Full Noise Traveller – UK – Months 4 & 5
Kia ora team,
So in the last couple of months I’ve made my way through England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The highlights
– I caught the hostel plague (twice for good measure) it’s as if sleeping in shared rooms and eating whatever I scrounge together for 6 months isn’t optimal for health … odd.
– Some hot new bomb shells entered the villa (my 40L backpack). This Kiwi is officially a bit cold … just a tiny bit (I’m still staunching it out) but I have succumbed a little and bought some warm clothes so if you see my pack bursting at the seams … no you didn’t. I’d like to say this has happened in a carefully planned, deliberate way – but it’s been more of a case of me freezing on the street and buying the first layer I see.
– Many globetrotter friends were tracked down and lots of gyms were visited, my training in this block was patchy as ever but still a heap of fun.
– Ireland stole my heart – pub fires, fiddles and Guinness – I want to move to Galway – anyone want to make some strategic passport swaps?
LONDON
After catching up with some family the first big stop in England was London where I jumped into the London Fight Factory for a week. I absolutely loved this gym – a really cool mix of eco and traditional technique, with such a friendly energy. I couldn’t recommend stopping in here more. This trip included my first proper wrestling class – they had shoes on (immediately terrifying) but it was actually super cool and a fun way to think differently about my stand-up game. 
I stayed in Notting hill so that I could soak up all the colourful vibes, I spent most of the week walking through the parks – Olivia Dean released her new album so I had the perfect backing track to romanticise the autumn vibes.
Then I caught my first hostel plague (a theme to follow this installment)
I spent a lovely weekend recovering in Exmouth – This just further cemented my belief that we need to go back to sending girls to the seaside and mountains to cure their constitution’s. All I needed was some fresh air and a good run around the Moors on some ponies and life felt worth living again.
The next stop was Scotland – but on my way out I made a quick stop in London to get a couple of tattoos so this started a short break in training while these healed up.
SCOTLAND
First up was Edinburgh to look after this fella – cute right, he made the perfect tour guide, we wandered up so many hills and chased so so many sticks 10/10 travel buddy. This stop was accidentally perfect timing, it was peak autumn and Edinburgh was just so orange, such a pretty city – was nice that Brae fit the colour scheme too.
Since BJJ was off the cards I jumped into a spin class and this was a fantastic move – I LOVE a girlie pop spin class, but a girlie pop spin class with Scottish accents, unbeatable.
Sticking with the theme of BJJ people doing non-BJJ activities I also caught up with fellow globetrotter Robert who showed me the coolest old military fortification turn little rave island. This was a tidal island and well worth a visit (was giving big hoa hoa hoa vibes).
The next stop was Glasgow where I could understand roughly 25% of the locals… smile and wave. This was such a fun city though, loads of music and such a chilled energy. On that chilled energy – Glasgow was bloody freezing introducing a scarf to the capsule wardrobe.
Then I hopped up to Inverness where I caught the dreaded hostel plague #2 – man-flu edition (aka. no one has even been as sick as this)
Despite feeling truly grim I made some friends who twisted my rubber arm and all of a sudden I was in a hire car oogling the Scottish highlands, it’s such a stunning part of the world – though due to a flat tire (1 nil to Scottish potholes) we mainly looked at this hill on the Isle of Skye (nice hey).
Inverness was beautiful though and filled with some really lovely and inspiring people. Thank you to my travel friends for keeping me alive during truly some of my more pathetic moments.
The final Scottish stop was Aberdeen – Aka BRENDA. So this was supposed to be a training trip with Brenda the globetrotter queen herself. But due to the aforementioned man-flu plague this visit was mainly mad chats and a fantastic tour of Aberdeen.
This included a trip to the beach. Now winter surfing was half on my bucket list for this trip (disclaimer much like my BJJ what I lack in skill I make up for in enthusiasm). But the red frozen hands on the lads out there are still haunting me – surely gloves are an option?
IRELAND – Alive again and ready for some jiu jitsu
Thankfully Brenda and I did get a chance to have a roll around the next week in Dublin, where we caught up with some more Globetrotters: Colin and Lucky! I was stoked to do one of Colin’s classes at Gracie Barra Dublin – side note this has to be the best smelling BJJ gym I’ve ever been in, there are plants everywhere and what a game changer, I’m convinced they absorb the jits stink. But the training was also epic, cheers to Colin for introducing me to a new throw to work on – I’m still ending up under said throw 50% of the time – but I have hope. We also got in for an open mat at Jungle, another cool gym with great vibes!
It was awesome to catch up with the crew and we found some fun spots (Frank Ryan’s – the darkest bar in Dublin has got to be my fave). Despite the widespread hate I also loved Temple bar – Christmas had already exploded before Halloween was up and the vibes were a special kind of manic. We were in the city for Halloween – very different to home, I’m here for the fires though –adds some spice to the night! 
My first solo stop was up to Sligo where I thought I might try to push the images of those cold red hands aside and get out for a surf but the waves weren’t on so my Sligo time was spent rambling up some beautiful hills and cozying up beside the fire with my thesis edits (picturesque hey).
Galway … I’m a bit obsessed, a few days quickly became a couple of weeks and I really had to drag myself away. I’m only half kidding – I have 1x NZ passport if anyone wants to swap?
What a cute city – music everywhere and so much water (I’m a sucker for a beach run) and two epic jits gyms to really seal the deal:
Shaolin – thank you for letting me outstay my welcome! I loved training here, there is such a family vibe about this gym, it was epic to have such a solid group of women to train with – Shaolin runs women’s programs for BJJ and MMA so there are loads of wicked female athletes to jump in with – definitely one to add to the list for the globetrotter girlies.
I also got along to Durinho BJJ on the weekends for their open mats, such a fun open space and some awesome rolling going on!
Okay now this is deadly serious – on my first night I went out to a pub and the vibes were so good but I have no idea where I was and I never managed to find it again, so if you recognise this pub let me know, there was a sky light, a mad band and everyone was dancing – cheers.
Arran Islands – I got out to Inishmore and almost drowned above ground but what a beautiful place. The plan was to hire a bike (which I might have to come back and do in summer) but this time around I pivoted and jumped into Tom’s tour van and got an absolute banger of a tour complete with explanations of all the major town developments in the last 10 years – no notes. 
Eventually I dragged myself out of Galway and headed down to Killarney to meet some friends for a Kerry roadie.
The first stop in Killarney was SBG, what a cool gym! PJ is an epic coach, his games twisted my little brain and it was great to work on some grip fighting. I jumped in for some rolling the next day and the good vibes continued – I always reckon banter is the sign of a good gym and SBG passed with flying colours – within minutes of rolling I saw smother choking and knew I was in the right place – let’s leave my accent out of it though hey. 
Then I road tripped around Kerry with some friends – unfortunately they squeal when I collar grip them so aside from some rouge foot sweeping in scenic places no training went on here but this cured my need for open fires and trad music – bury me in dingle thanks. 
My friends left me in Cork and I won’t lie there are gyms in Cork but I got distracted and despite carrying my gym gear around a couple of times did not find my way to any of them – the call of the pub fires was too strong. But fun little city.
Then I had a wee side-quest to Wexford to play with these little guys (how cute) 
Before sending it up to Belfast to meet up with fellow globetrotter Angus. It was so interesting to learn about the history of the North and I loved exploring all of the pubs (top spot goes to the filthy minging onion or maddens) 10/10 – Angus was trying to hit 50 pints so this was all for a good cause. We squeezed in a few gyms between the pubs, SBG was wicked, Kimuras for breakfast lunch and dinner. We also popped into Open ground’s open mat – super energetic mat, had a lot of fun here. Big shout out these girls fo some hard rounds and cheers to my personal photographer for the shots. 
We finished with a quick stop in Derry (mainly inspired by Derry girls), so stopped in to train with Jason and Chris from evolve – wicked to get a session in working on some americana based stuff – thanks so much for having us! Derry is also a seriously underrated spot, it was pretty amazing to walk along the old city walls and learn about Derry’s history. 
Then I left Angus to complete his road to 100 pints and sailed (yes sailed) to Liverpool – this choice caught a surprising amount of flack – I back it, love a cheeky boat trip – rocked me right to sleep. The bus and train after was less welcome but eventually I made it back to my sister’s flat in Manchester where I am now writing away while wearing her clothes and eating her food – some kind of flow state for sure, shakras feeling very much aligned.
The other big update is that the thesis is now locked and away being formatted so I’m officially on holiday mode!
So next up is a bit of a jolly around England before hitting Austria and the Winter Camp!
LET’S GO FULL NOISE
Stats
Months – 5 1/2
Gyms Visited – 27
Current location – Manchester
Thesis Progress – 99%
Danger Level Gain – 35%
Percentage of Trip planned – 98%
Injuries – 2
Hostel Plagues – 2
The gym list (in order of visit):
1. Art of Combat (Palmerston North, NZ) [HOME]
2. Albury Wodonga Brazillian Jiujitsu (Albury, Australia)
3. Viti Blacktip Jiujitsu (Nadi, Fiji)
4. Axis (Rolleston, NZ)
5. WahiBJJ (Fielding, NZ)
6. East side (Auckland, NZ)
7. Upper Hutt BJJ (Upper Hutt, NZ)
8. Workshop (Wellington, NZ)
9. Alliance (Auckland, NZ)
10. Coast BJJ (Albany, NZ)
11. Tonga Judo Association (Tongatapu, Tonga)
12. BJJ Team Malta (Ħamrun, Malta)
13. Team Strela Riga (Riga, Latvia)
14. Rio Grappling Club Częstochowa (Częstochowa, Poland)
15. Fenriz (Berlin, Germany)
16. Metagame (Bochum, Germany)
17. Chimp Gym BJJ (Dusseldorf, Germany)
18. Helios Project (Cologne, Germany)
19. London Fight Factory (London, England)
20. Gracie Barra Dublin (Dublin, Ireland)
21. Jungle BJJ (Dublin, Ireland)
22. Shaolin MMA (Galway, Ireland)
23. Durinho BJJ (Galway, Ireland)
24. SBG Killarney (Killarney, Ireland)
25. SBG Maeda Belfast (Belfast, Ireland)
26. New Ground Jiu Jitsu Academy (Belfast, Ireland)
27. Evolve (Derry, Ireland)
