Ever closer to the epic European Adventure 2019

Not taking my trusty bike

There is around three months to go before my trip away and my last travel blog I wrote was back in August. Obviously by now I am a bit more organised with my trip away. During this period, I have finished my bachelor’s degree in Historical Inquiry and Practice. Also, I have graduated with a trip to Armidale to collect my degree. I could have blogged the trip away, but it wasn’t really that huge of a trip. The degree explains why I am planning my trip around some historic locations with a history flavour.

Guide books

During this period, I have changed the travel arrangements even though I am still heading to the same locations. Logistics seems to be a huge part of organising my trip away. I had to go back and review what I could physically accomplish. One part of my journey in the UK, I had thought going from Portsmouth to Brighton and finish in Canterbury by train would be fun. The journey became very expensive. Looking at the UK Rail journey website it gave me a calculation of around £40 or $72 Australian dollars. Deciding I should review the large expense, I managed to find rail and coach to Canterbury via London to be around £12 or $21 Australian dollars. A huge difference in prices. Although you cannot book UK rail journeys until you are 12 weeks away, I had no problem booking a coach journey.

More travel guides and reality checks

The fun part of looking into the logistics has been the ability to book my German railway tickets around December. Don’t know what First Class would be like on the journey from Frankfurt to Berlin would be, but I aim to find out and the ticket emailed to me was in German. In the last week I was able to book my tickets online to Amiens in France, but they will be mailing my tickets out to me for free. The rest of the railway tickets I have to wait for the next few weeks before I can start making my reservations. There are some travel blogs I have used to give me an understanding of some of the railway stations and even some travel in Europe.

I have been listing what I am wanting to see while at every location, I am visiting. This means including long lists under the destination. I now have a 9 or so page master list that I will print off before I leave. It doesn’t mean I will see everything, but there are some sights I do want to see like one UNESCO listed cemetery in Stockholm, grave of Jules Vern in Amiens, Tyne Cot Cemetery in Ypres. There will be some locations that I will include onto my Youtube channel too as there is always plenty to see. I have to remember to pace myself and there are some guide books that I have found I would over extend myself if I even try doing what I want in one whole day. I have wanted to do the Waterloo battle site and the Herge museum (Tintin) on the same day, but realise I might actually be asking too much when the train journey between the two locations is around an hour. There is the Smurfs museum in Brussels and the Captain Cook museum in Whitby. I am doing some family tree research while I am floating through the UK, right after Brexit so hopefully there is no huge teething problems when I am visiting.

There have been potential problems that I would not say that are extreme in any way. Problems that could cause some delays. I accidentally found I had booked my stay in Copenhagen during a five-day music festival called Distortion in May. I had wondered why accommodation in Copenhagen was being booked out and then you have the travel articles calling Copenhagen the travel destination of 2019. The house, dance and Techno music isn’t the type of music I usually listen to, I have bought a ticket to this event as I will have night entertainment. My accommodation is next to the railway station too, so should be interesting. I am staying in the red-light district in Frankfurt, but its not a real problem at all. I think it would be entertaining especially after getting off a long flight. I have been checking websites for updated entry times to sites like Dover Castle. Around December the website said it would be closed the day I wanted to visit and when I checked back a week ago, I found that it would be open on the day I wanted to visit. Last time I was in the UK the castle was closed during the week in winter. I do have to remember other countries are not like Australia where many tourist destinations close in the chilly months.

To make my life easier with museum entry and travel, I will get hold of the local travel passes for example the Frankfurt Pass that grants entry to museums and other tourist destinations within the city. Not every location I am visiting will have one, but I think it will make my journey through the cities interesting. I have reached out to some museums through Instagram and even Twitter to ask questions and they have answered my questions. Social media seems to be gaining a huge footprint in tourism in 2019 and could become bigger. The trip is always getting closer and they days does seem to be moving quicker. I have never been on an eight week holiday before so it should be interesting and budgeting for the entire time.

A random traveler in Auckland Airport

Sources and links

Last blog in August

https://bradthetraveller.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-ultimate-travel-plan-for-2019.html

Instagram account

https://www.instagram.com/bradbeadel/

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzFk8_SMttIsW_m35ifLoQ

The Man in seat 61

https://www.seat61.com/index.html

The Tombstone tourists

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-24/stories-of-the-dead-given-new-life-at-robe-cemetery/8838104?fbclid=IwAR0zGhtGVI_Sx4JFF846J0L0thLbSbEBWenkls1dE4cFu2SUcRjtNASP2T8

Tyne Cot Cemetery

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-cemeteries-and-memorials/53300/tyne-cot-cemetery

Distortion 2019

https://www.cphdistortion.dk/

National Rail UK

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

The ultimate travel plan for 2019

Does someone smell?

Next year I have made plans for an extended journey overseas as part of my holidays. I decided to use my long service leave of 8 weeks to take time off from work in 2019. This would mean that I take no time off in 2018 for my annual holiday in New Zealand as it will be an expensive trip away. My last trip to Europe was in 2011 and was basically just before winter. I left the UK a week before the snow arrived and the sun rise and sunset times were strange for someone coming from Australia

Thinking that a trip away to Europe would be something fun to do and I wrote a list of locations I would like to visit. I wanted the UK especially when I wanted to do some family tree research especially visiting the Archives in Kew and some of the museums like the Mary Rose. I wanted to look through some of Europe and thought about starting my journey in Rome and working my way through to France. I had been watching Great British Railway Journeys. Realising that I had limited time and having to sit down and rethink my plan I ended up with more ideas and a solid plan. The idea I had was to head over in summer, which considering the heatwaves that have been in the news does cause some concern and interest.

One thing I really wanted to do was visit museums and Instagram became very handy as I came across almost by accident the Maritime museum in Hamburg and the Vasa museum in Stockholm. The Vasa has similarities with the Mary Rose and that museum was being built around the ship in Portsmouth last time I was there. Another set of museums I wanted to visit were dinosaurs specifically ones that were not in Australian museums that I know of. Frankfurt was found to have a museum for that and a town in Dorset called Lyme Regis was well known. I had been there once before. I had gotten on the right bus, but it was going in the wrong direction for Dorchester. On a whim I jumped off the bus in Lyme Regis and had a wander. It would be later I would realise the fossil connection. Another area was Brussels for the Herge Museum the creator of Tintin. Not to be mistaken for Rin Tin Tin the dog who starred in movies of the same name. The dog is actually buried in Paris, not in the US.

Another part of my trip includes several battle sites especially World War One. Recently I found there is a new museum that had been built called the Sir John Monash Centre. I thought it was close to Ypres as I have a family member buried in Tyne Cot cemetery near Passchendaele. Turns out I would need to visit Amiens as well as the museum is much closer. I had looked at a battlefield tour and then thought about the price. I realised I don’t like to be rushed and the price out of my range even if it would be worth it. I found locations for the Battle of Sterling Bridge and also Waterloo. The same thoughts occurred for castles and I had Edinburgh Castle in my sights and wanted to visit Dover castle after it was closed over winter and only open on weekends. I was there at the wrong timer of year and week.

Because of my university studies, I have come across by accident some interesting places. Tolpuddle for the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were sent to Australia only to be returned, Tank museum in Dorset, burial location of the Red Baron and some more walking along the Berlin Wall with a museum visit along the way. There are a few other cemeteries I would visit that I will include to my master list about the locations I am visiting, although I will be realistic in saying I cannot do everything on my holiday.

Booking flights was a journey in itself especially when several were counting down with how many seats they had left. One booking said there was two seats left after I had gotten one booked. Another airline sends travel info and bookings via FB messenger, which is different. Once I had booked my flights, I went to check my accommodation as I was going to book them a little at a time. Turns out my first choices were all booked out within 10 months from travel time. Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Portsmouth I had to resort to other choices from where I was wanting to stay. Crazy busy would be a word I could use and very surprising. I made sure I had somewhere to stay and now comes the search for other things to have a look at while I am on my trip and for family tree research especially when I have street addresses on census records and other records like Marriages. The rest will be sorted towards the end of the year especially when it comes to transport as I want to get trains everywhere. I have already worked out the direction of some in the UK like from Portsmouth to Dover via Hastings. I am staying in Singapore on my way home and I think this would mean I will have a really busy trip away and getting home will actually be a holiday on its own.

I will update more between the time I go next year, but now there is a reason why my travel blog might be a little quiet for a touch longer. Don’t know if I would be doing a blog for when I visit Armidale later this year, but you never know.

The Hostel shuffle in Wellington

Random book in bag

An experience in a hostel on my last trip away left me with the idea that I should share the experience with my thoughts on the event that had occurred and maybe show this is not exactly the norm for any place that you should stay in. I have spent 10 years travel on and off going through hostels and this experience was the first time I had what I am writing about occur. It was an interesting experience for Wellington, New Zealand. I had some dates booked and this place was my second choice to stay for the reason I couldn’t visit my usual hostel as it had been booked out on the dates I wanted. I chose this one for the convenience to locations like the bus and the National Archives. I have had past experiences here that left me disappointed like stripping every bed in the dorm and on my return finding I had to choose a new bed and since I hired a towel, to be inconvenienced by their time period to get a new clean towel.

Names mean something

Here is the story as follows

A Wellington hostel upon checking in told me that they would be moving me several times while I am staying with them. I am not worried about being informed, but I did find it annoying though. A comment was used that my booking is different from other people’s bookings. I do not know if it is because of group bookings as this place had a few school groups and elderly people groups stay there. The first day that I had to move, I could stay in my room as I was going to be out all day. The second time I was able to move rooms at 8am and was not told of any other move. Others in my room were told that they had to move the next day, which I thought was annoying. I was happy not to be moving anywhere. The third day however, I was out all day doing my thing at the NZ National Archives and returned.  I needed coins for the washing machines and went up to my room. My belongings were not there when I walked in. There were other people in the room, which is never unusual and said my stuff wasn’t there as they must have been there when the room had been cleaned. I had thought it strange as my keycard still worked for that particular room. It could have turned into a nightmare for the young ladies in the room especially when the time was after 5pm. I ended up going back down stairs to reception as I was wondering what was going on. I wanted to know where my belongings had ended up.

I spoke to the same reception lady who gave me the change for the washing machines. I told her which room I was in and she looked at my details and realised I had to move rooms, but my belongings were in storage lockers, which were luckily next to the reception area. I was not charged for the storage facilities luckily enough. I did move to my new room, which was already full of people and the only spare bed was the top bunk. These people were workers who spent time on construction sites within Wellington. I was actually leaving the next day, but they all had to move into another room due to some group booking and move back several days later. I had been worried for my towel that I had paid $2 for rental and a $10 deposit on. Plus I had my passport within the depths of one bag as well.  I had been more concerned about losing my deposit on the towel as $10 is $10 and can go pretty far especially if you are travelling. That includes the $20 for the key deposit and would add up to $30 all up in cash that I can get returned to me on checkout. I never became angry with them over this event as its too much energy to waste and being angry would not have gotten me anywhere at all and could have gotten me removed from a safe, secure environment. No idea if there is any sort of Blacklist. The towel and passport were the first things I looked for once I had my bag out of the storage locker

There is a reason I have not really mentioned my electronics as I did have them in my bag, but my day bag at that time. Since I was in the National Archives, I wanted to save my phone camera photos to my external storage and was using my computer for that. Besides they had powerpoints as well so I had those on me too. It meant my most valuable assets were under my personal protection. The first room I had stayed in did have a locker, but the previous two did not so as expected anything could happen, but the rooms were secure from outsiders unlike other hostels I have been in where room doors can be opened by anyone.

On the mention of power points, one in my original room was actually loose. Loose as in I had to be careful removing my power devices from the wall without the powerpoint coming with my powercords after pulling them out. If I really wanted to I could have fit my fingers behind the point to touch the cables. This is life and I have honestly had worse. Worse is bringing bedbugs home with you from a dodgy hostel. I had that from a Sydney one in Pitt Street that I think no longer exists and another at a Base X hostel well over 6 years ago.

The random finds occurred once I had moved to my new room. I needed to get the washing done before I left so I waited for the other people to get out of the shower as the room shared one bathroom between 6 people. I came across a book I knew one of the others from the night before had left. It had been about Nelson Mandela and magically appeared within my main bag. I would have kept it, but space in my bag was a luxury that I really needed and the book was thick. I left it in the room for someone to take it and read as I was not requiring it at that time, also not in the best condition either. Space in the whole room was cramped so I had to make sure I was packed and ready to leave especially when I was stuck on the top bunk. When I did checkout and eating breakfast, I discovered a tag that had two names ‘Room 501, Luke (or Bradley)’. My name isn’t Luke and they had moved my bag so that could have become a huge, huge problem. Its well and good to joke about it, but this could have been incredibly serious if something had gone wrong. I think I lost a pair of socks along the way or even underwear as that part of the bag was open.

Things to keep in mind

They could have called or even emailed me to let me know about the changes. I should have been told about the last change.

I don’t know the legalities or my responsibilities, but they could have left a message stuck to the door for me to contact reception ASAP or not even touch my bags as they were under the bed.

This is actually a massive security breach and could have had a vastly different outcome.

Next time I will have bag tags with my name on them.

Travel is full of experiences and it wont stop me in any way at all, but I do research where I want to stay next. Usually I head for the nearest YHA. I could be full of resentment and anger, but you have to move on. Learning experiences are bound to happen and this time my trip was full of them