Trying Freedom

Although it’s only just over a month since my last blog, it’s probably been the busiest one so far and perhaps the biggest surprise (even for me) is that I’m back in my sunny old hometown of Norwich, UK.

I’ve spent a week in Cyprus celebrating a family wedding, the wedding was terrific itself but being reunited with family who I’d not seen in nearly 9 months made it even better and made me realise that it was also overdue. I even managed to fit in a quick scuba dive, after all, I should probably make use of that Padi certificate from Thailand.

The next stop was Chamonix, France, picked because the whole time I was travelling I’d been conscious that I’d need to come up with a plan once I’d finished this year (which was the original plan to allow me to visit as many new places as possible) and with that in mind, there were three options that I wanted to explore, this being the first of basing myself around mountains and previous trips to Chamonix make it a natural choice to do just that.

Although I had an incredible two weeks of hiking, climbing and exploring in general (even including a quick trip over to Switzerland for a 6-day hike of the Haute route to see the Matterhorn in Zermatt) I didn’t get the feeling that I could call it home, I was however reminded that I definitely needed to visit more than once a year… and I need to climb the Matterhorn next year…

The plan was to head onwards to Mallorca, Budapest and as many other European countries as possible before heading back to the UK for Christmas, however, that was cut short due to a family emergency, which means I’ve been back for nearly 3 weeks now.

Now given those circumstances stacked on top of the fact that I have also just had to attend jury duty after being summoned whilst I was in the Philippines, it hasn’t quite been the return I’d imagined but nonetheless, it’s been amazing to catch up with friends which again was well overdue.

Something I didn’t expect, however, was to not feel at home in Norwich, a bizarre feeling given that it was exactly that for nearly all of my life which leaves me somewhat lost.

Another surprise is that everything is pretty much the same, I think on reflection I’ve done so much within 9 months and I was surrounded by others who were the same, but it almost feels like I never left, which is comforting in a way but strange in others considering I’ve been pushing that comfort zone for so long.

Conscious I’m making it sound very doom and gloom, however, I’m probably in the best place I’ve ever been in, I know exactly what I want from life and now I’ve got to work out how to get that, which is arguably the easy part.

That brings me back to the other options which I’ve got in mind, one is to base myself in some UK mountains (probably more like hills) of the Lake District, now it doesn’t compare to what Chamonix has to offer but staying closer to the people I’ve missed while travelling does make it tempting, so I’ve just booked a longer trip there than the usual long weekends to see how it feels to actually live there.

The last option, leave again… If I do decide to go down that route, I’d do it differently this time though. Mainly by picking some key destinations, I’d like to visit and planning to stay in each for around a month so I can properly explore and avoid the typical traveller routes that you’ll see plastered around YouTube travel blogs and so on but I am still pretty sure that I’d start back in the Philippines.

I have given myself until January to decide but what I’m most aware of is that I need to have the right work-life balance, which is something that’s much more difficult in the UK given the cost of living.

Finally, to sum the trip up, I’m not going to say I’ve come back having found myself but what I would say I’ve found is so important is to Live and Let Live, making sure you give yourself time and space to do just that.

In the meantime, I’ll fight off the rat race.