situation.

After nearly being knocked out and bent in ways we don't bend, we finished off our walk and met a few more locals along the way. One man had dressed his dog up in clothes, sunglasses and a hat and I'm still not really sure why. Weirdo. 

The favelas aren't half as dangerous anymore as they used to be, as there is a strong police presence around which has stopped gun crime. I didn't feel particularly at risk at all, but people used to get shot all the time when the police first showed up, including children, but this has stopped now all together. Thankfully I lived to tell the tale!

That afternoon we decided to go and sit with a cocktail on Ipanema Beach and watch the surfers doing their thaaang. I have a new found appreciation for Brazilian men. Especially the ones running around topless with their surfboards. I can't even. Dribbling. 

After the surfers had disappeared and we'd been offered drugs and massages aplenty, we decided to do one back to the hostel for more drinks and a game of cards against humanity with everyone. There's a total hottie who works at the hostel who was also joining in the fun. His brother came by and he literally has the coolest name I've ever met.... RODRIGO RODRIGUEZ! Come on now, best name ever. This is now my future child's name. 

Tomorrow we go to Ilha Grande to chase the sun and explore some stunning beaches, bitches. Over and out.