new experiences Archives - Seren Holistic Lifestyles

After going a bit left field last week & mixing up my posting schedule I feel it’s time to finish my story. The aim for this trilogy was to record a travel diary so in years to come I can look back & relive the happy time I had on this trip.

My final night on the Indian Pacific was lovely. I’m very happy to report the dinner service was spot on. The vegetarian option had changed for the main to a very nice, fresh, hot & tasty tagliatelle. Gluten for punishment I ordered the mushrooms again. I think I got a bad batch the first night second night was vastly improved. Dessert was a very delicious almond chocolate cake. How I over looked that the first night I do not know.

At dinner I experienced hospitality at it’s best. A French couple were shown to the table next to us. They had enough English to get by but they didn’t need to worry as one of the staff conversed fluently in French with them. Such a nice touch. I’ve found in Australia that this is very rare. We are an English speaking population. Everyone is expected to fit in with this & speak English. It did make me smile that the train did have at least one-second language speaking staff member. I’m sure this skill goes to long way to get great gigs.

Arriving in Adelaide at 7:20am Tuesday morning meant an early start. A morning tea style breakfast was being served between 6 & 6:30am. With no phone signal my alarm didn’t go off. My mum tapping on my door woke me. Leaping out of bed thinking of my stomach first of course I was ready in a matter of five minutes. I was super impressed with the food. Muffins, pastries, breads & scrolls a plenty. Towards the end of the service there were still loads left.

The train drew in ten minutes early, the luggage arrive ten minutes afterwards, three minutes later we were in a taxi heading into Adelaide city. We’d booked a city sight seeing tour to fill the morning, as our hotel wouldn’t be ready till 2pm.

It’s been about nine years since as was actually in the city centre & I couldn’t remember any of it. It’s bigger than it seems. Our three-hour tour was going very quickly & it felt like we’d not really seen too much. It was great to just be driven around & take it all in. I was getting very used to being chauffeured.

Adelaide has a lot of churches. I mean a lot, one on nearly every corner. Our first stop was well a cathedral that boasted some very impressive stain glass windows. One window was fairly new & depicted the story of Mary Magdalene. I’m always drawn to visit temples when in Asian countries but I never seem to take advantage of what I have on my doorstep in regards to churches & cathedrals. It made a peaceful change to just sit in the huge, quiet space for a while.

The Magdalene Window, St Peter’s Cathedral Adelaide

The Haighs chocolate factory was of course fantastic. You can only get Haighs in South Australia in their own stores as they do not ship. Haighs are famous for their chocolate frogs as well as their Rocky Road. They make their own marshmallows. Being just after Easter there wasn’t much action in the factory as the staff had been given ten days off after making a quarter of a million Easter eggs this year. The chocolate is rather nice & we bought quite a lot of it. Hello chocolate macadamias!

After the tour is was time to pick up the hire car & head to Glenelg our home for two nights. I’ve stayed in Glenelg before, it’s a cosmopolitan beach side town that is known for it’s jetty & laid back atmosphere. Being a bush rather than beach kid I decided the ocean was calling us to be close by. Perfect choice the sunsets were spectacular.

Glenelg Jetty, SA.

The car we hired was a Toyota Yaris. Hilarious! I’m used to driving a big old sedan so to get in this tiny buzz box was so much fun. It had a real kick to it for a small car. It was a dream to park even so my Dad was super paranoid about me scratching. We couldn’t get the GPS to work properly so we ended up taking a different way around than I expected to after reading the map. It felt strange to be in the driving seat after being transported around.

The next few days were delightful. I really like Adelaide. People bag it out for being boring but it has a great energy about it. I feel this is because it’s not as over populated or such a tourist hot spot like Sydney & Melbourne. Sure there is plenty to do that is touristy! How can anyone be bored here. I’d happily have stayed a while longer if time allowed. Thinking about it I live in Perth & many people ask ‘what’s in Perth, isn’t just really remote with nothing to do?’ Maybe I’m just attracted to the non mainstream.

Here are my Adelaide highlights:

Staying by the beach in Glenelg. Long afternoon walks on the seafront & great sunsets.

Sensational South Australian sunsets!

Having an in person mentoring session with my Soul Mentor Elizabeth Peru. It’s always great to connect in person. Just being around people of higher & pure vibration can be very healing in itself. It makes me feel very supported & not alone in this lifestyle I’ve chosen to live. Elizabeth’s energy is contagious I always leave our sessions with such clarity, confidence & love. Brimming with new ideas & inspiration to bring home to action.

Driving round the hills in the buzz box. Due to a road closure we ended up taking a very long way round to Mount Lofty. GPS was not happy.

Mount Lofty on a clear afternoon. Spectacular views over Adelaide right down to the coast. Also got to catch a bit of the Royals visit on the news when we stopped for lunch. They were just up the road in the SA town of Elizabeth.

The view from Mount Lofty

The German town of Hahndorf. A very quaint & picturesque town in the hills. Loads of unique shops to explore. I found some great hand made organic beeswax products. The architecture was stunning up the main tree lined street.

The charming & quaint German town of Hahndorf.

Meeting new friends. Connecting over yoga & organic food. I was blessed to meet a fellow Bikram teacher & Bright Eyed & Blog Hearted course mate. We took a yoga class together at the Glenelg studio followed by a lovely chat over breakfast afterwards at the Organik Store. It’s awesome when you just ‘click’ with someone. No awkwardness or long silences. Meeting your ‘tribe’ of like minded people is so important. Again no one is ever alone, there will always be others on the same wavelength & they will appear when needed.

Amazing apres Bikram organic breakfast

Crystal shopping! With a few hours to spare before our flight I’d Googled a metaphysical shop near by. Crystal Wave is amazing. Mum & I spend nearly an hour working our way through the shelves. I picked up some great pieces to bring back. Including my first Merlinite. Mum found the most beautiful Baltic Amber pendant. A great pick. The staff were very helpful & friendly. One complimented me on my massive selection & gave me some advice on making grids.

Stunning Baltic Amber pendant.

Saving Mr Banks movie. To round off the trip I got to see a movie I had wanted to watch for ages on the flight back. I’m a huge Mary Poppins fan & thoroughly enjoyed watching Saving Mr Banks. It was so tempting not to sing out aloud with the soundtrack!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time away. I could quite happily have stayed in Adelaide a few more days but my parents had to get back for their flight home. There was a lot I learned from this trip looking back now. A change of space can really freshen you up & bring in new lighter energy. A whole new blog post in the pipeline I feel…

I’d love to hear your experiences of how a travel trips have freshened up your Soul & replenished your mind. Please feel free to share in the comments below.

Till then, love K xxx

Who likes to travel? Me! That’s who. I love it I thrive from mixing with different people, cultures and seeing things ‘outside of my box.’ My over seas travel journey started late. I didn’t leave my home country of England till I was nineteen. At twenty-four I took off on a one year around the world adventure. Most of my friends had already done ‘gap years’ between high school and university so to do gap year at twenty-four could be seen as late.

Travel sabbaticals later in life are very popular now especially if you have long service leave to cash in. I like having the financial stability behind me now to not have to be super budget when I’m on the road. Yes I’ve done the hostel thing and eaten cold beans out the can for dinner so I’m not 100% posh packer. I like variety so it’s great for me to go 5 star one trip then pull back to budget the next depending on where I’m going.

My favourite part of travel is the change space I receive. If you’ve read my posts about ‘Energy Cleansing’ and ‘Clean Your Space’ you’ll understand how the atmosphere around us can affect us energetically. It’s the space we are surrounded by, the invisible energy it contains that feeds us. This energy inspires us, gives us ideas, allows’ us to grow. If we stay in one place for too long doing the same thing every day, just like water in a pond, we go stagnant. How often have you said ‘I really need to get out of town for a while?’ because you are ready for a change of space.

Just like people vibrate on different energy frequencies, places do too. Have you noticed how different you feel when you’re in a new place or country? You can instantly relax & feel happy. That is why we feel so good on our holiday’s the new energy space of a different place revives us. You are breathing in new nutrients from the new space around you. When you come home you’re not only chilled out but you’re charged up with new ideas and inspiration. I know I am.

I travel to draw from this pool of new space so I can come back with fresh new ideas for my life and work. I took a big trip around South East Asia over the Christmas break. I visited Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Each country offered a new culture, new people, new tastes, smells, sights, sounds & that exciting new invisible space. I had a few ideas rolling before I left but it wasn’t until I’d had my change of atmosphere that they truly flourished. Here we are right now with the project inspired from this trip. This blog!

I had huge waves of inspiration for writing and painting in the temples of Angkor Wat. The colours and sounds of the Vietnamese markets set my mind racing with new thoughts. Eating Khmer curry out of a hallow coconut made me want to ditch my plates. All these fresh new experiences was just what I needed when I was so ready to ‘get out of town.’

When you return from a trip you are filled up with the new energy that you bring back too your home. You can fill your space with it breathe it into your usual atmosphere from within you. Bringing back souvenirs or artwork, hanging frames of your trip photographs all pull the new energy into your space & keep it there. You don’t need to travel overseas either. A trip within your own state can offer the same space change. Just like I did in the post ‘Travelling Alone in Fun!’ Go somewhere different, a part of town you seldom visit or try a new restaurant in a suburb you’ve never been too. Anything outside in nature is always a winner too. Trees and water instantly breathe new life into me. It’s all different space and it can revive you if you’re feeling that pull for a change.

Next time you’re feeling flat and looking for some inspiration or a need to get out of town go find yourself a change of space.

Love Seren xx

Posts Tagged ‘new experiences’

Travelling to a change of space