I don’t so much have itchy feet, it’s more a restless spirit. My desire to travel and see and experience the world overrides any desire to do anything else, except perhaps to write about it. I have no desire to have kids or get married and as I explained to a friend the other day, I don’t have time or the money for all that. There are just too many countries in the world that I want to see and I don’t want to waste my hard earned money on someone else.

I realise that probably sounds harsh. And many people don’t believe me. Most are caught up in the romantic delusion that I haven’t found the right person yet. When I do find the right one I will want to settle down. I know in my very core that this is not true, for me. Others can do whatever they like. If they fall in love and get married and have a billion children that is great! I don’t see why it’s not great that I’m going to do whatever the hell I like. It’s just lucky that I don’t really care what anyone else thinks.

I have been home for 2 months now and I’m in the planning stages of what I want to do next. I’m getting restless. But it could also just be that time of year. I am rather sensitive to the change in season and when there is the shift in the atmosphere and summer turns to autumn I feel it in my bones. When I see the leaves change it is time for me to have a change in scenery.

At the moment I’m itching to get back to England. I have a fantastic network of friends over there and I miss each and every one of them. It is what I think about before going to sleep, it is what I dream about and when I wake up with the sunlight in my eyes I am disappointed that I’m not there.

I feel the need to go somewhere new. I will start in England and maybe go to Spain and drink cheap wine. Maybe go to Italy. And for some reason I feel the urge to go to Morocco. Perhaps I need a place that doesn’t just look different but smells different too.

There are some places I have no desire to go to at all. For some reason Southeast Asia just doesn’t interest me. I would love to get to India but I think Romania will come before that. I like the idea of travelling Europe in one big chunk. Kind of like the Grand Tours that were a rite of passage for so many artists and writers in the 1800’s. Oh, Lord Byron, why don’t you have a modern day equivalent? I could quite happily be a modern day Jane Austen, though clearly less romantic more cynic.

And so the restlessness grows. I always thought I would travel while I was young and get it out of my system. But the older I get the more accepting I am of who I am. I am a traveller, an endless wanderer. The travel bug for me is more like a chronic illness, and it’s terminal. It was only a few years ago that I started telling people that I work to travel. When people ask what you do for a living it is hard to come up with an acceptable answer. But acceptable to who? Society? So I went for honesty over acceptance.

I get told that I’m brave or that I’m lucky. But really I’m just restless. I know what is in my nature and I don’t fight it.  Add a comment below and let me know if you are restless too.

As I’ve mentioned in the past few posts I will be making some changes to this blog over the next few months. It is going to take a little bit of trial and error before I find something I’m happy with so please bear with me.

The first change is that I will now post only one day a week instead of two. My aim is to post on Wednesdays. If something else comes up during the week I may post about it when it happens but to keep this blog consistent I will try and post every Wednesday.

I plan to change the tone and style a little. Originally this blog started as an extension of the monthly Update Notes I used to post on my Facebook page while I was travelling in the UK. Before I travelled to Canada I thought a blog would be easier to maintain. It was initially directed at friends and family but I have had interest and questions from others so in order to be more inclusive to all the people that read this blog I need to make a few changes to what and how I write.

I have been told on a number of occasions that this blog is a little censored and sometimes bland. I think that is correct. I have been holding back information. There are some things I like to keep to myself. But to be honest I keep things to myself when I don’t want to hear other people’s opinions or I don’t want to be asked 20 million questions and feel like I have to justify myself. I am very aware of the people who read this blog and I try not to upset of offend. I do plan to be a little bit more honest and share a little more of my emotions.

I realised a long time ago that my life is for the entertainment of others. There are not many that understand or ‘approve’ of my lifestyle but people love to hear the stories or about the stupid things I have done. So with that in mind I will try and bring my unique brand of sarcasm to each post, depending on the topic of the post, that is.

I am trying to be more focused on my aim and purpose of this blog. As I mentioned in the first post, this is not a travel blog but a blog about my travels. I may currently be at home but this gives me an opportunity to tell you all about my travels around my own state and also my experiences on previous travel or anything that I find relating to my travels.

I have plans to continue with this blog and I have ideas as to where I want to take it. I will discuss issues I’ve come across and I will tell you about places I’ve been, places I’ve liked and the people I’ve met along the way. I do not want to give you a list of the 7 top things to see or do but I’d like to tell you about my experiences, some you may relate to, some you may think are insane.

My plan is to inform and entertain and inspire not to instruct so hold tight til next week where I will tell you about my current problem of itchy feet.

I am home.  By home I mean Australia.  I’ve got 2 weeks in Sydney until I go back to my parent’s place in Tasmania and then I need to do sensible stuff like get a job, pay off my credit card and figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, or the next few year of it at least.

There are many reasons I decided to come home and it was a decision I didn’t make lightly.  I lasted 7 months in Canada this time.  My first trip to Canada was after summer camp in America back in 2003, that time I lasted 2 months.  That trip ended because I was an idiot and went home for a boy who had asked me to, only he was in bed with someone else when I got there.  This time is a little bit different.

Before coming to Canada this time I had spent 2 years in the UK on another working holiday visa.  I loved my time in the UK, I had a great network of friends, I had adopted a family and I had many places I easily called home.  I met the locals and I got involved and ended up seeing quite a lot of England and Wales, though Scotland did nothing for me.  I got to see most of the things I had set out to and it was easy and relatively cheap to get around.

My main aim for Canada was for it to be different from my experience in England.  It was going to have to be anyway just because Canada is a much bigger country and I knew no one there.  I had no plans for Canada.  I thought I would just figure it out when I got here.  I was unprepared.  I just wanted to make up for stuffing up my first visa.  Back in 2003 the visa for Canada was once in a lifetime, it changed a few years later and the time limit was increased.  That meant I had a second chance.

This was a lot of pressure to put on myself.  I had high expectations before I’d even seen much of the country.  This was my first mistake.  My next one was getting a job straight away.  When I arrived in the UK I travelled for 6 week.  I took extra money with me for this very purpose.  This trip I only took the required amount.  I had 8 months between returning home from the UK and going to Canada and in that time I managed to make another idiot decision based on a guy that cost me quite a lot of money.  So as funds were going to be limited I was going to need a job.  I took the first one I found.

My job was arse.  I don’t like working customer service and I ended up in a job helping other travellers.  The hours were long and it only took me 3 months before I took the first opportunity out that came along.  The opportunity was a gorgeous, tanned Englishman but strangely this was not an idiot decision based on a man.  This was one of the best decisions of my whole trip and one of the best experiences.  I not only had the opportunity to escapes my crappy job but I got to see more of Canada then I expected to and I could give it a proper chance.  I got to meet an actual Canadian in a girl from Toronto I got drunk with in Whitehorse.  But the whole time something just didn’t feel right.

I found it really difficult to find any connection to the country or to the places I went or to the people I met.  Being a long term traveller is different to being a tourist.  As a tourist and being on holiday you have a limited amount of time in which to do and see all that you want.  As a long term traveller and living in a country for possibly 2 years I want to get involved and experience something a little deeper than ‘Wow, isn’t that a nice mountain’.

So I made the decision to go home because I felt there is nothing in Canada for me.  I met few actual Canadians.  I connected with maybe 3 or 4 people the whole time I’d been there.  Though I am willing to admit there are areas that are pretty I found nothing that amazed me.  I had no connection to the places I went.  I realised I have no actual reason for being in Canada.  There’s nothing I was desperate to see or do.  It is expensive to get around and difficult if you don’t have a car, and it’s painful to spend 13 hours on a bus just to get from one place to the next.

I do not see this as giving up or running away.  I am simply done and moving on.  I see no point in wasting 2 years of my life in a country that I’m not particularly fond of.  There is a whole world out there and I’m not going to like every country I go to.  I am not going to like every person I meet.  But life is full of experiences, both good and bad and you learn something from each.  This time I have learnt that the purpose of a plan is the end goal, and it helps with keeping a budget.  Also I discovered the reason why I travel in the first place.  I could be just like everyone else my age and get married and have kids but I don’t want to.  I don’t want to share my life with just one person.  I want to live my life and share an experience with different people.  I want to connect to something and continue to learn and contribute to something bigger than I am.

I now have to figure out what I want to do next and where I want to go.  The ‘I’ll figure it out when I get there’ attitude clearly doesn’t work for me.  But I have plenty of time of think and reconsider my life goals.  For now though I am going to enjoy my time in Sydney.

In Banff

I’ve had fun during my first week in Banff.  It’s a lovely town and the hostel is fun.  I’ve also had a slight change of plans.

Last week my tour bus dropped me out the front of the hostel.  I checked in and found my room and immediately got chatting to one of the girls staying in my room.  She was really friendly and we got on great.  I got myself organised then went straight to the bar that is in the hostel.  I met three Australian guys and I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t completely annoy me.  I had a few pints and a good night.

For my first full day in Banff I had a wander around and got acquainted with the town.  I really like it.  It looks lovely surrounded by mountains and with the resort type buildings.  Banff has always been a tourist town.  The Cave and Basin hot springs were first discovered in 1883 by a group of Canadian Pacific Railway workers.  In 1885 the federal government established the Hot Spring Reserve which later expanded into Canada’s first National Park. The following year the park superintendent was given the task of designing a town site to attract wealthy and well-travelled tourists.

Now the town attracts young Australians looking for work.  During my first day I attempted the job hunt, but I didn’t really put a lot of effort into it.  The main reason I am in Banff is for the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival that concentrates on mountain themed movies and literature.  National Geographic will be putting on a few free workshops so I am keen for that.  I didn’t want to look too hard for a job in case I had to start right away.  I really don’t want to miss the festival.

The weekend was spent keeping warm as it snowed for the first time for the season and it didn’t look like it was going to stop.  The Saturday was spent mainly in my room socialising with the girls that I share the room with.  Sunday was my birthday.  I had a really nice day.  I went for a walk along the river to the fancy Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.  It looked really pretty in the snow.  That night I had dinner with the girls from my room and we had a little party in the bar.  It was a lot of fun.

Monday was spent catching up on sleep and avoiding the snow though I managed to get to the supermarket and stock up on packet pasta for the week.  Tuesday was spent avoiding the snow.  Wednesday and Thursday was spent working.  I didn’t get an official job or anything.  I was working at the hostel in exchange for a week of free accommodation.  I find that accommodation is one of the biggest expenses when travelling so I try and avoid paying wherever I can.  I always ask when booking if there is a way I can help out so I don’t have to pay.  I worked two full days cleaning the entire hostel with 4 other people.

My plans have now changed a little.  I don’t think I will be staying in Banff for the season.  There are too many Australians here for my liking.  I don’t have anything against my fellow country men and women, I just don’t want to meet loads of them when I could do just that in my own country.  Also I find young Australians rather annoying.  There is a reason they have the reputation that they have and they seem quite happy to maintain it.  I am in Banff for another two weeks.  I extended for an extra week because of the free accommodation and I have a few plans to see and do a couple of things.

I have a few things planned for this week, but the thing with plans is that they have a habit of changing.  We’ll see what happens.  Stay tuned…

It would seem that everything happens for a reason, though the reason is not always apparent.  I don’t want to be looking at my current situation with some sort of floaty expectation and make a bigger deal out of it than it deserves but things seem to be working out fine. In a sense. Touch wood.

Again to pick up where I left off in the previous post…

I was debating whether to go to my Thursday quilt group and then to the farmer’s market as I had been doing most Thursdays in the past month in Whitehorse or take off to Kluane National Park with a Swiss guy who had just brought a van and an English guy who had the same inability to make plans as I did.  Essentially the decision was made for me because as I would not have accommodation for the night sleeping in a van seemed like the only option.

At midday we bundled into a fully kitted out van and were off to Kluane.  2 hours later we were at a place called Haines Junction.  The scenery along the way was stunning.  We did a short hike.  It was called Spuce Beetle and it was meant to be 30-60 minute loop trail.  It took us ages to get organised.  Swiss guy changed his outfit and had to sort out his gear.  For a short walk/hike he still needed to take his little GPS spot device, Bear Grylls knife, first aid kit and Christ knows what else.  I was too busy laughing at the guy.  I kind of figured he comes from the country that created the Swiss army knife so maybe this was just a cultural thing.

We did the trail in 20 minutes.  About the same amount of time it took him to get ready.  Turns out the guy has had military training.  So I will forgive him for being over prepared.  After the trail we drove further on to find a camp site.  We pulled off the main road to see where one of the side roads would take us, hoping we would find somewhere suitable to camp.  We found a research station and thought camping at the end of an air strip was as good as place as any, so proceeded to make dinner.

The rest of the evening past in ‘get to know you’ conversation then I went to bed.  I was sleeping in the back with the Swiss guy.  Separate sleeping bags, of course.  Turns out Swiss guy is a restless sleeper.  So at one point he either tried to spoon in an over enthusiastic bear hug kind of way or he was attempting to sleep on top of me.  Now usually I am all for a cute 23 year old Swiss guy having a crack but I’d like a bit of warning first.  Also, because he was cute and military trained I didn’t think punching him in the face while he was half asleep was a great idea so I tried to peel him off me and go back to sleep.

After being woken by a helicopter the next morning and finally getting up around midday we got organised and explored some more.  The guys decided to do another hike.  The picked a hill/mountain and decided to walk up it.  I wasn’t so keen.  Just being in the area was enough for me and I wasn’t comfortable walking off trail so I fell asleep in the van and left them to it.  They arrived back a couple of hours later and we headed back.

We got back to the hostel in the evening.  I had no bed to sleep in so I spent another night in the van with the Swiss guy this time with him trying to get into my sleeping bag!  The following conversation was something like this:

Me: “What do you think you are doing?”

Swiss: “What do you think you are doing?”

Hmmm…

Arriving at the hostel was interesting enough.  I didn’t expect to have a bed but I also didn’t expect to run into Tanned Man again.  We had a hug and a catch up and he was leaving the next day.  So I had my lift south again.  We were back on the road and travelling together.

The next day we got organised and I said my goodbyes.  I was amazed by the amount of people I had met while being in Whitehorse for a month.  We set off around 11am.  We had a long day of driving ahead of us.  Amazingly I stayed awake the whole way!!!  I did laugh at tanned man.  He had been hiking in Kluane for a week so hadn’t showed in that time.  Before we left in the morning he seemed a lot less tanned.  So it looks like his tan washed of a bit and can no longer be referred to as ‘Tanned Man’.  I didn’t sleep in the car so I may lose my name of ‘Sleeping woman’.  Such is life.

Driving all day was rough and boring.  We entertained each other as best we could by catching the other up on the adventures we’d had.  We stopped for an early dinner/ late lunch at Watson Lake.  Our aim was to get to Fort Nelson by that evening.  This is about 10 hours’ worth of driving so Tanned Mann did a spectacular job of driving all day so the least I could do was stay awake and provide some sort of entertainment for him.  80 kms outside of our destination we ran into a spot of car trouble.  This was at about 9pm and we were under an hour away.  It was dark because we were no longer in the Yukon where it doesn’t start getting dart til after 10 so it was an interesting situation.

2 days later we are still stuck in a hotel in Fort Nelson.  We have no idea what is going on with the car and this is making things frustrating and difficult.  Tanned Man is short on time as he flies back to the UK towards the end of September.  I just have to be in Smithers by the end of the month but I can’t afford to be holed up in a hotel room for much longer.