Forever WanderLost

There was a point in my life where I had tried the Uni thing that everyone expected of me, I had tried the live-in boyfriend thing which everyone tried to talk me out of and I had tried the full-time work thing which was beneficial to my bank account but not so much to my wellbeing. I tried being the party girl, the homegirl (as in staying at home eating chocolate and watching chick flicks with my mum, not some gangster), the studious student, the workaholic, the slob, the doer, the planner and, eventually, the emotional wreck (that one was unintentional).

I basically spent most of my life either reflecting on the past or stressing about the future and I've never been good at just living in the moment. I always needed and wanted a plan and a goal and I could never figure out what I wanted, especially in high school. I would make myself sick with worry and when all my "plans" fell apart leaving me with an unfinished film degree, a failed relationship (sounds so dramatic I was only 18) and no clue what I wanted to do with my life, I had to move back home. I really felt lost because all of a sudden I had to create a new plan. Eventually, after working two jobs, buying my first car and planning to return to uni, I just couldn't take it anymore. I had an itch that none of these things were scratching. I couldn't pretend to want what I didn't want, so I did something quite spontaneously and walked into a travel agency, booked a huge European trip and a flight to England and I didn't tell anyone about it.

It seemed like such a big deal at the time and I suppose it is a pretty significant thing to do when your eighteen/nineteen. It was just something that had always appealed to me and I felt like going back to uni would have been a lie. I didn't see the point in studying something I didn't want to pursue in the long run and if I didn't know what it was I DID want to pursue (career wise) then surely uni could wait. The thing is, I was half expecting to go on my Europe travels for a few months and then trek home once the itch was satisfactorily scratched. However, the more I travelled, the hungrier my travel bug seemed to get and I can honestly say that I don't think I'll ever "get it out of my system".

I've been away from home for almost a year now, and in that time I've been on a lot of planes, many bus and train journeys, I've visited a whole bunch of famous cities and sights, I've met amazing people from all over the world and I've never felt more alive. I've also worked a lot, and lived with family and have been doing the whole "routine" thing again (but overseas) except this time I'm smack bang in the centre of Europe (metaphorically speaking) and can hop on a plane and be in another country within the hour (crazy!). Although I'm technically not "travelling" right now, I'd still put myself into that category and I wanted to share some of the pros and cons of leading a "travelling" life.

PRO'S

You get to visit and explore new places all the time

You fall in love with cities and people all over the world

You get to experience new cultures and lifestyles

You feel free and alive, like the world is your oyster

There are 1000 books and blogs to read about tips, trips and everything in between

You could never run out of destinations to visit

You're living life in the moment, not stressing or worrying about work or drama or anything, it's just you and the world

Your instagram has never looked so damn good

CON'S
You are constantly moving around and living out of a suitcase

You spend most of your life on buses, trains, planes or in airports

You set up roots all over the world and therefore always feel like you're missing someone/somewhere

You miss your pets so damn much it makes your heart hurt

You don't know when to stop- or even if it's possible- once you've started

It's expensive and you eventually have to stop to work a crappy job

It is rare to visit somewhere you can "cross of the list" because you want to re-visit them all

You miss the little things about home life, like your dads cooking and your mums cups of tea

You have to be a little un-materialistic to travel well- and sometimes you just miss owning things

I've loved Christmas for as long as I can remember. No matter how old I get, the magic of Christmas, never dies. When I was younger I convinced my brother of all the reasons that Santa was real when the kids at his school were starting to figure it out. When he finally did figure it out, I persuaded him to pretend he still believed so that our mum would keep filling our Santa sacks every year. Eventually however, to my dismay, she caught on and the Santa sacks ceased. Still, I never stopped loving Christmas. I begged my parents to let me decorate the house in November only to be rejected every year. When December 1st came I was usually ready to Christmasfy the house with tinsel and anything I could get my hands on. One year I painted all my nails red and green and convinced my boss at work to let us all wear christmas earrings, hats and lights around our neck. I even got him in a reindeer hat which was hilarious.

Any song that is played repeatedly on the radio or at your work place or even at home can get annoying very quickly. But no matter how many times I hear Mariah singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" or Wham belting "Last Christmas" or even Elton John jamming to "Step Into Christmas" I will ALWAYS sing along. I watch "Love Actually" every year and can almost quote every scene. I don't care how old I get, I will always have an advent calendar (even if I'm on my second one this year because I ate the first one in November). I still giggle when Santa waves at me in the shopping centres, I still get a warm fuzzy feeling seeing the Christmas tree lit up every night in December and I still wake up early on Christmas Day with the excitement of a six year old.

I was born in England but I left when I was three, so I don't have any memories of white or cold Christmases. I was raised in Australia and all I've ever known are hot, summer days in the air conditioning opening presents. Most people seem to think we're so backwards and that a warm Christmas isn't a proper Christmas. Although most of the typical Christmas songs like "White Christmas", "Baby It's Cold Outside", "Jingle Bells" and countless others, refer to Christmas as a snowy, fireside event, us Aussies take pride in our own little version of the most wonderful time of the year.

Roast dinners still take place even if it's 40 degrees, but barbecue feasts on Christmas Day are just as amazing. Seeing Santa Clause surfing towards the beach every year is way more creative than a sleigh and reindeer (the poor buggers would be sweating up a storm). Sunburns and air con and swimming pools and "snags on the barbie" and a glass of alcohol on the beach are all things I relate to my favourite Christmases. I think despite the "tradition", Australian Christmases are just as cheerful, merry and full of joy as any.

This year I've found myself back in England for what feels like my first cold "proper" Christmas, but it hasn't been as cold as I expected, there's been no snow and it's not looking hopeful on the "White Christmas" front. It hasn't really been as different as my usual Aussie Christmas except that I'm not sweating from every crevice of my body. I think deep down I have always dreamed of a "White Christmas" and even though this year is going to be different to my usual Christmas in many ways, it definitely won't be a white one, and that's ok. Although I won't get snow on Christmas and although I won't be with my usual close knit trio (mum, dad and little brother), I do get to spend the most wonderful time of the year with all the family I never get to see. Decorating my aunties house with her, seeing proper fireplaces with hanging stockings, buying a REAL Christmas tree, trying mulled wine for the first time, owning my first Christmas jumper, buying Christmas scented candles and getting to know all my cousins and aunties and uncles and grandparents well enough to know what they would absolutely love as a Christmas present, has been the real magic this year. They all seem like such small things but together they have made my December as magical as if it had snowed.

In the end, as corny and it sounds, Christmas isn't about where you are in the world or what the circumstances are or how many presents you get, it's about the people you get to share it with and all the little memories you make on the way. In that sense, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. My Christmas wish for snow might not come true, but in my mind this will still be my White Christmas and no matter where you are and whether or not all your Christmases are white, may your days be merry and bright.

Travelling is something a lot of people dream about whilst wearing rose tinted glasses. They invision themselves visiting all these beautiful, picturesque cities every day without a care in the world and having the time of their lives. Whilst travelling is eye opening, life changing and the best experience you will ever have, there are a lot of things involved that people seem to overlook or not think about.

Firstly, if you have expectations of a city through what you've seen in photos or heard about from friends, then it's probably not going to live up to your expectation OR be anything like you imagined (in a good or bad way). Obviously all the photos you see of famous cities are taken on their best days and probably edited to get rid of all the crowds and only the absolute best photo would be chosen. They never give a true insight or perception of a city (which would of course be impossible).

Secondly, I don't think anyone that hasn't been to (for example) Paris or Berlin, realise what huge, spread out cities they are and how far it is from one famous site to another. We all just imagine getting there and that every thing is within walking distance, very close by, even down the same street as one another. In reality, it can be quite difficult trying to see everything in one city because getting to and from each site can be a challenge. Public transport in most major cities is available but is also in a different language making them difficult to understand, taxi's in most cities will cost you more than your university fees and walking will be ok for some cities but you won't get to see nearly as much as you would have hoped to. Hiring bikes is a great way to get around and see everything and they are available to hire in a few of the major cities. I would strongly suggest taking advantage of them when possible because it's a great, fairly cheap way to see a lot in a short amount of time.

And lastly, no one seems to think about the time between seeing the amazing cities: the actual travelling (getting from A to B). The long bus trips, the tiresome train rides, the long waits at the airports, the costs of the flying, driving and everything in between. Compared to Australia, Europe is amazingly convenient to travel to different countries and offers so many options to do so. That doesn't mean however, that it's always easy to get to your next destination.

I love to travel but sometimes I really hate travelling. One of the reasons pre-planned trips like Contiki are so great, is because all your accommodation AND transportation is included. This means that you don't have to get yourself from city to city, because believe me it can be a nightmare. Not only do most of the buses or trains take hours and hours, they also usually leave either really early in the morning or the middle of the night, making your experience a little less fun. You lose whole days just getting to the places you want to see and although most of the cities are worth the wait, there's only so much of it you can take. If you live the "travel life" for a few months, there are a few things you start to miss: privacy, continuity, home cooked meals, being able to drive and getting a pay check every week.

Whilst travelling allows you to see parts of the world and have experiences that most people will only ever dream about, be prepared for hours of walking whilst lugging your baggage with you, hundreds of long bus trips where you're dying to get out and breath some fresh air, countless train journeys where you'll have to sit and watch the world go by (they are rarely scenic routes) and excruciating delays at airports, lost suitcases, old men falling asleep on your shoulder, screaming children kicking you in the back, less than desirable leg room and not much sleep.

If you're planning your own transport between your dream destinations, also be prepared that it might not be as simple or as easy as jumping on a bus. It might be a dodgy bus that drops you in the middle of nowhere to find your own way to the train station without google maps because you don't have any internet and without the ability to ask for directions because you don't speak the native tongue. You might eventually find the train station after hours of walking in the wrong direction just to find out that you've missed your train and have to wait six hours for the next one and after all that it doesn't even get you close to the hotel you booked so you then have to pray a taxi drives by you before it gets dark because believe me, it's nothing like the New York films where you just raise your hand and jump in a taxi. I've been stranded at a random train station in the middle of nowhere in France with no phone to call a taxi and nothing but French people who hate English speaking tourists around me with a half an hour window to get to a hotel before its reception closes.

Sometimes you'll book trains and buses but finding the actual stations is the biggest mission you feel like you've ever faced, and sometimes you'll get on these trains and they won't announce what station they're stopping in or they'll do it in a different language so you just have to hope for the best or try and stay awake to figure out when to get off. Sometimes your bus might make a pit stop and the toilets might just be holes in the ground. Sometimes you'll stop in random little countries with their own currencies so that you can't actually buy any food because they don't accept your money. Sometimes you'll get grumpy and extremely unhelpful drivers that also make you fear for your life. Sometimes you get so frustrated and stressed out that you're never going to make it to your next hotel in time to check in and have a place to sleep that you want to cry. Sometimes you question why you ever even bothered leaving the comfort of your own home...

But then sometimes things work out in your favour that restore your faith in the world. Sometimes you have train rides with big glass windows that drive past picturesque country sides and mountains and beautiful towns. Sometimes you meet beautiful, helpful strangers that give you directions and even if you don't quite understand them, you are beyond grateful that there's at least one foreign person that doesn't absolutely hate you and your presence. Sometimes you get lucky and taxi's actually pick you up and you don't have to sell your left kidney to pay for the ride. Sometimes you get on an overnight bus and the seats recline and have TV's in the head rests that play films and music and it's the best thing thats happened to you all week. Sometimes you just enjoy the down time and reflect on your travels. Sometimes you don't want to smash your head against the window and beg for someone to let you out.

Essentially, travelling has it's ups and downs and getting from A to B is never as simple as you would ever have imagined. Although the actual travelling can be a horrible part of travel, it can also be, not that bad. At the end of the day, no matter how many hours you feel like you've wasted sitting on public transport, pacing airports, twiddling your thumbs at train stations and waiting in the freezing cold for your bus to pull up- the magical thing is that you get to experience new cities and places and people and food, every single day, and I think that all of that is worth it.

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