Blog

329 Days

17 Flights

9 Countries

1 World…

“It isn’t what happens in life, it’s how you deal with it” someone once said to me on my trip.  The last eleven months have been the most eventful of my life, and at times the most enjoyable too.  I dreamed, planned, anticipated and fulfilled something that only a handful of the world’s population alive today will undertake in their lifetime.  I have experienced every emotion: happiness, sadness, joy, elation, frustration, fear, panic, bewilderment, awe, excitement, surprise… the list could go on.

I’ve circled the globe and my head continues to spin with philosophical intrigue about why on Earth we’re all really on this planet and what role every person has to play.  All I know is that the thing that changes the most is yourself.  You adapt, you falter, learn and you become… well, a traveller.  Travel teaches you more about yourself and who you are as an independent entity than anything else.  Travel also teaches you as much about your own country, its people, its values, its place in the world as it does with any of the places you could wish to visit on the map.

I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of people I’ve met on my trip: it’s the people you meet along the way that determine your destiny.  Just like the emotions we all go through, every person you encounter on any given day could be a friend or a foe.  Situations, reactions, timing and pure fate all figure in the equation determining each outcome.  I do know this: whilst travelling I have met some of the most interesting people in my life.  There are a few people I know I’ll be in contact with for years to come, and many, many others I may hopefully have the pleasure of crossing paths with again some day.

I hope those of you (wherever you are!) that have taken the time to read my ‘ramblings’ about each place I visited have enjoyed what I’ve had to say.  It’s been difficult and definitely bloody expensive at times to keep this site updated with what I’ve been up to.  I have enjoyed keeping it going though, and it’s been an eye-opener to discover how many hard-to-reach/middle-of-nowhere places actually have internet facilites.  Some of them don’t even a shop selling basic groceries, but they’ll always have an internet cafe!

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank everyone for making it all possible: firstly to Bootsnall.com for providing and hosting this site – a wonderful free service; to my family who put me up (and put up with me…) during the planning stages when I was saving up all those hard-earned pennies; to all my friends – long-standing and those I’ve made on my travels – for your support, friendship and reliability; and to every kind-hearted individual I’ve had the pleasure of meeting along the way – there are some wonderful characters out there that will go out of their way to help a mere stranger – thank you so much and may you all live happy lives!  To anyone out there even thinking of going travelling, for whatever reason, I say to you this:

Travel is freedom. Go for it.

Blog done.

Joe. 🙂 x

New York: Times Square and the Manhattan skyline

There is so much to see in New York and to be said about it that makes it difficult for me to fit it concisely into this blog.  Pictures of places say more about them than I possibly could, so I have included as many as is necessary here (being that this is also my penultimate blog post…).  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by New York: I had expected an impersonal, heavily over-populated metropolis similar to London.  What I found was a superbly diverse city thriving with culture and style matched by no other location – bear in mind when I say “I’ve been to New York!”, what I actually mean is that I’ve seen Manhattan – I’m sure I’d have a much different but hopefully balanced opinion if I’d witnessed the neighbouring boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx.  I did briefly make it over to Staten Island on the ferry though… [read on]

So imagine the scene: you've just arrived at the airport in a large international city, at night, and with all your worldly belongings strapped to your back, when ... [Continue reading this entry]