Well here I am again, after a very swift 4 weeks at home - I'm back travelling again. This time I could easily be away for upto 2 years, but I'm insured until November 2010, so we'll see how long I last.
Just a quick recap of my itinerary:-
Kicking off with two months in Europe, planning on spending a chunk of time in and around Romania and a solid month in Turkey.
From Istanbul I will be catching a plane to Sydney on October 20th, where I will see about fruitpicking for 6 months. If circumstances are good I could spend an extra 6 months in Australia, only I won't be working as my working visa will have expired*. In that time I will try my best to get to New Zealand, before then heading to South East Asia.
Meanwhile in the present..
I'm on my second day at the time of writing, arrived in Hamburg at about 9something o'clock and making use of the free wi-fi in the hostel lobby. Yesterday I was in the Belgian city of Brugges.
Brugges was a very pretty little city, the buildings reminded me of Munich architecture with the triangular-shaped roofs. All very cute and village-like. I'd like to go there again for a couple of weeks.
I was pretty knackered by the time I had arrived so after a small wander and grabbing some frites covered in a 'samurai' sauce, I returned to hostel, necked a cool beer, and turned in.
My first day had its share of stress. As a result of my outstanding organisational skills I was late for my train from Sheffield and had to fork out another £61 to get to London St. Pancras. Upon arriving I was lucky enough to be chosen to have my bag checked. So much fun having the entire contents of your bag emptied into a box, with less than ten minutes until your Eurostar is about to depart..
They didn't even confiscate the two penknives I've taken with me.
So, after shoving everything back into my bag with my fist and sprinting up the escalator to some tutting train attendants, I was safe.
It was a much better first day than that of my other trip, in Paris, but very tiring nevertheless.
Today has been more lengthy train rides, so I haven't seen much of anything apart from the insides of carriages. I'm staying in Hamburg for 2 nights though, so I'll see at least a few non-train related things.
Everywhere is incredibly hot.
* Just a quick note on this. Though I won't be able to do anymore fruitpicking after my working visa has finished, I have read about doing things like cleaning in some hostels in order to get free board, which is completely legit.
