Just When I Thought I Had Seen The World...

For those of you who haven’t met me, I spent nearly 8 years in the United States Navy (for more material, read the first blog). The military provided me with wonderful experiences—some good and some bad. It also provided a very cool opportunity to travel. Now of course it’s not the most recommended method of seeing the world if all you want to do is travel, but while serving the country, it proves to be a good perk. I’ve been to many countries most people here in the U.S. would never travel to. On the flip side, I’ve also visited some rather touristy destinations.

I’ve been to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia – three times at least. I’ve also been to Mazatlan (only once *sigh*) courtesy of the floating city named the U.S.S. Constellation.

After I got out of the military, I thought I had seen the world. I had… but only to a small extent. Per my most recent blog, the trip to Europe has since come and gone. They call it a “European Whirl” for good reason! In less than two weeks we visited 7 countries by bus. The experiences provided by this trip have ignited in interest in European history. For example, what was Henry VIII’s deal? When did the Spanish Armada decide to attack England in 1588? Marie Antoinette was a great queen, or so I thought… so why was she beheaded? The Romans… why did they expand their empire so far, only to fall back so much? Interesting stuff, huh?

My favorite parts of the trip have to be touring London, walking through Rome with my wife, brother-in-law and his wife by ourselves, and everything about Paris. Good Lord, Paris is amazing… and surprisingly was one of the cheapest places we visited! However, the main highlight for me (aside from a show at the Moulin Rouge) was meeting up with my Navy buddy Mike and his family. He was stationed with me while I was in Everett and since has transferred to Germany, so to meet up with him was wonderful!

I would have loved to include some photos from our adventure, but the stupid server keeps timing out on me. My apologies. Anyhow, while the company on the bus was good (can’t go wrong with 24 Aussies, can ya?), taking a bus tour was not really ideal. However, it did give us a taste of what to expect should we choose to visit those countries again.

But there are a couple of countries I would like to visit that we haven’t yet seen: Japan, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark and Sweden. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of England, Germany or France either.

You know, we may be a small speck on this earth, and this earth may be a small speck in this galaxy… but there sure is a heck of a lot to see! My questions to you are:

1) If you have been overseas, where have you been? Would you go back?
2) If you haven’t yet been overseas, where would you like to go, if anywhere?

Take care all!

~ N.