Mini-Retirement Update: Belgium, United Kingdom, Returning Home and November Finances
The Final Weeks of Travel
The month of November was an exciting and a sad one for me. Over the first few weeks of November, we traveled through Belgium and the United Kingdom, adding two more countries to our now quite extensive list. However, it also brought about an end to the almost 6 months of travel that we experienced starting in June of this year.
At the beginning of November, we left Paris and took a Flixbus to Brussels, Belgium, which took just about 3 hours. We had booked an AirBnb in Brussels a week or two in advance, which was located in the Anderlecht neighborhood of the city. Anderlecht is definitely not a particularly tourist-focused neighborhood in Brussels, but rather a working class area with a mainly immigrant population. When we arrived at our AirBnB, I’ll be honest, the area looked fairly rough. However, we quickly learned that it’s only the look of the area and is not a reflection of the safety or hospitality of the people.
Our AirBnB was a converted workspace into an open loft that was home to a friendly Belgian-American couple and typically at least one guest. At one point during our stay, there were 5 guests and 7 people in total staying in this loft. Though it may seem like a lot, it made the price very reasonable! The AirBnB even had a tipi, which 1 or 2 guests could stay in, and also a wood burning fireplace for extra warmth!
Our Brussels AirBnb with tipi and fireplace!
Brussels was a small and quaint city compared to other European centers, however, it made it fairly easy to see the whole city in only a few days. We took a free walking tour (available in most major European cities), saw the European Union government offices and ate plenty of chocolate/waffles/french fries, and drank a lot of beer. It seemed like we spent a lot of our days eating! During our time in Brussels, we also took a day trip to Brugge, which is an absolute must-do to see a remarkably preserved European town.
Speaking of eating, one of the highlights of our stay in Brussels was visiting the restaurant of one of my mom’s friends, who she has kept in contact with after he did an exchange program at her high school in Michigan when she was a teenager. De Kuiper, just north of Brussels is an incredible restaurant which specializes in dishes made from horse meat. Though I’ve had horse meat before, it was still a different experience to eat at a restaurant where just about everything is made of horse meat.
Before you think that this is cruel or inhumane, know that these horses lived long, full lives, and roamed happily, grazing on small farms before making their way to our plates. These animals were treated way better than most cows or pigs in the U.S., so think deeply on this before making a judgement.
Alfons was an incredible host, and over the course of the meal, we had horse charcuterie, stew, tartare (raw, ground meat), tongue/liver pate and two different types of steak. The meal was also accompanied by salads, french fries, sauces and some of the best beer and wine I’ve ever had. So if you’re every in Brussels, make sure to check out De Kuiper!
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Two different types of horse steak (top), and me with Alfons and his wife, Lieve
After 6 days in Brussels/Brugge, we took the famous Eurostar train to London, which travels right under the English Channel getting us to London in only about 2 hours. This was the last leg of our 6 month journey so we decided to splurge a bit and get a nice 2-bedroom AirBnb in the Vauxhall neighborhood just off the Thames, which we shared with our friend Simon who lives just outside of London. The AirBnb was spacious and homey, which allowed us to cook more meals at home. Though the apartment was $160/night, it prevented us from going out to eat for too many meals, which in London is incredibly expensive.
Unfortunately, I came down with a bit of the flu after only a few days in London so we weren’t able to get out and truly enjoy the city as much as we would have liked. However, being that this was the end of the our trip, and since London is so expensive, we were okay with spending more time at our apartment. We were still able to see many of the main sites, including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park and the Tower of London.
The likely highlight of our trip to London, however, was partaking in the pastime of afternoon tea. We chose to go big and made a reservation at Claridges Hotel in Mayfair, near Central London. Throughout the course of our 3-hour tea experience, we had 3 different types of tea (definitely try the Claridges traditional black tea), finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, and then a variety of pastries. Though the price was steep at almost USD$170 for two people, the food was unlimited and incredible, and the service was what you would expect from a 5-star restaurant. Yes, you read that right, they will keep bringing you sandwiches, scones and pastries until you literally cannot eat anymore, and they also brought us some of our favorite pastries to take home.
Enjoying one of our favorite activities, drinking tea! High tea at Claridges was outstanding
At the end of our 9 days in London, we were ready to make our way home, just in time to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. We flew Norwegian Airways, which was not the most luxurious airline, but at $250/person for a one-way ticket, it worked just fine for us.
Thoughts On Long-Term Travel
I can honestly say that traveling the world for an extended period of time was one of the most profound and meaningful experiences of my life. It tested my patience, physical and mental stamina, comfort levels and enabled me to grow my communication skills and empathy for others. On a day to day basis, there were many times that it was not enjoyable. Being sick or injured, such as food poisoning in Cambodia and a sprained ankle in Indonesia, or having to deal with extreme heat, cold or just an uncomfortable bed, made parts of the trip pretty not fun, but looking back on it now, it was all an incredible experience.
Given the current political state of the United States, I couldn’t think of a better time to get out there and see the world. Not only will you learn that people are kind and welcoming just about anywhere you go, you’ll also see that state of global affairs is better than you’d think if you get down to the community level. However, there are also bigger problems that are not talked about, such as pollution in Asia and food quality in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world (hint: food quality is terrible in the U.S. compared to Europe and much of Asia in terms of healthy options).
So if you have the chance, get out there and see the world, and try to spend more than 1 or 2 weeks at a time in any given country!
November Finances
Sooooo, now onto the finances!
November Spending: AUD$3,012, USD$2,198
Total Spending For 6 Months of Travel: AUD$20,329, USD$14,840
Monthly Average: USD$2,874
I don’t think there’s much to elaborate on here. Our AirBnb was quite expensive in London, but besides that expenses were really quite low for the month, especially once I returned home and don’t have to pay for accommodation while staying with my parents :).
Over the course of the 6 months, we didn’t travel in luxury, however, we didn’t travel like beggers or broke backpackers either. We stayed in clean, safe and relatively comfortable accommodation, ate high quality food and never held back on treating ourselves every once in awhile.
Traveling the world in relative comfort is cheaper than you’d imagine!
What’s Next For NYPFGuy?
A photographic summary of my 6 months of travel (starting top left): Hiking in Zakopane, hiking in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, sunset in Tuscany, exploring temples of Angkor Wat, boating around in Koh Tao, feeding elephants in Chiang Mai
Currently, I’m back home in Chicago staying with family through the holidays. It’s been over 3 years since I left Chicago to live in Sydney, Australia. During this time, I plan on getting back into shape, catching up with friends and writing more for this blog. It was actually more difficult to get writing done while I was unemployed and traveling than when I was working full-time. Once you’re not on a schedule, time easily gets away from you.
I’m also jumping straight away into the job search. I know from experience that finding a new job is typically a slow process that can take 2-3 months from starting the search until the first day of work, so I want to get started early. I’ll write more in a few weeks on how that’s going and give some insight into where I’ll be moving to next.
Stay tuned!
NYPFGuy
