365 Days, 26 Countries and 40 Passport Stamps Pt. 1

Packing the life you know into boxes and the life you don't know into a suitcase was a long process. For a few weeks we were packing up our unit in Australia, filling multiple boxes and a few storage locations (thanks goes to our parents). Surprisingly, for just as long, we were packing our bags, as dummy packs a few weeks out allowed us to see how much room we had or didn't have for the trip. It wasn't just packing for a holiday as per usual, but rather a new life, at least for a while. My main problem was having enough work clothes to get me started, while sharing my luggage space with Ellie's winter boots, extra heels and nice pink coat. One of which hasn't been used after a year so I am willing to sell them, anyone interested in some winter boots?

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Time to get on the move, time to get the first plane and time to say goodbye to home and everything that goes with it. Family, friends, social and sporting life, work and our comfort zone. The first of which being the hardest to farewell. But with their support and encouragement and our dreams ahead of us we said goodbye and flew from small town Townsville to big town London. It was however, via France with a trip to Paris for New Years Eve and exploring cities of Lyon and many more along the southern coast of France with our hire car. This was a great way to start living overseas, as from this point on it just felt like a holiday. We had way too much luggage and unnecessary luggage for France as we had packed for one year, but luckily we had only one hostel stay on the top floor of an old building with no lift. Still looking to offload those winter boots and pink coat.

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When we arrived in London, Ellie had booked an Airbnb that was in Battersea, which is South London. We took an Uber and made ourselves at home. I still remember the drive, taking in the journey time, the black cabs, the red buses and vibrant buzz of the city as we passed through. Suddenly, we were one of 12 million people living in one of the worlds top cities. The weather was miserable with the sun rising around 9 and setting at 4 and our Airbnb was freezing and lacking appropriate heating, but we were not deterred. Just excited to be here and excited to find and move into our own place. With a terrible reputation as little as 10 years ago, Brixton became our home. After a mild panic attack upon hearing it was a dangerous area we fell in love with the vibrant and hipster area with great transport access, shops, stores, bars and restaurants. Financially, finding our own place in Brixton was impossible, it's pretty much impossible anywhere in London unless your willing to burn money. Therefore, we had housemates, some great ones too. Two French girls, an English bloke and another Aussie guy. We all got on extremely well and brought some traditions from home and made them our own with family dinners once a week on a Thursday. Although, the cooking wasn't as good as Grandmas or my auntie Judes but it was always eaten. The group shared responsibilities and more importantly each others company, which meant we had a happy household.

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I started work within the first week of being in London, teaching in a range of schools in South London. There were some noticeable differences from Australian schools to English schools, which I will talk about in another blog to come. I will also make a blog about teaching agencies and some recommendations and tips for anyone who may be heading over to teach in the U.K. The experience was made easier given my two years teaching back home, but I had to apply all the strategies I learnt to keep on top of the more challenging classes, particularly as a supply teacher. I soon found a school that I liked and that liked me, so I committed to working there until the end of school year in July and then again after the summer break with a contract until we head home. The best part about it was how flexible they were with our travel plans, always allowing me to take time off, making the holidays to come possible.

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In the later part of February we went to York and then Leeds in Northern England for a long weekend to watch the North Queensland Cowboys play in the World Club Challenge. It was great as our home team won and we caught up with some of the players straight after the game, on field and back at their hotel. I even scored some merchandise of a premiership winning winger and all round good bloke.

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In March we went to Switzerland, visiting the towns of Basel, Lucerne, Zurich and a town called Wengen in the Alps. Ellie was on skis and I snowboarded for a few days although we are very much at the beginners end of the spectrum. It was a nice country, although it was rather expensive. Still no pink coat or winter boots in use. even in this weather.

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In April we went to Copenhagen (Denmark) for Ellie's birthday over a weekend. It is a beautiful city with a famous mermaid and home of LEGO. We really enjoyed the food market by the port and the Tivolli gardens amusement park.

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A week later we headed to Turkey for the ANZAC dawn service which was an incredible experience. Istanbul is an amazing city, despite recent terror attacks there we didn't feel unsafe and it was probably one of our favourite places so far. The Gallipoli peninsula is a beautiful coastline, something I didn't match with the stories of battle we read or hear about.

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At the end of April and start of May we headed to Scotland for a long weekend visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow. I had previously visited the Edinburgh castle 15 years ago and had some vivid memories as it had not changed. We found Scotland the same as London as all the shops and food seemed the same, but it was still nice to see another place. At this time I had put on a bit of holiday weight and had been doing a lot of running and had been enjoying it so much that I began to run in different cities or countries as we travelled as well.

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In May we had a surprise trip to Belgium when we learnt that Kath was heading over. We took the train under the channel and visited Bruges before meeting Kath in Brussels for dinner. It was great to see her and the others on the trip. Kath even imported over extra luggage from my mum with Aussie treats like Tim Tams (thanks again Kath). It was a shame we forgot to get a photo.

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The last stop for May was a trip to coastal Spain to get some sun in Alicante. A beautiful coast line with crystal clear waters and huge beaches. We drove to Valencia and had a night at a golf and spa resort as well. We travelled with Ellie's cousin and her partner and enjoyed a really relaxing holiday and the fantastic Spanish culture.

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In July, we had an extremely busy month. Ellie and I hired a car and drove to Wales over a weekend, which was nice to see more of the UK countryside and much greener pastures than London's concrete jungle. The following weekend Ellie went to Bratislava, Slovakia with some girlfriends enjoying a hike through a mountain and some really cheap wine. I then went to Spain on my own with a tour group to the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain and a stop in Barcelona. It was a lots of fun with the bulls generating plenty of adrenaline. I was again full of adrenaline after avoiding a pickpocketing situation on the metro in Barcelona, in what otherwise was a fantastic trip, my second to Spain.

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We really enjoyed the first 5 months with lots of travel during school holidays and on long weekends. For those who are wondering, YES we do work in between. But, next is a 6 week summer holiday and plenty more stories to come. Oh, and too hot for winter boots and large pink coats, they'll have to wait for next winter.

#Travel #Holiday #WorkingHoliday