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I’m back!

Well, I’m back from my 6 month trip around the world!  I saved money for 7 years, quit my job, sold or gave away most everything I own, and for the last 2 months trekked nonstop with a backpack and suitcase. The first 4 months I did short trips to Barcelona, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, visited friends and family I haven’t seen in years in some cases, and took my niece to Cedar Point for a weekend, then went to San Diego and Mexico.  After I dropped my cats off with my mom so I could travel nonstop, I went to London (day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, Cotswolds), Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands (including Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Glencoe), Dublin (day trip to Cliffs of Moher and Galway), Paris, Venice, Rome (day trips to Vatican City, Pompei, Positano), Chiang Mai (including Elephant Nature Park), Krabi (day trip to Phi Phi Islands), Phuket, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kamakura/Enoshi Island, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka (day trips to Nara, Himeji, Hikone), and Iceland (my mom came with me on that one!) There have been a lot of ups and downs, the more important ones as follows:

Pros:

–  Reconnected with family, old friends that I haven’t seen in years, and met a lot of fun new people.

– Visited places I’ve always dreamed about, and saw things I’ve always wanted to see while they’re still there.

– Tried new food, new desserts, new drinks…and yet, still lost about 5 inches on my waist probably from walking an average of 7-9 miles per day almost every day.  Usually uphill, which I still haven’t figured out the logistics in that.  If you go up you’d think you’d have to go down but it always seemed to be uphill!

– Saw new cultures and learned a TON of history including doing some ancestry research in England/Scotland/Ireland.

– Worked things out on my own whenever there was a problem and learned not to have a meltdown about the little things even if I wasn’t happy about it.

– Learned how to walk slower. Everyone in my family power walks everywhere and are masters at weaving through crowds, we also usually inhale our food rather than eat and enjoy it, it’s just the way it has always been.  I was walking around Chicago today and for the first time everyone was pushing past ME and I was seeing things I haven’t acknowledge in the 8 years that I’ve lived here.  Like, was that restaurant always there?  It looks neat, I never noticed it before…

Cons:

– I missed my pets so bad, I can’t wait to see them when I go to my mom’s for the holidays this weekend!

– The sheer volume of tourists is crazy!  I’m not complaining, since I am also one of those tourists and I think it’s amazing that the world has gotten to a point where so many people can enjoy it, it was just really surprising.  I used to live in Japan 15 years ago so a lot of my stops there were for nostalgia purposes and the number of people in places that had previously been practically unknown was shocking. The main concern I had was about safety, a lot of these places weren’t designed to hold that many people and those mega-tour buses are way too big in a lot of cases (I almost got squished by one!) I used to work at construction sites and we have OSHA in the United States and I think I got a few new gray hairs just from some of the safety related things I’ve seen.  I’m also an environmental scientist, so seeing some of the unhygienic things people were doing in some locations made me cringe. Bring a hand towel and hand sanitizer everywhere with you, for real! I would need an entire separate post to explain all of the people, behaviors, and safety issues though.  I’m putting this under “cons” but honestly this was one of the most interesting parts of the trip given my profession.

– I get why it’s hard for some people to understand how bad climate change is especially if they don’t travel.  It was really sad to see some of the locations because of all the trash and pollution, irregular weather patterns, damaged ecosystems, and changing behaviors of the animals. I already knew a lot about the impacts of the climate crisis, but some places really opened my eyes to how bad it’s truly becoming.

– Blisters.  So. Many. Blisters.  Even with broken in boots and moleskin and bandages.  I’m fairly convinced it’s inevitable.

– The scammers.  I managed to avoid them mostly, but one got me in Venice and it was so obvious I had to laugh after I realized it.  Rookie mistake!
Anywho, now that I’m back I’m going to spend the holidays with family then decide if I want to be a responsible adult and get back to work, or buy an RV and do an epic 6 month National Park road trip with my cats…

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Paris – Day 3 then off to Venice

I packed up my bags to store at the hotel, checked out, and took a taxi to the catacombs. I was there a bit early so I sat down at a café for some caffeine. It’s funny, in the U.K area and Barcelona everyone had café mocha, it was like a staple drink, but in France no one has any idea what you’re talking about so I had to use a translation app to get the waiter to understand what I was asking for. He got it, and it was a good cup. After snacks I went outside to meet the tour guide who took us down to the catacombs including areas closed off to the general public. Our tour guide Leye was awesome, he knew a lot about the catacombs and why they existed and how they got the 6 million skeletons into about 106 miles of underground tunnels. It was a bit morbid, but I like creepy stuff like that. After the tour I went back to the hotel and picked up my luggage, then got to the airport early. Easyjet apparently doesn’t let you check in early though, so I got a salad at the airport restaurant and waited about an hour. After checking in I went to our gate, then to another gate, then back to the first gate, then shifted over one lane to another gate. I thought for sure my checked bag was going to get lost, but everything arrived safely.

With the delays it was after 9pm though by the time we landed, so instead of playing with public transportation I took a taxi to my hotel…or….at least I thought I could. It wasn’t until after I put the hotel into Google maps that I realized there are no roads that go through Venice. Also, the public transportation buses would have been easier and WAY cheaper to take since they all go to the docks anyway. I mean, I knew there were canals and boats were used but I didn’t realize there were NO roads connecting the islands. Oops, that’s what I get for doing zero research on these places. Once the taxi dropped me off at the boat area I got a one day ferry ticket and asked around trying to figure out how to get to my hotel. I asked 3 people and got 3 answers, so decided I should stick with the ticket person’s advice and take the #1 boat. I think that was the most roundabout way of getting to the hotel, but it was a nice night and a pretty ride so I didn’t mind too much. FYI, Google Maps is useless in Venice. For some reason they don’t have the walking paths all plotted out so it’ll direct you to a point then just put this magical arching dashed line like “Good luck bitch you better fly!” Fortunately bridges are plentiful so I figured it out, but it was past 11pm by the time I got to my room. Ready to go island hopping tomorrow!

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Paris – Day 2

I woke up to it being super foggy outside, which normally isn’t a problem except today was Eiffel Tower day. I made my way to the tower by foot, passing some cool museums and random old gardens and buildings…and can I take a moment to just say the French are completely, totally EXTRA? Like, they don’t just put in a building, they decorate it with statues and gold and intricate iron bars and there is no building here old or new that’s just a plain glass/metal square. Every building here is interesting and unique in some way. Granted, I didn’t go outside the downtown area to where all the big buildings and businesses are so maybe it’s more modern there, but here everything is so cool and over the top. I love it! The people? Eh, not so much sometimes. The French like to keep up appearances but also weirdly don’t give a shit about others and will bump you right into a wall or shove you into oncoming traffic or smack you with their bag as they throw it over their shoulder or stand in the narrowest part of a hallway taking up the most room and will NOT shift even slightly to let people through even if they have plenty of room just two steps forward. As a result, the other French people just plow right through them, and this is seriously a locals thing not a tourists thing, so you really need to pay attention. They all seem to exist in their own little bubble and no one else matters, yet they want everyone to notice them and be impressed on a grander scale. Based on what I’m learning about their history, it seems it’s always been this way. 😂 Can’t say I’ve encountered a culture quite like this before.

Anywho, the trip up to the Eiffel Tower summit went smoothly even though with the fog you couldn’t see too far. Hoping the fog would burn off before I left, I ate the most expensive microwave veggie lasagna I ever had at the 1st floor restaurant (no, seriously, it was like a Lean Cuisine lasagna they charged about $20 American for. How are these places getting good ratings? Am I being dumb and missing the good food? I know it must be here, lol!) then walked around a bit when the sun finally came out. I headed back down to ground level and walked around the exterior, too. Afterwards, I went to Arc de Triomphe and hung out there watching the mass chaos of cars and being impressed that somehow magically there were no accidents, barely any honked horns either! It was getting late so I started to meander back to the Eiffel Tower. I stopped in a pretty park area for a bit, then went to a restaurant next door that actually wasn’t too bad. I watched the light show at Eiffel Tower around 7pm, then walked around and watched it again at 8pm. It’s actually really cool if you get a chance to go. I much preferred the Tower area at night rather than during the day, personally. By that time my feet were aching so I took a taxi back to the hotel to relax.