I had a dream I was browsing the board last night and you changed your username to "7 - 5" :'( WHY, I DON'T KNOW. You also posted a video of yourself blabbing on about stuff. You had long blonde curly hair.

Yolo.

I walked the 100m walk to the beach today.

YOLO.

Yo James, forgot to say it earlier on but happy birthday man! Hope you had a good'un and a good Chrimbo too.

Omg, that last visitor message

Thank you very much <3 and sorry for pestering you bb

If you're going to make a suggestion, don't leave a brutha hangin'.

Please delete my account, I don't use it anymore. Thanks.

Oh also, seeing now I can say it, reason I rejected your card was because I didn't want to instantly spoil your secret santa by you recognising the address, lolol. We'll try again next year

A platinum Cheshire cat, sexy

Noodles!

I'm now picturing you looking like Tom's avatar in a platinum form.

You have platinum blonde hair?

Oh yeah! I never said thanks for the add

No, but it reminded me that it was a point that I wanted to bring up a while back

Needs more Comic Sans!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy SHOWBIZ!

hAvE a NiCe DaY nIaLl

Nice to see you back around the board again

Exam done

Well, as long as every damn landscape in Europe isn't exactly the same, the train trips will be a good experience - the trains here hardly go past great sights, you can only see so many hills and sheep before they get extremely dull as well as that, it'll be a new experience using trains too, seeing, like I've said, the trains here are pretty crap... There's a possibility I'll fly to Greece, but that's completely money dependant, and Greece would be an extra leg off the main Europe trip. Greece will be my luxury of the trip if I get there

Oh, going over there, I'll take a huge suitcase, but seeing we also get 7kg on flight luggage, I'll probably take my big bag on that bit, seeing they weigh a fair bit and yeah, if worst came to worst, I am lucky that I do know a crapload of Musers over there - I am staying with a couple in my time over there hopefully!

If there's always people around, then that's fine by me! Although I'm not going over there specifically to make lifelong friends, I do know that I'm (hopefully) going to meet some really awesome people, whether it be on the trains, hostels, tours, anywhere. I do know that tourists just end up bonding, and you bond even more when you're from the same countries and September/October seems to be primetime for NZers to go over there, so maybe the rest of the world follows that suit?

In times of desperation, I know I'll become one of the most sociable people ever, especially in a situation like yours and I'll just hope they're an Aussie or a Kiwi however, something I'm not going to enjoy is all the "you sound Australian" or "are you from Australia?" comments/questions we hate that!

Yeah, for money, my only expenses will mainly be food, and as you've said, it's not really THAT expensive over there. Seeing prices of everything will be splashed all over the internet, I'm sure I can plan a fun trip while still having a bit of freedom for some random place or clothes shopping or something 'tis all about the fun, while I'm over there, I'm going to try not to worry too much about money, otherwise I'll just leave with regrets about how I didn't do this or that

Cities? Well, the UK/Ireland cities I'll have 'guides' but as for Europe, most likely cities so far are Paris, Rome, Berlin and perhaps Athens. I feel like I'm missing one... I've decided against going to Scandanavia now, though, only because I know it's bloody expensive over there... That said, all money dependant on whether or not I go to Greece, Norway (probably Bergen) or maybe even Spain (Madrid). Anything for free is good though, so I'll most definitely make use of that site at some point

Everyone seems to enjoy it over here... Although I'm very used to it because I've travelled here heaps, there are still some brilliant sights that you'll never really see anywhere else in the world here - some still manage to wow me, and I've seen a lot here! I suppose that's the main point of travel though, minus all the entertainment and all, it also really gives you an awesome insight of just how different your own home base is to other places in the world...

Again, apologies about my late/not replying, I've been tied up with exams I'll reply tomorrow after my English exam!

Hi Alice! sorry for the late reply, I've been really busy with school stuff and work and all...

Dependant on how I get around Europe is whether or not I get the train pass, but it's likely (seeing I know very well there is train routes between all the places I want to go). Sure, train ain't my ideal way of travelling, but I'm very lucky that I have places where I can keep some of my luggage, as opposed to dragging 30kg+ of stuff all around Europe seeing my Europe leg of the trip will probably be ~3/4 weeks anyway, I'll probably look into getting one of those ones that is pre-planned (seeing I'm a planner, and there's no way I'll be variating my trip, I feel ).

I can't 100% rely on my UK accommodation (seeing I don't really want to burden them with me for that long), but I know that if shit really turned to shit, I have family friends over there and one of my teachers is moving back over there this year too.

I am just worried about the hostels because I know I'm doing my tour at a 'quiet' time, seeing it'll be September/October-ish when everyone starts back up at colleges and all in Europe, so I'm worried I won't meet that many people I'm also a very shy person with new people (although, oddly enough, the forum has helped me a lot with new people), so I just worry I'll make a dick of myself, but that's the least of my worries

Going back to money anyway, I got some good news last night... I did really well at school this year (I got top academic student of my school) so my parents said they'd save up and help me out with my trip but yeah, with things like food and all, I know that restaurants here can rip you a new one, and I will be going to restaurants here and there just because I can I ain't travelling half the world to eat stuff I'd eat here!

All I'm really concerned about is money - seeing I do want to have fun but be cheap at the same time, there's some sacrifices I know I'll have to make, like, I want to do a UK roadtrip too with my friend, but of course I don't have money just lying around to do so. That's looking at about £400+, and then I want to go to Leeds Fest with my friend (another £250 or so), and little things like that really add up. I know I don't need the Leeds Fest thing, but I do want to go to some kind of concert while I'm over there to experience a UK/Europe crowd.

I can find out later on this month how much my flights will cost around, but I know I can get them cheaper about April/May next year. Here's hoping I get $NZ2500-ish flights, then flights + insurance would only be $3000, which gives me a little more money

Another note is that I'm very, very lucky to have two aunties who are well travelled, because I can ask them about sights and all that I need to see. One of them backpacked all around Europe, similar to what I'm doing, so she'll know how to lash out but still be el cheapo like I want to be

I also have never asked for your name I'm Sam/Sammy, obviously

Hey! My apologies for never replying in that gap year thread, I may/may not have forgotten

Anyway, update on the haps... It's extremely likely to happen now, I've got myself a job sorted and have a lot of support from my family... Now it's time to start planning the thing! and seeing you know your stuff about this, I want to ask you

Anyway, I'm looking at getting about only $8000 over the next 9 months saved, of which $3500 alone would be for flights/travel insurance so I'll have about $4500NZ (about €2500/£2000) for the entire trip. It looks like heaps (to me anyway ), but about £750+ alone of that will be travel probably... Then I have to take into account food, hostels/accomodation, shopping, etc etc...

I need to do it the el cheapo way, pretty much, unless I'm thinking too unrealistically about European costs (i.e. how much I would earn is plenty). I know that I have places to stay in the UK/Ireland while I'm over there, so at least accommodation will be kept to a bare minimum during that time...

Basically, my question is - would €2500 be enough for 8-10 weeks in the UK/Europe?

Muse Radiohead make better music, but I love Muse more, I dunno why

Although, Exogenesis, almost tops HTDC!

You like Radiohead or Muse more?