This trip has taught me a lot about myself, both in positive and negative lights.  On the positive side, this trip has proved to myself that I can drop myself into random countries which I know nothing about, adapt, and make my way around without relying on anyone else. For my age, it’s astounding that I have opportunities such as this, and I’m glad that I’ve finally had the time to un-latch from the day to day and actually get out there and try to experience new things.  It’s been eye-opening and humbling at the same time.

On the negative side, it’s showcased some unfortunate sides to my personality.  When you’re sitting down at Michelin-starred restaurants at a table for one, there’s a problem.    My inability to adapt in relationships and subsequently going at things independently has left a pretty big hole in my personal life.    I’m a bit more of a loner compared to most, but I think this trip has showed me that there are better routes I can take when dealing with people, and if I don’t start adapting soon, I’ll be eating at tables for one for a long time.  

For most people, the thought of eating alone at a fancy restaurant is absolutely terrifying – for me, it’s not so bad.   I can thoroughly enjoy a meal or a concert alone - and travelling by one’s self is certainly much less stressful in certain regards than travelling with others.  Taking such a journey by one’s self certainly forces to you to take stock in your life and focus on what’s important, as there are no other voices to distract you.    Sure, there are new places and concerns to drag your mind away from your day to day problems, but when you’re in some mode of transportation for nearly 20,000 miles, you have time to think.  Lots of time to think.

Emotional ramblings aside, there was much which was learned about the world in this trip.    I learned that you can buy beer from vending machines in the street in Tokyo, and that ketchup in Germany tastes sweet.  I’ve learned that Paris is more or less a ghost town before 8 AM, which makes for some pretty surreal views, such as being the absolute ONLY person in the massive Louvre courtyard, feeling somewhat like a scene from “I Am Legend” (one of several films viewed over the long Tokyo to London flight). I’ve learned that British Airways international flights are amazingly good, whereas United pretty much sucks ass, and that Andrew Bird is a much better artist than I originally gave him credit for.    Also, I now possess the calf muscles of a Greek god, thanks to all the walking done over the past two weeks.

Alright.  On to stuff.

Tokyo

+ Shibuya and Harajuku - Amazing places unlike anything in the U.S.
+ Toilets from the future - I must have one.
+ Efficient and inexpensive subway systems - Most rides are about $1-2.
- Subway complexity - Bizarre system can be overwhelming to new users (me).
- Yen have too many zeroes - Accidently pulling out 300,00 Yen ($300) instead of 30,000 Yen ($30).
+ Love love love the Vending machines everywhere - Including beer vending machines (!)
+ Shibuya crossing - I do believe I actually smiled while crossing this, amazing.
+ Kaoru - Meeting up with my sole Japanese friend after five years! We got Katsu in Harajuku.
+ Akihabara - Finally seeing this mecca of nerd-dom. 
+ Asusaka - Beatiful ancient buildings which I never would have found on my own.
- Members only - Having to borrow a jacket to eat at a fancy restaraunt, which made me look 12 years old.

Paris

+ Photo friendly - Paris is always beatiful, and I was able to re-create one of my favorite photos on the Arc de Triomphe.
+ La Defense - An amazing building and complex, much, much larger than originally expected.
+ Yom - During the France/Italy soccer match, the good Italian restaraunts in Paris were deserted, allowing me to snag some great local pizza.
+ Ghost town -  A completely (and I mean /completely/) deserted Louvre.  Surreal.
- Lost - Unfounately positioned hotel meant I got lost about a half-dozen times trying to find it, even with maps. 
- Loud Loud Loud - Parisians!  Quit honking your damn car horns all the time, it's so un-refined.
- I'm old - Even at this point, my feet were killing me and I had to frequently stop and rest.
- Le sighs - Spilling a glass of beer over myself at the train station.  Not a good day.
- Headache ahoy - A terrible headache made my last day in Paris miserable, esp. waiting in a busy trainstation for my overnight train to...

Berlin

+ Swisshotel Berlin - Top notch quality, including a full-fledged espresso bar in each room. 
+ Restaraunt 44 - Well deserved of its Michelin star, great high-end German cuisine with excellent personal attention.
+ The waitress who said (You enjoy, yah?) after bringing and explaining every dish. Hee.
- Currywurst - Kind of tasty, but mostly pretty gross.  Something which had to be tried locally.
- Hamburgers - I honestly thought Germany could do the humble hamburger better, but unfortunately nay.
+ Street Boozing - You can buy beers from street vendors and drink them on the street.  I took advantage.
- Do You Speak English? - Street beggars who prey on tourists got irritating to deal with.
+ Sony Center - Amazing architecture and a great modern European vibe.
+ Berlin Zoo - Going on a weekday morning allowed for closeup views of pandas and polar bears with almost no crowds.
+ Football - Feeling the city literally move due to cheers during penalty kicks in a Euro 2008 match.
- Football - Idiots with Turkish flags who just drive around all day honking their horns. You have no lives and are useless.

Zurich

+ The Alps - Getting to ride in gondolas to the Swiss Alps and play in the snow, amazing fun.
+ Lucerne - Like going back in time.  Oldest apothecary in Europe is here. 
- Rough prices.  Burger and a beer? 30 francs, which equals out to about 26-27 USD.  Everything is expensive.
- The heat.  Surprisingly hot for Switzerland (high 85-90F), even for summertime.
+ The heat. Made going into the mountains downright perfect, temperature wise.
+ Swiss precision - Everything is on time, nothing is half-assed.
- Meh meals - For a country known to have solid cuisine (chocolate and cheese, mostly), nothing here really amazed me.
- A/C - Most buildings don't have A/C, and refridgerators here only bring temps down to (very) slightly under room temp.   Weak.
+ Applewine - I could drink this stuff all day.  Not overly sweet, just a hint of booze.
 

See you in 19,206 miles.

Hey peoples.  If interested in my travels over the next few weeks, be sure to check out the Flickr stream, as this is the only place I'll be updating at.

I had a few moments to go through my old photos (my Mother just got broadband - just making sure nothing was too crazy out there for her to see).  A lot of good shots in there!  Here are a few of my favorites, and why.

Stockholm Bar. Late night. First time I drank a white ale. Love the colors dancing and the depth differences.

San Francisco. Outdoor concert. Black and white photography session produced great results. The despair is undeniable.

Los Angeles. Getty museum. Strict, bold shapes with smooth corners.

Phoenix. Home for Christmas. Shows emptiness with tons of happening in the shot. I like that.

Le' sighs. The Biz. This is just an amazingly framed shot, I think. Emotional baggage is strong with a lot of photos in this timeframe.

New York City. MoMa. Soft lighting like this NEVER happens naturally. So warm and inviting, yet full of metal and glass.

Perhaps my favorite photo of all time. Paris, taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe looking over Paris to La Defense. Perfect amount of bleakness and business with perfect coloring and so much to absorb.

This weekend, I went down to the city of Angels, as my nanners turned a ripe old 90.  That means she was born in 1918.  This.. this is insane.    If I live to be the same age, it will be the year 2071.    Somehow, it doesn’t seem plausible that yours truly will be scooting around at this age.  Anything is possible, though.

Several things were learned about my family.

1)    Apparently, I have a carbon copy set of physical features to my grandfather on my mother’s side.  A photo of him recently was found of him in Germany in 1942 when he met my grandmother.   The likeness is scary.   Also interesting to note, in 1942, Germany was in WWII.  Obviously, the question I’m now presenting to myself is.. was my grandfather a member of some sort of .. ahem.. government party at the time?   Honestly, I don’t know the answer – I didn’t even think to ask of it.

2)    Also interesting!  My nanners built cluster bombs for the US Government during the war.  She worked for Honeywell, who was making thermomenters at the time, when the Gov’t got them to switch to bombs instead.  So, they happily made bombs.   Granted, this was pretty standard practice at the time, so I do not hold this against her.  It’s just an interesting thing to suddenly find out about one’s close relative.  

3)    I got the chance to sit down with her and get some 1-on-1 questions about her life.  The answers definitely impacted me.   After 90 years, the vast majority of her memories are of work.  Working three jobs – working for x number of years at x place.   Work, work, work.   She worked.  A lot.   Granted, she was raising two kids on her own and this was a necessity to keep mouths fed, but I can’t help if that work ethic has worked its way down to me through my Dad.    

In any case, it was sad that her core memories were regarding work rather than happier topics like travel, love, food, experiences, anything else.  I do not want to end up like this.   I have got to stop working so much – focusing on it and shutting everything else, and try to build myself a real life outside of tasks and deadlines.  This actually made me think much more than I expected to, gave me a fresh perspective on things.  I’m sure this wasn’t her intended purpose – as she still preaches the “work hard until you die” message.

Part of the reason why I work so hard is that I really have trouble believing that Silicon Valley is real.  Like, the amounts which most of us in the tech industry get paid are unheard of at our ages, and it all still feels like somewhat of a dream.   All of the stuff we’ve worked on, one day everyone will just realize that this whole Internet thing is a fad and that’s done.  We won’t have any “real” skills to survive on.   I’m still telling myself that this thing is here to stay, and that what I do is actually a valued skill in today’s environment.    Dudes, I just make pretty graphics and write some code to make things look pretty and figure out stuff should be organized – this doesn’t seem like a “real” skill.   If I tried to tell my nanners what I do, she wouldn’t even comprehend that what I do is a real task, much less that I should get paid for doing it.    I’ve settled on just saying “I work with computers”, which is met with a casual “Oh, mmkay” and a shared understanding that she doesn’t really comprehend what I’m saying. 

 

However – we do provide a product.  This product delivers information, entertainment, and commerce-related services to those who are requesting it.     There’s nothing really quite like it before – and we have trouble describing it.   This is turning into a real business though.  Money is being made, customers are receiving a “product”.  I guess it sort of is a real thing.

In any case.  I’ll finally be getting out of here in a couple days and hopefully generating some new memories that I’ll be able to share with my grandkiddies in 2071.   Let’s hope that I’m in better shape, from a mental and health perspective, to relay my experiences in life to them.   

It is an exciting time to live in America.  We are on the (possible) verge of some major political and social changes which (hopefully) will bring us back to the forefront as a world power.    I, personally, am tired of having to apologize for being American to foreigners.  We’ve become the butt of their jokes and the target of their insults.    Whatever goodwill we had with the international community is spent.  To most, Americans are fat, lazy, warmongers who are ignorant about the rest of the evolving world.  

Sadly, such barbs are not without some merit.   However, America is still an amazing land filled with amazing people – we are simply being badly represented by a select few.     Already, the world response to even a possible presidency by a Mr. Obama has been met with thunderous applause.  A leader who actually values discussion over war, who favors hope over fear, a leader who those of my generation actually feel they can connect with. As cliché as it is.  Obama is this generation’s JFK.  Young, talented, charismatic, meeting a country who wants change but is still somewhat uncertain of if they are ready for it.    
 
 It’s amazing how many people have attached all their wildest hopes and dreams upon the nomination of this man.   It’s hard not to get swept up in the craze.  After all, he is just one man, but his presence and drive is sparking the minds of many around the country.  Maybe – just maybe, we can do better than what we’ve been doing as a country.

I may seem naive and idealistic, but wow, if a politician can inspire such emotion from me (someone who is agnostic and apathetic towards most everything and everyone), something special is going on.