About Us

Kelly and Ellie met in college, were roommates and the rest was history from there.

Both currently living in Key West, they fund a mutual travel bug by waitressing tables at Key West hot spots and dealing with cranky overheated tourists. The pay-off? Pure unadulterated travel bliss allowing them the freedom to go where they want and when they want. Living rent-free with Kelly's mom does not hurt the situation either, of course.

Ellie went to university for art, business and biology. She is good at everything. No, seriously. She is. She can cook meals that delight every palette and she can fix a car. She knows everything about everything and her friends alternate between calling her "Domestic" and "Wikipedia." She is mildly Jewish, incredibly kind and hopes to be own her own vegan restaurant one day.

Kelly went to university for psychology which she finds incredibly boring and hates talking about oedipal complexes. She also went to university for her two loves: gender studies and English creative writing. She enjoys nothing more than a loud impressive protest or reading a memoir on the beach. Kelly really likes traveling to the point where she really only hopes to find a job that enables her to travel for the rest of her life. She wants to go to school for writing or human rights. She also cried when we went to Munich because she is a beer connoisseur. She is a feminist, a comedian, and knows minute details about strange places because she is obsessed with travel guides.

Both girls kickstarted their traveling after graduating by moving to London, getting a mouse infested apartment and a job and traveling the UK on the weekends. Followed by a 4 month jog around the continent of Europe taking them to more than 20 countries.

They make a good team because Kelly is high-strung and over-researched while Ellie is the live and let-live type. To survive in Europe they ate a lot of cheese and bread and utilized the extensive couchsurfing system.

What's next?
A long year of travel to Europe, Asia and Australia before making it back around the world to Florida.

Sheep and Snowdon!

The weekend of my birthday, Ellie and I had planned our last UK weekend together. One of the biggest things I wanted to do since we arrived was to explore Snowdonia National Park in the Northwest corner of Wales. I really wanted to climb Mount Snowdon, also known as Yr Wyddfa in Welsh. Mount Snowdon is the largest mountain in Wales and the second largest in all of the UK, apart from the Scottish highlands. It lies at an altitude of 3,560 ft. above sea level.
To get to Snowdonia National Park, it is quite a journey. We had to take two trains and a bus. When we got to Euston station, I realized I didn’t have my young persons railcard and therefore could not ride with the ticket I had purchased so I had 20 minutes to make it to Camden and back and I did it, much to both of our amazement. As I boarded the train with a red face and matted down hair, I was so happy to be getting out of the rat race for a bit for some real nature. Our first train travelled to Lladdudno Junction where we first came into contact with the leprechaun.

Do you see that man sitting in the aisle? Well he was heading back to his Native land of Ireland for St. Patrick’s day and on our train which departed at 11:00 am, he was probably on his 8th drink as he wobbled down the aisle towards Ellie calling her his Jewish bride(how he knew she was Jewish, we haven’t a clue—He actually must be magical) and he also told her that she looked like Sigourney Weaver in very slurred thick Irish. He then began pestering those people behind us and took out an Irish flute and he continued to play Irish folk songs on the train for the next 3 hours. He was so drunk and crazy and ended up being a permanent fixture of our journey as he continued on with us. Once we switched trains at Lladudno Junction, we were headed to Bangor.


At the train station, waiting for our connection.

The train ride to Bangor was beautiful with the Irish Sea next to us surrounded by castles and mountains. It was a landscape that was captivating and the first time I ever saw an ocean that wasn’t the Atlantic, Pacific or Gulf. Once we arrived at Bangor, we realized that Welsh was more commonly spoken than when we were in the Brecon Beacons and Cardiff. Every sign has Welsh on top first and then English and every person talks to you in Welsh first.



We had to wait at a bus stop in Bangor for a whole hour before the right bus came to take us the village of Llanberis, which I am still not sure of the correct pronunciation. One bus came earlier but as I asked the driver if he went to Llanberis he screamed at me in Welsh and then drove off. Upon finally getting the bus though, we took a beautiful 40 minute ride around winding roads and other small villages where all the houses have Welsh names instead of addresses. We got the impression that everyone knew everyone who lived in the same neighbourhood.

Once we get at Llanberis, we realized that it was one colorful street with only two restaurants and maybe 3 pubs and a tiny quickie mart grocery store. The landscape surrounding Llanberis was immeasurably beautiful. You didn’t need anything but the mountains and waterfalls and lakes.



The one street in LLanberis.

We were staying at Pete’s Eats which is the only working restaurant in Llanberis that is open year round. Most restaurants and attractions close until April or May. We were staying above the café in the dorm room. We ended up having the whole dorm to ourselves which was lucky because we had a huge kitchen where we made pasta after walking around Llanberis. We went to bed at 8 to prepare for our big climbing and adventure day.

In the morning, we went exploring around Llanberis, trying to figure out which path we would take up the mountain. We walked around Lake Padarn.



I attempted to climb some complicated Welsh playground equipment.

We had read about a beautiful waterfall so we set out to find it and on the way came across this old-fashioned church.


We had to cross many a cow grid to get to the waterfall. Cow grids are scarier than they look if you have small feet.

Once we got to the waterfall we had to cross over the tracks for the Snowdon railway and we weren’t the only ones crossing over the tracks.



Finallty we got to it. The elusive waterfall!


Afterwards we wandered around, getting courage climb the mountain.


Practicing!



We wanted to take the Llanberis trail up Snowdon as it is the easiest beginner one. It is 9 miles long, 4.5 each way and takes the average person about six hours as it is mostly uphill and you have to negotiate over stones and other debris. We also apparently do not have the right gear or any gear at all for that matter. We only had one bottle of water, a chocolate bar and a cheese sandwich. We didn’t have any sticks or water proof clothes and we only had sneakers, no boots. But we did it! We hiked it for about 5 hours and got within 15 minutes of the top when we were so high up that the weather turned terrible on us and started pouring/snowing and we couldn’t see in front of us. We were in one huge cloud. Climbing this mountain was certainly the most intense thing I have ever done as the higher you got the bigger the gales of wind got and your visibility decreased. We decided to turn around 15 minutes shy of the top as we didn’t want to be those two girls on the news who are lost in a snowstorm on a mountain somewhere without boots and only a chocolate bar. Here are a bunch of photos from our climb:


If you can tell we are climbing at this point and the mountain with the snow is the one we are walking to. It goes up considerably higher but that cloud is covering it.




Weird stable ruins on the way up.


Just beginning and already tired. The first 300 meters was the steepest.


On the way up.


Getting Closer.




Halfway and Lunch break!

Our view down when we are halfway up. You can’t even see Llanberis anymore.


The cloud begins to descend on our heads as we near the top.



Freezing near the top!

The storm was right over us and this was the last stretch but it was scary as falling down the side of the narrow path was not appealing and the rocks were slippery.

When we decided to turn back.

Once we turned back, the walk back down was fast and fairly effortless except for our drenched and freezing clothes. Now we understood why everyone was wearing plastic crap and windbreaker materials.

We decided to just get to the point and have some authentic Welsh cakes next to a log fire at this little café near the bottom. The welsh cakes were fabulous little scone-like dessert with whipped topping and jam. We ordered two huge pizzas and drank some beer that night and then went to bed at 8 again. We woke up the next morning and headed back to London, feeling satisfied and accomplished as Snowdon stood in the background when our train left the platform in Bangor.

Feliz Cumpleanos Aqui!

Last Thursday was my 23rd birthday. The day prior, March 12th, my co-workers threw me a little party and Gill made me a special carrot cake from scratch and everyone decorated my cubicle with banners and signed a card for me since I was going to be on holiday for my actual birthday.

On March 13th, Ellie woke me with some chocolate croissants, fresh fruit and mimosas.

My champagne and my new digital camera box!

Before we ventured out for the day!
After we ate breakfast, we went to the affordable art show in Battersea park where there was a huge variety of art for sale from £50 to £3,000. A lot of the art was very impressive.

In Battersea park, Spring is coming, Finally!




After we walked around, we headed to the Borough Market where we ate Raclette which is this crazy French cheese that is heated under a flame that is then scraped off on to a pile of pickles and roast potatoes.




We also shared a veggie wrap and tzatiki sauce. We attempted to go to a beer and cider festival, but it was closed for a break so we went home to relax before our dinner reservation. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door and there was Gena and Merlin who surprised me for my birthday. We went to a happy hour at this place near the restaurant called Anexo and then we went to Dans La Noir, the restaurant. Dans La Noir means Dining in the Dark, which is literally what we did. They ask you what kind of menu you prefer, vegetarian, anything, only meat no seafood, only seafood no meat. We chose vegetarian and Gena and Merlin chose anything goes. All of the servers at the restaurant are completely legally blind so they lead you into the dark room and have to lead you out if you have to go to the toilet. The dark room is not like dark when you turn your lights off to go to bed. It is more dark than the human eye has normally ever dealt with. Your eyes never adjust. Since the menus are a surprise, you don’t know what you are eating and half the time you use your hands because cutlery is a challenge when you don’t know what kind of food you have on your plate. Also pouring red wine is really interesting as you can only feel the glass. The dark is supposed to increase your palette and let you concentrate on your meal more. It was an amazing experience. The food was quite tasty. We had two courses. Gena was a little nervous about her meat as she had no idea what it was. After you are done dining, they show you what you had eaten. It was such an interesting dining concept and something I will never forget.

After that we went back to Camden to meet up with Lauren and have a few drinks before going out. We ended up heading down to Ghetto in Soho for Misshapes which is a really popular indie dance night that started in London and has been recreated in NYC now.







We danced all night until about 2 and had a crazy good time, admiring the drag queens and crazy sequined costumes that some people were wearing. Last birthday, I was at Wet N’ Wild in my bathing suit and at Kobe with Cory and Josie. This year, I am freezing my butt off in London and eating in the dark. It is crazy where life takes you in a year, isn’t it?

Wild in Wales

This weekend we ventured into the wild world of Wales. Well, Wales is actually not so wild but it is beautiful. Wales is a country that falls into the United Kingdom and they are a proud group of people ( if not small group) of their Welsh heritage. Here is a map of Wales to refer to:



On it you can se Brecon and Cardiff, both places we visited.

We had to scramble to Victoria station on Saturday morning and be there by 7 to make our tour. Wales is very hard to travel around in as everything can be quite remote and also the names of places can be crazy as they are in Welsh. Yes, Wales is bilingual. They speak both English and Welsh and they have no vowels between their consonants in their words have the time like llanberis or betwys cowyd. Welsh is taught in local schools right along with English. Because of the remoteness of many sights, we decided to take a package tour. Once we made it on the coach we were introduced to our bus driver whose name I can't remember but he was from Wales and our tour guide whose name was Kiley. Kiley was Australian and she was very perky, almost too perky. We set off to the Brecon Beacon National Park to go horseback riding. After a brief pit stop at a rest stop and some very overpriced and not very good burger king breakfast, we pulled into Wales! And then the National Park.

This is a photo of me trying to capture the Welcome to Wales sign from the bus quite unsuccessfully!

The National Park is a park of lakes and rolling hills and some mountains in the southeast of Wales.



There are small villages laced throughout the hills on the winding roads. When we got to the riding stable, it smelled very strange and strong. The workers handed us muddy boots and helmets and took us out to the yard to meet and greet out horses. They sized us up and gave us horses. Ellie got Midnight

Lauren got Molly

and I, was the proud rider of Wella.

After I almost died and argued with the girl telling her i could NOT get on that horse, I mounted Wella and we all got used to sitting in the saddle as they gave us some simple sounding instructions. We headed out into the National Park in a single file line of about 20 riders. We walked around and through fields and gates. At one point they made us trot and after I screamed that I wanted to stop trotting RIGHT away, the leaders stopped the group from trotting and we went back to walking. One leader, a girl, had lived in the desolate National Park her whole life and had learned to ride horses when she was 3 by starting on a donkey. I thought it was crazy that someone lived in that isolation there whole life and hadn't felt the need to get out yet.

The weather was sprinkling and it was freezing so I was happy when the ride was over about 2 hours afterwards. We had a hot drink and then climbed aboard the bus to head to the town Hay-On-Wye. Hay-on-Wye is a very old town and is very famous for its bookstores. It has about 30 for a town that is about one mile large total. It has a lot of interesting first edition books and history books and old travel books. We had some lunch and perused the book stores and then decided to try some Welsh beer and we went to Three Tuns pub which was built in 1600 and tried the Welsh specialites, all brewed less than ten miles away from Hay-on-Wye.


Ellie and Lauren being silly as we walked through the town

An Example of Welsh. All the road signs are in Welsh and English.


Even the Castle in Hay-on-Wye had booked in front of it as part of a booksale.

Lauren and i making a wish at an old fashion wishing well.

They have signs for random things like craft centres.

That sexy blue bus was our mode of transportation throughout our Welsh journey.

After Hay-on-Wye, the coach took us to our hotel just outside of Cardiff. Our hotel was lovely and vert clean and fairly posh compared to our usual hostels. Lauren was sharing a room with Eleonore, A Parisian girl who has been studying in London and we also met Kristen an Australian vet living outside of London. Our dinnfer was included in the tour and the vegetarian option was really tasty. We chatted for an extra hour at the table with Eleonore and Kristen and two students from Portland, Oregon who now live in London. Then we shared a bottle of red wine with Eleonore in the hotel lobby before we got a taxi to head out for Cardiff's night life. Lauren, Ellie, and I were a little confused when we arrived in Cardiff and all the girls were wearing very little clothing despite it being freezing. We eventually found a bar that was appealing to us and took it from there.

This is a very strange woman who when asked why she was dressed as such, she replied that she as getting married.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then all got on to the bus to be dropped off in Cardiff city centre, also known as Caerdydd in Welsh. We first walked into a store that sold traditional Welsh love spoons. Love spoons are gifts that people used to give when they professed their love and undying commitment to their partners. They are made out of wood and now seem to be a tourist attraction. Here is Ellie and I with the world's largest love spoon.


After we walked next to the river to get to the bay. Kristen and Eleonore came with us.

A neighborhood in Cardiff

Ellie and Eleonore on the way to the bay
It was about a 25 minute walk and when we got there we were rewarded with really interesting and different architecture and buildings and a really pretty day.

A huge fountain that had water running down it.




Roald Dahl my favorite childhood author was from Wales apparently.

We walked around looking at the cool buildings and getting the feel for the Bay area. We got a coffee and chatted a bit before we got a water taxi back to the city for only 2 pounds.

It was a nice little boat ride up the river and gave us a nice view as we pulled away from the bay.

Afterwards we went to a really nice little food market where Ellie got some of her favorite homemade Welsh cakes, which are Welsh specialty and sort of a mix between a biscuit and a scone. We bought some fresh olives and Lauren got a falafel. We walked back to the center of town and walked near Cardiff castle and the surrounding gardens.

(Notice the name of the gardens! Yes, it's Sophia, like my little Sophie!)



Cardiff castle
Daffodils are the national flower of Wales and were planted everywhere in Cardiff.

We got a pint of beer at a pub and watched a little protest on Freeing Tibet and then got back on the bus.

On the way back to London we headed to Chepstow for 45 minute break. Chepstow has another castle in it. Wales is the land of castles. It boasts the most castles per square mile in the UK. Chepstow was very sleepy because of it being Sunday and everything was closed and small. We did walk on a bridge though that was the bridge between Wales and England. it was this little bridge and we were in two countries at once which was pretty cool.

The land behind us is England

Lauren and I on the England side of the bridge

If you look closely you can make out the English flag that someone drew on the English sides wall
After that we got back on the bus and headed home, saying good-bye to perky Kiley and our Welsh bus driver as we arrived in England