A World Away

Since I began to pack my life up and move about after high school, I've felt that every country and city I've been to or lived in has been a world away from the next. There are some memories I have created in being a solo traveller, that have shaped me into who I am and also have helped me open my eyes and mind to an ever changing and expanding world. Moving to Cyprus at the age of 18 is a massive part to my story. What started as an innocent summer working abroad with my best mate, quickly turned into a "pack your bags and move across the world for love" moment. No second thought, no pressure that I was making a mistake. I quite literally came home after 2 months and within 1 week had quit my job, repacked a suitcase and said bye to all my nearest and dearest and boarded a flight back. I mean, who doesn't want a beach on their doorstep and a beer in hand 24/7 at the age of 18? I ticked off a lot of countries in between moving home from Cyprus in 2014 to my next solo travel in 2016 in which I went to Malaga. I went solo to simply get away from knowing everyone in my hometown of Belfast and to also get a break from a heavy pressure college course filled with mountains of coursework. I arrived alone. I knew no one and all I had was a small backpack filled with 1 change of clothes and a couple of books, all to last me 3 days. My plan was to challenge myself in how little I could bring with me to prove that I could, all being well, travel with just 1 backpack in the future. After dropping my bag off at my hostel, I decided to wander through the streets and found a really busy little tapas bar but I'm Irish and of course I picked up on the huge sign which stated "80 cent beer", so went straight in ordered a pint of beer and a few tapas and sat by myself taking in my surroundings. After going up to order what was my 4th or 5th beer by this time, a girl waiting to be served turned to me and asked me in spanish if I was from Malaga. I replied in English saying I wasn't and that I'm actually from a small city in Northern Ireland called Belfast. With a look of shock on her face she said "Me too!" We talked for a few minutes and she then said she was with her Mum and they were both there together celebrating her Mums 60th birthday. She invited me over to sit with them both and we ended up talking and drinking bramble sized pink gins until we were the last ones in this tiny little bar, on a cobble side street, in the middle of Malaga. What started out as a chance to get away by myself, then developed into a passion. Needless to say, my backpack trick worked and in October 2017, I decided to pack up and move across the world, this time to Australia. Again, I arrived alone. Don't get me wrong, this time being alone was surreal and overwhelming as I instead this time committed to 1 year abroad in a country I knew nothing about and quite literally was restarting my life from scratch. I needed a friends group, a job, a home and a good sense of direction and pretty soon everything fell into place and what felt so scary to begin with, then became so natural and became my home. This day last year (01/04/2018), I did something some people may think is stupid, some people may say it's cool, some may say it was an experience. Me? Well I think it was all 3. March 2018, I decided to leave my home and the life I knew in Sydney and travel the East Coast in 2 weeks, alone. Shocker. I found myself in a really tricky situation in a place called Mission beach. It's just before Cairns and nearly at the top of the East Coast and what I have learnt first and foremost, is that when you decide to do these major life events by yourself, like moving to a whole new country, you start to grow a thicker skin because you can't rely on the life you once knew. I woke up on the 1st April 2018, in this really awful hostel, in the middle of a jungle. It was 42 degrees and 91% humidity. Something told me to pack my stuff and go, so that's what I done. With my money starting to get low, I made a decision to hitchhike. Yep. I literally hitched a ride with a stranger. I got picked up by a mid 40's guy called Timmy. I put my luggage in the boot of his 4x4 and we started to drive back down to Townsville (around a 2 hour car journey). I didn't think twice about what I was doing. I didn't even stop to process a thought of what I was doing getting into a car with a stranger, but here I am to tell the tale. Timmy was something. He drove more with his knees than with his hands as he expressed a lot of his conversation with his hands. He told me what his career used to be and told me some pretty dark and interesting stories about his experiences during his career. He told me how to hunt in the wild if it ever came to me needing these skills and also told me that green ants tasted like lemon. Before I knew it, we were on the side of a highway eating green ants together, in the middle of Australia and they did in fact taste like lemon. I asked Timmy why he decided to drive strangers to where they need to be, he responded "It's all about the stories you can exchange and the company during the process mate." Our conversations were as wacky as his character and it's something I wish someone could have experienced with me because I'm sure they would've been in awe as much as I was at the entire situation from beginning to end. Someone once told me when I was 18, that I was the most spontaneous person they had ever met. I've learnt from then until now, that I rarely ever think twice about anything and if I need or want to do something, I will quite literally do it there and then. Something I wouldn't change as I have made some of my best life memories from doing this.