**editor’s note: All of the following photos are from a mobile phone. If you want to see some of the photos I posted from my big boy camera, I suggest you click this link.

Yep. A year ago today, I left Canada, and I didn’t really know when I’d be back. I didn’t know where I was going beyond my first and second stops. Until a few hours before I left for the airport, I hadn’t even booked the bus ticket that would get me from Tokyo to Himeji (roughly a 600km journey). There was a whole shitheap of things I hadn’t planned, and I don’t remember how I felt about that at the time, but looking back, 2014 was the best year of my life.

After being home for about a week after my first foray into solo travel (three months in Southeast Asia), I decided I hadn’t had enough. I wanted to be gone again, to explore the world more, to meet new people, to try new food, to do more than what I could at home. Thankfully, I had the freedom to pursue that desire, and what a wild nine months I had as a result. What this blog post will be, I’m not entirely sure. Some kind of reflection, maybe. I’ll try to make it funny a bit, because if I just rambled on about my trip it’d be pretty boring, and if I tried to make it serious, well, I wouldn’t have much material to go on.

This is one of the few things in life that I mostly wouldn’t have done any differently. I am a dweller, without a doubt. I will stew on something that is so minute, so unremarkable, so insignificant that you’d wonder how I even remember it. Like how I said “you too” after an Old Navy employee said something totally not ‘you-too’-able. That one is a funny example, but there are also many instances I don’t laugh at because they were just poor choices. Given the chance, though, there’s almost nothing I would change about this trip. I just spent about an hour just now rummaging through the photos and videos on Facebook from my trip, and each of them has an incredible memory associated with it. …I guess some of them were taken pretty close together, time-wise, so it might be the same memory…and it might not even be about what’s happening in and around the pictu-You know what, let’s just say the photos and videos bring back memories, eh? Does that work for us? Good.

Japan

As something nice to look at, I think this was my best shot from Japan. It isn’t a statement piece, it doesn’t have any extra hidden meaning for me, it’s just a pleasant scene that I was lucky to capture. Japan was an odd start to my trip. It wasn’t my favourite country, but I still enjoyed my time there. It was accessible and inaccessible all at once – you could go anywhere, but you can’t much count on anybody to help you get there if you don’t speak Japanese. I’m not saying the people aren’t helpful. They are; they can be pleasant and quite eager to assist you, even the people you’d least suspect. But on a broader scope, Japan was a crash course in “if you’re going to get there, make it happen on your own.” Did I expect such a deep life lesson from the simple idea that not many people will speak English? No, but here we are. I learned a lot more of the language than I expected, I ate the best sushi I’m likely to ever have, and as a 188cm very white male with red hair and freckles, I got a lot of stares (and even a “gaijin sugoi, ne?” on the subway).

Japan, arigato gozaimashita!

Korea

Oh, Busan. What a time. This photo was taken on one of many late nights/early mornings on which I found myself still awake at sunrise. I turned down the street and saw this. Normally the flyers are littered on the ground so as to obscure the asphalt completely. This was taken after the street cleaners had been through, but before all the neon signs had been turned off. Busan held a lot of qualities that made me much more comfortable than I was in Japan. I found outgoing, curious, friendly locals, and a family of temporary nomads in my fellow LZone staff members. We drank far more soju than medically advisable, I ate more Korean barbecue than medically advisable, and I -…well, as a blanket statement, a doctor wouldn’t have recommended much of what I did in Korea, which is probably why we were all perpetually sick in that apartment. Norebang, batting cages, and telling everybody off in my farewell speech all made it worth it.

Korea, gamsahamnida!

Taiwan

This photo is representative of a ton of the great things about Taiwan – it’s colourful, it’s developed, but it still has a reverence for nature and there’s a feeling of balance and calm that you get just by being there. I think of Taiwan and China like I think of North America and the Caribbean – people are on island time, everybody is super friendly, and the food is ridiculicious (that’s ridiculously+delicious). Just look at how lush everything is in this picture! How can you not want to be there? Working at the hostel in Hualien was such a fun time, even through the earthquakes and painting and the realization that I’m not a kid anymore and can’t eat as much junk food as I once could which is something I learned when I puked in the middle of the night one time and not because of alcohol. Hard lesson. I would happily return to Taiwan, and I’ve encouraged a lot of people to check it out as a travel destination, because before I met a friend from Taiwan, I wouldn’t have really considered it.

Taiwan, xie xie!

Singapore

I wasn’t here for very long, but I had a fun time exploring this action-packed place. Such an odd mishmash of cultures and people, with delicious food (are you noticing a theme?), rich history, and a staggering amount of foresight. This country is the kid who started contributing to his RRSP at 18 and everybody thought was a weirdo, but then he got his MBA and is now absolutely crushing life.

SG, thanks la? I don’t know what to put in there, English is the official language.

Vietnam

Boy, what a time I had in Vietnam this go around. When I travelled Southeast Asia, it was the country I was most looking forward to from everything I had read about it. When I finally arrived there (which was quite a journey, a story I might revisit in a later post), I was in no way disappointed. I had such a magical time and was really hoping to ride that wave again this year. How misguided. This was a bit jarring, but returning to Vietnam ended up being a very trying time, and in many ways, a big disappointment. In many other ways it surprised me and I had a wonderful time despite some challenges, but mostly, I did not have the experience I anticipated. Due to the incredible amount of rain (and coconuts) falling, I took very few pictures of my time on Phu Quoc, but this day showed off a bit of sun and these impossibly defined clouds of which I decided to snap a photo. I quite like the depth they show. I faced a bit of difficulty with weather, my workstay, the dynamic relationship between motorcycles and inertia as applied to my body on a stony mud road, having a prostitute steal my phone, and probably a few other things. Despite that, I encountered some lovely humans, ate delicious food (and some food that decided to do some spring cleaning by way of evacuating everything in my stomach…I guess that would be one of the other difficult things I just mentioned), saw new sights, got a lot of reading done (Song of Ice and Fire, anybody?), and had the best smoothie of my life in Saigon.

Vietnam, cam on!

Italy

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Italy. My experience here was overwhelmingly positive, everybody I met was wonderful, the weather was hot, sunny, and everything my Vietnamese island time wasn’t. I don’t even know what to say that could sum it up adequately. Snorkelling in a little cove in Sicily, relaxing on the beach in Castellamare, watching the sunrise over the mountains in Umbria, cooking, eating, jamming…I had a surreal month. I also went pretty much entirely vegetarian for the whole month, and it wasn’t even that bad! I had a cheat few nights, but somewhere around 80% of my days were meatless, likely more. This was also my first proper taste of Europe, as I’d never been anywhere in the contiguous countries of the EU before, so that was pretty cool. Also, I got to use the word ‘contiguous.’

Italy, grazie mille!

Scotland

Scotland was a major change. Italy was sunny and alive and hot and all kinds of things. Scotland was …well, Scotland. Quite rainy, and I was in a rather quaint town that didn’t have all that much going on (with apologies to The Lorne). Still, my time there is something I look back on fondly. I met some really cool people at that hostel, and had a lot of fun on tiny adventures and watching movies. Especially grand was the 7 Nights of Harry Blotto, over which we watched all eight Harry Potter films, one each night (two on the last), and played a drinking game that resulted in a drink basically every 20 seconds. Distillery tours, my first stab at haggis (seriously, I’m going to try not to mention food in the next one), running into a fellow Canuck with whom I shared a mutual friend by some gypsy magic – Scotland was a hoot.

…I didn’t pick up any Gallic. Ta? Was that a Scottish thing? Ugh, this is getting exhausting.

Ireland

This beach was worth it. I had a hell of a day on a rickety bicycle, crazy hills, 40% function in the brakes, the home stretch with a flat tire after riding about 40km…but it was totally worth it. This beach was stunning. Ireland overall was a lovely. The experience of being in such a homey area of the country gave me a really good feel for the community life there, and how easy life is when things are kept simple. They entertain themselves by sitting around a fire and singing folk songs, which I’m sure is the same way they staved off boredom and depression over the country’s unfortunate history. It’s refreshing to see that kind of tradition still alive and well, whereas this generation of North Americans would react to somebody talking about sitting around the radio listening to stories by saying, “broadcast? You mean podcast, right?” Technology is a stick on fire. One can hold it safely, and it will be helpful, but it’s easy enough to have it go wrong.

Ireland, go raibh maith agaibh.

England

Well, I was only here for a short time, and I didn’t actually take many pictures. I did get to see old friends from both sides of the world, meet new friends, and spend quality time with my sister and brother-in-law, all while making a significant dent in Far Cry 3. Yeah, I know what you might be thinking, you’re in London, blah blah blah, but let’s keep in mind that at this point I had been on the road for 8 months and it was nice to have a few days where I actually did nothing. I also binge-watched True Detective and that was just like, whoa, man. I still get chills when I think about episode four.

England, cheers.

Iceland

As it turns out, I think my favourite photo from Iceland is one I didn’t take, but one that I’m in. So first, props to Chloe for the shot! To me, this photo says a lot. I won’t say what, but it feels like a real statement. Iceland was amazing. What a jaw-dropping landscape for a country. There’s so much to see and do, it’s a really special place. Expensive, yes, but awesome. Driving around, over 1000km in 3 days and change, I got to see some of the most significant sights in the southwest part of the country, and despite uncooperative weather, I had a really good time doing it. Waterfalls, volcanic fields, mountains, hot springs, chasing the Northern Lights (to little avail, unfortunately), a day of luxury at the Blue Lagoon, eating rotten shark and whale steak in the same meal…I really crammed a lot of adventure into just one week.

Iceland, takk.

And to everywhere I haven’t been yet…I don’t know. I don’t think I’m done with this travel thing. There’s still a lot of adventuring left in me. There’s nothing else to which I can compare that feeling of exploration. Landing in an entirely new country, with a new language, new menu, new roadways, new designs, architecture, values, customs…getting to a place so different from the one you know can really shake you up. Think of yourself like …like some kind of fruit juice, or a can of coconut milk or something. It’s a stretch, stay with me. If you don’t shake it up, you’ll pour away this empty water, drinking something flavourless and bland. When you get to the bottom, and it’s almost over, you’ll see all this stuff that you didn’t even think about before, and now it’s too late. If you shake it up, sure, you’ll get a seed or two. You might even drop the whole bottle. But …I actually think I’ve gotten enough mileage out of this analogy.

Do things that will disrupt your life.