This is a write-up I started a good while after the trip and never got around to finishing properly. Rather than polish it to death, I’m putting it up roughly as I wrote it, with just the worst typos tidied.
London
In London I stayed at Safestay London. It was an old heritage building in the middle of Kensington, which is apparently the richest suburb in London — although I did not know this at the time. I spent about two and a half weeks in London, visiting every museum, castle, library, and basically anything historical I could find. I also travelled every line in the London Underground network, because I love trains and we barely have any in New Zealand.
I then took a plane to Toulouse in the south of France and stayed with my friends for a week on a farm they were living on at the time. We explored some of the nearby historical sites. The place they were staying in was an old farmhouse from the 1550s. It was great.
Paris and Berlin
Following this I took the bus to Paris and stayed with their parents for a couple of nights. I explored Paris and almost got stuck in the middle of it — my phone went flat and I had to get back to my parents’ friends’ place in the dark, navigating from brief memory of the landmarks I’d seen on the way out. Paris itself is a nice enough place but gets way too much hype for what it is, and it is very expensive.
I then took a fast train over to Berlin and stayed in a hostel which — while being adequate — was situated in one of the roughest areas of the city. Like any European city, their public transport actually worked. They even had trams, everywhere. Berlin also has a considerable nightlife; some of the clubs start at midnight on a Friday and finish at 6 am on Monday. Interesting, but I opted for museums and historical tours — the Berlin Wall, some of the WWII buildings, the headquarters for Germany at the time. The weather was nice but dropped significantly soon after I left.
Cardiff
Cardiff was an interesting city and I met a lot of cool people. I wanted to see the waterfall in the centre where the Torchwood series was set and where the Doctor from Doctor Who charges his TARDIS from the rift in Cardiff. I also remember going to a museum slightly out of town, at the end of a bus line, that was basically on a very large farm — it had real-life houses going back a thousand years. Absolutely huge, took a whole day to walk through. I also learnt some history about the struggles of the Welsh people and the coal mining days.
Edinburgh
I stayed with a friend in a town about 45 minutes outside Edinburgh. We hung out, did wood chopping, drove around the Scottish countryside, went to the Isle of Skye and Loch Ness and other large lakes in the area, went fishing — generally hung out. We hadn’t seen each other in about 15 years.
At the same time I ended up getting a tooth infection and had to get a partial root canal. They didn’t do it very well and I had to get it redone again back in New Zealand.
I then went and stayed in a hostel in the centre of Edinburgh — tours, tourist attractions, markets, the castle, the famous main street. I was still sick during this time.
Inverness
I stayed in Inverness and went on a lot of tours and, like with the rest of my trip, met a whole heap of really cool people around a warm fireplace. By this time it was the middle of December and very cold.
Oxford
I moved on to Oxford, which was intentionally left last because it was the place I really wanted to visit. I explored every single bookstore, historical monument, library, university college, and museum. Magdalen College was the most magical college in the entire city, and one day I will stay there. I took a bus back to London and caught my plane home.
Back to New Zealand
Coming back to NZ, I went and stayed with my parents and got a seasonal job at a kiwifruit packhouse before moving into a retail job. I moved back into my grandfather’s house — turned into a flat — and worked full-time for the best part of five years. I’m now working part-time, gaming, doing independent study, and trying to improve myself for the future of work.