July 18th - August 1st, 2011 Made it across into Turkey with no issues! Spent the first night at a beach resort town called Oludeniz Beach. Sarah had a friend recommend a place called Butterfly Valley which is where he has been and would be leaving the day we arrived. Butterfly Valley started in the 60’s and was a place where hippies went to be one with nature. Talking with much of the staff, it seems like it has kept its charm but due to new ownership this year, has begun to change quickly. The only way to reach BV is by a 30 minute ferry from Oludeniz which was rather interesting. On the ferry we met a German guy traveling solo who was living in Istanbul for 6 months and we ended up spending most ... read more

Goals Completed - Ride an elephant in Thailand (05/11/11; Chiang Mai, Thailand) - Swim naked and/or a nude beach (05/24/11; 05/29/11) - Ride a Vespa and/or Segway (04/12/11; Beijing, China) - Give up my seat (06/21/11; Plane to Lisbon; got upgraded to 1st class because I did) - Do something that gets me truly scared (07/08/11 ; Running of the bulls, Spain) - Do the running of the bulls (07/08/11 ; Pamplona, Spain) - If injured by bull, have a clip of it make Tosh.0 (N/A ; Sorry) - See a sunrise and sunset on the same day (07/17/11 ; Santorini, Greece) Half Credit - Spend the night somewhere unexpected - I was on an overnight bus that was supposed to arrive at 6am. It got in at 2am. Since its too early to check in ... read more

July 6th VIVA SAN FERMIN, PAMPLONA AND THE RUNNING OF THE BULLS! I just arrived at my hotel in Pamplona and already the craziness of the festival is all around. I was hoping that last night I would get a good nights sleep on my last day in Madrid but I got 4 new roommates in my hostel, and it turns out they are 4 American guys in law school at Oklahoma State and they planned on doing the run also. So I helped them get bus tickets on the same bus as me (saving them about $80 each) and we started chatting away. I showed them the tips the guy gave me and i showed them some of my videos from the bull fight and we decided that we would try to do the run ... read more

June 27-28th (The first run is on July 7th) Right now I am in Seville, Spain and just spent over an hour at dinner with a guy from southern Spain that has done the run every year since he was 18 (over 20 years). This was the first time I am actually nervous about the run and it is still 10 days away. I am writing this more for myself so I can reread this several times as the run approaches, but it can also fill in my faithful readers as to what the run and festival is about. I will also be updating this post several times as the run approaches so make sure to check back. I will mark a new date at the start of each section but it will not show up ... read more

The first leg of my journey, my pursuit of happiness, my escape from reality or whatever else you would like to call it is over. My first continent is done. So i thought i would write a little summary of my thoughts, things i liked, disliked and anything else i feel like typing. Countries I Conquered (Listed Favorite To Least Favorite) Cambodia Days Spent In: 7 (June 4th-11th) Cities: Phnom Penh, Kampot; Siem Reap Likes: Angkor Wat/Bayon; Nicest and most welcoming people despite rough history and high poverty; They use the American dollar as their main currency, so I never had to do the math to convert it; Happy bars; Everything is cheap; The people made this my favorite country Dislikes: 99% of beggars are children; No trains; Most roads are not paved; No McDonalds; ... read more