Last year, the only thing I craved more than my next overseas adventure was a reason to stay in one place.
January: Sniffed Out. When the bell struck midnight on January 1, 2011, I had only been back in the United States for three days. I’d seriously weighed remaining in Southeast Asia long-term, by decided against it in the 11th hour, fearing I would become complacent and fail to achieve the travel goals I’d set.
February: A cinematic score.
March: Top of the world. From Peruvian treasures like the Colca Canyon, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats (above) and two weeks in long, narrow Chile, Andean air seemed to be the perfect antidote to my woes.
April: Out East. April would see me crossing into Argentina, which was probably the strangest place I’d ever visited at that point. The effects of the 2001 economic collapse still lingered: Argentina was a rich country gone poor. Abandoned public squares, harrowing midnight strolls and an eerie lack of change for even small notes and coins seemed a scary omen for currently industrialized countries.
May: Rejected. I was energized when I stepped off the plane from Brazil, in spite of my early morning arrival: My trip to South America had re-focused me on my goal of making blogging a business.
June: Fenced In. May kind of sucked because it took me longer than I’d intended to find a new place to stay in Austin, which I meant I spent the month on a friend’s couch. On June 2, I moved into a charming house just east of downtown Austin, coincidentally one where Joel and I had attended a party during our short-live romance.
July: The Reunion.
August: California Love. After exploring Los Angeles and surroundings for a few days, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco, stopping in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz along the way.
September: The Holy Grail. I returned to Israel to give it a second chance and ended in September with two weeks in post-revolution Egypt.
October: Out of Africa. I chased my trip to Egypt with 10 days in Morocco all the way into the Sahara desert. Morocco was even more visually stunning than Egypt was, but after a month without alcohol, sex and Internet faster than a crawl, I was eager to return to Europe.
November: Portugal, The Man. On November 1 I flew from Holland to Portugal, where I spent the first week of November — and the last week of my trip. I’d visited eight countries in just 10 weeks of travel, and in spite of how much incredible content I had mined, I was absolutely exhausted.
Robert Schrader is a travel writer and photographer who’s been roaming the world independently since 2005, writing for publications such as “CNNGo” and “Shanghaiist” along the way. His blog, Leave Your Daily Hell, provides a mix of travel advice, destination guides and personal essays covering the more esoteric aspects of life as a traveler.
