Putting on Your Own Sunscreen: Part 1
Laughing through the chaos
I’m sitting at the front of a plane, flying over a Spanish vista. I haven’t yet decided where I’m going to rest my head at the end of the day.
I’d planned out August; working in a Barcelona party hostel. However, a week into the role and I got kicked out.
Oops…
But that’s a story for another day. Something about “well-behaved women don’t make history.”
Welcome to Sam’s year of utter, brilliant, chaos.
It’s month five of my travels.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned: you’ve just got to relax into the chaos and keep laughing through the mess.
So, how the farkkk did I end up here?
I’d always wanted to leave New Zealand and go exploring.
Growing up, a favourite pastime of mine was flipping through photo albums of my Mum and Dad’s travels together. They flew to England in their early 20s, pulled pints in a pub, and picked blueberries. Then, in a Ford Escort Van, they spent all their savings as they travelled around Mainland Europe.
Mum & Dad at Polperro (I ended up working in a hotel in the next bay over!)
Stored securely in the car seat pockets were music tapes, well-thumbed books and a film camera.
Phone calls home happened once or twice a month. Handwritten postcards were mailed off in each little village and bustling city they toured through.
Heading in the right direction involved paper maps and hearty attempts at overcoming language barriers, mostly using waving arms.
My Dad filled a journal with stories of their travels, something I devoured during university after I finding it hidden at the bottom of a box. Reading it made me feel so nostalgic for the way they travelled. So completely in the moment, without technology’s distraction.
For me, the dream was always to go ski instruct in Canada or Japan after university. The end of university came in 2019 and with it Covid-19. Instead of departing New Zealand, I nestled in and worked on my career as a journalist.
Last year, I thought to myself 2022 will be it. I will leave in March.
Fast forward to January 2022. With no solid plans in place, I realised March was a mere two months away. Sitting in Wellington City Library at the end of January, surrounded by stories of adventure and my best pal spurring me on, I committed and bought the plane ticket.
…The first huge chunk of money to leave my bank account this year (🥴).
I blinked and my departure date, March 22nd, arrived. I spent the entire plane trip from Christchurch to Auckland flooding my face with tears. The required-to-wear mask holding in all the snot exploding from my nose.
The excitement of finally setting out on this adventure was crowded out with a feeling of anhudwebfherftgrtghanaudgj. Having never travelled before by myself, having never even been to Europe, I’d felt so overwhelmed by what to do, where to start. I’d planned out March and April but May 1st - who knows where I’d be.
If I could go back, a solid plan could have been a good idea. But, these past four months, ohhh the lessons I’ve learned, the people I’ve met, the chaos that’s occurred.
She doesn’t travel light…but she’s learning! Almost down to one lil backpack for my travels. Shout out to Aunt Jen in the UK for keeping all my extra luggage safe 😅
I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this alone.
My first night out in London and I could’ve been back in New Zealand; very drunk, swaying along to those classic sing-along songs that were top hits in 2010. Three days later and my phone was stolen. I’d just had the best day being an absolute tourist around London, riding down the Thames and peeking through the gates at Buckingham Palace looking for the Queen.
Kindness always shows up though. As my fury at realising my phone was gone condensed into tears, a pension lawyer offered to walk with me to the Apple store. He lent me his son’s phone for the night. Without him, I’d have been lost.
(Literally lost because I had no clue how to get back to my hostel without Google maps ahah).
I got a new phone and spent the rest of the week devouring England’s rich history. A top highlight: freezing in the snow at Hampton Court and swooning at the love story of Queen Victoria and her Prince Consort Albert in her childhood home, Kensington Palace.
Hi, my name’s Sam and I am addicted to touring palaces and castles
Travelling to Val D’slère via Genève gave me my first taste of travelling with a friend. As I slumbered next to him on our bus ride to the ski resort, I woke up to a view of snow softly falling on curving roads taking us deep into the French Alps. Val D’slère itself was a hot sweaty mess of skiing in a sports bra, dancing on table tops trying to balance in ski boots and an amorous entanglement with Aperol Spritz.
Austria gave me my first taste of what will be a life-long love affair with lengthy train journeys. Seven hours from Genève to Innsbruck and I discovered profound joy in the simplicity of listening to music that makes your heart yearn while gazing out the window.
Seven hours go by in what feels like 50 minutes. Never enough time.
A series of unfortunate incidents was Austria. I failed the moguls aspect of my (very expensive) ski course which meant I failed it all. I got to know the Austrian hospital and dentist system with infected gums.
But there are ALWAYS highlights.
Like ending up in a tiny Austrian ski village eating custard square and drinking hot chocolate chatting on the phone with my best friend, and hearing about his own adventures, while I waited for the non-English speaking emergency dentist to open.
Like dancing to drum and bass and techno at a rave in a 12th-century castle at the end of my ski course.
Like all the amazing people I met. A veterinarian couple who also worked in Bluff and were following the guy’s long-held dreams of doing a ski season. A dude who was in the army and now works as a bodyguard. A sweet soul sister who welcomed me into her home in Vienna. A British DJ living in Berlin and my dear roomie for ten days who I’m excited to see again one day.
A real-life angel
I ended up spending May being a traveller, exploring Vienna, and Budapest, a day trip to Bratislava, and partying in Prague. In Vienna, I was lucky enough to have a local tour guide and I saw a side of the city hidden from tourists. Swimming in the Danube, re-birth after a very big night dancing and drinking almost a whole bottle of vodka, singing with a sweet soul sister. Tasting Vienna’s best croissant. Running under leafy green trees in Park Prater.
Three nights in Prague, staying up until 5am, made me realise I’d much rather spend my money on gigs or food and wholesome adventures, spending my days not hungover and feeling like death but actually exploring the sights.
I’ll never get sick of hearing the songs Freed from Desire or Love Tonight though.
Spot the artist
June was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
Although it was a very unsuccessful reunion with my ex in one of the most gorgeous places to spend summer, sixteen-year-old Sam could never have predicted one day she’d be grooving with her first love to Fred V with the sun setting behind her in Albania. Life is crazy and magic and oh so precious like that.
The Albanian Riveria was something else. It felt like one of the last undiscovered-by-tourist places. Imagine grand five-star hotels next to shells of other unfinished hotel builds. An unpaved road with a hole in the ground as a roundabout. Pizza joints next to restaurants serving LIFE-CHANGING fresh seafood at unbelievably cheap prices. Ahem, shout out to the cuttlefish risotto with pea puree and the roasted octopus (🤤). The vibe at Hospitality on the Beach was immaculate, dancing with new pals until sunrise.
I then got to spend my birthday, my first summer birthday, in Corfu, eating waffles next to one of my best friends. We swam, we read, we ate SO much stupefyingly good food, and I attempted to beat him at chess.
At the end of it all, I spent two hours in Corfu airport drowning in my tears.
“What do we do now?”
“You go that way, and I’ll go this way.”
But hey, it’s all about laughing through the chaos right? And I’ll never regret this trip, a special lil miraculous chaos nestled deep in my heart.
July led me to Cornwall, working through heartache by myself.
I swam every day, feeling like a mermaid in the evening’s glow. One day, I realised I was so immersed in the moment, I no longer longed to share it with anyone else. Two gorgeous waiters took me on a day trip to Fowey and we ate burgers and drank wine in a small English pub. Tipsy and giggly, I then convinced them to help me keep up my daily swimming routine. More wine was consumed and laughter rang out into the air as the evening wandered on.
I left New Zealand to prove to myself that I could do it alone.
And here I am, actually doing it. Curveballs come from all directions but C’est la vie and Así es la vida have become my new favourite mantras.
There’s something magic in never knowing what’s around the corner. This chapter of my life has been full of stories I never could have predicted. It’s been a whirlwind ride, tasting lots of different lives I could live. And because of that, I’ve really been figuring out what I want.
One thing I most definitely want to do is spend a year or so living in many different places. London, Rome, Tokyo. An island in Greece. Bordeaux, France. So much joy can be found in learning how a community ebbs and flows; becoming part of it.
I haven’t laughed this much at my own despair and mistakes since my primary school days hanging out with my best friend. Big belly, maybe-going-crazy, is it a break-down or a break-through laughs.
SO ends chapter one.
I’m here now in August, trying to relax and laugh through the chaos and keep my focus on all those special, little moments.
They are everywhere.
A Few Travel Takeaways
Get yourself travel insurance before you travel, you’ll actually use it.
Walking is the best way to see a place.
Citymapper is brilliant for using public transport in big cities.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Be silly, be honest, be kind.