The 1000 Day Holiday

For the last month, I have been a non solo traveller. In fact Ive been part of 2 USA sized vehicles driving around the world. They go by the name of “The World By Road“.

I joined the Boys in London, but it was straight onto a Ferry to mainland Europe. This is where the fun really began.

We sampled drank copious amounts of the best beers in the world. Yes Bavaria really does deliver the goods in this department. Not to mention crazy nightclub antics, but more about that later in a dedicated post (Incl Video).

Then the magic really started to happen. The Switzerland board of Tourism really hooked us up, with great digs, cheesy fondue and 6 days snowboarding + Ice climbing thrown in.

Nothing beats blue sky days, pow pow and sharp implements like ice axes thrown in for good measure.

We Continued on into Spain, sampling a little of Sitges Carnaval. Where anything goes outfit wise.

Exploring the coastline of Portugal, and discovering how far people will go to get a decent free wireless signal

And finally bouncing into Morocco. Where we did things like driving through pedestrian markets in Large USA style vehicles as only Americans would do. Nothing like buying 1kg of fresh strawberries out of your car window for $2.

All things considered, a crazy month. Many good times. And now I’m back to Solo travel. It only took me a week to stop wondering where the crew were when I woke up.

St Petersburg: The birth defect museum called Kunst Kamera. Seeing all the school kids looking at the deformed babies in jars, feeling ill, turning away. Thinking theyre ok. turning back. getting wobbly legs again.

Krakow: Getting busted on the trams without a ticket, I wasnt trying to scam it. It just happed that last time I got onto the tram there wasnt a ticket machine at the stop. All the other times I had bought a ticket. In the end two of us hopped off the tram with the inspector. The inspector didnt speak any english, the other guy did. I got off with bribing our way out of the $50 fine by paying $20. Although I think the bribe was actually $10 so I ended up paying the other guys bribe as well. haha

Berlin:Home of the Kebab, and while I had some really average ones, I did also have the best one Ive ever had. It was real chicken on the rotisserie, with capsicum layered within. Roast veges, salad, sauce and goats cheese. All for 2Euro.

UK: I was really expecting the worst in the UK. Maybe I was just exceptionally lucky with the weather. I got many blue sky days and it wasn’t too cold. Or maybe I still ha memories of the snow in Russia & Poland. But the UK did deliver on fun times with great friends. Not too sure about the Ales tho.

Bavaria, Germany: Never have I tried so many damn fine beers, and never have I seen a nightclub like A9 in Ingoldstat. This club is getting a post of its own! 

Switzerland: After joining The World By Road boys we headed thru Paris and into Switzerland for some Snowboarding, Ice Climbing, Fondue eating promotional work = FREE. DAMN.

Andorra: Wow, what a country. Where else can you buy bottles of wine for 50 euro cents and they actually taste ok? Bottled water costs more. 

Spain:  Tapas, Tapas, Tapas and Champagne, Tapas and Champagne. What more needs to be said? 

Living in hostels is quite a change from everyday life, and I’m sure if I had stayed only in hostels for the last 760+ days I would be completely bonkers. Personal space gets squashed, and there’s a lot of snorers, snorees, talkers, plastic bag rustlers etc.

One thing I’m not a fan of is Neuken in de Dorm room. So when people get amorous they should find somewhere a little more private. The problem is the limited options, especially when its cold outside.

CCTV is now in almost every hostel Ive been in, its advertised, conspicuous and everyone knows its there. But what goes on tour is sometimes not what would be done at home.

A case in point. We had been in Edinburgh for a few days and were socialising with the crew of the hostel in the evenings. On one of my last days there, I was heading past the front desk, on my way out and the guy working said to come over and check something out.

The something was the CCTV monitor reviewing the footage from 5am in the lounge area. This was a 25minute session on the only couch left in its folded out state, which just happens to be situated square and centre of the cameras view of the room.

During the following day I overheard many of the different staff asking each other if they had seen last nights highlights…

So what goes on tour, may stay on tour. although its more likely to get watched by bunch of staff having a laugh and possibly even ending up on an TouristsGoneWild CCTV DVD available soon from your local Pron shop.

As a funny aside, this hostel had 6 kitchens! ( keuken´s), these were locked after 11pm, killing the possibility of Neuken in de keuken.