My last goal was to come back and spend the final 2 months of my year doing absolutely nothing - just relaxing, enjoying the summer in the Pacific NW, and concentrate on jobbing come September. I'm happy to say
So, any regrets?
I've had plenty of time to think about things that I would do differently, had I known what I know now. Here's what I got for you:
Europe - Europe was a break-in trip for me. The idea was I would use the super ease of transportation, common knowledge of English, and prior experience here to slowly break me into the idea of traveling by myself. I pretty much broke Europe down into two zones where I wanted to spend the majority of my time: Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The most expensive and one of the cheaper European areas, figuring it would balance out in the end. While I wouldn't change the experience, I've decided that Western Europe is for smaller trips, maybe 1-2 weeks at a time. You can cram in so much with the cheap flights (throughout Europe) in a short time and putting even 5 hours into traveling will take you to a completely different culture.
Eastern Europe on the other hand, I wish I had put more time into Latvia and made it up to Estonia. Reminding myself it had started to snow the day I left, I would have liked to have done it in early fall at least. Then head down south into Bosnia and Croatia.
Australia/NZ - most travelers I ran into doing these two nations would tell me that they wished they had put more time into NZ and less time into Australia. Nothing against Australia, but the East Coast trip pretty much feels like a giant trip down the California coast line. Its beautiful, no doubt, but the small towns have a way of blending together in a giant sameness of views, people, and things to do. Having put a month into Australia, I wish I had put some time into a trip to lesser populated western coast and even spend time down in Tasmania.
New Zealand, well I can't stop raving about it. I loved it there. I wish I would have known that folks not yet 31 could get a working visa to spend a year here (as well as in Australia). I would have made a mad dash for this place right out of school. It was expensive, but by this time I had learned a lot of cheap survival tricks so didn't mind as much. I would have loved to put in some major time on the trails here.
SE Asia - Really I can't think of what I would have done better. I just wish I had more time, really. 3 months in Thailand with hardly a blink spent in Malaysia, Cambodia, or Vietnam.
S. America, Africa, Russia - You'll notice, I didn't go. I wish I had. Just ran out of time and money. In fact, going to Patagonia was a HUGE driver in the trip in the first place, but as it worked out, I never made it. From Asia, I had this fantasy of going by train from Vietnam to China, then taking the Trans-Siberian rail road all the way through to Moscow. From Moscow, work my way SW to Turkey, then to Morocco and start south through Africa. Once that was done, fly over to Argentina and work my way up north - Argentina through Peru, up north through Ecuador and Costa Rica, bus trip through Mexico, then finally back in the US. That though would easily take another year and a lot more cash.
I just wish I had more time and money. :) Don't we all? Whats done is done though and all you can do is plan for the next trip - one day.
Finally, thanks to those that have given me so many compliments on my photography and writing. I'm an amateur in all things and so getting a compliment is high praise indeed. In the year that I was traveling, two of my photos were picked up by web sites to accompany articles they were publishing, which I know isn't a huge deal, but still was enough to put a smile on my face for days. Another smile maker - I was curious, so checked and saw that I put in over 73,000 words on this site. While its not my intention to get this published, its a startling revelation that this adventure has resulted in the accomplishment of another life's goal: Here before you, albeit in digital form, is really my first book. A crudely, sometimes hastily written travel memoir shared with family, a few strangers, and many life long friends, never really going beyond that, but still - all those times I've sat down and just "wished I could write a book" and here I go, doing so without even really realizing it. Even now I can't stop smiling.
The trip, the writing, spending days doing nothing but walking around with a camera around my neck - Its a great personal accomplishment for me and something I feel that additional words or posts on this site would tarnish. All the photos have been loaded, all the adventures recorded. So until the next trip...I'm gonna log off now.
Feel free to check up on me at my personal blog site: www.seattlecasbah.com, updated irregularly.
Thanks again, everyone.
Jacob
Traveler
Photographer
Writer
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