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Watt happened next..!?!

a travel blog by 50watts


Hey there, im 50watts and previously on blogabond i did this;

http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=43

If you don't have the motivation to click the link don't worry all you need to know is that i travelled for 7 months, took lots of pictures and was one of the first people to use Blogabond. Such a superb site... ...a few people i met or old friends from UK are still travelling around the world (...how envious?) using the site, check them out;

Miss P and sidekick Tim;

http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=82

The smug 'blog-girls' from Bangkok;

http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=83

And say hi to Mester. Kester too...!

So what am i doing here again?

Well read on and you will found out...

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back to reality and pressing 'eject'

Nice, France


...finishing a round the world trip is not easy!

As you will see from my last entry on the previous trip it was an astounding feeling of personal accomplishment (...liking the new text jason!) when i finished and caught my flight home. Time spent at home with the family was great too, but as anyone will know not easy to keep enthusiatic about after several weeks- in turn months and then you start to panic.

My parents gave me some cash and the mission was to find a job, afterall i am university educated and well travelled, what else could i do huh!?! Well...

..there was a little secret tale not divulged in the previous adventures. Anyone who has travelled, particularly alone like i did and who has read the blog in question will know there was one thing missing in the content- there was no mention of any ladies i might have met. A young English guy goes around the world for 7 months to such fantstic places and doesn't meet any ladies? yeah right, c'mon!

There are alternative dimensions to every form of travel you choose and who (if anyone) you go with! These experiences helped shape me as a person and whatever happened within those 7 months was part of the experience of being a young twenty-something and exploring the places and people of the world. I severely doubt that any of the nice ladies i met travelling are reading but in case you are, i hope you are well and that you can understand.

In January of my trip, after a particularly heavy couple of weeks with Ricky from Milan (now living in Prague) hitting the bars in Thailand, i met a Polish girl in the mirror of my hostel at 4am on Koh San Road. We both decided to go to Chang Mai and go hiking, just like that, in the mirror that night brushing our teeth. We lost contact but somehow managed to meet again when my bus north a few days later stopped in some remote place to pick just 2 passengers up. One was Gosia and we didnt realise until the sun rose the next day and we saw each othergetting off the bus in Chang Mai. We found a place to stay (Julies Guesthouse, recomended) and booked a trek for 3 days. The trek was pants because for three days we saw not a lot excpet dense forest and we also got severely ill from eating something dodge. However...

...exhausted on Day 1 and heading into the early night we arrived at our mountain village. The group all in need of a cold beer and some soup before going to sleep, sat back outside and relaxed outside our large hut where we would sleep. There were three girls there already from a previous walk and nobody felt like socialising afterall we were knackered. As i sat outside on the bench recovering i heard a voice from behind the cane walled hut. In broken English the person explained that they live in Nice, somewhere i spent one year in 2003/4. As they emerged to sit around the fire we started to talk, we did not stop in broken French/ English until 5am. I met Lénaïc!The next morning she left to finish her walk and i continued with mine. We met again in Bangkok but it was difficult because she was with a friend on a 3 week trip and we only had the chance to spend a few hours together and take a meal with Andres and Alberto the Chilean guys i knew from Oz. Still we enjoyed each others company and said that we would try and meet in Europe one day.

...i continued my trip and we kept in touch but then it stopped as i found communication difficult from Perhentian. I recieved quite an upset series of emails and extending my trip certainly was not a popular decision. The truth is that after 5months of more travelling i started to ignore her and could really not imagine a life we would ever share. This was furthered in the weeks after i arrived home, the realisation of reality in the UK and all associated matters like finding work.

..so my folks gave me some money to help find a job and what did i do? Well i realised how easy it was to spend £24. And then i recieved a real kick-ass message of this French lady which made me realise a few things. She had made an offer since i returned which i had now been ignoring for 2 months, it was the end of her patience. That night i boooked a cheapflight to Paris for the same money i had spent on something stupid (...but of course necessary!!) in the Uk a few days before out of the cash i had. Shortly after and much to the confusion and probable annoyance to my folks i was arriving in Paris and searching for a train to Clermont-Ferrand (pictured) where she actually comes from in central France.

I had a fantastic week with her, wehre she looked after me, the risk we had taken looked promising and it was only when i left after the week that i realised i was in trouble. She came to spend 2 weeks with me in Barnsley and i took her to see some friends and other places (..its a bit colder in Yorkshire though!). Then a few more weekends and more and more time on MSN followed. Then about 2 months ago we decided we wanted to be together, just on problem- we don't live in the same countries let alone the same cities. She was awaiting acceptance to do her final year in Pyschology somewhere in France and failing this maybe she could move to England?!? Failing this would i move to France?!? Big questions/when i left France i said i would never return there to live, that i wanted soemthing new. I don't speakfluent French... etc

Then, October 17th or near she was accepted in Nice after a tense period for us both and it was decided that i would move to Nice. So here i am, in our appartment writing about it... ...incredibly it turns out i have a photo that proves we walked past each other ein the street 3 years before. There have been many strange twists to the story- she used to work on my residential street in Antibes and on my way to see her a very strange 'Polish' girl sat staring at me through the night in Luton airport- it was more scary than the attempted prostitute-muggers in Saigon.

It has been one month and my re-adjustment is near complete, today i write because over the next few months, maybe years... i hope to blog as i meet all the people i met from my trip around the world, starting in Europe. Right now i am poor and looking for work in this area but i have plans and hope to change matters, as and when i can i will go to see people and you are always welcome to stay here guys and gals! THnaks to cheap flights around Europe it is very easy to get to Nice. So come on and visit, it is better than Barnsley anyway! We have a great located place to visit the Riviera and catch up!

So thats watt happened next. Might be some time until i can update again but going to addstuff for sure and when i have a new camera some pictures too! Might also write about my life as i lie it out here in Nice trying to find a career, make my ideas happen or soemthing else unknown right now.

well thanks for reading. it really has been amazing to see what can happen within just a few months of returning from such a trip. I was not comfortable returning to live in England but i never imagined it would turn out like this. Am i running from the inevitable or am i making a future happen? only time will tell, like it has already!

...but right now, im happy.

My first day in Nice after drinking all night with my mates at home on a truly memorable last night in my local pub. Landlords revenge.




permalink written by  50watts on December 7, 2006 from Nice, France
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Monkey Juice to Monitor Lizard...

Nice, France


Well the first people i have met since my first trip were Craig and Dionne of Perhentian (Malaysia) fame. Desptie seeing them in the UK before leaving for France they came to Nice for a week in February and we enjoyed recollections of monkey juice, big lizards, paradise and people we knew together!It was great to have them here as the first visitors and soon after finding our way around the supermarket together we were opening the wine and beers! We took them to Antibes for the day and other places around Nice and then on a few evenings a few or all of us went out for drinks- one night being particularly heavy!

Craig brought some walkie-talkies and we had a good laugh around and about. I think to be honest the guys enjoyed eating well and relaxing with warm weathter! Craig had to play dodge when he nearly got caught for graffiting a train station! haha! ...and then a similar looking guy wearing the same suspicious clothes tried to steal Dionnes bag!



Dionne cooked an awesome dish one night for us all and me and craig got familiar with Leffe 9%. It was great to see them both and plans are hopefully for a summer visit! Monkey juice to monitor lizard, over. ;)


permalink written by  50watts on February 28, 2007 from Nice, France
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One Night in Koln: I vill be back!

Cologne, Germany


After some spectacular flying weather, its one night in Cologne and the chance to shake hands (and hugs) with a couple of Germans i met in Saigon. It is approaching that time of year when the words 'your birthday' get louder. Well this year due to the fantastic time spent in Laos last year by the river i have decided to take Lenaic to Cologne. There is another guy who some might recall (Sebastian) who shares the same date and we like to get drunk together on our birthdays! This year Lenaic is here to join and here you can see her and Sebastian in front of the cathedral.

So a quick airport pickup and onward to the delights of the autobahn, City and then that huge cathedral which you really can't miss! We will be coming back here in a few days as we have to go and pick someone up first, from Holland! So arriving by the river i am reaquianted with the imposing design of all things German- and i love it! A clear blue sky, an introduction to Kolsch beer and a some well deserved street food! The French word for street food is Rien or 'nothing' to me and you! Even their fast food places rank slower than those of the outer mongul regions! Back to Germany...

...so smiles all around and then we head to Jan's place. I met sebastian with Jan in Saigon and it was there we made the plans for birthday 2006. Jans place is an awesome holdup, superb sofa of the likes i have never seen, while he kept us fed, watered and tuned in for the duration! Thanks man! Next morning and we made it to the train station with so much time to spare we both bought some shoes! Our destination> Utrecht!



permalink written by  50watts on March 13, 2007 from Cologne, Germany
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A special kinda place....

Utrecht, Netherlands


What seems an eternity ago i met a breakdancing twenty-something with very attractive looks and a superb talent to paint! She told me a story one night as we both lived in Antibes (2003) about the place where she came from, a picture was painted about a place where people left things unlocked because there was common trust. In this place families would invite you for dinner off the street and the ambling flat lands were full of things to do and see! The person came and went like others but the picture that had been painted stayed in a subconcious part of my head until one day at hostel in Rainbow Beach, Oz. It was in this place that i randomly approached a girl and not only told her she was Dutch but also the town where she came from, i was as surprised in myself as her, asking myself where this came from. In the previous world adventure i went on to meet two other people from this region of the Netherlands and one of them fortunately was Yoel. We met as strangely on Perhentian while i was ending and he was begining adventures!

In february he returned and we agreed that while we were visiting Cologne, it would be good to take 2 days to go to this special place! I was alread y sold it seemed! So off we went, arriving to the scenes of bikes row upon row and people slightly larger than your average person! Why is everyone in the Netherlands so huge!?! It wa so good to see Yoel again and finally in Utrecht!

The next two days were simply awesome! The place was just as described and we had the pleasure to meet all the family, Amber his sister and Roman the brother, the parents and even the cats taken in from the other folk who lived but left nearby! One morning we took the bikes out and went for a cycle around Breukelen, the smaller town where he lives, simply it was magnificent. All sorts of wildlife and us just riding along saying the occassional hello to folk! Apparently in the summer it is a brilliant place to be but i think if i had gone in the summer i might not have returned! Lenaic admitted a similar thing! So yeh some beautiful places and fantastic pace of life! Here are some pictures;



Yoel also surprised me with some photos from our last night together on Perhentian, so for those of you who know the story or those that don't there are a few corkers here of us and general island life;


















...BRILLIANT!

Well an hour or so from Amsterdam and if you followed the last blog you will know i made a promise to see Jolanda the Perhentian Princess! Sure did! Here is the proof;

We all caught up together while in Utrecht centraal one afternoon, evading the totally useless love poets and similarly crazy folk who wandered too far from the capital! It was crazy- there we were all sitting outside by the canal in Utrecht! Well we enjoyed the afternoon and a few beers together then it was time for Yoyo (Jolanda) to head back and soon she will be returning to Asia on another adventure!

Finally on the last evening Amber decided to let me on a secret recipe unknown to me; sprinkles on plain bread- yak! Anyways i tried some and it had strange familiarity to pain au chocolat! Anyway then Yoel admitted to the fettish and before longthere 6 boxes of sprinkles around and all out sprinklefest was had! I stuck to just the one slice though~! Amber took hers to work the next day and left me imagining the lucntime conversation about snadwhich filling! Get this- its normal though- even the boxes had the image of sliced bread on them! Look>>> Is this normal?

The evening was complete when sat in a coffee shop Robert (Ambers boyfriend) asked why i love Utrecht... ...moments later i was the proud owner of a well kept FC UTrecht badge sticker and one player photo! An adopted team for an adopted citizen! ;)

A special place with very special people! doieeeee!!!!

permalink written by  50watts on March 15, 2007 from Utrecht, Netherlands
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Another great joint birthday!

Cologne, Germany


[Birthday notes and pictrues to come shortly...]


...this status has been sitting here for no less than 25 months and now i am going to finish it.

As mentionned, along with my girlfriend i met up with both Sebastian and Jan from Viet Nam. Then i popped over to Utrecht to kidnap Yoel and bring him to a party - for those that don't know ever since 2006 a group of friends that met in a bar hoi in Saigon and celebrated their birthdays together in Laos have continued to meet up at the same time to keep things going! We had a visit from the Perhentian Princess and then made our to join over 15 other Germans for a bit of a party in Koln!

It was simply superb and Jan was a great host. We went to a random dancehall which was packed to the rafters with late night revellers and it was a brithday where the only picture was taken by one of those random people who works for some private company. It was drunken, it was emotional and it was a pleasure!

Bearing in mind a concept that had been thought out on a Malaysian Beach, we headed back to our respective cities defiant that 'The Weekend Is...' had been born. The Weekend was Koln! 50.




permalink written by  50watts on March 18, 2007 from Cologne, Germany
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I'm half-maltese, half-english, living in France, having met my girlfriend while on my first Blogabond adventure [way back].

I am trying to pass the rest of my life continuing to travel and to make things happen as someone once said.

I have ideas, concepts, designs, interests and...

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