another year passed and i like to share interesting statistics and thoughts from the year so here they are in no specific order
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over the past year i slept in or spent the night in forty different beds, five couches, four planes, three busses, twice in my car, one beach, and on the floor of one of the old Voice of America radio stations. that’s fifty six different places to spend the night for an average of more than one different locality per week.
the color of the dots corresponds to when in the year i was at the location
although i was on the run most of the year several of my travel statistics are down from the past few years: i visited ten countries (including the US) and about forty places total but only flew around 60,000 miles. because of their loyalty program I flew almost exclusively with American Airlines; it’s nice to have a reward status with an airline.
my reading and writing metrics are off the charts even though i have only shared a smidgen of what i have written; there’s been an abundance of quiet alone time.
despite that, i went out of my way at least fifteen times in order to visit and spend time with dear friends of mine.
oh, and i got on two separate boats for the express purpose of eating.
Last year was a busy year of travel for me. I slept in thirty-five different beds, that is, I spent the night in thirty-five different localities (yeah, I like using creative measurements). That’s almost three different places per month! This all really started last year when Mandi and I went to Germany for a month-long language course in Munich, but I had other journeys to Chicago for laser eye surgery, we took little family excursions, and I started working at Automattic, Inc., which has taken me many places and enabled me to go to more.
Enjoying the sun high on one of the upper-tiers of Monaco
For all who are interested, here is my 2014 in review:
Around forty distinct trips, journeys, or adventures
80,000 miles travelled in a plane
1,400 miles by bus
1,500 by train
2,500 by car
85,000 miles of total travel mileage (this doesn’t count everyday driving)
360 hours spent in transit (that’s a total of fifteen days, or approximately one hour out of every day in the year)
Witnessed three large protests (Muslims against ISIS, Catalonians for Spain, and Neo-nazi’s against everyone)
Was held up in Berlin and had a crazy adventure trying to get home during the fifth of seven major strikes that the Deutsche Bahn union organized.
Visited twelve university campuses.
Entered ten different countries.
Growing up I never imagined that I would travel much at all, let alone spend significant chunks of my time en route. Getting some rest towards the end of the year was really nice for me too as travel can be tiresome. It looks like 2015 is going to be starting out just as fast, however.
Posing on a bridge in Venice, Italy.
This Saturday I leave for a four-week journey to the parts of the world where people add hours to UTC to get their time. Namely, I’m heading out for a trip from Germany to Singapore, a short visit to Hong Kong, a couple of weeks in Japan, then an extended layover in Abu Dhabi in order to sleep under the stars in the middle of the barren desert (yeah, I’ll post pictures when I get back) before returning home to Hannover. I’m really excited about seeing the stars and also for the opportunity to fly in an Airbus A380, the world’s largest commercial airliner (certified for carrying 853 passengers).
Greeting all of our friends from Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain.
Thanks for following our adventures in 2014, we’ll keep you posted.
the afterburner 