Awesome Scratch Map and Bieber.

I love birthdays. I think it is such a happy thing to celebrate the day you were born into this beautiful world to meet all the awesome people you meet.

Especially when you meet people who know and understand you so well that they give you just the right present that you have been looking for. Anyone who knows me will know that if you buy something travel-related, you will never go very wrong. But if you get me a scratch map of Europe, that’s like hitting the bull’s eye. It’s the kind of gifts that when you unwrap them you will go, “Oooh, I have always wanted one of these!”

I have always had this fascination for maps. I don’t even know why since it’s not like I read them particularly well. I’m almost a map illiterate, but I suppose I do pretty alright for those high-level maps that just show a country’s borders and its major cities. There is something simply fascinating about knowing where in this big, big world I have been.

So you can imagine my excitement when I unwrapped my very first birthday present and found this!

Here comes my perfect reason to travel to Europe again.

Isn’t it the coolest thing! Now I shall take the rest of the post to devour the details in this awesome present.

I wanted to show you my French manicure as well but I guess it didn't really show in the end. — I wanted to show you my French manicure as well but I guess it didn’t really show in the end.

And from the inside…

I guess it's a sign that Iceland is going to be my next destination. — I guess it’s a sign that Iceland is going to be my next destination.

It gives you a little bit more information about the place as well. From the little I can see, there are things like landmarks and greetings and culture.

All I need now is to decide where I am going to put this before fully unrolling the whole map and scratching the countries off. It looks very delicate, but I can’t wait to see how the rest of the map looks like. How exciting!

Oh and before I forget, it also came with a bonus bit as well.

For reasons only my dear friend can fathom, it came with an “I ❤ Justin Bieber” wristband, which I had to wear the whole day as part of my birthday forfeit. But since he is one of the few travellers I look up to – after all, he was the one who sold Myanmar SO well and sparked my curiosity and ended up going to the beautiful country, I guess it’s the least I could do to abide by the forfeit rule and helped him profess his undying love to Bieber.

(Okay, just to clarify, he is in fact not a Belieber, but I can’t be 100% sure.)

Bottom line is, if you ever read this post, I just want to say THANK YOU for this really cool birthday present, and I hope you can see how much I REALLY love the Scratch Map (and urm, the wristband, maybe) by writing a whole post about it. 🙂