So, You Want to Travel?

This post is to maybe calm some nerves about how to travel as a vegan. Everything from day trips out, to flying across the world, can cause some issues when you live on a vegan diet. However, I survived this summer, and it's surprisingly easy.

My first stop was Rome. My best mate and I jumped on a plane after finishing our A-Levels and had the best few days away. I, sadly, cannot speak any other language apart from English, and was very fortunate that the vast majority of people we came across spoke English fluently, so I could simply explain that I was a vegan to them. I expected to live off tomato pasta for the duration, however I was a bit taken aback to find that the Romans freshly make their pasta and use it making milk. Bugger, I thought to myself, time for plan B. After a quick google, my friend found a vegan restaurant within walking distance of our hostel and we ate there twice during out stay - once for dinner after finding out about the pasta situation, and once for breakfast on our last day. It was absolutely incredible, a bit pricy, but a girls got to eat! My non-vegan friend enjoyed the food too, and the staff were lovely too - the restaurant was called 'Ops' and was seriously incredible - definitely worth a google maps if you ever find yourself in Rome

After a few days back home, another mate and I embarked on a two week volunteering adventure in Bangkok, Thailand. The airline we used (Thai Airways) was really good, and provided two vegan meals (but also supplied a croissant and some butter, which I left, just in case!). But apart from that, the food was good and filled me up for the 12 hour flight.
The volunteer house we stayed in 'provided breakfast' which was, to say the least, a bit of false advertising! each day, the 10 of us sharing got a loaf of bread (the slices were tiny, about half the size of what we get over here!), some cereal, milk and orange juice. I took my own tiny jar of peanut butter, as I knew you couldn't buy it over there easily, and also took 10 holland and barrat strawberry jam flapjacks (which i now can't eat as I got so bored of them!).
The good thing about Thailand, is that they don't cook with dairy products, and soya milk was readily available - but careful, they fortify it with regular cows milk to improve the taste! Be sure to check the package, but the 7/11's on every street corner (literally) sell straight up soya milk. oh, be warned, its grey and doesn't taste as nice as the Alpro I'm acclimatised to! Most dinners were a bowl of cereal with soya milk.
Lunches at the school were my saviour. I explained to the school team that I was vegan, and it wasn't an issue, they made me really lovely rice and vegetables every day and it was lovely.
Me and my friend came across a vegan restaurant in Bangkok, called "May Veggie Home" which was a 30 second walk from the nearest sky train station - Asoke. I had a burger followed by chocolate ice cream, which remains to this day, the nicest (and cheapest) vegan food I've ever eaten. We ate their twice and I couldn't recommend it enough.

My final stop was Paris and I ate a lot of french bread! Again, because the Parisians speak English so well, I did not encounter any problems in the normal resturants we visited, and we stumbled upon a vegan resturant completely by chance when wondering through the Latin Quarter. It was called the 'Le Grenier De Notre Dame and it was good! A little pricy (but what isn't in Paris) and a real good find - worth a trip if you find yourself in the area. 

So there you go, I spent a good deal of time away this summer and survived! Where have you been traveling to? How did you get by on a vegan diet? I'd love to know!

Remember Me?

Hello Stranger, long time no see?!

Things have been a little hectic for the last few months - I had an incredible summer 2015, traveling to Bangkok, Rome and Paris, then working every hour of the day to revive my bank balance in time for uni (which wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be). Since then, I've survived my first term at university as a Law student and put on a considerable amount of weight (whoops). I've also started to row again, which is amazing and I'm loving every second, despite the early starts every weekend, and feeling like your chest is about to explode about three times a week (the other sessions aren't quite as physically demanding).
On the eve of my second term, I thought I'd check in and have a little chat about what I want to achieve food wise this term. So far, I've cooked a meal from scratch twice, existing mainly on peanut butter on toast, chips and coffee. Oh, and quite a lot of alcohol.

This term, my main aim is to manage my time better. I fell into the trap of not getting up until I had to (hardly ever before 10am), napping whenever I wanted and staying up until 4am finishing tutorial prep. It may be a 'typical' uni student lifestyle, but I simply hate feeling like I'm never on top of things and constantly chasing my deadlines. If I can crack this one goal over the next 10 weeks, I'll have accomplished something, and stop me snacking constantly instead of making proper food for myself.

I've never been one to skip breakfast, but I always try and skip lunch, which is quite frankly a dumb move all round. I'm hungriest between 11am and 4pm, so will aim to eat more in these hours, to stop me eating bad foods at dinner, and 11pm bowls of cereal with my flat mates.

My third and final goal is to cut down the amount of coffee I buy. I often use a Starbucks soya latte as meal replacement, and quite frankly, it's expensive. Not to mention the fact that Starbucks don't pay their tax bill... My dad's donated his coffee machine to me, and I will invest in a travel mug to take it to my lectures in!

I think that's quite enough of a challenge to set myself food-wise for the next 10 weeks. I've been bored out of my mind for the last few weeks, itching to be busy again - wish me luck!