✖️  so far  ✖️

These are a few ways to quantify what has happened since Peter’s Big Adventure was launched in 2014.

I’m Peter, and I love swapping stories. From vicious attacks by Hungarian hunting dogs, to time spent in Thai prison with jihadists for cellmates, to terminal (but incorrect) diagnoses from Indonesian doctors, to boat trips down the Amazon River, to run-ins with Moroccan drug traffickers, to delivering babies on the Angolan bush, to 5-day kidnappings in Senegalese jungles, to tearful weeks spent lost in the Himalayas, I’ve heard a lot of crazy travel stories from people I’ve met on the road. And my response to those stories usually goes something like this: “WTF! Why are you not writing this down??!”

That’s what this site is about: sharing stories. Unless I’m writing something that is truly instructional (which I have been known to do), everything will be written as if I am speaking to you (the reader) over coffee, in the form of a first-person narrative.

DISCLAIMER: I write about a lot of things that I am not an expert on. I’m not a historian or an anthropologist, and I don’t make money from this site. I’m just a guy who likes to travel and then write about his experiences, and I don’t claim to be perfect. I am, like the rest of us, a work in progress, which means that I bring my own, imperfect lens to every article I write. But I’d like to think I gain a fuller understanding of the world and all of its beautiful and terrible history with every new place I visit. And as my education continues, I will do my best to share my learnings here with you, for whatever they’re worth.

🤷‍♂️ About Me & This Website 👨‍💻

I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, attended college in Boston, Massachusetts, and I got my first taste of true travel the age of 12, alone, playing soccer on a dirt field on the rural Pacific coast of Northern Mexico with a bunch of local guys wearing sombreros. Not sure where my parents were, but it was a helluva way to get my feet wet, and travel has been part of the deal ever since. In the following years, I spent time exploring Latin America, Europe, and even lived in Madrid (Spain) for a hot minute. However, this site wasn’t launched until I moved from Boston to Hanoi (Vietnam) to work as an English teacher, and to be perfectly honest, it probably would not have grown to be what it is today if it wasn't for one unfortunate trait: anxiety. 

Anxiety has been a life-long struggle for me. It colors almost every moment of every day, and it does its best to prevent me from doing the things that I want to do. This blog began as a way to verify my well-being to friends and family when I moved to Hanoi, but as time went on, it grew into something much more important. It challenged me. It held me accountable. It forced me to do and experience things that I otherwise might not have. It's still common for me to be up late worrying when I have a flight the next day (I'm a nervous flyer), but come sunrise, I'm gritting my teeth and getting on the plane, anxiety be damned. Some might call it an elaborate coping mechanism (and they wouldn't be entirely wrong), but I see as a way to be intentional about writing my own story. Pun intended. 

Eventually, I left Hanoi to live out of a backpack for months on end. And finally, after a year and a half of globetrotting, I crash-landed back in the U.S., relocating to Nashville, Tennessee to try my hand at music. I spent 8+ years there, working on my project, The Great Palumbo (and traveling whenever possible along the way) before deciding to move on to the next chapter. In 2023, I relocated to Europe for grad school, living between London, England and Paris, France for about a year and a half before finally settling in London. Along the way I also became the proud owner of an Italian passport (long story; the article is in the queue)—and the rest of the story has yet to be written!

 👋 Shout-Outs 🙏

The further I travel, the more my faith in humanity is affirmed. Very little of this would have been possible without the help and encouragement of the all the amazing people I've met along the way.

I want to take a moment to say thanks to Jessica, Kris, Phil, Elise, Ngoc, Lam, John, Maria, Thuy, Linh, Thang, Alexis, Lai, Etienne, Andrew, Camilla, Kendall, Josh, Riasat, Sujoy, Gummi, Matthildur, Melanie, Otan, Nicky, Angie, Mé, Luke, Harrison, Mario, Knox, Nik, Joe, Corey, Dan, Jimmy, Jason, Buddy, Lizzie, Dad, Mom, and all the other nameless people who have shown me so much underserved kindness throughout my travels.

It's because of you guys that this I'm still doing this. 

Thank you.