After travelling through SE Asia & Sri Lanka, I arrived in the UK in May where I stayed with Dave & Emma and their South African flatmates for several weeks. I thought London and the UK was a great place, a large advanced industrialised society with so much on offer. But when it comes to the outdoors, it does not compare to New Zealand or Australia. I visited Brighton, probably the most popular seaside town, and was amazed to see a pebbled beach! When Amanda went for a job interview in Oxford I tagged along with Dave & Emma and experienced a quintessential old school English town. I also visited Shiloh & Jimbo in Derbyshire and got a taste of the English countryside life. Thanks guys for your hospitality guys.
Onwards to Ireland with my 1 year working holiday visa. The first 6 days Amanda, who was visiting, and I took an organised 6 day tour of Ireland. Unfortunately I slept most of it. I particularly enjoyed Belfast and Derry as the history of conflict was very interesting. The North West coast was also particularly beautiful.
Settling in Dublin, my new best friend was Craig, also from New Zealand. I moved into a flat with students, it is now summer over here and all the students are on holiday looking for jobs. I too began the job hunt, looking for any type of work. I.T work was hard to find. I was disadvantaged because I had only a 1 year visa (although I was eligible for a 2 year I.T work visa if I found work) and so some recruitment agencies would only send my CV in for contract jobs, and with only 2 years experience I am sure there were better candidates out there. There was also a bias with some hirers to hire Irish people over foreigners.
So I settled for a job as a telephone market research interviewer, one of those annoying people who ring you up when you are having dinner and ask you to give up your leisure time to do a survey. I worked a whole 2 days there before…..
I was offered a job in Cambodia! I had seen the contract advertised and applied whilst I was there but did not get the job. However, the
original candidate had pulled out and so they offered me the job. It is doing I.T setup and training for the Ministry of Environment in the
Ratanakiri National Park. It is very much in the (bamboo) sticks (and rice paddies). It is due to start in August, although I am a little
worried it might not happen at all because there are elections in Cambodia on the 27th of July, it will be only the 2nd or 3rd elections they have had and potentially a little unstable.
Keen to see a much of Europe as I could before heading back to Asia, I packed my bags and flew to Amsterdam. Dave K had recently arrived to take up a job with Vodafone, so I stayed with him, his Dutch girlfriend Nienke, Nienke’s Dad, and their dog Rex.
Wow, my first taste of Continental Europe and I loved it. The canals, the buildings, the history, the technology (huge wind turbines), the
food (stroopwaffels and chips with mayonnaise). And of course Amsterdam’s red light district and the coffee shops 
I met some of Nienke’s friends and went to a free festival in a park in Amsterdam. Once while walking through Amsterdam we caught sight of a launch in one of the canals with a female flashing her fake breasts as part of a promotion for what I think might have been a swingers club! We went for a lovely bicycle ride in the countryside, including riding through a beautiful old village which exhausted the remaining film in my camera. Thanks Dave & Nienke and Nienke’s Dad.
There are organisations and websites in Europe where people advertise seats in their car. On one of these websites I found a man and his dog with a free seat for a trip from Amsterdam to Paris. On the 25th of June I cruised down to Paris in his Peugeot convertible, he even let me drive part of the way when he was tired.
Paris blew my mind, the architecture was absolutely stunning. Huge buildings from the Airport terminal to the Louvre Museum. Cathedrals with ornate detail. So much culture. For me the mentality of most cities I have been to is that it is only about business. Paris was different, it was a city of history, culture and art. Paris developed an interest and appreciation for these other aspects of life that I had previously given little attention.
Through another website of people offering free accommodation I met a Belgium girl called Eveline, who offered me accommodation on the floor of her room in a student house on the Cite Universitaire campus. Free accommodation and dinner at the student cafeteria was just what the budget of a traveller on the New Zealand dollar needed. The next night we picnicked on the concrete banks of the river Seine. Somehow the lack of grass and the word picnic didn’t quite go together in my mind.
My next destination was Stuttgart, Germany where I knew some people. I decided to hitchhike. After standing in the rain for an hour I was picked up by a family coming back from the airport. They had just picked up Anne-Marie who had just returned from a year in New Zealand! What a coincidence. Half-way through the trip they asked if I would like to stay with them in Strasbourg. Strasbourg is where I am now, a delightful town that is half French half German, being on the border between the two countries.
Current plans are to stay for a few days and then go to Stuttgart, then Switzerland to visit Max & Isabelle and then maybe Italy.
Well that’s where I am at. Hope all is well with you, you are no doubt busy with your own life, don’t forget you can tell me all about it!
Take care
