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Published: October 6th 2009
Which way?
Brockwell ParkWith our upcoming trip home later this month we have spent a long time discussing our future...and we're not talking about marriage and babies. What we mean is - where should we live? Where should we travel? Should we move home, save money and then go travelling again? Should we stick it out and travel when we get the opportunities? Should we 'grow-up' and stop these travelling shenanigans, buy a house and live
proper lives? These questions have been going around and around in circles as we come up with endless possibilities involving living in different locations, working all kinds of jobs and travelling to all kinds of places.
In some ways we haven't been in London long enough as we haven't travelled to half the places we want to. However the credit crunch is keeping us relatively poor so some our travel dreams are still a long way off. We love the ability you have to travel in London but the higher price of living costs has affected our lifestyle and we spend much of our time living as cheaply as possible to fund our next trip. We're also sick of the constant dust in our noses which comes
Ladybird
Brockwell Park from riding the tube every day!
There would be some huge advantages to moving back to Australia: the support of our families, somewhere to live cheaply while we recovered financially, better paid (and possibly more enjoyable) jobs and cheaper living costs. But wouldn't we resent going home when we're not ready to go? Wouldn't we always feel that we should have tried harder to make it work for us? Would we forever wonder if we should have looked harder for jobs, been more careful with our money, lived in a cheaper apartment?
Saying all that, we have managed to remain extremely busy since our lovely week on the Amalfi Coast in Italy at the beginning of September. On the weekend after our return one of our uni friends arrived in London so we spent some time sightseeing in London with her before she headed 'up north' to her course in Liverpool. Lara then had a conference in Basel, Swizerland to attend which unfortunately was not exciting enough to blog separately. Long days were spent inside the Conference centre and although she got to see a little of Basel, it was raining for most of the week she was
there. She was quoted saying that she wanted to come home - possibly a first for her!
We've also been walking on the Farthing Downs and Happy Valley just south of London. The sun was out, the cows were mooing and we had a lovely walk marred only by the fact that Al got food poisoning from the pub we had lunch in, and spent the following day off work.
Last weekend we hired a car and drove to Wells in Somerset for a celebratory lunch for some of our friends that had their wedding in Australia in April. The lunch gave all the family and friends who has missed the wedding the opportunity to celebrate with the couple. Wells is one of the smallest cities in the UK with a population of just over ten thousand. Its city status is due to its lovely cathedral which has parts dating back to the tenth century. The Bishop's Palace, made more beautiful by the autumnal colours of the surrounding trees, is lived in today by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and is complete with its own moat.
After hiring the car early Saturday morning we managed to
Brixton
Watching life go by arrive 20 minutes before the beginning of the lunch and completely coincidentally were staying 40 feet away. The lovely owner of the hotel let us in to our room very early and we made a quick change and dashed the 40 feet to the Swan Hotel. We had a lovely lunch, which progressed into bar-hopping and a midnight curry before we all headed back to our accommodation.
The next morning, after fuelling ourselves with a hearty English breakfast we wandered the streets of Wells before heading over to Pilton where Matty's parents live and having a cup of tea with them. We got a tour of the village and the Glastonbury site (which is actually in Pilton rather than Glastonbury) and the amazing tithe barn, somewhere we'll have to visit again soon.
After saying our goodbyes in Pilton, we headed to Glastonbury itself to climb the Glastonbury Tor. A hill just outside Glastonbury itself with the ruins of St Michael's Tower on the top. It has been a sight for pilgrims for centuries and is often associated with the myth of King Arthur. It affords lovely views over the Somerset countryside, complete with cows.
We had thought
Watching the performers from a bike
Lambeth Country Show, Brockwell Park we'd try and visit Stonehenge and Salisbury on the way back, but realised we were running out of time and energy, so we bypassed Stonehenge which is somewhere we've both been before and made our way to Salisbury. By the time we arrived we were starving and after a quick look at the cathedral we went to take care of the more pressing issues of our stomachs. Stomachs lined, it was time to return back to London in the endless streams of traffic, who like us managed to escape into the country side for the weekend. Stonehenge and Salisbury will have to wait for another weekend!
We are still dealing with our constantly itchy feet which may be directly related to the oncoming winter. Gill did suggest a winter weekend in Pilton with log fires and hot chocolates - which sounds like a treat, and with more trips into the countryside the winter may be more bearable. It doesn't stop Lara from constantly coming up with schemes in which we move to South Africa, Egypt, the UAE or South Korea to: volunteer, make loads of money, teach English. There are lots of things that we want to do and
our biggest difficulty is choosing what to do next and working out when we should make the change. So we have plenty of ideas to mull over and plenty of options but plans change - so who knows?
So don't be suprised if in a few blogs time we're blogging from South Korea, Saudi Arabia, or South Africa - but for the mean time we'll see you in Sydney next week!
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