tja78

Ecuador: Quito – When Chum and I landed in Quito we immediately felt the infrastructure was a few steps up over Peru. The road from the airport to the hotel was new and it seemed like there were a lot of newer buildings. The main reason to go to Ecuador was to see The Galapagos Islands. We still hadn’t confirmed our cruise because we couldn’t seem to confirm flights to the Galapagos. We discovered that the cheap flights on Avianca that we just couldn’t seem to book were for citizens of Ecuador. There was also a travel agent we were working with the book a cruise. When we got to Quito the first thing we did was try to go to his office. Chum was texting him and we told him we would come over. I ... read more

Chile: My arrival to the South American continent came on a 787 direct from Auckland. Santiago was the stop and I had plans to meet my friend Alex, his wife Jo Ana, and his brother and parents. Alex and I went to Duquesne together and worked at Deloitte as well. It was good to finally meet people I knew. We were all staying at the url=http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1979&language=en_USW Santiago, which made it convenient. After checking in and getting situated I meet the family in the lobby and we went to a great restaurant called url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294305-d928983-Reviews-Happening-Santiago_Santiago_Metropolitan_Region.htmlHappening. The next day we went on a tour of a few wineries and to Valparaiso. The wineries were amazing and the bus ... read more

Japan: Fukuoka – This was my entry point on the island. A friend of mine that I worked with at Accenture lived there for a few years on the JET Programme and loved it. She sent me a bunch of recommendations for Fukuoka, along with the rest of the country. I left a sunny Seoul to arrive in a rainy Fukuoka. It was a welcome change, given I hadn’t seen rain in over 4 months. Los Angeles doesn’t get much rain. Come to think of it, the last time I saw rain was in Pittsburgh in June. Either way, it was nice to see. I took the subway to downtown and got off at the exit closest to where I thought my hotel was. I booked a small independent hotel. I asked a guy at the ... read more

Getting back in the saddle: It’s that time of life again. I’ve decided to take another multi-country trip. Though I don’t plan to physically circumnavigate the globe again, I do plan on hitting a good number of countries over the next 3+ months. I’m hoping to take some of the lessons from my last trip. This time I got a friend to rent my place for a few months. I also have credit cards that don’t have international fees. Most importantly I switched to T-Mobileand get free text messages, unlimited 2G data, and $0.20 phone calls if I’m not on wifi. On wifi it’s as if I’m in the US. This is a huge difference over the last time, as I was constantly jumping into coffee shops or McDonalds’ to check my email or Facebook. Back ... read more

I've decided that it's time to end the international portion of my trip. In Italy I decided that I would go to Portugal and Ireland and then head back to the US. I've been traveling for 7 months now and feel that it's time for me to head back home. I've had an amazing trip so far. However, I'm looking forward to being in the US and driving cross country with my dad. Leaving Italy was tough. I wanted to stay in Venice as long as I could. The hostel I stayed at had some weird rules, like opening at 7:00 am. I had to catch my bus at 7:20 so it didn't leave me much time. My flight to Lisbon went through Brussels. On the way there we circled over Venice one last time. Portugal: ... read more