The trip is over. Actually, as I write this it's the 30th July 2014 and I'm sitting in my hostel in Kendal, England because I'm already on my next trip. I fell behind on my blogging while I was travelling because I was too focused on creating content, and then never really caught up when I got home. Guess I was too busy working to save for this trip.
I was away from home for 170 days, saw ~45 cities/towns although I didn't actually count that and went through around 30 countries.
What's changed?
I don't feel like I've changed drastically although there are a few small things that I can identify that have changed.
I was surprised that I met quite a few people who live in the northern hemisphere who didn't know that the southern hemisphere has the opposite season. I guess they don't learn about the southern hemisphere like we learn about the northern?
Are you sad it's over?
No. I didn't leave home to run away from anything, I just wanted to go exploring and escape winter. I had an awesome time while I was away but it's not something I could do forever. I think 3 months is a comfortable time away for me.
I also didn't find it hard to get back into the swing of things at home. After only one week, it was like I never left and this isn't a bad thing. I was ready to come home.
What did I miss while away?
I certainly didn't get home sick in the first 3 months but after that, there'd be days where I didn't meet anyone new and I'd feel a bit lonely, home sick. Also, because I wasn't trying to escape anything at home, there were things that I missed:
Languages
I encountered lots of different languages and I often felt bad that I only knew English. Most people who weren't native English speakers said I was lucky that I was raised to speak English, which is only true because it's used so widely and not because it's a good language.
While I was away, I had a strong desire to learn another language and I had some Spanish audio tapes but once I got home, that desire totally evaporated. There's no reason to know another language when you live (my life) in Australia. The hard thing is, which language do you learn? There's nothing as widely useful as English except maybe Mandarin.
I also spent a lot of time thinking about the phrase "that doesn't translate into English". Is it possible that the language I speak limits the concepts I can understand?
I was away from home for 170 days, saw ~45 cities/towns although I didn't actually count that and went through around 30 countries.
What's changed?
I don't feel like I've changed drastically although there are a few small things that I can identify that have changed.
- I'm more confident meeting new people because I had a lot of practice. I probably met at least 2 new people per day on average over the whole trip.
- I'm more confident getting around and between cities.
- I enjoy hiking more. It's not like I ever disliked it but the times I went walking amongst nature on my trip are some of the most memorable
- I'm not worried about having nothing booked. I'm a planner so going to Europe with nothing booked was a little scary. The fact that I survived it means that my approach of knowing where I can go/what I can do but only booking things as needed works well.
Did you try new things?
Of course I tried new things. I went cheese tasting for the first time in Amsterdam. I slept with an eye mask and ear plugs for the first time although it happened a lot more than once. Speaking of sleeping, I left home not being able to sleep on planes, trains, buses, etc at all but now I'm a bit better because I can manage to get a few hours of sleep in those uncomfortable seats. I'm still not like some people who can sleep for entire trips.
There were also a lot of things that aren't quite as good for you that I tried: lots of local beers, the local fire water all over eastern Europe, lots of goulash, space cake, Shisha and Snus (the nicotine bags from Sweden).
Did you see everything?
Although I saw a lot, there are still a lot of things I missed:
Of course I tried new things. I went cheese tasting for the first time in Amsterdam. I slept with an eye mask and ear plugs for the first time although it happened a lot more than once. Speaking of sleeping, I left home not being able to sleep on planes, trains, buses, etc at all but now I'm a bit better because I can manage to get a few hours of sleep in those uncomfortable seats. I'm still not like some people who can sleep for entire trips.
There were also a lot of things that aren't quite as good for you that I tried: lots of local beers, the local fire water all over eastern Europe, lots of goulash, space cake, Shisha and Snus (the nicotine bags from Sweden).
Did you see everything?
Although I saw a lot, there are still a lot of things I missed:
- Portugal
- Scandinavia
- Ireland and the UK (apart from London and Brighton that I did see)
- Baltics
- More of Spain
- Italy (apart from Venice); Rome, Naples, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre
- Switzerland
- St Petersburg
- Flyboarding in the UK
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Morocco
- Sicilly
- Iceland
- Ukraine (Chenobyl)
- Kosovo
- Bosnian pyramids
- More Greece exploring
Was it hard/lonely?
I travelled on my own and I met a lot of people who were doing the same, so it's not a strange thing. I also met quite a few locals/group travellers who seemed shocked that I was on my own and the common question was "Is it lonely?". It's not. I might be travelling on my own but I'm never on my own because it's so easy to meet people in hostels. I really enjoyed being a solo traveller for a few reasons:
I travelled on my own and I met a lot of people who were doing the same, so it's not a strange thing. I also met quite a few locals/group travellers who seemed shocked that I was on my own and the common question was "Is it lonely?". It's not. I might be travelling on my own but I'm never on my own because it's so easy to meet people in hostels. I really enjoyed being a solo traveller for a few reasons:
- You can always move at the pace you want to.
- There's no compromise on what to see like there might be with a group.
- It's easier to squeeze onto transport/get into hostels when there's only one spot left.
- You can form a group out of solo travellers to do things together but because they're all independent, they won't be offended if you go off and do things on your own.
I don't feel like it was that hard either. Admittedly I played it pretty safe and didn't put myself into situations where I might not have transport or somewhere to sleep but I just kind of cruised through the whole thing. At the start though, looking forward, it did seem quite daunting but I guess that's like a lot of things in life, they seem a lot easier once you've done them.
Random thoughts
I had a lot of time to think while I was travelling and here are some of the **sarcastic voice** profound things I came up with.
Every time you meet someone, you both have an impact on each other. That impact will change both your lives but in most cases, probably not by much. I met so many people while I was travelling and I hope that I've had a positive impact on all their lives. For me, I feel like all the people had a positive impact on me but not for any particular action or event, just because I can look back and feel happy knowing I made so many new friends, heard lots of stories and made lots of great memories.
I've taken the Myers Briggs personality test a few times and each time, I score borderline introvert-extrovert and I think this trip has helped me make sense of why this might be. When I'm at home, I have more projects on the go than I'll ever finish and I'm happy when I'm on my own working away at them (the introvert Tom) but when I'm travelling, I don't have anything to occupy my time so I become more extroverted to meet people and go do things.
I had a lot of time to think while I was travelling and here are some of the **sarcastic voice** profound things I came up with.
Every time you meet someone, you both have an impact on each other. That impact will change both your lives but in most cases, probably not by much. I met so many people while I was travelling and I hope that I've had a positive impact on all their lives. For me, I feel like all the people had a positive impact on me but not for any particular action or event, just because I can look back and feel happy knowing I made so many new friends, heard lots of stories and made lots of great memories.
I've taken the Myers Briggs personality test a few times and each time, I score borderline introvert-extrovert and I think this trip has helped me make sense of why this might be. When I'm at home, I have more projects on the go than I'll ever finish and I'm happy when I'm on my own working away at them (the introvert Tom) but when I'm travelling, I don't have anything to occupy my time so I become more extroverted to meet people and go do things.
I was surprised that I met quite a few people who live in the northern hemisphere who didn't know that the southern hemisphere has the opposite season. I guess they don't learn about the southern hemisphere like we learn about the northern?
Is the blog just about eating and drinking?
I had a few people ask me this and it wasn't my intention. Eating is something you do a few times a day and most times, the food was new or at least interesting so I thought it worth mentioning. I do enjoy eating too though.
The other thing to remember is that the amount of space something takes up in the blog doesn't have anything to do with the space it took up in my life. For instance, I might spend 5 hours catching buses and climbing a mountain and it'll get one paragraph and a few pictures but then I might spend 30 minutes trying a new dish that I enjoyed and it'll still get a paragraph and a photo.
I had a few people ask me this and it wasn't my intention. Eating is something you do a few times a day and most times, the food was new or at least interesting so I thought it worth mentioning. I do enjoy eating too though.
The other thing to remember is that the amount of space something takes up in the blog doesn't have anything to do with the space it took up in my life. For instance, I might spend 5 hours catching buses and climbing a mountain and it'll get one paragraph and a few pictures but then I might spend 30 minutes trying a new dish that I enjoyed and it'll still get a paragraph and a photo.
Are you sad it's over?
No. I didn't leave home to run away from anything, I just wanted to go exploring and escape winter. I had an awesome time while I was away but it's not something I could do forever. I think 3 months is a comfortable time away for me.
I also didn't find it hard to get back into the swing of things at home. After only one week, it was like I never left and this isn't a bad thing. I was ready to come home.
What did I miss while away?
I certainly didn't get home sick in the first 3 months but after that, there'd be days where I didn't meet anyone new and I'd feel a bit lonely, home sick. Also, because I wasn't trying to escape anything at home, there were things that I missed:
- My job. Seriously, I enjoy my job.
- My routine. When I'm at home, I know what I'll have for breakfast/lunch/dinner, I know what I'll be doing most days, I know where I'll sleep. When I'm travelling, I don't know any of those things and it's exciting at first but after a few months, it gets pretty draining.
- My stuff. I'm a bit of a hoarder and it's really hard to hoard things when you move every 2 days and have to carry all your stuff. This was, however, a good lesson that I am still something without my possessions.
- Clean clothes. You have to carefully time when you wash things when you're travelling because you need to be in one place long enough to let them hang out and dry. This means things might not always be as fresh as at home.
- Power points. It's a constant battle to find places to charge your gadgets.
- Good internet. This is very rare because although all hostels have free WiFi, there's normally so many people that it barely works.
- My motorbikes. I rode one of my bikes everyday for a few months before I left so I think I was getting withdrawals.
- Going to my mate's property at Morgan. One of the simple pleasures in life.
- Working on my cars. I love building things and I wasn't building anything (tangible) the whole time I was away.
- Privacy. Hostels don't have much although I did well at finding it when I needed it.
- GTA5. It came out while I was away and I was aching to play it.
One thing I didn't miss at all was winter. Although I still had quite a few days where I was rugged up as much as I would've been back home though.
What will I miss when I get home?
Despite the things I listed above, there are certainly things I'll miss about travelling when I get home.
Despite the things I listed above, there are certainly things I'll miss about travelling when I get home.
- How nice everyone is. There's a certain type of person you'll find in a hostel; someone who is looking to meet other people and who is open minded enough to leave their country to experience other cultures. This means that everyone is generally a nice person.
- How easy it is to start a conversation. There are three questions you can ask anyone in a hostel: Where are you from? Where have you been? and Where are you going? Can you imagine starting a conversation at home with Where are you from? It probably wouldn't go so well.
- Constant stimulation. You see and experience so many new things every day.
I sometimes made a joke that you only ever need 3 days of conversation when you travel because you'll never know anyone for longer than that and you can recycle it with each person. That being said, if you know someone for 3 days, it probably means you've spent 3 solid days together and you'll feel like you know everything about them.
Languages
I encountered lots of different languages and I often felt bad that I only knew English. Most people who weren't native English speakers said I was lucky that I was raised to speak English, which is only true because it's used so widely and not because it's a good language.
While I was away, I had a strong desire to learn another language and I had some Spanish audio tapes but once I got home, that desire totally evaporated. There's no reason to know another language when you live (my life) in Australia. The hard thing is, which language do you learn? There's nothing as widely useful as English except maybe Mandarin.
I also spent a lot of time thinking about the phrase "that doesn't translate into English". Is it possible that the language I speak limits the concepts I can understand?
History
Australia doesn't have much history in the scheme of things. Actually humans don't have much history in the scheme of things but I digress. Europe has a lot of really old buildings and all of them come with lots of stories about what they did, how they were built and what life was like in that era. I enjoy history and I got my fair share on this trip.
Australia doesn't have much history in the scheme of things. Actually humans don't have much history in the scheme of things but I digress. Europe has a lot of really old buildings and all of them come with lots of stories about what they did, how they were built and what life was like in that era. I enjoy history and I got my fair share on this trip.
Travel methods used
I didn't always pick the cheapest, which is reflected in how much I spent, but I tried quite a few methods of transport during this trip.
I didn't always pick the cheapest, which is reflected in how much I spent, but I tried quite a few methods of transport during this trip.
- Flights
- Ferry, both overnight and short day trip
- Camper van
- Coach/bus
- Taxi
- Private transfer
- Scooter
- High/low speed trains
- Sleeper trains
- Metro (these are amazing)
- Trams
- Overground suburban trains
- Bicycle
- Canoe
- River boat
- and of course walking. Lots of walking.
What was your favourite place?
This question gets asked a lot but it's really hard to answer. I don't have a single favourite place that trumps all others although if I were forced to pick somewhere, I'd say Kotor because everything just worked. The weather was nice, I met great people, the scenery was awesome, there were great walking trails and I had my birthday there.
My profound realisation is that travel is all about the people. Who you meet is a huge factor in how much you enjoy the place. I went to the Eiffel Tower on my own and it was ok but I've done other things, that might be considered mundane, with the most awesome people and it'll be something I'll remember forever. It's all about the people.
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