By: Lindsay Hogg

How Do You Put a Year Around the World Into Words?

I’m currently 6 hours away from my 22 hour flight home from Auckland to Tahiti to California to finally, Toronto. It’s another hazy day which will unfortunately fade the sweet ass tan I’ve obtained in the past few weeks. Balls.
Although I’m nervous about coming home to an extremely different world than I’ve been living in for the past year, the comforts of my own room and conversations that don’t start with ‘where are you from’ thrills me. As I scramble to finish writing the pending posts from rest of my trip, I’m faced with the dreaded and daunting task of REFLECTION – all those typical questions you should ask yourself after a life changing experience.
“What have I learned” “Have I grown” “Am I more knowledgeable” and so on…
But for now I will keep these answers to myself and simply share the experiences that stand out in my mind.
In the next week I will go into more detail about the ‘life changing moments’ (yay! – insert sarcasm) and the people I have met along the road who have effected my life for the better or worse.

How do you sum up a year of your life in one article? I quit my great job, sold everything in my apartment and left all my friends & family to backpack around the world solo.

South America: Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina (and Mexico since I missed my flight oops!)
Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China
New Zealand

Kitty and I swimming in Laos

• Swimming in waterfalls – hot springs and lagoons, hiking through ancient ruins, riding bicycles -quads – horses through the mountains, kayaking through crystal clear – aqua waters
• Jumping off boats, tubing down rivers, floating markets and fishing villages, touring wine vineyards to taste and learn
• Driving on the left hand side of the road and roadtrips through scary, windy, mountain roads
• Motor bike roadtrips, tuk tuks and long boats, sun burns and food poisoning
• Learning Spanish and Mandarin
  

  Els and I riding horses in Bolivia

• Travelling with amazing new friends and awesome old friends, meeting the same people on 3different continents
• Missing flights (yes, plural… flights) and purposely missing buses
• Meeting friendly locals and not so friendly locals
• Empanadas and lomo saltado, fried noodles and dumplings, kiwi venison and BBQ sauce
• The boys, the bugs, the animals
• Eating snake – rat – guinea pig and frog, lao buckets, all you can drink tequila, pisco, rice wine, lao lao, 3 day long parties, dancing till 8am
• Crossing international borders by foot and by boat
• Barely avoiding 2 major earthquakes
• Bartending and sharing a room with 8 other people, sleeping in hammocks
  

  The Point Hostel crew, Lima – Peru

• Bargaining for everything, buying more than fits in my backpack
• Toilet paper goes in the bin – bring your OWN toilet paper
• Good decisions, bad decisions
• Pink eye and bronchitis
• Getting arrested, getting ripped off
• Coming home one ipod – A LOT of cloths and one bankcard short
• 30 new beers tried, 10 countries conquered, stories that will never be forgotten, stories that may never get told