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...