Email : elitravelbug@gmail.com
Welcome to elitravelbug ♡
A positive, creative, original, extremely clumsy and sometimes maybe a little ditsy individual (might as well be completely honest). But most importantly – honest and down to earth, wanting to make a difference, even if only by inspiring someone to grab a backpack and just go.
By sharing my story with you, not only about travelling, but also my journey of becoming who I am today. I believe I can reach some souls out there that maybe could do with some inspiration or real, realness when it comes to travel and life.
I am originally from Poland, but growing up in London has had a huge influence on who I am today. My name is Eliza, but I’m not a fan of the English pronunciation – so I pretend there is an ‘s’ instead of the ‘z’. My friends call me Eli – pronounced like ‘Ellie’ – not to make things difficult or anything..
Right after leaving University, I had a career in graphic design back in London, but left it a couple of years after graduating. Similar to many travellers – I realised that my goal at the time was just a socially acceptable thing to do – the obvious thing. I didn’t care about getting a house, becoming a manager.. and having kids wasn’t even on my radar.
I will divide this into sections:
Travel
Allergies / Skincare
Self-development
Where I am now <3
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Travel
I always had itchy feet. When I was little – my dream was to see palm trees. For real. So when I turned 18, I went on my first vacation and got the travelbug since.
The destination was Tenerife – with about ten of my mates. I loved it, but also realised that travel in such big groups is not necessarily my thing. For the next few years I’ve been experiencing (and experimenting) different kinds of travels – solo, couple, groups, with a best friend and so on.
Instead of investing my money in a driving license – I travelled across North America for a month.
I then travelled solo, while working my way around, volunteering and slowly trying to include it in this blog.
The blog started when I realised how often my friends, family or random peeps ask me about destinations I visited, tips and tricks on how I managed to do something or get from A to B.
I had no idea whether my writing was good enough or if I’d stick with it for longer than a few weeks – all I knew is that I wanted to share all of the amazing places ticked off my bucket list and the tips on how to go about travelling in general – both on a budget and something more fancy.
It’s all my honest opinions, if there is a place I didn’t like – I will for sure tell you about it.
As I said earlier – I can be super clumsy or slightly silly sometimes and I’m not scared to say it as it really is, so some posts might be quite ridiculous even.. such as the one when I got lost in New Orleans (second half).
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Allergies / Skincare
Another reason for starting this blog is my life-long struggle with allergies. Since I was a little girl, I would walk around in bandages having to say no to pretty much any tasty food.
Over the years I have slowly managed to get it (slightly) under control.
Travelling being my passion means I had to find many ways of adjusting, finding special products and how to deal with skin problems to look as ‘normal’ as possible. And trust me, I’ve tried hundreds.. or thousands of different products from suncreams and body lotions to body sprays and haircare.
Being allergic to not only lots of different foods, but fabrics, cosmetics and even sun – turned some parts of my holidays into a huge struggle. My skin is extremely fussy when it comes to many products, so I know how hard it is to find something that will not irritate it.
I share my opinions and favourite products in the ‘Allergy & Skincare’ tab, hoping it can help some of you out there!
Because I didn’t want that to stop me from following the dream and ticking those dreamy places of my bucket list, I decided to start researching.
That’s when I realised, there isn’t a blog out there that talks about both – travel and sensitive skincare.
So, I decided to include it here and this is where I share my knowledge and tips. Some of it is not pretty – but I promised myself It’ll be both the good and the ugly. I believe people can learn from my experiences, some which were seriously tough to the point where I Nearly Quit Travelling (Due To Allergies).
But these things only make us stronger! So, if you have any questions whatsoever – don’t be shy and ask! <3
(There is a list below of my main allergies.)
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Self-development
After travelling and living abroad, I realised that the main reason for it all was the need of truly learning who I am as a person. I realised how truly lost I was and how I had no answers to simple questions such as what I like and don’t like.
My travel experience turned into something much more than that, it turned into a huge journey of realisation and discovery. And yes, as cheesy as it sounds – I was on a journey of finding myself. As I still am and we all are in a way.
Shyly, I started sharing some of my thoughts and feelings here. I wrote my first article on this Travel – Chasing the Dream or a Run Away? and was blown away how well it did. It was shared on The Travel Bible and I had people reaching out to me, saying how much it hit home for them. But most importantly, it felt so right. This was the most personal article I have written then and as scary as it was to press publish, it felt just as beautiful.
After that I started sharing more of my personal journey and even added it as another category to my blog. What was Travel & Skincare is now Travel, Self-development & Skincare.
By sharing my process and journey, I hope to show others that even when life gets tough sometimes, it’s incredible what can be achieved if we start listening to this voice inside of us. The feeling that deep down has always been there but we might have been so occupied with everything else that it went unnoticed for all those years.
Following your heart will lead you to the most incredible experiences and you might just see how beautiful life can get <3
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Where I am now
Once I fulfilled my desire of travelling full time and living abroad, a new desire came. I noticed something completely and totally unexpected. I started craving for a place I can call home. My home.
As much as I loved visiting new places and learning so freaking much from each and every little (or big trip), I also wanted a place I could go back to, one that will be there everytime. Not necessarily a hostel or a short-term rental.
Next thing I knew, after dealing with many things first – my life has turned into one that I (very recently) started dreaming of, actually it became even more than that.
I am now based in London in a beautiful home. I have a space I can call mine and one where my backpack and suitcases have their own place too. And it feels so insanely good.
It’s amazing how something once so far away from even dreaming off, has become my reality now. I have written more on this here: The 10 Stages of Travel Life where I dig much deeper.
Travel is still incredibly important to me, especially solo travel. It’s something that I am not planning on stopping anytime soon. And I still share my thoughts, tips and discoveries with you, but more on a personal level <3
You can watch my video from Bali for example where I stayed at an Ashram and had a number of realisations <3
I hope you will enjoy my experiences and find this blog useful!
Love,
Eliza aka elitravelbug xx
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PS. As I give tips on allergies, I thought it would be useful for some of you to know what they actually are.
Below are the main ones:
◦ Dust
◦ Sun (pmle and prickly heat)
◦ Pets
◦ Different chemicals (including different washing powders, shower gels etc.)
◦ Synthetic fabrics (polyester, elastin etc.)
◦ Latex
◦ Tomatoes plus other vegetables
◦ Anything that is too sour (including fruit)
◦ Hayfewer
◦ Different flowers, plants and grass
◦ Fragrance (added to products or sprayed directly on skin)
◦ Nickel (in jewellery)
◦ Endless amount of beauty products, creams etc including chemicals such as parabens
And more, but I don’t want to bore you!
I used to have more food allergies including flower, eggs, milk and pretty much anything you can think of, but many sessions of desensitisation & Immunotherapy made a difference. I am planning to continue them in the future, hoping that most of the allergies will disappear. Some day.
Please note that from purchasing through some of the included links in my posts, I receive a tiny commission towards running this blog. Don’t worry as it doesn’t cost you anything more. Most of all, I only recommend the products that I trust and used them myself unless stated otherwise.
