Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark
3 nights

I awoke at 6:30am the morning of my flight to see that my flight had already been delayed by five hours. My new scheduled departure time was now at 1:35am on October 29th. Most people would be bummed about a delay, especially one this long, however, I had not even started to pack and
wanted to go surfing in the morning so was thrilled to have more time. The morning before leaving the country I went surfing with Lindsay in Ventura and it was absolutely amazing. We were some of the only people in the water and I caught one of the best waves that I have ever surfed. Once I was in Copenhagen I checked into my hostel and the following day did a free walking tour and wandered around the city. It was a beautiful city to walk around with quaint colorful houses, boats lining river channels and cobblestone pathways. I then met up with Geraldine, Karen and Emily went to dinner and then a hugely club/bar.



My Halloween started with a delicious brunch with Karen and Emily. After which Karen and I went to Christiana which is basically a hippie commune. It was really interesting to see the way the community was put together. As we were walking around we decided to go into a shop and were looking at postcards when there were two young girls on horses who trotted through the front door and into the shop on their horses. As we continued to walk around we saw where the people live which were very nice quaint little houses, saw people just hanging out and smoking weed (which is illegal in Denmark but apparently cops ignore it in this area) and pusher street which is where they sell weed. It looks a bit sketchy because the sellers stand in both that are covered with a mesh camouflaged material and to hide their face and are very strict about not taking photos. It is a really strange but intriguing atmosphere. Afterwards we went to a pop up dinner.

This ended up being one of the most random and strange dinner events that I have ever attended. I was told about it by Karen and Emily who had made reservations the previous day and were able to reserve an extra seat for me. Going into it I was a little uncertain what to expect. As we are walking to dinner I find out that it is at someones apartment and when we arrive we are offered wine and shown around. This is where I initially become skeptical of how expensive dinner is going to cost. We were then told that everything in the apartment was for sale and they redecorate the apartment and set it up specifically for these dinner events. That was my second red flag that dinner was going to be ridiculously priced. We are then shown to our seats at a large kitchen table with about 9 other people and given a menu. The third and final red flag is the menu. There is only one thing on the menu but it is about a 7 course meal. Luckily there is a price listed but as I suspected it is extremely expensive and costs about 100 usd. I have never paid that much for a meal in my life and as a budget backpacker and traveler that was several days worth of budget for me in Scandinavia. Karen and Emily ordered but I asked if I could just stay and hang out with them as they ate. The waiter didn't mind which was a relief. As the courses came through I was even more relieved that I didn't get the food because it was very strange and the few bites that I had were not to my liking. There were also a couple of people who ended up being pretty rude so Emily and I decided to grab a few beers after dinner and the rude encounter. It turned out to be a fairly crazy night out and we ended up getting back to the hostel at around 6am. I only had a few hours of sleep before having to get up and get a train to Stockholm. Well worth it.

Hanz Christain Anderson: 

"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to roam the roads remote, to travel is to live"

The Next Venture

After the most indecisive time in my life where I mentally wrestled with myself for several months regarding what direction I want to take my life, I have finally come up with a plan. I should mention that this is not a full blown plan on how I am going to spend the rest of my life rater a more immediate plan on how I want to spend the next several months.

I will be flying to Copenhagen, Denmark on October 28th and will make my way through Sweden to Oslo, Norway by November 10th where I will board a flight to Dublin, Ireland. Once I am in Ireland I will look for work under the working holiday authorization which allows me to stay in Ireland for up to 12 months.

I am excited to begin this new journey but have a lot to do before it begins. This includes selling things I do not need and consolidating everything that I have accumulated over my 4 years living in Seattle so that it can fit in my Honda accord that I will drive down to California where I will store my belongings while I am gone.

At this point the thing I love the most about Seattle is the friends that I have made here and without a doubt be what I will miss the most.

I crave and thrive on is being physically, intellectually and emotionally stimulated and challenged regularly which at this point I want to explore elsewhere.

I look forward to the unknown on this journey that I am embarking on and what I will discover along the way.

Eight Months in a Nutshell

Here is a video I made to sum up my 8 months of travel. It was a great experience and I can't wait to do something like it again. Until then here is a memento of my trip and inspiration for my next trip. 

Here is a map of the countries I traveled to:

Air Miles Traveled:

Seattle-Chicago: 1,718

Chicago-Amman: 6,215

Amman-Munich: 1,696

Rome-Thessoliniki: 547

Thessoliniki-moscow: 1,249

moscow-new delhi: 2,680

new delhi-jakarta: 3,105

bali-perth:1,605

perth-adelaide:1,316

adelaide-mel:1,680

mel-chc:1,501

auckland-bali: 4,193

bali-lombok: 65

lombok-sing: 1,080

sing-tokyo: 3,333

tokyo-lax: 5,446

---> 37,429 air miles total, 17 flights, 8 months, 17 Countries

Mountains Hiked:

Madness of Mrsa

Along with the amazing adventures that traveling to new and foreign places provides it also comes with some medical concerns especially when in third world and developing countries. Before I embarked on my journey I went to a travel doctor and with a list of countries that I thought I might visit and I was given pills for malaria, high altitude sickness and chronic diarrhea. I was fortunate to only need the high altitude sickness pills and it was for a short period of time; if I remember correctly it was only 2 or 3 days. Unfortunately, that was not the only thing that I had to deal with while traveling.

My first big issue was a second degree sun burn that I got on the back of my legs and my lower back. The pictures shown here are when I was on the up side of my recovery. However, under the white gaze patch was a huge blister that formed and was raw and extremely sensitive. As if the burn weren't bad enough I was hit by a surfboard on my lower back which broke open the skin and can be seen unclose in the picture on the upper right. Overall, I had trouble sitting, sleeping and walking. The worst part was that I had to take a couple days off of surfing. After I recovered I surfed with leggings on and immense amounts of sunscreen. I only hope that there are no longterm effects down the road.

When I was in Indonesia the second time I encountered my second medical concern. I wasn't sure what the issue was but a very painful welt appeared under my armpit. I figured it would take care of itself and eventually go away but it just kept getting larger and more painful. I finally asked some of the other people at the camp and the feedback I got really made me nervous. Everyone had a different opinion and there were a multitude of potential diseases, infections or bugs that I could have had. What made me the most concerned was when someone told me it looked like something her friend got when they were traveling in South America; her friend was able to get rid of it by cutting it open. I was less than thrilled to hear this, however, I really lost it when she then preceded to say a large worm crawled of the open cut! All I could then think about that I was now the host to some unknown jungle bug. Ahhhh. Other people thought it could be a centipede bite, bissle from an ingrown hair, or some other scary unidentifiable infection.

I was able to take care of the one that had appeared in my armpit with the help of an immaculate first aid kit provided by a German friend and some fearless surf coaches. Since there was a small white head that had appeared after a couple of days we were able to cut it open relatively painlessly with a needle sized scalpel instrument. I then tried to drain the fluid myself by squeezing it out, however, was unable to get all the contents out myself because of its location and the amount of pain I was in.Think about the most painful pimple you have ever tried to pop. Now, multiply the size by 10, the pressure build up by 100, and the pain by 1000!! Simon, one of the coaches, and his girlfriend Lucy helped me drain the rest as I was lying down in the medical room sipping a cold Bintang. 

Although there was still a wound under my armpit now that it was drained it felt a lot better! A couple days later another one appeared in the same place as well as three on my upper leg/thy and two on my left shin. Whattt was happening to me?!? I continued to try and drain them myself but was getting a bit more concerned. I was told to talk to Jess, one of the Westerners that lived at the camp who had endured several medical issues of her own since she had lived there and was the most likely to know what it was and be able to help. When I talked to her she seemed very confident that it was staphylococcus from bacteria in the coral in the water. Okay...great now I knew what it was called and how I probably got it but she said I needed antibiotics which the local doctor could not provide. I was heading back to the USA within about a week so I decided that I would wait until I returned to the states. 

The series of plane rides back to the US was extremely difficult because as I sat in the cramped airline seats I put more pressure on the welts on my upper thy which made it even harder to sit in the same position for hours on end. When I arrived back in California I went to an urgent care clinic where they cut one open and tired to drain it but nothing would come. They decided to take a sample and told me I needed to see a dermatologist. I immediately called the dermatologist to make an appointment. When I went they got the results from the clinic and told me that I had Mrsa which was a stran of Staf. Not only did I have a terrible infection on various parts of my body but I came to find out that it is basically the worst type to get because it is resistant to antibiotics. They put me on a medication and gave me a cream to put on the sores. By some miracle the swelling went down and I was left with several scars but was able to avoid lost limbs or death! 

Singapore

Singapore

2 nights

Singapore was a very different experience form most other places that I had traveled in the sense that most of my travel was not focused on large city destinations. 

On my full day in Singapore I walked around, took a tram to various parts of the city and explored whatever I wandered upon.


Although I was amazed by the huge buildings and architecture, walking around in Singapore was not the most pleasant experience because of the extreme heat and intense sun. Luckily, I was almost always near a giant mall or building that I could walk through and would immediately cool down with refreshing AC.


I also made my way to a huge garden where which provided an amazing panoramic view of the gardens and the city.

On my second night in Singapore I decided I would go to the airport early to sleep there since my flight was very early the following morning and I didn't want to pay for another night at a hostel. I had put my surfboard in storage and as I was retrieving it and getting my bags organized when a guy came over and offered to help. I thought I was doing fine on my own but I think he was just being nice because my board was big and I had also unpacked half of my backpack to put in the board bag for extra padding to protect my surfboard. He worked there and ended up getting me a trolly for my bags and checking with Malaysia Airlines (the airline I was flying) to see when I could check in. Unfortunately, he said that if I had arrived an hour earlier I could have checked in with but now had to wait until the morning. Darn, I was so excited to see the airport and find a nice place to sleep that night but instead I was stuck in the checkin area sleeping on tile floor with florescent lighting. Needless to say, it was not the best night sleep I have ever had. The picture to the left shows where I slept that night and the trolly that made my life 100 times easier to get around.

When I finally checked in and explored the airport for a bit the next morning I discovered free internet, sleeping areas, entertainment rooms, gardens, koi ponds, movie theaters, a pool, and much more. Next time I fly through Singapore I will be sure to know the earliest time I can check in before arriving at the airport.

Indonesia-Returning to Paradise

Bali
1 night

I arrived in Bali where I spent one night in a hostel. I needed to get to Lombok the next day, however, lack of planning proved to be more difficult than expected. At first I had planned to take a boat but I was several hours away from the harbor that I needed to leave from and it was then a long boat trip and another long car ride to the camp. I looked up flights and there was a really inexpensive one for 30USD. I was unable to book it online because it was less than 24hrs and they did not accept credit cards so close to the flight departure time. I even called the airline to see if there was any other way to do it last minute but nothing was working. I talked to the guys running the hostel and they tried to help me as much as they could, one of them even took me to two different travel agencies on his motor bike to see if I could figure something out. Both travel agencies ended up being closed. However, there was something comforting about being on a motor bike in crazy traffic in Indonesia that made me feel comforted and like I was back where I needed to be. In the end I found a flight online that accepted credit cards and booked if for 50USD the next morning.

Gerupuk- Surf Camp Lombok 

2 weeks

My second time camp did not disappoint. Again I was surrounded by great people focused on experiencing new things, learning and having fun! For these two weeks I was pushed more in my surfing and was happy with my progression.

The big boat trips, nights out, days into town, yoga, sunsets, and surf all continued to be exciting and fun. 

Gilli T

3 nights

I had three nights off in-between the two camps that I was doing and decided to go back to Gilli T with my three Swedish roommates from the camp Annie, Frida, and Sara. On the island we basically relaxed and explored the island all weekend. 

Gerupuk- Surf Camp Lombok 

2 weeks

After my second two weeks it still was not enough and I was able to extend for two more after the 3 day break.

I decided to invest in a hand shaped surfboard from the local shaping bay in Gerupuk. The dimensions for my board are: 6.6' x 20 3/4 x 2 1/2 with squash tail and pointed nose.


The pictures below were taken the boat in my final two weeks at the camp in the sessions group.

It was nice being in the sessions group because the theory was more intense which allowed for better personal progression. We also went out for dawnies at 5am and sunset surfs in the evenings. It was the best way to start and end any day.

Every camp I attended was absolutely amazing with great people, great waves and great adventure.

Mt. Rinjani 

2 nights

After my final camp was over 6 of us went on a 3 day 2 night hike to Mt Rinjani. We did the hike through a company so we had a couple of guides, porters, and were joined by a few other hikers. After the first day of hiking we got to our camp and it started down pouring rain! We were all freezing and just standing outside in the rain. None of the guides or porters were helping our group and we all wanted to be inside a tent so I finally had no more patience and went to our guide to ask for a tent so I could put it up myself. I wasn't rude about it I just was tired of standing around getting cold and wet so wanted to do something change the situation since we were all literally standing in the pouring rain shaking because of the cold. However, when I asked they didn't give me the tent but said they would put it up in a minute. Our tents were finally put up and we all tried to get dry and warm before going to sleep. I didn't even eat dinner because I was so uncomfortable I just wanted to get some sleep. On our second day of hiking we stopped and had lunch by some waterfalls before continuing on to find our camp site for the evening. The second day and evening were a lot more pleasant because although it was still cold it did not rain! We all took pictures of monkeys, had dinner, and watched the sunset. On the final day of hiking we got up at 4:30am and were at the top of Rinjani for sunrise. It was a difficult morning of hiking in the dark but overall an amazing journey. After summiting we returned to camp where we had breakfast and packed up camp. As we were nearing the end of our hike it began to rain again; this time the rain was refreshing and made a good conclusion to the trip. Overall it was a fun, challenging and beautiful hike over the three days.

Kuta Lombok 

2 nights

After the trek I returned to Kuta with Robbie and Ben. When we arrived we had a well deserved dinner of wood fired pizza. They were returning to Surf Camp in Gerupuk and as much as I wanted to to back and continue surfing I already had purchased my plane ticket back to the states and need to go to Singapore for my flight home.

After 2 more nights in Kuta at Surfers Paradise I boarded an afternoon flight to Singapore.