Hi! Welcome to Courtney Rile’s travel blog!
How to Navigate this Site:
Please browse the posts on this site by clicking on a month or a place from the two lists in the sidebar on the right of this page. I spent a lot of time thoroughly documenting my trip both with writing and photography so you too could feel like you were going around the world with me, or at least see a bit of what I saw. To see the photographs alone, please visit my flickr site here: www.flickr.com/photos/allriledup.
The Trip: A Synopsis
In January, February and March of 2009, I traveled around the world. Literally, I bought an around the world ticket. The basic idea is by flying one direction around the world through major airport hubs, anyone can get a good deal on a ticket. Mine cost about $3,000 including travel insurance. I’d been wanting to do a trip like this since I was a kid. Actually, I wanted to go around the world for a year, but I settled for a few months. From the end of October through December I traveled in the States seeing friends and family and planning the next part of the trip. In early January, I began traveling internationally and came back in early March. Officially, I was on my own but mostly traveled with or visited friends and family all along. Shout outs to Tara, Ros, Linda, Mike, Tom, Devon, Ryan and the Seattle and Portland crews.
Here was the itinerary (not including smaller stops along the way):
November:
New York City and Hoboken (a couple of weeks)
Philadelphia (a week or so)
Syracuse (a couple of weeks)
New Jersey & New York City (a couple of days to see family for Thanksgiving)
December:
Oak Park and Chicago (a couple of weeks)
Syracuse (a few weeks)
January:
Iceland (a little less than a week)
London (a few days)
France (a week or so)
Italy (two weeks)
February:
Thailand (two weeks)
Hong Kong (a weekend)
LA and Santa Barbara (a couple of days)
Seattle and Portland (about a week)
arrived back in Syracuse in early March
For those who know me well, this may have been a bold move, but surely no surprise. I’m notorious for adventures like this. At 16, I drove cross-country for two months. I’ve taken additional road trips to Maine, Florida, Texas, Louisville, Chicago and Canada. I’ve travelled internationally to Italy, France, the Bahamas and Costa Rica. They were all some of the best moments of my life. Below are few I picked to share. I thank you for sharing my adventures with me here on this site. Thanks for reading!
at the Grand Canyon on my cross-country trip
riding horseback in the Bahamas with Amber
on a seven day canoe trip with SUOC in the Florida Everglades
