Going East Travel Blog

Date: 2025-07-22

July 22 - Leaving Utah

This morning, I woke up at 6:50, had breakfast, dropped off my apartment keys and hopped on the train north. It always feels strange leaving a place you have lived in for years. I will most likely never live in Utah again so this feels especially odd. Luckily, I was able to spend the last couple of days with friends and family before I go travel and eventually settle somewhere else for work.

It looks like all the missionaries are leaving Utah as well lol

Once the flight lands, I'll be staying in Manhattan. So that's the most info you'll get for now :)

Posting my current location and whereabouts to the open internet is not the safest thing to do while traveling. So these posts will be delayed at times.

New York City, United States

New York is now my favorite city to walk and take public transportation in.

After my plane landed at the Newark airport, I took the subway and other trains to Manhattan. Riding the subway is definitely an experience. The trains themselves are loud, fast, and some trains/stations can get really hot. And they are often packed so people will sit closely together and you need to find a place to squeeze in. The trains come every couple minutes so you are never waiting for very long.

Subway station entrances are often the little staircases you see in movies. After going down one, I was not prepared for how much the station would twist and wind until you get to the platform. And sometimes, you have to follow the signs down the stairs from one platform to another for a different train line. It's a really enjoyable challenge to navigate.

There are also very large subway stations.

After reviewing my pictures, I realized that I only really took them when there was a small amount of foot traffic. This is because walking with a lot of New Yorkers actually takes a decent amount of effort. I'll try to explain it:

New Yorkers tend to speed walk with a set path. By setting that path, they project where they want to go and to expect you to do the same. Because I'm more used to crowds that go with the flow, I would often change my path initially and I could tell this slightly annoyed the people around me.

Disclaimer: These notes are from my observations and I have not actually talked with someone from New York about them yet. So it could be inaccurate. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I only really talked to a guy I met from Austria who was also on vacation)

This kind of construction scaffolding seems to be in a lot of places and it's a fun difference in scenery. The buildings themselves are very large and unique designs are common.

One of the first things I did was go to the Chinese Consulate to apply for a tourist visa. The consulate looked like a DMV and the officials were very efficient. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed so I can't put a photo here. [I later got a 10 year China tourist visa so that's exciting!]

After I left, I figured I would walk along the west Manhattan coast down to a ferry. On the way, I passed a lot of piers. Some of them are what you expect a pier to be. Others have helicopter pads. My favorite was this kind of park built on cement pillars.

A while ago, I heard the advice to take the ferry to Staten Island as a free way to see the Statue of Liberty. I may have taken the commuter ferry because the ticket ended up being $4.50.

I was able to get a pretty good look at the Statue of Liberty but I won't include my zoomed in picture because you can see better ones online.

While I was on Staten Island, I saw NYPD respond to a call. I have seen this police car design so many times in movies that I thought it was fake. But it turns out that this is what real NYPD cars look like.

NYC has a pretty neat ferry system. The main station has 5 docking points and the boats themselves quickly come, unload, load and go. One ferry rider brought her nice road bike to use Manhattan's dedicated bikeways.

Another touristy thing to do in NYC is to tour the United Nations. I'd highly recommend going if you are going to NYC, as it is not something a lot of americans do. The United Nations is not perfect but it does a lot of good for the world.

For those that I played Super Powers 2 with, this is where the guy in the intro declared war! lol

And yes, I went to Times Square. It's at the center of Manhattan so I found myself walking through it many times.

The plays were a little expensive so I only saw the Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. It was a great comedy and I'd recommend it as long as you don't mind a bit of good spirited blasphemy.

I went on a Financial Crisis tour that took us through Wall Street and Broad Street. It was really cool to see the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and other buildings that played important roles in American history.

After the tour an Austrian and I were chatting and we ended up getting dinner from street food vendors. We talked about life in Austria compared to the US with things like industry, cultural norms and politics. Apparently, Austria also had a pretty large anti-Covid vaccine movement.

On my way to JFK, I walked through Coney Island and over the Brooklyn Bridge. I came across this cool looking guy at one point.

This list of events is not exhaustive but I'm ending it here because of limited time. I want to spend more of my time exploring and enjoying each place I go to :)

Oslo, Norway

My plane landed at the airport and I got a nice view of the rainy countryside.

There is this feeling of excitement that slowly builds up until I walk off the plane. Then I'm just happy to be there. Enjoying the difference in the people around me, the languages spoken and even the building's subtle details. In the US, nearly all exit signs, turntables, outlets and other things are predictably boring. But when going to another country, your exceptions for all of these things are challenged by doing something as simple as walking through the airport.

After getting off the plane, I headed over to immigration. I was a little surprised that I waited in a line to talk to a person. When I had visited Vancouver, Canada, I scanned my passport, answered some questions and a machine let me through.

When I walked up to the immigration official, she wanted a passport, lodging information and return trip information. I handed my passport over and showed my reservations for Oslo, Norway and Gothenburg, Sweden. And told her that I was planning around backpacking through Europe and Asia.

When she said that I needed a return, my heart sank a little. I would not have a return ticket for a while. And when researching Norway culture, I found that they generally do not like making exceptions to rules. Thankfully, savings/credit is another way I can prove that I can pay for my exit and won't be a monetary burden for the EU. So I frantically logged in to my bank on the spot and she let me through. I really thought that for a second, my trip would start with me being stuck at the Oslo airport 😅

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It took a relatively large amount of effort to find my way from the airport to the hotel I was staying at. Partly because it was my first time in Europe but also because it was raining and I did not have cellular data. So I forgot to take a lot of pictures.

But I did take a picture when I came across the Royal Palace.

And a Crow. Norway has the coolest looking kind of bird.

Another big shock was the major contrast in cities. I had come from New York which is loud, hot, and dirty. Oslo is a polar opposite despite being Norway's largest city.

People talked at a volume I would expect in an American library. The train and cars are nearly all electric so the few vehicles that did pass by were nearly silent.

This is what a semi-busy street in Oslo looks like.

Unfortunately, all of the hostels were booked so I reserved a cheap hotel. The hotel had some neat history as a pensioner's house. But I did not have much time to learn more since I was headed to Sweden the next day.

Oslo has a surprisingly large train station for it's size.

The countryside is so beautiful! And there also seems to be a decent amount of industry.

This was taken somewhere near the Norway/Sweden border.

Gothenburg, Sweden

I absolutely loved visiting Gothenburg. It is a decently large and diverse city that felt peaceful.

Most of the city had multi story residential buildings with shops on the first level. And this layout went on for a while with occasional parks and a street with restaurants. I don't think I saw a single house until I got on the train leaving and was looking at the countryside.

For those that don't know, this is what a hostel looks like. Generally 6-12 people share a room so traveling is cheap. This hostel was around $45 USD per night because it's the time of year when lots of people travel in Europe. Some hostels can be booked for $15 or lower.

This particular hostel was neat and took recycling and composting very seriously.

Most hostels have a kitchen where you can cook food so you can make your trip a little cheaper. Because I was staying in Gothenburg for about a week, I cooked most of my meals.

Because Sweden is more diverse, there is not a lot of traditional Swedish food. The hostel's front desk person recommend going to a place called Ölstugan Tullen for Swedish food. There I had some very good fried flounder and tried a Swedish beer. I'm still not the biggest fan of beer but it was the least bad tasting beer I've ever had lol.

Interestingly enough, there are a lot of Italian restaurants all over Gothenburg. According to the walking tour guide, Swedes have really enjoyed Italian food in recent years.

I ended up going to an italian restaurant with two Swiss guys I met at the hostel. The food was amazing but the food was different from the Italian food I had in the US. The rice was small and more circular? And some kind of butter was used extensively.

Another interesting note is that plumbing seems to be routed outside of the walls here.

Also, garbage containers in Sweden are emptied with a some kind of crane truck. I first saw this from the kitchen window and had to stop what I was doing to watch.

I really liked Gothenburg. It feels like the kind of city you would want to move to for a fresh start. And Swedish seems like it would be a fun language to learn.

Overall, I'm glad I stayed here a little bit longer. The longer stay allowed me to make some friends and to become more comfortable in Europe.

Stockholm, Sweden

It turns out that Stockholm is made up of a bunch of islands. And the name Stockholm translates to English as Log Island.

I took this picture after walking from Gamla stan, the old town, to Södermalm, the cultural/hip part of Stockholm.

I took the second picture from the tower on the left. The first picture was taken along the walkway on the very right of the second picture.

While I was with a walking tour group, we witnessed Swedish military personnel repel from a helicopter onto the Parliament Building. The guide said that the military was more active in exercises because of the current political party/majority in power.

During the tour I befriended a Spanish/Venezuelan who was also on vacation. We explored the island of Djurgården and took some pictures for each other.

We also took the tunnelbana (subway) on the blue line where there is some artwork.

As you can probably tell, I am a fan of colorful wall art.

I went out of my way to visit the memorial of Olof Palme, Sweden's Prime Minister who was assassinated 1986. This murder went unsolved for decades until the Swedish government named Palme's killer in 2020. The BBC reported on this event and explained that many Swedes were dissatisfied the the official explanation.

I was introduced to this historical event in the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo book trilogy by Stieg Larssen. Larssen was a journalist and fictional author who wrote about the failings of the Swedish government and extremist groups. And wrote inspiring fictional characters that overcame these challenges. So it felt a little magical to be traveling around the city where Larssen and his fictional characters existed.

I am not used to living in a place with so much rain. And it turns out that my laptop was damaged by water when it was in my backpack while I was out in the rain. A repair shop called TeknikFix was super awesome and helped me get the laptop working again by discovering the water damage and unplugging the cmos battery so my laptop would boot again. I wanted to pay for their time but they did not accept any payment. So I left a 5 star Google review and I'll tell my two readers how awesome they are lol.

Before leaving on the train to Denmark, I had just enough time to visit the Avicii museum. I'm not someone who really sings but I made an exception for their fun little solo VR singing booth.

Copenhagen, Denmark

When I walked out of Copenhagen Centraal, I got a view of thousands of bicycles. There were multiple spots like this filled with bikes all around the train station and amusement park next door.

Without realizing it, I booked a hostel in the partying part of town. I arrived on a friday night and the place was full and you could hear music from afar. When I checked-in I'm so glad I noticed the free earplugs. There is no way I would have slept with how loud it was without the earplugs.

Copenhagen Suborbitals was the thing I was most excited to see in Denmark. This group was formed in 2008 with the purpose of being the first amateur rocketry group to put a human into space.

Their workshop exists in an old ship building yard and looks like the real world equivalent of Kerbal Space Program. Everything they use is off the shelf. And this includes things like the electronics and metal used for their liquid fuel engine. They ignite the rocket with a wooden stick with a firework attached to it. Other things were creatively re-purposed like a paintball air tanks and race car chairs.

They even have a gimbaling liquid fuel rocket. It's a functional prototype so our group was able to move the motor with a control panel attached to this jig.

They operate entirely on donations so getting things like a CNC lathe and mill proved to be difficult but attainable. To achieve this, they rebuilt an old lathe and mill to have electronics control the movement. Making them CNC!

They used to be alone on this old shipyard but in the last couple of years, many business have opened up. Next door is a food court, neighboring gym and paintball. The food court makes use of a lot of shipping containers for shops and an entrance archway.

Hamburg, Germany

Most of the Trains to Hamburg were booked so I had to wake up early to catch a few trains to end up here.

I had not had breakfast at this point and decided to eat at the station. And I found mexican food! ...served with white rice? What I ordered was like chili with rice. Not really what I would call Mexican food but it tasted great!

The streets of Hamburg are generally dirty, filled with spray paint and empty glass bottles giving the city a rough look. Asking around, I found that people left their bottles in the street for the homeless to collect and take to recycling machine for money.

This is a particularly artistic part of the wall art. The woman's face is repeated all over the city and I'm not sure if there is a meaning behind it.

I booked a walking tour through hamburg learned that this is where the Beetles band became famous. The tour also took us through Germany's biggest red light district. I was unaware about all of these things so it was a very fun tour.

While I was waiting for the tour, I went to find some food and ordered a good looking fish sandwich. It was only when I got the sandwich that I realized it was a raw fish sandwich.

So I had this inner conflict. Should I waste this sandwich? Should I risk getting sick?

I ended up eating it and spent the rest of the day slightly worried. But that did not get in the way of enjoying Hamburg. After the tour, I walked through this old tunnel that goes under a shipping channel.

Here is the tunnel from above. They built it in 1911 so people could commute to work on the docks. Too many people needed to cross that ferries could not fulfill demand and the sailboats were too tall for a bridge.

Thankfully, I did not get sick from the raw fish sandwich. But someone who was also staying at the hostel gave me something else to be worried about lol.

I met a Czech political science student who is convinced that Europe will be at war with Russia in the next couple years. His main argument is the press releases by German military leadership and Russia military buildup towards europe outside of Ukraine.

At this point, I have a cold and booked a hotel to recover. And to be alone. It's a little draining being around people 24/7.

A quick aside (Why this has not been updated in a while)

It is October 4th and I am currently in Türkiye. I have been through 12 cities since my previous update. A lot has happened including a pickpocket stealing my phone.

Traveling feels much different when you are at it long term. I am 74 days into a 104 day trip. I try to learn basic phrases for each city, like hello and thank you. And learn different cultural expectations like if you should say hello when entering a store, or where to return dishes at a restaurant.

To add to this existing mental load, I've been staying in cheap hostels. So that means sharing a bunk bed room with other random people. These hostels are often a little noisy and some are not the cleanest. I have misquito bites from a messier hostel in the UK. And for all of this, I am spending thousands of dollars. Sometimes I feel like deciding to travel for so long was a mistake.

It's exhausting.

As a result, I prioritized my mental health. While still going out to explore whatever place I am visiting. So updating this blog has not been a priority.

But now, I feel more energetic than the recent past. There is something exciting about booking a return flight to the US after being away for so long. And staying in this Turkish private hostel room helps me feel less tired about being surrounded by random people all the time.

Now, I'm headed to Kazakhstan :D

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Bikes and bike lanes are everywhere.

I took the ferry everywhere inside the city. This is what is looks like getting off one of the ferries:

The streets and walkways were super crowded with tourists and food delivery bikes.

For fun, I walked into the red light district at dusk. Lots of little shops sold food, souvenirs and weed. The weed was sold in every form I could imagine including soda, gum and lollipops. These products were even in vending machines which surprised me.

When I saw the women in their neon lit red windows, my mind immediately compared their lingerie to a bikini. And I think that's why their attire did not seem that out of place.

The masses of different kinds of tourists was kind of more interesting to watch. So I bought some french fries and leisurely walked around looking at the tourists and occasionally glancing at the windows.

One of the window girls smiled at me and I smiled back even though I in the process of eating a french fry.

The whole situation felt so absurd yet fun.

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I could not decide where to go after 3 days in Amsterdam. So I booked another hostel 6 minutes north (by train) in Zaandam.

Not much happened in Zaandam. But I did learn that Polish people eat bread with a cream cheese spread. (I would later learn in Poland that this was the culinary ancestor to the bagel with cream cheese)

Berlin, Germany

Expectations are a funny thing. I had high hopes for Berlin but it is really just a bunch of boring stone buildings in a city that has a medium amount of sprawl.

But once I made some friends at the hostel and talked with some locals, I loved it.

I stayed in a hostel in East Berlin called Sandino. It has a strong hippie/stoner/nature lover vibe.

(Image from hostelworld.com) This is the best picture I could find of the hostel on the internet. But this does not do it justice. Every seating area has a lighter, ash tray and bongs are free to use.

The owner (Mikel?) puts a lot of effort into making a social and inclusive environment. Very comfortable couches are placed in a small living room with a mural, books and flags from different countries. Next to that is a compact but fully stocked kitchen with tables scattered around. Outside this little shed, there are many seating areas. At night, a wood fire is lit and people naturally gravitate there to meet each other and compare travel plans.

In the back of the property, there is a grassy area where travelers can stay and pitch a tent. But getting to that is daunting because everyone is told to watch out for the rooster who attacks bright colors unprovoked. The owner gave out little purple hearts to anyone the rooster attacked. (I imagine the rooster attack was more startling than anything else)

You might be wondering why the owner would get rooster that sometimes attacked guests at his hostel. And that's a valid question. The owner explained that he bought a hen. And that, rather inconveniently, that hen had become a rooster. Apparently this happens in nature.

I don't care much for the city "feel" of Berlin but the people who live here and visit seem to be amazing. At the hostel, I got along well with a Russian, German and multiple guys from New Zealand and Australia.

One morning, our little group went out to get some coffee and cigarettes. It was Sunday and even though most stores were closed, we were able to track down an open bakery/coffee shop.

I was trying to decide what pastry to try when one of the guys was trying to buy a cheap bottle of milk. Without English, the baker was somehow able to convey that he could not buy that with a card because the transaction fees were too high. The milk was only a euro or two so I bought it for my friend and bought myself a latte and pastry. I gave the friend the milk and he wanted to repay me but I tried to convince him otherwise. I ended up accepting a 5AUD bill because of his persistence and novelty.

Right as we concluded payment for the milk, we heard the baker yell NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! to one of our friends. So we turned to see what was going on. Our friend had his arm out to give the baker some euros. The baker was not having it and had her arms up/out in defiance.

We were able to piece together what had happened: The baker had given some free cheesecake to our friend. And he wanted to pay for it. The store owner did not want to be paid for the cheesecake.

Our friend, who really wanted to pay for at least part of the cheesecake, placed the euros onto the counter. Through body language, the baker admitted defeat. And she smiled at us. We all split the cheese cake and said our goodbyes to the baker.

Kraków, Poland

Poland is one of the countries I was sure I wanted to visit on this trip. And that's mostly due to this statement by a producer who worked on the Cyberpunk TV show:

This seemed to line up with what other travelers thought when I told them I was planning on traveling to Poland. Even for Europeans, Poland is seen as a place where nothing happens and they don't have much of a reason for wanting to visit.

This could not be farther from my experience with the country. Maybe it's the fact that I visited a particular city when it was not covered in snow. I could have been extremely lucky with timing.

I only spent 2 nights in Kraków. The city was oddly very clean and felt safe at night Which is convenient because I only got back to the hostel after midnight the 3 nights I stayed there.

The whole city is beautiful. According to the walking tour guide, a very small amount of the city was destroyed during WW2. As a result, Krakow has the highest density of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

But by far, my favorite part of the city was Rynek Główny. Imagine a huge city center made of stone bricks surrounded by beautiful churches and restaurants. Running through the center is a hall lined with merchants selling all kinds of touristy goods. I tried to find a picture that would accurately portray the night I saw. But none of the pictures on the internet do it justice. So I leave you with this description I wrote while I was there:

So much happened those two nights in Kraków. I'll try to sum it up briefly in an entertaining way.

On the train to Krakow, I met a Brazilian guy that must have been around 30. Because our common Spanish was very limited, we communicated in with Google Translate with the only languages we were fluent in; Portugese and English. We had agreed to meet up the following day.

This guy's worldview intrigued me. He believes that the bible "tells us that things in the world will only get worse". And I could tell from his facial expression that he could not understand why I wanted to be a journalist (or do another job pushing for positive change).

Because of his nihilist worldview, he seemed to organize his life around chasing women and doing adventurous things. And from the videos he showed of himself clubbing, going on expensive getaways and jet skiing with his son, it seems to work out for him.

While we were walking around the square at dusk, watching the horse drawn carriages, we heard some music and headed in it's direction. When we got to the crowd of 60+ people, we could see one guitarist with an amp in the center. He was playing the instrumental versions of common upbeat songs. The Brazilian loved this. Some brave people stepped in the circle and started dancing. Young and old. A couple brave people danced by themselves. Others tried to drag their shy friends or partner in for a dance. The Brazilian became extremely excited when the guitarist played Latin American songs like Despacito and Rio.

He really wanted to go clubbing that night so I offered to go with and be a sort of translator. (A lot of younger Polish people know English) I thought it would be entertaining to translate for him, see a club and make sure he did not pressure anyone to do anything. So we walked around looking for clubs around the north of Rynek Główny.

The Brazilian became paranoid when we circled past multiple clubs with people outside urging us to enter them. He was pretty worried about being scammed. So we did not end up going to any clubs and I did not mind. Walking through the old city lit by yellow and blue lights with the occasional horse carriage passing by was enough for me.

Zakopane, Poland

While at the Berlin Sandino hostel, I had heard there was an amazing city in nature. So why not check it out? A break from big cities would be nice.

This is the only picture I have of the city itself.

I think of Zakopane as the Eastern Europe equivalent of Park City, Utah. Or Aspen, Colorado.

The city had a ton of short term rentals and was clean and had an expensive feeling.

All of the regular hostels were sold out so I stayed in a little shared vacation house with a private room. This was the first place I went where a lot of people did not speak english.

I hiked on a couple different trails in Tatra National Park to complete this fun loop:

If you are into Skiing, this seems like a very nice place to go. Sadly, they did not have any real mountain biking that did not require a car rental. But it was nice to relax in a private room for a couple days. I ended up celebrating my birthday with a movie and some snacks :)

Vienna, Austria

I did not know what to expect when traveling to Austria. It turns out it's a nice little country with a lot of fun things going on.

The first thing I noticed was that there are a ton of KTMs and other motorcycles in the city. (Which makes sense since KTM is based in Austria) So that makes me instantly like the city more.

And I'm usually not super interested in church architecture. But St. Stephen's Cathedral was an exception. It's this huge gothic cathedral with enormously tall and narrow windows. And a roof with a colorful pattern of stone circles.

I booked a stay in a random hostel without thinking much. But when I got there, I could see that the hostel was inside of an Ikea! The arrangement was very well done with doors that would close off the Ikea portion during non business hours.

This was my first time being in Ikea since I was super young. It was amazing! Seeing all of the furniture and decorations reeeally made me want to stop traveling and move into a cozy apartment.

At this point, I had traveled for 2+ months and felt a little homesick for the first time in my life. To be perfectly honest, I pushed the homesickness feeling down. I would return to the US eventually and that's when I would have stability and consistent friends. But I've got to make the most of my travel time because I'll never have this much free time again.

Zürich, Switzerland

Like most of my travel so far, I took a train to Zürich. This train went through Slovakia and Liechtenstein so that's fun. I'm not sure if this qualifies as me having "been" to these countries.

Zürich is one of those cities I would not want to live in but love to visit. It is relatively small following both sides of a river. The city feels old with brick roads and brick buildings. And the pedestrians feel posh. But maybe that's just because I was staying in a hostel in the center of the downtown that high end fashion brands occupied.

In the weekend mornings I explored, there was a large flea market and some street vendors selling fresh fruits and veggies. I bought some apples, cherry tomatoes, jam and apple juice from one of the vendors. The apple juice was so much better than any kind of juice I had before. It must be due to the fact that it is real apple juice lol.

Back when I was visiting Gothenburg, I befriended two Swiss guys. Even though college classes just started, one was able to meet up and hang out! It was nice walking along the river and chatting with someone I knew. Traveling is a bit lonely at times.

Later that night, that friend invited me to a barbecue with some of his friends. Most of them knew each other from the neighborhood dinners that are common here. It turns out I like Swiss brautwurst! (I'm just not a fan of American sausage)

Once it started to get dark outside, we walked to a bridge over the train station to get a view of the lunar eclipse. Some of the buildings blocked it from that particular spot and I ended up saying goodbye and heading to the hostel where I finally saw the remainder of the eclipse.

Downtown Zürich is relatively small with a distinct feel for each part of the city so I knew how to get back to the hostel. I felt amazing walking back to the hostel in such a beautiful city at night. I knew the winding passageways back where I could see the stone streets and river reflections.

Milan, Italy

The only Italian city I visited was Milan. I have been told that I was missing out on the exciting parts of Italy. And that's probably true. I picked this city because it was fast to get to from Switzerland and cheap to fly into Spain afterwards.

With the exception of how sketchy the city felt, it was nice. The train station I arrived in was bigger and fancier than the stations I had been in before it. And the first thing I did was buy some pizza.

There is not much that was really anything super exciting about Milan. I went on a walking tour, and we learned how Italy was the first to build hospitals and We also went into an extremely old church that was built in the 5th century. And a different church that had the walls decorated with countless human bones. The only thing that is worth writing back about was the statue in front of the Italian Stock Exchange:

Image credit: AMP Global.

The tour guide said that Italy was hit particularly hard by the 2008 financial crisis and has been struggling to recover since then. So you can imagine it's commentary on the stock exchange with the middle finger being pointed at the Italian people with the other fingers cut off. This is the L.O.V.E. sculpture is by Maurizio Cattelan. His art usually has some kind of social commentary. This is the same guy that had that famous banana duct taped the wall as art.

Italy has some pretty neat old buildings. My favorite was a church where the inside was decorated with real human remains. Piles of bones from thousands of people lined the walls in artful patterns. This kind of thing fascinates me because it shows how differently people thought of death in the past.

This church was built next to a hospital. In those times, hospitals were the place where people went to die. It was not until later that some monks realized that it might be worth trying to heal some sicknesses and so healthcare became a thing. This started in Italy! Many other discoveries happened here, like learning that changing sheets between patients would increase the odds of recovery.

I sure am glad to live in the 21st century.

Madrid, Spain

It felt oddly familiar to be hearing Spanish everywhere. From growing up in Arizona, I became familiar to hearing certain words/phrases. But I don't understand enough to know what is being said.

For whatever reason, I thought Spanish culture would be similar to Mexican culture. But other than the love for partying and waking up late, these cultures felt completely different.

I found myself at the Galería de las Colecciones Reales. Everything looked so old and expensive. And there was so much of it. Gold armor, chariots. And priceless statues, paintings and tapestries. And if that did not indicate the difference, there was security everywhere.

Partying is a huge part of Spanish culture. So I joined people from the hostel on my first ever trip to the club. The music was too loud to really talk. So I had a couple shots and tried to dance with the other people from the hostels. And learned that this is not my kind of activity. But it was neat to try since I have heard about family friends who loved going clubbing. So I spend the rest of my time being entertained by games of beer pong.

Madrid was a fun city to visit. It is huge and I had the impression that there was so much to do and see. (There is a place where you can ring a doorbell, be let in, and buy cookies from nuns) Walking and public transportation could get you to anywhere in the city. And if you stayed out late into the night, the streets still felt safe to walk back in.

Paris, France

Paris is an expensive city so I only stayed for 2 nights. I would have stayed for longer if I knew how much I liked it.

The feeling of excitement of arriving in a new city is usually something I would get when traveling. By this time, I had been through so many places and the excitement of arriving in every new place was fading. But this time, I recognized the style of French streets, signs and buildings. (Likely from Rémi Gaillard's videos) At seeing the familiar scenery, I grew excited to be in a new place once again.

My flight from Spain arrived early in the morning so I had plenty of time before I would check in to the hostel. So I found the Eiffel tower in the distance and walked a few kilometers towards it. Once I arrived, I was struck by just how huge the tower was. Now I understand why this thing is known all over the world.

Paris is a great city for walking and finding nice places to sit. I spent much of my time there walking and listening an audiobook of The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson. My next city is London and that is where this biography of an economist takes place.

And of course I had croissants and some french cafe food. A really kind Parisian helped me navigate the ordering kiosk in one of these cafes. Thanks!

As a change of pace, I decided to take a fashion walking tour. I really enjoyed learning about the history and getting a glimpse into the "raison d'être" or "reason for being" of fashion. (Am I using this French thing correctly?)

I left Paris on the Nord train. It was neat to arrive in London by taking a train under the English Channel.

London, United Kingdom

It was amazing to get off the plane and hear English everywhere. And I could count on having a shared language with everyone again!

I stayed in a hostel located above a pub in Greenwich. The same Greenwich as Greenwich mean time!

The hostel was fine but I got lucky with the surrounding area. I usually take generic walking tours but this time, I took a ghost stories walking tour that started at dusk. The meeting point was at the Cutty Sark, an old haunted ship a few minutes walk from the hostel. The guide was amazing and made me a little afraid even though I don't believe in the supernatural. I would definitely recommend this to anyone traveling to London.

The location was also amazing for reading the economist biography. It was only when I was listening to the audio book that I realized that much of it had taken place in front of me at the Isle of Dogs. This is where London's financial center is including the Citibank building the author worked in! I wandered over walking through the area multiple times while I stayed in Greenwich.

Now that I was in an english speaking country again, I started looking for some journalism books. I had bought the Understanding Media book in Paris but I also wanted a book that was purely theory. This proved difficult to find at random bookstores. So based on a recommendation from bookstore staff, I planned on going to a huge bookstore near the University of London.

So I took the tube, aka subway, to that area. And halfway through my trip, my phone suddenly disappeared! I got on the Central line to go one station. And when I got off, I felt that my phone was no longer in my front pocket. It had been stolen by a pickpocket!

My phone had directions and everything! My mind was racing as soon as I stepped off the train and realizing my phone was gone. In an attempt to find the pickpocket, I hopped back onto the train only to look around and realize my phone was long gone.

Realizing that I was not thinking super clearly, I got off at the next station and found bought a sandwich so I could sit down and think about what to do. I decided that it would be the best use of my time to go back to the hostel and reset passwords. Then shop around for a new phone. Thankfully, I remembered the 2 trains back and was able to navigate to the hostel.

The pickpocket aside, London is another great city to walk around in. Because traffic goes forward on the left side of the road, it was interesting to watch and predict traffic. In my short time there, failed to gain the intuition to be able to predict this kind of traffic.

The image above is from my favorite part of London, Canary Wharf. This exact spot is also a filming location for the ISB HQ in the Andor TV show!

Nearby, there is the financial area of London. I booked a walking tour here and it was neat to learn about.

Oxford, United Kingdom

I had wanted to go to Oxford ever since my study abroad application for that same city was denied. It would have been so cool to learn about Civic Thought and Leadership over a summer.

Long story short, I met the coordinator for this program who, after talking, encouraged me to apply. So I did. I later found a requirement mandating a GPA threshold so I emailed the coordinator and explained my situation of having a low GPA from over extending myself in extracurriculars. Months passed and my application was then denied without any kind of interview. After I was denied, they extended the application deadline and lowered the GPA requirement. But not low enough for me. -_-

Thankfully, this was the farthest from my mind when I was actually visiting Oxford. It's only the reason I chose to visit Oxford over Cambridge. I was ready to read my new journalism books and visit the place that that inspired Harry Potter.

It turns out a lot of fictional stories were inspired by bits of Oxford. Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and many more.

And I can see why. The buildings are other worldly.

Aside from a walking tour, I really just focused on my personal interests. This included reading journalism and economics books and working on Supermoto, tools and a methodology for building websites in the Go programming language. (The website is out of date) While I was in Oxford, I made a small breakthrough with how the tools should be interacted with. I'll write about it on jaxlo.net once I have a proof of concept.

Oxford is actually pretty small and surrounded with nice trails through nature.

Overall, it was pretty neat. I'm not sure I would ever come back. But it is cool learning about the individual schools and their traditions.

On the way to the airport the train slowly came to a stop and one of the three guys to me left said "We must have run out of fuel". British humor is great.

Istanbul, Türkiye

I arrived at the hostel 2am after taking an overnight flight from London. It felt oddly safe at night in this part of town.

Istanbul's flag is red and this identity can be seen around the city. The color palate is so good! lol

On the street above, there is a lightrail that drives through. At one point along it's route, it is something like 3 feet from the buildings. It makes for a neat compact market feel. I was only slightly worried about being ran over by one of the trains.

There were many points during my trip where I had the thought: "That's not up to code" lol. (Even though my idea of building code only applies to buildings in the US)

There are also lots of cats everywhere. I even found one inside the mosque I visited.

This is another one of those places where the food was amazing. I loved the chicken kebab and beef donor. And learned that donor kebab was a Berlin thing so I'm glad I had it there.

If you ever visit, beware of the rug salesmen. I went in to see what they looked like and the salesmen managed to warp my reality and I walked out with a $700 rug being my most expensive posession -_-. Have an exit strategy if you ever go into a high pressure sales situation. At least I have something nice for my future self.

The annoyance about the rug aside, Istanbul was a fun place to explore. And the soundscape is like that of a movie. The cars constantly honking, motorcycles accelerating and decelerating and Islamic calls to prayer can be heard 5 times each day.

And here my tour guide is pointing east, explaining that Istanbul is where Europe and Asia meet. I'll be headed that way next. (East to Asia)

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Ever since taking college classes on the history of Russia, I have wanted to visit. And while I can't currently visit the Russian Federation, I can visit Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic.

Walking out of the airport, I was struck by how familiar the city felt. Unlike the European cities I had spent the last few months in, Almaty is more spread out and built for cars. But many of the cars were Chinese! This is not something I am used to seeing because the US banned Chinese car manufacturers. You can see the design inspiration for many of them as they resemble Jeeps, Teslas and Hummers. And others like the white car to the left, have an original design and still look cool.

I ended up taking a bus to a stop near the hostel because walking would have taken hours. This beautiful river walkway was on the route and I can't help but to think Almaty would be a great filming location.

As I'm writing this, I only now realized how amazing the colors are! Early October in Almaty is cold but beautiful.

Once you get out of the main parts of the city, you get an unfinished look. This picture is from a street near my hostel and I imagine this look becomes more and more common the farther outside of the city you get.

This says: не парkobatb! (No parking!)

I am enjoying some home cooked meals now that I am staying at this hostel for longer. The supermarket had a big bag of Pelmeni (Russian dumplings) and they taste amazing. I must have had a kilogram of them in the week I was there.

We in America don't really talk or know much about central Asia. And it's neat to visit. I met a pretty cool Dutch guy at the hostel. And a couple Russians.

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And with that, I'm finally back up to date on posts in this log. My next few cities will combined because I'm headed all over China!