Welcome to the first post of my travel blog, which will cover my (Hi, I’m Brendan, for those that don’t know) adventures in Europe with my partner Charlotte. Over the next 6 months or so (or as I keep telling anyone who will listen, until the money runs out) I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated with photos, videos and tales from the road.
Please don’t expect polished writing and fancy highlight videos – I’m planning to tell as real a story as I can about what it is like to completely uproot your life for six months and live on the road – and I also don’t want to spend too much time writing, when there is so much to see and do, so expect these posts to be “fast and loose” in nature. I hope you enjoy – please do send any feedback through via the comments.
A bit of background
I’ve been dreaming of long-term travel for several years now. I studied history in my undergrad, and always had a fascination for European history – it is such an interesting part of the world, with such a rich and turbulant past. I was lucky enough to spend 4 weeks in Europe in 2018, and while it was an incredible trip, it felt like I had only skimmed the surface, and that there was so much that I had missed. So, the planning began for a longer term trip shortly after. There was plenty of saving to do, and a career to begin (I’ll talk more about the finances of the trip and my “career break” in the next post), and as a result, it took a few years to turn this “plan” into action. Charlotte meanwhile has never been overseas, and having recently graduated Honours and being very keen to take a break after years of studying, the timing has finally aligned for a big adventure.
The plan
At this stage, the plan is fantastically loose! Our first month has some booked in activities across southern Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria, but after that, the calendar is clear, with no return flight booked (a surreal feeling alone). The following image displays not our plan exactly (think we would need more than 6 months to get to all these locations) but a list of places recommended to us by friends and colleagues – so we’re treating it as inspiration/a bit of a guide. Ultimately though, we want to be guided by the people around us as much as possible – get advice from locals and backpackers on what to see and do, and where to go.
The first travel hurdle
I’m a big believer in getting things out of the way early – but the first travel hurdle we are facing is a little early even for me. I’m currently writing from my bed, which I have been pretty much living in for the last two days. Both Charlotte and have managed to get a pretty decent bout of flu in the last week before we leave, and while we are now definitely on the mend, we have definitely cut it pretty fine, with our flight leaving on Monday! I guess it was inevitable that with both of us finally slowing down after busy runs, it would catch up with us…
Finally, some gear testing
Like any good Western traveller, I’ve decided that I must have exceptional gear to capture every single moment of our trip (imagine missing a selfie opporunity *gasp*). In all seriousness, I’m hoping to avoid pulling out the camera too frequently, but I did decide that a GoPro would be a useful addition for some of our more adventurous exploits. So please enjoy this short video of the most interesting thing I could think up doing at short notice: running down and up the balcony stairs.
Hey, at least that is some high definition running!
I’ll try and write up some more of my thoughts as we get on the plane – around taking a career break, and finances for the trip. For now, time to rest up.