Allow me to introduce myself

[joe7f]

Hi everyone,

It occurred to me about a few months back that I never posted an introduction thread. Sure this is 999 posts later than most people but what the heck

My name is Joe (or Joey), and I have been traveling for since 2001. When I was ready to undertake my first solo backpacking trip I typed various budget traveler keywords such as hostel, railpass, passport, and forum.

I came to this off beat site and found a community of travel geeks to ask about whether or not I should bring an MP3 player with me and to see what hostels were recommended. I took the advice and got one and now have specific travel memories tied to certain songs (great suggestion guys!). I was ready to do my tour of Western Europe while other people were traveling to far off scary places like Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, the Baltics

When I returned and was missing the traveling, I hopped on to read and share my experience, shortly thereafter I got an opportunity to go back within a month. I decided I would venture outside of my comfort zone and visit Budapest. A month later I was working full time and missing traveling even more, but now my travel horizon was quite a bit further. Backpacking didn't have to stop at the old Iron Curtain, maybe Asia, South America, even Africa is possible.

Since then, I snuck out for a 12 day trip to Japan...a place I never thought I would ever go....and a place I probably would not have gone would it not have been for Travel Punk. I had my first Tpunk meetup in my own hometown, crossed into for the first time and went camping with the Tdot girls and Kevin. So while I came here for tips, I stayed for the welcoming tightknit community and I am very thankful I did.



--Joey