Back in the Proverbial Saddle
I've arrived in LA after having covered some serious ground, visiting Tanzania, Egypt, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy.
The highs were many and the lows few, but I especially enjoyed seeing some incredible animals during the five day safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, recovering from the safari at glorious Nungwi beach on Zanzibar, spending time with good friends and discovering chaotic Cairo, contemplating life in peaceful and beautiful Switzerland, relaxing on the beaches of stunning Positano, and reconnecting with family in Belgium.
I find that travelling provides me with perspective by exposing me to different ways of life and values systems, which forces me to reconsider my own, and by unplugging me from the grid for a long period of time. I was burned out when I left Connecticut, and during the early stages of the trip, I was frankly glad to be away from computers. By the end of the trip, though, I was getting a serious itch to see what had happened in the weeks that I was unplugged. (Lots, it turns out, and that's just with Fox.)
Since I arrived here on Thursday, I've enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather (27 Celsius / 80 Fahrenheit with a nice breeze), found a sweet pad in Santa Monica several blocks from the beach, been to the beach both days this weekend, had a really cool and challenging first project waiting for me at Fox, and enjoyed meeting the new folks and seeing some familiar faces at the office. I count myself lucky that life has been very, very good lately.
Subscribe by email
Comments (Post | Latest)
that is one bad ass trip!!! how did you plan it? travel agent or on your own? if you could do it over again..would you plan it the same way?
It sure was. We planned it ourselves. We had a list as long as your arm of countries we wanted to visit (the original plan was to travel for a year, but this Fox gig was too good to pass up), so we narrowed it down based on several criteria:
- We definitely wanted to go on safari, as we'd been talking about it for some time, and I had a good friend living in Tanzania for the summer so the landing would be soft
- We wanted to visit family in Switzerland and Belgium
- In between Tanzania and Belgium, I wanted to go somewhere kind of off the beaten path. It just happens that I called my old college roommate in mid-June to wish him Happy Birthday, and he twisted my rubber arm into coming to see him in Cairo
- Italy just kinda fell in there
Once we figured out how long we were going for, it was just a matter of figuring out how long we would spend in each country. Buying the tickets was a pain in the ass, but I purchased e-tickets online, except for my ticket to Cairo. That, I bought from AfricaPoint.com, when I was searching for cheaper options than the $1k+ that Expedia was charging for a one-way ticket from Nairobi to Cairo (AfricaPoint charged me $420, but the paper ticket was dropped off at my hotel in Nairobi the day before I left). One one ticket, I flew JFK - Arusha and Zurich - LAX, then had a one-way ticket from Nairobi - Cairo (we took the bus from Arusha to Nairobi) and Cairo to Brussels. From Brussels, we took the train to Switzerland, hung out there for a week, flew RT to Rome on Swiss for a week, and then I flew to LAX on the back end of my ticket.