Around *half* The World in 80 * minus 45* Days

From the time of this writing, it has been almost two weeks since I started my trip. No two weeks have ever felt longer (in a good way). Stats so far:

• 13 days. 
• 4 countries.
• 6 cities.
• 82.1 miles walked. 

It’s been an exhausting trip, but an incredibly rewarding one. Until now, I have only been to Europe once, with my time spent in the Eastern half: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria. During that time, I was with my high school orchestra on a performance/music tour, with a fixed itinerary. I had always wanted to go to the rest of Europe, but never knew when I would ever get the opportunity.

In Cambridge, three terms comprise the academic year: Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter terms. Michaelmas is the equivalent to fall semester on American standards, while Lent and Easter terms are like quarters, or two halves of our (American) spring semester. Students attend lecture and take courses over the first two terms, and then for the majority of the last (Easter) term are tested on their knowledge of all the material in a grueling set of final exams. Moreover, this breakup of terms in the spring means that we finish the academic year in mid-June, unlike May back home.

This apparently unfortunate scenario actually turned out to be the exact opposite for two reasons: the existence of a month-long term break, and Pomona students’ exemption from exams.

Because I and my other Pomona friends came in Lent, not Michaelmas, we have not been able to attend a whole year’s worth of courses that usually are tested during said finals. So, instead of finals we will be assigned to write independent papers for submission to our individual professors.

Therefore, there is little need to study or do any academic work over the break between terms. Students may use this month as a means to study for Easter exams, but this no longer applies to me and my Pomona cohort. This was the opportunity I was looking for.

I realized that, once I return to the States from England, it likely will be a very long time until I make the trek back to Europe. In just over a year’s time I will graduate, and from there will likely begin working in some place, likely not in Europe. It may be years until I get another chance to return and above that have the ability to stay for more than just a week’s time. It wouldn’t have be much benefit to me either if I had stayed in Cambridge over the term break, either, with not many people on campus.

And so began the month-long trek across Europe, with a final week’s obligatory stop in Japan. I scrambled to find cheap airline tickets and reasonable hostels and airbnbs. My friend from Cambridge, Juraj, told me about two hackathons that were happening during the break: HEX (in Eindhoven) and HackBordeaux (in Bordeaux). What’s great about these is that they provide some reimbursement for travel, a roof to sleep under, and food for the duration of the event. With all of these things in hand I came up with an ambitious (and in retrospect, totally inconsiderate of my own ability to maintain enough energy to actually execute) plan: to visit 8 countries (including a pit stop in England) all in the course of the month. Starting on the 16^th, I would venture to: the Netherlands (Eindhoven, Amsterdam), Spain/Catalonia (Barcelona), France (Bordeaux, Paris), Germany (Berlin), the Czech Republic (Prague), Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome), England (London, Cambridge), and Japan (Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Osaka, Toyama, Kanazawa, Tokyo) before returning once more to England. This by far is the most ambitious of my trips in my life, and likely will remain so for a very long time. I am just over a third through, and I am savoring and appreciating every moment as much as possible. I am grateful for the opportunities presented to me and am particularly thankful to all of those who helped me, especially my parents, get to Pomona and Cambridge where such wild ambitions could be made possible.

Around half the world in 35 days.