My First Travelversary

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

That's right, it's my first anniverary on the road. June 25, one year ago I left Calgary to start this thing and here I am, June 25th again.

It feels strange, my life is moving fast now. Nine more days in Saudi and then it's back to Turkey where I'll get married and make the next big change in my life. I'm looking forward to it.

I've always kind of felt like since I graduated high school in 2000 I've let my life kind of plateau without making any forward movement. Even though I got a university degree, went to SE Asia and fell in love for the first time, I always felt like I was standing still.

But as of a year ago, I'm moving forward again. I've traveled a lot, and in that travel I've managed to make a lot of (in my view) much needed changes in the way I think of myself and run my life. I feel more confident these days, and I've started trying to affect my future instead of just looking forward to it. I still struggle with some things, but the forward momentum is back and I feel good about that.

So what does the next year hold? Well obviously there's marriage. The plan is to work the next school year in Istanbul to save some money. Saudi has helped get all my accounts back into black, but I still don't have a whole lot of extra cash to work with. I think I found a well-paying job in Turkey so 10 months of that should put me in pretty good shape to travel a bit more with Sadife and then take the next step forward and move to Vancouver to finally start my career in film.

That's the plan as it stands right now anyway. My plans have been pretty fluid though since this trip started so I'm not really sure if they'll be the same one year (or one month) from now, but I feel pretty good about them. We'll see what happens.

As for the immediate plan, I am off to a place called Mada'in Saleh tomorrow. It's an ancient city carved into mountains much like Petra. In fact, it was made by the same civilization. It looks pretty spectacular and it's the one thing I'm excited to do before I leave Saudi. I will take lots of pictures!

So I think that's it for me today. I'm looking forward to seeing a few of you guys in Istanbul for my wedding and the rest of you I'll see in another year or so when I get back to Canada!

The Adventure Takes Another Step Forward

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

It's funny, when I set out on this trip nearly a year ago, there was a lot I didn't know. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know when I was coming back. I didn't know where I would find money when it started to run out (I still don't have most of these answers!). But as cliche as it sounds, I did know one thing. I knew that no matter what happened, it would be a life changing experience. But there was something else I didn't know. I didn't know just how life changing it would be.

As you all know I met a girl by the name of Sadife (Sedef) when traveling through Turkey. I met her in September and ended up staying in Turkey for more than five months. I was finally forced to leave because my bank account had hit zero about five months prior when I met her. I lived off of people's charity, staying at different houses around Izmir, first with Peri for two months, who I owe greatly for giving me the opportunity to stay and eventually fall in love. Later I stayed with Öznur for a month, then with Fatma for a week, Gül for more than a month, Gamze in Istanbul and finally Ümit. I never paid a dime for room and board and I owe all of these people greatly for their kindness. Most of them don't speak English and will never see my thanks in writing, but there it is. They changed me life. As did Sedef.

I went back to see her during my break in April and although I'm a little late delivering this news on my blog (I wanted to make sure all the family heard from me directly first), I will be getting married to her this August or September. It's a quick marriage 'cause we didn't want to make a huge deal out of it. Why wait a year when you already know the outcome? Instead we decided a small ceremony, a quick wedding and thus I begin my life anew, for the second time in less than a year.

It's funny, you really never know how things will pan out when you just let life happen. But so far everything has been so much more than I ever imagined it could be.

Anyway, I'll stop my ramble here. I took some pics of the area here lately and I will post some on the blog soon. In the mean time, here's a couple pics of my new fiance and I. I'm sure you'll all meet her eventually!

Sedef in April in Akyaka

Sedef and I at Christmas