CM Travels

It's been a while, dear readers. This post will be rather ad-hoc with not much structure and full of little random thoughts, rather than the typical chronological recounting. I thought it best to just post something rather than waiting to write the perfect post. Exhaustion has caught up to me. I am approaching four months on the road, living out of my bag, no permanent, personal space to decompress in at the end of long, busy days. While tired and weary, I wouldn't trade this for anything. Living a life I daydreamed of sitting at my desk in my office in Auckland for all of last year, I feel privileged for this chapter of my life. Not waking up early each morning to sit on my arse all day, helping McDonald's buy more property to poison more children, feeling bored and unfulfilled, has increased my quality of life tenfold. I was extremely fortunate to spend nearly two weeks having some decompressing, chill, lazy time in my fourth trip on my journey to the Austrian capital, Vi...

10/05/2025 - 17/05/2025 Would you pay $10 (NZD) for a single shot of espresso? The answer is probably a resounding fuck no. This too was my answer standing in the train station in Lucerne in Switzerland waiting for my train to Interlaken. While I was aware of it, Switzerland was really damn expensive. I rationalised it in a way by thinking of it as tax to pay for the stunning landscapes you get to see in the landlocked multi-lingual country in the heart of Europe.  My first foray into Switzerland began in the Italian speaking part, in the city of Lugano. Some mountains overlooking a beautiful lake was my background for relatively tasty supermarket lunch, mixed with some planning for my next few days, as I was still unsure as to where I would be sleeping the next day. The prospect of not knowing where you are going to be the next day can be pretty daunting for some, but something about it gives me a real sense of spontaneity and adventure that I really relish. My stay at the "Lug...

23/04/2025 - 9/05/2025 "Sunrise doesn't last all morning ... all things must pass." George Harrison's words have swirled around my head for a while now, a phrase I find being repeated in my journal several times recently as well. The somewhat harsh realities of solo travelling for months on end have began to manifest in this latest portion of my journey. However, my life, and I'm sure everyone else's, regardless of whether travelling or not, is filled with the whole spectrum of human emotion, something I was certainly cognisant of in anticipation of my trip. Exhaustion, anxiety, sadness, loneliness have been mixed with awe, joy, fulfillment and exhilaration while travelling through the place they call Italia. A part of my journey I will not readily forget. I divulge (most) of it here. Strap in.  Dearest readers of Callum's rambling blog posts, I last left you in Slovakia following a reunion with my fellow alley cat, Fintan, in Budapest. A new experience fo...

 15/04/2025 - 22/04/2025 I awoke, head pounding, throat dry, body aching, fully clothed (fortunately no shoes) with no duvet or sheets on me. The memory of me climbing into my hostel bed like this doesn't appear to be in my head. I remember guzzling a glass of water and excusing myself from the hostel group in the kitchen downstairs. Beyond that, blank. Fortunately I soon found Fintan in the bunk bed below me in a similar state. Casting my mind back to the previous evening, I thought "We mustn't haven't been that drunk, surely?" As the memories flooded back, the answer was yes, yes we were.  In the days preceding this, I was in a much more put together state in the Bavarian capital, Munich. Audrie greeted me at the platform of the city's main train station, with a big hug. A wave of positivity washed over me as it felt like a little piece of home was with me all the way on the other side of the globe. For those that don't know, ever since we were five, (Au...

10/04/2025 - 15/04/2025 A church on a hill, an art gallery with Monet and Rodin, beautiful bridges over a river, cafes, restaurants, bakeries serving delicious pastries, vibrant, youthful energy filling the streets and great public transport - no it's not Paris, it's Lyon. Quite possibly my favourite city I have visited thus far. Beautiful architecture, a great geographical place for a city bordered by two rivers creating a Manhattan-like centre (much smaller however) and Roman ruins fascinated me, ticking a lot of boxes for what makes a city "cool" to me. My time in Lyon will also always be special to me given the amazing time I had with Pierre and Myriam, some new friends I made, thanks to family-friends back in NZ, Marty and Antoinette.  I arrived in Lyon from Nîmes and found my way to another shitty French hostel. Now my gripe with French hostels is not because they're dirty, uncomfortable or unsafe - thankfully. All of them I have stayed in need to pick a lan...

6/04/2025 - 9/04/2025 My skin prickled and the hairs on my arms bolted upright as 60,000 French voices chanted deafeningly "Allez L'OM, Allez L'OM, Allez L'OM" - "Come on, Marseille". Under the impression that nothing could beat the atmosphere of the Atletico Madrid home stadium a few weeks ago, I was glad to be proven wrong this Sunday night in the ancient city on the southern coast of France. The passion, noise and sheer enthusiasm of the Marseille fans was unrivalled to anything I have experienced up to this point in my life. As I drunk in the electric atmosphere pulsating through the Stade Velodrome, I felt I understood for a moment the devotion, the obsession that these people have for their team. When life is hard, and believe me, it seems difficult in parts of Marseille, you need an outlet, you need a mechanism to put aside the grind and struggle of daily life and unite with others for something bigger than yourself. Something more, something bett...