Whoa, does time fly or what!? Already six months ago today I hopped onto an airplane and began this incredible journey! So far it’s been quite an adventure filled with mostly ups and just a few downs, and I can’t wait to see what the future has to offer. With six months being a pretty good milestone, I thought this would be a great time to reflect on how the journey has been so far with a brief summary of where I’ve been and share what my near future plans ideas are.

On March 18, I said farewell to my parents as I set off on my first of many one-way flights. Sitting on the airplane, I watched the world speed up as we accelerated down the runway and eventually lifted off into the sky. Excitement grew with every meter of elevation gained. Finally, I was in it. All the stress of selling my things, tying up loose ends, making all the preparations for long term travel, saying goodbye to friends and family; all that stress, it vanished as soon as we left the ground.

That aircraft landed me back in Austin, TX to meet up with my group of climbing friends for my first adventure. We were heading off to Jasper, Arkansas for a week long climbing trip at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. After a successful trip filled with many good climbs, scrumptious meals at the Ozark Cafe, and an all-around good time with friends, we headed back to Austin where I chilled out for a week before I headed off to New York City.

I spent two weeks in the wonderful city of New York visiting friends, climbing north of the city in the Gunks, bouldering in Central Park, and enjoying all the city has to offer. This was my third time in NYC, and like the previous two visits I had a great time. I really, really like this city and will definitely be returning many times in the future!

From there it was time to begin my European tour. On April 13, I headed off to Oslo, Norway to meet up with 8 other friends where we spent 12 epic days visiting Bergen and the incredible Lofoten Islands. I haven’t seen enough of the world just yet to say for sure, but I can almost guarantee the Lofoten Islands rank among the most beautiful places on Earth. You can read all about my Norwegian adventures here, here, and here!

I landed in the Munich Airport on April 25, where… disaster struck. Tired from traveling and lacking focus, I managed to set my laptop down and walk away without it. By the time I realized it and made it back to the spot I set it down, it was gone with the wind. And on it, nearly every photo I took in Norway! This was a bit of a bummer, but I wasn’t going to let it get me down. After all it’s just a laptop that can be replaced and I can always (I will) revisit Norway and retake the photos. Plus, I have many months of travel ahead of me so why waste time being upset about it!

The first couple of weeks in Germany were spent visiting my long time friends from the States, Corey and Dave. They live in Weiden, a small city east of Nürnberg, where the US Army has stationed Dave. We did some adventuring visiting a few nearby towns, Munich, Nürnberg, Prag, and a weekend trip to Bratislava stopping in Vienna, Austria on the way back.

Now it was off to Leipzig were I spent 3 weeks visiting my friend Robert whom I met about 8 years ago when he was an exchange student at my high school. We shared 3rd period Math class and he was on the soccer team as well. Since high school, we’ve kept in touch and I made sure to visit while I was in Germany. Leipzig is an incredibly fun place where I spent all three weeks relaxing at the parks, playing soccer, going to open air raves, and drinking way too much beer. I also joined on a camping trip to Sächsischer Schweiz, which is a national park east of Dresden near the Czech boarder.

Berlin was next on the list. Since I had spent a week here 4 years ago, this time around I spent only a weekend visiting Judith, whom I hosted Couchsurfing in Austin last year, and her boyfriend. I got to see some sights I missed on my last visit and enjoyed some good company before I head out of Germany.

The next few weeks would be spent traveling quite a lot and meeting up with friends here and there. From Germany, my first stop was in Luxembourg. I spent a day there with my new friend Lewis, whom I met through Couchsurfing and stayed on his couch for the night. He gave me a tour of the small city and we had a great time hanging out around town.

The following day I was off to France where I stopped first in Nancy to visit Amelie and Emmanuel, whom I also hosted in Austin last year. Lucky for me, Emmanuel is a bit of a history nerd and gave me an excellent tour of Nancy complete with some really interesting history lessons on the city and surrounding area!

Next up was Paris, where I would spend a few days visiting Samer. He, along with Jay, were the first ever Couchsurfers that I’d hosted. Then on June 30, my birthday, I met up with my good friend Justin, whom I met living in Austin, as he passed through Paris on his way to Barcelona with his friend from college, Kristen. We had a really amazing time celebrating my birthday by getting drunk on wine, eating cheese and baguettes, and checking out some Euro Cup soccer on a big screen located under the Eiffel Tower.

That night we arrived back at the apartment pretty late after having trouble finding a taxi, so I ended up pulling an all nighter heading to the airport before the sun peeked over the horizon. I had an early flight to London where I would catch my connecting flight over to Ireland, the next destination on the trip.

In Ireland I met up with my friend Rusty Reno, an old school climber from the States, and his wife Juliana. We stayed 4 nights at his friend Sean’s place in Castlegregory where his mother was raised. Throughout the stay I managed to climb twice, including some sea cliff climbing where I got soaked by a big wave while belaying, hiked to the top of Mount Brandon, and enjoyed the company of good friends and the small town local crowd. Next I hopped on a bus headed for Dublin to spend a couple nights there before flying over the Irish Sea to England.

The first few days in England were spent in Bristol visiting James and Jared, whom again, I hosted last year couchsurfing! I had a really great time in Bristol climbing in the Cheddar Gorge and hanging out with James and Jared’s friends. After Bristol, I hopped on a bus with them and headed into London for the weekend. They had a Stag Party (translation: Bachelor Party) in London for one of their friends so I headed off to visit the city a bit and met up with them the next day.

To close out the trip, I left London and headed back to Germany where I met back up with Corey and Dave. We were headed to Croatia to attend Ultra Music Festival with Braxton and Sandra. After the festival, the others dispersed back to their homes and I stayed here for a bit. I spent another week chilling in the Split area and climbing with my new friend Marin.

I then got on a bus and made my way to Starigrad Paklenica, where I am currently residing. My original idea was to stay for a weekend then move on. It’s now been 52 days. I’ve been camping out here and climbing all the time, at least until recently when disaster stuck. About 2 week ago, I hiked to the top of Anića Kuk to snag a clear photo of the stars. On my way down, about 50 meters from the 712 meter summit, my right leg slipped and fell between two boulders causing my left leg to twist inwards severely hyper extending the inside of my knee. Fortunately the injury wasn’t so severe that I couldn’t manage to hike off on my own saving me a call in to the Mountain Rescue team. However, it was still a pretty painful 2 hour hike back to camp. Now because I haven’t seen much improvement, tomorrow afternoon I visit the doctor to get an Ultrasound to see if I will need surgery or not.

So now what? In theory, later this week I will start making my way down to Dubrovnik to spend a couple nights there before I depart from Croatia and head into Bosnia and Herzegovina. From there I’ll be heading east without much of a plan but I will likely be stopping in Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Then at some point I’ll turn back around heading back to Central Europe when my Schengen Visa resets and I can return. While back in the Schengen Area, I will be meeting up with Ellie, a friend I hosted Couchsurfing last year and we’ll do some traveling together while she is in Europe. After that, who knows! Anything is possible!