Six Months of Travelling — Done: Where to Next?
“If adventures do not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” — Jane Austen
…another quote that was ‘gifted’ to me this year and could not have been chosen any better as it appears to be something I lived by ever since I first left my hometown to explore the world; to study, to live, and ultimately, to work in different countries, a journey that lead me to North America and the UK, the latter a place I would return to, as well as that little island down under, a place I got to call my home for a year before having to pack my bags again, and embrace that curious nature once more.
This time though, almost a decade later, it was a rather improvised endeavour having initially thought Australia might become a more permanent playground. But the universe had different plans for me. Unfortunately, as so often, it didn’t feel like sharing what they might be, so I decided to keep going for a little while, seek a few more adventures, maybe eventually find some answers, before returning to the other side of the world.
That search turned into an impromptu backpacking adventure which lasted about six months, just as long as this website has now been taking us on reminiscent trips through these travel-less times, wherefore I thought I treat you (as well as myself) to a short anniversary post and let you decide where to next?!
To offer some inspiration, since my travel map might be colourful but a bit two-dimensional, I decided to introduce you to Angie, the little travel companion who got to join me whilst travelling through Oceania, Southeast Asia and Central America, kudos to my big bro. She’s a fragile little thing but always up for an adventure herself, even if it cost her an arm, thankfully not a leg (yet), for a short while — nothing a bit of sticky surgery couldn’t fix once back home. She’s quite a trouper and still happily spreading her angelic tunes from my bed side table these days while still processing all the wonderful things we got to experience. And so am I. Especially when clicking through those pictures:
One of the pics might have looked familiar if you read my previous story about Wanaka, a special place I felt like revisiting myself already. I’d be more than happy to continue that journey through New Zealand, or Aotearoa rather, if you like. Unless the current weather might draw you towards warmer climates? The choice is yours, just comment below or drop me a message via my contact form. Your wish shall be my command — packing my bags already for all eventualities! 🌎 🧳👙🎿👒🧣
PS: Have you ever had or come across a ‘Toy Voyager’ yourself? Apparently, that’s the official term for such well-travelled creatures, which were really popular a few years back. Some of them were even travelling on their own, either being handed from one person to another or ‘released into the wild’ for somebody else to find. Equipped with identification number and instructions on what to do on their tag, their journeys were captured on the ToyVoyagers website, which looks a bit outdated these days but still makes some good travel distraction as some of those fluffy things are definitely putting Angie and myself to shame.
Fluffy is hereby the key it seems, as they were clearly made for travelling, some of them might even have an official passport from Omanimali, a toy-passport-issuing organisation in Germany that’s still up and running by the looks of it. I’m just as baffled as you are. And here I thought the Garden Gnome Liberation Front (GLF) causing havoc in France was already a bit out there, another thing I came across when looking into the Toy Voyager-phenomenon — and there went an afternoon browsing the internet about the weird and wonderful things that totally bypassed me…
You might have guessed it, given her fragile nature, Angie was not meant for travelling but rather for safekeeping on a shelf or table, sturdy grounds she now returned to after helping me with keeping the family in the loop about my whereabouts not necessarily being a selfie-queen myself, one of the many things to improve on while re-entering the social media scene, so bear with me while I do.
PPS: Big bro, in case you are reading this, I can assure you she’s fine. While some might say her value decreased given the bumps and scratches all the travelling caused, I’d say it all added character, differentiated her from the rest of the pack, and while speechless at first, turned her into a proper storyteller. 🎞️
