I’m rather surprised by how much there is to do in the UAE (albeit expensive at times), but as great as the country is, what made the experience for me was not so much the city, attractions, or even activities – it was the great company I got to share it with. Backpacking across the world by myself grants me the freedom to make spontaneous, unilateral decisions as I go, but there is a price: I have nobody to share my adventures with. While I do my best to share my stories with family and friends back home through this blog, it is a far cry from actually experiencing the events together. While cliché, it’s true when they say life is better with company - and the same applies to travel. Ironically, what started out as terrible travel delay with my Indian visa turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I had the opportunity to travel with two old friends from college, Sean and Will, who were visiting family in Abu Dhabi.
It’s 3:00 am Gulf Standard Time as my plane descends into Dubai International Airport. I’ve been up for over 21 hours and my eyes feel like sandpaper rubbing against wood every time I blink, but the dazzling city outside my narrow window instantly washes away my lethargy. From thousands of feet in the air I can see the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, conspicuously jutting out from the futuristic-looking city of Dubai. The mammoth structure dwarfs every other building in sight and appears comically out of place among its peers. As the plane passes over downtown Dubai, a rush of excitement fills my body and chills run down my spine. It is a uniquely exhilarating feeling that reminds me of the first time I laid eyes on the Empire State Building as I flew over Manhattan.
Whenever I mentioned my plans to travel through Jordan, the first (and usually only) place everyone recommends is Petra. Most people know next to nothing about Jordan aside from the famous landmark, but I was surprised to find out that travelers I spoke with unanimously said that there was nothing special about the capital city of Amman. In fact, many indicated Amman was their least favorite city in the Middle East and recommended I skip it entirely. Since my flight to Dubai departed out of Amman, I figured I should spend a few days in the city so I could formulate my own opinion. I had to at least Amman a chance and was delightfully surprised by what I found.
It’s been almost a month now since I applied for my visa to India, and I can already tell that the country’s notorious bureaucracy is going to be a thorn in my side for the next several months. Like with most formal visa requests, the Indian Consulate took hostage the one document this traveler never dares to go without – my passport. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety whenever I’m separated from my little passport; since my very first day back in Faro, Portugal over eight months ago, that document has remained with me at all times. To backpackers, our passport is a natural extension of our bodies and not only serves as our global form of identification, but as a sacred repository for our badges of honor (aka passport stamps). Thankfully, my time in “travel purgatory” is finally at an end and the Indian consulate returned my passport. I am once again free to travel to my heart’s content!
Of all the historical events, eras, and sagas taught in grade school history classes, none is more rigorously discussed that the Second World War and, more specifically, the atrocities of the Holocaust. While I learned a great deal about topic during my formal education, sadly the vast majority of my knowledge developed solely out of a need to pass an exam. I remember hearing unbelievably emotional stories from friends who visited concentration camps such as Auschwitz and vowed to visit at least one of these camps during my lifetime. More than a simple social obligation, I felt the need to see Auschwitz with my own two eyes to gain a better understanding of the events that transpired in this region of the world. Since the poster child for atrocities committed during WWII - Auschwitz II Birkenau - is located just outside of Krakow, I could not leave Poland without a visit.
I can’t seem to get enough of Germany. There is just something about this great country that I find fascinating. It might be that everything here is so much cheaper than the rest of Europe, that transportation is wonderfully efficient, that a beer cost as much as a bottle of soda, that the food is spectacular, or that the people here are so welcoming, but damn if I'm not in love with this country. From Ireland, I booked a cheap flight to Oslo for €20, but once I realized how absurdly expensive Norway is, I was not keen on spending the next month of my life hemorrhaging money in Scandinavia. I debated returning to Germany, until a friend of mine from the US, Jon, told me he had one week off between jobs and wanted to visit Berlin. I was all too happy to skip my flight to Oslo and book a new flight to Germany at the last minute.
Since this blog’s inception, I've made it a point to write every entry from my perspective at the time when the events/adventures occurred. Even though these entries are now many, many months behind their respective dates, I always try to stay true to the moment even it means stating things I know do not occur in the future. Initially, this long turnaround rate was a severe thorn in my side, but I’ve come to appreciate the delay in publishing my stories to the public domain as it gives me the chance to personally relive the tales as well edit for content or length. Now that I’ve finally reached my trip to Dublin though, I find myself in a bit of a quandary and feel it necessary to break from tradition.
After two years of planning, saving, and questioning every life decision I ever made, I’m finally here! In less than an hour I will board my plane to Faro, Portugal… the first city in my year long expedition across the world! Words alone cannot fully communicate my excitement.
Hello World! Welcome to Tello’s Travels! I can’t tell you all how excited I am to finally get this blog up and running. It has been a long road for me to get to this point, but all the pieces are finally coming together and it's mesmerizing to think that in a few short weeks I will be leaving the US for Portugal!
