Bobcat

I am outside of a Sharma kebab house on a side street off Singel in the north part of Amsterdam. It’s a cold night, wind chilling the bones sort of cold. It’s around 2am and the passers-by are mainly groups of lads. My three friends are inside waiting for what can loosely be described as food, and I am finishing a cigarette. As I throw the stub near my heel to crush it, a man on a bike rides past (how Dutch of him) and tells me to not be sad. It amuses me that he should say such a thing as for the duration of my time in the capital, my inner monologue has been nothing but upbeat. Being British though and struggling to fight such a claim which is staked hard into my DNA, ... read more

Monday 10th May was to be our day of departure from Vancouver as we were bound for Banff, a winter-resort town in a national park just over the B.C border in neighbouring province, Alberta. The reason we had lingered a few days longer in Vancouver was due to my expired-bank-card-debacle, and I was waiting to receive my new one in the mail, dutifully sent by my wonderful Mother. It arrived that morning and I was happy to be able to withdraw vast quantities of cash again and blow it all on cigarettes and alcohol. Balance was restored to my life - if not, devastated in my bank account. Our plans to leave early and get the 9-hour drive underway, were shelved immediately as we quite like to loaf around and take things at a leisurely pace. ... read more

The climate in Seattle was as I remembered; wet and gloomy. Some of our fellow hotelliers were either ignorant or oblivious to it and one day in particular; ripe with precipitation, a gaggle of them swanned around in the pool. In the torrential rain. I found this wonderful. There are activities which are best enjoyed on a dry day, however. Our Monday morning in Seattle we scribbled down phone numbers, jotted maps into spare corners of journal pages, and fleshed out a plan of events for the day. We drove into the city, parked up and went for a walk around the Space Needle and the surrounding area. I like to think Sarah and I visit places and head for the tourist areas and imbue them with....well, I would say irony but neither of us are ... read more

It being Monday, the start of a new week; new beginnings, new horizons…I started it all over being hungover and tired again. I caught a cab back to the hostel to discover Sarah, Chris and Gary were up and raring to go. Sarah noticed the “please let me nap for a while” look in my eyes and as the dutiful best friend, ignored it and told me I wasn’t allowed to sleep as we had things to do. After getting directions from the hostel reception bloke we walked to catch the bus to Haight. Unable to figure out which side of the road we had to be on, I asked some guy and he said he would only tell me if I gave him my number. Sigh. I felt rather sad for this bloke as if ... read more

Wandering amidst the debris of Coachella was akin to strolling through a flea market. Meaning, we were on the scrounge for whatever we could find. Last year folks had left entire tents in the bins, this year alas there were no such treasures (unless you count used condoms, which fun as they are, we weren’t willing to sleep in.) Our next stop was Las Vegas; the boys were to drop us there while they headed off to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days. It was to be Sarah's 25th birthday and the two of us were planning on, well, not sleeping and doing a lot of hardcore partying (see: jelly and ice cream bingeing.) We drove the three hours drive to Vegas, I slept as I felt like complete crap due to the severe ... read more

Monday morning (13th April) we drove to the Hollywood & Highland mall, with the hopes of strolling around the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Mann’s Chinese Theater, et al. We pulled into the car park, excited to be out and about in the sun, like two lambs frolicking in a meadow. It wasn’t until we were walking to the exit that I was struck by a bolt of lightning: the car was due back; quick check of the time, in about ten minutes. Shit. A momentary flap later, we were on the phone to the car hire company and were put through to a lovely bloke who gave us another day’s hire for free. An underground car park-celebratory-dance later and we were off on our merry way. I had visited Hollywood last year, and if you’ve had ... read more

I awoke in Santa Fe and charged to the common room to scope out the remaining chores. For some reason unbeknownst to me the idea of cleaning the toilet out was the most appealing and so I set to it with zeal and aplomb. After the u-bend sparkled I headed to the kitchen and hung out with Julia and Gale, who then made me breakfast as I obviously looked too incompetent to made oatmeal for myself. They were later dubbed as the “hostel Nazis” by the two of us - due to one incident wherein they practically killed a hosteller as he had left his cereal bowl on the table for five minutes unattended. Apparently bowls in Santa Fe can be mischievous and shouldn’t be left to their own devices. After Ood awoke we headed to ... read more

Monday morning, 2nd April I awoke early as I do when I’ve been drinking and felt rough. I lay in my top bunk for an hour deliberating on whether I should move to the recently-evacuated lower bunk as Brigid; a girl we met the night before, had left. After nearly shattering my shins jumping down I collapsed onto my new bunk and waited for my nausea to subside. As we were both starving we headed off to the Wal-Mart two blocks away. We were trying to shop in a hurry as we had plans however as I felt so hungover our shopping trip took a little longer. Sarah tried to involve me in her deliberation over original or honey mustard Pringles and I tried to decide upon vomiting into a bag of grapes or some old ... read more

Week Two: Rain, friend or foe? Inconsiderate bastard would be a more apt description. What’s that old saying by Nietzsche? Ah yes, “When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.” There’s a tenuous link I shall attempt to make here, in order to impart more wisdom upon you poor souls, and it is this: when you traverse the world; for any distance, it is as though it traverses you also. I’ve travelled what I deem to be a healthy amount since I was a child and undertook my first major long haul trip last year. It was last year that travel; that money-draining mistress, stamped herself across my heart and left an indelible print. Part of me is loathe to admit that travelling has changed me, and I suppose it would be self-righteous ... read more

The weeks prior to leaving home, many people asked me if I was excited. To be truthful I hadn’t really thought about it as I was clearly too busy getting stressed out over things which hold no importance whatsoever (i.e. allocating an entire day to finding my beloved flip flops which proved fruitless in the end, anyway.) My excitement came the day before we left England. Sarah and I had travelled down to Windsor to stay with her auntie Angie prior to our departure. That Sunday afternoon we had ventured to a local park to fly some industrial-sized kites which looked as though they could have been a danger to air traffic. As I sat on the grass and chatted with Jason, Angie’s husband, with the sun at my back something surged in me as I ... read more