A good place to start is always the beginning - Miami

The journey began at Miami International Airport on August 10th.

Weary, hot and not knowing what to expect, we grabbed our backpacks and headed to the hostel. This was to be my first experience of a hostel and I am sure that if I was to check into the 'Miami Beach Travellers' today I would be completely unfazed. A little shell shocked would best describe the way I felt that day though. Towel and bed sheet in hand, I felt like I was approaching a prison cell. A bit dramatic I know, but I was a bit of a princess back then. I was used to my own bedroom, fluffy towels and long showers.

The time had come to say goodbye to home comforts. The room was tiny and crammed with backpacks and bunkbeds. One girl had decided to do some hand washing and her dripping clothes hung from every windowsill, bedpost and ladder. Steph, Sarwah and I didn’t mention it. We just made our beds in silence, quickly changed and headed out to see Miami Beach.

I did enjoy Miami, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as glamorous or magical as I had expected it would be. It had that ‘holiday vibe’ that could easily be found in Spain or Cyprus and it certainly didn’t feel like we were 10 hours from home.

Miami is a place where everyone drives unnecessarily massive cars, shop mannequins have huge boobs, you have to be best buds with the doormen to get into clubs and people quite happily spend their days cruising up and down the strip, roof down, music blaring.

My fondest memories of Miami are the drunken ones. Free limousine rides down the strip, drinks at Nikki Beach with new friends and some late night swimming adventures with Steph spring to mind. We also met two insanely funny guys from Leeds who shared their experiences of ‘The Cuckoo’s Nest’, one of Miami’s seedier hangouts. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time.
The architecture in Miami is stunning and the city does look very pretty at night all lit up, but these are all things you can Google. For me, Miami was the realisation that travelling was going to be more about the weird and wonderful people who I met along the way…