14 months · 20 countries · 100+ cities
After 20 minutes on the phone over lunch break, my British Airways agent found me the perfect flight. Booked: a one way ticket to Peru. No backing out now, and six short months until I had to be ready to go.
Before leaving, I sold or gave away everything that didn’t fit into my small travel bag. It was extra hard to say goodbye to my baby blue station wagon (200k miles on it—a life well lived!), my skateboard, and my Vitamix.
A few days after starting my trip, I took a bumpy 5-day bus journey across southern Peru. Travel always breeds intimacy, so it's no surprise all our bus companions became fast friends.
On my way to Macchu Piccu, I mountain biked down twisting mountain roads to a teeming jungle valley. I was going so fast that all I could thing about was the best way to take the next curve.
Growing up, I read and reread the encyclopedia entry about Machu Picchu. Mom and Dad taught us a lot about other places, but we couldn't afford to go and see any of them.
Almost twenty years after first reading about it, I woke up on a cold, misty morning before dawn and ran the whole way up the mountain to be the first inside the ancient city.
I won't forget the feeling of those pages coming to life as the mist cleared and the city snapped into focus.
On the mountainous Peru/Bolivia border, my bus was about to leave. I didn’t want to get on it. If I went to Bolivia, I wouldn’t make it to the beach for another month, in Argentina. (Bolivia is landlocked.) But was I really going to change my whole trip just to go to the ocean a bit sooner?
Yep. I took a 20 hour overnight bus heading in the opposite direction, heading Northwest to the ocean. It totally changed my trip.
Emily, an uncle, and I got on a fishing boat right as the first bits of orange broke on the horizon.
She was telling me about her plans for her last semester in college when she got a big bite on the line.
After an hour of battling, we reeled it in: a 7.5’ (2.3m) Marlin.
I’d been doing some UX work for an SF-based startup. Right before we finished the project, I asked the question I always finish projects with: are we proud to launch this?
My colleagues all said yes. That always feels good. But what was new for me: getting there while traveling across 3 countries.
I landed in Colombia just before midnight. My AirBnB host rolled up to the airport in a BMW convertible with friends in the back—“we’re going to go out—want to come with us?”.
Jamie introduced me to Colombia with gregarious, energetic hospitality and a go-all-night attitude.
My good friend Cody and I toured Scotland together.
Even better than seeing the wide valleys and old cities was sharing and shaping life plans with one of my favorite people.
Home isn't a place, it's people. With the right people, I'm at home anywhere.
Well after midnight, I was wandering the wide squares and twisted streets of Madrid. Earphones in, I listened to a podcast where Chris Sacca (legendary tech investor) talked about how important it is to travel, to get lost, and see the world.
It made me realize how much I wanted to be exactly where I was.
Blablacar is an app that lets you take shared rides with drivers going the same way. I’d join a car, already full with two or three Spaniards, and try to keep up with the conversation. Until I passed out. Even now, cars put me to sleep like nothing else. The countryside would roll by—all olive trees, red roofed houses and grassy mountainsides.
I’d been working on my business for two months, first by helping people one-on-one to make sure people needed what I was making. I launched V1 while at a coworking space on the Canary Islands. After sending my site live and posting about it, I came back the next morning to see people using it from over 90 different countries.
Santiago Calatrava, the architect who made this building, studied civil engineering after architecture.
He believes that knowing what is possible doesn't bind creativity, but unlocks it.
After seeing the sweeping contours of the Auditorio de Tenerife, it's hard to disagree.
After staying in the Canary Islands, I planned to go to Barcelona.
But plans are made to be unmade: I skipped that plan to go see a friend's home in Slovakia. Barcelona I know I’ll make it back to. But Slovakia?
Kurt Vonnegut says, “unexpected travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” And what is travel if not a dance to a new rhythm?
Here: a hike we took in the Tatra mountain range. Fun fact: Slovakia has the most castles per-capita in Europe. Now you know.
My close friend Jennie, visiting me from California, helpmed me wrangle up a crew at our hostel and rent a tiny boat. We puttered out to an empty, remote cove. The beer and the water were both very warm.
This bobsled track was built for the 1984 Winter Olympics. It winds down a mountain valley towards Sarajevo.
During the Yugoslav wars, Bosnian Serbs surrounded Sarajevo and attacked local civilians. This track was used for artillery installations by the attackers to fire on residents inside the city.
I wanted to focus on building out the design education project I started in Spain.
So I settled into a flat in the center of Tel Aviv and got to work.
It's a work hard, play hard city, and the beach is central to life there. It fit me like a glove.
I’d never hitch-hiked before. But a couple of fearless teenagers in my hostel did it so often that I was embarrassed to not try.
Northeastern Israel has little public transit, so I stuck my thumb out. And got where I needed to go.
Pictured: a bus I managed to catch after hitch-hiking across the countryside.
While in the West Bank, I took an afternoon stroll to a hammam (a Turkish-style spa). When inside, the other guys there struck up conversations, helped me find my way around, and invited me to their homes to meet their families.
When I left the hammam, sirens were wailing. A few blocks away, kids and teenagers were demonstrating and throwing stones at soldiers. On my way back to my hostel, I saw a kid of about 14, whistling and swinging a slingshot around in wide arcs as he walked home.
I made it—a year of traveling the world! So many friends, colleagues and family cheered me on along the way. I was —and still am—grateful for each and every one of them.
I went with two of my closest friends to some islands in Southern Thailand. The formula was as trite as it was fun: remote islands, diving, beach drinking.
I fondly remember each hangover, each coral cut, each sunburn.
I shared what I know about design a few times in my round-the-world adventure: in London, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Each time I did, I learned at least as much as I taught.
I’m grateful for every moment of my travels. My adventure continues here in San Francisco.
I'm here to build a strong community. To have wild adventures with great people. To design and build ideas that deserve to exist.
