ABOUT MY WANDERLUSTY LIFE
One day I declared, “I think I’ll start a blog?” OK, not much of a declaration because it did indeed end with a question mark. I knew I wanted to write, but what about? “I know! I can write about all of the places I travel to! What a fantastic idea; I bet that’s never been done before!” I am so brilliant.
So here is my contribution to the, yes, 1 gazillion travel blogs. MWL is based around the absolute dire need to travel the world but limited to a time budget.
Say what? I mean, when I started this blog I had a full-time job and only ten vacation days EACH YEAR. Pathetic, I know. But I liked my paycheck and my health insurance. I didn’t want to “sell everything I own and set off on a journey through Southeast Asia.” That’s not me. I want to travel the world, yes. But I enjoy coming home.
I didn’t have nearly as much time off as I would like but you know what? I made it work. In my first year of travel blogging alone I traveled to seven countries and 20 American states. I climbed mountains and scarred my friends for life in the Swiss Alps, rode a gondola in Venice’s Grand Canal, and chugged beer at Oktoberfest.
Traveling the world on a time budget? It can be done! MWL is my attempt to inspire you to travel more and erase the notion of “too little time” from your mindset.
ABOUT ASHLEY
In 2012 I quit my job with so-and-so big corporation, sold all my shit, and never looked back.
NOPE.
This is not one of those blogs. I have a full-time job, in a building that I drive to. I write freelanceingly. I own a house. And a canoe. I have cats and a memory foam mattress. Traveling the world is the train on my one track mind and I do what I can with what little time I have available. And I do a lot.
I like cheese. Like, a lot. My suitcase is always full of it when I return home. (Travel with me at your own risk.) I’m learning Mandarin and I find it to be the easiest language I’ve ever studied. Apparently that makes me a crazy person?
I’m proud to be from Memphis, Tennessee where I spent most of my life and now live in Boston, Massachusetts, this weird, really cold foreign land up near the Arctic Circle. People here talk funnier than I do and driving on the shoulder is legal? What is this place?
Some of my favorite travel experiences are:
- Visiting a Prague Beer Spa
- Touring the ATM Cave in Belize
- Ice Canyoning in Québec City, Canada
- Attending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City
- Hiking the via ferrata between Mürren and Gimmelwald, Switzerland
- Snorkeling with wild dolphins and whales in Hawaii
- Snorkeling with turtles, sharks and rays in Belize
- Attending Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany
Some of my least favorite travel experiences were:
- Flying Spirit Airlines
- Getting robbed in Italy
- Touring the Spaten Brewery in Munich, Germany (totally my fault, that one)
So that’s me in a nutshell. Man, I really need a picture of myself in a nutshell; that would be perfection. Thanks for reading!
Hi Ashley,
Discovered your blog while searching for the Harry Potter WB Studio tour; love that you keep it real! Thanks for the awesome posts and keep up the great work.
You are hilarious! I also have two cats, an amazing mattress (didn’t spring for memory foam, though) and currently drive to work. LET’S DO THIS!
Haha thanks! And awesome! Cat people are the best people. 🙂
Oh god, I lost it at “hussy”. This is literally the best thing ever hahah I’ve just read a few of your posts and had to cover my mouth laughing (I may or may not be at work) while reading each of them (esp. “I Didn’t Say Fudge”). Definitely looking forward to reading more from you!
Haha, yay! Glad you love it! Thanks for stopping by, you’ve made my day!
Best. About. Page. Ever.
Hahaha!! Thanks!! I’m glad people are taking to it. Writing about myself is too weird… I’ll just let my stories speak for themselves LOL
Ahhh! Ashley, I love the polaroids (as you saw on my blog haha.) Those exact frames almost graced every featured image on mine but I chose the non-grungy ones. But, I love what you did here to describe yourself, pretty rad, and you seem like such an awesome person. Hopefully we’ll bump into each other on the road sometime.
Thank you!! Yes and you never know!
HAHAHA definitely the best About Me page I have ever read! And I love the fact that “beer” is your most used tag — my kinda lady!
Haha! Thanks and thanks! Yesss beer factors QUITE high in my life/travels.
Very unique and clever About Page! But why “hussy” in Japan? 😉
Thanks!! Haha, I will have to write a post about that! Let’s just say Japan is more conservative/traditional in a lot of ways than Americans…
Maybe it’s similar to Seoul? It’s weird here, micro and miniskirts are okay, but if you bare a shoulder, people stare at you like you’re walking the street naked!
Haha, so weird! Yeah cultural norms are hard to figure out sometimes. Like America, take the way people dress and act here, but you can’t show a boob on TV or say the word “shit”…
Haha these pictures are funny! and a good idea 🙂
haha thanks!!
i didn’t think you were annoying in venice… what am i forgetting? lol