About Me

Meet A World Traveller: [Jade Poleon]

- My travels -

Jade and the world!

So to begin, for those of you who are new to this site and don't know me, my name is Jade.
I like to think of myself as a travel enthusiast or rather someone who once went on a trip and like many before me, caught the very contagious travel bug. It all started in 2007 a year after I had left school and completed a year long college course, that travel became my life. For many, it was a year out, a gap year you would say, to have fun and discover parts the world you might never go to if you hadn't taken this time out. For me though, travelling took a strong hold of me and I developed very itchy feet. For anyone who knows me, they would say I am very spontaneous, some may even say crazy.... for adventures of course.

And I would have to agree.

I first set out to Australia all by myself unknown to the far away world, where I spent a full year working, travelling and having fun with so many other like minded 'wanderlusters' from all parts of the globe.It was here that I met many lifelong friends who would go on to draw me to various parts of the globe on further adventures.
Following Australia, I returned home and quickly set off again to Bahrain in the Middle East where I spent 4 months working in an Irish pub. I returned home to plan my 9 week trip through South East Asia with some good friends of mine whom I met in Oz.Upon returning from the Asian lifestyle to the small town of Dunboyne, I decided to move to Brighton for some laid back, beach life.
It was 4 months later that I decided to move to Canada for a year to visit fellow backpackers in their hometowns and discover the amazing country. Ten months in, Canada led me to decide on my future and my career ideas and following my return to Ireland I applied to study towards a diploma and advanced diploma in Beauty and Holistic Therapies.
In the summer between my two year course, I went backpacking around South America and the USA, before returning to complete my studies and gain my final diplomas. I finished my course with international qualifications in Beauty and Holistic Therapies. I went on to qualify as an International Yoga Teacher in India (twice- 2013 & 2015). From India I travelled all over Asia and then worked for the NGO Greenpeace in New Zealand for 9 months before making my way back to the west (In my blog 'Journey back to the West'). On the way back I returned to India and many other places including various countries throughout Southern Africa- my dream. I aimed to hit 50 countries by the end of 2015 which i did.

Since 2015 I have been lucky enough to have worked on two six star luxury cruise ships. One of them travelled from europe across to the states, Canada and Bermuda and the other travelled from Europe to Australia via the middle east, india etc, leading me to 67 countries. My recent blog entries have followed me through Sri Lanka, The Balkans, The Baltics, Central Europe and Eastern Europe all of which led me to reach my 80th country by the end of 2017. I spent the first half of 2018 working onboard Viking Sea sailing around the Caribbean, Western Europe and Scandinavia before deciding to walk 900km in July- Aug 2018 across the Camino de Santiago in Spain, something I had always wnated to tick off my list. Following the camino, i headed back onboard Viking Sea for a short two month contract to explore Norway, Greenland, Canada, USA and the Carribean once again. 2019 was spent back in Ireland living rhe 'settled life' as a spa manager and eventually a travel consultant until a trip to Mexico changed my plans. I had achieved a lot in 2019 having ran my first ever half marathon in goal time as well as qualifying as a teacher/assessor, however Mexico was where i found my true free spirit again which encouraged me to follow a dream id had for quite a long time-to buy, travel and live in a camper van, this time though I would take my new labrador puppy as a travel companion. This brings me to my biggest change of lifestyle yet-vanlife. My vague plan will be to drive to Portugal and see where the coast takes me. Follow my blog posts on the #Vanlife Adventure 2020 page

Lets keep the spirit of travelling alive xx