After pretty much two years in the planning, I’m off. The journey is under way. When I say planning, it’s more of thought coming to fruition really as I’ve really not done a huge amount of organisation beyond dreaming up things that I’d like to do and places I’d like to see. I made some lists but all I booked were the two busses which will get me down to Barcelona where a few days of sunshine and relaxing on the beach await.
The idea is to travel overland, no flights, to the Far East, and if there’s time and I still have the energy I will push on to Australasia.
Roald Amundsen, Antarctic pioneer and a hero of mine said “Adventure is just bad planning”, and I’ve already tried to I’ve already tried to stay true to this. I’ve honed the fine art of leaving things to the last minute which made for a rather stressful final week before departure. The most painful piece of poor planning came from not organising any vaccinations until the end of last week and then having to not only spend an eye watering sum of money on them but then receive the mother-load of injections all in one sitting. Furthermore, as most are multi-injection ones I’ve now got the fun task of trying to source the rest of them as I travel across Europe.
The other rather unfortunate set back is not getting my visa for China. If I’m being honest this is largely due to my own incompetence but in part also due to the ridiculous visa application process and nature of my trip meaning that I don’t have any specifics about when and how I’m entering which makes it very tricky. This might jeopardise my overland travel through China but I am going to try my best to sort something out on the road which should just add to the adventure..
I’m currently sat on a bus travelling from Paris to Barcelona, having just travelled overnight from London to Paris. I don’t mind admitting that I smell like the combined stench of a year 10 class of boys on a summer’s afternoon following a lunchtime football session. As I hopped aboard the first bus I remembered that I hadn’t done this kind of travelling in a long while, and I very quickly realised that it is a young man’s game. Squashed in and sat bolt upright isn’t a comfortable way to sleep (especially when you accidentally put your pillow in the hold). I feel like I slept with a sack of potatoes on my head. I did find a comfy sofa in the bar on the Ferry at least and squeezed a decent nap then. I’m just treating this as preparation for the tougher parts of the trip that may lay ahead.
I also forgot how awful bus stations are. Victoria was fairly grim. I saw a man ask for his 30p to be refunded for using the toilet as not one of the cubicles was in a usable state. Paris Bercy, was worse. Everyone seems to be in a mild state of panic, not knowing if they’re getting the right bus. There’s no one on hand to help and there’s never anywhere to sit.
Not too much to say about my first port of call, Paris. I only had five or six hours to kill so went for a very long walk along the Seine and saw some sights including the Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower (form afar) and the Arc de Triomphe. Exhausted and worn out from the intense heat of the sun and my bus journey I found a lovely little park and had a snooze under the shade of a tree until it was time to head for next bus.
Barcelona and the beach next…
Wandering Henry 