Why London is such a great place to live in

Hello everyone! Just before my trip to the Philippines, I just wanted to share a few thoughts about how great London is. Lately I've been genuinely feeling in love with this city. And I cannot believe in 3 months it's going to be 2 years since I've started living here. It's going to be the longest I've stayed in one place since... 2010!

I'm not going to elaborate on all the things you can do in London, so many better writers have done it before me. I'm just going to explain why...

The main thing with London is that it is not afraid to change. In Europe, we are not developing countries. But that also means we are not really evolving either. Rome, Praha, Athens, they might be active capitals, but their city center is so full of history that evolution happens at the periphery. Reykjavik is a blooming city, with the suburbs development skyrocketing, but again, the city centre, while buzzing, is not really evolving.

And what about Paris? We are so afraid to change the buildings from the Haussmannian era that we have attributed one district, and only one - La Defense - to skyscrapers.

In London, I don't think I have ever seen so many construction sites going on at once. Near St Paul, you have a mix of glass modernity and ancient stones. Near the Shard, you have the remains of Middle Ages London. And it's constantly evolving, developing, changing.

Living in a city is like being in a relationship. You need some changes to keep things exciting. And London knows how to change its skin to keep on seducing you...

2 years ago...

Two years ago, I was on a beach in Queensland, north of Cairn, camera ready to shoot at one of the most amazing spectacles of Mother Nature: a solar eclipse. It was not my first time in Australia, but it was the beginning of the Journey, the one defining experience of my life, and from the moment I stepped out of the plane, my head was set for a full on discovery of the world around me, and what better experience to begin this adventure than seeing, along with a beach full of people, the marriage of the Moon and Sun?

One year ago, I was on my second road trip to New Zealand, this time driving our way from North to South. We were actually just arriving on the Southern Island, visiting wineries on the road to Abel Tasman National Park, where one of my many firsts was waiting for me: the next day there was to be a parachute with my name on it.

This year, I will be celebrating my fifth month living in London. When I came back to Paris after 14 months of travelling, I quickly realized that, even though my social life was thriving, Paris was no longer enough for me. The world was my oyster, I needed to live outside of the city that I grew up in and that I still loved. I needed to find again the thrill experiencing living abroad. At first, the idea of going back for another year of working holiday visa in New Zealand was reassuring, but I figured that I needed to find a real job in Europe first before trying to move back in that part of the world.

What would have happened had I gone back? I have no clue. I might have worked in a winery like so many backpackers, I might have tried to find a real job, that would only have lasted six months due to the visa restrictions. I would definitely have come back to Australia, and done what I missed out the first time. I would most certainly have travelled to the Philippines, which have been on my To Do List for quite a while now. In an ideal world, I would have found the perfect job in New Zealand; got a working visa, planned my next five years in the Long White Cloud, learning how to navigate a boat around the coastline of this wonderful country, and finally would have found my place under the sun of Australia. That would have been a good plan, but only in an ideal world.

I love living in London, for so many reasons. First of all, obviously, people here speak English most of the time, and I have always loved hearing and talking in English. It’s actually more than love. I’ve always told myself that I was born in the wrong language. When I speak English, I am another version of myself. I dream in English, think in English my most crazy thoughts and fantasies. Second of all, people kept telling me about all the events, but I would never have imagined being blown away that much. Up until now, there hasn’t been a month without a theatre matinee, with big names on the scene (Martin Freeman, Kristin Scott Thomas, James McAvoy, Ralph Fiennes…). And even when there is no theatre, it is impossible to stay idle, if you don’t want to spend your weekend on the couch.

London is a fascinating city, both historical and modern, both cultural and fun, and living in the city centre – I found a place in London Bridge – just makes it so easy to make the most of it.

My 300 days of Summer

After these holidays in Bali and Northern Territory, I can officially say that my 300 days of Summer are over. So what happened between then and now? And most importantly, what happens now?

What happened after I left?
Well, after a non motivating job in Paris, I finally decided that it was time for me to make the move, and I now live in London. It is great, I enjoy living in this city as much as I enjoyed visiting it, especially since my appartment is really central

I know that I would never have made that move if I hadn't spent a year in Australia. I would have longed for it, but never achieved it, probably because my will would not have been as strong.

What happens now?
Well I don't know. Of course I don't know the future! But these few days in Australia made me realize that I am nowhere as happy as I am in Australia. This is now my goal: trying to find a way to live in this part of the world that is so amazing. And I also want to do another RTW trip for my 35th year, but this time, I want to really take the time to enjoy every country to the fullest, and that means using the whole length of the tourist visa, everywhere I go.

So a lot of projects are piling up, and I hope I will be able to do all of them.

You are where you live

If some of my readers wonder why I haven't updated my blog for a while, it's not because of this, it's simply because I'm living my life. And to prove it, I've updated my Impossible list with all the new things I've experienced in Ultima. 

Funny how at first, the name of this town sounded like hell bells, as if it was the final destination. And you know what? It really was. It was the ultimate destination for me to change myself in a way that just "regular" traveling would never have. This is the kind of experience, way out of all touristic roads, that makes the whole thing unique and unforgettable. I've never felt so good about myself, and every now and then I tell myself "if you ever feel down, remember this feeling, Julie". I think it's the first time for a long while I'm not chasing after other people's love and acceptance, and it actually just comes to me.

And as much as the people themselves - a lot of good people here - I'm certain that the whole environment around helps this kind of change. The peaceful sound of Nature, the open horizon (again), the warm sun on your skin in winter, it's like everything is here to make you better yourself.

Well I don't have much to add, so I will leave you with that for the moment. I promise, tips on traveling will be back soon!

Half a life ago

Today, it's been 6 months since I've left, and already 3 weeks since I've put my travels on hold. Maybe it's time for a little reflexion on what has changed for me. I apologize in advance if it gets too personal for the Internet, where everything must be entertaining.

By the way, I am aware of the difference between life and lifetime, I just prefer the title that way.

Honestly, apart from the fact that I live on my savings and not on a daily routine of a job in front of a computer, I don't see much difference. My problems are still with me, and I don't see any change in my character. Okay, maybe I'm a bit less temperamental, but basically, I'm still the same person that left, or at least I feel like it. Hell, even in the middle of nowhere, if there are sales, I'm turning back into the fashionista I was... As there is no one to see the change, I will probably have to wait and meet my friends again to know if I have really changed.

One of the important things for me is that when I go back to the "real" world, all the qualities that made me employable are now proven through this trip: Time management, planning and scheduling, being adaptable, becoming customer-oriented, being a quick learner, not being afraid to take important decisions on the go, and so on... The biggest improvement is definitely to be able to stand calm facing people undermining me.

And as an engineer turned barmaid in the middle of farmers, you get that sometimes...

not as much as you would elsewhere, though, because Aussies are good people...

Coming from a backpacker, this may sound uncommon to talk about the After-Travel and how to use it in the workplace, that seems like defeating the whole purpose of freeing yourself from it for a year! Nevertheless, it is still important to me, whatever place I may end up in the future workworld.

My best friend recently told me that I reminded her of Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. The compliment went  obviously straight to my heart, but I still didn't want to read the book, as I didn't want to be influenced by others' experience, and I had the feeling that the search for spirituality in the book was completely different from my own search. 

I actually still don't know why I left. 

Because I was turning thirty and it was my last chance to go on a working holiday visa could be reason enough. 

Because I was turning thirty and I was in search of myself? or running away from my problems? or too scared to enter a new decade without a big plan?

I really can't say. 

Anyway, when I told my friend that Australia wasn't for me as spiritual a country as India could be, she told me that a country shouldn't be spiritual, you make it spiritual. And that is very true.

She should probably write this blog instead of me... 

I have yet to see Uluru, said to be the most spiritual place in Australia, but you can find spirituality in the beautiful western coast.

You can find spirituality in so open an horizon in Victoria.

It's actually in the Top 5 things I'm going to miss in Australia

1. TimTam

2. Ginger Beer

3. Garlic Bread

4. The warm sun

5. The open horizon

You can find spirituality by talking to people who live so differently from you.

Well, anyway, after that, I finally read Eat Pray Love. Or more precisely, I devoured in a day 2/3rd of it. I want to keep the Bali part for after I've myself done Bali. I'm very happy to have read it, and I'm also very happy I waited to read it. If I've read it when it came out, I might have been inspired by the author's own personal experience, and it would have ended in a not-so-genuine wanderlust. And I'm so glad I read it, because, like all good writers, she talks to me. I was both right and wrong, her search for spirituality took a completely different path than the one I'm in, but basically, it is the genuine search of self which we have in common.
I think everybody can enjoy reading that book, but I don't think everybody can relate. For instance, my friends that are happily married, having or expecting babies probably wouldn't connect with all she's been through. And that's good for them. As for me, she's had me hooked as soon as her 109th bead, that is to say her introduction. I've laughed and cried with her, envied her sometimes and basically had a good - and unfortunately too short - reading time.

In the middle of that reading, a bittersweet moment happened: I had a Skype call with friends, and I realized how little had changed. Of course, babies are on the way, and I will have to adapt to that, but it was sweet and reassuring to see and hear them still being my friends, and not just parents or parents to be. It was bitter, though, to realize that I haven't changed a bit. I am still affected by their love and the way they look at me, and basically, what I dread at the beginning of the article, I didn't have a big epiphany on who I am and where I'm going.

Of course, it's only my vision of myself, and I still need my friends when I go back to tell me if I'm right or wrong.

It is indeed dreadful for an impatient control freak of a girl like me, who wants everything now or at least in a precise agenda. And it is made all the more excruciating by the fact that right now, my life is on hold. I am in the middle of nowhere, and since I have learned - one thing at least I've learned - to make the most of every moment and opportunity, I try to see the benefits of those two months away from my year of wandering.

Hence my search for spirituality several lines ago... 

At the same time, I'm fighting really hard to avoid becoming an apathic brooder that stays in bed 12 hours a day. Maybe I'm trying too hard; maybe, all I need is let the flow of time pass me by, but I must say that this Nowhere I am right now doesn't give me many opportunities to make it pass faster, and it's really tiring.
The only element that glues things together is knowing that so much more opportunities will arise in the not so distant future in September. And for sure, learning patience will make me change for the better.

Reading List

When you travel, you have a lot of time to read, between the buses, the planes, the connexions... And if you're lucky enough to have a kindle or any other kind of electronic reading device, you have enough books at your disposal for 300 lives.

As you can see on the right of this blog, my reading list is getting longer and longer, but today I want to talk about Manuscript Found in Accra, by Paulo Coelho.

I love Paulo Coelho, I've loved all his books, except maybe The Winner stands alone, but only because I found it hard to get into the main character, but nevertheless, it was a good "exercice de style", as we say in French. So when he posted on his blog extracts from his latest book, I knew I would love it. And that I did.

I mean, I'm not even half way through, and I felt compelled to write about it, isn't that proof enough?

This book is the kind of book you think is written especially for you. It talks about hardships, love, defeat, beauty, solitude, adventures on the path of Life and so on, and even though God's presence is often there, it also inspire non-believers like me. It is exactly the kind of book I would recommend anyone who has taken a step forward, out of their comfort zone, to live the dream, whichever dream that may be. It's like every sentence could be used as an inspirational quote for Zenpencils.

So, seriously, read it. And don't hesitate to leave your impressions of the book in the Comment section!

NB: even the man's blog is inspirational, he really is like a role model for me. He is the Copt.

The Australian way

Since I won't write a post about Western Australia for a while, I wanted to share something that I love about Australians.
All you've ever heard about Australians is true. They are laid-back, warm-hearted (they actually say "hello" to people on the street!), and don't like splitting hairs. One of the finest example of this particular trait is the way they name things around them. Apart from "Kangaroo" which means "I don't understand" in Aboriginal, the whole country is named very... obviously. Just let me give you examples:
- A city in Tasmania called "Nowhere else"
- Another city in Western Australia called "Manypeaks", surrounded by... peaks
- A river in Western Australia called "Deep River"
- The beaches near Esperance called "West Beach", west from the city, and "Fourth beach" a bit further west after 2 other beaches.
- The mountains in "the Great Divide" that are called "Snowy mountains" for obvious reasons

Talking about the word "Great", some more geographical examples:
- The Great Ocean Road, of course
- The Great Ocean Drive, in the continuity of Highway 1 in Western Australia
- And up north, my personal favorite: The Great Sandy Desert. Could it be less specific?

I love it, it really is a reflection of the Australian way of thinking.

More about Western Australia in a while. Brace yourselves, it's going to be a long article, there is so much to see and do there, I am surprised so many people neglect it. The majority of the backpackers I've met so far were getting their second WHV, as if Western Australia was left to be seen when everything in the East was done. But then again, there is also so much to see and do in the East, it's enough for one vacation or for one year!

what it all means to me

My, I cannot believe that exactly a month ago I was taking the plane, leaving Europe behind... This article is a bouquet of my reflexions throughout this month.

What it means…

… To meet the end of the road.

Like every good lesson learned, I will start with a recent example. I was in Hobart, and I really wanted to go to an event on a Saturday night. Of course, I don’t have a car, so my only hope relied on public transportation which, wherever you are in the world, is not particularly fond of Saturday nights. But nevermind that, I checked which bus would get me the closest to the place I wanted to go, and I decided to walk the rest of the distant. Pretty simple, right? I just had to follow one street…

Except that this street was steep and long as the one leading to a better place. But as so many cars were overtaking me, as I was suffering under the heat and the pain of the journey, I remembered that this was exactly what I wanted, that I actually wanted to earn the end of the road, like a prize well deserved. And it worked as a motivation, and when the final bit was finally behind me (there’s always one final bit so much steeper than the rest, right?), I was not like all those people searching for a parking space near the park, I was actually happy, from the bottom of my heart, of finally arriving to destination, by my own means (aka, my poor legs). And when the time came to go back, the walk down the road was just as nice, and while cars hurriedly drove home, I spotted my first kangaroo, and enjoyed a stroll under the moonlit sky, Orion watching over me.

That in itself is just a story, maybe not even worth telling, but for me it was characteristic of the trip I had in mind. No car, just go to the limit of the known through public transportation, and the limit of your unknown by your own means. It just makes so much more sense, it’s so much more fulfilling. Of course, the big continent of Australia may not be the most appropriate country to do this, as it is sometimes frustrating not being able to go somewhere without a car (like Cradle Mountain or Freycinet National Parks), but still, this road just lingers in my mind just like Marions lookout in Cradle Mountain National Park, because I earned the view,I earn the end of the road.

… to backpack on your own

Before I realized that backpacking was actually the best way for me to travel, I always looked at backpackers as another species remotely related to mine. In my vision, they had piercings, smoked weed, and wore Cool under all those hippy clothes. I couldn’t picture myself as one of them. Now my world is full of backpackers, and sometimes, some are exactly as described above. But most of them are just like me, discovering the world on a budget, trying to make the most of it and meeting new people. And then, I crossed the look of a girl on the street, and it might have been the exact same look I had when meeting backpackers. I wasn’t wearing any hippy clothes, I don’t have piercings, but her look was probably for the global image I gave: unbrushed hair, a big backpack, big walking shoes, no fancy accessories… So, after a month of traveling, I’m probably one of them. And actually... it feels great!
(Edit: except for one thing: flip flops. In this particular part of the world, backpackers travel with flip flops on... And I really can't understand it, as comfortable as it may seem)

Remember when I told you about “the excitement of doing things of your own”? I never thought it would be so true. My creativity, my ideas have never been so awaken, and now I certainly have the time to realize them. I probably could have found the time before, after a day of work, but the motivation wasn’t really there. But now…

Just as an example: from “My Impossible List”, I had taken away the “and make a movie about it” from the “Make a Cross Country Trip”, but I put it back, because it doesn’t seem so impossible now. I don't say that I will become the next Tarantino, but I'm still having fun collecting pieces of video and putting them together.

What are YOUR thoughts about backpacking? What do you do of your free time when you travel?

Why #WeGoSolo ?

"Women always need a battle to fight", they say. Well, as long as there are people (men and women alike) to start sentences with "women", there will be feminists, you know...

Lately, the Twitter world has been moved by the consequences of the death of a young American woman killed in Turkey. The consequences on female solo travel. Now, I didn't know about this terrible thing before the female travel bloggers decided to go and fight the battle for the right to travel alone for a woman. And I'm not going to talk about why, obviously, women can and should travel the world, the question has been answered several times now, and they all did a better job than I could do (see links below). You just need to type "#WeGoSolo" on Twitter and you will see numerous names mobilized for the cause.

I just want to share with you how this battle made me feel.

Since The Big Breakup, I've always considered myself more as an individual than as a woman. And when I decided to go, to leave my job, my friends and my family for a year, it was for my own personal reasons. I never even considered once that I was a woman and that I would be taking risks being alone. Why? Because I never thought I was doing anything special. A lot of people I know have used the opportunity of a Working Holiday Visa, and it's true, they were either in a couple or men.

And then I decided to write a blog of my adventures and thoughts, and again I realized how many women there were in the blogosphere who were doing the same things I was about to do. Well, not exactly the same thing, because they were either still working at home (and had a home to go back to), or they were living out of their blogs. And besides, everyone has their own reasons to travel, making the whole experience unique.

The last thing that made me conclude that I wasn't doing anything special and that I wasn't even considering the risks, happened last November, on the East Coast of Australia. On each hostels, I talked to women traveling on their own, on a Working Holiday Visa. Some of them were with another girl as travel buddies, but most of them were alone, just like me.

Going back to #WeGoSolo, this battle made me realized that I was, in fact, doing something special. For a vast majority of people, billions of which I will never meet even once in my life, what I'm doing is nuts. #WeGoSolo made me feel like I belonged to a strong community of people (again, men and women alike) firmly decided to keep travelling the world. Nobody should tell a woman, or anyone, that they shouldn't travel. And that's why I spread the good word...

So yeah, #WeGoSolo made me feel a little bit special.

For more informations on this debate, here are a few links
the truth about solo female travel and safety
the women traveling solo question
travelling solo im not brave just smart
and my personal favorite:
female solo travel is not the problem

What about you? Did you partake in the debate? Either share how that made you feel, or join the community!

This is it

Well, here I am, back in Australia. I've just spent 36h of travel from Paris to Melbourne (with one or two hours of sleep in between) not realizing that I will not come back home for a whole year. The planification on excel spreadsheets has become reality.

Do I think this is social suicide? Maybe. But it was something I had to do. I have no idea what's coming for me, but I know it will change me, and believe me, that's not easy... I cannot regret doing this, because I know I would have regretted not to. And if I ever get depressed, this is what I will tell myself:

"girl, 6 months ago you had no idea you had it in you to quit everything and leave. You're living your dream, so you have no right to feel sorry for yourself, so use every opportunity at hand, understand?"

Well, it might sometimes get a little more complicated than that, but I'm hopeful I will be able to convince myself of this. For now, time to repair the jetlag damage and to discover a new town, Melbourne, with an open mind and wide open eyes.

Until next time!

The first goodbyes

It’s never easy to say goodbye. You never know what to say, how to act, and you know it’s the last thing people will remember from you. But usually, if you’re lucky enough, you don’t get to do it that often.

For me, this is it. A week before my travel begins, and in a context when I don’t know yet if I’m coming back, I have to say goodbye to my family and friends. Some of them, I won’t be able to tell them how much they mean to me. Some of them, I want to squeeze them so hard as to nearly imprint myself on them so that they will know how much I love them and they will hopefully not forget me. So yes, as I was saying in this note, this is one of the sad moments.

And, as the title hints, this is just the beginning. As I will not stay too long at the same place this whole year, there will be a lot of goodbyes along the way. But I figure, for that many goodbyes, there will be that many welcomes. Whether it’s just “Welcome”, or “Welcome home”, or “Welcome back”, I know that with every sad moment of goodbye, I will be granted the same amount of warm times, be it with the same people or not.

So to all the world travellers around the world, I ask this question: how were your goodbyes? Tearful? Joyful? Hopeful?

NB: as promised, I updated my Impossible list with two more objectives, because this year is going to be the year when anything is possible. I know there will be so much freedom and so many choices ahead of me, I feel like I'm in this comic, where I could live out of my hobby (be it dance, or music, or anything I like, or more accurately, anything I want)

The excitement of doing things on your own

There it is. In one month I will be off to see the world all by myself, and I'm thrilled just thinking about it!

Even if "On my own" is for me one of the saddest songs of all musicals ever, doing things on your own is not. 

Creating something on your own, such as your first timelapse video gives you an incredible sense of accomplishment.

video coming soon...

Planning your trip on your own, choosing which places you will go, only on the basis of what you really like and want to do, this is even more amazing. Let me tell you something, I am right in this phase right now, planning my trip to Australia and Asia, and I am so excited about it that I nearly forget about the life I still have here!

Of course, travelling with a companion is great, I have done that for six years, and sure, it is good to share your emotions instantly with your travel companion. But I'm not sure it gives you the same pride, knowing that you did it on your own, and that it went pretty well. My goal is to forget about travel agencies, and to concentrate on what is locally available.

And look at it this way: would I have been able to seat on the co-pilot seat on the flightseeing tour I took on the whitsundays? Certainly not!

So yeah, it will probably be sad sometimes, but looking back, I know I will be so much more proud of having done this trip on my own, and right now, all I can think about is all the amazing things I will do because I want to do them.

Edit: I found this article that sums up the joy of solo travelling