Two years ago today I boarded a flight to Spain. What was initially “three or so months in Europe and then a year in Australia” got slightly out of hand.
When the question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” came up at school, I’m curious as to what the response to the answer of “living out of a backpack in hostels, at one stage weeding farmers fields/packing and planting melons, being known to quit my job to travel and deciding which country to go to the day before” would be. It’s a pretty awesome path if you ask me.
It was such a change going from travelling through Europe to living in Australia, where I found it difficult to settle as in Europe you can travel not even two hours and experience a whole new culture. Here you can travel for ten hours and the culture is more or less the same. It’s coming up to halfway through my second year Working Holiday Visa now and I’m pretty happy with where I am and what I’ve done in the country, then at the end of July onwards I’ll be a full-time traveller again.
My attitude for the future is that if I can’t do something in a pair of flip flops or if it doesn’t require me to put on some hiking boots (or in my case, my Nikes as I’m not made of luggage space) I’m probably not going to want to do it.
At the moment I’m probably around the halfway mark of what has turned into my round the world trip. Throughout the next year I’m going to be travelling through Asia, then back to Europe. After that I’m hoping to arrive in New Zealand, most likely on a Working Holiday Visa and after that I have to figure out how to do South America. From leaving Australia, I want to do all of this just with hand luggage.
My highlights? Spending over two weeks in Budapest, it’s my favourite place and I can’t wait to return. Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef. Getting stuck in a cyclone shelter in Ayr and getting featured in a few online articles, as well as having my parents watch me on BBC News in Spain. Some of the job opportunities I’ve had in Australia – a two week stint in Cradle Mountain and the Melbourne Races. My farm work, it’s hard to describe – the best worst time I’ve ever had. Attempting to jump into the bush on a roundabout after several beers, faceplanting, injured myself and still had the beer in my hand (also caught on video). Watching Barcelona play at Camp Nou. Hostel piss-ups. Exploring Berlin. Going to Japan because I felt like it. Driving the Great Ocean Road. Not having to put up with peoples’ bullshit. Going to see the Australian Open two years running – and seeing both women’s and men’s champions in 2018 play. That’s just a few of my highlights, anyway.
The past two years have been fantastic and I cannot wait for the next couple of years to unfold.