Leaving for Europe

In a few hours, I’ll be heading to the airport to board my flight to Spain . Spain is the start of another long round-the-world journey. After three years, I’ve finally managed to time my schedule with La Tomatina and will joyfully be throwing tomatoes at the event on Wednesday. But Spain is just the beginning.

After Spain, I’ll be heading east through France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. I also plan on making a few stops in Sweden and Austria. Overall, this trip will last about three months, after which I plan on going to New Zealand and Australia. I have no dates and no itinerary for any of this, though. I don’t really travel with a plan , and I’ll move as fast or slow as I feel is necessary. This trip is going to allow me to see many of the people I haven’t seen in years while seeing a few new countries along the way.

But what really excites me is what I plan to do with this trip. One of my failings has always been a lack of notes. I recently tried to write a post on Edinburgh only to realize I forgot all the interesting stories and my journal was a little short on details. Not this time, though. This time I plan on writing a lot more down and uncovering more facts and stories for the blog posts. It’s time to take the writing to a whole new level.

More importantly it’s time to, in the words of Emril, “kick it up a notch.” Pretty soon you’ll be seeing video blog entries on this site. I have no idea how to use my camcorder yet, but once I figure that out, you can expect a lot of videos. I plan on shooting destination videos—mini travel shows about different cities. I’m also toying with the idea of creating a running documentary on long-term travel. I’d like to interview various travelers along the way and talk about why we go, what we do, and the experiences we have. I just need to figure out the logistics of that.

While I’ve had fun coming home, I’m a perpetual nomad . Traveling is in my DNA. I’m ready to finally hit the road again. Two months is a long time for me to be still, and I’m looking forward to unearthing some more of the secrets this big planet has to offer.

See you from across the pond!

For more information, visit my page on backpacking Europe .