brasov departures: bryson you're 30!

a few years ago back when bryson was still in his 20's, we took a trip and backpacked across two continents. we wanted to explore south america and western/eastern europe and so we hustled all summer of 2009 and saved enough cash and made our trip a reality. the plan was simple at the time: one month in south america and one month in europe.

things didn't pan out to be as easy as i thought. this 2-month odyssey had us in some interesting situations. we were stranded overnight inside a bus in the bitter-cold of the peruvian andes, abandoned by our tour guide in machu pichu, distressed and living in panama tocumen airport, detained at the argentinian/chilean border, lost in some sketchy malls in bogota, supported each other through painful dry heaving in barcelona, missed busses, trains and flights throughout spain and italy, navigated through shady bucharest trying to find housing in someone's makeshift hostel/living room, and avoided black bears on our hike through brasov's forrest. we flew to 8 different countries and our journey took us as east as romania and would've taken us south through bulgaria and finally to istanbul. sadly though one of us wouldn't make it that far.

i ended up taking a train north to budapest and continued to prague ending in dublin. being the coward that i was i didn't even say goodbye to bryson and i can still remember that morning as i nervously paced back & forth through the bathroom corridor. in the end i opted last minute to tell a new friend i'd met in our hostel to relay the message that i was leaving.

i used to look back at our trip and all i would see were the things that went wrong, the things that didn't go according to plan. the truth is that i was to blame for a lot that happened; the choice was mine and i chose wrongly. my childish anger and selfishness blinded me from seeing all of the beauty and kept me from remembering the amazing experiences we had during our trip.

the educational videos we made in machu pichu, the old man we saved on our bus ride to santiago, chilean independence day in valparaiso, being personally escorted to the correct bus stop by a concerned stranger in bogota, enjoying the gentle fall breeze in barcelona, wandering aimlessly through roman ruins, hanging from the side of a moving train and smelling the transylvanian countryside and countless other moments heavily outweighed what i deemed as "bad"

it took some time but we were finally able to hash things out. since then we've been solid and even though we don't work together anymore and happen to live thousands of miles away from each other, i know that he'll always be there; he's just that type of guy. friends like bryson are a rare breed and i can only thank God that i still have the privilege to call him a friend.

bryson, today you enter a new and strange chapter in your life. a time when you'll probably start wearing wrangler jeans, start hanging out with random cats, and pick up bird watching as a hobby. i just want to say that i had a blast getting to know you these past few years and i look forward to what our thirties have in store for us.

love you man,
feliz cumpleaños güey!