The World is Waiting for You

Looking back at 2009 it was quite an exciting and eventful year, I met many people and visited numerous cities on my numerous trips mostly around Europe. Here a few highlights of what I got up to.

• Lady Gaga – One of the great aspects of living in London is the never ending list of bands & artists performing, both big and small. Lady Gaga was the Gig for 2009, she put on a great performance at Heaven.
• Manchester – Headed up for the weekend to checkout nightlife on Canal Street – met some great people at my hostel, we great night out
• Hamburg – Took advantage of the Ryanair’s silly fares (£5 return) and went to Hamburg Germany for the weekend.
• Nightwish – A Finish band which would probably never make it to Australia was playing in London, so it was a must do. Had an enjoyable evening at their Gig, only downside was I had to sit down the entire time 🙁
• London – So much is happening in this city visited Hyde Park, September Gig, Foam Party @ Heaven and Shortdich House.
• Brighton – Spent Easter couch surfing in Brighton.
• Armin Van Buuren – Been such an avid fan I went to Birmingham & Ministry of Sound in London (twice :)) to see him DJ.
• Sensation – I flew all the way to Budapest Hungry to attended Sensation – Ocean of White, this was my second couch surfing experience. I had a great time and really enjoy my time in Budapest.
• 2 Week Trip – Spent two weeks mostly traveling by train around Europe, first stop was Amsterdam which they were celebrating Queen’s Day (National Holiday) followed by Berlin, Zurich, Rome, Venice & Barcelona.
• 46 Day Camping Trip – I haven’t done much camping beforehand but I braved the conditions and best time EVER, its one huge trip I will never forget.
  • I visited many cities, our tour started in London and continued into Paris, Barcelona, back into France to visit the French Riveriva (Nice, Cannes & Monaco),  Verona, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Capri (one of my favorites) and Pompeii.
  • We took an over night ferry from Italy to the laid back island of Corfu, Greece after relaxing, drinking cocktails & doing watersports we headed to Athens, then crossed over into Turkey one place I would love to head back to. After our time in Istanbul & Gallipoi we headed into the Eastern Block. Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania & Montenengro where very different and full of surprises along the way. We spent a 3 lovely days in Dubronivk Croatia. Hungary was next followed by Bratislava, Slovakia, Austria, Mathausen Concentration Camp, Cesky Krumlov in Czeck Reupublic then onto Prague.
  • Our camping trip was coming to an end, our next stop was Munich the home of Octoberfest, entered Switzerland, the scenery amazing we visited Lucerne & Jungfrau. Back into Germany to visit Heidelberg, St Goar & Rhine Valley. To finish up we headed to Amsterdam then back to London.
• Spent a few days soaking up the London Summer before I set out more travels. Watch out for Part 2.

A few weeks ago I tried to book my train travels to Paris, Berlin, Brussels & London via Rail Europe and it was extremely complex process in the end I gave up. There are so many different passes you can get ie 5 day pass, 3 country pass, 10 days within 2months pass. I ended up going to the office and booking it all there and one trip over the phone. Even then the Eurail pass doesn’t include all trains as some  you need to pay extra for trips, booking charges etc…

Since I left it quite late most of the “better” hostels were booked out, especially in Berlin as I will be for NYE. Its almost time, my bag is packed and can’t wait for what the next 10 days are going to bring. As they say “the world is waiting for you”.

Cya