One Month Anniversary!

Bucharest, Romania

 

Well, if you can believe it, I've been on the road already for one full month. I left San Francisco on October 6th and arrived in London on the 7th. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. It seems like just yesterday I was trying to play "Virtual Bowling" on the Virgin Atlantic in-seat "entertainment" system without much success.

 

So far, I've stopped in London, Barcelona, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Zurich, Vienna, Prague, Bucharest and Brasov. Along the way, I've passed through countless towns while on a train or bus. I've now been at four different hostels, Wombats in Vienna, Clown and Bard in Prague, Butterfly Villa in Bucharest and the Rolling Stone in Brasov. All had their own character and meeting up with people at these hostels has been a no brainer.

 

Going forward, the plan is to finally make it to Istanbul sometime this week, travel south and east through Turkey towards Syria, then on to Jordan and finally into Egypt. I have no idea how long that will ultimately take, but if the past month is any indication, it will probably take about twice as long as my current "plan".

 

I'm also planning on starting to shift my focus of the trip back to it's original goal, which was to get away from the crowds and do some exploring. While Europe is a wonderful experience, it doesn't take long before you start to lose interest in castles, medieval bridges, ancient towns, etc... I'm less interested in actual tourist sightseeing on this trip and more interested in just visiting places. Granted, I'll be doing plenty of touristy stuff in the Middle East (pyramids anyone?) but hopefully as I head towards Africa, I'll be able to find towns and villages that are worth exploring because of the people there and their way of life, and not just because they have a castle or important church. (I'm also getting excited about heading south, to find some warmer weather and some water to swim in... ;)

 

So here's to another month and hoping that any of you out there following along can find some time to meet up with me along the way. If you can get a plane ticket, I can take care of the ground work...

 

Hope to see some of you soon..

Kenny