Journey

10/10/22 It’s been over a week since I returned from Italy and back to the little town of Alton in Hampshire, England. Back on to my lovely cousin's couch for a little while. I’ve been reflecting on my travels and what my moves will be going forward. Despite my time traveling being only a brief 10 days, I learnt more about the world and more about myself and what I’m capable of. I do cringe when I say things like that, but that’s the reality of it. If you told me a year ago that I would be living in England and visiting European countries at this point of time, I would have called bullshit. Not only that, but traveling across the world by myself to get to these places. It’s something I always wanted to do, but I never thought I would actually do it. I never thought I would do many things. I never thought I would ever consider sharing a room with a bunch of strangers for multiple nights. I never thought I would stop giving a crap about asking strangers on the street for help or rea...

Monaco -  29/9/22 Monte Carlo, Monaco. Literally only a 30 minute train ride and you’re in a different country. I still can’t get over how weird but awesome that is. I packed up from Nice quite early with a decent hangover and little sleep in me. My bus to Italy wasn’t until 6:30pm at night, so I had a bit of time to explore. My cousin Karen told me that Monaco is worth exploring if I was ever near it and Calvin went there yesterday and said it was cool. So I grabbed all my luggage and took a packed out train to Monaco.  Beautiful place, it’s definitely for the rich Jesus Christ. Everyone here were dressed in sharp formal wear just about. I looked like a muppet walking around with my rucksack while wearing my skins and rugby shorts. The French in general have very good style, I’ve noticed that. Made me slightly insecure with all my wrinkled and limited “going-out” clothes on me while everyone in the bloody country wore expensive labels. As I was walking about, I went to go hav...

27/9/22-29/9/22 Nice is such a beautiful place. This is what I’ve really wanted to see! The old and colourful buildings. The colour of the ocean looks like something off of a painting. The enormous mountains surrounding the city. I fell in love with this place instantly. The atmosphere is great, and to top it off it feels like summer over here with temperatures of about 28 Degrees Celsius. I’ve been having some beautiful swims and sun bathing sessions at the beaches that’s for sure. Naturally I booked another night after only booking one night originally, sadly the second night was at a different hostel that was kind of crappy compared to my original one, but that didn’t matter too much as I had ideas of where I wanted to go around here.  Of all my travels across France so far, this area is definitely my favourite. It isn’t perfect, but has a whole lot more beauty to offer than the previous places I’ve been to. Even my hostel Villa Saint Exupery Beach was great! The bedrooms were g...

26/9/22-27/9/22 Did you know that Marseille is actually pronounced as Mar-say, and not Mar-seal? I was today years old when I learnt of that!   Bloody hell, Marseille was quite an interesting place that’s for sure. I’m glad I only booked one night there, put it that way! My journey from Lyon to Marseille was a shit show to begin with. Somehow I missed my early morning bus to get to Marseille even though I was 40 minutes early and supposedly at the correct platform and area as described on my ticket! Still not quite sure what happened there to be honest. That was my first decent travel cock-up since I left New Zealand, so I haven’t done too bad really. Luckily I got a refund through the chat line of FlixBus, which I wasn’t meant t o receive but the lady said it was out of good will, which was nice! I was pissed because there were no more buses until stupid o’clock at night, so I had to take the next train instead in order to check-in to my hostel in time. That was frustrating becaus...

25/9/22-26/9/22 I never really planned on coming to Lyon. It kind of only served as a half way point between Paris and the south of France, which is where I really wanted to get to. The Away Hostel and Coffee shop I stayed at was nice, I got on pretty well with most of the people in my room too which almost made me regret booking my next destination in advance a little bit. To be fair I didn’t find that much to do in Lyon that made me really want to book another night anyway, so I didn’t mind that much in the end. I know that I’ll meet more people along the way. I guess it was just nice to talk to other people properly here after feeling pretty alone in Paris. Don’t get me wrong, I love being alone when I know that I am alone. But I don’t like feeling alone when I know that I’m not alone, if you catch my drift here.   It’s quite interesting meeting people who come from all over the world. Finding out what they’re doing, where they’ve been and where they come from. One bloke I got o...

Note: (5/10/22) Before I begin with this post about my time in Paris, I just want to clarify something a bit about my last post. The way I spoke about myself may have made me sound like I’ve been some sort of super depressed, unhappy person my entire life. But this isn’t the case at all. On the whole, I’ve always been a pretty chill, simple living and happy guy that really loves his life for the most part. I have a lot to love and live for. As long as I’ve got nature near me, friends and family, keeping myself fit and playing video games now and then - I’m very easy to please. People who know me well should be able to see that much from the outside. I’ve just always had confidence issues within myself that I never truly acknowledged until I was an adult. That truly stemmed all of this negative will I had towards myself, I was my own biggest enemy. My confidence issues always bothered me a little, sure. When I was younger though, I just used to just accept that that’s just who I was. Th...

22/9/22 After living in the United Kingdom for nearly 4 months now, tonight finally marks the beginning of my journey to Europe for the very first time. An overnight bus from London to Paris with nothing but a ruck sack. It hasn't really hit me until now that this is finally happening. I've dreamed of doing this adventure to Europe for a long time now, and it will soon become a reality. Dreaming of being on another adventure whilst being on one already! Truth is I don’t think I’ll be able to travel for as long as I’d like to this time round, yet I’m still so excited to explore what other countries have to offer! Before I go any further, my name is Liam. I'm a 26 year-old man from New Zealand, and I have been living in England for nearly 4 months now since departing from NZ on a one-way journey. I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere back in New Zealand. I felt like I was in such a rut. I just didn't know what I wanted and just had this massive sense of unfulfillment ...