Crossing the Rubicon

Rover Al

Crossing the Rubicon

I'm one of those people that if something can go wrong, it will for me. I love to travel and wherever I go, something is always happening. It didn't take me long to realize I had to turn every disaster into an adventure be it floods, war, or strikes (which have all happened to me overseas). Enjoy my stories!

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Since I Left



RTW (4/5/11)



North America » United States » Ohio » Cleveland March 24th 2012

Hello all you faithful blog readers! I have finally made it back home and for the first time in a long time, I have no flights or trips booked. To wrap up my year of traveling and blogging I figured I would make the last entry an epic three part series that tell the stats, questions I'm asked, and what I learned and could teach others! So if you have any questions please message me and I will do my best to answer them. Now for some of the good stuff, and before you ask, all of these stats are as accurate as I could get them and true... ENJOY! Continents visited: 5 of 7 Continents visited three times on this trip: 2 (Asia & Europe) Countries visited: 29 Countries visited for the first time: 25 ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London March 20th 2012

I finally made it to one of the world’s top visited cities, London, England. Well this blog is actually for two visits I had to London. I first stopped for only a few days to celebrate my 30th birthday with Nicci before I continued on to see a little more of Europe. I then returned to London for a few weeks and celebrated Nicci’s birthday and to see the sites. This blog title comes from the greeting many Brits use and despite the fact we technically speak the same language, I never could understand them. Instead of saying “Hey” they greet by asking, “Are you alright?” The problem is they say it so fast I kept thinking they just walk up to people and say “Alright.” Nicci had to explain it to me and I even ... read more
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Europe » Czech Republic » Prague March 3rd 2012

While checking out of the Blues Hostel, the receptionist put a roll of paper towels right next to a candle and while she was giving me directions to the bus station, the paper towels caught fire. Luckily for everyone in the hostel, I kept my calm while she was running around looking for water. I jumped into action and was able to tear the part on fire from the rest of the roll and finally she dumped a glass of water on it. Once out of the hostel, I took a 9:30 bus to Prague. The bus was over 30 minutes late and by the time it got there, I was just about frozen. A short 4 hours and 20 minutes later I made it to Prague, Czech Republic! I took the bus cause it was ... read more
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Europe » Slovakia » Bratislava Region » Bratislava February 27th 2012

I never would have guessed it but my trip has taken me to the location of the first “Hostel” movie, Bratislava, Slovakia. Where kids kill and torture tourists for a piece of bubble gum. Within ten minutes of being there, I witnessed stuff like that happening. So I went to the happiest sounding hostel I could find, Blues Hostel. Alright, so the real Bratislava is nothing like that. Its not any more rundown then any other city and probably more English speakers then elsewhere on my European tour. Throw in the fact that this city had more beautiful girls then almost anywhere else, fewer cars, less tourists and you can walk the entire city in less than an hour, Bratislava turned out to be pretty awesome. I had no plan on coming to Slovakia but in ... read more
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Europe » Austria » Vienna February 25th 2012

I feel like I cheated on Nicci. And with an American. I mean, and with an American guy! But I will get to that in a little. I caught a 2.5 hour bus from Budapest to Vienna with no problems and a few tube station later I was at my hostel, Wombats. It was huge, hundreds of beds but most were empty but still probably over a hundred people there. It was also one of the nicer places I have stayed at. But now that my better half (Nicci) is no longer traveling with me, I am back to mostly 6-8-10 bed dorms. Ten minutes after getting my room, in he comes. His name is Eric and he is 30 from South Carolina and kinda traveling to Europe on a business he started and visiting family ... read more
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Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest February 23rd 2012

Hello Blogreaders! Nice to have you back Right now I am in Vienna, Austria so I have some catching up to do. After being home for a few weeks, I went to London, England to spend my 30th birthday with Nicci. All of that will be blogged about later cause I am returning to London next week and will just do one post covering it all. So on Feb 19th I flew to Budapest, Hungary from London on EasyJet, one of Europe’s low cost airlines. Actually had no problems! Well no problems till I got to Hungary. Really it was only a small thing at the time so please try to contain your excitement. I had the directions to my hostel written down which was basically catching two trains and walking five minutes. When I landed ... read more
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Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London February 16th 2012

Hello All I am back on the road again after two weeks back at home in Cleveland. I am currently in London visiting the best girl ever! The plan is to spend my 30th birthday weekend here with Nicci then I will be flying to Budapest, Hungary and probably going to Prague and into Poland before flying back to London for another two weeks. I will keep everyone updated... read more

North America » United States » Ohio » Cleveland February 12th 2012

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 and several more, turns out I kinda like it) - 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) - Hitchhike somewhere (12/15/11 ; La Paz, Bolivia) (09/28/11 ; Waitomo, N... read more

South America » Peru » Lima January 27th 2012

MANCORA (01/08/12 - 01/12/12) Since I loved the town of Montanita so much, Nicci and I decided to stop at a similar city in northern Peru called Mancora. This was nice cause it broke up another long bus ride it would have taken to get from Ecuador to Lima. Now we had a ten hour overnight bus (for only $17) that crossed the boarder at 4am into Peru. We were lucky cause I decided to book ahead at one of the most popular hostels in the world, Loki Del Mar. The hostel was amazing, seemed like a nice resort with a big pool overlooking the ocean, balcony for every room and a huge lounge and bar area with many games like ping pong, giant Connect-4, pool and much more. About 15-20 people from our bus raced ... read more
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South America » Ecuador » West » Montañita January 7th 2012

Wow, what a surprise Ecuador was. I just learned to go into every country with low expectations. Ecuador was a place I haven’t heard to many backpackers talking about, and after Colombia kinda disappointed me, I wasn’t expecting much. The only thing I heard about Ecuador was the weather can change within minutes (being only a few miles from the equator though the weather is constant all year round) and the high amount of crime, often involving the police scamming the tourists. Nicci and I landed in the capital Quito late on the 30th and checked into a hostel called the Colonial House. The first night we just crashed cause we had to catch three flights that day, Santa Marta to Bogota, Bogota to Medellin, Medellin to Quito. On New Years Day I just walked around ... read more
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