Around the World in 60 Days: Intro

How it started: Initially, this trip started out with just climbing Mt. Elbrus with Chiang and Gabe. What the frick is Mt. Elbrus? It's one of the "seven summits." I'm trying to climb the tallest mountain on each continent. In this case, it's the tallest mountain on the European continent located in the Caucasus range and close to Georgia and Chechnya. Trip length: 2-3 weeks

My friend Navid was going to be in Europe. Why not meet up with him? Trip length: 5 weeks (it's a long story, but I was originally going to do Mongolia).

Later on, I find out that my dad wants to do some business in China, so then I decide to meet him there to help with the market research and business plan. Trip length: 7 weeks

When I was booking my tickets, I found out that I have a 4 hour layover in Tokyo. Because it was a student ticket, I could extend the layover at no extra charge. I'll also meet Lloyd here. Trip length: 8 weeks

By the time all the changes and itineraries were hammered out, I went way over my budget. I'm not working, so I had to borrow money from some generous friends. Foolish? Indeed. But, um, life is too short.

Itinerary: I made a bunch of changes along the way, but here is the final outcome.
Mt Elbrus, Russia
Moscow, Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Tallinn, Estonia
Madrid, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Prague, Czech Republic
Gothenburg, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Warsaw, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Xiao Xin, China
Guangzhou, China
Tokyo, Japan

Summary: The trip overall was very good. I ran into some minor problems (more on this later), but I met a lot of cool people, saw a bunch of interesting stuff and took lots of pictures. But I found that I burn out pretty quickly with urban city travel. Traveling is some tiring stuff. I need doses of nature. I got tired of museums and churches; taking photos; getting that sunrise shot; figuring out the language, customs, metro and airports of every new city you go to; etc.