2008 A Year in Review

It was another great year of traveling, music, friends, and a little bit of work. Oh yes, I did actually work a few months this year, and it was an ideal situation for me. 6 months of grinding through working life in London, England turned out to be an incredible summer. I was able to see many shows in London, travel around Europe every couple of weeks, and still save enough money for the 6 month holiday that I am currently on.

2008 brought me to new places, a new continent, new friends, and old friends. But following my travel route is like following a ping pong ball. This is a summary of my trips this year. Try to find the logic towards the itinerary…

• Flew Vancouver to Mexico City for a weeklong roadtrip to south Mexico & flew back for 2 days
• Flew Vancouver to Brazil via a week in New York then bussed around S America for 2 months
• Flew Brazil to Dublin via 3 days in New York then flew to London for a week
• Flew London to Vancouver for a week then
  Hitchhiked/Bussed/Drove Vancouver to Los Angeles via San Diego for 2 weeks
• Flew Los Angeles to London via 1 day in Dublin to start work for 6 months
• Flew London to Nashville, drove to New Orleans, Memphis, Manchester, Atlanta, and Columbia
• Flew Columbia to Detroit to London
• Trained London to Belgium for a weekend and back to London
• Flew London to Slovakia, bussed to Austria for a weekend, and flew back to London
• Flew London to Sweden for a weekend and back to London
• Flew London to Norway for a weekend and back to London
• Flew London to Italy for a weekend and back to London
• Flew London to Venice, drove to Munich and Verona, trained to Milan, & flew back to London
• Flew London to Mexico City via 1 day in Vancouver
• Drove Mexico City to Cancun and flew to Havana for a week long Cuban road trip
• Flew Havana to Cancun, drove to Mexico City in a week, and flew back to Vancouver
• Drove Vancouver to Victoria for the weekend and back to Vancouver
• Drove Vancouver to Seattle for the night and back to Vancouver
• Flew Vancouver to Las Vegas for the weekend and back to Vancouver

Are you lost yet? This is the statistics from 2008. I started doing this a few years ago by looking back in the year to see how it measured up to the previous years, and 2008 did not disappoint.

WORK

• 118 Days Worked
• 7 days at the first London job, then I quit
• 111 days at the second London job

TRAVEL

• 18 Countries
• 4 Continents
• 164 days in London
• 27 days in Europe
• 50 days in South America
• 10 days in Cuba
• 30 days in Mexico
• 38 days in US
• 46 days in Vancouver

TRANSPORTATION

• 130 hours on 24 trips by Air
• 142 hours on 18 trips by Bus
• 7700 kms on 13 trips by Road
• Longest flight – New York to Sao Paulo 13 hrs
• Longest bus ride – Cuzco, Peru to Santa Cruz, Bolivia 36 hrs
• Longest drive – Mexico City to Cancun 1400kms and 15 hrs,
• Most productive day – Breakfast in Florence, Lunch in Pisa, and Dinner in Bologna
• Busiest travel day – Hitching a ride from Vancouver to Seattle, then bussing from Seattle to Sacramento, then hitching a ride from Sacramento to Santa Cruz
• Craziest route to a destination – Flying London to Venice then driving to Munich and back to Verona then training to Milan to fly back to London.

TOP 3 CONCERTS

• Nine Inch Nails in Victoria, BC
• Pearl Jam at Bonnaroo
• Sigur Ros in Gotenburg Sweden

OTHER PERFORMANCES WORTH NOTING

• Iron Maiden in Sao Paulo
• Bruce Springsteen in Vancouver
• Eddie Vedder in San Diego
• Wintersleep in London
• The Swell Season in London and Bonnaroo
• Raconteurs, Gogol Bordello, and Jake Shimabukuro at Bonnaroo
• Neil Young at Werchter and Gotenburg
• The Wu Tang Clan in London
• Nine Inch Nails in Las Vegas
• Metric in Vancouver

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

• Puerto Escondido
• Mexican Food
• Roy Jones VS Felix Trinidad fight at Madison Square Gardens
• The Cherry Tree Bar in Brooklyn
• Brazilian Churrasco
• Surfing Florianopolis
• New England Patriots losing the Super Bowl and their perfect season
• Brazilian Carnival
• Samba Gringo Samba
• Mini zoo and the worst museum ever in Porto Alegre
• Argentinean Beef
• Eating two Argentinean steaks on my birthday
• Watching wrestling in Santiago, Chile and talking to the Edge about hockey
• Wrestling a blowup doll on Chilean TV and being called Dragon Steamboat then Pokemon
• VIP Cama busses in South America
• Chilean Coast
• Copacabana, Bolivia
• The woman who sold me a sweater in Puno, Peru after she found us like 10 times
• Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Coco leaves in Peru
• Iron Maiden in Brazil
• Pousada Tribo in Ubatuba, Brazil
• Visiting relatives in Rio de Janeiro
• Hanging out with Tatiana and Venassa in Brazil
• St Patrick’s Day in Dublin, showing up unannounced
• Whelan’s Pub in Dublin
• Being a tourist in Vancouver
• Bruce Springsteen on Mon, Blind Melon on Tues, and Eddie Vedder on Wed and Thur
• On the road with Newfie Joe
• Eddie Vedder west coast tour
• Falling asleep at the 2nd to last Eddie Vedder show
• My first pair of sanuks
• Throwing away my flight to stay 6 more hours at Whelan’s in Dublin
• Quitting my first job of the year after one week
• Stefan showing up for Shawn Smith in London
• On the guest list for Swell Season at the Barbican
• Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium
• New Orleans
• Southern Roadtrip
• Bonnaroo
• Pearl Jam at Bonnaroo
• Back stage passes at Bonnaroo (thanks Leigh)
• Stealing beer from Donovan Frankenreiter and Cat Power with my pass at Bonnaroo
• Sigur Ros staff recognizing me for trying to use their toilets at Bonnaroo then giving my a free ticket to the show in London, after all hope was lost
• Seeing Vancouver friends in Europe
• Euro Cup final in Vienna
• Staying at Wombats
• Last minute decision to attend Rock Werchter
• Concerts in London
• Weekend in Sweden
• Nottinghill Carnival
• Visiting la casa de Pin
• Full roast lamb and party in the woods in Oslo
• Discovery of La Volte wine in Florence
• Chianti wine festival
• Eating 1 kg of buffalo mozzarella cheese
• Oktoberfest
• Living in Old Street on the canal
• Tom Brady injuring his ACL
• Dolphins 38 – Patriots 13
• Mexican road trip
• Tulum, Mexico
• Shelley’s wedding in Cuba
• Cuban road trip with amigos
• Felix and his crew in Cuba
• Six pack of beers and quesadillas in Mexico
• Manny Pacquaio mexecuting Oscar De la Hoya
• Hanging out with Mike McMcready in Seattle
• NIN in Victoria and Las Vegas
• Miami Dolphins AFC Champions

LOWLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

• Losing my bank card in Santiago, Chile
• Closure of the Inca Trail during Feb
• Cancellation of my route on the Death Train into Brazil
• Missing out on Tom Morello’s solo gig in Hollywood
• Missing Pemberton Festival, NIN in Red Rocks, and various weddings on the mainland
• Not getting into a tent at Oktoberfest
• Getting ripped off left right and center in Cuba including the CUC exchange rate

PLACES TO VISIT IN 2009

• Hawaii
• Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal
• Hong Kong/Macau
• South East Asia, Nepal
• Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia
• Africa?

SHOWS TO SEE IN 2009

• Anything in Hawaii
• Hot Wax and Champagne in Toronto
• New festival in Malibu?
• Coachella if not Bonnaroo again
• Roskilde Festival in Denmark
• Glastenbury Festival in UK
• Any show at Red Rocks
• Nine Inch Nails in Europe
• Pearl Jam wherever

Gracias to everyone for making 2008 such an amazing year. 2009 will be even better! See you guys soon!