As a general rule I do not like to make long, drawn-out, emotional writings unless the mood strikes me just so. And as I have – for some unknown reason – not felt that on my last night abroad, I will endeavour to give you all some statistics of my travels. Perhaps we’ll see how I feel when I get to the last paragraph, no?

So here it is – some facts, opinions, and most likely erroneous statements regarding my trip.

Departure date: April 19, 2006
Return date: August 28, 2006
Number of Countries Visited: 15
Number of Books Read Whilst Travelling: 21
Total Number of Shoes/Sandals Owned During Travels: 6
Pairs of Underwear Bought Whilst Travelling: 2
Number of Sunglasses Bought Whilst Travelling: 2
Amount of Alcohol Consumed: …I’ll get back to you.
Countries Visited in Order of Appearance (Repeats Omitted): England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Israel, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Republic of Ireland.
Books Read in Order of Appearance:

1. Tandia – Bryce Courtney
2. Hocus Pocus – Kurt Vonnegut
3. Watt – Samuel Beckett
4. Why I Write – George Orwell
5. The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
6. Sea and Sardinia – D.H. Lawrence
7. Beyond Good and Evil – Freidrich Nietschze
8. A History of the Middle East – Peter Mansfield
9. The Game – Neil Strauss
10. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
11. The Pianist – Wladyslaw Szpilman
12. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
13. Switch Bitch – Roald Dahl
14. Portugeuse Irregular Verbs – Alexander McCall Smith
15. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
17. Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego – Sigmund Freud
18. Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
19. Gullivers Travels – Jonathan Swift
20. Haunted – Chuck Palahnuik
21. Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

Favourite Cities: London, Edinburgh, Paris, Dublin, Budapest, Amsterdam, Jerusalem.
Money Spent: Ahem…
Favourite Customs Experience: Coming from Ireland to London – They only check your boarding pass, ha!
Worst Customs Experience: Getting into England from anywhere else. And this was before the whole terrorist thing…Sheesh!
Favourite Part of Travelling: Understanding the significance of this quote, “A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”- George Moore

It seems that the emotion I was lacking earlier has finally taken hold and filled me with a somber mood ripe for expression. In talking with people they always seem to exclaim that during this trip I’ve been to many places, and I suppose on some level that’s true. But the more I think of it, the more there seems to explore, which is perhaps the greatest part of life itself. That even if we spent every day of our lives travelling, exploring, and seeking out adventure, we could never go everywhere. So you choose the places you think you’ll like the best and just take a go at it, getting suggestions along the way that will take you to places both expected and unexpected – which are often the best types, I must say. But then again, I suppose that’s just a metaphor for life itself and travelling has finally made me realize that while there is a certain comfort in security, rarely are the rewards so great as those decisions made on the direction of the breeze -although it’s always good to keep a full tank of fuel onboard, just in case.

What I feel I’ve gained, however, is not so much a new appreciation for the new places I’ve been, but rather the friendships I’ve made, and the people that have continued to be friends with me. I couldn’t have done it without all of you…Well, I could have, but it would have been a lot more lonely, and I hate to drink alone.

So to everyone I’ve met and everyone I’ve known, you’re the things that make life great – Cheers.

I’ll leave you all with a rather fitting quote, if I don’t say so myself:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

See you sometime,

J.Z. Garrod