Hey there & welcome to An Orcadian Abroad! What the hell is an Orcadian, anyway? It’s someone who comes from a wild and remote collection of islands at the top of Scotland called Orkney. That someone is me, by the way. Hi!
…your friendly neighbourhood budget traveller and adventure seeker! Nice to meet you. My lovely husband up there is Ash, and together we are *drum roll* The Clash.
I’m obsessed with the world, and I have just as much fun off the beaten path as I do on it. I love finding quirky things on my travels as well as bucket list items and crazy adventures – all on a budget.
You’ll usually find me poring over maps with a cup of tea in my hand, blasting rock music (at a reasonable volume that doesn’t upset the neighbours, so not really blasting, and in fact sometimes I’ll be listening to cheesy pop music or Disney songs), or watching Harry Potter, Marvel or Lord Of The Rings.
If I’m not doing any of that, I’m probably:
a) taking in the sea breeze on a nice coastal walk
b) looking for a beautiful mountain
c) searching for some cool street art
d) planning my next adventure
e) I dunno, I’ve most likely fallen down a well or something?
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A bit of history
Growing up on a Scottish island meant that to get anywhere was a huge trek, and one that sadly my parents weren’t willing (or able) to make. So at 17, I left home and began adventuring like I was trying to make up for lost time!
Since then, I’ve lived and worked in the USA, Australia & Canada, and even while I was tied down to a business in the south of England for half of my twenties, I took weekend trips and even day trips to Europe.
Back in 2015, I finally set off on my “gap year” (age 26) on a round-the-world trip – I sold my business and most of my belongings, and we set off backpacking across the world in search of adventure, weird animals, mountains, beaches and hobbits. We travelled Southeast Asia for 3 months, lived in Australia for over a year, and came home via New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada.
Some of my favourite backpacking adventures included snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef, working in a crazy Australian outback pub, volunteering with elephants, sky diving over mountains, chilling with kangaroos on a beach, road tripping the Canadian Rockies…
…meditating with a monk, living in a hostel, celebrating Songkran in Thailand, spending Christmas on a beach, and driving a tractor & worryingly* impressively* outlandlishly* (*delete as appropriate) a boat. In which I managed not to kill 25 people. Phew!
Other adventures include going to Paris on a bus for £10 return, caving underneath Budapest, camping at a Flintstones themed camp site at the Grand Canyon, jumping off a building in Las Vegas & moving to Canada for six months to live in Vancouver.
Now?
Now I’m back home in Scotland, where we live in Edinburgh with our lovely border terrier, Bonnie.
We have found our forever home, and I now take lots of shorter trips but when I’m not jetting off abroad, I’m finding new places to explore in Scotland – and I have loads to show you about my home country! It really is a beauty.
But the travel hasn’t stopped, and you’ll find lots of inspiration on the blog, including weekend city breaks across Europe, and larger bucket-list trips like Japan and Tanzania.
Most importantly, I like to do everything as cheap as possible.
I stay almost exclusively in hostels, fly with budget airlines, eat street food and take overnight buses so that I can splash out on things like sky dives and once-in-a-lifetime tours. If you catch me in a nice hotel, it’s usually because there’s a sale on. 😉
Stay tuned for more adventures coming up around the UK, Europe & the world!
Highlights Of The Blog
Sound like your sort of thang? Great! Hope you’d like to stick around, as I’ve got plenty more where that came from!
What makes my blog different? Rather than reading like a list of TripAdvisor recommendations, I only ever write about things I’ve actually done. I aim to remain an authentic voice in the midst of faux-experts talking about places they haven’t been or about things they haven’t actually experienced.
And, in the age of AI, I feel it’s important to add that I do write EVERYTHING myself!
You can view all my posts on specific destinations here, and I also have a dedicated Scotland section here.
Here are a few of my favourite & most popular posts to get you started:
⭐ A Day Trip To Mount Sunday: Discovering Edoras
⭐ Road Tripping The Icefields Parkway In Autumn
⭐ My Highlights Of Edinburgh
⭐ Four Islands, One Epic Weekend On The Isle Of Mull
⭐ The Land Of Fire & Ice: A Five Day Iceland Itinerary
⭐ The Perfect One Week Norway Itinerary For First-Timers
And some of my favourites that don’t do so well on search engines:
⭐ Why I’ve Given Up Counting Countries
⭐ Sorrow In Sarajevo: A Heartbreaking Tale Of The Bosnian Capital
⭐ Why It’s Important To Travel Now More Than Ever
⭐ Why I DON’T Want To Be A Digital Nomad
⭐ One Of The Best Weeks Of Our Lives Volunteering At Elephant Nature Park
Stay tuned for more adventures (of which my life seems to be an endless one whether I want it to be or not) – I’d love to show you some weird and wonderful things from around the world, but more importantly, how you can fulfil your travel dreams on the cheap!
Thanks for visiting my little fish blog in the huge sea of internet. I’d be thrilled if you followed along on my travel adventures!
DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & TWITTER!
All content is mine. There will occasionally be affiliate links for products that I like (where I may earn a little commission at no cost to you), but as a staunch advocate for authenticity, all opinions are my own, and I do not endorse anything that I don’t trust. All photos on this blog are my own, using a Sony Alpha a5000 (or a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 pre-2018) or occasionally my Samsung phone.
Want to get in touch? Please feel free to email me at anorcadianabroad@gmail.com! 🙂 I’d love to hear from you!
Hi Clazz, I have visited your blog lately and found your blog posts to be fascinating and inspiring. I am a Master student from Lancaster University and is currently working on my dissertation regarding social media and elephant trekking in Thailand. I noticed that you have read and commented on a blog post entitled ‘Why You Shouldn’t Ride Elephants In Thailand’ from Expertvagabond dated May 2, 2015. I was wondering if I could conduct an online interview with you to ask you few questions concerning the use of social media and its effects on readers’ understanding of elephant ride in Thailand. I will greatly appreciate if you can help. Thank you. Best, Leyan.
Hi Leyan!! Thank you so much. 🙂 Of course you are welcome to ask me some questions on it! After working at ENP I have some strong opinions on the industry. 😛
Feel free to email me at anorcadianabroad@gmail.com. I don’t have wifi at the moment (just data) but will make sure I reply asap! Good luck with your dissertation, I’m interested in what it will cover!
So I don’t really like the term bucket list (as the origin being kicking the bucket) I do have constantly changing lists of places I am dying to visit. I recently had to add Uzbekistan as our trip there got cancelled 2019 but was lucky enough to get Japan fitted in November 2019 just before covid hit. I highly recommend. I have done way more places in Asia that Europe because Asia is so great. But I would also recommend you do the less common ones like Laos which is super great. ANyway looking forward to reading more of your stuff.
Hey Clazz, I really loved the way you have put it… simply and honestly… I also like your blogsite and the structure, the way you have arranged the layout etc. Very nice. Just wondering how come you haven’t visited INDIA yet ? Pretty big country to miss, in a way and too many languages, too many cultures… Isn’t it ?
For some reason, I have only just seen this! India is fascinating but I have so many other countries on my list to visit first. 🙂 I have a feeling I will make it there eventually, though!
Absolutely I am sure you will… Good luck 🙂
Hi Clazz, we have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. We would love for you to accept! Follow the instructions in our post to do so 🙂
Oh wow, thank you so much!!! This has made my day! 🙂 I will do a post tomorrow!
Fantastic I’m glad it makes you happy!! 😁 we look forward to seeing it!
Just arrived at your blog through your Versatile Blogger nomination and really love it – you have a new travel-fanatic follower!
Awwwh thank you so much! 😀
Ok The Clash has to be the coolest couple name ever!
Your journeys sound thrilling! I have been blessed over the last 6 years to be able to finally fulfil a lifelong dream to travel and participate in a few adventures of my own. I never knew I had such a daredevil in me! But now she has been let out of the box, she is hungry for more. I look forward to reading more about the shape your adventures take 🙂
Hi there, I have read some of your blog posts and I absolutely love them. I am currently a field guide in South Africa looking to share my stories with you and others. It would be greatly appreciated if you would take a look at my blog samhankss.wordpress.com Thanks in advance!
Thanks Sam! 🙂 Sounds like you have an amazing job!!
Great to meet you and look forward to reading more of your posts!
I travelled to the Orkneys back in 1985, when I left Australia for 12 months solo-backpacking around the world. And, loved the isolation of the island – as a tourist this would be very different to growing up on the islands. I don’t expect that Stromness has changed much since then?
Many thanks for stopping by my Travel and Photography blog.
Ahh wow, that’s so cool that you’ve been to Orkney! I don’t meet many people who have. 🙂 It’s such a beautiful place, and I imagine much of that hasn’t changed since you visited. Stromness seems to be stuck in time (I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, I’m sure you know what I mean!). But I bet a few other things have changed!
Thanks so much for your comments! 🙂
Funny, neither do I and always get that vacant lobotomy look when I mention your place of birth!
I’d love to return some day. It wasn’t hard to get to as I hitched to John o’ Groats then caught the ferry across. 😉
What a great About page. Lots of info and enticement. I think I just made up a word. Anyway I’ m enticed to explore further.
Hehe, I like it! Thanks so much! 🙂
Hi,
I have nominated you for the Liebster Award.
Kerry
x
Ahh thanks so much, Kerry!! <3
[…] long one, but I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more of my perspectives on travel. I tag Clazz, Rosie, and V to partake in this travel tag, should they wish to do so. Have yourself a good […]
[…] …and honorable mentions: Aiva from OUR CROSSINGS, Diana from Handstands Around the World, and Clazz from An Orcadian Abroad. […]
Great site. Very interesting. You go, girl! Cheers!
[…] An Orcadian Abroad […]
You have an amazing blog ,Clazz !I am following your blogs and find them great! Pl fing time to visit my blog too and follow if you find it worth!
Just saying hi because both of us ended up on a list on Melodie’s blog. Sounds like you’ve had loads of great experiences and enjoy writing about them. Good luck to you and have a great year!