CM Travels

As often happens, it was music that stirred memories and strong emotions in me this afternoon. The Manchester wind blowing through my hair cycling "home", Tom Scott and Avantdale Bowling Club echoed through my headphones, yet all I could hear was Home. From 18,000 kilometres away I could hear it. The squawk of tūī. The rain lashing against weatherboards. The karanga from a marae. The cicadas relentlessly chirping. The waves crashing against the beach. The woof of Bailey. The meow of Ziggy. The babble of Lily. The laughter of all my loved ones.  I miss Aotearoa. I've often pondered patriotism and whether I'm proud to be a Kiwi. Often I've seen the negatives of New Zealand and thought that patriotism was for short-sighted, small-minded, and at times, racist, people. But this time away from home has made me reassess my opinion of patriotism. I've visited roughly 35 countries in my life now, only scratching the surface of the whole world really, and certainly very...

 I wrote this post while in Nîmes, France around a third of the way through my trip last year, around April. I haven't edited it at all so it's a little snapshot into where I was at the best part of nine months ago. While I was back home recenetly some of you asked for more blog posts. I am in the process of writing another one, but here's a little one to keep ya going for now. Apologies for waffling nature of it, but hope you enjoy. I'm breaking the trend a little bit here and not really following a narrative structure in recounting my days as I have done previously. Approaching the end of my third consecutive day with minimal conversation with anyone, internalised self-reflection has preoccupied me, and you all are the lucky beneficiaries of these thoughts. My recounts from the past few days will arrive in a different post. This is a bit of a different one. If you didn't know me that well before, well strap in is all I can say.  My hope and belief is that no one k...

Well it turns out that Albania is an interesting, wonderful place if you just calm down and stop being anxious about things. On the whole it is probably one of the best countries I've visited. Certainly one of the most unique. Particularly as a solo traveller it provided so many great opportunities to meet new people, all of whom were doing very similar things. This led to many of my plans being decided on a whim based on the experiences of others. I definitely didn't know much about the cities/towns in Albania prior to arriving, so it was great to learn more from others, and learn about these places myself. All in all, Albania will definitely be a place I'll return to. Here's a little overview of the places I visited.  Tirana  The bustling, busy, boiling capital of the Balkan republic was extremely overwhelming at first, however, on subsequent visits (I was there on three separate occasions) I grew to appreciate the chaos. It probably doesn't require too much time ...

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...

  4/04/2025 - 5/04/2025 Observing the intricacies of French neo-classical painting in Le M usée  Fabre, I sat alone on the black leather bench, pondering the direction of not only the rest of my day, but as I often do, the direction of my life in general. The past month I have spent more time by myself than any month in my life. I am used to being alone. Contemplating, reflecting, fantasising, dreaming of the future; key parts of my daily life now. While the things I glean from these long periods of time alone are incredibly powerful and significant, I cannot truly say that solitude is my preferred state of being. As much as I enjoy the time alone and often yearn for it, interactions with other humans are what gives me energy in my life. Classic extrovert behaviour it seems.  I arrived in Montpellier, my first destination in France, ready for a little alone time following a social few days in Barcelona. Wandering the wiggly, winding streets of the beautiful city in the So...

29/03/2025 - 3/04/2025 I'll admit I have cried twice on two separate train journeys this trip. This second time was again, music induced. "Sitting on this rock, spinning round this burning ball, worthless with no purpose but somehow worth it all" Tom Scott rapped through my headphones, as the tears rolled down my face. There is nothing quite like Tom's lyrics to remind me of home and hit me right to my core. I often find it hard to overcome the feeling that we are, as Tom says, just sitting on this rock, spinning around a burning ball of gas. I'm trying my best to find the purpose and meaning in my life with this adventure of mine. As I continued to the think about my home, my friends, my family, my whole life I've left behind, tears continued to well in my eyes as Barcelona beckoned.  Following my stint in Sevilla, I arrived in Cordoba following a night in the seaside town of Cadiz. Admiring the Mosque-Cathedral of the former capital of the Umayyad Caliphat...

20/03/2025 - 28/03/2025 Writing overlooking La Giralda, the magnificent Spanish-renaissance tower, at the heart of Sevilla's old town, I have realised that my time in Portugal has caught up to me. While the phenomenon of not knowing what day of the week it is, and honestly not really needing to, does enable spontaneous outings in Iberian cities, eventually this takes a toll on the body. A sore throat has plagued me for the past few days with a headache and runny nose joining the party today. Good times.  Speaking of good times, the phase of my journey in Europe's western most country, Portugal, was full of them. Prior to arriving in Portugal's second city of Porto, I spent a night in the Spanish city of Merida, or as it was called during the time of Imperial Rome, Augustus Emerita. Being the history geek that I am, this place was full of fascinating Roman artifacts, sculptures and architecture. I'm sure just a taste of what I can expect to see in Roma itself in a month...

  10/03/2025 - 19/03/2025 "The moon is up over One Tree Hill" echoed through my headphones as I gazed across a hill that was almost as far away from One Tree Hill as you can possibly get on this Earth. A weird sense of melancholy mixed with nostalgia and adventure washed over me as a tear started to well in my eye. I was a long way from home in the central plateau of Spain. I think that I have begun to recognise on this trip that there are such a wide range of emotions that we can go through as humans that aren't necessarily split into positive and negative. This moment in Segovia outside Madrid was one of those emotions that I couldn't define as either "good" or "bad", it just was what it was.  I spent my last portion of time in Thailand back in Bangkok, albeit in a different part of the city. In the end I stayed in five different places in Bangkok, which gave me a better understanding of the city than if I'd just stayed in the same place I re...

4/03/2025 - 9/03/2025 Not much can beat a New Zealand beach. This little slice of Thailand called Koh Samet has tried, but in my eyes, failed. Clear water, white sand and blistering temperatures do make the beaches of Koh Samet and surrounds picturesque, but Marahau or Hahei, those are special beaches. I suppose that I am  naïve   to the nature of many beaches across the world, meaning that any sense of commercialisation on a beach is a turn off. Give me water, sand, a bit of grass, a road, and then shops/bars/cafes etc. rather than bars and resorts right on the beach any day. Oh also there is a decent amount of rubbish on the beaches too. Not quite like back home. One of the goals of this expedition of mine is to gain some perspective and appreciation for Aotearoa. In terms of beaches, I certainly have a new found appreciation of kiwi ones.  The rest of my first stint in Bangkok was relatively uneventful, however, it was filled with some good reflection time, as well as ...

3/03/2025 I think that I expected this trip to include meeting some wonderful and interesting people, I guess I just wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly. The lessons I learnt from this particular day will stick with me for a while. Put yourself out there, be yourself and enjoy every moment for what it is. Don't dwell on what could have been, accept that it's better to have a great experience and for it to end, rather than wishing it would continue. In order to know the joy in life, it can't last forever.  Some of the temples of Bangkok were on my agenda for the morning, trying to beat the 35 plus degree heat of the middle of the day. The temples were spectacular. Ornate, intricate and colourful, it was a different kind of architecture than what I have seen before. The Grand Palace (as seen above) was fascinating in combining Thai architecture and more western, neo-classical architecture. The plan for the afternoon was a Thai cooking class at the hostel.  In showing...