LA, NY, and a Retrospective

aaaand, I’m back. I took a redeye from Kauai to Los Angeles where I spent a long weekend before returning to New York, a little over 4 months after I left.

I didn’t sleep well on the redeye from Kauai to LA (but did watch two movies I hadn’t yet seen, the Joker and Frozen). Fortunately I didn’t have anything planned for the Friday day when I arrived. I was visiting my old and dear friend, Matt, who I don’t get to see too often due to our different coasts (this weekend we realized we’ve now known each other for about 30 years).

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When I got to West Hollywood, Debbie, Matt’s fiancee who I met for the first time, let me into their apartment. We chatted for a bit and I napped while she went out and ran errands. Upon waking up I decided to do a small walking tour of streets and neighborhoods whose names I recognized. This began with a walk to Melrose Place for coffee. Then west to Beverly Hills via Santa Monica Boulevard.

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I had walked the short Rodeo Drive when I was in LA as an early teenager so I felt fine skipping it this time around. In Beverly Hills i got tacos and then an uber to head east of West Hollywood and check out Griffith Park. I saw the Hollywood sign from the car, which was enough for me. I walked through a bit of the Hollywood Hills on my way into the park, and came across a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house being readied to be put on the market. I don’t think I have the $3 million+ necessary to buy it, but I thought about it.

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From the park i glanced at the observatory which was too far to walk to and enjoyed the vista of the city. I knew of Griffith Park form a song by The Band, 4% Pantomime. It also stood out on the map and in the cityscape due to its size and topography. Steep hills, native plants, and city views made it fully worthwhile. I also saw my only celebrity of the weekend, Pete Holmes! We made eye contact, I nodded and did not engage.

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Then back down to watch the sunset while heading back to West Hollywood via Sunset Boulevard. It seemed fitting.

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That night we went for Korean BBQ and overate to the point of exhaustion. Saturday matt and i first went to a beach club in malibu for brunch (no photos allowed). Then drove to venice beach, from which we walked to santa monica pier.

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Then back to his place to recharge before meeting up with spmw more friends for an italian dinner, followed by latenight bowling. At the bowling alley i set a lifetime high with a 161, ending the game on a turkey. I liked the bowling alley which was a bit old school and each lane seemed to have bowlers from a different decade (they were all 20 and 30 somethings, dressed in retro attire).

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Our last day hd a rainy forecast so we mostly took it easy. After brunch at a good and trendy restaurant we headed back and decided to see a movie – birds of prey, not great. Then to downtown LA for tacos. The tacos were not good, rather they were great!

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I thoroughly enjoyed LA and in some respects saw the appeal of living there. Despite witnessing a rare rainy day, the dry warm sunny weather is glorious. The city has a lot of green space and the hills made for great views, both as a backdrop to the sparse urban environment when looking up at them or for a vantage point looking down at the city from the slopes. However I didn’t find myself falling victim to the appeal of LA. I like urban spaces and density and demorcratic movement around cities. I foud LA to be way too car centric. And while in my short time I spent quality time with quality people, the people of LA are not my people. Appearances matter too much in this place (except in the Magic Castle, where disappearances are all the rage). I’ll be back in the fall as wedding bells ring and hopefully get to see some more of the town and further inform my opinion of this materialistic car-centric beautiful place.

And for LA:

My actual song for LA is as follows…

The next morning I left early to catch my flight out of LAX, which got me into JFK in the evening. Uneventful flight. From there I headed to Kew Gardens, where my mom grew up, and throughout my lifetime, where my grandmother lived, for pizza. Ohhhh Dani’s Pizza. And then back to Ossining, putting an end to the widdershinning.

Now one more track for good measure (no joke):

Now that I’m back I have enjoyed recounting my stories to friends and family, and sharing tidbits and the like. I’ve gotten many of the same questions (from strangers while traveling and familiar faces at home) …where were you favorite places? …what did you learn about the world? …what did you learn about yourself? …where to next? …what was the best (insert noun here)? …do you feel rested? …are you ready to go back to work? … could you keep going?

The answers are: many/a lot/a little/everywhere/see the best of/yes/kind of/I suppose.

Alright, I’ll elaborate briefly on my experiences in these places:

I am glad I went everywhere I went. I wish I could’ve spent more time nearly everywhere, and wish I could’ve gone to very many plenty more countries and cities and towns too. There were bad moments or places that didn’t wow me but in general even the bad parts gave me appreciation for other parts of the trip and/or allowed me to recognize how fortunate I am (whether talking about luxuries or privilege or just to be able to experience it all). The only place where I feel I had a bad experience was Delhi, but as I’ve said, somewhere or sometime had to be the worst part of the trip. So it might as well have been one of the poorest and most polluted places I visited. The highlights were many, and diverse in location. I also wasn’t fooled when I noticed a correlation between my favorite countries and my favorite foods. Europe for me peaked with Italy, but I also spent the most time there (13 days), with only Germany (10 days) a close second. Italy was also home to 5/13 of the “old friends” and 7/89 of my “new friends” – and the old friends probably also helped give it a boost. But the food, scenery, lucky weather, history, and architecture make it hard to beat no matter where else I went. Outside of these I spent 0-5 days in every other country I visited in the continent. Switzerland was the most beautiful, while in Germany I was most connected to my family history that I had direct knowledge of. The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Slovenia, and Austria all got the quick drive-thru treatment, so they never really had a chance. I had been to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France before. I shortchanged Austria to add Slovenia. And if I sneezed I might have missed Luxembourg (I typically sneeze in threes, FYI). But my itinerary was also somewhat geared around where I knew I would love. The Czech Republic and Poland were the two European countries I didn’t do by car, so naturally I wound up spending more time here (4 and 5 days, respectively). I had high expectations going into Prague which were met, while I had low expectations for Poland which were exceeded in architecture and more or less met elsewhere. Europe in six photos:

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Then to Asia, where I sojourned for 83 days. Many locals all over Asia asked me if I had been before (they don’t meet too many Americans among the slew of westerners that come to sightsee). I spent a little over two weeks in Israel (with the aforementioned Matt) in 2006, but I marketed myself as a first time Asia visitor on this trip. My day in Dubai was by no means an introduction to what I was about to experience, but it was worthy of a brief stay to see the awe-inspiring modern architecture (and set a daily record for steps! somewhere around 47,000). Then onto Nepal, which I’ve characterized as the place I would most like to get back to. I knew it going in – Nepal is for trekkers. I hiked here, but didn’t do a proper trek, which is what it’s all about. More days in the mountains does the mind and body good. Nepal was my favorite country of Asia up until Vietnam. I touched on India earlier. Most of my experience here was positive, but there was more here to complain about than most other places, and I did get sick (one of two times I had stomach issues). India was beautiful and I was somewhat prepared for the people and poverty and pollution and underwhelmed by the food. Then to Singapore, which I had heard was socially too sterile. It was clean, which was glorious given my previous conditions. And the food was great. And I saw an old friend for the first time in years, Aaron. My first half of Asia, in photos:

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Then continuing what’s known as the ‘Banana Pancake Trail,’ of cheaper southeast Asian destinations known for a steady flow of backpackers. It is very obvious why this part of the world is such a destination. It’s cheap, it’s gorgeous, the weather’s great, the food is great, the local people are generally pleasant, and even though there are enough tourists that I sometimes felt like I learned more about backpackers’ own culture (i.e. the Australians or Europeans in my hostels), there was an overwhelming feeling of camaraderie and vacation vibes, always with activity partners (if sought out). Vietnam was my favorite of these – in part because of the food, in part because it was beautiful, in part because I met great people and had a great time here. I also really loved Thailand, but it was clear that the tourism industry had advanced much further in Thailand and thus some of the experiences and places were more commercial and less authentic or unique. My initial plan included more time in Cambodia but I gave it up in favor of Vietnam. I feel like it deserved more of my attention than the 3 days I spent in Siem Reap, but I’ll just have to return one day. Thailand was theoretically the crescendo, where I had 3 American friends traveling with me, culminating with New Years Eve in Bangkok. I liked the symbolism of beginning the trip on the Jewish New Year and returning home with the American New Year, to start anew. But I hadn’t exhausted my budget and I still had an appetite to travel. These three countries generated lots of photos, i.e.

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My “bonus month” began with 13 days in the Philippines. I spent 2 days too many in Manilla (for a total of 2 days) and another 2 weeks would’ve given me enough time to feel like I experienced all the Philippines has to offer backpackers. But I always knew I’d never see it all, anywhere. Some travelers indicated that once you’d seen a few Filipino beaches, you’ve seen them all. I didn’t agree, but did recognize that some were more special than others (with Nacpan Beach still sticking out in my memory). The food in the Philippines was maybe the most disappointing of any country, and I got sick here (I hypothesize it was from water). Then Japan. Initially removed from my list due to weather, price, and the need to spend quality time here. I wound up doing 16 days. This was more or less the right amount of time for the places I went, but I only saw a fraction of the country, which has a whole lot to offer in terms of landscapes, culture, food, architecture, and the like. Japan was probably my favorite country of all, so I’m overjoyed I overruled my original itinerary and re-added it to the portfolio. My next trip to Japan will have to take me to the far north and far south (and maybe some repeats of some of the central sights that I saw on my widdershins). Knowing that Japan was near the end of my trip may have also contributed to my love for it, as I tried to squeeze enjoyment out of every last experience and moment. These two Asian “bonus countries” were more than just icing on the cake, as evidenced by my records:

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And all of a sudden, my foray in foreign countries was over. Back to America, but slowly. In identifying what this trip might look like, I began pouring over maps and charting alternative courses of where my potential excursions could take me. As these hypothetical routes took me through, over, or near potential points of interest, they too got added to the list. For this reason, Hawaii was always on my list, breaking up my passage across the Pacific (I briefly researched being a passenger aboard a freight ship, but this was not up my alley). As a result, I never had a time change greater than 6 hours (which was my first – New York to Germany; Japan to Hawaii was technically 19, but effectively 5), and I never had a flight longer than 8 hours (New York to Frankfurt was 7:45, Osaka to Honolulu was 7:25). Again, from Hawaii to the west coast was always a no brainer. This added a net two hours or so of flying, and not much cost (if any). With family in San Francisco and friends in LA, these both were on my list. And I dreamed to drive from one to the other. Which turned into a dream to buy a car out west and drive cross country for at least two weeks. After all, I was at 35 states and would like to one day visit all 50. This road trip would’ve looked something like CA (or maybe Oregon first, where it’s cheaper to buy a car ) to Arizona to Utah (national park centric) to Colorado to a more central or southern route, something like KS>OK>AK>LA>AL>GA>NC>VA>DC>MD>PA>NY or KS>OK>AK>MO>TN>WV>PA>NY. And if I said to hell with weather and to hell with upping my state total, maybe I’d see some of my scattered friends and head from St. Louis to Chicago to Detroit to Toronto to my old stomping grounds of Buffalo. But all of this is conjecture, because I flew home from my one west coast stop, LA (Hawaii has since gotten me to 36). This ‘hitting the eject button’ only somewhat prematurely was to advance my career prospects, so stay tuned for what will hopefully be good news in the next couple of weeks. I may no longer be able to brag about being “homeless and unemployed,” as I declared myself during widdershinning, always said while widely grinning.

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As I got close and as I arrived home, I thought critically about whether or not I could and wanted to keep going. Of course I could have. My budget had run out but my life savings had not, so I theoretically could’ve apportioned more resources to it. And I remained healthy and happy and had some desire to see more. But I was tired. And some of the flare was gone. Early on, I was excited to see everything. A streetscape, a museum, a unique building, a quotidian building, you name it. By the end, it began to get ho-hum. I woke up each day either with a plan of what to see or developed one on the fly, but each day that plan affected me a little less. I deliberately had the trip end with more beaches so I could find myself relaxing more and also because I figured there’d be sand in my bags and I would rather be dirtiest at the end. This was successful, but even so, while relaxed, I was ready to be done. When I began rifling through my bags looking for something after arriving in LA, I had the realization that the next time I packed would be my last, and got giddy about that prospect. While it would’ve been nice to end this world traveling with new experiences through the US, and perhaps applying some of my new perspective gained abroad to new cities back home, I’m not upset to be typing this back in the house I grew up in. Additional weeks or months of travel would be Peter Panning it, trying to stay irresponsible and young forever. Now that I’ve developed thoughts on where to return and where to go next, and have met people who were visiting them for a few days or weeks or years, I recognize that I can budget the time and money necessary to visit these, in small bites, rather than one giant hot dog eating contest of a trip. But I made good on my biggest regret in life (not backpacking Southeast Asia before grad school as a 23 year old) and fulfilled a fantasy of quitting my job to travel the world. I didn’t quite make it in 80 days like Jules Verne imagined, but 132 ain’t half bad either.

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And there you have it. A look back at the trip of a lifetime, a little over four months spent trying to maximize the efficiency of widdershinning the oblate spheroid that we cling to daily, realized through 21 one way flights. And if this here retrospective didn’t quite answer your questions, my sincerest apologies. Hopefully they’ll be addressed soon.

So goodbye for now, until next time, when I say goodbye for good (to the blog, that is).