Left long enough...

Left long enough most objects by the water will begin to resemble one another. Or so this brick & mortar remnant, posing as a river stone on the shores of Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires, would have me believe.

Other things I learned while traveling last year:

• A falling star in Zanzibar looks just the same as one in Athens.
• Nobody can agree on where to put eggs in a grocery store.
• Nobody quite cuts hair the same way either.
• Always be skeptical of the cab driver (or anyone, in general) that approaches you first at the airport.
• Family is family, even when it's family you didn't know existed until that day (I haven't written this properly but there are shades of this story in a post about my grandfather).
• Never turndown a homemade meal.
• The only prerequisite for making Zanzibar soup is that all your ingredients must be found in Zanzibar.
• Travel, adventure and exploration is all in your mindset and less-so the place you're in. I could genuinely write as much about the 7-Elevens in Japan and trying to find bubble-wrap in Kenya as I could about visiting Machu Picchu (Okay, I could probably write a little more about my weekend excursion out of Lima to go visit Machu Picchu. Like how I lucked into finding someone who showed me where to get the multiple tickets I'd need and how a landslide made our train back about four-hours late.) or Hagia Sophia in Istanbul(Did you know there's another Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki? I was lucky enough to see that one too.).
• Those shoes in this picture are going to last me forever. Eighteen countries, ruins, lava fields, sandy beaches, muddy roads and countless cobblestones — hardly any wear on the soles.