a new era is beginning.  i can feel the summer taking it's toll and pulling my soul in a different direction and it's hard for me to stay creative.  i'm delightfully uninspired.  there is nothing to fear about this, it is only the natural part of the human-system and it is time for change.

in the winter i work a lot.  in the summer i travel a lot.  when i work too much i miss the freedom of the open road and when i'm on the open road i sometimes miss the need to use the creative side of my brain.  i think there is a good reason for this.  i think travel forces you to use intuition rather than imagination and teaching is quite the opposite.

my life has two drastically different sides to it.  i work hard and make due in a faraway land and when work has finished i travel to even farther away lands some of which i know virtually nothing about.

being on the open road is a time for learning.  i make friends for different reason than i do when i'm back home (wherever home may be).  this wild feeling rushes over me when i enter a new town and an even wilder feeling comes over me when i leave.  behind me fades the buildings and faces that i had just come to know and once again me and my companion Alice are lost in the world; nobody knows where we are.  its surreal.

i'm doing ok.  maybe i just popped in to say that i'm doing ok.  i look around to the city of istanbul and think to myself that there is so much i could say about this beautiful city-state but perhaps i've waited too long.  it makes me smile to look at the blogs of some of my newer friends to this city and to read about their frustrations with language and amazement of turkish culture.  i've become so used to these things that it would be almost impossible for me to write about now.  i apologize for that, this city deserves books to be written in its honor.

my stories will continue in less than a month when (insallah) i arrive at the indian border of nepal.  i promsie to take photos of everything i can and i promise to return to this blog with a richer voice of travel than i ever have before.

i'm very proud of my travels.  should things go the way i plan, this year i will step foot upon more countries than many could dream of in a life time and i'm not boasting, simply proud.  i'm happy, i'm proud and i'm infinitely curious and now part of me is beginning to realize that i have a responsibility to share my travels with the world.  that is... unless i choose to keep my stories to myself only to keep me company at night under the falling rain while comparing the sounds of raindrops here with the sounds of raindrops everywhere else i have traveled.

the author, age 30

istanbul