From Berlin to Benelux

And the travels continue!

First off, we had a pretty great experience traveling from Berlin to Amsterdam. We actually used a website to find someone who was driving from Poland, through Berlin, and going all the way to Amsterdam, charging 40 Euro per person for a seat in his car. This was cheaper than any other form of transportation we could find and it sounded pretty exciting, as we would be meeting someone new and getting to know them for a few hours during the ride. And we survived! I could not have been happier with the decision. He picked us up by the bus stop in Berlin and we were on our way. It was me, Alex, our driver Konrad, and another Alex from Lithuania. We had a great time getting to know each other during the drive and of course, we were driving on the Autobahn which meant no speed limits. This was normal for the other guys with us but Alex and I thought we were so cool to be driving about 100mph on the highway! It was a great experience, and I would love to do it again for wherever we travel. It was somewhat similar to couchsurfing, only for rides to certain places, and with that same mentality of just meeting new people and enjoying the ride to the next destination.

On one of the many canals in Amsterdam

After our entertaining trip from Berlin to Amsterdam we met up with our other Aussie friends we had been traveling with at our hostel, since they took a train with their Eurail pass. We spent a few days in Amsterdam and I think I forgot just how beautiful this city was. It’s still one of my favorite cities because of how unique it is from the rest of the cities in Europe ;) I love everything about this city and wouldn’t mind living here if I get the chance. 

From Amsterdam we split up with our Aussie friends and it was just Alex and I for the first time since Glasgow. It was good to be back on our own and going at our own pace, although we definitely enjoyed our time with our other friends in our own little traveling group. We met up with a mutual friend in The Hague, just south of Amsterdam. Our friend, Ramon, lives there and was able to host us for the weekend. He was an amazing host and we couldn’t have asked for a better time there. The Hague was also a really cool city, and although Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of the parliament and most of the government buildings are there which provided for some great sites to see. It was great to be in a quieter city and relax for a little bit on our trip. The downtime is always good for regrouping and figuring out where to go next.

Probably my favorite photo of Bruges - Magic

We had a potential host in Hamburg, Germany, but it was a little out of the way so we weren’t entirely sure what to do. So we decided to let Facebook choose what we should do, and I posted a status for people to choose whether we go to Hamburg, Germany or Bruges, Belgium. Bruges had a majority of the votes, so that’s where we went. Although I’ve heard some great things about Hamburg, I was really happy with the choice to go to Bruges. Bruges is an awesome little city in the Northwest corner of Belgium, in the Flemmish speaking area (similar to Dutch). There was a famous movie filmed there called In Bruges, which we watched in Bruges (of course) and it turned out to be a really cool movie. It’s one of those fairy tale looking towns (as described in the movie) with some amazing little canals and beautiful architecture. And of course, we had our fair share of Belgian waffles and chocolate and all that good stuff. We actually spent quite a bit of time in Bruges, about 4 nights, before moving on to our next location. Again, it was nice to lay low for a little while in Bruges after we saw most of the sites, and again, we had to figure out where to go next.

Our initial plan was to actually still try and get to Hamburg after Bruges, but that sort of fell through, so instead we did what anybody else in that situation would do…we went to Luxembourg. I knew nothing about Luxembourg before. I still know nothing about Luxembourg, but we spent one night there and I don’t think I know anyone else who’s been there before so I’m glad I can cross it off the list of countries visited. Luxembourg was actually a really cool place. We stayed in the capital city of Luxembourg and really enjoyed our short time there. It was really just a scenic city to walk around and see the sites and amazing architecture there.

I'm in Luxembourg!

It was crazy to be in a place that I knew nothing about, wondering what the heck goes on here and why I was here in the first place. I’m really glad we stayed there and got to check it out, but I found out that the median age there is 40 years old so there were a lot of old rich people walking around everywhere doing old rich people things, so everything there was pretty expensive. I might go back there when I’m 40 and rich, but if I’m 40 and I’m not rich I don’t think it would be as much fun. All in all, I was very satisfied with going there, and from there we went to Paris. And here I sit, courchsurfing in Paris planning the next phase of the trip. We’ll be in Paris for a few more days before going to the next place in France as long as we don’t go broke here. But we’ve started using our Eurail passes and that will be the main form of transportation all the way through Italy.

But until then, we’ll see where we go next!

Oktoberfest, Prague, Berlin

Guten Tag!

Oktoberfest is one of the funnest experiences I think I've ever had. I highly recommend going and it's definitely worth the trip to Munich! Other than the drinking of course, there is a phenomenal atmosphere and energy surrounding the entire event, with singing and dancing and drinking and all around great people everywhere. I think this event has been the highlight of the trip so far, and I couldn't be happier with how it went! I made some new friends here and got to experience the festivities with them. The event itself is completely free to get in, while the steins of beer that you buy (1 liter of beer!) usually cost around 10 euros apiece. But each stein is equivalent to about 3 beers, so you don't need many to get the job done!

                                

Also, there are tons of really fun rides all throughout the event and of course some amazing food; at least it tasted amazing after a couple steins! But in all seriousness, I couldn't believe how much positive energy there was at the event. You may think that with all the people that attend the event and all the drinking that goes on there would at least be a couple fights or something bad might happen, but I saw none of that over the entire two days that I spent at the festival. I couldn't believe how great the positive energy was, and I would definitely go again. There are numerous beer tents scattered throughout the grounds, varying in sizes and the types of beers that they serve, with some being large enough to fit 10,000 people! Every tent is full of tables and, generally speaking, you need to arrive early to get a table or pay ahead of time to reserve a table. We went on a Monday and Tuesday so it wasn't too difficult to find a table in one of the tents. Once seated at a table, we order some steins and let the games begin. The rest of the day is basically filled with drinking, singing, drinking games, talking, joking, laughing, rides, food, and just an all around good time. There's not a whole lot else to say about it other than definitely trying to experience it for yourself if you can.

After all of the Oktoberfest shenanigans we took a bus from Munich to Prague, which wasn't too bad, only about 5 hours or so. Prague is a beautiful city. We met some more friends there and did a walking tour and went out on a pub crawl one of the nights to see some of the nightlife. That was a lot of fun and we even went to a club that was 5 stories tall! Each floor had a different style of music playing. I had never been to a place like that, so that was a really cool experience. One of the coolest things we did in Prague was play a game called Trap. You show up with a team of people and you're locked in a room for 1 hour and you have to figure out how to get yourselves out by finding clues and codes and deciphering them to unlock the various locks and doors that ultimately lead to your way out of the room. That was an awesome time and we made it out with only 3 minutes to spare! These games are pretty popular around Europe and they're usually rated really high on TripAdvisor, so I'm really glad we finally checked one out and I wouldn't mind doing that again in another city. The other crazy thing about Prague is how cheap everything is, especially the beer. 

The Prague Castle District

Like Germany, Prague has beer that is cheaper than water, and it's pretty hard to wrap my head around that but it's definitely true! Overall, I think I speak for most people that have visited Prague when I say that it was definitely a great city to visit, and I'd highly recommend it to people as a stop in Europe.

After another bus ride, I was back in Berlin for my second time. It was great to be back in this city and I've definitely been happy with how this entire trip has unfolded. I can honestly say that I hardly did much at all in Berlin, which I'm okay with because the last time I was here 3 years ago I saw a ton of the amazing things to see here. I did get to experience some of the nightlife this time which was really fun. However, it was a Sunday night so nothing too crazy was happening but we still had a good time. Since I didn't have much time to catch up on my blog or much else during Oktoberfest or even Prague, Berlin has been a great rest stop for me to be able to catch up with everything, and for that alone I am grateful to have been here. We did visit the East Side Gallery again which is always a great sight to see in the city, but other than that it's been a great time catching up on life and what's going on back home. Today we are headed off to Amsterdam to continue the rest of trip, so more updates to come!

UK/Life Realization

Hello from the UK!

So far it's continued to be a great, eventful trip and no complaints! Still very happy to have made this decision and I've been feeling very fortunate to have been able to make this a reality. After our time in Ireland we took a bus from Galway back to the Dublin airport and hopped on a very quick flight to Glasgow. Our friend Scott lives in the center of Glasgow and had an absolutely perfect location to host us. Shout out to Scott for the amazing hospitality and for showing us a great time while we were there. We were in Glasgow for 4 days and couldn't have asked for a better time. We had a lot of down time where we were able to relax and catch up on our facetiming, financials, and FIFA xbox skills.

The craziest thing about this trip was the pure coincidence on our timing for being in Scotland. I can say that I was in Scotland during the time of their referendum and vote for independence from the UK. This was definitely a very significant time for Scotland's history, and there's a good chance that this won't happen again for a very, very long time. It was so cool to have witnessed and experienced the atmosphere of Scotland during this important decision. We spent a lot of time talking to Scott and his friends about this and what the potential impacts for the country would be, with nearly a split vote on whether they should be independent or not. It was really cool to see this happen, and even though the vote barely came to a 'No' on independence it was still a really memorable time to be there in that atmosphere. We would always be hearing cars honking as they drove by, people chanting their opinions, and a riot even broke out near our apartment without us even realizing! We were fine but I hadn't really been in a place with that kind of atmosphere before.

On our final day in Scotland we took a train to the capital, Edinburgh. We weren't there for too long that day, but had enough time to check out the castle and some amazing views of the city.

Edinburgh was probably my favorite city that we've been to so far, in terms of its sheer beauty and scenic skylines. It was definitely a memorable city and a very memorable time to be in Scotland. I'm very happy we made the trip to go up there, and that has definitely been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We left Scotland early the next morning and hopped on a 9 hour bus to London. It was definitely a long bus ride but it was cheap and bearable... We made it into London and made our way to a friend's house in an area called Shoreditch. Shoreditch is an awesome part of town. Lots of young hipsters doing their hipster things and giving the place a very trendy atmosphere, and I'm glad I got to see that part of London. Alex and I met up with a group of his friends from Australia here, as one is getting married and Alex is here for the weeding festivities. It was awesome meeting all of them and pretending to be one of the 'Aussies.' We had a great time for the first couple days before they took off to Newquay for their 'Bucs Party' and eventually Southampton for the wedding. I stuck around in London and hung out with good old Lucy for the day. We went all around London, including the British Museum, and my mind was blown by all the history. A bit overwhelming for my first real museum on the trip, but I survived. The highlight would have to be the Rosetta Stone which was really cool to see.

Lucy headed to Bristol the next day and I booked my hostel to begin my short solo part of the journey. I would be staying in London through the weekend before meeting back up with the Aussies at the airport on our way to Munich for Oktoberfest. I began my solo part of the trip with my first true realization of what the hell I am actually doing right now. The first day was very productive as I even met up with a business connection and discussed possible job opportunities here in Europe, but that part is to be continued. Back to the realization part; we've been so busy traveling and brainstorming ideas of where to go and when and how to get there and what to do that there's been almost zero time to reflect on what is actually going on at the moment.

There's a familiar sight!

As I sit here and write this, I can say that I've definitely experienced my first 'oh my God' moment as the magnitude of this entire journey begins to hit me. I knew it would take a little while for this to sink in, so now it begins to finally catch up to me. For one of the first times in my life, I am headed in a direction without a real plan or idea of what it is that I am actually doing. It's scary, crazy, intense, scary, and scary. I can't stop thinking about 'what the hell am I doing right now.' I did anticipate this happening so it's not like it's catching me by surprise, but you don't actually know the feeling until you feel it, and I'm definitely starting to feel it. I'm not saying that I've made a mistake or that I regret anything, I'm just starting to really feel the result of my life decisions.

I'm not gonna lie, but I've also started to miss home and friends. I know that it's early on now, about two weeks exactly since we left, but this is the initial feeling of homesick and I know that I'll need to power through it and keep going. With no real plan still of what's happening, I am now officially trusting the process and fully believing that something good will come out of this whole trip. But these are the times in your life that help shape who you are and figure out what you want to do. Sorry for getting deep there but that's what's going through my mind right now.

Anyways, for the last three nights in London I had my first experience with couchsurfing. I had hosted people at my house in Reno shortly before my trip here, as I wanted to start getting involved before it came time for me to find people to host during my travels. I must say that my first experience couchsurfing has been awesome. My host is the same age as me, originally from Uzbekistan, but went to Boise State and is super nice and easy to get a long with. So far, I would definitely recommend couchsurfing; and what could be better than meeting new people while getting a free place to stay at the same time? As I've been couchsurfing, I've been staying busy but haven't been going too crazy over the sightseeing and traveling around. I've also just been trying to live and take it easy as I've been in London for a whole week now.

Tower Bridge

On my last full day in London I spent a lot of time hanging out with my host, Adham. He took me to the Borough Market, which is an enormous market next to the London Bridge that has all kinds of good food selling anything you can think of. After checking out the market we went to a nearby bar and watched a derby match between two of the north London English Premier League teams. That was a lot of fun and was a great way to end my last day in London. The couchsurfing was definitely one of those things that can restore your faith in humanity and can be a nice reminder that people can be genuinely good.

London was a great time and I had a lot of fun during my time here. I stayed at three different locations and had a lot of great experiences with a lot of different people. I came to a few life realizations and it was really the first turning point in the trip where things started to really hit me. Overall, it was definitely a great time and I'm looking forward to the next experience: Oktoberfest!

Ireland

So we made it to our first stop: Dublin, Ireland. We were obviously pretty jet lagged for the first couple days but still managed to get a hostel booked and figure out what we wanted to do while we were staying there. We were in Dublin for 3 days and we had a great start to our trip. Dublin is a great city, mostly because of how compact it is for being such a big city at the same time. You can easily walk to most places within the city, which made things really convenient for getting around.

We'd spend most of the day adjusting to our new surroundings and exploring some of the closer sites to get a feel for things. We got some groceries, utilized the fully stocked kitchen that our hostel had, and began to settle in. After some amazing bangers and mash (and Guinness, of course) we decided to come up with a game plan.

We knew we wanted to visit either the Jameson Distillery or the Guinness Brewery, and after seeing how close we were to the Jameson Distillery we decided to check it out.

It ended up turning out to be a great tour and we learned all about the Whiskey making process and got a free glass of Jameson along with some other whiskey tasting as well. 

After visiting the Jameson Distillery we decided to check out one of the pub crawls that night to see what the night life had to offer. Most large European cities offer various pub crawls that you can do nearly every night to get a good feel for the night life. These are awesome things to check out and I highly recommend them, especially on a weekend. We did this on our second day which ended up being a Friday night, so the turnout was great and we had a big group of really fun people with us. We all went out to Temple Bar, the area in the city known for its nightlife, packed with pubs and clubs, and it was an amazing time. We had a ton of fun on the crawl and met some awesome people which was a great start to the trip.

After that night we still felt like we needed to see more of the city, and we had decided to go to Galway and the cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland the next day, so we saw a poster for a free walking tour of the city (also common in many big European cities) and we decided to check it out. It ended up being just Alex and I on the walking tour so we had our own personal tour of the northern end of the city. It was a great tour and Peter (our tour guide) really knew what he was talking about. We felt much more accomplished with how much we had seen of Dublin and spent the remainder of that day walking around a bit more, checking out Trinity College (the local University, which we fell in love with) and then calling it a night.

The next day we woke up early to catch a tour bus to the cliffs of Moher and Galway, where it would drop us off. It was a completely guided tour which was really cool, since the guide had a ton of good information to share. About halfway through the 3 hour bus ride to the cliffs of Moher we stopped in Moneygall, which is apparently where Barack Obama's ancestors were originally from.

It was one of the most random things ever and in this super small town off the highway there was Barack Obama Plaza, which was basically a really nice gas station. I thought it was hilarious and I'm glad we stopped there randomly. 

After some more driving we got to the cliffs of Moher. These cliffs are absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe how large they were, and there was a long hiking trail you can take right along the cliffs with some sections that didn't even have any handrails! It was terrifying but we survived. We walked around the cliffs for a bit and then hopped back on the bus and headed to Galway. 

Galway is a cool little town. What's really cool about it is the young student population that exists there. I heard something around 40% of the population being people under 25! So there were a lot of students walking around. We did a little walking tour of the city when our bus dropped us off and then we checked in the hostel, stalked up on groceries, and figured out what we wanted to do. Galway was a nice place to relax, and because it's of course smaller than Dublin there wasn't as much to see there outside of the main road in the city, which is full of really cool little pubs and shops leading from the main square to a river.

Cliffs of Moher

We checked out some of the pubs, saw a really nice cathedral, and walked around one of the universities there. We spent a lot of time hanging out at the hostel playing Gin Rummy, which we are now obsessed with and use it as our main source to kill time. We also like to play this game in pubs over a Guinness or Irish Coffee, which has become our new favorite activity. 

Apart from some quick walks around town the only big thing we did there was check out an absolutely amazing show called Trad on the Prom, which was an Irish music and dancing show featuring some of the top Irish musicians and dancers in the world. It gave us the best taste of Irish culture we could have had, and it was one of the best shows I think I've been to. Overall, we did like Dublin better but the atmosphere in Galway was really nice and I definitely enjoyed my time there.

This was definitely a good first trip for us and a great start to our adventure. I really picked up on a lot of travel related stuff that I remember knowing back when I was studying abroad, so a lot of it really came back to me. This trip definitely gave me the confidence I needed to continue to travel as much as I can, and knowing I can still be around Alex all the time is pretty refreshing too!

Departure

It's crazy to think that the time has finally come. The time in your life when you actually go out and do something crazy that actually justifies the fact that you're "living life to the fullest." The time in your life when you're doing something meaningful every day, trying to get as much out of your life as you can. For me, living a meaningful life has always meant traveling to as many places as I possibly can, seeing as much of this world as I possibly can, and meeting as many different people from as many different cultures as I possibly can. This is the time that I try to make this a reality. The time in my life where I initiate the real 'life' that I've wanted to have. It's definitely surreal and hasn't hit me at all yet really.

For the most part, I've just been going with the flow and scrambling to prepare as much as possible. I know that I won't be fully prepared, but I'll at least be ready enough to take on the adventure. The fact that I'm traveling with my best friend Alex also helps out quite a bit, and I'll be able to share at least some of these experiences with him. It'll also make the traveling a bit more enjoyable, and it'll be easier to meet more people with both of us traveling together.

I think I always knew that I would eventually do something like this; quitting a good job and setting out to do what I really want to do, regardless of how good my situation was back home. It's hard to believe that more people don't actually take that leap of faith and go do what they really want. It is pretty scary at the same time, but when I remind myself that this is what I want to be doing and realize that's it's actually becoming a reality, I can't help but get excited and just stoked that I'm actually doing it.

My new home. All packed into one carry-on size bag!

One thing that is pretty scary is how little I'm taking with me. One carry-on size bag full of the bare necessities. I've never packed this light for most of my trips in general, let alone the biggest, longest trip of my life. I'm definitely taking the minimalist approach to this but that's part of the challenge. I wanna see if I can do it, and I really believe that I can.

There is a lot of uncertainty with this whole trip, but I know that if I can keep the mindset that everything will work out then I know for a fact that things will work out and I will be able to accomplish what I've set out to do.

I've told most people that I want to travel around for a bit then find a job in Europe somewhere and work/live abroad for awhile, at least for one year. I don't know what the job situation will be yet, but again, keeping that positive mindset has helped ease any worries and I know I'll be able to figure something out.

Although, now that I'm actually doing this, it's hard not to entertain some other ambitious ideas. I've had some other things bounce around in my mind and have thought 'what if' and have left those open as possible situations. For one, provided the financial situation stays okay, I can't help but think to just keep going, keep traveling. Why stop? If I can still support myself on the road long enough, why should I settle down? I might as well keep going, beyond Europe, and explore the rest of the world. I'm going to eventually anyways, so why not now? Especially now that I'm at the young and ambitious stage of my life.

Alex and I all ready to go!

Also, my passion for snowboarding hasn't even come close to diminishing and it's one of the things I'm going to miss the most while I'm gone. But just because I'm traveling in Europe doesn't mean I have to give up snowboarding. In fact, it means I can do it more while still exploring and meeting new people. Thus, the idea of working at a ski resort out here is another ambitious idea I've had as well, and I wouldn't rule that out either.

It's funny how much my mind has been running since this whole trip has become a reality. It's a good thing though because I have a ton of ideas and backup plans for what I'll be doing. With each new idea and plan I become more confident in myself and what I am capable of, which only helps me and motivates me more to do what I want to do.

Anyways, I think that's enough for my first blog post of this crazy adventure, and with that I am off on the journey and couldn't be happier. I'm currently finishing off the first city of our visit, with a blog post coming up for that as well.
So far so good!

P.S. Here is a list of the items that I'm taking with me (pictured below):

Two soap pouches

Notebook

Adapter

Tide stain remover

Headphones

Earplugs

Carabiners

Chapstick

Bag lock

Belt

Toiletries (shaving cream, toothbrush, hair product, floss, toothpaste, deodorant, cologne, Neosporin, sunscreen, travel razor, shampoo)

Quaff

Umbrella

Water bottle

Travel Towel

Laptop cable

Laptop

iphone charger

Ray-Ban's

Gloves

Beanie

One pair of shorts

One pair of chinos

One long sleeve shirt

One undershirt

Two tee shirts

One polo

One button up

Three pairs of regular socks

Two pairs of long socks

One pair of jeans

Five pairs of underwear

Sink stopper

Laundry detergent

Backup hardrive

First aid kit

Pen

Wallet

Passport

Money belt

Jacket

Wrinkle remover

Lens cleaner

Clothesline

Eurail pass

Thermals

The bare necessities!