What’s been going on at RexyEdventures? 

 

Spending weeks at a time in the wilderness, I’ve been popping up to post a flurry of posts before retreating back to the land of ‘never to be heard from’ again. Months and weeks could pass idly by and just as you were about to launch a rescue party, I’d do the same again. You must be feeling a little frustrated.

For that I’m sorry. If you were patiently waiting to hear from me the following week only to see the same content floating about for weeks on end, it’s not you, it’s me.

I’ve just been so goddamn busy.

With life.

Not the travelling life but rather the settled life of a roving Londoner that seems to spend a rather an atrociously long time on trains careening from one place to another for my job or for personal reasons; with no free GOOD access to wi-fi…that’s another ranting story in the offing.

Not only I had to move my base from South London to North London on the tube at rush hour with all my worldly belongings (NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN, I’M SO TRAUMATISED) but I had to:

• Work over time at my workplace as a Marketing Manager running a multitude of campaigns and jobs;
• Volunteer my spare time volunteering for DELTA (Deaf Education through Listening and Talking)
• Well, have a social life with friends, old and new;
• Getting back in shape with my gym and personal trainer (lost two and a half stone already!)
• Sleeping loads (something’s making me exhausted)
• Going on dates but nothing resulting from them (now abandoned)
• Take care of health issues (don’t worry, I’m sorted now!)
• Binge on Netflix watching the new series of the Orange is the New Black and ashamedly, the new series of Pokemon

And quite frankly, the last thing I really needed was to sign back on a laptop, after spending the whole day in front of the computer, to do some blogging.

It’s not to say I haven’t abandoned RexyEdventures. I still kept up my activity on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter sharing my thoughts and quirks while I attended various travel events such as with Discover Ferries, Stena Line and the Barbados Tourism Board.

Then came my rather brief torrid love affair with SnapChat (follow me on ed.rex) that I tried with my utmost might to get involved in (still do but to a lesser extent) but we seem to have decided to remain as friends.

Also, I have travelled a lot more than I expected, as I’ll detail below, exploring more countries of Europe that I hadn’t visited. So, that was a big bonus! But something felt ‘missing.’ I realised then much later that I loved having a friend to travel with me, not because I needed someone to help me (apart from being my model photographer), but rather to share memories with. I do have to say that my weekend trip to Slovenia with Jess of The FlyAway American has been utterly one of the best travel journeys I’ve done. We laughed, we argued, we squealed with excitement and complained together. It’s all about experiencing the journey together. So, I came to a decision that whereas I’d still travel to destinations on my own but I’d start incorporating a lot of trips with a loved one.

Meanwhile, I had an unexpected brush with fame as I appeared on Radio 4 and BBC Breakfast extolling the disadvantages of loud background music in bars, cafes and restaurants for Action on Hearing Loss, the UK’s largest hearing loss charity for their ‘SpeakEasy’ campaign. You’ll find out more about this later (wink, wink).

But I think the crux of it, is that I think I fell out of love with blogging, viewing it as a chore that I simply had to rush back home to, sending out an amazing article that would be shared with everyone being viral. I simply didn’t feel the urge to it. Other activities took priority.

But I was exhausted. Blogging was another thing in my overflowing inbox tray that I struggled to keep on top of. Heck, on my blog, I’m still sharing stories about Copenhagen and that was in late March and here we are in August! Shouldn’t I be more agile and flexible?

Also, for personal reasons, I needed time out.

Time out to think about things.

I’ve only just turned 31 (don’t worry, I’m not undertaking another batch of ‘third-life’ crisises) and I needed to think about where I was going, what I wanted and what I needed to do.

I suppose things came to a head when I attended TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange) in Stockholm last month. Only viewed as a bit of a jolly whilst learning new techniques for blogging on my break from my day to day work, it made me question a lot of things.

So much so during Lola of Slow Travel Stockholm’s presentation on ‘Transitions as opportunities’, one of the best keynote speeches I’ve heard on my life, had me close to tears. (I NEVER CRY IN PUBLIC). I went to have a chat with her, first congratulating her for an amazing speech then scolding her for making me cry. Afterwards, we had a brief chat about my situation with my blog. It was desperately needed and she literally became my blog therapist for those minutes. Afterwards, I felt so much better, having a lot more confidence what I needed to do next with my blog. Thanks Lola!

See her presentation here: Transitions as opportunities

Whereas my time in Stockholm cleared up a lot of things in my head, I’m still left with questions but they are no longer remain a constant buzzing reminder. I still had to sort everything out but this time I shouldn’t be ignoring them. They needed to be tackled head on but in a more structured and stress-free way.

So, the last month has been extremely busy, painful even, as I confronted the issues. It took a while but I got there in the end leaving me with a sense of ‘can do’ attitude and setting  myself reasonable expectations.

The last few weeks have seen my thoughts turn to RexyEdventures, an air of excitement has appeared back in life as I’m keen to showcase my travels through the reams of information, photos and a rather a lot of videos that I collated over the last few months. But on MY terms. I’m no longer the full-time travel blogger I was before and with a HUGE transition that have taken place in the last year, it was time to stop kidding myself that I’m still one.

I’m now a PART-TIME Travel blogger who only uses up his annual leave from his job to go travelling. Yet, I may keep some of those days to go home to my family and do NOTHING. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. AT ALL.

In the last few months, I’ve grown closer to YouTube, and have even recorded a lot of personal thoughts that I shall release over the next few months. I don’t call it therapy but rather accepting where you are in this moment. Does that make sense?

Okay, enough of this soul searching for the time being, but let me give you a reminder what amazing travel content that I will be sharing with you soon from this year. Whether you are adventuring, staying in luxury hostels, wondering if you can travel as a deaf person, how to be ridiculously handsome while travelling, and discovering unexpected sights and activities for your next destination, I will be there to help guide you making your next travel destination your next best choice!

 

Copenhagen, Denmark

 

 

Already nearly finished this section, we’ve still got the day trip out to Helsingor at Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle and more to share! Check out the ones up already:

Copenhagen: First Look

Copenhagen: A Free walking Tour

 

Prague, Czech Republic

 

 

Rather a holiday for me, there’s been a lot of Snapchat coverage on possibly one of the most touristy times of the year at Easter. But keep your eyes peeled and your mouth kept closed (to avoid incessant drooling) for a yummy focus on Eating Prague Tours.

 

Ljubljana and Lake Bled, Slovenia

 

 

A surprise trip that I had no idea where I was going until two hours before my flight at Stansted airport, I was so pleased to be revisiting the Balkans after checking out Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina two years ago to Slovenia. This time, accompanied by the rather beautiful Jess of the FlyAway American, we immediately fell heads over heels with the panoramic Lake Bled and the picturesque capital, Ljubljana.

 

Stockholm, Sweden

 

 

As briefly mentioned above, I was deep in the heart of Scandinavia for TBEX but I soon found myself wishing I could live in this green and open spaced capital of Sweden. Plus, I got to ride a motorised luggage too!

 

 

London, Kingston Upon Hull, Lancaster, Leeds, Manchester, Chelmsford, UK

As I keep saying, travel does begin at home, a firm believer of the UK being one of the best places to travel in, you can try out any event wherever you go:

• London – my current home. There’s so much to share about this thousand year old city.
• Kingston Upon Hull – my original home but did you know that it’s about to be City of Culture 2017?
• Lancaster/Morecambe – Up here for a wedding for a weekend, the hundreds of years since the War of the Roses soon boils over again…
• Leeds – a brief visit soon saw me catch up with IceLolly.com for a catch up at their Blog on the Beach conference.
• Manchester – if there’s a wedding then there would have been a stag do beforehand. Luckily, the stag do took us round Manchester sampling the finest British beer on offer. Resulted in me putting my underwear over my trousers on a tram for a dare.
• Chelmsford – Another wedding but set in a Pride and Prejudice like setting. Stunning!

 

Finally, I’m excited to share with you that my next destination later on this month has me squealing with joy. It’s going to be:

The Norwegian Fjords!

Including Bergen and Flam, I’ll be heading off on my first cruise trip leaving the port of Newcastle Upon Tyne with Fred Olsen Cruises and spending a week sailing, going on steam railways and navigating the UNESCO Fjordlands.

What’s more, since the Algarve in Portugal in 2013, I’ll be joined by my parents who’ll be along for the ride. Expect hilarious anecdotes of a bemused son.

Meanwhile, stay patient. RexyEdventures will be back before you know it!