When I graduated from college I knew I did not what to get a "real job" right away. So I didn't. I worked at a restaurant, a tech company, and online as a freelance photoshop editor all at the same time for 4 months straight and saved enough money to launch my trip.

-cliche photo of me looking into my future, San Francisco, 2011

I chose to start in Helsinki, Finland for no apparent reason other than that is seemed like an interesting place I had never been. My goal was to use hitch-hiking as my only means of transport and chouchsurfing.org as my only means of boarding.

-and it was an interesting place!

I wanted to hitch-hike and couch-surf my way from Helsinki through all of Eastern Europe and eventually end up in Greece or Croatia and then possibly continue on into the middle east indefinitely to see a friend living in Egypt. ( The Arab Spring happened, but that is a whole other story)

Tallinn, Estonia

That plan went to crap pretty quickly...an ex-girlfriend was partially to blame, but my own constantly changing mind was equally culpable. In the following posts I will tell my zig-zagging story via photos and anecdotes that I have never property compiled in one place.

-spoiler: I ended up in a lot of places I hadn't planned on going

I hope it is cathartic for me and possibly interesting for someone out there. If anyone ever has questions about visiting a place I have been, feel free to ask in the comments!

hint: Portugal is great, you should visit Portugal.