As some of you may know by now my trip has come to an end, or shall I say a brief pause. You can all tell this expedition has not really been a trip, but a serious part of my life that will be with me for years to come/the rest of my life. I sit here in Newport RI trying to plan my next move, and I feel just like I did when I had to plan where to travel to next, so in a weird way my trip continues. From this point on, I am looking within myself to decide on what I would like to do with my life for the next few. I will admit that it is a very hard challenge to come back to, going from the traveling life (Easy) to some of the most important decisions of your life (Hard).

A few short words about my travels over the last few months.

Europe is one of, if not the most amazing group of places in the world. Everything is in itself strange and different, yet in such close confines it all works better in many was then it does in newer countries like the one I call home. Never-mind the differences in the somewhat simple things: Cars, Phones, TV's, Trains, Planes, but the people? The people, how can they make it all work? I have no clue, but if you look at what they are dealing with one cannot help but be impressed. From one direction to the other you are working with a different language, culture, and in many cases religion. In Switzerland for example, depending on the part of the tiny country (About the size of Massachusetts) you are in, you have three different languages all called Swiss by name. Can you imagine being in New York City and needing to know three languages? You can get on a train in London England, check your bags, and get off in Geneva three trains later to your bags and a bellhop waiting for you. Americans have a hard time making this happen on a plane or two. Cars are smaller, go faster, and yet they have less deaths per capita then in the US. This all makes America sound bad and I don't mean that in any way, in fact I love my home country, I am just purely trying to tell you all some of what I noticed is different over there then here.

Trains. Man are they unreal, and a pleasant surprise. I, as many of you know and hate, am a serious car/motorcycle guy. Not telling a lie, I never missed my car one bit, or driving for that matter. Ok, so you want to plan a trip going by plane and you have a layover. Chances are that the layover will 90% of the time be over an hour. Right? Well you get a train ticket from A to C going through B, and you should not be surprised when you look at the tickets you are given and notice that you have 4 minutes to get from one train to the next. I should remind you that you also have to look up the track number for the second train in that time (I wish someone had told me), they do not mess around with their schedules. You can set you watch by them, unless you are in Italy! The surprise was from my assumption that they couldn't be THAT much better then Amtrak. What a joke.

Lifestyle. Americans work their lives away, I am a recovering testament to that. The Europeans know how to really live their lives, consequently they produce much less, but whose looking? No offense. Taking vacations here and there, and complete months off at the same time, why would anyone there complain? The fact is that they don't, they leave work at 3,4,5 whatever, go to the Bar (What we would call a Coffee/Wine bar) get a good little buzz on, then go home to their wives and families. This is not something I experience in my friends I visited, but what I saw in everyday life walking the many amazing cities Europe can take credit for. Waking up late in Sorrento walking to get my morning Coffee and croissant, I peak into a job-site where they are working with heavy machinery to rebuild an old building, only to see twenty dirty Italian dudes pounding wine in hardhats. It was 10:30AM! Many of my good friends should move there, they would fit right in.

In the End?

These are only a few things I have some to love about Europe, and currently miss. As for my overall feeling about my, "Early Mid Life Reset?" I do not regret one second, and had one of the many times of my life. I highly suggest this type of thing to anyone itching for a change. Yes, you may end up broke as a joke and in some cases right where you started from, but you will never say to yourself, "I sure wish I did that when I could have." To all of my friends that put up with me or put me up while on walkabout, many thanks from deep within my heart. To all of you who unwillingly put up with my somewhat strange and periodically amusing e-mails, I hope you all enjoyed my trip as much as I have. Last but not least, Thanks to my Parents for dealing with my, "On Hold Life," in my absence as well as supporting my mental case for taking off in the first place.

I have no idea just yet what I am going to do with myself next, so please be unique and don't ask. I will say that I am open to ideas. So let it rain on my inbox.. Take care, and I wish you all the very best. //db