The Idea
After graduating from University I was in a place that a lot of young graduates find themselves in; I wasn't really sure what to do next. I had a BA with a triple major in subjects that at the time really did not interest me. I was happy doing what I was doing at the time, working in a popular bar and making really good money. I knew I needed to do more though, and one day as I was hanging out with a co-worker after a grueling shift, he gave me the idea of traveling around Europe, telling me that one of his friends had financed a year of travel by simply busking (street performance) as a juggler!
Saving
I became obsessed with the idea and knew (or thought) I would need A TON of money to travel for a year. So I started saving up. I analyzed my entire budget and started removing everything that was unnecessary to exist. I stopped buying new clothes, snacks, going out to eat at restaurants or bars... everything I could do to work towards the goal of having enough money to travel. I was amazed at how fast my savings were stacking up. After some ups and downs I had enough and I quit my job and got rid of some stuff and started planning my first trip abroad, but first I wanted to visit my buddy Froh at Acadia National Park in Maine.
Acadia National Park
Beautiful right?
Acadia National Park is mostly located on Mt. Desert island off the cost of Maine. The trip to get there was a story in and of itself and maybe I will tell that story some other time. For now I would just like to encourage everyone to visit this little piece of heaven, especially if you like seafood!
Our first day there was rainy and dreary. I had driven up there with a couple of my buddies and we all got in Froh's Jeep and drove the loop road around the park. The rain was causing little waterfalls all over the park and it made for a surreal wilderness experience the likes of which I don't think I've experienced since.
We didn't really have any hiking opportunities in the rain so after Froh drove us to a couple look out points and all the way around the loop road he took us to a seafood shop where we got all the makings for a Seafood feast we would eat later. Lobsters were about $4 a pound so I got two! We also got clams, and scallops, then went home and started cooking everything up. It was delicious. I'm not even sure how I ate everything I ended up eating that day, but I would need it for all the hiking we would do the next day.
The next day we got started by hiking The Precipice trail, a steep trail that took us to the top of Champlain mountain. It was a fairly short hike taking around an hour to get to the top. It was difficult though as the total elevation was over 1000 feet. The views from the top made everything worth it though as we could see for miles. I sat and drank a beer with my friends and started to contemplate the fact that in a few days I would be flying across that very ocean for the first time on my way to Paris.
Sitting at the top with my buddies. Froh's face has been edited slightly to keep his identity private.
We scrambled back down the other side of the mountain after taking in the views, I was a bit entertained by the pace Froh was leading us at and decided to take a video, which ended up badly for me as I fell and ended up hyper extending my arm a bit. I had some pain there for a week or so after.
Froh took us to a couple other parts of the park including Mt. Cadillac, the tallest Mountain on the North Atlantic seaboard, and the first place to be able to view the sunrise in America for almost half the year. We also visited a white sand beach and some other amazing views thoughout the park.
Juggling
Before I went on this trip I had bought a few goodies including the camera I was taking the pictures on. A new laptop to travel with, and hundreds of dollars worth of new juggling equipment! One of my favorite things to do at night in Acadia was to play around with my new toys. I took some long exposure pictures with the camera using flash while juggling illuminated objects. Made for a cool profile picture at the time. You can clearly see the infinite pattern of juggling illuminated in this picture.
That's all for today. I hope some day to blog about some of the problems I faced saving up for the trip (TL;DR would be I started investing some of it in gold, and then stocks... and this was in 2008!) Those problems lead me to shorten my trip considerably and I ended up spending the next five months traveling around the world, mostly in Europe. I think that getting to Maine though and seeing things the way I did really gave me some confidence to get out in the world and see the things that were out there that I was missing.