Hi! I’m Maria from Nottingham, England. My blog’s name pretty much sums me up: I was once a starry-eyed kid with an atlas, poring over the statistics in the back and wondering what those countries were like. I thought I’d never know, but then the internet became available to everyone and better yet, budget travel was born! So now I’m a big kid with a camera, seeing those places from my atlas with my own eyes.
I studied photography at New College Nottingham (now Nottingham College) and then at Falmouth University. This blog would probably make my tutors nauseous, considering that one of them once burned a student’s research book because it contained a Joe Cornish photo. I get my love of photography from my grandpa, who always had a camera on hand and was very much like me in what he took photos of – all the obviously beautiful things, but also things that everyone else passed by. He sent me off on a school trip to Dovedale with a disposable camera, which I excitedly used, only for most of the photos to come out blank… but that’s fine, because I went back with my DSLR once I grew up!
I often travel with my mum, Joy, which is definitely where the travel bug came from – she used to work for the EU and then the UN. It all started for her when she was 13 and my grandpa, who was a train driver and got free tickets for his family, took the family to Sitges on the train. Despite initially refusing to go because she’d miss something to do with Slade, she knew as soon as the train pulled out of Sitges Station that she wanted to travel.
Me and my mum at the Cedars of God in Lebanon
She certainly managed that, but once I was born, my dad changed his mind about his promise of ‘my daughter will never go hungry’ and we never heard from him again. My mum worked so hard to support us both that even a trip to London was out of the question, but eventually, I was old enough to pay my share and off we went. We’ve done some crazy things to afford our travels, from eating nothing but pasta for months to getting chilblains from a particularly nasty winter with no heating (my hands are still swollen), but it’s totally worth it.
We used to walk miles every day on our travels and at home to save as much money as possible, but my mum was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2014. It limited her ability to walk and deformed her hands. We definitely can’t refuse to switch the heating on anymore! That makes things a lot harder, but whether it’s getting five different buses or resting on whatever surface is available (roadblocks worked out well in Lebanon), we’ll find a way to get around on the cheap.
Beyond travelling and photography, I love writing fiction, drawing, Pokémon, music and astronomy. One of my dreams is to become a planetary scientist. I wanted to be a pilot (especially if that could lead to becoming an astronaut), but everyone told me pilots can’t wear glasses (which is a myth, in case you’ve ever fallen for that one) and as you can see, now I’m a photographer. Maybe I can become a planetary scientist though.
My blog used to be called Westbound Sign Travel (@westbound_sign on Instagram). If you see that watermark on one of my photos, I promise it is actually mine!
Countries visited so far
Africa
🇲🇷 Mauritania
🇲🇦 Morocco
Asia
🇮🇩 Indonesia
🇲🇾 Malaysia
🇯🇵 Japan
🇱🇧 Lebanon
🇰🇷 South Korea
🇹🇼 Taiwan
🇹🇭 Thailand
Central America
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
🇲🇽 Mexico
Europe
🇧🇪 Belgium
🇨🇿 Czechia
🏴 England
🇫🇷 France
🇩🇪 Germany
🇬🇷 Greece
🇮🇹 Italy
🇳🇴 Norway
🇵🇱 Poland
🇵🇹 Portugal
🏴 Scotland
🇪🇸 Spain
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🏴 Wales
North America
🇨🇦 Canada
🇺🇸 USA
Bucket list
🇩🇿 Algeria
🇦🇶 Antarctica
🇹🇩 Chad
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
🌺 Hawaii
🇮🇶 Iraq
🇲🇬 Madagascar
🇲🇭 Marshall Islands
🇳🇦 Namibia
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea
🇼🇸 Samoa
🇹🇴 Tonga
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
Atlas and a Camera 