Travelling the UK in 2008

It’s about 26 hours until I get on the plane and fly to England. I know that tomorrow will to go really slowly. It’s always the way when you can’t wait for something.

I never thought I’d do the whole backpacker thing again. It’s weird to think about sleeping in mixed dorms and sharing bathrooms again. But I also can’t wait – it’s a whole different life. It’s simpler – you have fun, you meet people and you move on. It’s transient and about the moment. People don’t care as much about all stuff that bogs most of us down on a daily basis. If a person turns out to be a bit of a tosser, then you suddenly decide that walking 10km in the opposite direction is a great idea and move on.

With my friend Lisa’s help, we came up with the 10 commandments of backpacking…

1. Thou shalt have as much fun as humanly possible
2. Thou shalt take the road less travelled
3. Thou shalt do violence to anyone that refers to themself a flashpacker (it’s so gen whi-ne)
4. Thou shalt not covet your neighbours assests (it’s a mortal sin to steal from a fellow backpacker)
5. Thou shalt not wash your hair more than twice a week (definitely no hairdryers or product)
6. Thou shalt drink your weight in alcohol as often as possible
7. Thou shalt talk to and make friends with people sharing the hostel
8. Thou shalt take snap lock bags for breakfast leftovers (commonly referred to as lunch)
9. Thou shalt scam as much free stuff as you can, as often as you can (a smile and a oh please can go a long way)
10. Thou shalt remain appropriately draped at all times in a mixed dorm

There will definitely be more commandments than this, especially since I’ve skipped a whole major category of the backpackers life – romance, sex and meeting exotic (or not) foreigners. Depending on your moral status that whole area is definitely optional, so we’ll leave it out.

It’s funny how many people have talked to me about the whole romance thing. A colleague even told me I couldn’t come home until I’d meet someone!!!!!!! I’d be away a bloody long time if we were waiting for that to happen. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than meeting a nice guy and then having to leave him behind and spending the next six months feeling forlorn because he’s in the UK and I’m here. No thanks you can keep your holiday romances – it’s strictly love and leave them for me this time (ha ha – you all know me well enough to know that the likehood of me doing this is about as likely as Brendan Nelson winning an election).

This trip is all about having fun. Not about the ephinany, or meeting someone or finding the meaning of universe. When I went last time I thought that’s what would happen (well not the meeting someone bit). Instead I found some amazing friends, had some wonderful times and realised that sculling red wine was really not very good for you. So this is all about seeing and doing stuff and having a really good time.

A quote to finish “I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full. ~Lord Dunsany

The next time I write I’ll be in England, fulfilling my deep urge to see the world.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 6:56 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.