I fly back to Auckland tomorrow after two months of travelling on a round-the-world ticket and I thought it was a good time to tally up while it’s still fresh in my mind.
I visited 7 different countries (not counting airport stop-overs in other countries), I took 12 flights, 6 rail journeys and 5 ferry trips, figured out 5 underground transport systems, and I slept in 20 different beds. I managed to play music in 7 different venues.
It was a challenge to play live, write a blog, attend a swim event, visit relatives, and to do it as a budget traveller. I wanted to keep organised and stay motivated and have some fun. I wanted to be part of some different cultures and really get to know them, not just pass though, but to really get a feel for them and the people who lived there.
I hired bikes in many places and just cycled for hours down streets, alleyways and through parks. And I have never done so much walking in my whole life.
I possibly gave myself too much to do and in hindsight would have done some things differently. I kept fairly much to my original schedule and perhaps shouldn’t have. For example, a hire car in France would have been a better idea, but I did get to do really fast in the TGV from Lyon to Paris in 2 hours.
I found this kind of extended travelling quite complicated and demanding at times and I spent quite some time every few days searching through options and trying to make decisions from a large number of choices and their associated costs.
I will be glad to be home and back into my work. I have no regrets, and had no major problems or loses. I had no accidents or ill health and I never missed any of my flights or trains. Generally, I found things would often just fall into place.
To sum up, I’d say travelling is easier than it’s ever been before thanks to good accomodation operators, better transport networks, and most important of all, those wonderful iPhone apps.
Hi Tony, it was a pleasure reading your travel log. What an amazing thing to do. It was nice to see you here in Blighty and I hope your final journey home goes well. Then you can relax into your normal routine, and a good rest I imagine. leo
Thank you Leo – a very friendly time in your flat, thank you for the hospitality!
Beats me why anyone ever calls something final. Final V2 has a certain life to it.
My next boat I may call ‘never again 2’
I’ve read and enjoyed all your post. I have found the cheapest way to travel is vicariously through someone else while sipping French fizz under a heat lamp. Bon voyage.. Piet
Hi Piet, Yes, indeed, Final post v2 is a bit silly, the reason is that I wanted to send the final post to a couple more of my mates here in Auckland but couldn’t figure out how to send a posted post separately to two people in WordPress. There is a way but it’s too much to figure out, so I just decided to send the Final post to everyone again and include the new subscribers – I also improved the grammar a bit. Stand by for Final Post v3. It was a great trip and glad to be home, thanks for reading. (PS, the really interesting stuff isn’t in the blogs, wink, wink).