Travel Diary: Day 1, Southampton

I think it would be pretty awesome to be a travel writer, or having a travel blog. Unfortunately, I don't have the means to carry out the travelling part regularly enough to generate enough interesting content. Since I've (somewhat) recently returned from a week long holiday I thought it might be fun to dabble in a little bit of travel blogging and document my little journey on this blog. It probably won't be as exciting as your average travel diary but I hope that it's enjoyable nevertheless.

I'll start by giving you a bit of background on the holiday and describing my first day. We went on a cruise round the Norwegian fjords, on a ship called Britannia (one of P&O's ships). Again, this probably sets it apart from other travel blogs as I don't think there are many people out that blog about cruises.

After loading up the car with all our luggage we drove down to Southampton on a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon, where out ship would be waiting in the port, all ready for us to board. Seeing as we arrived a little later than we were supposed to we didn't have to wait at all. We collected out cruise cards, breezed through security and boarded the ship. That's the great thing about cruises, your holiday starts almost immediately. We briefly visited our cabins to check them out, then dashed up to the buffet as we were starving and in desperate need of a meal. I can't remember specifically what I ate but I know that it involved a lot of chips (I love chips), and an amazing tasting trifle. I had vowed to try everything, and worrying about gaining weight was banished. It's not everyday that you have access to lots of delicious food whenever you want it, plus it is only a week. Eating is also a huge part of what makes going on a cruise so much fun.

After that we returned to the cabin, where I panicked as my luggage hadn't turned up, even though everyone else's had (they bring your luggage straight to your room). I have to admit, this made me pretty anxious, and I was on edge for the whole safety demonstration. Luckily, when I returned to my cabin afterwards it had arrived. We then went up to the top deck to watch the sail away. The atmosphere was buzzing, as everyone was getting into the holiday mood. We relaxed on some sofas, and I had (and thoroughly enjoyed) a strawberry and lime cider.

Dinner time crept up on us, so soon after the sail away had finished we went to the cabin to get ready, as there 's a dress code in the restaurant. Once ready, we went to the restaurant only to find there was a bit of a wait (which actually happened every night, a bit of a problem with freedom dining). We were given a pager that would alert us when a table was available, so we went off and sat by a window with a view of the sea. The wait wasn't too bad as we'd massively over indulged at lunch, so it provided us with the opportunity to overindulge yet again. Eventually, our pager started buzzing and we made our way to the restaurant. The service was quick and we ate our dinner quickly (I had a goat's cheese soup for starter, skate, potatoes and veg for main and a mango and kiwi pavlova for dessert). After eating we returned to our cabins, where we promptly passed out after, high on the excitement of being on holiday and full to bursting after stuffing our faces, in what are probably some of the comfiest beds in the world.