Todd's Travels

Wrap up

toddzy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:34:00 GMT

So, the trip is over. It was a bit shorter than I had originally planned, but it was perfect. I have seen so much and done so much, that honestly if I would have done the whole 8 months, it would have been too much and it would have just been a blur. I was also sick the entire trip, and only now am I on antibiotics and the road to recovery. I realized that I want to travel with someone else in the future, and I also realized that if I continued the trip I would only be getting farther away, which would make my ticket home more expensive. So I decided that it was time to cut the trip short, save the money, come home, convince a friend to go to Asia with me, and do that section later.

The point of this trip was to take some time away from my life at home, see some new things, meet some new people, have some fun, and just go until I was ready to come home. I feel that I have accomplished that and I have no regrets of coming home early.

In the past 2 weeks, I:

1) Had a kangaroo burger in London

2) Watched the world cup finals including the Netherlands in Amsterdam

3) Took a ferry across the English Channel

4) Had a frankfurter and a pretzel in Germany

5) Had a waffle, chocolate, and multiple beers in Belgium

6) Had a crepe under the Eiffel Tower at midnight

7) Had a panini in the gardens of Versailles

8) Woke up in one country and went to bed in another multiple times

9) Met people I will hopefully see again

10) Have seen the Mona Lisa

11) Watched the Tour De France in a cafe in Paris

All in all, I'd say I had a great time and it was all worth it. I don't know what I am going to do now, go back to work, travel more, or become a bum, but I know I had a great time, and that was the whole purpose of this trip.

Bonjour

toddzy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Day 11

After writing my last blog entry, I met up with a guy from Australia(Ben), 2 girls from Austria(Valley and Dude), and 2 guys from Sacramento(yeah thats right I met 2 guys from Sacramento in Paris). We went out for some wine, then walked around town after the sun went down and ended up making it to the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was excellent at night. We walked up to the second level and had an amazing view of Paris at night. Although my camera couldn't take very good night shots because they all ended up blurry, it was a great view. After heading back down we sat down in the grass under the tower and bought some beers from a guy carrying around a bucket of beer and champagne(he looked pretty legit). We sat there for a while, just soaking in the view of the tower and at midnight we were treated to a light show where all of the lights on the tower started flashing. After staying for a while longer and even getting nutella crepes next to the tower as well, we headed back to the hostel. On the way back we didn't know where we were going, but the old saying held true, "All roads in Paris lead to the Arch De Triumph". We realized where we were and how much farther we had to walk, so we hailed a cab and went home.

Day 12

I spent the day wandering the streets of Paris, heading to both Notre Dame and The Louvre. I was most excited about seeing the catacombs under Notre Dame, but they were closed that day. The cathedral itself was amazing though, with impressive stained glass and beautiful architecture. After spending some time at the cathedral I headed over to the Louvre, stopping periodically to look at the street vendors merchandise while walking along the canals. The Louvre, for anyone who has never been there, is simply overwhelming. You could spend a week in the Louvre and never see the same thing twice. So for me, as a person who admittedly knows very little about art, I was completely overwhelmed. I had a map with me that gave an overview of the major pieces, like Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, so I hit those stops first. My plan was to run around and see the major pieces before I got burnt out, then wander around looking at the various art until I was ready to leave. I have been told the the Mona Lisa is a small painting, but I forgot about that until I actually entered the room that housed it. There was a lot of cool looking art and sculptures, but I am sure I walked right past so many "Priceless pieces" that an art student would cry. After being completely burnt out of art for the day, I headed back, stopping at a cafe to get some lunch and people watch for a while. I sat and watched a leg of the Tour De France in the cafe and watched the Parisian people walk by outside. On a side note, the fashion on Paris is at a level I will never get too, it is simply ridiculous how fashionable people are just to walk down the street.

After getting back to my hostel, I wasn't feeling very good, and just sat with my book for a few hours in a chair. It helped me relax and I chugged bottle after bottle of water to bring down what felt like a fever. Later that night I met up with the group from the Eiffel Tower and we headed to Sacre-Coeur, or the highest point in Paris. There is a church on top and massive steps the the locals and tourists alike sit on to watch the sunset and street performers. There was one guy singing American songs, a fire twirler, and a 3 person violin band to entertain us while we drank more beer from another guy with a bucket of beer. They decided to go out clubbing, but I still wasn't feeling 100%, so I went back to the hostel and went to bed.

Day 13

Today I met up with Ben from the Eiffel Tower group and we took a day trip out to Versailles. We took the guided tour of the gardens which were massive on their own, let alone in addition to the equally massive palace of Versailles. We learned a lot about the history of the city and the palace. After the tour, we had a beer in town and had a good time just people watching. After making it back to the hostel Ben and I made a delicious dinner and spent the rest of the night chatting with some girls from Norway in the common room.

Day 14

Today is the day I go home. I had to take 2 metro trains, 1 regular train, and 2 flights just to make it to Las Vegas. When I finally arrived in Las Vegas, my flight was late and I missed my connecting flight to Sacramento. The airline put me up for the night in a hotel in Vegas and the next day I caught 2 more planes to make it home. I spent so long in airports over these two days that I am more than happy to not be flying for quite some time.

Waffles, beer, and chocolate

toddzy — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:32:00 GMT

Day 9

Bernie and I made it to Brussels pretty painlessly, even having a beer with a German pilot on the train here. After arriving, she bought me my first truely Belgian beer, an Affligen Blonde and it was awesome, I was going to say it was ama_ing, but I just found out there is no letter that comes at the end of the alphabet on a Belgian keyboard. We then parted ways so that she could meet some friends and I could find my hotel. Last night, our "take it easy" pact worked. We ended up just staying in the room, repacking our bags and watching Blues Brothers. So, after a good nights sleep and a good train ride, we made it to Brussels. We met up later that night at a bar that Bernie claimed to be her favorite in the world. After experiencing this place, i must agree. If you are ever in Brussels you must go to the Delerium bar. It has 3 levels, a beer menu that fills a 2" binder, great music, great atmosphere, and oh yea, in 2004 it earned the Guiness word record of "most commercially available beers" with 2004 different kinds of beers available at any given time. This place is pretty much my heaven. I had 6 different kinds of beer in all in Belgium and enjoyed every single one. The alley that Delerium is on is a drunken paradise with a tequila bar, a rum bar, a whiskey bar, and to make sure everyone gets nice and drunk, an absynthe bar. Bernie took me into the absynthe bar and bought me a shot. I have no idea what kind of absynthe it was or how strong it was, but i did not take it gracefully, as Bernie can verify. I did get it down though, and soon after, we went to a place called Grand Place. It is the most beautiful Place ever, with giant, old, ornate buildings on all 4 sides. We then returned to the group and carried on bar hopping for the rest of the night. At the end Bernie and i said our good byes for good and i headed back to the hotel. Finding your way back to a hotel in an unknown town, from a bar that you wandered to and dont know where it was, at 3 am, after lots of beer and absynthe is super hard. I eventually found it, which suprised me at how well i did, and crashed hard onto my bed.

Day 10

I decided to sleep in today, so after i rolled out of bed around 1 pm i went just outside my front door to an open air market. I bought delicious fries, belgian chocolate, a new necklace, and watched a full orchestra play the theme from Rocky and Journey songs in a courtyard. A GREAT way to start my day. I basically wandered around the town, seeing a giant cathedral, an auto museum, a war museum, and a giant park with delicious waffles covered in chocolate. The walk turned out to be much longer than i expected, so after getting back i relaxed and found an English channel on TV. I watched the movie Prey and it was awful, it was super cheesy and the characters were annoying, but it was the only thing in English so i watched it. The movie Wing Commander was on next and made Prey look like it should win an Academy Award, it was somehow even cheesier. While out looking at the sights today i stopped at an internet cafe to book my hostel in Paris and my flight home. Yes, i am coming home. I have decided that even though i have my travel legs and i am having a great time, i still wish i had a friend with me. I dont know what i will do when i get home, but even if i cant convince anyone to go with me, it was all worth it and totally amazing. Some people may say "you failed, you only made it 2 weeks", but it was possibly the hardest/most rewarding 2 weeks of my life. I dont think it was a failure, because the second i got on the plane to London it was a success. I will never be that person who says "oh i wish i did that", because i did it. I can now say "i remember doing that".

Day 11

I have spent pretty much all of my day on a train today. All of the direct trains to Paris were booked, so i had to do 4 different trains on the way here, making the trip way longer than it should have been. After getting here, i tossed my bag on the bed, grabbed some fruit and water from a market around the corner, took a seat in the lounge room, met some people from Monterey and the Netherlands, and now im typing this. Tomorrow I'm going to take a bus tour around Paris since EVERYTHING is closed today (Sunday). We will see how that goes, then a final day to relax and soak up Europe before flying home Wednesday. I gave my flight information to David yesterday so that i could get a ride home, but in case anyone else wants it, i fly in: United airlines 451 from Las Vegas at 9:50pm on Wednesday 7/21 to San Francisco International Picture update: computers here suck, so im just going to wait until i get home, and then upload all of them. Expect tons of new pictures come Thursday.

Allegabembem!!!!!!

toddzy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:06:00 GMT

Day 6

There he was, strolling through the Amsterdam train station while I was waiting patiently for 2 hours. Rolling his bag and shading his eyes with giant white rim glasses, the man of the house himself, Mr. Macaulay Culkin. Totally made the wait worth it. And after that sweet celebrity sighting, I had to sprint to my train. I made it with 30 seconds before the doors closed and grabbed a seat on the train to Berlin. After 7 hours of no open-able windows, no A/C, and a 45 minute delay to switch engines, we finally made it to Berlin. I met a few cool guys from Canada on the train, but we parted ways after arriving in town. Luckily my room mates at the hostel were really cool, Jamie and Patrick from Northern England. We had a drink in the pub on the roof of the hostel and started talking to some ladies, Mary Ann and Annie from Kansas City, and Bernie from Calgary. We eventually left the pub and made our own impromptu pub crawl through Berlin. Fast forward now until 7:30 am and we are watching the sunrise, drinks still in hand, in Bernie's room from her balcony (BTW, Bernie got a sweet suite room at the hostel and it became the party room for the weekend, Rm. 307 FOREVER!!!!). Allegabembem becomes the word of the weekend as Patrick and Jamie chant it whenever the mood strikes, which only makes the rest of the group chime in with equally excited Allegabembem chants and Cowabunga chants. We were pretty obnoxious.

Day 7

I wake up around 12 in the afternoon, my stomach turning, my head throbbing, my mouth burning. I have never had a hangover as bad as this. Berliner beer messes you up proper. After taking the day off to sleep and just generally recover, Bernie and I head out to find a place called the "White Trash Cafe", it is apparently a blend of American and Asian cuisine all with a tacky motif. We couldn't find it after an hour of searching, so we end up stopping in out of desperation at a tiny little hot dog stand. Let me tell you something, the chili cheese dog at this place was the best hot dog I have ever had. We make it back to the hostel just in time to meet up with the gang to go out on an organized pub crawl. The crawl took us to a gothic bar, a ping pong bar (which reminded me of the Fight Club basement with a ping pong table and a DJ), a bar with a live SUPER stereotypical 90's German band, a bar with a giant screen playing "The Birds" as the center point, and a reggae dance club in the middle of an abandoned warehouse area. So, even though Bernie and I vowed not to take shots, and to call it an early night, we all ended up watching the sunrise over Berlin from the 307 balcony again and getting to bed around 6:30... after about 5 shots on top of our beer.

Day 8

Luckily, this morning I woke up a little slow, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Bernie and I decided to do some sight seeing since we both wasted the day yesterday sleeping off hangovers while the others saw the sights. We headed out to the Jewish History Museum, which was really powerful and quite an experience. The building that it was in was equally intense, purposely designed to disorient you as you walk through it. We also saw Check Point Charlie and ended our sights with the East Side Gallery on the Berlin Wall. Some of the murals were powerful, others funny, but almost all of them were amazing to see. We walked the whole thing, checking out the murals and taking some nice pictures. On the way back, I went to the train station and bought a ticket to Brussels for tomorrow morning. Tonight is my last night in Berlin and Bernie and I made yet another "Call it an early night" pact, we will see how this one goes.

Trip update:

I am still unsure of the status of the trip, I feel like I am getting my travel legs now and I am having a lot more fun than in the beginning. The only difference that I can see from before and now is that I have some sense of permanent friends since I have been with this group pretty much the whole time I have been here in Berlin. So looking at it that way, I am debating cutting the trip short, saving the money, convincing a friend to go with me, and going again with them at a later date. I have honestly already gotten everything that I wanted from this trip, so anything from now on is just pushing myself further.

What I wanted from my trip:

1) Prove to myself that I can be happy on my own..... Rocky start, but now, check

2) See some areas that I have never seen.... Check

3) Meet new people..... Mega Check

4) Experience different cultures..... Check

5) Have experiences that I will remember forever.... Check

6) Grow more confident and become a more rounded person.... Check

7) Get better at approaching strangers.... SUPER Check

7) Lose some weight from walking so much and forgetting to eat (HAHA)..... Check (I look good already)

The whole "Going around the world" thing grew out of a desire to see as much as I could thinking that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I now refuse to believe that I will never have a chance to do something like this again, so I am not afraid to call it early this time, only to come back and continue at a later date. I am not afraid of being a "quitter" by going home, and I know that whatever I do is the right decision, so I am going to keep going until I feel like coming home, and at that point it will be my beliefs and experiences that tell me I am ready to go home, not my fears. That point may be tomorrow in Brussels, or it may be in Thailand when I decide that "I am ready". Either way, I will be happy to go home because I will be ready, and I will not regret leaving. I now realize that I love traveling, but it is not my style to travel alone. I don't see this as a bad thing, just something that now requires more planning, since I need to plan another person's schedule into my trips. I now know that in a pinch I can travel on my own, but I want my next trip to be with a friend and see how that goes. So let this be known, I am looking for a like minded travel buddy to go with me at some point in the near future, most likely to Asia. Let me know :)

Picture update: As usual, no pictures in this blog, but I posted the pictures from sight seeing in Berlin today to the flickr account. My camera died before I could download the pictures from partying the 2 nights prior. Those will hopefully be up soon.

Hup Holland!!!!!!!

toddzy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:17:00 GMT

Day 4
I made it from London to the ferry for Hook of Holland easily enough, and decided to go down to the bar for a drink. I saw a group of about 8 guys around my age sitting at a table drinking. After asking to join them it turns out that it was actually 4 different groups that just formed on the ferry from people asking to sit down. I hit it off with them really well, discovering that they were from Brooklyn, Texas, and California. We drank until the bars closed on the ferry that night and after 3 hours of drunken sleep i met up with the 3 from Texas (Andy, Mason and Carson) and the guy from Brooklyn (Marcus). By the way, Marcus is a Harvard graduate in theoretical mathematics with dreads down past his waist. It was quite a trip when he told us his schooling, none of us were expecting that.
We arrived into Amsterdam the morning of the world cup finals game and they didnt have a room, so searching for that took up most of the morning. After that was settled we did visit some coffee shops, just for the experience, we are in Amsterdam after all. Then checked out the Heineken brew tour. It wasnt what I expected, but it was really fun, and I got to drink 5 day old beer, which was delicious.
Then it was time for the game. After getting lost on the way (I still dont know how we couldnt find the city park filled with that many people) we finally found the park, museum square. This is a vast grass area where they set up one 30 meter by 17 meter screen and 3 slightly smaller screens, for the fans, who numbered over 100,000 im sure. 5 of those being us, because thats right, i was in Amsterdam when the Netherlands went into overtime in the 2010 world cup finals. So what that they lost, I had a great time and i will never forget it.
After getting lost, again, on the way home, i finally was able to get my first night of good sleep since England. My hostel roommates are actually from the town my dad was born in, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They were surprised that i knew where it was, let alone that i had actually been there.
Day 5
Today was a day of waiting. We waited in a store for the sudden down pour to stop because we were all too cheap to buy umbrellas, i waited in line at the Anne Frank house and the marijuana/hash museum, and we all waited in line at the train station to get tickets for the Texas guys to go to Brussels. I was planning on going to Berlin tomorrow, but the weather has shut down rail lines to Germany. I was going to just go to Brussels with them, but their train was in 20 minutes and my bag was back in my room. They didnt have information about tomorrow, so if i cant go to Berlin, ill just head to Brussels as well, maybe we will meet up again.
Im sure that some of you will be excited, and some of you will say "i told you so", but i think ill be cutting my trip short. I know its still early and things can change, but as it sits right now, i will be coming home after i see Europe. I will save Asia until i can find a friend to go with. Like i said, this is still too early to call, and i may have a different mind set in a few weeks, but i miss not having friends. I have met great people along the way, but when im alone, its just not what i imagined. I think the only thing id change about this trip is taking someone with me. So on that note, unless it gets better, ill be home sooner than expected. I kinda feel like a quitter, but if it doesnt feel good, why keep doing it, right? I enjoy the freedom of travelling alone, but it would be a completely different trip if i had a friend.
Love and miss you all, Toddzy
P.S: i still havent found a good computer, more pictures coming soon.

Photos: London

toddzy — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:02:00 GMT

The beginning

toddzy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Day 1

I have finally made if to my trip. And after a rocky start, I think I'm starting to get my travel legs. I flew in Wednesday and was lucky enough to get an aisle seat with nobody on my other side, so I was able to spread out comfortably. Going through customs was a bit scary because the lady asked for proof of exit (ie: a return ticket) which I obviously dont have. She gave me a 10 minute lecture about how I should know better and how she could send me back home. After talking for a while, she stamped my passport and sent me on my way with a glare. I managed to get to my hostel without any issues, and while having a beer in the pub downstairs I met 3 people from California. After going back to my room I found another 2 people from California, although one of them lives in Paris now. The girl that lives in Paris now(Anna) and I went to get a drink and ended up on the rooftop of the hostel chatting away. We were both exhausted from flying in that day and we went to bed.

Day 2

I woke up today with no plans and total freedom....it was scary. Im so used to having my day planned out and following a routine that I didnt really know what to do. I decided to go find a museum, and started walking in that general direction. I ended up finding a ruin of a Roman Mithras temple, the Guildhall art gallery(with an excavated Roman colloseum in the basement from AD 50), an outdoor concert performance, and the London museum. I ended up hitting a bunch of sights, but not the one place I had originally planned on going, which was the Tate modern art museum. All in all I walked probably around 16 miles and didnt really eat that much. If this keeps up, I'm gonna lose some serious weight on this trip :) I had a bit of a panic attack later that night about being lonely and missing my friends. I am so far away from everything and everyone that I know. It is scary jumping this far in the deep end and I felt like I was drowning. I called Kim and talked to her for some time, which made me feel a whole lot better. I eventually got to sleep and slept like a log after such a big day.

Day 3

I woke up today to the glorious sounds of jackhammers right outside my window at 7:30 am because I guess 7:30am on a Saturday is the correct time to do road construction in London. After laying in bed and trying to drown out the sounds, I got up and found Anna, who is actually in the same hostel dorm room as me. We discussed what we did the day before and what we had planned today. She was meeting some friends from Sweden and going to a market a couple blocks away. I tagged along with them and had a great time. We had kangaroo burgers, fresh rasberries, fresh apple juice, a brownie from a German bake shop and delicious ice cream. The market was giant, with everything you could ever want, I am officially in love with Boroughs market. After parting ways with the friends, I am probably just going to chill and relax here before I get on the train tonight. Im heading out tonight to catch an overnight ferry to the Netherlands. This time tomorrow I'll be in Amsterdam. Im really looking forward to being in the Netherlands for the World Cup, it should be quite an experience. Its still really hard for me being on my own, but last nights talk with Kim was really helpful. Im just going to keep going and hopefully it will get better and better. Thank you again Kim.

P.S: I will upload some pictures on all of my posts, but the majority of my pictures will be stored on Flicker. You can find it here at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51734617@N05/?find=t.wallace1987%40yahoo.com

P.S: I will be uploaded pictures here later when I get to computer that will allow it, until then, please see the Flickr page for pictures.

Bon Voyage

toddzy — Mon, 5 Jul 2010 07:48:00 GMT

First off I would like to say thank you to all of my friends for throwing me an awesome going away party. It was "Where's Waldo" themed and included great friends, great food, and hitting a unicorn pinata with a decorative sword(which is a story of its own).

For those of you who do not know, here is what's going on. I was approved for an 8 month leave of absence from work, so, starting on Wednesday (July 7th) I will be traveling the world. I have a one-way ticket to London, England and a few nights booked at a hostel. From there, the plan is to head to continental Europe, then to South East Asia, then China and Japan, and finally back home. I say "The plan" because I have no set itinerary or bookings, the trip will be basically wherever the wind takes me. I have no set expectations from this trip other than to just take a break from life here and have fun. I could decide after 2 weeks that I am ready to come home, or I could just keep going and never come back.

I will be adding to this blog whenever I can, and although I cannot guarantee that it will be an exciting read, at least it will have pictures of the places I have been and the things I have seen. Feel free to check it out and comment, all I ask it that you please be considerate since it will be viewed by family and co-workers as well.

I am canceling my phone for this trip, so if I don't call or text you back, I am not ignoring you. You can email me at T.Wallace1987@yahoo.com or find me on Skype at Toddzy50.

P.S: If you have any suggestions of where I should go or what I should see, please let me know. I especially want to see some off the beaten track kinds of things, so those suggestions are really appreciated.

P.S.S: I have an offer on the table for anyone who would like to take me up on it. If you would like to meet up in any of the places I will be, give me some advance warning and I will meet you at the airport. Also, the first round will be on me :)

Photos: Before leaving

toddzy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:13:00 GMT

PIctures before the trip