Bucket list: Road trip through the Alps

I don't think people in the U.S. appreciate how close Italy is to Austria and Germany. I also don't think people in the U.S. can find Austria or Germany on a map. (Tbh, I still can't: What kind of loser looks at a map all day lol?)

So here's a little geography (for all of us): 

As we all can see, Italy is the boot at the bottom, Austria looks like a guy rolling on the ground cuz he just got kicked in the crotch with his legs above Italy, and Germany is the big green country above that.

So now we know: Italy is very close to Germany and Austria (aka Crotchstria). In fact, if you're ever visiting Austria and you want to visit the Matterhorn (a supes cool mountain Walt Disney built), the fastest way there is to drive south into Italy, then north again.

Anyway, so northern Italy is where I first got a glimpse of the Alps. I was on a train from Milan to Verona and I could see the foothills of the Alps popping out of the ground in the otherwise flat Italian countryside. From a distance, they looked like any other mountains. After sticking around in Verona for a couple days, me and my cool Couchsurfing host decided to take a road trip to Austria.

Driving into the Alps was breathtaking. The mountains were HUGE. With gradual inclines and sheer cliffs, covered in trees and streams and snow (I'm a sucker for snow), the tops peeking into the sky and scraping clouds, I was completely blown away.

Bad pic.

Literally, no picture is good enough.

Keep in mind, I live in Utah which also has crazy cool mountains, but the Rockies look like baby mountains compared to the Alps. The further we got into Austria, the more the Alps dominated the sky.

A panoramic view I got of Walensee in Switzerland.

Eventually, I made it to Feldkirch Austria, a cool town close to the borders of Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, so I got to visit all those places in a day (Wooow! ~Such travel.~) Feldkirch's a nifty little town with a castle, clear blue river, neat town square, and very Snow White-ish architecture.

Feldkirch and me. I am looking fly TO DEATH.

After my little jaunt through the Alps, I had to jump back on a plane in Milan, so I hopped on a bus and was back in Italy in just a couple of hours (cuz IT'S SO CLOSE).

So if you're headed to Italy, don't forget to check out the Alps, man!

P.S. I want to give a shoutout to Marvin Veit (pronounced "Fight!") and his family for hosting me in Austria. It was so nice to be in a real house and eat real food after hostels and hotels and restaurants!

Fight!

Guys, I'm moving out of the U.S.

The quarter life crisis is REAL and such a struggle.

Before I graduated in December, I had the plan to apply to BYU's psychology PhD program in January, get accepted, take nine months off, go back to school Fall 2015, become a bona fide therapist, then live the rest of my life sitting in a cushy armchair listening to other people's problems.

Then my last semester happened and I got hit by senioritis SUPER HARD. I didn't want to be in school for another ten years -- heck, I didn't even want to finish the semester. The idea of studying for and taking the GRE, applying to a graduate program, then going to school for ten years was soul-crushing.

I was hating school so much that I talked to a professor about it. She asked if I'd ever taken time off from school -- aside from my mission (which wasn't a break). I said I hadn't and she recommended that I take some time to R&R.

I knew there were other things I wanted to do in life aside from becoming educated and getting a good job (like traveling and writing), so I put all my plans on hold and impulse-bought a plane ticket to Europe (I'd always wanted to see western Europe) for a month-long #EURUSSIACRAYCRAYVACAY (which you can read about here).

First day of the trip, found St. Basil's!

My crazy Europe vacation was so great! I saw amazing places I'd always wanted to see and experienced amazing things I'd always wanted to do WHILE seeing amazing places I never knew existed AND doing amazing things I never thought I'd do. My month-long trip was a huge success and made me want to travel all over the world.

But then I came back home. I'd spent all my money, maxed out my credit card, and was living on borrowed cash from my parents. My trip had been pretty cheap, relatively speaking, but if I wanted to do another big trip, I knew I'd have to save up a lot more money to do it.

Being a recent college grad, I applied for lots of jobs hoping to find one that paid well and would give at least a month off every year to travel. Even if I didn't get a lot of time off, I figured I'd be able to make pretty decent money. I mean, I had a college degree, right?

JK. Turns out, getting a job is kind of a game: a lot jobs (decent-paying, full-time jobs) value experience over education. I had the education, but little experience, so every job I actually wanted wouldn't hire me.

Another part of the job game is having connections. Fortunately, a roommate helped me get a job doing customer service. It wasn't salaried and I was at the bottom of the totem pole, but the job paid the bills. In a couple months, I was out of debt and was able to save a bit.

While I appreciated the job, sitting all day drove me CARAZAY. I'd worked on my feet with REAL people my whole life, but this job was all on the phone and I mainly got callers asking questions I didn't know the answers to. At the end every day, I felt like such a dope cuz I was a college-educated dude who couldn't even do this rinky dink job right. I quit after two months and did odd jobs (yard work, etc.) to make ends meet (which I preferred).

An old #worktweet. Follow me on Twitter!

I worked in this creek for a day. Much better than a desk.

I was super frustrated. By this time, I knew I was going to Taiwan for a month (which was gonna be cool!!), but I didn't know how things would work out after that. I'd gone to college so I could get a good job, but now I was digging holes all day cuz I'd rather do that than sit at a desk. Why had I gone to college if it didn't help at all? Why were things not lining up like they'd always seemed to before?

I mean, my whole life had been a check list: go to school, get good grades, get your Eagle Scout, go on a mission, finish college, get married, have kids, support a family. I'd done everything on the checklist (up to the married part), and now there was nothing left to do. (And even if I had married, I feel like I'd be having similar struggles, just multiplied.)

So, since I didn't know what to do, I started fasting and praying to figure it out. The idea of traveling popped into my head. I'd already known I wanted to travel, but now I was thinking about traveling full-time. I thought, "Maybe I can stop playing this job game and just go off and do my own thing. I could travel for cheap (like, not in Europe) and see where things went from there."

Then I thought, "I can't do that. I need money to travel and I have no money."

Then literally someone shared an article on my Facebook: "How to travel with no money." I read it and other blogs about traveling even cheaper than I already had.

So I figured God was trying to tell me something. I thought, "Fine, after Taiwan, I'll work for six months, save as much as I can, then go off and travel."

So I went to Taiwan with that plan. Taiwan was a blast and a half, then I went to California last week, and I just got back to Provo.

I was applying for jobs today and I was back at the job game again: "Not enough experience. Don't have the right connections for this job. Yes I can answer phones all day." I knew I could get a job in customer service or custodial (because that's what I have experience in) but I didn't want to. Like, I really didn't want to. But I applied for, like, 15 jobs today. Some I'm qualified for, some I'm not, but I just hoped to get something.

About midday, the lady I worked for in Taiwan posted online asking if anyone could come to Taiwan last minute to teach English for six months. Immediately I responded and said I would go. It just felt 100% right and I had (still have) no hesitation at all. She was like, "Great! You're flying out on the 31st."

I Skyped with her later today and it sounds like a sweet deal: housing and food paid for along with a paycheck every month.

I'm very excited and it feels exactly like what I should be doing right now. I'll be able to work for six months, save a lot of what I earn, then go off and have an adventure, all while having an adventure.

I mean, I know my whole life isn't solved now. I know things might fall through. I know teaching English will be hard. I know it's only for six months. But it's something and things are working out for now.

So look forward to the next six months of blogging, y'all! And after that, we'll be able to travel somewhere else together.

Fun fun fun fun, you know what I mean.

I explain my relationship with cats

I'm gonna come clean and let you all know what I really think about cats. It all starts two years ago.

Two years ago, I had a great idea for a party. I realized the only reason people come to parties is to eat food (duhhhhhhh), so I had the idea to throw a food-themed party (basically, I'll bring some food, you bring some food and we'll eat it -- genius party idea!!).

Also two years ago, I'd just gotten a space phone. I'd gotten into the habit of writing my great ideas in my new phone, which had the futuristic ability to turn human speech into text. BUTT, with this talk-to-text technology, you had to say "comma" if you wanted to insert a comma.

Anyway, so I was real excited about this cool food party idea and I wanted it to be written in all capital letters, so I said to my space phone: "ALL CAPS FOOD PARTY." Unfortunately or fortunately (you be the judge), my space phone didn't understand quite what I was trying to say, so it wrote, "Cat food party." I thought, "Lol," dropped the "food" idea, and just kept "cat party."

I threw an OFF.THE.CHAIN cat party, complete with a kitty litter cake, decorated with random cat items I found at thrift stores (like stuffed animals and figurines), a raucous game of pin the cat on the cat lady, and an hour's worth of cat videos. Everyone loved and enjoyed.

I swear it's a cake.

Cat face paint, pin the cat on the cat lady.

After that, I guess people thought I really, really liked cats. I started getting at least 10 cat videos/pictures shared on my Facebook wall daily and people would make jokes about me turning into a cat lady. Since I thought it was funny and since I "lack a noticeable personality" (according to some jerk from Tinder), I took the cat lady persona and ran with it.

An old FB status. Obviously digging myself into a hole.

I mean, things got out of hand and I regret it now. I followed more cats than people on Instagram (like Grumpy Cat, Colonel Meow, Lil Bub, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, okay I'm gonna stop now). I shared a lot of cat pictures and videos. People started giving me cat T-shirts. One Christmas, literally everyone in my family gave me cat things for gifts (books, posters, aprons). Random people at work started showing me pictures of their cats.  But I guess that's just life.

This was my Halloween costume last year, so I haven't really been helping myself.

I've been working on distancing myself from cats. I haven't shared a cat picture in four days. I haven't worn a cat shirt in over a week. And I haven't thrown a cat party in five months. So it's getting better.

I'm not saying cats aren't good people, butt I'll admit they're hard to get along with a lot of the time. They're just really distant and only want to cuddle, like, 2% of the time. But they can be cute and I've made friends with some.

Cat the Cat. She's lived with my family for 16 years. I know she's indifferent, but I LOVE her.

Me and a kitten my lil bro found.

Me and a cat that lived outside my apartment for a week (named him Secret Stranger).

I know this might be SHOCKING to a lot of you, butt I had to clear up the misconception. 

Um now wut ?

St. Basil's in Moscow!

Guys, this year has been real spiffy so far: I was able to spend three weeks in Europe for, like, super cheap ($3,000-ish dollars) and the last month in Taiwan for literally ZERO DOLLARS (minus the $600 I spent on mango smoothies whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ?? )

Stone carving at Sun Moon Lake Wen Wu Temple.

It's real neat because I always thought I'd need to have tons of money to go to cool places and do cool things, but now I know you just need to be resourceful/smart/lucky/really attractive (check, check, check, double check!).

Empty cabin at Nesoddtangen, Norway.

But now what? More Europe? More Asia? Maybe some South America or Africa? Are there cool things stateside I should check out? Where do you guys think I should go next? And what are some cheap/free travel options you guys can think of?

Big Ben!

Hit me up, let me know!

Is LA even cool?

I hopped off a plane at LAX with two of my travel buddies on Sunday night after our crazy Taiwan adventure. We’d driven to LA (to fly to Taiwan) together from Provo and intended to drive back together, but since one of the dudes had never really been to California before (he’d only ever driven through Northern California) and since we were pretty jet lagged, we decided to spend an extra day in LA.

Honestly, though, I’d always thought LA was just big, ugly, and dirty. There aren’t very many hills or trees to break up the endless concrete landscape, all the buildings look like billboard-plastered boxes, and the beaches are dry and dusty. In my opinion, San Diego is cooler than LA: it’s hilly, there are trees, the beaches are nicer, and there’s a nice mix of old, new, big, and small buildings.

After getting a full three hours of sleep (Asia jet lag is the worst), we headed out for what I figured would be an uninteresting and ugly day in LA. We let the first-timer plan what he wanted to see: the Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, the LA Temple, and the beach.

Even though I’d grown up in California (San Diego/Red Bluff) and had been to LA, I’d never actually been to Hollywood before, but I expected to be unimpressed.

Going out to the Hollywood Sign was an adventure. It’s on the outskirts of LA right where all the film studios are (because it’s Hollywood). I saw Walt Disney Studios on our way, so we stopped to see if we could take a peek inside. Turns out, you aren’t allowed inside if you don’t work there and they don't do studio tours, but it legitimately felt so special to sit in the driveway of Walt Disney Studios as security explained all this to my travel buddy. I’ll never forget it.

Then we drove up Hollywood Hills to the sign. The sign itself is pretty far off the road, so it’s hard to get a good view of it unless you take a small (45-minute) hike out to it. We thought you could drive right up to it and were not prepared for a hike, so we parked at the Griffith Observatory, hiked out 10 minutes, got some pictures with the sign way far away, then got back in the car.

As close as I got.

It was cool to be next to such an iconic landmark even if I didn't get a great view of it. WAY SPESH.

The drive from the Hollywood Sign to the Walk of Fame was cool. Hollywood is an older part of town, so the buildings give off a 1930’s vibe, there are trees, and it’s not too crowded, kind of giving it an old-timey feel.

The Walk of Fame is (of course) on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s just a couple blocks of sidewalk inlaid with famous people’s names. I got a couple shots with some of my favorite Hollywood stars.

Walt Disney!

John Stamos!

Godzilla!

Also on the Walk of Fame is Brahms Chinese Theatre (spelt Canadian style). Outside the theater are the hand- and footprints of yet more famous people (BUT NOT ONE DIRECTION -- SMH).

The cast of Harry Potter!

The cast of Star Wars!

If Twilight made it, so can you.

The theater is an actual theater that shows actual movies, so I think it’d be nift to see a movie there someday.

Along the Walk of Fame are neat little stores that sell neat little things. We went into a candy shop with cool candy murals!

After that, we went to the LA Temple and that was cool, then the beach (and yes it was dry and dusty).

LA Temple

Ocean and I. I hate you.

So Hollywood is actually really cool. It gives off an old-town vibe, but you also get to see world-renowned landmarks at the same time. Best of both worlds. If you’re in LA, you should come and see.

Picture vomit: Taiwan

These are some pics I took of some places I went during my last week in Taiwan. ;)

Sun Moon Lake Wen Wu Temple

After being in the big city for two weeks, it was nice to bust out and get into nature. We (my fellow white American teachers and I) were able to visit rural areas, including this temple on a secluded lake in the foothills of Taiwan. The grounds are pritt, the temple is made from granite and jade with super cool carvings, and there's a stairway with 365 steps leading down to the lake (one step for every day of the year). You gotta check it out.

View of the lake from the temple.

Steps leading down to Sun Moon Lake.

Took the liberty of taking a shot with my birthday stair.

Alishan

The word "shan" in Mandarin Chinese means "mountain," so Alishan just means Ali Mountain. This mountain is part of the mountain range that creates the spine of Taiwan. It's a real popular place for peeps to come and watch the sunrise. Just be sure to bring a jacket or sweater so you're warm enough. Also, bring running shoes so you can appreciate the scenery on a jaunty little morning run.

View from up top.

The forest.

The beach!

I got my fingers in this pic for artistic purposes.

Honestly, I don't love Ocean (because sharks and fish), but when it's hot and humid outside and you haven't been swimming in three weeks, it feels pretty good to put on some jaunty European swim trunks and dip in water for a bit. We took our Tour Bus down to Kenting, which is a party destination on the southern coast of Taiwan. We swam in the evening and partied all night. It was trick.

#jaunty

#nightlife

Crowds block traffic because #nightlife.

So these were my some neat places places in Taiwan. I appreciated them.