My Backpacking Memoirs - AtomicJoe - Wattpad

My Backpacking Memoirs

Reads 460
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Parts 38
Time 4h 43m

Reads 460
Votes 13
Parts 38
Time 4h 43m

adventure backpacker backpacking bus diary europe explore firstkiss gapyear hiking hostel journey life memoir museum nerd non-fiction nonficspotlight nonfiction reallife travel trip truestory wanderlust youth

In 2017 I embarked on a three month backpacking trip around Europe. Motivated by the many accounts of travel from within religion, I went to learn. But what I experienced was not what I was expecting. This was my first time leaving the UK since I was a child and my expectations of travel and Europe were wildly out of touch. I met more people in these three months than I had in the previous ten years and had many new experiences. I was naive and many of the people I met on my travels could tell just how naive I was.

Overland by bus, train and ferry through 17 countries: 
England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Switzerland. 

To 35 locations:
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Prague, Krakow, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Budapest, Timisoara, Sibiu, Brasov, Bucharest, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Litochoro, Athens, Delphi, Naples, Rome, Venice, Milan and Lugano.

It is an account of backpacking around Europe, both the best and worst of European backpacking hostels. Long bus journeys, hitch hiking and plenty of walking.

I'm not proud of my behaviour or the events surrounding this three month period of my life, but I am proud to have forced myself to do it. I hope that my story will reach people who are in similar positions to what I found myself and to plant the seed of travel as a solution to those problems. Sometimes running away is the solution.

It has also been several years since my backpacking trip and I find myself constantly trying to piece my memories together. Not always knowing what city or even country a memory occurred. I feel like my memories are deteriorating so I decided to document them before fall apart completely. I'm not a writer at all and I have tried to be as honest as possible, to my own downfall. I'm open to any advice about how I can improve it.All Rights Reserved

adventure backpacker backpacking bus diary europe explore firstkiss gapyear hiking hostel journey life memoir museum nerd non-fiction nonficspotlight nonfiction reallife travel trip truestory wanderlust youth

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Bad Ambassadors by sbushh

In 1995, when I was eighteen years old, I began a gap year overseas. My experiences in Egypt were character-building to say the least, and I have many fond memories of attempted muggings, freight hopping, jumping off moving buses, being stranded in the Sahara Desert and narrowly avoiding molestation at the hands of a randy Arab − good times indeed! I have supplemented the writing with primary sources, particularly letter extracts and photographs, and with poems in places, rather like the pharaonic statue that has been lying in pieces for centuries, which is finally restored with resins and prostheses to a semblance of its former glory. I began this undertaking in 2004 when the details were quite distinct in my mind, but it was sidelined within a year in favour of other projects. Now, over twenty years from the events, it is even more of a challenge to recall them accurately. Thankfully, the accounts written then and the letters have served as a memory bridge, but it should be said that even the letters themselves fall short in providing a complete picture of my experiences. Since they were written to my mother, there was always an element of self-censorship about them: omissions of our wayward antics, the alarming predicaments that we found ourselves in or true feelings. Some of these have been revealed in what follows but behind a poetic veil. Therefore, this work is a confession of sorts. Mostly, however, it is an attempt to capture the cultural landscape of the time and the adventures we had in the hope that it may inspire others to travel overseas. I have censored a couple of chapters, in accordance with Wattpad's guidelines on mature content, and placed them in Bad Ambassadors: Censored Chapters. This is my recollection of events, but I acknowledge that others may remember them differently, and I intend no harm. I have changed some names and pixelated some faces in order to respect these people's privacies. I dedicate this to all of my Egyptian friends.

I Fell in Love with a Bad Boy by Beautiful_Tragedy8

CRINGE WARNING! First book I ever wrote on here!! -- "Sometimes the person who you are willing to take a bullet for is the person behind the gun." I stood peering over the cold lifeless body that lay before my eyes. I had always thought of death the enemy, but right now, I blessed it upon the person who is now at peace. Sometimes you don't need to be the smartest, or the fastest, but you do need to be wisest. They say the blood runs deeper than water, and I believe it, because even though the people that we love can turn on us and begin to hate us, they are only human, meaning that soon they will begin to see how short life really is and how it is not to be wasted. People who seem perfect and they look like they have no floors'; they are the people who are suffering, like I was. But I found my savior in the most uncommon place. He was able to look through my mask, he saw the cracks, and tried to fix the broken girl that hid away deep inside the girl who only wanted to be seen as 'fine'. I slowly began to find comfort and safety in him, and I did the same to him. We were two broken people becoming whole. Someone once said when you pass, if you can count your true friends on one hand you are beyond lucky, and I even though I did not like the person that lay before me, I know that he once had true friends, including me. I'm a 17 year old girl who has suffered more than any other, beginning to believe that 'Hope' was just another word the people throw around. Until I fell in love with a badboy. Trailer to the side -------------------> Made By @Laura__1 Cover made by @Beautiful_Tragedy8 Copyright 2014

We're All Going To Die by KelseyMyers2

In 2015, I quit my digital marketing job at Nike to take a solo road trip around the country, funded by driving for Lyft in each of the cities I stopped in. In the beginning, I thought that driving for Lyft was simply the key to supporting the trip financially. However, I soon found that the dynamic of having strangers jump into my car to talk about life for 20 minutes or so, under the context that we would probably never speak again, was the most powerful piece of my year off. I was so inspired by my passengers that I wrote a book about them, called We're All Going to Die: Lessons Learned From My Year Road Tripping As a Lyft Driver. My passengers became my biggest teachers in what, lo and behold, turned out to be a year of personal growth and self-discovery. I learned the value of more listening and less ego. I saw how hungry people are for real human connection and conversation in a world more digitally connected and emotionally isolated than ever. I took the time to face my own issues, including my father's suicide five years earlier. I began to understand how important it is to be human - to feel your emotions, to share those feelings with others, and to find lightness and humor in the hard stuff. What became most obvious to me was that at end of the day, we're all going to die anyway. This book is a story about my personal growth, supported by the stories of the many people who trusted me enough to jump into my car and open up their hearts to me.

Love, Taylor | TS by ireallylikekiwis

Dear Rory, I'm sorry about what I said. I'm leaving for LA in two days. Can we talk before then, please? We can just drive around as usual. I don't know how to do this if you're upset with me. Call me please. I'm staying at my parents' house. Love, Taylor *** Aurora Taylor has been living her best life for the past ten years or so. She works for Odyssey, a travel magazine based in New York City, New York, where she gets to go on dozens of trips a year to the most beautiful corners on earth to write articles about her journey. When she's not travelling, she also dabbles in fiction writing, a little secret passion of hers only few people know about. When the pressure of her two jobs gets a little too hard to manage, she decided to take a week off in a beautiful town at the beach in Northern Italy. A week full of unadulterated fun and relaxation, with unlimited glasses of chilled Prosecco and gelato cones. Or, so she thought. Her plans are completely ruined when she runs into someone she never thought she would ever see again. Not in person at least. A ghost from her past. Taylor Swift. Thirteen years and the universe decides to throw them together in a random town in Italy. Taylor does not believe that it is a coincidence. Aurora is a little reluctant to believe it. But thirteen years is a hard number for Taylor to ignore and she is adamant on making things right with the writer who finds it hard to forgive and forget all that was said and done thirteen years ago. *** This story is entirely my work of fiction. All characters and fictional places are from my own imagination except for real celebrities. The timeline is not necessarily a hundred percent accurate to Taylor's for the sake of the story and for it to make sense. I hope you enjoy it!

My Last Breath (Book one of The Portal Series) by Chinesechickens123

BOOK ONE: Having enough courage to run through the woods and away from the people who convinced me they were saving me was not how I believed I'd spend my day. Yet, there I went escaping from the only place I knew existed in the world. Being held captive was too much for me, especially when these people wouldn't tell me who they were or even who I was. The first moment in my life I recall very clearly. I awoke in a dark room, with recollection of everything that happened in the world except for one thing. I had no memory of myself existing, I didn't know where I was or why these men kept me from leaving. Days after I first woke I asked plenty of questions, and yet none of them were answered. The only thing I learned was that I was not allowed outside because the woods heald the most powerful magic on the planet, the most dangerous magic. It was more than just bad men and curiosity about the forest that got me to leave, it was a pull towards something; towards magic. Once I was in the forest turning back was never an option, so I put it in my head that I'd keep walking until I found a civilization or a nice paved road that would lead to safety. But that never happened because the forest has a force living through it. Believing that the forest held something strange was the easy part but experiencing it myself was something totally different. I didn't expect anything normal but I didn't expect to be completly engulfed into the forest. I was led by an unknown presence that made me truly believe it was a living being, and in fact it is. I was innocent then, but now I know that anything can be hidden under a small platform in the woods with a secret bigger than the world itself. I was given life that day, until it all ended months later; the day I took my last breath.

Backpacking Adventures: Europe Part I by noahlieberman

This book is 100% free. If you're reading this on a platform where it's NOT free, download it from my website instead https://noahlieberman.com where it will always be free! Why is this book free? Because I believe that no one should EVER have to pay for a book. If social media is free, books should be too. I've always hated "selling" my books for people to read them. I just want you to read it for free. How is it free? Because it has a sponsor! Just like how a YouTuber will collect sponsorships for their videos, I'm doing the same for my books. Backpacking Adventures: Europe Part I is sponsored. You get to read it for free, an awesome company reaches their customers, and I don't starve! Everyone wins. Also, you should definitely download this book. It's HILARIOUS. Seriously, trust me... It's awesome. This is my first free book, meaning it will get the most readers out of any of them, and therefore be judged the most. It needed to be great, and it is. It's a compilation of my best, wildest, smartest, dumbest, and most incomprehensible stories from traveling Europe. I'm a backpacker, through and through, and I've accumulated some insane stories. You're going to want to read them. Go download the book. And remember to check out part II, which is also FREE, after you're finished reading. I'll see you there!

My Babies Mystery Daddy. (Completed March 2021) by louloumammyof2

(Mature content) (Highest ranks listed) (Editing slowly) A simple last night out with my girls before I move to America. Drinks are flowing, hips moving & laughing like we have no worries in the world, & an encounter with a drop dead gorgeous man, whos eyes could see my soul like we belonged & his hands ohh 🤪 but I left before he woke mortified. I never had a one night stand. Only problem now is I left with something belonging to him. So here I am 4 years later and my boss is retiring. Who's my new boss you ask. Well you guessed it & Does he remember me? I hope not as theirs more than my feelings at stake now. *********************************** Eoin Ryder now 29 year old badboy billionaire. Eoin cant get a girl named Saoirse (sheer-sha) out of his head for years. That one incredible night has had him searching for that connection again. He dates but nothing to serious as he compares them to her beauty. Is there such thing as love at first sight. Will he find her again. If so what will he do. What will she do. Though he is in for a shock. Laughter, tears, anger, sex & possible loss. This book has it all. Hey everyone 😁 this is my 1st ever book/story to write & writing it from my phone. If its boring or silly I do apologise. Im writing chapters as I go so please be kind and i would love feedback and ideas for this story. I Started it 20-dec-2020. I thought id give it ago & to have a new focus point to steadying out my anxiety. Never done anything like this before. feel free to point out mistakes nicely im trying to edit quickly. Also the pregnancies are sort of based on my experiences. Also copywrited. Mature content will be present so please dont read if this will offend you or under age. Hightest rank 1st #daddy (sept) 1st #Irish (may 21) 1st #over18s (may-now) 2nd #single (feb23) 2nd #2021 (may 2021) 2nd #accidental (may 2021) 3rd #soul (may 2021) 4th #lover (june 2021) 6th #sexual (june 2021) 10th #love (may 2021) 11th #growth (june 2021)

Bound To Love (Book II Of 'Destined To Be Together') (Completed) ✔ by LonelyPrincess239

"You said they were saying no one will marry you, right? How about you show them you have a husband now.There is someone to accept you for your life. How about you prove them wrong?" I said who looked at me hearing me and I sighed when I found her eyes filled with tears. "Let the society fail this time. It always win messing up with our minds. How about you win this time?" I said while she was just looking at me. "If you don't want then I don't have any problem. But just remember what you were going to do some time before and for what reason. You would have lost this game if you would have done it. May be fate is giving you a chance to turn the table around." I smiled at her who closed her eyes then nodded her head. "You are right. I should change the main character of this game. This society was leading my life game till now. Let me become the lead now." Her words made me smile. She has chosen very unique words though. Azlaan Ahmed Khan. 25 years man handling his family business. Have seen manu things from his childhood and have a bad past. His world revolves around his mother and sister who has been his only support from the very childhood. Has never thought about marriage until that 'one' day. Anfa Qureshi. 24 years old girl still pursuing her studies. Her family is her sister who was forced to leave contact with her and she has been a body without its sould from that day. She just know that she has to work hard to find back her sister. But everything gets ruin because that 'one' day. Join the journey of two new love parrots who are too much engrossed in their lives to think about each other. Join the journey to find what happen on this 'one' day. Are their 'one' day same or both of them are different... Let's see after joining this journey of love...

American Impostor by Criques

This is a memoir about my life between 2015 and 2020, where I was part of an international crime ring and my subsequent arrest and imprisonment in a 3rd world country. Here's the synopsis: When I was 27, I started taking American and British University entrance exams for foreign nationals for money. I worked with an agency that paid for my flights, my accommodation, and sent me a forged passport to gain entry to the exams. I was paid a lot per exam. I had an advantage over other test-takers-- English was my native language and I could travel to countries that were inaccessible to others with my American passport. I was able to score perfect on the exams I took, but on some tests like the GRE, I would under-score on purpose to avoid detection. I used the money to travel the world and live the life I'd always dreamed of. I'd never enjoyed my home city of Chicago due to perceptions of my race, and I'd found that I was much happier abroad. I lived and learned about the world and myself in Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, Paris, Berlin, Cairo, Istanbul, and more. Those were the best years of my life. When I was 30, the ACT sent a detective team to hunt me down in Thailand. I was sentenced to 18 months in prison. I started writing this memoir wedged between hot bodies on a makeshift pencil made from rubber bands and lead. We lived in overcrowded prisons where we slept on top of each other, often sharing parasites. The food was just leftover parts of animals that the prison could buy cheaply: pig fat with the bristles still connected, chicken heads and feet. AMERICAN IMPOSTOR is about identity, media, justice, and is completed to its first draft.

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Slide 1 of 9

Bad Ambassadors cover

I Fell in Love with a Bad Boy cover

We're All Going To Die cover

Love, Taylor | TS cover

My Last Breath (Book one of The Portal Series) cover

Backpacking Adventures: Europe Part I cover

My Babies Mystery Daddy. (Completed March 2021) cover

Bound To Love (Book II Of 'Destined To Be Together') (Completed) ✔ cover

American Impostor cover

Bad Ambassadors

In 1995, when I was eighteen years old, I began a gap year overseas. My experiences in Egypt were character-building to say the least, and I have many fond memories of attempted muggings, freight hopping, jumping off moving buses, being stranded in the Sahara Desert and narrowly avoiding molestation at the hands of a randy Arab − good times indeed! I have supplemented the writing with primary sources, particularly letter extracts and photographs, and with poems in places, rather like the pharaonic statue that has been lying in pieces for centuries, which is finally restored with resins and prostheses to a semblance of its former glory. I began this undertaking in 2004 when the details were quite distinct in my mind, but it was sidelined within a year in favour of other projects. Now, over twenty years from the events, it is even more of a challenge to recall them accurately. Thankfully, the accounts written then and the letters have served as a memory bridge, but it should be said that even the letters themselves fall short in providing a complete picture of my experiences. Since they were written to my mother, there was always an element of self-censorship about them: omissions of our wayward antics, the alarming predicaments that we found ourselves in or true feelings. Some of these have been revealed in what follows but behind a poetic veil. Therefore, this work is a confession of sorts. Mostly, however, it is an attempt to capture the cultural landscape of the time and the adventures we had in the hope that it may inspire others to travel overseas. I have censored a couple of chapters, in accordance with Wattpad's guidelines on mature content, and placed them in Bad Ambassadors: Censored Chapters. This is my recollection of events, but I acknowledge that others may remember them differently, and I intend no harm. I have changed some names and pixelated some faces in order to respect these people's privacies. I dedicate this to all of my Egyptian friends.