There and back again

I've spent the last few days resting in Spain at a friend's house. Giving my body a break was a good thing, I feel refreshed, energetic and ready to hit the road. The only problem is I'm not actually moving further into Spain. I'm headed back into France, and not voluntarily.

For the winter, I'm planning to work a ski season at a resort or hotel. I wasn't aware of it until now, but an overwhelming majority of positions available requires a United Kingdom National Insurance number and bank account. On top of that, a few also require UK residency. Getting these isn't too much of an issue, I simply have to be somewhere in the UK until I'm issued my NI number and then sort my bank account. Residency isn't as simple, but we'll cross that bridge when (if) we get there.

There are two upsides to this detour. Firstly, it means I can get an extended visa for Australia, which would allow me to stay longer after my visa expires. Secondly, it means I get to see my best friend again. There's also the upside of being around English speakers for a while. (Australia? Wait, what? More on that later!)

I have no idea where I'll be staying until all of this is sorted, I'm asking around and I've got a place to crash for a while but since I have no idea how long all of this will take, I might have to work and rent a room until the season starts. Honestly, I'm sort of ok with it - being on the road this much is taxing and having a stable place for a while would be nice.

Tomorrow morning, I leave for France once more. My route will take me through Toulouse, Orleans and Paris, onto either Calais or Dunkirk for the crossing. A very scenic route, but I'm not going to sit down and explore a whole lot. Most of it will be spent highway and city hopping. This is a bit of a second chance for France, hopefully my journey is more pleasant than the one I just finished.

I haven't hitchhiked any ferries yet so I'm pretty excited to try it. After that, its into the UK and back into civilization. Or something like that.