Around 45 hostels, 1894 photos and a bit under £4k later; I am back home.
The past 3 and a bit months has flown by and I'm already eager to get straight back out again. There's been so many amazing experiences and people along the way that I'm glad I made the effort to write in a journal.
I got back on Tuesday afternoon, from Brussells on the Eurostar. It went like clockwork. When I was on English soil again, the trees and landscape were instantly familiar, not to mention the sudden emergence of English people.
I'd been staying for 3 days with a friendly dutch guy in Southern Holland, near the border of Belgium. It was a very cool place to relax in my few remaining days and the Dutch hospitality was very much appreciated. They were late, smokey evenings and I was glad that there was someone who actually wanted to view each and every one of my photographs.
A few things...
My bag was the ideal size - I regularly received compliments on the size of my sack... ha. But really, there hasn't been anything I left out. I did tend to hoard books that I'd read as the books on offer in hostels were more often than not not worth the paper they were printed on.
My camera was the ideal size. I'd see so many people lugging a huge camera and lense all over the place, when, unless they're taking photos for a magazine, it was unneccesary. All you need is something for a quick snap-and-grab.
Souvenirs. The closest things I got to souvenirs - a bottle of 92% Absinth Wormwood from Amsterdam, a nice penknife from Bordeaux, a cheap hipflask from Porto, a metal t-shirt from the Barroselas SWR-fest, a pair of shorts from Frankfurt and, seeing as it cost so much... a bottle of suncream from Florence... for €16. There were no gifts.
Clothes. I think I had the right amount of clothes, but for the next trip I'm definitely gonna leave most of the quick-drying items at home and take some casual stuff instead. Also, I could've done with at least one pair of shorts and some sandals - I'm sure the smell of my sweat-encrusted shoes lost me a few friends.
Music. Whoever said not to bother taking an mp3 player - I wish I had. My only slight concern would've been that, no matter the size of the player, it wouldn't be long before I'd get bored of the music. There were so many train journeys where I didn't have a fresh book to read and the scenery wasn't upto much where I could've done with a few familiar songs.
Meanwhile, I apologise for the vast lack of updates towards the second half of my trip, this is due to prices for Internet-time, tight deadlines and probably having too much fun.
A lot of the time I'd pay for 30mins in an Internet cafe, for the sole use of booking accommodation and finding out train times (Hi, www.bahn.de), and what little time I had left I used to check emails - no time to produce lengthy accounts of what I was upto. You may be in luck for next time however, as I'm looking into getting a cheap, small netbook (we're talking 10" screen here) for under £400. That will be useful for films, music, Internet and of course - blogging.
So. At the moment, in my early stages of vague planning, it looks as if I may be able to set off for Eastern Europe as early as August 19th, then, towards the end of October I'll be on a plane to Australia (probably landing in Sydney) for maybe 6 months. I'm looking forward to the limitless joys of fruitpicking, before East Asia.
On the second trip, before I get to Australia, I am thinking about a mixture of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Serbia, in no particular order. When I get to Turkey I think sticking to the West side is likely a good bet.
Currently I'm sifting through photographs on the comfort of my home PC, I'll upload some later on.
