This blog begins as I finally enter my last week working in retail. Yes, freedom is (finally) on the horizon!
You might be asking yourself, why would someone with a degree work in a retail job they hate? Simple answer, I wanted to travel, as soon as possible.
Everyone under 25 knows how hard graduate jobs are to get, so it seemed easier to get a job instead of sitting around on my parents sofa for a year first. Also, why start a career only to let my employer down by leaving the second I had enough money to go? Which is exactly what I was able to do in my retail job.
In 5 days I will have left my awful, soul sucking job.
In 16 days I will be on my way to France, to start a tour of 15 coutries in Europe.
In 68 days I will be on a plane to Thailand, begining a trip around 5 countries.
Right now, I am so irritatingly excited, I am pissing off everyone I love!
The trips:
Europe
I’m English, so why pay a fortune to go with a travel company on a group tour around Europe? Simple fact is, even though we can reach most of Europe via a brief journey on a train, ferry or plane; we just don’t. Some of us might go for brief two weeks trips to part of it but my family never did. This is the only way I could see as much as possible, in the safest way possible.
I did consider buying one of those travel passes that allows me to hop on and off a bus or a train whenever/ wherever I wanted in Europe, as it is considerably cheaper. This would allow me to turn up at any random place, book into a hostel and stay as long as I liked. Companies such as STA travel and Gap 360 do offer these options, the cheapest of which was £1500 at the time I was looking. However, this requires organisational skills that are beyond me and, if it was truly to end up being cheaper, plenty of research. I don’t know how these “pick up and go where the wind takes you” backpackers do it because the thought of it fucking terrified me as my first big trip alone.
I am travelling with Gap 360 on their European Pioneer trip, which was on sale for £2726. So far, they’ve been really helpful, easy to get hold of and the website is much better than some others I came across whilst choosing where to go.
https://www.gap360.com/european-pioneer
This is where I’m going! 15 countries- 37 days!
South East Asia:
There were a few countries that I wanted to see more than others and this was a part of the world that I knew atrociously little about. So, after finding this tour, there was no question what one I would be going with. It was one of the biggest and longest I came across, in that price range. Barring similar tours that included China, or were longer and more in depth but were also twice as expensive.
I am doing the Indo- China in depth trip with Sta travel, while the website is a tad irritating to use, the people in customer services you can phone/ email are very helpful and patient (I had a little panic about visas). It was on sale fore £2599, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
http://tours.statravel.co.uk/trip/indochina-in-depth-gaatii
This is where I’m going: 5 countries- 41 days!
So, wish me a speedy last week.
This is a new blog as the old one was set up during my time at Uni. Be patient while I’m away, there will be some sprucing and then some more posts to follow!
Feel free to follow, I promise to recipricate!
Antonia Bernardin 