The theme at Sticky Fingers this week is Travel.  

I have been very fortunate as I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot.  Therefore, I didn’t really know where to start!  After thinking about it, I decided I’d focus on the trips Hub and I have taken together (before baby).

Six months after we got married, we went back to Bali for my Dad’s 60th birthday.  There were 10 of us staying in the most beautiful villa.  Hub and I had grand plans to see all the things we didn’t have time to see during our wedding (it was so incredibly busy), but the villa was just too gorgeous to leave!  I have never experienced hospitality anywhere like in Bali.  I think the Balinese people are so soft-spoken and gentle.  Have tried to convince Hub to move there – but he hasn’t agreed.  Yet.

August 2007 – Jamaica.  My brother had just moved to Kingston a couple of months before we went.  We spent a couple of days in Kingston and went to Negril for 3 days.  Negril is beautiful!  We stayed at Rockhouse Hotel, which was paradise.  The picture below is the view from our personal sunbathing rock.

We went back to Kingston at the right time because Hurricane Dean was heading our way!  The hurricane hit – but we were all fine.  Luckily the eye of the storm missed us.  However, when we were leaving Kingston, the scene at the airport was one of utter chaos!  Our flight was meant to be at 10am, but didn’t take off until 3am!

For Christmas and New Year that year we went to South Africa.  I was amazed that a place like Cape Town could be so European and on the same continent as Lagos.  They had roads without potholes!  And street lights that worked!  We spent a week in Cape Town, then went to Hazy View for 2 nights.  We visited an Elephant Sanctuary there, which was a great experience and then we spent a week in Johannesburg.  We spent a lot of time sunbathing, sightseeing and eating.  I think the most memorable place we went to was Robben Island – where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

Summer 2008 was very special.  My grandmother decided that she didn’t see her family nearly enough and she took all of us on an 11 night Eastern Mediterranean cruise.  There were 17 of us and we got to see many new places – Pompeii, Ephesus, Istanbul, Santorini, Rhodes, Athens (to name but a few!).  Hub and I spent four days in Rome on our own first – we walked *everywhere* for the full four days and loved every minute of it.

That Christmas, Hub decided we were going to stay in Lagos for Christmas and New Year since we had done a lot of travelling already.  The Christmas period is *very* quiet – for work and socially.  We were pretty bored and friends persuaded us to join them in Beirut for New Year.  We were there for four days.  We had a brilliant time.  We did a little sightseeing…

And a *lot* of partying!

In the summer of 2009, friends of ours were getting married in Miami.  And yes, we were going 🙂  We went a few days before the wedding started and stayed on a few after it had finished.  Again, we were out every night, hungover every day and really enjoyed ourselves!  I have so many pictures, I didn’t know which one to choose – so I chose the one of all my shopping bags.  Aventura Mall is like heaven on Earth!

Christmas and New Year that year we spent in Vegas.  We weren’t really planning on going anywhere, but after the IUI treatment didn’t work (long story – read here if you want!) we just booked and went.  We stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas (I want to live there).  We went to the Grand Canyon, the Aquarium, shows, restaurants, clubs and casinos.  I think I most enjoyed being asked for my ID at 7.30am at a BlackJack table 🙂  I told Hub that when I die, I want him to scatter my ashes over the Strip!

We realised I was pregnant once we were back, so that was the end of all our travels…  I’m hoping we can start planning a holiday for after Vinay’s 1st birthday!