Home?
445 days after leaving the place I had forever called home for the biggest adventure of my life, I returned.
July 2014, I started off the journey with visiting the European countries I had loved most from my major Eurotrip in 2013 — Croatia, Italy, Spain (San Sebastián is a must), Greece, Montenegro.
I hit the events I had heard about through the travel friends I had met — Ultra Croatia, The Yacht Week, Tomorrowland, Full Moon Party Thailand.
I saw new countries on my way over to Australia — UAE and Thailand. As these countries are so different from each other, so different from anything European, and so different from anything I had seen in North America, it was a major shock and probably what threw me headfirst into a major desire to see more. Anything. Everything.
In Australia I had many different jobs throughout the year. I worked in The Star bars, in Bounce Hostel Sydney, in an office as an exhibition sales manager, I did traffic control work, and I even tried vegetable picking on a farm for a month (before realizing the “promise” to earn the legal amount was never going to happen and I was quickly losing all my money…). All of this added to how great living in Sydney was in general because they were all learning experiences.
Eventually I had to move out of the hostel to work more in the bar, and as tough as it was having to say goodbye to the people I loved there, it led to another unique experience. I rented my own room in an apartment for 8 weeks right on the cliff just south of Bondi Beach. From my bedroom window you could see Bondi to the north and Tamarama to the south. I could hear the waves crashing into the shores surrounding me, I could taste the salt in the air, and the people in the area were just as chill as a Canadian could ever imagine. Running the Bondi-to-Coogee trail several days a week meant a beautiful tan and a healthy, at-ease feeling reverberating through my soul everyday.
Other things that made my Aussie stay so unforgettable were the phenomenal beaches I got to relax on, the amazing drive through the Central Coast to a friend’s beach house, finally seeing kangaroos in Morrisset Park, the aggressively intense music festivals (Stereo, Future, ASOT, Harbourlife, etc)…
…yachting in the Sydney harbour, Vivid Sydney, and getting to visit Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Noosa, and Byron Bay. The vibrant nightlife of the Gold Coast and Brisbane made me realize Sydney isn’t the only place with fun nightlife.
The Melbourne weekend stay and driving the Great Ocean Road with a girl I became best friends with in the short time we had known each other made me love how two people from completely different backgrounds could become so close over such a simple thing as traveling.
Canoeing in the Noosa everglades brought me such tranquility that I thought I could only find in the cottage-country of Muskoka in Ontario.
And finally crossing skydiving off my bucket list in Byron was the most terrifying and exhilerating moment of my life so far.
Leaving Australia was much more difficult than arriving alone and without any idea of what came next. It meant I was leaving the first place I had ever lived in other than my home back in Canada.
Leaving all the friends I had met and spent the last 10 months with. All the sights I became so familiar with. It left me with a bitter-sweet taste in my mind…I was able to take home all the memories I made, but it made me leave a big piece of me behind knowing my heart will always ache to be back, reliving those Sydney Aussie summers.
The journey home from there was intense. Initially, I struggled financially as the Aussie government decided to audit me, holding my taxback for the first 1.5 months. Beyond that, I added 2 new Asian countries to my list — Malaysia and Singapore, which left me disliking them but with a curiosity to see the other Asian countries I desired to see even more (Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam). I spent my birthday on The Yacht Week Italy, then ventured to some more new countries — Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Denmark.
I was able to go to some more new festivals — Sziget, La Tomatina, and Oktoberfest (which is by far my favourite). I stayed in hostels, hotels, friends houses, and even this time braved out camping.
The last 3 weeks were the toughest of my travels. I knew it was coming to an end, I finally had a ticket back to Toronto, and I had no idea what would come next. I still don’t know. Now, like every other traveler that eventually ends up back in their homeland, I am more confused than ever. I also more fully understand what is meant by the quote, “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
We travel to find ourselves, to make memories around the world, to make sure life doesn’t escape us, and to fulfil our curious desires to see the unknown. Yet here I am, having seen 43 countries and unsatisfied. I don’t think it’s the “travel bug” as much as it is a desire to be constantly left speechless by new sceneries, people, cultures, traditions, and foods. And now I am at a loss for where I truly call home.
