What’s bigger: me or the bag?

Day 1. It had arrived. Semi-spontaneous 2013 Euro trip was about to commence and with expectations of my journey featuring travelling around Western Europe and then making it home after a solid 100 days I was excited and confident that I would make my gap year trip would be just as eventful and quite possible as generic as many other 18-year-olds taking a year off to explore the big wide world. I never even considered that I could end up sleeping on the Greenlandic Fyords or getting tested for radioactivity in Chernobyl…

Looking super excited for the next 48 hours…

But these were early days and I learnt some important things straight away:

1. Always check what adapter you’re packing. An Australian to US adapter isn’t going to be very useful in Paris…
2. Vegan airplane meals are better. Always. Plus you get served first and have a moment of that feeling of superiority that I’m sure 1st class passengers feel all the time.
3. Sometimes it’s really, really useful to book accommodation in advance. Especially after 24 hours travelling… to London… in peak season

Saying Goodbye to my ladies

I really had no idea that this would be the first day of a grand adventure and looking back on photos of me looking like a goober in socks and jelly sandals make me hope that I have grown as a more experienced backpacker in the past 4 months. (But all jokes aside those Jelly sandals have served me well and continue to do so, I don’t know if my fellow Aussie thong-wearers can say the same…)

ps and by thongs I mean flip flops…

pps if you’re leaving Australia anytime soon you should practise calling them flip flops. Seriously it will save you from receiving many uncomfortable looks…