So I’ve been talking about it for the past 4 years (on and off) and now I’m finally doing it. I’m moving to Vancouver! Even just typing it out still doesn’t make it completely real in my head but it is actually happening. My flights are booked, I’ve handed my notice in at work and have started looking at places to explore and possibly move to as well as started to realise I’ve got a lot to do!

I’ve always been the kind of person who works best under pressure and I’m using that as my excuse for getting everything done in the last few weeks but the truth is I only fully decided I was definitely going to do this a couple of months ago.

I applied for the visa last year before I started a new job and then found I wasn’t ready to leave, plus I have strong ties here, a great bunch of friends, family and a boyfriend of 3 years who I love. Therefore why go? The truth is going to Canada has been something I’ve wanted to do since I landed back in the UK after 7 months of travelling 5 years go.

I had some of the happiest times of my life on the road exploring different countries and meeting new people. I spent two months travelling around Asia, eating some of the best food I’ve ever had, meeting incredible people and seeing stunning scenery. In Australia I fell in love with Melbourne and Byron Bay where I lived in a caravan and worked at the local market selling coffee which was brewed less than a few hundred feet from where I slept. In New Zealand I pushed my fear level through a threshold (I’m not sure I would do today) skydiving over Franz Joseph at sunrise, bungee jumping 134m and hiking up mountains where I saw the most incredible scenery not even a camera can do justice in Queenstown. I finished my 7 months of travelling with a 4 week adventure across America with Trek America, who I would highly recommend. Not only did we mange to go to 21 states in 21 days, breakfast in Albuquerque counting as one, but I met people on that trek who are my close friends to this day. I walked blindfolded to the edge of the Grand Canyon and opened my eyes to look across at the most breathtaking sight where half of it was covered in snow and the other half was a mix of burnt orange and sunrise colours. I danced down streets of New Orleans and ate the tastiest cheesecake in my life in Juniors in Times Square. I went hiking in national parks, ate hot dogs at a baseball game in Texas and stepped into Elvis Presley’s grand mansion, Graceland, in Memphis and quite simply had the best time of my life.

When I got on the plane home, a week later than expected due to flight delays caused by the volcano in Iceland, I wasn’t ready to come home. I wanted to continue exploring America and not only America but North America. I wanted to go to Alaska, Vancouver and San Francisco but I had only saved for a certain time and unfortunately that time had come to a wonderful end, however the dream has always still been there.

In early 2014 I applied for my Canadian visa, which was a slightly stressful experience, but amazingly I managed to obtain one and now I am ready to use it. My flight is booked for February, I have two weeks  left at work and in less than a month’s time I will be moving abroad to Canada. I hope to document my experiences here on my blog to act as a safe place to jot down my experiences and keep as a reminder. When I travelled 5 years ago I kept a travel journal but I love that we can now document our experiences online, it will give me an excuse to take more pictures than I need to and keep them somewhere before I will be able to print them. I hope this blog will be useful to anyone thinking of moving to Canada too as well and be a place where I can connect with others going on a similar journey.