Precursor

I know I have been slacking on keeping people updated on my travels thus far. For that I apologize. I figured I would be spending more time on trains, and during those times I would feel like writing email/blogs. As it turns out, both of those assumptions were wrong. I have been on five trains so far, Amsterdam-Munich-Prague-Budapest-Zagreb. Honestly, on the trains I spend most of my time trying to sleep, talking with other people, or enjoying the scenery. So now I have an opportunity to take some time to give a longer update, so here goes.

First of all, as many of you have heard, I am leaving Europe a few weeks early. I have truly enjoyed almost every minute of my time out here, but Europe is not the cheapest of places and my budget is quickly depleting. Also, from the start of my planning, I was always most excited for the SE Asia and Australia leg anyway. This is also upon the referal of many friends, colleages etc. As the GM of my restaurant put it, Europe is not going to change much over the next few years, however, SE Asia's tourism economy has steadily grown which will likely affect the land and culture immensely over the next decade or so. So when I have time and money soon, my first trip will likely be back to my favorite parts of Europe and the places I didn't make it to, especially France and Spain.

Europe was a good warm up for the rest of my travels too. I have never done any serious travelijng before and figured the idea was to see as many places as possible. I have since realized that, although that may work for other people, I find it much more enjoyable to find a place and make it my home for a week or so. I am so excited to find a nice beach and bungalow in Thailand and spend a good chunk of time doing as little as possible. Enough about the future, let me review my travels thus far.