Eight Months and Five Days

Long hair, haggard, dirty clothes and a bag the size of a woman's purse. That is how I looked on Thursday when I stood near my finish line, Chicago's Bean in Millennium Park.

On July 15th 2007, I left home to go around the world by whatever means I could. I started on a 23 year old motorcycle and rode it all the way to California. I flew to Hawaii then on to Bangkok, Thailand. From there, I started taking buses, trains and boats through Cambodia, Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Georgia. Once I got to Turkey I started Hitchhiking. I hitchhiked through Istanbul and into Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Holland, France and Spain. I took a flight to Ireland and hitched around the Island for two weeks then continued on to New York and Boston then flew to Chicago.

On March 20th 2008, I completed my journey, 8 months and 5 days later (8 months and six days for me). That is far too long for somebody to always be on the move. My trip had its highs and lows. Here are a few of the favorite stories on this website: My White Jacket in Serbia, Eating Locals, Conserving money by Staying in New Castle, Wyoming, Homeless in the O.C. See What I See. To the right you will see links to my pictures and some more information on my trip.

A lot of people tend to assume that traveling is a carefree and easy life. I assure you that my style of travel takes a lot of improvisation, patience and ambition. I tried to travel overland without planes as much as I could, stayed away from touristy things and did my best to live with and like the locals. In Europe, I lived on a budget of 10 euros a day. I lived out of the bag you see in this picture for 4 months. My big bag was stolen on the Chinese/Kazakh boarder. Massive Language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, traveler's stomach, visa aquisition and corrupt police were just some of the things I had to deal with everyday, all day.

Thank you to everybody that helped me along the way and those who donated to the website. Its good to be home. Now its time for the next adventure: finding a good job and making a normal life for myself.

Shipping off to Boston!

I have been excited to come to Boston ever since I started planning this trip. This entire time I have been traveling I have seen other countries' ancient history. Now, its time to see my own country's. I saw Old Ironsides, the old assembly hall, Christ Church (the church where Paul Revere put the lanterns) and Samuel Adams Brewery. Ok, that last one isn't so historic. Old Revolutionary War sites were everywhere and it was fantastic. Its hard to find old things in America. It is such a new country that everything is new compared to Europe. In Boston, you can find all of the old building styles and historic sites that really give you an appreciation for how your country got its start.

I was lucky to find out that my hosts were a group of 5 people that lived in a large house. A great environment for lots of fun. Its always easy to find live music in this city and we sampled from reggae and folk. The party I was really looking forward too was the St. Patrick's day parade in Southie. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of the parade. We took too much time drinking before we got there. St. Pat's also marks my eighth month anniversary of traveling. Its been a long road and I'm almost home

Back to the States!

I'M BACK IN THE STATES!!! Its a damn fine feeling to be back in The States after having to deal with a constant, ever changing culture shock for six months.

My flight landed in JFK airport and I was greeted by my little brother, Collin and my Step-dad, Al. Even though my "little" brother is 20 I still think he grew while I was gone... I think he is about 6'3" or so now. We all set out into the New York City night to find a few things I had been missing about the states: Mexican food and cheap, easy women. Nah I'm kidding, I only missed Mexican food.

We spent the day walking Manhatten to see the sights. We saw Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, homeless people and Ground Zero. After all that walking we got pretty Hungry and Al only saw one way to properly congratulate me on coming back to the U.S., and that was by feeding me a steak. Actually thats his remedy for just about anything. "Lost your job? Lets get a steak in ya. Got promoted at work? Steak time. Feeling under the weather? Not enough steak, thats why."

We topped off the family weekend by roadtripping to Boston and catching the Bruins game. There were two fights 14 seconds into the game. Boston was still down by 1 after the second half of the last period so we left figuring they would loose. They scored two after we left, I'm sure the place went nuts. They flew back home to their jobs and such and left me by the subway station, back to my vagabond lifestyle.

My Reverse Immigration

In 1845 the Great Famine in Ireland struck. Masses of Irish Immigrated to the U.S. to find work and food. By the end of the famine the U.S. Irish population surged to 12%. Amongst those that came to avoid starvation was my great grandfather. Until I came to Ireland, I hadn't noticed the subtle Irish ways were passed down through the generations to my brother and I. Two of these became clear after my first night hanging out with the Irish: horseplay and a rip roaring sense of crude humor. After a few pints, no matter the gender or age, everybody is playfully shoving and getting punches in the arm after making fun of each other. Its like this island is one big family reunion for me. I feel at home here.

My time in Dublin was brief. Saw Trinity College, snuck into the Guinness Storehouse, saw all the touristy bars that I vowed not to go into and I was off. My first stop was Galway on the other side of the Island to visit my friend Alva that I had met in Laos. Its an Irish custom to say 'You should come visit' when meeting people in other countries, but they don't actually expect you to do it. I did. Couldn't help myself, I love it when people say 'Never thought I would see you again.' We hit the town and found my first, proper pint of the black stuff. After a few of those we went and found the traditional Irish music at a famous pub called The Crane. The music was fantastic and I wanted to seek out this 'trad' every night for as long as I'm in Ireland.

I decided to get as far from the tourist stuff as possible so I started hitching up the west coast until I found a place worth staying. I eventually came to a place called Dunegal... in the county of Dunegal. It can be very confusing. Here in Dunegal they speak English by mumbling as incoherently as possible. Watching the conversation between my new host and the barkeep gave me a headache. Some of the people in the town cant understand what I say unless I mumble it. That night we had quite a few pints then moved over to find some more 'trad'. We found an accordion and a guitar rocking it 1800's style in a pub where my host and I were the youngest by at least 30 years. I was pleased to be informed that I was, most likely, the only tourist in the entire town.

This town is tiny and I love it. I think I'll stay here for a bit. I updated the photo archive. All my pictures are there from Turkey, the Balkans and so on. Enjoy.

Spain

Compared to Spain, the rest of Europe is pretty homogenous. I hitched my way into Barcelona and for the first time since Turkey, I felt the warm sunlight on my face. Barcelona´s fantastic beach, food, sunlight and architechture made me sure that I will be here again. The best way to see it all is on a bicycle. There nothing more fun that zipping through the little back streets all the way to the beach.

Eating Spanish style is very different from the U.S. First of all, lunch doesnt start til about 2pm. It usually consists of bread, olives and semi-cooked meat called chorizo and jamon. Jamon is the meet from a pigs leg after it has been smoked for a really long time. In the picture you can see one lunch spot has pig´s legs hanging from everypart of the cieling, just waiting for thier chance to be carved.

Next up was Madrid. I didn´t have enough time to cruise down to souther Spain, I´ll have to leave that for another trip. Madrid is more of the buzzing metropolis of Spain. I did find some cool things to see while I was here though. My favorite was the Royal Palace. Everyroom was decked out in silk, gold and marble. The best part of it all was Royal Armory. This is where I got to see all of the medevil swords, pistols and armor. The armor was an amazing sight. Armor for knights, horses, dogs and childre. They wouldn´t let me take pictures inside... I tried.

Today I leave for Ireland. Two weeks of Ireland then NYC.

Last Call for Gifts....

Spain is a beautiful country with an incredible density of culture.  After my fantastic time here im heading to Ireland to reunite with the culture of my forefathers: Potatoes and Whiskey.  If you would like a present from one of these two places, go here and make a donation

Hitching France

I pretty much sprinted though France so that I could spend some more time in Spain.  It was everything that imagined... which was mostly inspired by WWII video games.  They love good food and even their curse words sound elegant.  Here are some photos and a video of a badass german I hitched with in his truck (the inside had a movie setup, coffee maker and a GREAT stereo).