North Carolina: Where Southern Hospitality is a real thing!

After leaving Ohio we pretty much be-lined it to Morehead, North Carolina, where the sun was shining and a friends were hosting a New Years Eve Party. After six years apart it was lovely to see that Lauren hadn’t changed one bit, she was still the gorgeous girl that walked into Oxley Halls all those years ago. Not only did the exchange programme earn her extra credits, it secured her a handful of earnest, new friends.

For twenty-four hours we played, laughed and ate, as Lauren and Ryan introduced us to all their fabulous friends. We even got to see in the New Year twice, when Anna and Gus took us to see the firing of the canon at 7pm (12am GMT). The next eight hours were a blast, full of those ubiquitous red cups, tremendous dance performances (thank you Laura Harris) and more than a few drunken conversations about American stuff.

The next few days involved a fair bit of driving as Lucan and I explored the area. I can’t tell you the name of the place that we parked one night, but what I can say is that somewhere in NC, there’s a neighbourhood with some extremely lucky people and some very long, private piers.

An area that I can name is Wilmington, where we stopped for a night to visit another travel friend of mine, Drew. After five weeks together on Koh Tao island, we traveled to Malaysia, from there we parted ways, but stayed in contact, certain we’d meet up again. And we did! As with all my travel buddies, nothing brings me more joy that seeing them again, Drew was no different. Still as charming and generous as ever he treated four of us to dinner and obliged me with an evening of reminiscing. It was a great way to end our time in NC, and a fabulous way to start our journey south towards the sunshine.

Happy New Year!