After just three weeks of teaching in South Korea, the summer holidays were upon me, and the break couldn't have come any sooner. Attempting to teach hyperactive infants from morn till dusk doesn't half make you want to board a plane and leave the country. Being so close to SK, Japan was always top of my Asian travel list, and Kyoto seemed like a peaceful place to begin our trip.
North Wales - an entirely different animal to its southern counterpart. Taller mountains, longer place names, and a completely unintelligible accent make the north a quite curious place to visit. On the road from the south (there's only really one), it is every tourist's duty to stop at Portmeirion. A village built purely on one man's imagination, it took Sir Clough Williams-Ellis over fifty years to finish his incongruous masterpiece.
Welcome to my home: Wales. I come from a small corner of the South-Welsh countryside where the land is beautiful and the sheep even more so. I’m only joking, not all Welsh people are infatuated by sheep, some prefer goats or bullocks. But I do come from the sort of town whereby if a person did proclaim their love for a farmyard animal, nobody would bat an eyelid. It has happened.
Having lived in the Unites States of America for ninety days without getting shot, I would like to take this opportunity to dispel, or confirm, fifty myths or misconceptions that I may, or may not, have believed were true before I started this journey. Admittedly, sweeping generalisations are made throughout but most of what I write is based on experiences I had in the states.
My final day in Iceland began with a forty-minute hop to the south-western corner of the island, in order to view another tourist attraction that has recently become synonymous with the country: the Blue Lagoon. Over the last few years, it has become one of the most photographed places in Iceland, with an incredible 32% of all tourists visiting it on their trips.
After my first failed Aurora hunt late last night, it was rather difficult to prize oneself out from under the warm duvet early this morn. However, with only a few hours of daylight available, there was little other option. I quickly donned as many layers as I had in my suitcase, battled through the ceaseless snow, and made it onto a bus that was going to take me to all of the sights within Iceland's famous Golden Circle.
A layover in Iceland is always a good thing because, with my long-haul from Canada refuelling in Reykjavik, I could ask for my bags, leave the airport, and book a different flight back to the UK in a week or so - which I did. Having just completed a four month road trip with Yugyeong, it was quite peculiar being on my own again, especially in an environment as extraordinary as this.
Last week, the Voyager made its final journey South to a thunderous wall of water before being put up for sale in Toronto. In a short week seventeen, the very last, a bidder must be found before the journey comes to an abrupt end at an airport terminal in Mississauga.
Last week, the Voyager achieved its own American dream by reaching Maine, the fiftieth and final state of its journey across the continent. In week sixteen, the endless frozen tundra of Quebec province is left as far behind as is possible as the final destination appears on the frostbitten horizon.
