Tag Archives: Smart travelling

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Bye Bye UK – Hello Europe!

We have decided there is now a Cole / Smart Family tradition – whenever anyone leaves London on the Eurostar, then it must be celebrated with Champagne at the Champagne bar!  Granted this is a new tradition, but one that must be upheld!

When we left the UK to start our honeymoon in Madagascar, we went via Paris for one night.  It was a last opportunity to celebrate our marriage with our parents, and so the six of us met for a very delicious tipple to set us on our way.

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Champagne with both sets of parents in April

Well today we found ourselves here again, in the same seats, doing the same thing!  Sadly Maree and Ray (Mum and Dad!) are now safely back in Oz, but we raised a glass in their honour too!  So one bottle of xxx xxx down, and we are now all checked in, goodbyes said and raring to go.  Thanks Mum and Dad (Ruth and Mel) for coming along to give us a good send off!

This time only four of us in November

This time only four of us in November

I am now convincing Dean that the tradition of champagne on the Eurostar itself should also be continued….

See you in 2014 – we look forward to writing all about our adventures.

We’re off The Smart Way Round….

N&D xx

 

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‘See You later’ Oasis Overland!

Its all becoming really real!  I remember talking to my boss months and months ago, about taking a sabbatical, and it felt like forever away!

Well as tends to happen, my last day of work at Oasis Overland came round really quickly.  I went down to my desk and the ladies in the office had done a great job of decorating it all including ‘Happy Travels’ bunting and various different posters.

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Happy Travels!

We particularly liked the advice from Ceris, “Remember, Vodka Keeps you Warm”….. It did have an asterisk with an advisory warning… so we will try and remember to take the advice in moderation!!  At some point we are hoping to have a tipple with a random Russian in our train compartment.  Neither of us are that fond of Vodka, but we will have to learn!

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Top Tip from Oasis!

The last day was really good fun, with morning brownie and afternoon choccies!  Thank you very much to everyone for giving me a good send off and even bigger thanks to my boss Chris for allowing me to take five months off!

The trip is all becoming very real… now I must go and pack otherwise I will have nothing to wear!

– Natalie

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Cold Feet

This is a big problem for me.  No matter how many pairs of socks I wear, my feet are often cold.  Cold feet, I’m cold, no fun for hubby! Merino socks have provided some kind of help… but they needed to be paired with a good boot!

So knowing we were travelling across Siberia during the winter, I set about researching good options.  I needed boots.  Warm. Dry. Light. Funky. Boots.  A challenge.  I mean everyone has a place when planning the trip right?  Dean was busy taking care of visas… filling in forms… dropping off passports…. all the fun stuff really?!?!?  So I decided my place was to take care of our shopping needs, and no better place to start than with boots.

Well the options were flooding in, but I kept coming back to two pairs.  The Ugg Adirondack boot  (don’t judge – this is no ordinary Ugg) and the Merrell Winterbelle boot.  If you know me, you know I like purple.  I have systematically transformed my husband’s wardrobe, to the point now where he actively chooses purple, so these boots were the obvious choice…  however there was nowhere to try them on.  Or so I thought.

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So I set about a day-long mission to find the Ugg’s.  Well I found them… but in the wrong colour.  They were warm (and probably would still win the prize for the toastiest) and they were practical, but a nagging voice in my head was telling me they were just too valuable to take away.  What if someone pinched them whilst on a train somewhere?  My decision was made when the Ugg website and stores were sold out of my size for the 6 weeks prior to our trip, so that was it, they were out.

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Then one random Thursday evening, Dean and I were wandering around ‘Street’ – a  shopping village near my Somerset base.  Bingo – there was  Merrell store (the only one in the country) and in it were my boots.  I put them on, and even Dean, who had been somewhat sceptical about the need for more yet more purple, stated with a wry smile that they were “pretty cool”.  So my Christmas pressie left with me and they are all ready to go.

So whoever said you can’t combine practically and style was wrong.  So far I have worn them around Somerset and they worked well.  Now the real test is about to start…..

Natalie

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The Rehabilitation of a Four-Letter Word

Over the last 14 months there has been one dirty four-letter word that has been used more than most in our home. It has caused stress, distress, the occasional heated discussion, (not an argument), late night emergency phone calls, and two last minute mad dashes to Australia. Love it or hate it, every international relationship and adventurous traveller will have to utter it sooner rather than later.

That word is… VISA!

The word ‘Visa’ can elicit many different responses, and over the last year we have experienced them all.  This post is in no way meant to be a rant, but trust me, if David Cameron was reading this blog the tone would be totally different.

‘Visa’ became a regular part of our vocabulary after we got engaged in November 2011. We knew that to get married in England I would have to obtain my settlement visas.  Not one, but two visas, laying our relationship wide open for someone to go over with a fine toothcomb. The bonus of applying for my first visa was it gave us an opportunity to return to Australia to visit family and friends.

But then we submitted the application, and the waiting began. Waiting is the worst part of the whole visa process, particularly for one as important as a settlement visa. The longer you wait, the more self doubt and negative thoughts start to creep into your mind. It was close to two months before the UK Fiancé Visa was granted, and not before Natalie had booked last minute flights to return to Australia over Christmas, (Little did we know the visa was approved the same day we booked her flights out).

However this was only half of the process.  As soon as we were married we had to apply for the next visa. If you think planning a wedding is stressful try doing it when also trying to gather everything required for your visa application. In fact I was printing my application at 7am the morning of the wedding!! The Monday after the wedding we spent at the Home Office applying for and being granted my right to remain. So it was off on honeymoon we went safe in the knowledge that we wouldn’t have to think about that dirty little four-letter word for the next two and a half years, or so we thought.

Our Passports

Then planning for the big trip began, and that word resurfaced again. Since the wedding it was almost uttered with distaste and hatred every time we mentioned it

This time things were different, this time the mere mention of the word elicited a totally different response. Visas were talked about with almost a reverence, an excitement that once again our passports would look cool.  Russia, Mongolia, China, and India all requiring visas, however it was something to look forward too. Every time we received an email confirming that our passports were ready for collection, there were hugs and high fives, another one ticked off the list, travel plans finally confirmed, and excitement levels continued to build, the rehabilitation had begun.

There is something incredibly gratifying about receiving your passport back from an embassy with a new visa in it. It does not matter whether it is your settlement visa or a tourist visa you still get quite tingly when you open up to that page and see it there, shiny and new.

That is because the visa is like a promise.

A visa promises new experiences, new cultures, new adventures, and new beginnings. Many travellers are put off visiting a destination because of the need to obtain a visa. It is easy to be disheartened by the amount of paperwork, supporting documentation and standing in queues. Many people question is it all worth it, or perhaps file it under the too hard basket. To be honest this had probably happened to us over the last twelve months. To put it simply we had just forgotten the promise.

Every visa we have obtained in the last few weeks has made our big trip feel more real, that air of expectation ever increasing. The word visa no longer has the negative connotations of the previous year and the mention of the word certainly doesn’t create the sense of dread we had experienced.

When we cross over the border into Russia in two weeks time we will proudly hand over our passports, in two weeks time the promise of the visa will turn into the reality of the adventures that lay ahead. In two weeks time the rehabilitation of that four-letter word will be complete.