There and Back Again

Everyone told me to take a year off, to take time to travel since it was something that everyone knew I liked to do.  They told me to go to different countries and take in all the world has to offer, the different foods, the cultures, languages, and architecture. And I did just that. I returned to old favorites, and I went to new and adventurous countries and I truly enjoyed it all. 

I went around the world but I didn't find myself or discover a new life passion, I didn't become a Buddhist monk or realize that guinea pig was my new favorite food even though it is a delicacy in Ecuador. I actually found out that I really didn't care for any of the traditional delicacies in any of the places I visited.

Relationships struggled.  I was gone for a long time and in some places like Tanzania or Iceland cell reception and internet connections were few and far between.  It could be really lonely traveling alone and slightly depressing at times. Sometimes I felt strangely isolated; whether I was in a crowded Tienanmen Square with people asking me to take a picture with them simply because I had blonde hair or I was in the Sahara desert with only a guide, and two Afrikaners I had recently met.  I would go days without having any real kind of conversation with someone, but then I would call my brother or I would meet a few other travelers from various countries and we would spend a couple days together wandering around a city until we each headed our own ways. In December I met up with my dad for a few days in Los Angeles and in February, Paul and Michelle visited New Zealand with me.  By a complete fluke I saw a few people on a trip with my high school near the Berlin Wall in March.

The solitude came as a well needed break though.  I didn't miss the difficulties of having conversations with my dad, or the awkward moments with friends as they talked about a topic I still wasn't comfortable with. I liked that there wasn't always someone breathing down my neck to make sure that I was still okay and to make sure that they were there in case I needed something. 

There was a freeing sense of relief because there was always something to do.  I never had to worry about having nothing to do except sit around with my thoughts all day. I would get back to my hotel or hostel every night exhausted from the days activities and I would sleep happily. I worked in a fishing boat off the coast of Portugal for two weeks, I volunteered at an orphanage in rural Haiti and I spent a few days as an English teacher in Korea. I met a Parisian guy who offered to let me stay at his apartment while I was in Paris for the week, I kindly accepted; later that first night he took me to a place called Raidd bar which is really a gay club with male dancers showering in little glass boxes around the room.  I experienced a lot.   

I went from the beaches in Greece to the beaches of Dieppe, from Chinatown in San Francisco to Beijing, China. I stood on the equator while in the Galapagos Islands and I went past the Arctic Circle in Norway where I swam in the Norwegian Sea and saw the midnight sun. 

I was gone for 54 weeks, I went to 5 Continents and the following 28 countries; Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Haiti, Ecuador, Laos, Singapore, South Korea, China, Japan, USA, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Australia, Marshall Islands, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Tanzania, Chad, Jordan, Iceland, Norway and Greece. Some countries, I only had the chance to stay the night like Dominica or Nepal, but I made up for that by spending four weeks in India and another four New Zealand.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!