So we've hit an anniversary today - one year since I arrived in the UK, meaning I have reached the halfway point on my 2-year UK Visa. It's probably an understatement to say it's been quite the year!
Its interesting to look back on how things were a year ago for me, versus now; what I've been up to, and how I've found things. I arrived excited for new opportunities, but with caution too knowing that there was a possibility things might not come together and I'd have to return back to NZ. The shock of how cold it was then, especially coming from the hot-as United Arab Emirates just before (and very warm Australia before that) as well as the short daylight hours - actually I'm pretty certain its much warmer in London now than it was the same time last year, at least for now. How daunting London felt at first, so big, so complicated and so busy. The initial occupying of days visiting museums and seeing things in London while I had free time, but without frittering away all my funds. The culture shock of everything being the same but different; traffic lights which flash in a different way, the vast array of transport networks and how to use them, shops that are open till very late every day of the week except for Sunday when they're only open for 6 hours, or that all Pubs close at midnight on a Friday and Saturday night. The initial forays into Europe, at first stumbling and bumbling my way through travels until I suddenly I got the hang of it all and took it all in my stride. I've enjoyed every trip to Europe so far immensely, even though things have not always gone right despite the best laid plans or intentions. Suddenly finding that I've got the hang of the extraordinarily busy London, and enjoying a lot of what the city has to offer (sometimes the city is just too busy - its near impossible to keep up with all of what you'd like to do, let alone all of what's going on!) as well as making new friends and having a lot of fun in the process! Without question, the year that has been past has been somewhat of a "Tour de Force" of visits to new places and new experiences. It has had its ups and downs, but on the whole it has been a blast. I like London - its a neat place.
Visited Countries
- Australia (I'd been to Sydney and Melbourne before; but Canberra was new)
- Belgium (Brussels, Louvain-a-Neuvre, Leuven)
- Bosnia (Sarajevo, Mostar, Neum)
- Croatia (Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Podgora, Split)
- France (Mulhouse, Strasboug, Saint Louis)
- Germany (Dortmund, Hanover x2, Wernigerode x2, Friedrichshafen, Stuttgart, Speyer, Sinsheim, Nuremberg, Dresden, Freiburg im Bresigau, Cologne, Koblenz, Brohl, Linz am Rhein, Nordhausen, Munich, Berlin)
- Italy (Ancona, Milan)
- Luxembourg (Luxembourg - well just the outskirts really)
- Spain (Islands of Corralejo and Lanzarote, Canary Islands)
- Sweden (Stockholm, Gavle, Uppsala)
- Switzerland (Zurich x3, Romanshorn, Basel x2)
- United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai)
A mix of new countries and revisits to other countries, new cities and re-visits to places I've been. Curious that Zurich rises to the fore as the most-visited city so far - especially given the fact that each time it has been only a handful of hours, which probably don't quite total up to a full day there. The balance of green text to black/grey looks roughly half-half - so not bad progress, though I'd hoped it might be a bit more. Check out how big the list of places in Germany visited has got though!
Places that I thought would have made this list by now? Last time I listed Paris, France, somewhere in mainland Spain, the close-to-home Ireland, or The Netherlands which had been an early country looked at visiting. None of those countries or destinations have made it to the list in the last 6 months, interestingly enough. Anywhere else I thought I might have been before now? Austria and Denmark comes to mind, and places in Italy like Rome.
Visited Places in the UK
- England (London xM, Brighton, Bletchley, Folkestone, Hythe, Dungeness, Birmingham x2, Kidderminster, Bridgnorth, New Arlesford, Alton, East Grinstead, Sheffield Park, Lincoln, Carlisle, York, Bath, Windsor, Salisbury, Luton x3, Gatwick xM, Stanstead x3, Liverpool x2, Ryde, Shanklin, Ventnor, Newport, Portsmouth, Loughborough, Ascot, Didcot, Oxford, Weston-Super-Mare, Dover, Southend)
- Northern Ireland (Belfast)
- Scotland (Inverness, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, Mallaig, Edinburgh)
- Wales (Swansea)
Again, quite a bit of England - Scotland and Northern Ireland made the list this time, so I've been to all four constituent parts of the United Kingdom (yay). The amount of green vs black/grey looks about half-half again though you might have noticed I put "xM" next to London and a few others - it would be impossible to tell for these locations. In terms of revisited places, I would have thought Liverpool might have been visited more than twice by now. Any places that I thought I would have been to in the UK by now that aren't there? Cambridge, for sure; Snowdonia in Wales, Cardiff too (Cardiff had been planned but fell through); maybe Southampton, and the Isle of Man which I was looking at but did not carry through with that plan.
The Railway Stuff
Excursions - 60009 London-Lincoln-London, UK - 46233 London-Carlisle-London (diesel hauled out of London and via Settle-Carlisle), UK - 35 1097 Dresden-Nossen-Dresden, Germany - Ra 846 Gavle-Uppsala, Sweden - 45407 Fort William-Mallaig-Fort William, UK - No.1 and L150 on London Underground, UK | Railways - Bluebell Railway, UK - Mid-Hants Railway, UK - Severn Valley Railway, UK - Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, UK - Harz Mountain Railways, Germany x2 - Weisseritztalbahn, Germany - Great Central Railway, UK - Didcot Railway Centre, UK - Kasbachtalbahn, Germany - Tyseley Locomotive Works, UK | Other trains of note that I have ridden - ICE High Speed Train, Germany - Eurostar, UK/France/Belgium - HST/IC125, UK - IC225/Class 91, UK - Virgin Pendolino tilting train, UK xM - Javelin High Speed Train, UK - London Underground xM - Docklands Light Railway xM | Railway-related Museums Visited: - National Railway Museum, York, UK - DB Museum, Nuremberg, Germany - Cite du Train, Mulhouse, France - London Transport Museum, UK (and their Acton depot) - Science Museum, London - Thinktank Birmingham, UK - DB Museum Koblenz, Germany - Swedish Railway Museum, Gavle |
The Two Trips Per Month Aim
November 2014
| December 2014
| January 2015
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February
August
| March
| April
October
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Summing Up
I think the reasons are varied - I don't feel like I've been idle at all these last 6 months, in fact anything but (except for the Railway Stuff but I've explained that elsewhere). But when you look at it, there's been quite a few re-visits to countries or even places which realistically are at the expense of visiting new places. I don't believe I could have done more than I have in that time - my bank balance certainly reinforces that statement. So what's changed? The main answer I think is my life has become more "social" as I've gained friends (and a girlfriend!) and I've done a huge amount more in London itself than has been the case in the past. I am experiencing the city I live in far more so than I ever did in my first 6 months here in a way not possible in those first 6 months - and that doesn't reflect at all in the above lists which are pretty much looking at where I have been outside of London.