My 21st – The saying is true. On the 21st, you drink because you can. Every birthday after that, you drink because you have to. Or something like that. Either way, I got real drunk.

My 18th, 19th, 20th – Birthdays celebrated in college were awesome because friends were there. Even though they were usually in the middle of finals or after finals when no one could make attend. Ok, wait, maybe this shouldn’t be so highly ranked.

My birth – I would imagine I was one of those babies happy to leave the womb, since I like my private space.

My 16th – Old enough to drive, good enough for me. Certainly not close to Super Sweet 16 level. If only that show started airing back when, I could’ve probably pressured my parents into

My 1st birthday – Ranked in the middle because I don’t remember it. But since I was the only child at that time (see 2nd birthday), I was probably treated like a king.

5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th – At some point, I had a birthday at Scooters, the local arcade. This was pretty awesome, and I’m 75% certain it happened at some point here.

14th, 15th, 17th – The other High school years. Hm…From what I recall, I think my birthday was largely ignored by the Bristol Eastern population.

My 2nd birthday – My brother would be born 12 days later. Sorry, Dave!

My 3rd, 4th – I probably had to share this with kid bro. And knowing me, I was probably not happy about it.

11th, 12th, 13th – These were probably really sucky birthday years. It’s that age where I’m getting too old for people to figure out what I want in presents, if I even got presents at all at this point. Plus, I was all too aware that splitting a birthday with Jesus and my little brother was not what December 12th was intended for.

My 22nd – I was supposed to celebrate with all my friends at Mohegan Sun. Instead, I got mono.

Months and years of this grind has caused me to yearn to travel more often. Last time I was out of the country (besides Canada, which should never count…) was high school, and that is now 6 years behind me. I’ve barely made it out of the east coast since then.

So this December, one week after my 23rd birthday, I’m taking whatever money I have left in my savings and going on a soul-invigorating trip to western Europe. Not the most original trip for a 20-something out of college, but it will do. Hopefully, this lights the fire to more adventurous and exciting locations in the future. I was supposed to travel alone, but I found two friends to tag along who share my basic tenants of travel: total independence, good food, careful but inevitably naive planning, and museums. Lots of museums.

This trip has invigorated my blogging a bit. Hopefully, you’ll see more posts, pictures, and thoughts on here as I take the travel opportunity for content and inspiration.

So, how stupid is it that I’m traveling in the worst economic crisis of modern times? Contrarian genius (“the euro has never been lower…”) or just impulsive idiot (“i can live off 5 euros a day, right?…”)?