#trip update

I sit here, at a Starbucks, drinking my Venti coffee and munching away on a lemon poppyseed seed muffin.

A combination that's become synonymous with getting my day off to the proper start, and putting myself into the right head space to go exploring.

As I write this, it's 11:15am on August 22nd 2017. I'm in London, England, at a Starbucks near Bayswater underground station.

In a bit over 24 hours from now, at 12:50pm, August 23rd, 2017, a planes wheels will lift off the tarmac, signalling the end of my 2 months exploring Europe.

It's been a hell of a trip.

There's a number of places I didn't make it to:

- Croatia 🇭🇷

- Italy 🇮🇹

- France 🇫🇷

- Norway 🇳🇴

- Scotland (N/A)

And I didn't manage to meet up with my friend Lea.

But there has been many countries I did make it to...

- The UK 🇬🇧

- Ireland 🇮🇪

- Spain 🇪🇸

- Switzerland 🇨🇭

- Germany 🇩🇪

- Netherlands 🇳🇱

- Denmark 🇩🇰

- Sweden 🇸🇪

Heck of a good list, if I do say so.

The rest will have to wait until I return, hopefully next time with someone to explore with me.

I did meet a heck of a lot of awesome people, though I could have easily met more, and likely missed out on some epic experiences thanks to my anxiety and trust issues...

I'm sure the scale of it all will hit me after a few days of recovery back home, but for now I'm just glad it's coming to an end soon.

I'm ready to get back to Canada and get on with finding somewhere new to hunker down for the winter months and see what the spring brings.

I've always lived for other people, specifically my mom. I was her world.

With 11 years between me and my youngest brother, I basically grew up an only child.

I know it kept her up at night when I traveled.

Burning Man 2011.

Newfoundland 2013.

I actually had to plan the trip to Newfoundland behind her back, because she kept telling me to wait, and she'd take us somewhere for Christmas. Head south. She talked about that every year. But she was scared stiff of travelling. Every little news article played into her fear.

We never did make it south.

Now that she is no longer with us, and I have came to a point where after 4.5 years trying to make a go of it in Regina, a decent effort, it's ran its course. I have neither the desire nor the reason to stick around.

It's time to start living my life for myself.

Regina has been good for me. I've learnt a lot and grown even more. I don't regret my time in Regina.

I know if I hadn't been overweight at graduation, that I'd have taken a couple years off to wander, to travel, to find myself.

But with the cards I was dealt, I took a year off to work, then a year in college, and it's all been a blur since.

This is my chance to right every regret in my life. To make some mistakes, to earn some scars, to get out into the world.

At 26, I have 8 years of life experience that 18 year old me didn't.

Time to put it to use...

Anyways, I've been sitting in this Starbucks for an hour now, time to go start my final afternoon of exploring London. I'll check in again this evening!

)'( Love And Light Till We Ignite )'(

Trip Update - August 14th

So I know I promised you guys a ton of pics today, but it looks like we might have a repeat of Copenhagen. Beautiful, but not photogenic (granted, I haven’t been able to find the areas I saw coming into town that were covered in graffiti). I did plenty of walking today, by the screenshot above, but only took probably 10 pics total.

For that reason, I’m probably going to book another night in Bristol.

And I know I said I was gonna try and make it to Glasgow Pride Parade on Saturday if I had it in me, but I don’t.

I went looking into it this evening, and hostel rooms this weekend in Glasgow are $60/night. If I was up for another Pride, it’d be worth it. But I’m not.

So I got looking at a map, and noticed Brighton Beach, renowned for their Pride festival, which occurred earlier this month, and decided to look into hostels there this weekend. $15.

Sold.

Looks like I’m spending my last weekend in Europe relaxing on the beach.

Scotland, you’re going on my To Do list.

So with that I’m about to call it a night. I’m planning to book one more night in Bristol, and spend tomorrow looking for the areas I saw on my way into town.

On Thursday I’m planning to hop a bus from Bristol to Brighton, and spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights there.

Back to London on Sunday, to unwind until I head back to Canada Wednesday morning.

Trip Update - August 3rd

So this is the slight detour that I mentioned yesterday that I didn’t want to talk about in case it didn’t pan out, and I’m glad I didn’t, cause it has pretty much fizzled out.

I replied to a post on Reddit r/hitchhiking yesterday morning from a guy looking for someone to explore western Germany with him by hitchhiking. He was in Berlin, I was in Hannover, about 2 hours apart. He said he’d meet me in Hannover the next day (Thursday) since I already had my hostel paid for, then we’d head out together from Hannover, destination to be determined.

So after a bit of confusion trying to meet up this afternoon, we finally do. He asks if it’s ok if we just head towards Hamburg. I say sure, that was my next city anyways. I’m curious why we’re not headed the other direction, but I don’t say anything as Hamburg is progress on my trip anyways.

After a quick and uneventful driveby from the police, we got a quick ride a few miles down the road to the north/ south autobahn that headed to Hamburg. A quick bathroom break, and we were back on the road with our thumbs out.

Not even an hour, and we had a ride. Cool guy on his way to a Metal festival for the weekend (think it was “Vasser” or something. You’d have got along well with him, Denys).

My new travel partner fell asleep a few minutes into the 2 hour drive, but the driver and I had no problem finding stuff to talk about. Very natural conversation. Trip went by really fast. (If you’re reading this, thank you again for the ride).

So we got into Hamburg and pulled into a McDicks. My travel partner and I were both sick of McDs, so we thanked our driver, and went on our way, to a little Italian restaurant down the street and had a bite to eat.

We booked a hostel for the night during supper, and it was only a few blocks away, so we headed over after supper.

We discussed booking 2 nights so that we didn’t have to get up and go again tomorrow, we could spend a day exploring Hamburg. We got to the hostel and asked about extending our stay. Of course being a Friday, it was more expensive than a Thursday, and more than my travel partner could afford. I mentioned he should go visit the family he has near Hamburg and stay with them instead, and he agreed. So he booked one night, and I booked 2. Gonna spend tomorrow exploring Hamburg.

So with the plans of blowing a week exploring western Germany scrapped, I’m back to my original plan of Copenhagen.

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to today. Not much for pics. I picked up a sleeping bag for €22 off the clearance rack at a sporting goods store this morning just in case I need it (stuck between cities for the night or whatever).

And a photo I snapped of the speedometer while cruising along the autobahn.

)’( Love And Light Till We Ignite )’(

Shitposting - Aug 9th

Just a bunch of crap that’s been clogging up my phone, waiting to be posted.

OH MY FUCKING GAWD!!!!!

I swear this wasn’t intentional.

Loaded up Amsterdam on Google Maps to see how far out of the city I was, and low and behold, what do I see, the telltale RAINBOW ROAD!!!

I will be in Amsterdam, the hedonism capital of the world, for their Pride Parade!

Holy FUCK!

My mood just did a 180*

So after 3 nights in Munich, and getting in contact with my friend in Croatia, my plans have shifted slightly.

Turns out that my friend has decided to head to Norway for August / September for work, and I won’t be able to make it to Croatia in time to spend any significant amount of time with her. She has, however, said I could possibly stay with her in Norway if I make my way up there.

With my main motivation for heading to Croatia gone (other than the beautiful scenery, I still want to see that some day), and with being in Munich, somewhat central in the grand scheme of things, I’m presented with 2 options:

A: Head south from Munich to Venice, Italy, spend a few days in Venice, then head to Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, then head back up north,

Or

B: Head north from Munich towards Berlin, spend a few nights there, then continue on to some combination of The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, then hop over to Scotland and make my way back south towards London.

I’ve gone with option B.

I know I’ve been hyping up Croatia quite a bit, and I know a few of you (*cough* Jordan *cough* Love You *cough*) really wanted to see me go to Italy, but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be time to do Italy justice.

Italy feels like a place where I could spend a week on just it alone.

There’s so much history.

So much to see, so much to do.

Rome, Turin, Venice, Pompeii, etc.

Italy feels like somewhere I could take a week or two off work, book a cheap, off peak, round trip flight, and fuck off to for a week or two.

If two weeks, head over to Croatia for a bit too.

And once I’ve got these two months under my belt, it will be far less hesitation to decide to come back to Europe for a week or two holidays to backpack individual or a handful of small countries.

For this reason, I’ve also likely cut France out of my plans as well. No Paris on this trip. I’ll have to keep an eye out for cheap flights to France, and come spend a week.

Finding myself at the halfway point of my trip, I have to start prioritizing exactly what I want to see and do.

If I was still going to get to see my friend in Croatia, then I’d be headed south, but without her there, I’m headed north.

I leave for Berlin tomorrow morning, and have booked 2 nights at a hostel in Berlin.

There’s still a thing or two I wouldn’t mind checking out in Munich, but I don’t know…

Chalk it up to anxiety, chalk it up to wanting to get on with the trip, chalk it up to premonitions, chalk it up to gut feelings, chalk it up to whatever you want, but something is giving me a really bad feeling about staying in Munich any longer. Like something is going to happen if I stick around another day.

It’s likely just nerves, but I’m going to listen to them…

So yeah, onto Berlin tomorrow…

)’( Love And Light Till We Ignite )’(