GenesisDreams

AmeCon to Edinburgh

Japan - Travel I went to AmeCon on the weekend. AmeCon is the UK's largest anime convention, with close to 1000 people attending. I am also heading up to Edinburgh tomorrow to catch the end of the Fringe Festival. I really should write more, but I haven't slept since Saturday night and so am very, very, very tired. I blame drunken cosplaying fangirls.

Off The Continent

Travel Well I am back in the UK. I am off Amecon this weekend to party it up and then up to Endinburgh next week to stay with Bruce and catch up with the end of the Fringe Festival. After that I am down to London to meet up with some of my friends and go to the birthday party of one of the girls I met travelling. Then I will probably head up to Liverpool to spend some time with my cousin, before going back down to Nottingham and moving into my new place, partying it up some more for a week, and then starting Uni again mid-September. And I thought coming back to the UK would mean I could relax!

Where Is My Mind?

Travel My trip is almost over. Well my continential European part of it is. I am both happy and sad about that. I am tired, exhusted actually. I have done so much and now I need a rest. But I know I will miss it, miss the adventure of it all. Still I am looking forward to some home cooked food! Thanks to everyone who responded via email or commenting here to my last entry. I don't really have much more to say, or rather I have endless things to say but neither the time nor energy. When I get back to the UK, with a good Internet connection I will write more. Written while listening to The Pixies - Where Is My Mind, playing out of the stereo in the Snuffel Sleep-In Hostel in Bruges, Belgium. It is strangly fitting.

Future Thoughts

Personal I am travelling alone now; my friends from Uni left weeks ago, I am no longer meeting up with people I met at previous places, I have shed my last companion and now I am by myself. The consequence of this is that I have had a lot of time to think. There are two things I think about most often, my past and my future. Specifically what I have left behind and what I have to look forward to. At any point in time though my past is finite, whereas my future is full of endless possibilities. I have spent a great deal of time contemplating my past, and as young and naive as I am, and as arrogant and pretentious as this may sound, I have it all pretty much reconciled. I have let go of my burdens, dropped my grudges, relieved myself of my guilt and forgiven those who caused the hurts I carried. I understand my actions and my motivations. I have come to terms with everything is my past. At least I would like to think so. Perhaps I am deluding myself, but really, as much as I have thought about it, I can't come up with anything that is left. I am not troubled any more. That's not to say I was terribly weighed down by my past before, but we all have our little demons don't we? I am sure I will gain more in the future, but for now I believe I have vanquished mine. It feels good. So that leaves looking to the future... I am still working on that one, and will always be working on it, becuase it is ever changing, however there are a few things that I have decided. First and foremost, I won't be returning to Australia when I graduate. I fully intend in January next year to move down to London and start my professional career. I have been contemplating this for a while now, talked about it with my mum (Ed I know you read this, sorry if Mum didn't tell you what I was considering) and it is what I want to do. With that consideration out of the way it opens up another whole world of possibilities. I still have to think more on those, but I will do my best to report back here on what I have decided. This has been the best summer of my entire life. It is the summer of my life. The memories I have formed during these last couple of months will stay with me forever and I will never be the same again. I can never have this same adventure, it has changed me, and for the better. And before people ask, yes I am still in Münich, though I am getting an overnight train to Köln in a couple of hours and NO I am not drunk ^_^

Salzburg - Mozart Vs. The Sound of Music

Movies - Music - Travel I took a day trip out to Salzburg today. It is only a two hour train ride from Munich (yes I am still in Munich... leaving tomorrow) and I had a day to fill. It is a strange little town, which seems to vest so much of its tourist energy in two of its musical children, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" and "The Sound of Music". It is quite disconcerting the manner in which recognition for the two seem to compete against each other in the town. Even though I was thoroughly indoctinated with the Sound of Music as a child (my mum loves it, but then, what mum doesn't), I tend to side with Mozart. Which side do you fall on?

Contacts

Friends - Personal - Travel I have met so many fantastic people on this trip. The back of my journal is now filled with names and email addresses and phone numbers and contacts from people living all around the world. My name graces quite a few people's address books too. It is a funny thing, we slide through each other's lives, we talk, drink, and become friends sometimes over the space of just an afternoon, and yet there are so many people I feel close to that I've met on this trip. People who I want to keep in touch with, people who I want to come stay with me if they are ever in the area, or whom I want to go visit at some point. My mum told me she still keeps in touch with a lady who lives in Boston with whom she travelled Africa with thirty years ago. Those are the sort of contacts I am making. Life long bonds, forged in the fires of the travelling spirit. Some people I am sure I will never see again, but other's I hope remain close forever.

Beer, Beer And More Beer!

Fun - Travel I am in Munich, where the beer flows like water. Last night, as I was sitting in the Hofbrauhaus, Munich's most famous beer hall, having only just arrived in Munich a couple of hours earlier, I was amazed at how vital beer has been to me throughout this entire trip. I have been travelling since the beginning of June, yet I can count on one hand the number of nights I have failed to have a beer. Beer is a fantastic social lubricant, and when you rock up into a new town, the first thing you do is go down to the hostel bar, or the bar next to the hostel, or the massive beer hall down the road, and drink up with your fellow travellers. I would hate to try and work out exactly how many litres of beer I have drunk this trip, or the amount of money I have spent buying it. It has been well worth it though. I am slowing down. I travelled at a hectic pace for the first month. Moving from city to city every couple of days. Now I just want to relax. I am spending four, five, even six nights in some places (I stayed a massive eight nights in Florence, but there were other reasons for that). It is good to take your time sometimes though. I need the rest.

Interlaken Extreme

Travel Today I will be leaving Interlaken, home of extreme sports in Switzerland. I love it here, it's so different to any of the other places I have been. It's time to move on though, and next time I check in it will be from Munich. There is cheap Internet there so I will talk more then. Later!