Traveling

Czech Republic - 2005

• Bone Church (Czech Republic)
• Catching Trains (Germany & Czech Republic)
• You’ll Know I’ve Left When… (Czech Republic)

Asia - 2004

• Dreaming of Thailand (Thailand)
• A Day in the Life of a Vagabond (Thailand)
• The Full Moon Party (Thailand)
• The Breeze (Thailand)
• Frogger and My New Best Friend (Malaysia)
• Eating (Malaysia)
• Fright to Vietnam (Vietnam)
• What a Trip to Vietnam! (Vietnam)
• The Cu Chi Tunnels (Vietnam)
• Apocalypse Then (Vietnam)
• The Killing Fields (Cambodia)
• Cambodia (Cambodia)
• For Ja, Lek, and Mr. Ton (Thailand)
• Missing Swiss Miss (Thailand)
• Bangkok. The Khao San Road. (Thailand)
• R & R (China)
• The Fourth (China)
• The Gap (China)
• Looking Back (Japan)
• The Road to 7-Eleven (The Final Conclusion)

Ecuador - 2002

• South American Thoughts (Ecuador)

Europe - 2001

• AMEX Relations (France)
• Sliding Doors (France & Spain)
• Wishing and Wining (Spain)
• Olé, Olé, Olé…RUN!!(Spain)
• Ouzo and Amstel (Greece)
• Here and Forever (Greece)
• The Village People (Greece)
• The Secret Beach (Greece)
• Hungry (Hungary)
• High (Switzerland)
• The Hills Are Alive… (Switzerland)

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Cambodia
• China
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Ecuador
• England
• Fiji
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Holland
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Lichtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Monaco
• Morocco
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• United States
• Vatican City
• Vietnam

In the late summer following my high school graduation, I flew to London, England to meet up with my sister, who had been studying in Scotland, and some of her friends. It was my first international trip and I was utterly unprepared. Fortunately Europe is an easy first trip. We started in England and headed across the Chunnel to Paris where we only spent a couple of hours before getting the grand idea to bolt down to Morocco. On the way we stopped by Barcelona and Madrid, Spain. It was in Madrid that my sister's friend got her passport stolen. That did not deter us as we continued to head to Morocco. In Algeciras, Spain we boarded a ferry. My sister used her passport and handed it back to her friend who resembled her. That got us on the ferry, but did not allow us into Tangier, Morocco. My sister and I got out and walked around the docking area, but that was it. And we were headed back on the ferry for Spain.

After Spain, we crossed over to Nice, France where we took a couple of days to relax on the beach and go parasailing. We made a daytrip to Monaco to view the opulent principality. Then off to Rome, Italy for a few days of touring the Spanish Stairs, Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum and Vatican City where we got to see the works of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. We asked some Italians for a nice resort town to go to next and Rimini was their answer where we relaxed and swam in the Adriatic. Then a long train ride to Munich, Germany where we spent a few hours in and around the Hofbrauhaus before another long train to Amsterdam, Holland. That was the last few days of our trip. We covered way too much ground for just two weeks. That's why I had to go back.

Brad and I decided forego our winter and spring term of our junior year at OSU to take a trip down under. We left in January, barely a week after I turned 21. We flew from LA to Sydney where we stayed a day with a friend Brad knew from a camp at which he worked before we headed to Christchurch, New Zealand. From the same camp, Brad made contacts to work at a Salvation Army camp for underprivileged youth . We were counselors for two weeks. The kids walked all over me, but it was a great experience . Following our time there we took a road trip with another counselor farther south to Queenstown. On the way we stopped by Dunedin, the Moeraki Boulders and Milford Sound—which is one of the most scenic places I’ve seen . Queenstown is where Brad and I bungy jumped off the 243-foot Kawarau Bridge . Amazing. Back to Christchurch, we flew to Nadi, Fiji. One night in that dirty town and we headed to the island of Mana in the Mamanuca island chain. It was a small island that could be walked around in several hours . There were 75 hostellers there from 17 different countries. We fished, toured islands, waterskied , watched sunsets , and met several great people . On the last day we cruised by the island where Tom Hanks was filming Castaway. We could see the "HELP" written on the sand .

Back in Nadi, we flew to Cairns, Australia. Immediately we headed to Cape Tribulation, a rain forest farther north. It was there that a cyclone hit and knocked down a huge percentage of trees . We had to stay two extra days so the roads could be cleared to travel back to Cairns where we took a snorkeling tour of the Great Barrier Reef. But unfortunately couldn't see much because the cyclone churned up the water. Next we bussed down to Airlie Beach which is the gateway to the Whitsundays. We took a three day yacht cruise around the islands.

The next few days were spent with a friend of Brad's. We went to a wildlife park outside of Airlie Beach and Kondalilla Falls on our way to their tiny town of Tenterfield. The town was so small that friends of hers would come over so that they could listen to our American accent! From Tenterfield, Brad and I headed to the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise. My friend Spoon was living there with his cousins, so we crashed at their place for a few days. We continued staying in Surfer's Paradise at a hostel after Spoon flew home. Just an hour or so away, we headed to Brisbane for a few days . Our next destination was Byron Bay. And it was one of my favs. It was a chill town. We took a tour of a hippy town called Nimbin with its marijuana museum , organic farms and candle factories . We had two quick stops at Port Macquarie and Lake Munmorah on the way to Syndey where we had a couple days before our flight back home.

Because of the previous trip to the South Pacific, my college graduation was delayed a year. At the end of spring term of 2001, I was several credits shy of graduating. Instead of summer school, I decided to travel to Europe finishing up with a semester in Denmark (I'll get to that trip next). So in June of 2001, Brad and I packed up to do Europe. We flew to London, England to begin. For a few days we toured around the different parks: Hyde, Green, Kensington and St. James while seeing Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. We even caught Les Misérables at The Palace Theatre. The next day we headed to Paris via the Chunnel staying in the City of Love for several days. Highlights were Mike’s Bike Tour , the Eiffel Tower , Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge and my personal favorite: Basilique du Sacré Coeur up on the hill. Another memorable evening was spent with a brick of cheese and bottle of wine in our hotel room reminiscing about our trips thus far and yet to come.

From Paris, we were to catch a 14-hour train to Barcelona . The short and dirty is that we jumped a train with just our Eurail ticket and no seat reservations. We ended up sleeping (or attempting to sleep) in a luggage rack and a steel floor between where the train cars meet . It was a very long night, but it turned out nicely , as the rest of the story goes . We headed to the island of Ibiza next. Brad knew someone who was house sitting for a friend . The house was sweet: white, square, stucco, tiled and breezy. Quite possible my dream house. It had a flat roof with chairs on it so we could sit and relax. For the next few days we went to the beaches , clubs and took sunset cruises .

Brad and I flew back to Barcelona and immediately set off for Pamplona and the Running of the Bulls . We took a night bus among dozens of drunk, dressed up Spaniards, arriving early in the morning. A few rows back of the safety corridor, Brad and I sort of saw some feet walking then running by. But didn't get a good look . Pamplona was so crowded with people and so filthy that we wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. The earliest we could leave was the following morning—over 24 hours away. We took a nap, had some bread and sangria and suddenly things were much better . Back in Barcelona the next day, we got a hotel with a nice hot shower. Pamplona had soiled us and we needed to pamper ourselves. We experienced Barcelona via Mike's Bike Tour while meeting some friends from Georgia who we would end up traveling with for a few countries .

Our next stop was Nice, France. We met up with the Aussies from the long Paris-Barcelona train ride and hung out for a few days until the Georgians arrived with yet more Georgians. They met a guy and a girl on their train over. So the six of us headed to Cinque Terre next. Showing up in Riomaggiore without a plan, we were approached by an elderly man who said he had an apartment for us . Willing to trust him, we followed and he actually had a great place with a couple bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. We cooked our own Italian meals along with eating across the way at a tasty, authentic Italian restaurant. We hiked between the five cities and swam in the Mediterranean . It was an amazing couple of days.

We split for Rome and that's where our paths ended with the Georgians. (However, I did end up seeing the girls again when living in San Diego the following year.) Nick, a friend of Brad and I, arrived in Rome the next day and we went directly to Brindisi and caught a ferry to Corfu, Greece and the legendary Pink Palace . For several days we spent our time on the beach , our balcony , the club and our balcony—in that order. We reunited with the Aussies once again who had befriended some Swedes who happened to be staying just above our room at the Palace. It was a glorious couple of days.

Nick, Brad and I met Ando, another Australian, on our way from Corfu to Athens on the busses and ferries we had to take to get there. An incredible guy , he accompanied us to the island of Eos where we spent several more days on the beach because for us, it would be the last of the sun and surf .

Back in Athens, we caught a flight to Budapest, Hungary where we stayed in the crappiest hostel of all time: The Nicholas Hostel. It was some guy's disheveled basement, but for $5 a night it was hard to complain (yet we still did!). In Budapest, we toured around the town . Brad and I went caving beneath the city . On the last day we went to a bath house. Very interesting experience.

Brad had another contact in Krakow, Poland. So we headed there next. She was teaching there and took care of us. Our adventures led us to Zakopane , which is up in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Slovakia and Poland. It was an amazing place. She also took us to Auschwitz and Birkenau . It was amazing also, but in a completely different respect.

The last city the three of us were together was Prague, Czech Republic . By this time we were all pretty worn out. We did get to a four-story dance club, but mostly watched a lot of Euro MTV in our hotel room before I had to fly back home for a few weeks before returning to Denmark for my study abroad program. Nick and Brad continued on traveling for a few weeks.

With only a few credits shy of graduating, I decided to gain them by applying for an international study abroad program. I was accepted to study international business in Århus, Denmark in the fall of 2001. Twenty of us from Oregon State University converged on Århus School of Business or as it is known in Danish: Handelshøjskolen Aarhus Universitet. It was an incredible semester; one of, if not the best, decisions I've ever made. I arrived at my dorm, Snogebaeksvej , and lived with 12 Danes, a Norwegian and a German . Classes were four days a week without much homework. We had several projects/presentations, but the majority of the grade was based on an oral final. At the end of the semester, we would show up for the final and they would give us a question and we had 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to present. For some classes it was 100% of the grade. Kind of scary. For all the classes I missed traveling, I did surprisingly well—all A's and B’s.

I don't know if all European universities are like this, but at this school one could smoke in the halls. So before and after class there would be a gigantic fog that would roll in from the end of the hall. My clothes were never the same after that experience. We also had a pub downstairs in our admin building called Klubben that had a half-bus sticking out of the wall that served as a DJ booth. So between classes one could grab a drink. It also doubled as a club in the evenings. Some of the best times were had there with the other international school students .

The town of Århus itself was pretty cool. There was also another school there, University of Århus, so there were plenty of college-aged people roaming the city. It had a quaint downtown area with shops and pubs and a little river flowing through it. I went everywhere by bus. Fortunately the school was within a 15-minute walk of my dorm as well if I was so inclined or stayed out at the club beyond bus hours.

Now enough of the school stuff. At least twice a month, and usually more often, we would take trips on the weekend. My first trip was to Uppsala, Sweden to visit the lovely ladies I had met in Greece . Three other guys and I headed up in early September and hung out for a couple of days . The boys split early and I stayed another day to visit my friends. I took the train home alone through Stockholm, Malmo, Copenhagen and finally back to Århus. When I got back to my dorm, my roommates urged me to watch television. The date was September 11th. The next few days were surreal. We (the American students) were glued to the TV. We weren't sure if we'd be sent home or if we'd be safer there. Ultimately we did stay, thankfully. But it wasn't without controversy. My friends were harassed, even threatened, by some non-Danish residents of Århus. There was jihad graffiti on some of the signs and fireworks were let off during the national moment of silence. It was truly a unique experience to be there during that tragic event . One of the following weekends, a friend and I went to Copenhagen and visited the U.S. embassy. The entire block was covered with flowers and cards of condolence . It was touching.

Oregon State also had an exchange program in Kristiansand, Norway. Some of our good friends were up there, so a group of us went: seven girls and me. We took a ferry across from northern Denmark and our friends met us at the port in Kristiansand . A day was spent there touring the town and seeing their school and dorms. Our group continued on via train through the beautiful countryside of Norway on to Oslo. We got into town in the evening and thought we would just stay out late then sleep in the train station before leaving early the next morning. So we went out for dinner, piled onto a tiger statue and went to Vigeland Park to imitate the statues there . When we got back to the train station to settle in, we were kicked out because it closed and wouldn't open again until 4:00am. The eight of us, plus a random straggler, headed out into the night to try to find a place to sleep. We found a park bench and attempted to keep warm there, but soon it started to rain and we had to abandon that idea. We found a breezeway of a building and bundled together for warmth . Nearing 4:00am, we started to head back to the train station. We stopped at a 7-Eleven to get some coffee and were accosted by some Muslims talking trash about 9/11. Fortunately it did not escalate. Our tickets were originally for 11:00ish, but we opted for the 7:00am ticket to get out of there as soon as possible. Back through Gothenborg, Malmo, Copenhagen and finally Århus .

In late September, a bunch of us headed south to Munich, Germany for the authentic Oktoberfest . It was a great time! We got into a tent early and had a few liters with some sauerkraut and stayed till it closed . I even snuck out a couple beer steins; one of them tragically shattering in the leg of my trousers as I boarded a metro, spraying glass into my ankle and shoe. Once again, we took Mike's Bike Tour around the city . (Small world side note: I bumped into a girl I briefly met on that tour when I was eating lobster in a tiny Mexican town called Puerto Nuevo.) The group also made it to the Olympic Park , the site of the '72 Olympics where Arab terrorists killed quite a few Israeli team members.

Our next trip was actually school-sponsored. In October, about 30 students headed to Brussels, Belgium to learn about the European Union. We learned a little about the EU, but learned more about travel. After an unexpectedly pleasing time in Brussels, including drinking skunky Belgium beer , eating mussels, visiting Manakin Pis , and The Atomium , some friends and I headed to Paris via Luxembourg . None of us had been to Luxembourg and we all wanted to say we had been there, so we went. We walked around a big park and visited the Bock Casements, which were burrowed out fortifications . After a brief stay in Paris which involved a trip to the amazing Palace of Versailles , we flew to Dublin, Ireland. One of our first stops there was the Guinness Brewery . I actually had my first Guinness there on the top floor. It was glorious. Later we wanted to experience an authentic Irish pub, so we popped into one and it was perfect: two drunk old people singing and dancing! A day later we trained it to the Cliffs of Moher . It was one of the most breath-taking places I've seen to date. Weaving back through the countryside, we stayed in Galway. Back in Dublin we flew to Brussels again and immediately headed to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We didn't make it that far. After losing some bags on the flight and our bus breaking down, we ended up in Rotterdam wandering around. Every place we tried to stay at was full. Fortunately some hostel manager took pity on us and allowed us to crash on a couple of couches for a few hours before heading to Amsterdam the next morning. We were there long enough to see the canals, tulips, hash bars and hookers.

I wanted a weekend alone to travel, so in early November I headed out with a good friend from school named John. We traveled together as far as somewhere in Germany and he split to Hungary, I think, and I headed to Interlaken, Switzerland. After roaming the dark streets late at night, I found a place to stay. The next two days I wandered through the woods and up into the Swiss Alps . It was a very introspective trip in which I thought quite a bit about myself and the experience I was having and how it was nearing the conclusion . I went to Lucerne, Switzerland next and met some Alaskans who I hung out with for a day or two. Later on, one of them would come up to Denmark to stay with me . John and I planned to meet up in Vienna, Austria so I got on my way and had to stop in Vaduz, Lichtenstein for the same reason we stopped in Luxembourg . I went to a Mexican restaurant and had my one and only enchilada with spaghetti sauce. I made it to Austria first and decided to take a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was rough traveling. I was by myself and no one spoke English and there wasn't much to see . Back in Vienna, I met up with John and we toured the town including seeing the catacombs of St. Andrews . On the day of our supposed departure, John and I sat in the Vienna train station and seriously contemplated the logistics of prolonging our trip another day or two so that we could travel to Slovenia. It was a close decision, but we ended up not going. I wish we would have. The deal breaker was that it would have taken a something like 30-hour train ride back to Denmark and we had class to attend. Another trip that was dismissed was flight to Iceland. That would have been fun also.

For Thanksgiving, my mom and sister came out to Denmark for a few days. It was really nice to have them there. Thanksgiving dinner was sponsored by those living in my dorm. We had eight turkeys cooking in eight ovens across my dorm complex. It was hilarious attempting to coordinate all of it. Thirty people were involved in this dinner and we reserved my dorm's bar for the festivities. It was definitely one of the most unique Thanksgivings I've ever had . But I had my family and my overseas family and it was all good. On the way to take my mom and sister back to Copenhagen to fly home, we crossed the ferry from Helsingor, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden to see Hamlet's castle. Back in Copenhagen we went to Tivoli Garden which was all decorated for the holidays.

That was my last trip except for a few to local towns of Denmark like Aalborg and Billund, where the original Legoland is located . On December 20th, after a long night at Klubben saying goodbye to all my new friends, I was back on a plane bound for the U.S.

I had been living in San Diego, California for quite a few months before I decided it was time to see South America. My aunt, uncle and cousins live in Quito, Ecuador and some of my other cousins were also going to be traveling down there, so I felt it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I had enough frequent flyer miles to get a roundtrip from San Diego to Caracas, Venezuela. So I had to buy a flight from Caracas to Quito, which involved a long layover in Caracas where I had to spend about 16 hours in the airport on two separate occasions. Once in Quito, I was taken care of. My aunt drove us cousins to Papallacta on the very treacherous roads of Ecuador. Our destination was a mountain town with hotsprings . It was delightful.

Back in Quito, my cousins and I did some exploring. We headed up into the hills, which are actually the Andes, which are actually quite tall . Fifteen minutes into our hike, I began to feel the effects of altitude sickness and had to stop. It was embarrassing, but my sea level lungs weren't accustomed to 13,000 feet.

Our next trip was to Otavalo, which is a big market place north of Quito . We spent the day shopping for souvenirs. My cousin did most of the bargaining since he spoke better Spanish than me. I purchased a mask made of jade that still hangs in my room to this day. That night we stayed in a town called Ibarra. The next day we traveled to the town of Cotacochi, which primary asset was leather goods. In the afternoon we headed to Laguna Cuicocha. It was a volcano that was now filled with water . We took a boat cruise around the lake.

Once again in Quito, we visited Mitad del Mundo, the Middle of the World, or Equator after which the country is named. I got to stand on the yellow line that is supposed to be the equator which separate the northern and southern hemispheres , but actually doesn't. (They discovered that recently.)

My relatives had a previous plan to go to the coastal town of Atacames , so we went along to the resort town and lounged in the sun for a few days. It was nice way to relax and end the trip .

Brad and I had conquered the continents of Australia and Europe, so now it was time for Asia. He was living in Honolulu, Hawaii at the time, so I met him there and stayed for a few days prior to our adventure to Asia. It was over a 30-hour transit to get to our first destination . Our flight went from Honolulu to Tokyo to Bangkok, where we slept on the floor in the airport, to the island of Ko Samui, Thailand . Our accommodation was a little bungalow near the beach . We spent the days getting massages, eating great Thai food, watching Thai boxing , taking island tours and playing on the beach . During the full moon, we went to the island of Ko Phangan for the legendary Full Moon Party . The shores were full of revelers and pounding music. It was an interesting night .

From Ko Samui, we took a ferry to Surat Thani and on to the island of Penang, Malaysia. In all my travels, Penang is up there on the list of places I wished I would have skipped. One of the days there we walked for hours to find a funicular (steep train) and once we found it, it was closed . That did it for me . The next day we were off to Kuala Lumpur. Our hostel was in the heart of Chinatown, which meant great markets and awesome food . Brad and I hired a guide to take us around the city. We got to see a lot of the great sites including the Petronas Towers . That night we ended up at the Hard Rock Café eating burgers and fries. We left the Muddy Confluence (the literal translation of Kuala Lumpur) on a bus bound for Singapore. Renowned for its cleanliness, Singapore lived up to the title. We stayed in a hotel near yet another Chinatown. Again the food was amazing. An odd experience we had there was at a karaoke bar. It was a traditional place and we got the feeling that all the hot women there were prostitutes. Shortly after the realization, we left.

The worst flight I've ever been on was from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam . It wasn't that the flight was turbulent, though it was, the main annoyance was the other passengers. I doubted that they had ever flown before. They took forever to get seated, which delayed the take-off and once in the air, it was a constant movement around the aircraft. Brad and I were sitting in the back row next to the toilet and there was a permanent line the entire flight. And the one time I had to go to the restroom (which is only called a lavatory in the air) I walked in on an innocent passenger who neglected to lock the door.

Once we were in Vietnam, we were in another country literally and figuratively . In all my travels I have never seen transportation and the roads in such chaos as was the case in Ho Chi Minh City. After our taxi cab driver claimed our chosen hotel was no longer in service, he knew of a place he could take us. It didn't really matter that he was most likely lying. The place was very nice. We ventured out into the city and found ourselves on Pham Ngu Lau Street which had many hostels, bars, pirated CD stalls, restaurants and travelers wearing khaki shirts with red stars. We ended up at a bamboo structured bar called Allez Boo for a drink.

The next day we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were tunnels burrowed by the Viet Cong during the war . Our guide was a soldier with the North Vietnamese forces. We saw the tiny tunnels that Westerners could never fit in and the booby traps that must have killed hundreds, if not thousands. It was a sobering experience. To top it off, we traveled to the Museum of Historic Truths, which had U.S. tanks and planes that were obtained by the Vietnamese . Again, very sobering. That was what this trip was about: learning. Australia and Europe were about having fun. Asia was about learning. We had fun too, but this trip was different from the rest.

From Ho Chi Minh City, we took an amazing trip up the Mighty Mekong River into the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh . (Small world side note: we met a German guy who not only had studied in the U.S., but in Oregon, in Salem, at the University that is 5 minutes from my parents house.) Along the way we befriended some folks from Sweden and France. We went with them to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek , where we saw bone fragments and clothing from the nearly 20,000 people that were murdered there by the Khmer Rouge . Days later we headed up the Tonle Sap Lake into Siem Reap, Cambodian; the gateway to Angkor Wat . We stayed at an exquisite hotel for $20 a night. At 5:00 in the morning we headed to the temples of Angkor and spent the day walking among them. Some were in pristine shape , while others had been lost for centuries .

After a few days in Siem Reap, we took a flight back to Thailand to Chiang Mai. There we took a hill trek that included riding elephants and staying with a local hill tribe called Karen . From Chiang Mai, we flew back to Bangkok where we spent a couple of days touring the many Buddhist temples . Our hostel was just off of the famous backpacker street called the Khao San Road . We spend several hours along it .

Saying goodbye to Thailand and SE Asia, we flew to Hong Kong. It was hot and miserable. Our lodging was a tenement building that had no air conditioning . We were only there for a few days before obtaining our China visa and heading off for the 20-hour train ride to Shanghai where my friend Alli from OSU , with whom I had studied with in Denmark, was living. It was great to see her and stay at her place . She took us to real Chinese places that tourists would never see. We ate incredibly exotic foods including rabbit's heads, which was surprisingly good. Along with her friend Wei Wei, Alli took us to Yao Ming's House , a basketball court in the middle of Shanghai where he is from. It was America's Independence when we were there, so a couple of us Americans went to an American bar that was actually owned by some Canadians to celebrate our Independence .

The last stop in China was Beijing. Brad and I stayed in the Sanlitun Street area, which is notoriously catered to backpackers. We spent a day touring Tiananmen Square , Mao Zedong’s mausoleum, Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Forbidden City and Prospect Hill Park. The following day we went to the Summer Palace with a British guy named Tom who we met the day prior at the Forbidden City. The Summer Palace was incredible. Towards the end of the day the rains set in. And it rained. The power went out along Sanlitun Street. But that didn't stop us. We meandered the flooded streets to get good deals from customer-hungry restaurants and bars. The next day we lounged around. It was definitely needed because our next day was an all day tour of the Great Wall of China. We went to the less touristy section called Jinshanling , which was about three hours from Beijing. The walk was amazing . The views were unbelievable . It took us nearly five hours to get to the end called Simatai, where we took a zipline across a river get back to our bus .

From Beijing, we flew to Narita, Japan and took a train to Tokyo . It was so expensive there, that we actually shortened our trip by five days. The first place we stayed in didn't have room the next day, so we had to move to another area of town to a traditional ryokan , which was about $90 a night and was just a room without a bathroom and foam mattresses for beds. We made the most of it. For lunch we had sushi, toured the Sony Building, saw the fish market and had dinner at TGI Fridays. I don't know why. Comfort food, I guess. But Brad and I had another one of those great concluding conversations there . The next day we flew back to Honolulu, where I stayed a week before heading back to San Diego .

My best friend Andy and his wife Laura moved to Prague, Czech Republic to teach English and extended an open invite for me to come visit. I took them up on it in May of 2005. The area of town that their flat was located was just a few blocks away from where I had stayed when I was there in 2001. For the two weeks, we were constantly on the move. We went to a refugee camp an hour outside of Prague where we played sports with children from countries like Kazakhstan who were there because they left their country due to war or politics and haven’t yet been accepted into the Czech Republic . Another day trip was to Kutna Hora where the main attraction is a church that is ornately decorated with the bones of plague victims . Apparently the bones started piling up in the graves, so someone got the idea to turn them into art . And it is one of the most interesting churches to which I've ever been .

Walking around Prague, we visited the sites like Hradcany (castle district), Wenceslas Square, Staromestske namesti (old town), Vysehrad, Letna Park, saw a jazz concert at the Reduta Jazz Club and many other places that I don’t remember nor could pronounce.

Laura had been training for a marathon and we got to see her compete. (Small world side note: as I was watching the marathon, I heard someone speaking with an American accent. I turned around and it was a friend of mine that I had gone to camp with when I was in high school.)

I figured since I was in Europe, I would try to see my German friend Sybille with whom I studied in Denmark. I made arrangements to meet up with her in Leipzig, Germany. I spent two days there and she and her boyfriend showed me all around their town . Sybille even took me to a music festival that was happening at her university. It was very cool to experience something so authentic and non-American. The next day they got me to the train station and I made a big blunder on my layover in Dresden .

The last weekend in Europe was spent with Andy and Laura traveling south to the Moravia region of the country and the cities of Telc , Znojmo and Valtice . It was a beautiful area and I wouldn't hesitate to travel back there someday.

And that was the last international trip I took.