Preface

Before I leave

If you’re here, you’re probably aware that my personality has consisted of “has quit job, is going travelling” for the last few months. You probably know dozens of late 20s folk who are the same. The difference is I’m writing a blog about this. I like blogs because when I was younger, me and my mates thought Pete Doherty’s blog was really cool and used to read it in IT class. His one detailed his struggles with crack and heroin. It was infrequently updated and abstruse. Hopefully mine won’t be like that. I’ll upload better photos at least.

I’m writing this a week or so before I leave. I’ve moved out of London, back to my Mums. I’m excited to go away, but it’s an unknown. I feel far away from the things that made me want to pack it all in (sales targets, Teams meetings, crap weather) because I packed it all in a while ago, and I feel like I’m missing all the things and people I love about my life already. Better to get moving – I’ve arranged 5 or 6 leaving dos to keep me busy, and I haven’t thought about packing yet.

Where to?

If all goes according to plan, the first few weeks will consist of me drinking beers by the sea with my mates in Portugal. I’ll also spend a week sitting by the pool with my Dad and siblings. Expect low impact content, but maybe an Albufeira cameo. From July I’ll be on the road solo, around Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A stretch goal here is to be able to spell Kyrgyzstan right first time. I’ve been fascinated by the steppe and the mountains since I was teenager. I was weird and read Russian novels about Cossacks and Noblemen under under low skies with vast horizons and breathless peaks surrounding them. I want a bit of that. After that, I’m not sure. Maybe India or Sri Lanka, or I’ll follow the direction of one of those deranged Scandinavians you meet in every single hostel.