12 Flights 7 Week: Introduction

I would like to pat myself on the back! Why? Because during my most recent adventure abroad I posted 8 blogs in 7 weeks. Not to shabby right? Especially for me when my normal blogs are touch and go.

Now that I’ve caught you all up on my insane travels out west in a PG sort of way it’s time to move onto the fun bits!

This is where I try to entice you into reading the next bundle of blogs by making the whole escapade sound epic as fuck.

Side note it was epic as fuck!

I in 7 weeks I…

Took 12 flights

Set foot in 8 countries

Saw 15 cities

Rode 7 trains

Took the metro 6 times

Took 19 buses

Took 8 taxis

Rode 1 Camel

Couchsurfed 5 times

Lost 1 debit card

Got stuck in 1 snow storm

Got detained at the border 2 times

And got deported 0 times!

Fun highlights? Well you’ll get to hear about my week long sickness in Morocco. Hiking 20 kilometers through the Mid-Atlas mountains. Shenanigans with two of my besties in Rome. Spending my last 20 Lei on a night out in Romania. Getting put in the stocks in Edinburgh. Meeting up with my housemates from Limerick! And all the Christmas Markets!!!!!!!!! Serisouly I cannot press upon you how much I fucking love Christmas Markets!

So where did I go you ask?

London. Salisbury and Stonehenge. Bath. London. Marrakesh. Merzouga. Azrou. Fez. London. Rome. Edinburgh. Dublin (for 7 hours). Madrid. Getafe. Barcelona. Bucharest. London. Reykjavik.

As you all know these blogs will either be posted in rapid fire or well maybe 6 months late. In my defense I was only home from Utah 5 weeks before I jetted off across the Atlantic. It was a sort of accidental trip. I had been aiming for about 4 weeks in the end of November. But I found really cheap tickets via Icelandair that would send me away for 7 weeks… so I booked them on the 19^th of October and left October 30^th. Obviously in the long run I would have saved money if I had invested in the more expensive tickets but whatever. I saw new places. Ticked off a new continent and met new friends!

Picture highlight time!

Cheers,

Westward 2014: Inter-Utah Adventures

Now we had some inter-Utah adventures as well. I’m grouping them all in this post because there’s really not much to share about history and what not since we were hiking! They were still fun and epic. This is going to be a quick and picture filled post of pretty wilderness!

One day Liam decided to show Leo and I around the mountains so we hopped in the car and off we went. The road we wanted to take back, the something divide road, was in fact closed. So we kept going into the unknown! With 0 cell service and a storm hot on our heels.

We ended up taking the long way around into Cash Valley. And on this trip I learned what a cattle guard was.

Another epic and slightly spontaneous adventure came about on a weekend we were home and Liam decided Bear Lake would be a fun place. Off we went with a short stop at Rick’s Spring.

Then onto the lake! It was really huge and so clear and pretty! It was a fun trip.

We also hit up the Ogden Pirate Festival! Yes it’s a real thing where people dress up and there were booths where you could buy piratey things. And yes I dressed up as a dude pirate!

It was a great laugh.

My last weekend was an epic adventure. Since I’d arrived I’d been in love with the mountains. They were close by and so pretty.

See that pointy spot, that’s Willard Peak on Ben Lomond Mountain. Elevation 9,711' (2,960 m). It’s the highest peak in the area. We totally hiked that.

But before the hike we had to take the mule uphill! And get supper dusty!

Then it was off to hike!

And Hike…

A bit of goofing around....

And a bit more hiking.

I was very thankful for my epic boots that kept my feet happy and comfy. I was also happy for the YMCA and all the working out I’d been doing over the last year so I could keep up then set the pace. The altitude hit me really hard at the start of the hike I felt like vomiting and couldn’t breath then I pulled my shit together and kept up. Then I was leading then I left the boys behind as I made it to the top. We stayed within shouting distance of each other.

It was worth the hours of hiking!

Leo and I went out to the very tip. Leo climbed out like a monkey in about 2 seconds. As a scared of heights and deathly afraid of falling off a cliff kind of person I took slow and steady but made it.

A photo shoot ensued…

Then I made my slow and steady way back as Leo monkied it back up.

Then we hiked back.

Saw some goats.

I talked to pretty rocks…

And we drove back to car and made our dusty way home! It was really a wonderful way to end my time out west.

I loved my summer adventure. It was a whirlwind of jumping from one thing to another not to mention I got a shit ton of writing done. The only reason I’m so far along in my writing now is because of all the time I spent working on it in Utah. Maybe this coming summer I’ll go annoy Liam and Leo again!

Cheers