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Trip Start May 04, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Mar 05, 2007

  Dallas, Texas
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

"Good evening.  This is your captain speaking.  We have begun our decent into Dallas/Ft. Worth and we should have you on the ground in about 20 minutes.  I hope you have enjoyed your trip and come back and see us again soon."

Wow.  Dallas.  I couldn't believe it.  I'm really home.  Wait...is this home?  Where is home?  I'll worry about that later.  Throughout my long trip back that carried out over 9 days and 17 time zones from Airlie Beach to Sydney to Perth to Dubai to London to Dallas, I never really felt like I was actually going home.   To be honest, it just felt like more traveling, more sleeping on couches, more unfamiliar places and long flights.  It wasn't until I heard the captain say that at the tail end of our 10 hour direct flight from London Gatwick to DFW that it really hit me.  I was home, or at least, back in the USA.  The long road was over.  A moment that I had thought about so much throughout the trip, especially over the last month, had finally arrived. 

It didn't take long for me being back to feel mostly normal and after about a week it felt like I had never really left.  Not a whole lot changes.  I haven't lived in Dallas in about 9 years and have only been back to visit on holidays or breaks. After only a few days that's how it felt, I was just back in Dallas visiting friends and family.  While it took me almost a week until I was sleeping almost normal, the fact that I was home seeing my family and friends, watching TV, sleeping in my own bed and drinking cold 12 oz. canned beers out of the fridge didn't seem that weird.  Now I'm trying to get used to the fact that I am most likely gonna be here for a while and get used to the idea that I can see my friends and family more than just for a long weekend.  I did however have that moment every once in a while where I would take a step back just to realize that I actually was not just back in Dallas, but my new home, and doing all these things that I had been missing and wishing I was doing for so long. 
I was overseas for almost 10 months.  42 weeks actually.  294 days to be exact...but who's counting?  I've met people from over 40 countries as far away as Congo, Bulgaria, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone to name some of the most exotic.  I now have friends scattered all over the world, some of whom are still globe-trotting and possibly making their way through the States in the next year or two.  I traveled to over 55 different cities in about 17 different countries.  That averages out to a different city every 5.3 days.  Looking back on it, I didn't realize just how much bouncing around I was actually doing considering I was "settled" and living in Barcelona and Florence for about 4 of those 10 months. 

Of all of those different places in so many different countries, I was bound to find some true gems along with some duds.  While I am going to share with you some of my favorite and least favorite cities in the next few paragraphs, I must preface it with this.  While I may have loved or hated a particular city, my own personal take on any place was indeed affected by an array of outside factors.  I honestly think that while I didn't like Warsaw, Poland but absolutely had a blast in Krakow, Poland has only a small amount to do with the actual city itself.  The city is only one factor.  You also have to consider your mindset, attitude, energy level, health, hostel experience, people you meet, weather, food, nightlife etc etc etc.  While there are probably a thousand things that factor into my experiences, take it with a grain of salt and don't let me rain on your parade.  If you want to go to Warsaw, by all means go, and please, let me know what you think.  I think that if I were to go back and restart my trip and take a completely different route, I believe I would have some drastically different opinions of several cities.

Here are a few cities I didn't particularly enjoy and a little insight as to why:

Warsaw, Poland - I was completely exhausted from two weeks of World Cup mayhem and really just wanted to get out of Germany.  I really wanted to go to Krakow to chill out.  However, I had heard some sketchy things about the overnight train to Krakow so decided to stop in Warsaw for two nights to break up the trip.  I didn't find a whole lot to entertain me, the hostel was average and I wasn't in the mood to party or meet new people so looking back, Warsaw never really had a chance.

Zagreb, Croatia - See above...except it was "working" in Florence that had done me in.  I stayed about 18 hours in Zagreb, 8 of which was sleeping in a piece of crap hostel with no A/C and dirty rooms.

Madrid, Spain - I think a lot of the dislike for Madrid was the fact that it was my first city I hit that I was truly on my own.  I officially started in Paris but I had stayed with a friend so this was my first stop doing the full deal of booking travel, staying in hostels, having to make friends etc, and my terrible overnight train experience on my way to Madrid definitely didn't help.  I found it to be a big city with not that much that interested me.  I talked to a lot of people about Madrid and the consensus I got was that it is a city that takes a little time to warm up to.  The people that I talked to that loved it were the ones who had made an effort to spend more than just a couple of days there.

Listing some of my favorite spots comes with some exclusions.  I found that by far, I enjoyed myself the most and had the most fun either in cities where I had "settled" for an extended period of time or places where I had traveled with my good friends from home.  I was wowed by the sights, namely the women, in Sweden while traveling with Eric and Johan.  I loved my time bouncing around the debauchery that was Germany and the World Cup with Kevin and Beckett. I had some of the craziest times in Florence while "working" with my buddy Scott from Maryland and all the new friends I made there.  And last but not least, I had an absolutely unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime lifestyle in Barcelona with some amazing new friends I hope to carry with me forever. 

Those times and experiences excluded, here are some of my other favorite spots:

San Sebastian, Spain - I had 4 days off from work and decided to take a trip to get away from the Barcelona scene for a few days.  San Sebastian was such a beautiful city on the coast with an awesome set of beaches protected from the open sea by a cove with high cliffs looking back over the city and out over the water.  I was there in mid-December and there was something about the streets at night illuminated with Christmas lights in the cold crisp winter air.  I did nothing but sightsee and relax and didn't expect at all to have such a wonderful time.  I can't imagine the vibe the summer must bring.

Krakow, Poland - I was fresh off running myself into the ground around Germany for two weeks from the World Cup and went to Krakow to rest.  As it turned out I didn't end up doing too much resting as the nightlife was great and the hostel I stayed in was superb.  The locals that I met were some of the nicest people I met throughout my travels and invited me out with their friends the first night I got into town.  I was there for a week so felt no pressure to hurry through sightseeing and had plenty of time to explore the surroundings of the quaint town it is.

Vienna, Austria - Another city that caught me off guard.  I initially planned to only stay two nights but ended up extending my stay because there was so much to see.  By the time I got to Vienna I felt like my eyes were glazing over looking at all the different sites and architecture styles, but walking around Vienna proved to me that there was still room for amazement.  There was so many beautiful buildings throughout the city that every corner I turned yielded another masterpiece.  Of all the cities I visited, Vienna has to be in the top 3 for the most beautiful architecture.

I have had some unforgettable moments throughout, but most certainly there are some forgettable ones as well. 

For example, I've seen some amazing and breathtaking sunsets, landscapes and architecture but also have chased roaches in some completely disgusting hostels in cities that I probably wouldn't visit again. 

Also, I was fortunate enough to have the unforgettable experience of watching Team USA play in two World Cup games live with two of my best friends.  However, the complete exhaustion and defeat we felt following the last USA game was most definitely something I would never want to experience again.  We had spent the whole day partying with fellow USA fans only to see the US team lose and be knocked out of the tourney.  We sat around all day waiting for a 2AM overnight train that ended up being late and having no sleeping seats.  So after our long day we got no sleep that night and, to boot, we arrived early in the morning and were unable to check into our room until late that afternoon.  Drained, we headed to the nearest park to find a plot of grass to catch whatever rest we could and just to add insult to injury, we had to weave through several old, fat, hairy men sunbathing completely nude and spread-eagle just to find a suitable spot to catch some z's.  We were so exhausted that my buddies wanted to change their tickets and go home the next day and quite frankly, it crossed my mind too.

"I hope you have enjoyed your trip and come back and see us again soon."  How many times had I heard that on a plane and not even thought twice about it.  This time it was such an understatement that I couldn't help but smile.  Trip?  I hardly call it a trip.  Grab your thesaurus and pick any synonym.  What I did was a journey.  An expedition.  A quest. 
A trip is a week-long vacation to the beach. 

Enjoy my trip?  How could I not enjoy a once in a lifetime experience to travel without agenda or worry to anywhere in the world I wanted with the opportunity to see amazing places and meet some quality people from around the globe.  Sure there were highs and lows, as you would expect over almost 10 months of traveling on your own in lands afar, and, to be honest, I wouldn't do it again, not for that length of time anyway.  As a whole, the journey was definitely one of the best experiences of my life, although, I choose my words carefully because I don't necessarily say it was the most fun time of my life.  While there were many a moment throughout that I will never forget and times when I have never laughed so hard, there were also times that were lonely, challenging  and character-building.  All of these new experiences; highs and lows, life lessons, together formed a journey that has changed me forever and made me a better, stronger more well-rounded individual.  


Funny as it may sound, the first thing that made me say "wow" that I noticed that was different when I got back to the States, and definitely not something I was paying particular attention to, happened in the bathroom.  The first time I stepped into a bathroom in the States, my first glance at the toilet shocked me at how much water was sitting in the bowl.  I think I could go for a swim in there.  Who needs a pool?

So I'm back...and it feels great.  I've been home now for a little over two weeks and the transition hasn't been as drastic as I thought it would be.  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I am not working yet.  I can't imagine how crazy I would be had I returned from 10 months solo traveling with little or no agenda and completely on my own time to a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.  I think that is a one-way ticket to the loony bin. 

Now I just have to figure out what is next.  I am living in Dallas now with my Dad and Step mom while taking as much time as I can to visit everyone else I can while I have the time.  My next few months consist of more traveling, this time around the States; to visit family in Florida, Atlanta, and Philadelphia; to visit friends in D.C. and NYC; a bachelor party in Las Vegas and a wedding in Maryland.  After all of that it's back to the real world I believe.  I'll be looking for a job in Dallas, I'll need to buy a car, move into my own place, buy a bed, you know, all the things you do in the real world. I am not exactly sure where I will be or what I will be doing come July but it is an exciting place to be because I am back in the city I grew up in with a lot of my family and friends around and hopefully a lot of opportunities across the board.   You can never know what the future holds but I am intrigued to see how things unfold over the next 6 months.

All things accounted for.  I have arrived home safely, I have enjoyed myself immensely and I have captured a fair amount here in this blog.  I started the blog as a simple way to keep track of some of my ideas, a medium by which to capture my thoughts and pictures, while simultaneously sharing it with family and friends.  Never did I expect to get such rewarding feedback and sincere appreciation from so many people while getting such enjoyment from maintaining it.  All that being said, there is only one more thing to address.  You.  I can not thank all of you enough for your unbelievable interest and enthusiasm for my blog along with your love, support and companionship.  This blog is by far one of the greatest things I have from my travels. Whether you are family, an old friend, a new friend or someone who I only spent a day with, you all played your own part in shaping my journey and for that I sincerely thank you.  You have all been part of this experience and I can not say enough to tell you how much it has all meant to me.  Thank you.

With that I close the book on this journey.  Hopefully there will be more, shorter, excursions in the future with more captivating experiences, people, photographs and stories.  For the meantime however, I am going to cherish staying put for a while.

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