Santiago de Chile... The End of the Adventure!

Well, I made it.

This morning I write from Santiago de Chile, the very last international stop on a journey which has taken me across six continents and 53 countries, has seen me cross the equator six times, travel across 40 time zones, and cover 98.61 latitudinal degrees on this amazing planet we are all lucky enough to call home. It’s a journey which has been rewarding, exciting, challenging and even confronting at times, and after 45 flights, over 6000km on a train through Russia, over 11,000km in a truck through Africa, and countless hours waiting in airports, bus terminals, train stations and ferry ports all over the world, in just hours this journey will come to an end.

With only 24 hours here in Santiago, I spent yesterday afternoon exploring the city centre, before heading out to an actual restaurant for dinner last night. Sitting alone at a table, I had no one to talk to, and no one to keep me company – a situation which would have bored me almost to tears at many points throughout the past year; however, on my last night out of Australia, sitting alone and watching the world pass me by was exactly what I wanted to do.

One of the challenges of travelling for as long as I have been fortunate enough to do, is that sometimes it’s too easy to forget to stop and really appreciate a destination, experience or moment. Just yesterday I looked out the window of my plane, at the snow-capped peaks of the Andes Mountain Range below, and it suddenly occurred to me what an amazing experience I have had, yet how common-place it had all become. My year has been filled with spectacular views, once-in-a-lifetime moments, and some of the most extraordinary opportunities I could ever dream of – yet non-stop travel really doesn’t allow the time to sit back and truly comprehend the magnitude of what is seen, experienced and learned. As I head back home, it’s now time to really reflect back on what a journey I have had; reflect on the diversity of the human race, the natural world in which we exist, the courage and determination of people to stand up for what they believe, the joy which comes from sharing our lives with others, and even the challenges which we all at some point are forced to face.

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago I was heading to Adelaide airport, with only a rough itinerary for a year abroad, and no idea how I was going to pull this ridiculously ill-prepared feat off. I was so sick the day I left Australia, and at the time I couldn’t help but think it might be a better life-choice to turn around, go back to bed, and forget this silly idea to travel had even entered my mind. However, I didn’t turn back, and with every new destination I arrived in, every bus, train or plane I boarded, and every challenge I met along the way, somehow the ridiculous feat became less and less ridiculous, and my very rough itinerary fattened itself up into an adventure I never could have dreamed of.

I remember early on in my travels, thinking how foreign it was to sleep in a different bed every night, attempt a different language every few days or weeks, and to spend hours, if not days, sleeping in airports and bus stations, couches or hammocks. However, somewhere along the way this became the norm – a very exciting norm – and all of the sudden it feels foreign to be heading back home, to my own bed, my own house, and the certainty of knowing what the next day, week and month is likely to bring. While there are definitely aspects of home I am looking forward to, and friends and family I am looking forward to seeing, it’s a bittersweet end, for I know I will miss the freedom of travel, the excitement of a new destination, the buzz which comes from achieving what once seemed impossible, and the joy which comes from sharing these moments with the people in my life.

I started this blog as a way to remember my travels, to share these with my family and friends, and to give me something to look back on in years to come. It hasn’t always been easy to write, and finding motivation at times has been almost near impossible, but with a great rush over the last couple of days, I’ve managed to see it through to the end. It’s funny to think about what might happen to the words, thoughts, memories and pictures I have poured into this page, and while many people would hesitate to leave such personal information and intellectual property in the world of cyberspace, I’d like to believe it’s a way of my journey continuing long after I return home. 200 years down the track, when someone Super-Google’s the definition of Smiley Fritz, Olga the train lady, or Underbelly: Stan & Stacy, they might just stumble on this primitive two-dimensional webpage, and somehow I’ll know my efforts did not go to waste.

So, where to from here? I hear you ask. In just a couple of hours I will be boarding my flight back to Sydney, Australia, where my mum Amanda, sister Hannah, and brother Tim are waiting to meet me. With a 24 hour stopover in Sydney, it will be nice to spend some time with family, before making the final journey back home to Adelaide late tomorrow evening. Those of you who know me well will know I have never been so good at the whole ‘knowing which direction to take in life’ thing, and even after a year abroad, I’m afraid not much has changed. Just yesterday I found out I’ve been re-accepted into university (this was a surprise – I assumed there was a black mark next to my name!), and with only one year to go to finish my degree, at the moment that’s looking like the plan for 2013. When I left Australia, I left behind a job I absolutely loved, a team of staff who made every day worthwhile, and a potential career path in a direction I was more than happy to go in, however, as much as things were right at the time, it’s not my time to go back yet.

It’s impossible to know what the future does hold, and I can’t even comprehend how much my year abroad has changed the direction I will take. While the year has failed to provide me with any exact plan of what to do with my life, or where I will be in one, five or even 50 years, I do know the experiences, opportunities and challenges of the past 12 months, and the lessons learned, will still be very much with me in the decisions I make which shape the rest of my days.

To all of you who have read this blog along the way, have left your comments, shared your stories, and given me the encouragement I often needed to keep on typing, I thank you. To the people I have met on the road, in the sky, or anywhere in-between, I thank you for making this year a truly amazing experience, and one I am certain never to forget. To those I will now call ‘friends’ for the rest of my life, I thank you for the impact you have had, the memories we will forever share, and the positive contribution you have made to this world, just by being you. Whether travelling, living abroad, or sharing your house and lives with travellers like myself, it takes great courage and bravery to open your life to adventure, and I congratulate you and thank you for what you do each and every day. But most importantly, to the many millions of people I have encountered this year purely through you living your life, and me living mine, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To have the opportunity, financial means and political freedom to travel the world is a privilege I am so very lucky to have, and to have had the opportunity to walk alongside you in the street, stand beside you on a bus, share a train cabin across Siberia, or enjoy a meal together from a street vendor in a small village in the South American mountains has been an honour, and gift I will never be able to repay. By simply living your life, you have enriched mine beyond what words can express.

And finally, as I finish this last blog entry, I want to remind you all of a quote I read way back on my very first flight on January 20^th, 2012. It’s from the book Tropic of Capricorn (2008, BBC Books), by Simon Reeve, and 365 days after reading this for the very first time, I still believe it to be one of the most important lessons I have taken with me on my travels around the globe, and will take into my future adventures.

“When we leave our borders we should remember travel is a desire of many, but an honour for a few. As such it carries certain responsibilities. For the time has long gone when we could happily settle for weeks on a sunny beach without considering the environmental impact of our travels, or the fact that our boutique hotel is owned by the son of the local dictator. None of us should now be travelling blind, and learning more about the places we visit makes for a more interesting experience, a more rounded adventure. So following the Tropic of Capricorn is important to me, but the real idea is to use it as the central thread of a journey that teaches me more about issues and places of which we hear little in the West.”

Simon Reeve, 2008

Thank you for reading, “From Smiley Fritz to Santiago… A year in the life of an escaped Service Deli Manager.”

Until my next big adventure,

Santiago de Chile

January 19, 2013

The not-so-Great Ocean Road... Curitiba to Colonia del Sacramento!

Curitiba, capital of Brazil’s Paraná state, was our New Years Eve destination! Chosen solely for its lack of coastal location (and therefore cheap accommodation prices!), the town is barely even a dot on the map, and we arrived expecting nothing more than a couple of shops, a few business buildings, and a maybe a couple of restaurants if we were lucky – you know, just like a small town in Australia. However, arriving late at night into the city it turns out small dots on the Brazilian map are considerably larger than small dots on the Australian map, and with a population of over 3.2 million people, the city was almost the size of Sydney!

With only one full day in the city, we occupied our time exploring the picturesque city centre, the beautiful mosaicked pedestrian malls and parklands, and Curitiba’s apparent drawcard (it wasn’t so good!), the botanic gardens. Having booked the cheapest dorm, in the cheapest hostel, in the cheapest town, we was pleasantly surprised to have the room to ourselves, and while the hostel put on a great dinner and set off firecrackers at midnight, not even their enthusiasm was enough to keep me up past 11:30pm, and I enjoyed NYE from the comfort of my bed! I did at least stay awake til midnight, which is more than my mother can say!

Parental Supervision!!! Behaving myself in South America!

Today I write from the rooftop terrace of my hostel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Saying a sleepy farewell to my mum in the early hours of the morning, I sent her out into this busy city alone, where hopefully she managed to brave the city's terrifying 'Joni Mitchell' playing taxi drivers, and make her way to the airport - and her return flight to Australia. We've spent the past month travelling together through Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay - meeting up with old friends, making new friends, and most importantly, proving to my now 50 year old mother that flying is not in fact as scary as she has always thought, and contrary to her popular belief, Google Images is not always the best way to see the world!!!

Amanda and James - Gang

Unfortunately our month of travel contained many a public holiday (and some days when certain government offices just decided it was a public holiday to get an extra few days off...), and with a Brazilian visa for myself proving almost as elusive as the African Leopard, it was certainly an interesting month! It also turns out the Christmas/NY season is not necessarily the best time to visit South America, with many locals leaving their towns to escape the tourists, and many tourists leaving towns due to the lack of locals... a vicious cycle which I've concluded is intentionally put in place to allow the locals who do stay more time to remind tourists of the dire state of the local economy... again.

As with many countries I have visited around the world, the economy of all three of these countries has been a popular topic of conversation - usually brought up by a local who insists their country is the worst place to live in the WHOLE world, while they drag away on their second packet of durries for the day, before explaining how badly they need a break from their stressful retail job... where they no doubt manage to somehow fit three-hours of real work into a nine-hour shift. Customer service has been a particularly entertaining/frustrating aspect of our trip, and while many of our conversations ended with us subjected to yet another story of financial hardship, and the poor employment rates, coming across service that would even rate as 'poor' in Australia has been a rarity (I will mention Sao Paulo was a pleasant surprise!). Yesterday, after waiting in a checkout line that would have the Woolworths Facebook page in meltdown with complaints, I even thought I was going to get a smile from a checkout girl! Of course, she saved her country's reputation just in time - sneakily turning that positive lip movement into a casual yawn, before proceeding to chew her gum while scanning our purchases - a task which she treated as a real inconvenience!

It's certainly been an eye opening month of travel, with a great deal of waiting around and wasting time (all those people who told me Brazilian buses are the best in the world - you're fools!), and while not everything went to plan, we did at least get the opportunity to see many unexpected, unsavoury and downright weird people and places along the way!

The Road to Death Road!

Today I write from the balcony of my cute twin-bed, mother-and-son hotel room, overlooking the impressive Teatro Solis in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. Travelling with my mum for almost a month now, and having covered a distance of over 4,500km in some of the world's least reliable and least comfortable buses, we've enjoyed a couple of days wandering the city's beautiful streets and markets, before moving on tomorrow to Colonia del Sacramento, a small coastal town about three hours from the capital. With a ferry across the Rio del la Plata, we'll be back in Argentina, and after three nights in Buenos Aires, I'll be on my way to Santiago, Chile - for the very last international stop of my trip round the world!

While I'm excited to be heading home to see friends and family, and to sleep in my own bed, I must admit I am not looking forward to my year abroad coming to an end, and I'd love to keep travelling! In some ways it feels like only yesterday I was packing my bags and leaving Australia, yet in many ways I look back on the past year, and how I have changed, and my view on the world has changed, and it seems I have been away for an entire lifetime!!!

With the countdown til my return now into single figures, I have some serious catching up to do on this blog, and I'll pick up where I left off - with my first three weeks in South America.

From 'The Green Wapple' to 'The Big Apple'... A North American Adventure!

Finding myself on yet another long-haul flight, I left Africa behind, as my travels took me across the Atlantic Ocean to New York, USA.

I will admit from the word go that the US has never really appealed to me as a travel destination (the only reason I was even visiting the country this year was its convenient location as the cheapest stop-over point between Africa and South America), however with ten days in the country, and three cities to visit, I put any negative thoughts I had aside (and any summer clothes!), and got myself all star-spangled and bannered - and was very pleasantly surprised!

Arriving late into New York, my first night was spent absolutely gobsmacked by my new surroundings – I was in NEW YAWK! Yellow taxis, neon signs, bagels, ice-skating rinks, roasted chestnuts, beggars, buskers, NYPD officers, steaming potholes, subway stations, fat Americans with New York accents – it was everything I’ve seen in the movies… and so much more! Undoubtedly one of the worlds most photographed, filmed and best known cities, New York is divided into five boroughs – The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the focus of my trip, Manhatten. 

Africa!

You have no doubt realised by now that I am quite severely behind with these entries, and having now met up with my mum in South America, catching up is not all that easy to do! Leaving Egypt and Jordan behind, my adventure took me south to South Africa, where after over six months of independent travel, I finally caved in and joined an organised tour. While the tour was excellent, and many parts of it will remain highlights of my year abroad, I am only going to post one entry about the entire six weeks – more of an overview than a week-by-week recap of my travels. So here goes!

*CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE!*