My Travel Ticker

The Cities, Countries, Continents, and miles I have traveled color coded by year

Arizona to Moscow, Russia - 6,043
Arizona to Doha, Qatar - 8,293

Doha, Qatar to Johannesburg, South Africa - 3,887

Johannesburg, South Africa to London, United Kingdom - 5,634

London, United Kingdom to Dublin, Ireland - 349

Dublin, Ireland to Paris, France - 639

Paris, France to Madrid, Spain - 793

Madrid, Spain to Barcelona, Spain - 382

Barcelona, Spain to Florence, Italy - 672

Florence, Italy to Rome, Italy - 170

Rome, Italy to Venice, Italy - 330

Venice, Italy to Vienna, Austria - 389

Vienna, Austria to Munich, Germany - 252

Munich, Germany to Cologne, Germany - 350

Cologne, Germany to Berlin, Germany - 356

Berlin, Germany to Prague, Czech Republic - 216

Prague, Czech Republic to Budapest, Hungary - 328

Budapest, Hungary to Krakow, Poland - 245

Krakow, Poland to Madrid, Spain - 1,321

Madrid, Spain to Arizona - 5,602
Arizona to New York to Tokyo, Japan - 5,798
Tokyo, Japan to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - 2,687
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 150
Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Phuket, Thailand - 430
Phuket, Thailand to Bangkok, Thailand - 429
Bangkok, Thailand to New York to Arizona - 8,530

Grand total of 48,232 miles
2 hemispheres, 3 continents, 19 countries, 22 cities, 64 days



Here are all the countries I've been to so far (March 2018)

AND MORE
TO BE ANNOUNCED

 2015
2016
2017

Create your own visited countries map or check out the JavaScript Charts.

Spread my wings and fly home

Me boarding my plane

Very tiny plane

After Krakow I called the wonderful man that I know who booked me a cheap flight home because I never bought a return ticket so I could do my trip on my terms with nothing holding me to a schedule. While in Krakow he told me I needed to fly back to Madrid in order to get my flight to come home. I flew Ryanair which is decent and okay for a 4 hour flight even though it is VERY tiny and VERY cramped however I got some good photos of me in front of the plane which was cool. I asked him to keep this a secret from my family and he did, so no one in my family knew I was coming home. I wanted it to be a surprise and it sure was. I arrived at the Madrid airport at about midnight and my flight didn't leave the next day until about 11am so I slept, very uncomfortably but I slept on a bench in the airport on my backpack. I am the Queen of sleeping anywhere at anytime now. I woke up at about 5am and to my surprise Burger King was finally open, I chatted up some fellow travelers, got an oreo milkshake (oh yes) and went to the booths in the back and slept more while charging my phone. I slept 5 more hours which was amazing and then I went to catch my flight which was delayed about 4 times and then it didn't leave until about 2pm. I chatted up a family who was from LA and they told me they brought their son to Madrid to see the Running of the Bulls and his commentary on it was that everyone was VERY drunk and use squirt guns to shoot liquor at each other. The mother inquired about my trip and his whole family was rather nice, they boarded a different plane before me and I wish them well on their way. I finally got to board my plane and I was very happy to see that I had three seats all to myself, which is just wonderful. I slept basically the whole time.



I love window seats

Instructions I was given to get to my terminal

     I had to fly into Dallas to make my flight home and it was literally one disaster after the next. I was literally running from one thing to the next. I arrived about two hours before my flight which meant I had to go through customs, and get searched and then find my terminal. I was able to cheat the VERY LONG line in customs by telling a nice man of my predicament and he let me in front. After trying to find the Skyrail to get to my terminal I was told to exit through certain doors which out me back out, in the end of customs. It was about 25 minutes to my flight and I shower another man my stamped ticket that I had already gone through customs and he put me in front after explaining my terrible situation. 10 minutes before my flight I boarded the Skyrail and I arrived at my terminal 5 minutes after it closed.  I was running to it, running for my life and I still missed it, but apparently so did another guy and he started knocking loudly on the door until an attendant came up and we explained our situation and I guess they were already delayed because of a food cart delivery being late and they let us board. Miracles happen people! So then we flew home and I was picked up at the airport and went to go get my truck from where I parked it at work. Then I drove home, anxiously may I add. I walked up that flight of stairs and just opened the front the door and the looks on my moms face was priceless. Her mouth basically fell the ground and I could swore I may have saw a tear or two. The next day I drove to my grandparents and I walked up to their front door saying 'anybody home' and they just about jumped up and ran to hug me. I gotta say, this has to be one of my favorite ways to be welcomed home. I'm back home now, about a month now and all I dream of is when I leave again and where. I'm happy to be home though.




Look at these faces, How could I not be happy to be home?

A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year

One of the streets of Krakow

The title above has got to be one of my favorite sayings ever. I feel as though it's incredibly accurate. I valued my time in every city and every moment I was abroad. I took the time to look at everything, try everything and love every moment while doing it. I am home now and yet all I do is still see myself back in Europe. I remember every detail, every person, everything and I miss it more than ever now. I also keep swearing I'm going to runaway back to Europe whenever it's too hot here, which it always is. I'm sure you're wondering where my trip ended and my trip came to a halt when I got to Krakow, Poland.

I love these carriages

     My whole trip I met tons of people around my age, whether a ta younger or older and all of us had the same thing in common which was to go to Poland and see Auschwitz. A dark past that is still so present. I had to meet at least 40 other people who were all going here. It was meaningful to see so many other people, especially young people who wanted to never forgot, who wanted to revisit the past to learn from it and to pay their respects. I spent two days in Krakow, one seeing the city and one in Auschwitz. I'll start off with the city part first. The city of Krakow is a boring city, the people there realize it, so there isn't much there besides a really cool market and square. I did a walking tour and then some shopping of course. I found a Mexican restaurant that was just about as far from a Mexican restaurant as it was in Dublin. The guy just kept repeating that the Jalapenos they had were imported from Mexico. So I guess that is now what makes a Mexican restaurant. Main market square was pretty and I really enjoyed shopping around especially because my hostel was about a 20 minute walk to it, it was a nice walk. When I left Krakow, I took a taxi to the airport and I met such a lovely man. He was learning English so he could move to Australia and he was happy to have me help him with it. He was saying how he was struggling and how he couldn't imagine that I was able to do my trip all by myself for so long. I told him one of my favorite sayings which is 'Where there is a will, there is a way'. He had my write it down for him and he was truly obsessed with the quote after I told him it. If you want to do something bad enough you will find a way. There is always a way no matter how hard the path may be.


     Now onto the more difficult part of my trip which was Auschwitz. I caught a bus here at about 6 in the morning with a tour group. We split into 5 people groups and had headphones on while our tour guide whispered into a microphone on her shirt. The whole experience is surreal and very quiet. No one is talking much and everyone is just silently shuffling around following their tour guides. Auschwitz has now been turned into a variety of museums to commemorate the former concentration camp. They have rooms dedicated to the belongings of those left there, such as a room of shoes, prosthetics, luggage and even a room of hair. There was one exhibit in particular that sticks out in my mind. This exhibit had videos playing from videos of families at the park and river, doing fun family things and then slowly the exhibit turned to Nazi rallies and camps. It was, well honestly I don't have any words to describe any of this, I don't know how I felt, I don't know how to describe it. We soon went onto Birkenau which was where the majority of crematoriums were held. We saw where certain ones had been blown up and the tracks that many came in on. The whole thing was surreal but I find it crazy that NO grass grows around where the crematoriums were. It is a solid 3 feet of dirty with not one blade of grass. The rest of the site is covered in weeds, flowers and grass except certain areas. I feel like I do not need to add captions to these photos.

You might wonder why end my trip on this, well it worked out for the way I was moving across Europe first and I didn't think of it as me ending on a bad note, it was more, me ending on a solemn note to think about the past, present and future. I won't forget the past, I will honor it in the present and it has shaped my future, which is ever so bright.



I think it's a sign for me

Is it Budapest or Budapest

Weird title right? Well let me explain, the name of Budapest is commonly mispronounced which no one really notices but after you travel around Europe and go there, you get corrected often. Bu-da-pest is actually pronounced bu-da-pesht. using the word 'pest' is actually a term for the black plague so it is pronounced 'pesht'. Now on to my time in Hungary!

The few of Buda, walking over the bridge

The view of Pest from the top of the palace

     Budapest was a blast and my whole time throughout Europe I heard great things about it from it being cheap to it being beautiful, my two favorite things. After arriving in Budapest from Prague one of the first things I saw was a Hooters, which was hilarious and then I saw the ever so prevalent TGI-Fridays which is literally all over Europe. I arrived later on in the day so I chose to grab some dinner and head to bed. In my hostel I met a guy whose card had been deactivated by his bank because when you travel internationally you need to provide your bank with an itinerary or they might shut off your card because why would there randomly be charges from all of the Europe when supposedly you're in the US. I let him use my cell phone which mind you doesn't work without Wi-Fi. I have a great app when travelling call Viber. The great thing about Viber is you can call landline phones with the app and buy an hours worth of minutes for only 1USD which my family loves because not everyone has a smartphone and with most other apps you can only call people who have the same app you do. I let him use my phone to call his bank which was a balancing act for keeping good bars for the reception. After that we went to the grocery store and talked about where we are from. He was from Oregon. He partied that night where as I laid in bed and read a book. Even when travelling I need to relax.

I couldn't resist a bird on my head

I miss my lizards

     The next day I offered for him to come on a walking tour with me and he took me up on it. We walked around all of Budapest which is two sides, there is Buda and then there is Pest. We were staying on the Pest side so we had to cross the chain bridge and made some other friends while we were walking. We saw the vacation palace which is just a bunch of museums now and got some great photos and afterwards we went to a Zoo Café which was great. I love animals so of course it was  great. The food was super sub-par but the animals were wonderful. After telling the waiter of my experience with all the species of animals they had, he soon just let me open the enclosures and take the animals out which I went crazy with. I annoyed everyone at the table with my knowledge and I'm sure I made one or two of them dislike me, but after missing my animals for over a month at this time I needed some good lizard time.

The next country I'm heading too is my last for this trip