Where am I?

I think I've done not too badly with my temporal challenge from a few blogs ago but as time moves on I have had a few 'moments'. The moments started a long long time ago and to be honest I can't quite remember where although they are pretty exciting. I don't know if there's anyone reading who gets themselves into situations where they wake up in the morning and wonder where they are but from student days through to now they have appeared on semi regular frequency for me.

There's a few student ones not up for discussion, and then there's a few student ones where I move flat and find myself uncertain about where I am, or even at holiday times when I moved back to my parents. Then there's times through work where I've wondered what city, what country or what platform I've been on.

All of these feelings pale into insignificance compared to this trip though. How often do most people wake up in a bit of a stupor in a tent in Kazakhstan? How often do people look out of a tent in Kazakhstan totally uncertain about what's actually happening only to find themselves isolated in a field away from the world outside and looking at the mountains bordering Kyrgyzstan? Kyrgyz-what?


For anyone considering a spot of travel like this I can only recommend it. The uncertainty of not knowing where you are or what you are doing is really fun, and exciting. It leads you to all sorts of situations. It leads you to meeting all manner of interesting people doing all manner of things and let's you see the world away from your doorstep.

Strangely as writing this I feel like I'm just stating the obvious, how can you go on a trip like this and not meet people with interesting stories to tell. How can you not get into situations where you have no idea what happening around you or even where you are on day to day moments. That's where I am at the moment. Stating the obvious yet it seems like I'm not stating the obvious on a day to day basis but feeling and experiencing things freshly and newly.

An example of this is my new traveling companion, Lisa. From Uzbekistan till Chicago she has been on a different path but is now traveling with me as I take these final few steps on my trip. While on my last entry a few weeks ago I admitted that I was feeling, seeing and experiencing things in America in a greater depth than I could have imagined previously I'm still having those experiences. Today, in amongst all the other observations we drove through a small town in New York state. There was another town of the same name we drove through in another state a few days ago and Lisa wondered whether an American trait many of us Europeans find strange was related to the number of towns with the same name here. It seems perfectly normal and natural here to say that someone visited for example Paris, Texas. Taking that a step onto a foreign holiday it now makes more sense that someone should say that they went on a trip to Paris, France. While for me it always seemed like an almost stupid thing to say, that you went on a trip to Paris, France, when you consider the number of towns with similar names here then it starts to makes sense why a city name should be qualified with it's location in the world.

So the thrill of not knowing where you are is great, and still continues for me into slightly more familiar land. The pleasure of finding out, or figuring out something new is fantastic and that's where this part of the trip seems to be the gift that keeps on giving.

In the last few weeks Ive learned a bit about Budweiser when I went to the Budweiser factory. Today I learned about ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's factory. A few weeks back I learned about vacuum cleaners in the museum within a vacuum cleaner factory and shortly before that I learned about barbed wire in the Devils Rope Museum. I've also learned a lump about cheese during a cheese factory tour and tasted a load about American culture (and sport) when Lisa and I not only went to a college football pep rally but watched a game too and that's after we went to the federal reserve in Chicago.


Within all this I now will be much less negative about everything surrounding American football, will appreciate American beer much more, continue to eat cheese and ice cream and also I hope be much less dismissive about things that seem at first instance to be a little off the wall.


After all, where else could I be but America to spend two hours each learning about barbed wire or vacuum cleaners. If you have half a chance and haven't yet then go, get out there, experience what happens by chance as you take a few steps. The world is not a bad place and it will open your eyes when you give it the opportunity.

Location:Vermont 108,Stowe,United States