Ten Years On: Leaving The Country

SO I missed out on last week's post as I was down in Sydney and couldn't be bothered taking the laptop down with me. The reason I was down there though has absolutely everything to do with this next post.

So 2005 began and I was doing ok. There had been some dramas at the paper that seemed to have resolved itself, although I had the feeling that between this, that and the other I wasn't going to be in Cooma for much longer. It was around this time that I realised that my long-held dream of travelling around Europe was within grasp - I was working full-time, had just about cleared my debts and had absolutely nothing holding me to anywhere.

I was originally only looking into Contiki as that was the only European tour company I'd heard of. They had a tour that went around most of Europe including a few former Soviet republics - who wouldn't want the chance to go somewhere not many do? I mentioned this to a friend back in Brisbane and he was interested; all we had to do was arrange a time. Then Jason, Cooma's resident sports business owner, told me about his plans. He planned on travelling around Europe with a company called Busabout, which didn't run tours but instead had regular buses that picked you up and dropped you off at their preferred hostels. You could spend as long as you wanted at each place and if you didn't feel like playing with the other kids on tour, you didn't have to.

Oh, and Jason was definitely going. In May.

I wasn't going to get a better opportunity to travel. My main concern at that point was always going to be how I would react to others - while I was (and still am) comfortable with my own company, excessive social anxiety meant I struggled to meet new people, or even communicate beyond asking for another beer. I didn't have enough money, but that wasn't anything a bank loan couldn't fix.

Arrangements were made to take three months off work, the passport ordered and the flights booked. On my last day at work I wrote my last piece, a little column looking back at my time in Cooma. My bags were already packed and waiting at the office for the afternoon bus up to Sydney. Soon enough the farewells were done, the bus boarded and Cooma disappeared in the rear-vision mirror in the late-afternoon sun.

Next stop: Europe.