21 Days of Wanderlust UK Stories – Explore, Friendship, Couchsurfing

How did it start?

I already dreamed to have location independence job since many years ago. But, the insecurities when thinking to do it, is keep holding me to do this. When my parents were still alive, I’m always thinking about them whenever I’m doing traveling around the world. There was a guilty feeling especially when I got many chances to explore the world, while they were never got any chances to see the world outside of our home country, Indonesia.

I never been to UK since I moved to Estonia in 2019, and based on this reason, it encourages me to plan ahead to visit the birthplace of Harry Potter this year. I prepared my UK visa application on early January 2024 with the first intention to just become a short-term visitor. Few weeks later, after I finished my 10-days trip to Cyprus and Jordan with my travel buddy, I discovered the joyful feeling of being a nomad. Moved from one place to other places, stayed with some Couchsurfing (CS) hosts, having some good conversations with people from various, and also some other unexpected things that sometimes giving hard feeling, but I believe there is always a lesson learned from thaf. “I want to do this way of living soon”, my inner self-thought on that time.

Came back to Estonia, after the journey of sunny day of Cyprus and beautiful sandy world of Jordan, is like wake up call from your lovely dream. Welcome to the cold and dark winter again, bro!

So, I asked bravely to my employer in Estonia for the permission to work remotely for around 3-months in UK and EU countries (outside of Estonia). Long story short, permission was granted by my Team Lead and HR, thank God 😊🙏🏼. And here I go, living a digital nomad way from April to June 2024.

Milton Keynes 30 Mar – 2 Apr

UK Visa was granted around two weeks after I submitted biometric and the application via TLSContact Tallinn (UK Visa representative in Estonia). Soon, I booked my flight ticket from Tallinn to London on March 30, 2024, on Saturday Easter Vigil.

Arrived in London Gatwick airport around 5pm, I need to take 2-hours train to Milton Keynes, my first stop city in UK. My host family, Javier is living there with his family. He is a good friend that I met during my first walking pilgrimage in Spain on April 2022. I really like how very welcoming his Colombian family towards me (her wife and two daughters), despite the minor language barrier that we had (her wife speaking Spanish more fluently than English). My first few days became so much full of good memories, thanks to them.

Oxford 2–3 April

After stayed with a lovely family in Milton Keynes, I’ve got my first CS UK host in Oxford, Dave. He lives in beautiful house surrounded by living plants and small garden. As a person in his sixties, he looks very healthy in mind and body, most likely affected by his healthy mindfulness practice every morning.

This historical and academia town really gave me. curiosity vibe, remembering a lot of notable scientists are coming from this highest rank University in the world. Two days staying here seems not enough to fulfill my curiosity need which become a reason to come back here next time.

London 3–9 April

Arriving in London, I’ve got a chance to visit and work from my employer’s branch office in London, j their local site HR. This opportunity let me to make some new connection with other colleagues that I never met before in Estonia 😁

Seeing myself a huge city like London is totally awaken my wanderlust and exploration curiosity. I found out a new way of exploring new places by using self-guided audio walking tour. I used two different apps for this purpose, Rick Steves Audio Europe (free) and VoiceMap (paid).

I’ve got a CS host in London named Mohammed, a software developer like me, so in help me to get connected easily with him. He also introduce me to traditional Syrian guitar and play some music with it. We also got a chance to hangout with two Ukrainaian CS friends, explored the London’s Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.

Through CS hangout feature, I met Lorraine and Tung whom I met before in Estonia. With Lorraine, we walked around Covent Garden, Seven Dials, and having a dinner at Camden Market. With Tung, we tried to have a coffee time in the cafe inside the Church.

Last but not least in London, as a Harry Potter fan, seeing the city itself is like went back to my childhood fantasy world. It became more immersive when finally I got a chance to visit Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio in Watford. Living the magical world of J.K. Rowling’s wizardry world made my trip in London a wholesome journey.

Cardiff 9–11 Apr

The capital city of Wales is my next stop after London, as I found a CS host offered me to stay in his place. His name is Darren, running a community centre to help people around Cardiff city. I stayed in his big community centre building (supposed to be Art Gallery before) in the city centre.

I was amazed with Cardiff Public Library, one of the best public library that I ever seen. It has a huge collection from many different kind of books, community centre, and many spaces to study or work.

Via CS Hangout feature, I met Lasya, a Product Designer working for Fintech company in Cardiff. We shared many good conversation in the cafe and when walking back to her apartment to have a dinner together. I also learned from her that bicycle stealing is a common crime in Cardiff which made one of the bike sharing company, CityBike, stop their operation in the capital of Wales.

Birmingham 11–13 April

As I didn’t book any accomodation in advance after London trip, my next destination seems like dictated by any CS Host who are able to host me. Before Birmingham, I set up many different “public trips” (a feature in CS app to let others know where are we going next) including Bristol, Bath, Guildford, Brighton. Thankfully, someone from Birmingham accepting my staying request. His name is Sanjive, Indian expat who inspiring me to be more mindful about what I consume, not only food, but also the way we’re traveling. He emphasize about living consciously by using less, including less flight for the less carbon emission.

As a badminton fan, Birmingham is also the home for one of the most prestigious tournament, All England Open. This year is also a special time for Indonesian badminton team when Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting made All-Indonesian men’s single final, while Fajar and Rian won the men’s double final.

In UK, one of the cheapest way travel around is using budget-friendly bus such as National Express, MegaBus, and FlixBus. I mostly used National Express, thanks to its good NXReward loyalty reward system, I can get some cashback reward.

Manchester 13–15 April

Manchester is the home of two most successful English Football Clubs, but also historically became the beginning part of industrial revolution era in UK. I also surprised by how crazy the weather change here. It can be windy, sunny, rainy, and cloudy in the same hour, rapidly changes.

Same to London as most of UK cities, most of the museum in Manchester are free. Also visited Afflecks shopping area with many unique stalls related to pop cultures.

Liverpool 15–16 April

Very close to Manchester, I don’t want to miss the chance to visit home of “The Beatles”. My trip to Liverpool is short one, but it was so energizing. Thanks to its compact city size, I can explore most of the interesting places by foot. Seeing the Old Town, The Cavern Pub (historical place for the Beatles), and beautiful Albert Dock area in sunset time.

Glasgow 16–18 April

Moved to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, and visited the 3rd countries in UK region. The University of Glasgow also amazed me with its architecture and historical building. There is also a 24-hour library with the shape like a shopping centre. What a privilege to be a student here.

Using VoiceMap audio walking tour app, I learned about history of this Merchant City and how it became British Empire’s ‘Second City’. Since found this kind of self-guided app, I found a flexible way to be able exploring new cities without relying to organized walking tour.

Edinburgh 18–21 April

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, amazed me in many ways. No wonder that J.K. Rowling got so many inspirations to write Harry Potter stories here. The landscape, gorgeous castle, beautiful nature are only some of the magical part of this city.

I did the Harry Potter walking tour here, exploring the famous cemetery, Greyfriars Kirkyard, where J.K. Rowling like to visit before and found some character name Inspiration from there.

In the last day, lucky for me, there is an Indonesian Culture Festival held by Indonesian Student Association in Scotland and we got a chance to taste Indonesian cuisines accompanied with Indonesian traditional dance and music.

Edinburgh became my last city to be visited during this 21 days of wanderlust UK journey. After that, I’m leaving from Edinburgh airport to Iceland, to meet two of my Indonesian friends living there with their Icelandic husband.

What’s Next?

I’m writing this during my 10-hours flight from Abu Dhabi (UAE) to Osaka (Japan), which will be my next digital nomad journey from 28 April – 12 May 2024. This time I’ll using my vacation days from my workplace as I want to do walking pilgrimage in Japan, “Kumano Kodo”, a sister pilgrimage to Camino de Santiago in Spain. Thanks to this kind of pilgrimage, I found a spiritual way to commemorate and praying for my deceased mom and dad.

Beside that, I’m also excited to meet some old and new friends in Japan again. I’m always eager to share stories and have a good conversation after long time haven’t meet each other ✨

After Japan, I’m planning to visit Lourdes (France) for another kind of pilgrimage before exploring Ireland and spending some days again in UK. And finally will come for a Digital Nomad Festival in Bansko, Bulgaria, before coming back to Estonia for Mindvalley University in July 2024. Thanks God, I’m still alive! 😁