It’s My Party & I’ll Split If I Want To

It was almost three years to the day that this blog started, and what a three years they have been. On my 22nd birthday, it seems very apt that I am spending 5 hours on a bus in Croatia from Split to Dubrovnik, because my life as a 21-year-old was dominated by travel.

It all started on my 21st birthday last year when my job sent me to Amsterdam for the day. Waking up at 3am has it’s obvious downsides, but it was a great day visiting one of the largest broadcasting tradeshows in the world. I even got a birthday shout-out on the plane, thanks to my colleagues who persuaded an air hostess to do the honours. I got back to Guildford at 10pm where my housemates were waiting for me with cake and presents :) Not your traditional 21st birthday, but certainly setting a trend for the next year of my life…

I’ve done a lot of travelling, all thanks to my placement year at Sony that saw me working in Switzerland for most of the year. In a typical week I would fly out of Heathrow first thing Monday morning and return on Friday evening… in total flying on over 80 planes! I also took the opportunity to spend a weekend in Amsterdam with some friends instead of flying home. Some weekends I opted to stay out in Switzerland, and that allowed me to make a couple of day trips to Milan, since it was only an hour away by train. I also spent a weekend in a hotel overlooking Lake Como with Charlotte, something I would never have been able to do before.

And that’s the other travelling tale of the last year… I have taken the train to Weymouth for the weekend several times to see Charlotte. Now you can start to see how travelling has shaped my year: Flying to Switzerland on Monday, back on Friday, then going to Weymouth on Saturday, back to Guildford on Sunday then back to Switzerland on Monday… And that’s before you mention Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the boat trips…It’s been a hectic year, but I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Having a 9-to-5 really takes up more time than you think, especially after 2 years at uni when you got used to a timetable with enough space in it for long lunches and late nights out without worrying about getting on the 7:45am train. But then add on to that job the flying, the packing and being away from home and you no longer have time to do the little things: laundry, buying stamps, etc. I’m looking forward to the next year at uni resembling some sort of normality… It’s the middle of September and I’m yet to sleep in the same bed for more than 2 weeks at a time! It’s been a different year, but I’ve still been able to stick to my new years resolution of being true to yourself…

My life has changed, but I’m still the same person. I’m doing what I try to do best: living life to the full by taking every chance. After all we only regret the things we don’t do, the chances we didn’t take and the choices we hid from - for fear of doing the wrong thing… stop making excuses and do it!

And that’s the reason behind this InterRail trip. Do it while you can. And so far it’s been unbelievable; so many cultures, landscapes and people! I recommend anyone to do it, you won’t regret it! (It’s funny how as I write this, the bus we are on is driving along a coastal road – cliffs to my left and the blue waters of the Adriatic sea to the right, the small terracotta roofs of the local shops and houses reflecting the glorious sunshine beaming down from an endless blue sky)

So now you can see why I might not have written in this blog as much as i would otherwise like to! But by far the best thing I did this year was buy a new camera – capturing the experiences so I can remember them for years to come :) Who knows what I’ll be dong in a years time, but if it’s anything like the last year, it’s really not even worth guessing!