Sam Byford

At the end of my final Japan post, I mentioned future plans for an extended trip, travelling to both Europe and Southeast Asia. Well…considering it’s now been 8 months since that post and nearly a year since we returned from those travels, I thought it was probably best to start writing about them.

The trip ultimately took us on a globetrotting adventure via a route that stretched from the farthest east to the furthest west. From Dubrovnik to Bangkok, to Singapore, to Deshaies. 105 days, 12 countries and 3 continents.

It was split into four main sections – A month-long journey through central Europe, a G-adventure-led expedition across Southeast Asia’s Banana Pancake Trail, a few weeks of island hopping around southern Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, and then a final decompress in the idyllic Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe.

However, as you can imagine, a lot happened in those four months. Far more than I could ever fit into a blog post, or even a series of posts, without it turning into a 24-part epic that Homer himself would be proud of.

Therefore, I have instead cheated created a handful of videos to showcase some of the highlights of each leg. This post will go over our 30 days in Europe.

So without further ado, let us begin.

The European leg began on the 26th September 2024 in Dubrovnik, before heading into Kotor, Montenegro via the world’s slowest border crossing (a 2-hour bus journey that took us 6 hours thanks to unrivalled bureaucracy), and then back into Croatia to Split.

We then left the sun behind us and plunged into autumn in the beautiful Slovenia, checking out both its capital, Ljubljana (where a top secret mission was achieved, more on this later) and the stunning Lake Bled.

An overnight coach then wound us up in Innsbruck, where we navigated our way through an incredibly complex bus network (we forgot to read the timetable correctly and were almost left stranded on a mountain) and a trip to Swarovski world.

We then ventured over the Alps to Zurich, where almost all of our entire trip’s budget was spent on a bottle of water. No, but seriously, spending £10 on a bottle of Corona at the hotel bar nearly sent me to an early grave. We also managed to consume our entire body weight’s worth of cheese before we rolled onto yet another sleeper bus, this time to Cologne.

Stunning cathedrals and sausages of all varieties awaited us here, thanks in large part (pardon the pun) to the cable car over the nudist spa. We then concluded the leg with a few days in Berlin and Potsdam, where we gorged on history, beer and yet more sausages.

Whilst in Ljubljana, we met up with Joe, one of my oldest friends from school, who was enjoying a 10-day trip across Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. It was here that we completed the “exchange”.

Unbeknownst to Lucy, I planned to propose to her on this trip. Travelling was a shared passion of ours and one of the things we bonded over very early on. There is no one else on this planet that I’d want to enjoy the overwhelming euphoria of discovering a new country, an old temple, a local delicacy or a crap museum about taxidermy frogs with. From the highs of scranning an entire cheesecake on the side of a road in the final hours of our Japan trip to the lows of being pissed wet through on a mountain in the Peak District. The moment we planned this trip over 18 months prior, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Where better than to ask the best person in my life to marry me than on the trip of our lives? Alas, for this to become a reality, I needed a crucial ingredient…the ring.

I had searched high and low for “The One Ring To Rule Them All”, but much like my malnourished counterpart, I was unable to find it. That was until, finally, scanning over the website of a jeweller we had recently visited, I saw the perfect ring. A bi-coloured sapphire on a gold band with a trio of diamonds set on either side. I knew she would love it. There was just one rather large problem. We were leaving for Croatia the next day. It was absolutely awful timing, but there was simply no way I was going to waste this amazing opportunity. My mind started formulating ideas and hatching a plan. Cue the music

First, I gave the jeweller a call to see if they could do courier delivery the next day, but I had just missed the window (of course I had). So, trying my luck, I asked if they could instead post it to Berlin for me to secretly pick up en route. But unfortunately, they had a bad experience with international shipping in the past and refused to do it (of course they had). Just as I was starting to lose hope, I suddenly remembered. Joe Winter.

We were meeting Joe in Slovenia…what if I sent the ring to him as he wasn’t flying for another week? He could deliver it to me when we meet up? The quest was agreed, and a fellowship was formed. At 5″5 he was not far off Hobbit height; He was born for this.

I sent the ring to him and trusted he would deliver it to Ljubljana in one piece. Joe became the ring bearer. Sure enough, 10 days and over 1000 miles later, the promise was fulfilled, and the ring was mine. Frodo Joe had completed his quest. Its perilous journey from sleepy Steeple Bumsted to the City of Dragons was over. Although the ending was less lava-filled volcano and more hostel room floor.

As to what happened after that…that’s for another time.

For now, watch the video below for the full European highlights…