My Travels Through 22 Countries Before I turned 22

Hello beautiful Steemit people. Today, I would like to share a little tasty teaser of my future posts, in a brief summary of my travels.

For the last eleven months I have been on an incredible journey through 15 amazing countries (my country count: 22 in total) and a 30-day road trip through my own home country--living off the bare necessities in the back of my truck. This journey is still continuing as I have made a temporary home in Berlin, Germany.

Before you go off thumbing your nose at me, I would like to provide you with a fact I pride myself with: I paid for the entire trip, independently. I painstakingly worked and saved my ass off from age 16 until the day I left (and lived like a beach bum in college), because I had always dreamed of traveling. So to start off, I would like to provide that I believe ANYONE CAN TRAVEL, and I am proof of that: I’m like the ratatouille of travel.

My travel story all began, when I got into law school last March, and I realized my time as a fun-loving and spontaneous wild child was probably crashing to an end. So in April, with four to five months left of freedom, I decided to pack up my 45L bag and go on an epic (somewhat) around-the-world journey.

I began my journey in India (I know, rough place to begin solo-traveling, especially as a woman, but I made do). In particular, I made my pilgrimage to Rishikesh, India, the birthplace of yoga. I experienced 30 days of vegan and healthy living at an ashram, learning how to teach yoga (not necessarily to teach, but to learn how to deepen my own practice). I learned how to be a human pretzel, with a slightly more grounded self.

Next, I traveled through Thailand, South Korea, and China, which was equally adventurous and endearing. I attended the infamous Full Moon Party, visited beautiful, ancient temples, saw my extended family for the first time in almost a decade, danced and drank from buckets under the stars, and fell in love with people, the cities, the ocean again and again and again.

Along the way, I also got injured (twice), my phone broke (and then my new one was stolen), I got lost (a lot), I got ripped off (often), but I learned so, so much about how to travel efficiently and safely with the bare necessities.

Also, around this time, I had an epiphany. I had been rushing through life, trying to reach society’s versions of success: to have a nice, secure job and life, with money and resources, so I could give something back to my parents, and the communities that have helped supported me... But I realized, as selfish as it sounds, I wanted to live for me, for a while. I wanted to figure out exactly what my version of success was, what I wanted to spend my existence working for, and where I truly belonged. And of course, I wanted to LIVE and enjoy life and feel young and travel and see this huge world with my own damn eyes. During this time, I decided to transform my five month journey into a long-term truly AROUND-THE-WORLD adventure (which meant figuring out how the heck to continue traveling without accruing an awfully large debt to my banks).

After a couple of months in South, South East, and East Asia, I headed off to my dream destination: Europe. I have dreamed of going to Paris since I was a tiny child. When I was young, I yearned to be a pastry chef and bread baker and wanted to go to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. However, my parents had sacrificed their whole lives for my sister and I to get a wonderful American education (and chase the myth that is the American dream), and they urged, begged, and pleaded me to be reasonable with a ‘better’ career choice. I was young and naïve, and let them have their way, but the dream of traveling to Paris one day was always dancing in the back of my head.

Yet, somehow I over romanticized the experience so much that it just felt like any other city (though the majestic baguette, aged cheeses, wonderful wine, and Eiffel Tower were as I had always dreamed of). In fact, I fell head over heels in love with Berlin, which I had never even considered as a city I would desire to see.

VERSUS

Letting go of all expectations, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Hungary each had something so magnificent and sparkly and warm lurking in the air, a soul or three or if I was lucky a huge group I connected with and admired. I truly appreciated each trip in its own fantastic way.

After traveling solo for so long, it was a breath of fresh air to travel with one of my best friend’s and past roommate, Heather, through Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and London. We had some crazy adventures, wild highs and some unfortunate lows: sleeping on random couches, hitchhiking for the first time (!), jumping off bridges and cliffs and more bridges, drinking our way through Sardegna, one of Italy’s beautiful island, and celebrating my birthday in the city of King’s Landing (s/o to my fellow GoT fans), Dubrovnik. Traveling strengthened our bond a thousand times over, and she’ll always carry a piece of my heart. <3

Towards the end of my trip, I decided to head to Prague for a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate for a month. As my bank accounts were steadily depleting, I decided I would teach English for six months to a year, to make money so I could travel even further. After living out of my backpack and in hostels and strangers’ couches, it felt unexpectedly bizarre to have a space to call my own, even if it was only for a month!

After being TEFL certified, yoga teacher certified, and my travel bug satisfied of Europe, I headed home to Cali for one month with my bae from Berlin, and we went on an epic 30- day road trip, from:

LA→ music festival (Dirty Bird Campout) → Yosemite National Park

Yosemite → San Francisco

SF→ Santa Barbara → the Grand Canyon, AZ → various cities and parks in Colorado

CO→ Escalante Staircase National Park, Utah

Zion National Park, Utah → VIVA LAS VEGAS and then finally back to LA, to drop off my Marvin darling, aka @tabz. (I am definitely forgetting some, but more details to come). My car caught on fire, and with it all my clothes and travel necessities, and I got kicked out of a club and hotel in Vegas indefinitely. Yet, we spent Marvin’s birthday skydiving, and we hiked for days, and partied to our heart’s contentment, getting drunk side by side with bears and snakes and grotesque-looking spiders, but more importantly, with our lovely campfires (in negative degree weather!) and views of the endless stars. I fell deeply, soulfully in love with nature and this wonderful man I met on happenstance {or maybe it was destiny?}.

I spent an inspiring month in Vietnam, where I thought I could live and teach English for the year. I found a promising apartment, and received two job offers in the first week, and started to get over my fears of riding motorbikes!

But, finally, I decided to head back to Berlin in time for the holidays… The city (or perhaps a person) was calling my name, day after day, and finally temptation won over reason. So now I reside in the cold, bitter winter of Berlin, because of beer and bae and bunnies, and I write of my stories, until the next chapter and batch of travels unfold.

If you have gotten this far, I salute you and throw you magical virtual hugs and kisses of gratitude. I hope you’ll follow my journey into my brain for travels hacks and memories, and pain and love and discovery. I'll leave you with this:

And for those who cannot travel at the moment, may you find some pleasure and entertainment, reading through my pages of life. <3

Please let me know which cities or adventures you are excited to hear about in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to make them extra juicy and thrilling!