To add a little challenge to my trip I did the following:

1. I stuck to off-the-beaten-path locales
2. I stopped using a guidebook
3. I started arriving at strange cities at late hours and without a clue

Result: it was still laughably easy.

“The same way that slowing down improves your peripheral vision when driving, reducing your speed allows you to take more in while you travel.”

This analogy, lifted from Rough Guide’s First-Time Around the World, distills perfectly our approach to travel.

It’s highly tempting, in a trip of this scope, to visit as many places possible. It’s like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and loading on shrimps, lasagna, orange beef, chicken tikka, and Caesar salad on a single plate.

What would your coworkers say if you left your privileged, endangered job to prance around the world for one year? This is what my coworkers said.

When he published his Round-the-World Travel Guide, Marc Brosius had the good sense to print, right on the first page, the following caveat:

“WARNING: This site has been known to change people’s lives!”

And wouldn’t you know it, it did.

“You’re so lucky,” people often tell me when they learn I’m taking a year off work to travel with Bianca. “I wish I could do that.”

The sentiment is understandable, but luck had nothing to do with it. I’m certainly fortunate to be in the position where I can do this. But it wasn’t luck.