Would I do this whirlwind trip again?

Absolutely.

It’s been two years since I set off on this trip of a lifetime, and somehow it feels like it happened yesterday...and also like it might have been a dream.

That’s the strange thing about travelling this fast. There really isn’t time to stop and process what you’re experiencing. Something happens, you deal with it, and then you’re already on to the next flight, train, city or country.

You just go with the flow — mostly because you don’t have much choice.

And my trip almost fell apart before I even left Canada.

My first flight was delayed by more than two hours, and I definitely had a small panicky moment when I realized there was no other way to get from Vancouver to Los Angeles in time for my flight to Santiago.

Months of obsessive planning were unraveling before my eyes.

I’m not exactly known for calmly accepting things that don’t go according to plan. Having absolutely no control over the situation? Yeah...I didn’t like that.

When the plane finally got approval to push back, I told the flight attendant about my tight connection. She was wonderful and helped me get off the plane first so I could sprint for my next gate.

Travel lesson learned: always tell your flight attendant if you have a tight connection, especially when your flights aren’t on the same ticket.

Throughout the trip, I did my best impression of a seasoned traveller.

Sometimes I even pulled it off.

Other times fatigue took over, I looked every bit like a lost tourist, and I paid for it — literally.

There was the Santiago cab ride where I paid about ten times what I should have. Thankfully, my credit card company reimbursed me.

Then there was London, where my cell phone was stolen. That one was only partially reimbursed.

Not exactly highlights...but definitely part of the story.

What I’m probably proudest of, though, is how I handled everything that went wrong.

Unfamiliar situations have never been particularly comfortable for me, but this trip was all about Seeking Discomfort.

And apparently the travel gods took that as a challenge.

I ran into visa problems while flying to New Zealand and, in my rush to fix everything, somehow ended up buying a two-year visa instead of a transit visa.

I struggled to get a train ticket printed in Istanbul when language became a bit of a barrier.

Then I had to figure out the final few flights of my trip without a phone.

Somehow, I managed.

But when I think back on the trip now, it isn’t really the problems I remember most.

It’s the people.

I met so many wonderful people along the way — sometimes because I asked if I could bum a cigarette off them. Yes, I smoke. Don’t judge.

I spent hours talking to someone on the train from Bucharest to Vienna.

In Ho Chi Minh City, I joined a group of people playing what I can only describe as a version of Asian hacky sack.

And then there was Istanbul.

On my dinner cruise, I was presented with an entire sea bass.

Head and all.

It was looking at me.

I had absolutely no idea what to do with it, so I awkwardly asked the tourist sitting beside me how I was supposed to eat it. I was seated with a lovely family from Slovenia, and he just laughed and admitted he had no idea either.

Those completely random moments became some of my favourite memories.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to put myself out there and stop worrying so much about what other people thought of me.

That was new.

And it made me realize how much more I could experience when I stopped standing on the sidelines and just joined in.

This trip started because I wanted to see a bunch of places on my bucket list.

It turned into something completely different.

I came out of my shell. I talked to strangers. I learned about cultures I had only ever read about or seen on a screen.

And I learned quite a bit about myself too.

I learned that I can navigate places that feel completely unfamiliar.

I can handle travel delays.

I can solve problems when things go sideways.

I can apparently survive several flights without a cell phone.

And yes...I can even eat food that is staring back at me.

Before this trip, I’m not sure I would have believed I could do all of that.

Now I know that when something goes wrong, I’ll probably panic for a minute, possibly swear a little, and then figure it out.

I can rise to the occasion and survive whatever the travel gods decide to throw at me.

Of course, I also continue to tempt the Fates every time I plan another trip.

Apparently I learned confidence...but not necessarily caution.

My next adventure is Southeast Asia in September 2026.

And I’ve given myself a 78-minute connection in Vancouver between my Victoria flight and my flight to Tokyo.

So clearly I haven’t changed that much.

Fingers crossed.