Monday, March 28, 2011

The End

It was on November 20th, 2010 that it ended. It only took 3 years and 15 days to do it, but it's finally over.

Sadly.

Yes, sadly. As you can imagine, being on the road for so long, you become accustomed to the lifestyle of the living on the road. Which, as you may know, is disturbingly addictive? I mean, come on. I was only meant to be gone for 6 months, but instead, I was gone for 3 years, so that must mean something, eh? Or it was just a great time for me to run away from all the growing up that is socially expected of me. I even want to progress a bit more in life, so it needs to end sometime. However, I guess I could argue that by running away to see the world is far better than just sitting around and doing nothing, or? I mean, I'm culturally expanding my horizons, and meeting heaps of people with other life experiences who in some way may inspire me to go in the right direction.

However, has it?

Since I've returned, actually being able to talk about my trip isn't something I'm dying to do all the time. For example, some people will pretty much brag about their time overseas, but instead, I don't really have a lot to say. It all boils down to "so how was your trip, Chris? Tell me about it!" How do you sum up a 3 year trip into a few sentences? This is how: "Yeah, it was good." I will tell a story about my trip if the occasion arises and is in context with what’s being talked about around me.

Before I left to New Zealand, a friend of mine gave me an assignment, or better yet, several assignments. However, the most important one was to do three things that I had promised myself I would never do. I ended up doing a fair bit of random fun stuff! And has opened my mind a little bit more, and even bent my otherwise disturbing straight moral and ethical compass. Not that I did anything that would put me in jail...I think, but I did a fair few things which I wouldn't of done before. I know that just writing about it, without any real details is a bit of let down, but as you can imagine, I would prefer not to write every minute, intimate, and possibly incriminating detail about my trip. Moving on...I ended up falling in love with two girls, and wow, it is quite the experience. I also got my heart crushed too, which, to say the least, is quite the experience. I never fully understood why people were so why people got the way they got once a relationship had ended, but now I have a better idea.

As I said, it was a whole lifestyle bumming around New Zealand and Australia. It's not your typical 3-5 week vacation you get from work year after year. And just for the record, "yeah, it was good" is not an adequate summary of the whole trip. It was amazing during some parts, sad during others, and mundane too. What does that sound like? Yup, you guessed! Like life! Hence the reason for me calling it a lifestyle. And, I guess lifestyle could mean something else, however, this is how I'm going to be using it for now.

So what am I doing now? Working at my old job at Ericsson, doing the same thing I was, which is, entertaining to say the least. Mainly because I now work with one of my best friends, which means that we're joking all the time and just having a good laugh pretty much all the time. However, it still feels pretty much the same as when I was working here last, but we'll leave that topic for another time.

____

I started writing this a couple of months ago, and now I have decided to finally finish it.

As I said, I work at my old job, but I have changed assignments. I was working with one of my best friends, but now I have taken on a different assignment which will be on the grave yard shift. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I felt it was the right one. I'll be earning a fair bit more money, and I'll be working more by myself, which is something I fairly enjoy. I don't like having to rely on other people to get simple tasks done. Or having to take care of others either. I can get fairly annoyed if people can't pull of simple tasks. I will always take the time to patiently teach someone how to do something, and do it so they understand. And I'll do this about 3-4 times. After that, it gets really annoying. Especially when you've asked them to start taking notes on what's happening and then they leave their notes at home - permanently.

Sigh.

Anyway, I have a new adventure planned. Canada! I want to bike across Canada or do some serious mountain biking in Canada. Or mountain bike across Canada. Not too sure just yet. That's one of the main reasons for me taking the grave yard shift: to earn a bit more cash to pull off something pretty wild. However, I do have my doubts about Canada, mainly because of the wild life. Apparently, cougar attacks aren't all that uncommon, which scares me a fair bit, espcially since they like mountain bikers. So, I need to think a bit more about that potential trip.

Man, I don't even know what to say anymore.

Did the trip change me? I would like to think so. I try to be more adventerous/active in my daily life and even more out going. I try to say yes a bit more than what I used to, and try to hang out a bit more with my friends and even do some more activities with them. Basically, try to live my life with my friends instead of living an individual life, if that makes sense. Along with trying not to limit myself, push myself to do things I know I would hesitate to do/say.

Do I have any advice to give to you before I finish this? Yeah!

Get out there and live the life you want to life! It’s only as complicated as you make it to be and you are freer and more capable than what you fully know or understand. People generally don’t know their full potential, nor are they willing to explore and find out. I say explore, find out. If you fail, so what, who cares! Some of the most successful people in history were complete failures at some point in their lives!


And now, I bid thee adieu!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Will lose. To Lose. Lost.

It has been almost 3 years now, and the only thing that comes to mind that I've lost, is a bandana.

Amazing, eh? However, two nights ago, I lost my passport. Awesomeness. I contacted the pub I was at, but no luck. I've made a police report and contacted the embassy, and they said I have to go there today to apply for a new passport. Waiting time? 3-4 weeks. Happy days. Well, that's not too bad anyway, get to see more of Seattle!

Why don't I get an emergency passport? Because it's more expensive, and I don't have any flights booked yet, so I'm in no rush.

That is all.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mental Suicide

My time in Australia has finally come to an end. Did it end on a good note you ask? Meh. Yes and no.


I'll explain.


After Bello, I, as you know, made my way to Sydney, where Pablito organized it so I could crash at his parents place. Which was a trip! His parents are some really good people to say the least. They were extremely helpful and accomodating along with being great company. I just hope they saw the same in me :S


Yet again, it felt like being home. I had my own room with a king size bed along with an en suite bathroom, with one of the coolest shower heads I've ever come across. It's basically a huge rectangular block with silicon nozzles sticking out of it, which gave a nice even pressure and great spread. Awsomeness in a shower head.


My first day in Sydney I printed out ads for Voa to be put up in all the hostels around town, which was really fun to do, because I kept on seeing the same cars, and the same day of posting, so I was quite literally following in some ones footsteps on this one. And one thing that really got me was that some hostels wanted charity donations for the ad to be posted on their notice board. First one I posted at, I thought "yeah, okay, why not?" Next one, my suspision rises with the third when they say they take a minimum donation, I knew it was all BS. Anyway, I posted in about 24 different hostels. Mind you though, it was only a few that asked for the donation.


Towards the end of my list of hostels, I go into the Apple Store and see what cool stuff they have, and while there, decide to go see a movie. It basically boiled down to two movies: RED or The Social Network. Both of which were going to be playing at the same time, and decide to decide when I'm standing infront of the cashier. As I'm walking into the cinema, I see something out of place...or better said, something I recognized. It was in the shape of a tall, slim and well built man (funnily enough, I have a hard time using the term man, how old do you have to be to be considered a man?) I yell out a name I had associated to it. No response. I tap him in the back and lo and behold, it is Jose from Rosemere! I had seen this guy for about 2 years and it was in New Zealand, when we lived in the same hostel. We embrace each other and are both equally shocked about standing infront of each other.


We go and watch RED together, and grab a pint afterwards to catch up and exchange stories of adventures past. I bought the round, since he paid for the movie, and without asking the price, I bought a scooner of Ashanti beer, which was pretty good, but bloody dear! 9 bucks! That's more expensive than in Sweden.


On my way back to Manly, I started to think about what the chances were of bumping into him, while on my to, pontentially, watch a movie about the popular webpage Facebook. What I've learned about bumping into people is that there is a small pattern to it all, which is basically you have a greater chance to bump into someone at the touristic spots than the more plain spots, since both are usually out to do some sight seeing. Although...wait...I have bumped into a fair few people in non touristic spots during my time away. Hmm...Anyway, see how I would find it interesting? If not...well, too bad. I can't explain it any further without sounding like a complete wanker.


Once, I got to Manly, I was going to meet the parents of Pablito from up in Bellingen, since he was so cool as to hook me up with a place to stay with them. At first I was a bit concerned that it would be a bit awkward, but it was quite the contrary, they were really fun and interesting to hang around. Both lively and excited about life, something you don't see very often for people in their age.


I was given my own room with a king size bed and an en suite bathroom, which had one of the best shower heads I've ever seen. It was a big rectangular block with silicon nozzles giving a nice even spread and dripping kind of shower. Awesomness!


Next day in Sydney I drive my car to where all the backpackers advertise their car, where I met a hitchhiker I picked up a fews before, a couple from the cherry farm, and a girl from Darwin who is friends with my ex workmates. It seemed pretty cool. Not to long into it, there was a group of us sellers sitting around heckling passersby saying how awesome our cars were. A lot of people looked at my car, but no one was fully interested. Most of the potential buyers were looking for a full sized van of course. N00bs. They don't know style when it's sitting right in front of them :P Well, seriously, as nice as Voa is, it's a pretty crap car if you're two and it's raining. Not a whole lot of space for just chilling around INSIDE of the car. Oh well.


Head back home to Manly, and eat dinner with Pablitos parents and his brother and his brothers flat mate. Which was really nice and chill. Fun too see different family dynamics in action. It always fascinates me.


It's now been almost a week since I started writing this, so I'll do my best to recollect it all.


Ok! Here goes!


Next day, after the dinner, I drive back to Victoria St, where I met some people I worked with in TAS, had breakie with them, and then drove their gear to the airport for them, so they didn't have to take it on the bus with them.


I wasn't to motivated to sell the car that day, which is bad, but meh. By this point in time, I didn't really give a rats ass. After having dropped off their gear, and saying good bye to them once more, I decided to head back home and prepare for the up coming night with Jose. We had decided to eat at a pizzeria which my friends that I just dropped off recommended, and I can vouch for it too! It was Jose, his missus, a friend of theirs, and me, and we smashed about 4 bottles of wine I think, and I didn't feel a thing since we had literally gone balls to the wall on this one. Entre, dinner and dessert! It was delicious!


After which Jose's missus decided to head home and go to bed, and at which point the rest of us headed over to the The Hero of Waterloo, where we only bought one drink, because they were closing up for the night. Since neither of us were very keen to head on home, we decided to keep on moving our bloated asses over to The Löwenbräu Keller where we kept on drinking and partying until it closed, and decided that we were all to drunk to do anything else, other than keep on partying, so we head over to Kings Cross, where we all got the ingenious idea of going to a gentlemen's club, where we had a blast!


Ah yes...it was awesome and quite a night to remember. However, our female partner in crime was crashing in the middle of the club on the benches, so we all decide to go to Jose's place which is only around the corner to get some serious R'n'R.


Jose grabbed the rose some random dude had bought our female comrade, and tried giving it to his sleeping missus who had tried calling several times during the night, and upon giving the rose to her, he was beaten up by it....we all decided to go to sleep at that point. Next thing I remember was that our female comrade was running around the flat swearing grabbing all of her stuff trying to make her way out to the races.


I woke up not too long afterwards with Jose making me a cup of tea, and me preparing to close my bank account and book some tickets to Seattle and all the way home.


Today was also going to be the day that someone had promised me that they would buy my car off of me (at a reduced price too of course), and while I was trying to contact him all day, no go. This however, was all after I had booked my tickets to the States. So at by this point, I was shitting myself, thinking that I wasn't going to have any cash for Aotearoa or the States. Happiness.


I go to the bank to see what the story is about closing it and all that jazz, and when I asked them about my balance, it had over 1000 dollars more than expected, and we began talking about how I could get the money out over seas and other boring things, and it all ended up with me leaving my account open (which I'm now happy about mind you).


Once I was done at the bank, and had trying to call this guy with little success, I go back to Manly and prepare my bags for the airport, and decide that I had to take a risk with my car, since the guy I had offered to give it to for free wasn't going to take for reasons I understand and won't mention, I decided to take my chances with the girl that I had met the night since she said that she had a spare parking space where she was living. Call her up and organise it so she becomes my seller for Oz. Big risk? Bloody oath, but what other choice did I have. To make some money out of it at least. I could of have scrapped it, but then that wouldn't of accomplished anything in the end. And yes, I have thought it through, and the car could already be sold for all I know. But I know someone else on the ground who can help me out, need be – Jose. However, my Spidey senses tell she's a good egg.


End up chilling having a small yarn with her until I had to head back to Manly to get ready for my 03.30 wake up. Great.


My trip to Manly was long. Really long. Not so much in 'physical' time, but more like the mental time. You know what I mean. When you're going to do something big, or important, time slows down so much that it just becomes insane. I start thinking about coming home, about my time in Oz, people I've met, the people I want to meet again, and so much more. Almost depressing actually, and we all know how great I am about that, eh? Hmm....


I stay up the whole night, just slowly packing and taking my time. Before I notice it, it's already 03.00. I cram the rest of my gear into my bag with no real structure and pray for sleep to over take me.


Pablo's father drives me to the airport and I fall asleep in the car while he's talking about something I'm not too sure about. Great man. Very very great man, who had the misfortune of getting brain cancer. So fucking bullshit. It seems like only the good people are set to have the bad luck. Ok, it could have been worse, and he is still alive, which is borderline a miracle I suppose.


I go to the check-in desk, and then the onslaught of terror begins. Proof that I'm leaving NZ, proof that I am a human being, proof that the sky is blue and not purple. Retarrrrrded.


The woman was even skeptical about me getting into NZ, and very doubtful about me getting into the States. Great. Happy days.


I end up having to go to a printer hidden away in some random part of the terminal to get stuff printed out, and then finally check-in.


Make my bloated tired ass to the immigrations, where I warn the lady that my passport is fragile, and she doesn't give to shits about it, and almost breaks it, claiming it wouldn't be her fault.


Here's how I see it: The local council puts up signs not to start a fire, since everything is dry, and something bad could happen. I look at the sign, take it down, take a shit on it, and then set it on fire, and walk away. Well, not my problem.


What. A. Fucking. Bitch.


She made leaving Australia that much better. As awesome as that country is, there are some serious fucktards who don't deserve to be breathing, or at least be removed from the gene pool.


I'm drowsy, and incoherent. I just want to sleep.


I wake up, and I'm in NZ. Move to the immigrations, ready to turn around and give the finger to the world. Instead, they take me to the side, and issue me a months visa on a temporary form of identification which has the same value of a passport.


Get into Auckland and call my BFG (Big Friendly Giant) in the Bay of Islands. He's surprised and happy that I'm coming up.


I don't really want to go into too much detail about my trip up there, but I will say that it was beyond awesome. Awesome is the feeling I had when I woke up the next morning knowing that I was in a place where I truly loved.


Here's what I did there: got drunk, met awesome people, did some work, drove around the islands, ate amazing food, came first place on quiz night, did 3 dives, and did some serious thinking about it all.


Man...leaving there was a really hard thing to do. Seeing the summer roll in made the whole leaving process even harder. However, the hardest part was meeting this cool French dude, who was going to be my BFGs deck hand over the summer. It reminded me so much of myself it's just crazy. He was 23, one year younger than what I was when I was in Paihia first. Living the dream.


Damn.


The actual leaving NZ wasn't easy either, with immigrations that is, since I had that special ID. Yeah. Oh, and this was the...4th or 5th consecutive pat down and 'random' search that they did to me. I was just laughing about it.


No big deal, but it still got me nervous about getting into the States.


Flight over was epic and harsh. Had a one hour stop over in Tahiti before doing the final leg to LAX.


Upon getting to LAX, and finally having assembled my story to have any sort of coherent meaning, I step in front of the immigrations officer, and tell him to be careful with my passport, since I had been travelling for such a long time, it had become a tad bit fragile.


He carefully scans my passport, asks how long I'm in the country for, logs my fingerprints, and tells me to enjoy my trip. That's it!


Ok, a bit more security than the other countries I've gone to, but still! How piss easy was that?! And I was worried that I had entered the wrong details for my passport in the visa waiver. Lucky boy I guess.


Grab my bag, and make my way to my next flight, which was 5 hours away. No rush. After having checked in, I start trying to make contact with my friend Kobe here in Seattle, to verify that I was now in the US, and all was well.


I land in Seattle, and Kobe (who has been an awesome host) was there to meet me, which was a bit surreal, but freaking awesome!


What have I done here? Partied (had some amazing cocktails), a lot of beer (not to the point of getting drunk, just to enjoy), great food, a lot of shopping, went to the Swedish Cultural Center (which doesn't have any Swedes working there) and meeting some great people.


I also did 2 dives here which was pretty fun. The vis was clear and I saw a HUGE octopus twice. I have never seen anything quite like it.


Was invited to a brunch at the home of Kobe's friends which they hold every Sunday, and the house was beautiful, and unlike anything I've ever seen! It was an old church which was been modified to be liveable and is a real piece of art. It has so much potential it's not even funny! The only issue is funding.


Ok, I've been trying to piece this blog together for a while now, and as you could tell, the end has just kind of flopped together.


Several things that I've noticed:

Seattle is a great place

I need friends close by

Travelling sucks, because you never want to stop

Growing up is mental suicide

My mind is blown away by the consumerism in the US

I think I'm pretty emotionally dead in certain ways


I also ended it with Amy. Long story short, I'm too shitty of boyfriend to be together with her. I'm still way to selfish and have my own plans which she isn't involved in. She doesn't need to be waiting for something which I'm too afraid to commit to, she doesn't deserve that.


Any who. Ah yes, I've put on some more weight in my last weeks, since I felt that this is the end of very important chapter in my life, and just kind of went bananas, and now feel like a bloated tub of shit. So once I get to Sweden, it's back to the no-carb diet. Looking forward to it.


Ciao!




Friday, November 5, 2010

Apologies.

Sorry for not having written anything. I just don't feel like I had anything to write about.

My birthday was pretty chill, and thanks for those who tried calling or texting. Sadly, Bellingen doesn't have very good, if any, Vodafone coverage. I was swimming in the local swim hole, and ate an amazing dinner with Pablito and his missus.

As for coming back to Bello, it was good. Not as great as the first time, but still good. I was welcomed to Pablo's house, like it was my house. I was given my own room, with a king size bed and en suite bathroom. Awesome.

I tried to do what I did last time when I was there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you know how to ask me. Sadly, it wasn't the season.

It pretty much felt like I was at another home hanging out there, along with his two dogs and five birds.



Truth be told, I'm not too keen on writing anything just now, because it's 02.40, so I'll write some more later.

Toodles my poodles.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

It has come to my attention

What have I done on my trip so far, that's scary?

I have swum with sharks.
I have scaled walls where if I fall, I'll either break something, die, or become a vegetable.
I have consciously walked past the resting place of one of Tasmanias deadliest snakes on a daily basis.
I have driven a 4x4 car in some dodgey areas.
I have hitch hiked, and been picked up by ex-gang members.
I have bungy jumped 135m.
I have walked into dense bush where you can only see about 5 meters a head of you.
I have gotten fully grown cows into the pens with no training.

There's probably some more stuff, but you know what, going back home scares me more than all of those. Funny eh?

I've been trying to figure out why, and I have some ideas.

1) Falling into the same rut that got me travelling in the first place.

2) The winter.

3) The dark that goes with the winter.

4) The inability to talk to strangers while being somber and not be considered strange.

5) The lack of snow.

6) Dead trees.

7) No small adventures.

8) Funny Aussie expressions.

9) Aussie/Kiwi happiness (I tried using it when I got back to my old job, and it was rejected like an unwanted baby).


There's some more I reckon. I just don't think I'm designed for Swedish society.

If I don't get into Uni, I've come up with the following ideas:

a) Move up north

b) Move to Örebro or Uppsala for the paintball scene

c) Go to Canada on a WHV

a and b both involve me studying anything extra to help me get into uni

Damn it. It's all just so fucked up.

Hmm...it's all coming to an end soon. I can't believe it. 3 years feels like 3 weeks. Damn-it.

Gah. I'm going to stop writing now. Later.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Back in it.

I'm in Brisbane now, doing some Couchsurfing, which is really nice.

I'm working again, and can you guess where? That's right! Schweppes!!! Driving a forklift and other work. Same work I did at Carlsberg in Sweden, which also made Schweppes. Random, eh?

Any who, I think I'll be here in Brissy till either Sunday or Monday and then make my way further down south.

Not long left now.

Fuck.