SHABL’s 2010 Travels in Review
Greetings,
For some reason or another this somewhat humble blog has gotten a lot of new readers. First off, I’d like to say thanks and I hope you’re more vocal then most of the other long term readers here. Considering we’re somewhat near New Years and there are so many new readers, makes sense to do some form of recap.
The adventure started in 2009 and 2010 was the first full year of travel. Traveling for an entire calender year is a cool feeling, will always remember 2010 as the best year of my life, hands down, no debate, forget anything cool that had ever occurred before, twas pasty pale in comparison.
Let’s keep this somewhat simple…
I left from Indonesia and hit up Thailand for a month. Spent 2 weeks in Laos and another 2 weeks in Thailand. Took off to Cambodia before spending 2 months in Vietnam. Spent little time in China and then to Hong Kong to catch a flight to Amsterdam. Cut through Belgium to France and spent ~2 weeks in France. Loved San Sebastian, the city I didn’t know existed and also Madrid. Did the Portugal tour and spent 2 weeks in Lagos.
Took an 86 hour train ride to Poland and went to a wedding. Then spent more time in Krakow before Prague. From Prague to Budapest. From there to Slovenia and Lake Bled. Had a friend from Prague in Berlin so took a 24 hour trip there.
Had fun in Berlin, lots of fun. Although there are lots of hotels Berlin offers, I spent a night sleeping on the street (shrubs) before catching a Ferry to Finland. Caught another ferry to Stockholm for a week and then checked out Norway. Norway was beyond ridiculously priced. Took a 24 hour ride from Oslo to Amsterdam for an afternoon. Caught an overnight to Zurich and decided to go back to Amsterdam after arriving in Vienna that evening, another over night.
From Amsterdam went to Munich with a plan of Prague, met someone cool and ended up in Budapest. The time span from leaving Stockholm to Budapest was about a week. I spent the entire week on overnight train rides to max out my Eurail before it expired.
It was cool being able to have lunch in one country, dinner in another and wake up in a third. This summer I’d like to do something I had planned before. Breakfast in Zurich, Lunch in Lausanne, dinner in Geneva and breakfast in Barcelona. If you have a Eurail the whole Swiss part is comp tickets and you just pay for the overnight to Barcelona from Zurich. To sweeten the sting you could leave Amsterdam the night before as it has a great sleeper to Zurich.
Once in Budapest the weather sucked so I went back to Thailand for 2 months. Stopped by Sri Lanka for 2 weeks and now have been in Tanzania for about a month. Really haven’t left Arusha besides an aerial safari of sorts and a trip to a lodge at the base of Mt. Meru for the wedding.
That’s a lot of travel, arguably a lifetime or so. For some reason it’s like I had a 16 month course of antibiotics and the bug is finally gone, travel bug that is. There are other places I’d like to see, I think. Plan on taking it slower this year. Currently sitting here trying to think of somewhere I’d like to see and nothing comes to mind.
I am looking for a beach town to call home for the winter as the process of traveling has become boring. Seeing new things aren’t as bright as I just don’t really care if I see them. I want a pad somewhere that could become a winter base with good connectivity, food and beaches. Considering I’m in Tanzania, it has to be in the Med, Asia or Africa. C & S. America will be left for next winter.
Thoughts?
Make 2011 a good one and travel somewhere. I used to live 180km from Montreal and rarely go. The city is awesome. That said, there are still many parts of Ottawa I’ve never thoroughly investigated either. Get where I’m going?
Tips hat,
P.S: Talking with a friend on IM. Says nothing has changed but everyone is getting older and hanging out less. Unless you wanna get all married and “this is it” styles, the 20’s is a good time to take off, one believes. You’ll know what you want by mid 20’s.
