Going Places with Kim Lawler

Borneo is one of the places Kim would like to holiday in next.

1.    Tell us about your very first holiday.

I can’t remember my first holiday at all! I think I was only 1 or 2, and it would’ve been with my parents to some Spanish or Greek island. The first memories of holidays with my parents all belong to Cyprus and Tenerife, places I’ve never been back to as an adult! The first holiday I took as an adult was with my boyfriend to the Greek island of Kos – it was a really cheap all-on-one deal, definitely not our style of holiday these days!

 

2.    What is your most memorable holiday?

When me and my boyfriend finished University in 2007 we wanted to have an adventure. We planned out a tour of the USA, something that we both really wanted to do!

 

We first flew to Boston where we spent a few days taking in all the sights, we then picked up the Amtrak tickets for the rest of our trip. Our next stop was New York, where we stayed in a flea-ridden hostel in a prime location. From New York we travelled to Washington DC where we saw the White House & the Declaration of Independence.

 

Then we travelled down to New Orleans, with a one night stop in Atlanta where we just hung out in a motel room eating cookies and drinking beer (we needed the rest!). I love New Orleans, I’d go back in an instant! Our next stop was Memphis, another amazing city with a rich musical history. We visited the Gibson guitar factory, Graceland, Sun Studio… awesome!

 

We travelled straight up towards Chicago, which I think was one of our overnight trains. We couldn’t afford the luxury of sleeper compartments, so we just slept in our seats. Chicago was great, and we saw one of the Batman movies being filmed whilst we were there. We also randomly visited a massive Comic Book convention on a whim!

 

Our longest train journey was Chicago to Seattle. I think we were on that train for nearly two days! In Seattle we stayed at a great hostel, http://www.greentortoise.net/, which was in a prime location and they gave you free brownies!! We took a couple of days trip up to Vancouver from Seattle, too.

 

Our final train trip took us down to San Francisco, a city where we’ve been before but both love! From San Francisco we travelled by Greyhound for a few days rest in Las Vegas where hotels are cheaper than a lot of the hostels we’d been staying in – it felt like luxury!

 

From Vegas we headed for a night in San Diego, which was a pretty pointless trip really, it didn’t give us enough time there. Luckily we’d both been before so we didn’t really miss anything.

 

The final 5 days of our trip were spent in Venice Beach, Los Angeles. From there we visited Disney Land, Hollywood, Santa Monica & the beach.  We really didn’t want this trip to end!!

 

 

 3.    What do you like most about vacations?

I love finding new places, exploring and basically the escapism! I also have a fascination with airports and aeroplanes, they’re such strange places.

 

4.    What do you hate most about vacations?

 

Trying to make flight connections.  I hate the stress that’s involved there, especially when it’s pretty much beyond your control!

 

5.    How would you spend your perfect day on holiday?

 

Walking around the city or town, sampling local cuisine, having a few drinks in a local bar. I always think there’s no better way to get into your surroundings than on foot!

 

6.    Where would you most like to go on holiday? Why?

My list is so long! The current two top places are Mexico and Borneo, both of which would be pretty adventurous 🙂

 

Kim is a 26 year old designer from the UK.  She makes fabulous things happen on the internet as a freelance web designer and creates jewellery & accessories under her brand Finest Imaginary. In the few spare moments that she has, Kim enjoys reading, shopping and playing with cats. You can follow Kim’s adventures on her blog, Hip Hop Sideproject and read her daily ramblings on Twitter.

 

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