Hello from London, England! I couldn’t get on my flight from Scotland to Copenhagen because I checked in as “Jack” and my passport says “John”. Devin is all alone for a day, prayers up 🙏🏼 If you want to subscribe to follow the rest of my trip, add your email below!

If you want to catch up on my previous write ups, click below.

77 days is a long time away from home. 77 days sleeping in bunkbeds in foreign cities. 77 days of making new friends, often parting ways to never see each other again. 77 days feels like 77 years at times.

But 77 days really isn’t that long either. Once you settle into the routine of anything, 77 days is nothing. Last year, we skipped from August to November in the blink of an eye. The longer I’ve been in Europe, the more that travel feels “normal”, the faster it goes by.

Life is weird like that.

I have visited 18 countries, made dozens of new friends, written thousands of words, deleted a million beers, and done countless stupid little things along the way. Here’s 77 things about my first 77 days:

Seven Favorite Memories

• Catching the sunrise in Budapest after a night out.

• Renting a Volkswagen T-Roc and cruising around Eastern Europe with four friends.

• Kayaking the caves of Lagos with some Canadians.

• Free drinks with Uncle Mick in Prague.

• Beating my time from a 2018 shot challenge in Sevilla.

• Singing American jam songs in karaoke bars across Europe.

• Climbing on pirate ships in Split.

Seven Random Moments

• 100 meter sprint vs. an Irish guy (Dan) in Krakow at 4 AM.

• Tanner throwing a scooter into the Vltava River in Prague.

• Mick Lester taking us under his wing.

• French dudes chanting “F*ck Biden” in Barcelona.

• Hopping on a work call from the St. Andrews hotel with an anon meme page and a newsletter CEO.

• Halfway freezing to death swimming in the Atlantic at night.

• Realizing that Jules (first roommate in Barcelona) looks like McLovin.

Seven Least Favorite Memories

• Getting deported from Norway.

• Dealing with trash bouncers in Budapest.

• Using underwear for toilet paper on a train from Prague to Budapest.

• Stomach bug on the overnight train to Krakow.

• Rooming with terrible body odor guy and chronic snorer guy on the same night in Zurich.

• Going to the wrong airport for Tanner’s backpack (though this one was funny).

• Losing my watch in Budapest. (A lot of bad stuff happened in Budapest, and it’s still my favorite city.)

Seven Cool-Ass People

Going to exclude people I traveled with extensively. You guys rock, but half of this blog has covered everything we’ve done together lol. This is for everyone else.

• Mick Lester, the 70 year old British dude who knew every bar owner in Prague. An absolute mad lad.

• Mama from the Rising Cock Hostel in Lagos. A 50-something lady who made fresh crepes and hangover cures each morning for obnoxious travelers like me.

• Jesse, the Dutch skating homie we met in Prague. Dude is a legend. I’m coming to Amsterdam in two weeks. Let’s get after it.

• Jordan aka Canadian Jesus. I still have no idea how this dude teaches kids, but Halloween was a blast.

• Lydia, the Vegas girl who dipped out on America and spent the pandemic in Italy. Absolute boss move.

• Darrel, the Zimbabwe native who had been hostel hopping for ten years. Seriously, I still can’t get over that.

• This guy from my hostel in Venice:

Seven Favorite Places

This one is hard, and it probably changes everyday.

• Budapest.

• Prague.

• Edinburgh.

• Rome.

• London.

• Lagos.

• Barcelona.

Seven Funniest Moments

• Whole squad going out in wife beaters in Prague.

• Rylan and Perry’s Monday night bender.

• Europeans absolutely butchering American karaoke songs in Budapest.

• Getting catcalled in London when Jordan and I wore robes.

• Devin going nuts on the dance floor in London.

• Convincing a Croatian girl that Mark was a Native American named “Little Foot.”

• Collin almost wiping out jumping across boats in Split.

Seven Fantastic Foods

• Seafood pizza in Venice.

• Paella in Barcelona.

• Full English breakfast in London.

• Haggis in Edinburgh.

• Steak in Budapest.

• Chocolate and cinnamon crepes in Paris.

• Chicken & waffles in Florence (unexpected, but so good).

Seven Things I Missed While Abroad

• The Atlanta Braves winning the World Series.

• My mom’s birthday in October.

• UGA football is undefeated.

• Poker nights every Thursday.

• Weekend shenanigans with my friends.

• Dinner with my grandparents when they need to hit their meal allowance quota.

• Waffle House.

Seven Lessons

• The best way to figure out who the hell you are is by taking some time away from everything you know. Strip away the outside influences, and you are all you have left.

• You can literally do whatever you want. Figuring out the “what” is the hard part.

• Never pass up the opportunity to do something spontaneous. This the root of every good story.

• Trains are an elite form of transportation.

• No one is going to understand what you’re saying in a crowded bar in a foreign country.

• There are good people everywhere. The only way to find them is by saying hello.

• Bring ear plugs to hostels.

Seven More of My Favorite Memories (Because Seven Wasn’t Enough)

• Making my first couple of friends in Europe (shout out Tanner and Rylan 🤝)

• Traveling to the top of Jungfraujoch in Switzerland.

• Cliff jumping in Croatia with the road trip boys.

• Sunset over the cliffs of Lagos.

• Wearing a bed sheet toga all Halloween weekend in London.

• Walking through the ruins of Pompeii.

• Exchanging life stories with dozens of other travelers.

Seven Great Pictures

On to day 78. Roommate lands in Copenhagen in the AM. Tyler Collins, welcome to the show.

-Jack