The Olympics and Paralympics might be over, but that’s not stopping lowcostholidays.com from carrying on the inspirational spirit we experienced during the sports. They’ve started a travel blogger relay, where we all share our Gold, Silver and Bronze travel memories in order to create a great big trail of amazing stories. I just couldn’t keep my nose out of this one so I joined #TeamPurple, captained by Neil of BackpacksandBunkbeds.co.uk, and have the baton handed to me by Roy of TheRidingDutchman.com.

BRONZE – Sea Trekking in Aruba

I wasn’t really ever a water baby. Water scares me. So believe me when I tell you that I must have been high on some sort of travel-happy adrenaline to have agreed to Sea Trek, but I wouldn’t change my decision for the world. Sea Trekking meant walking 20ft underwater in the Caribbean sea, along a walkway, with what really looks like an old copper diving helmet on. I fed the fish, I cuddled a parrotfish and “drank” at the Underwater Café. And, I survived it without crying, having a panic attack, or puking in my helmet. Go me!

SILVER – My first trip across the pond

I was 19 before I took my first trip on a plane and I chose New York as my destination. My first proper holiday with my boyfriend, we rented an apartment for the week on Avenue A and ended up getting evicted on our first day in the city. It turned out the tenant sub-letting to us had skipped his rent for 3 months and so the Court Marshall turned up (quite rightly) to change the locks and evict anyone happening to be in there, giving no time to get dressed properly. So, I spent the first day of my first trip to the Big Apple walking round Times Square in the day before’s knickers – classy. It got better though; we got our money back and stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel in Brooklyn, and the whole experience taught me a lot about keeping calm and trusting strangers when abroad.

GOLD – Getting engaged at the Grand Canyon

You can’t say getting engaged isn’t in your top memories of everything anyway, but I was particularly excited about mine because it happened at one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World – The Grand Canyon. No sooner had we dealt with the emotion of actually seeing the canyon with our own eyes, Simon went on to stand me at the sheer edge of the South Rim and ask me to marry him! There are experiences that I’ll never forget – and there’s that. The next day we went on to Vegas to spend a day celebrating on the strip!

So there you have it, my top 3 travel memories. We’re in Kos right now making another memory too – watching our friends Laura and Alan getting hitched in the sunshine. Fabulous. And as this is a relay, I’m passing the baton to the lovely married travellers Meg and Tony of LandingStanding.com.

If you want to take part in #TeamPurple and tell everyone your travel memories, get in touch with Neil @packsandbunks and share our posts in the #BloggerRelay hashtag!