Not many people could say that in one year they saw in the New Year watching fireworks in Bali, celebrated Australia Day in Singapore, filmed a road trip around South Australia, swam with sea lions in the wild, experienced a stomach-churning ride in a tiger moth, sandboarded down a sand dune, went up in a helicopter, attempted to swim with Great White Sharks, spent 6 months living, partying and working in Portugal, haggled in a souk in Marrakech, breathed in the air of the Atlas mountains, ate fries in Belgium, drank coffee in Paris and had a family reunion in London.
Some of you travel bloggers out there probably have even more colourful stories to tell of 2010 than mine. But nevertheless it was the most eventful year I’ve had yet in my travelling life. It began on a great note by winning the Vantastic competition run by World Nomads, which gave me the incredible opportunity to do all sorts of free activities that I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.
I spent 6 weeks in a campervan filming my roadtrip around South Australia, before returning to Bali to pack up my bags and head over to Europe for a summer of fun working in bars in Lagos, Portugal. It’s a place I feel every backpacker should visit once in their life purely because it’s the best party place I’ve ever been. I took a few days to head over to Marrakech for some much needed detoxing on mint tea and as the winter started to draw near, I headed home for the first time in two years. Since then I’ve spent several long weekends exploring Belgium and Paris whilst catching up on work and having treatment on the scars from my scooter accident.
Most commonly asked question…how did I afford it all? In Bali I made event videos for Ku De Ta and did some online social media marketing work. My trip around South Australia was funded by World Nomads after I won a video competition. In Portugal I worked in bars and the rest of my income was from copywriting and this blog. Now I make most of my income from this blog, writing for other websites and knocking up press releases and online marketing for other people.
What did I learn from 2010? A lot, but there’s one main thought I’ll take away from this year. When I left my home of Manchester, I was desperate to get away. I felt I was escaping boredom, mundaneness, a life where everything stays the same. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was ashamed of where I was from, but I certainly didn’t rave about it. I wanted to get as far away as possible and stay there, and I certainly didn’t want to feel the cold again.
But what I came to realise from all that adventure and all that travelling, is that everything can become mundane after a while, wherever you are. Everywhere you go is different, but the essence of it all is still the same. Wherever you go in the world, people still gravitate towards family and friends, routine, work, purpose. And whilst backpacking is the best life experience I think you can ever get, it can also make you feel incredibly confused and lost.
When I came home this year, I came home because I wanted to be home. For the first time I looked at my home as if I was a tourist, and I began to appreciate that every place can be a foreign place, including my home town. I appreciate my home and my family more than I ever did before I left to go travelling, and whilst I’m intending to visit even more countries this year, I’ll feel a lot more comforted when I hop on a plane that home is somewhere I’ll be proud of.
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Very insightful, I’m forever wondering if I’ll miss Newcastle when I leave….I’m guessing “no” but we’ll see. Lovely post.