Long story short I made it to Hong Kong last night. I will explain more later, but I must head out again. It’s been non-stop since I left New York!

Woke up to my full day in Hong Kong somewhat sore from the night before, but I was still able to move forward and head to the Gagosian Gallery first thing. I walked down Nathan Road all the way till I hit the bay. The view was very impressive and one that I’ve wanted to see for at least 10 years now. I knew the next thing I needed to do was jump on the famous Star Ferry to head toward Central. I found the gallery and gained another spot for the challenge. The brief conversation with the manager was funny.

“So, where to next? – We’ll I’m trying to do this only on the weekends. – WOW! Good luck then. Well, you should take advantage of the weather and head to The Peak.”

Then I agreed and headed out into the city. I did some wandering and tried to work my way towards The Peak. I read that not visiting this location is equal to seeing Paris without the Eiffel Tower climb.

I finally made it back to the apartment before having to quickly run out again to meet a friend. She was actually a pen-pal from about a decade ago. We got drinks at the top of the ICC building in Kowloon. This spot was crazy high (118 stories) and didn’t even seem real. We said goodbye after a fun talk and then I was off to meet up with Frankie again. Dinner with his family and then we hit the night life… hard.

So I finished up my rapid stay in Hong Kong the only way I knew how. I went out with both new and old friends until I needed to run back to where I was staying and bounce straight to the airport. A bunch of these shots were me trying to keep myself together that early in the morning. This includes asking the flight attends for several beverages, including a bloody marry. Yes, bloody marries help hangovers, but they certainly don’t fix you if you’re still drunk! There are photos of me with other friends having a great time in the city and there is even a video of me doing a “Flaming Lamborghini”, but I’ll just show you these guys doing it (at the same beer I think).

Thank you Hong Kong.

I packed real tight and simple this morning because tonight I’m headed to LA. It’ll be a very quick trip, but I should have a brief chance to see one or two familiar faces. Photos will go up right after I touched down back in NYC.

Tickets, IDs, Cards and Drugs:

I think I have everything ready to go for the first leg of Europe, which begins tomorrow night. For now I need to sleep after packing and prepping for the office in the morning. I’m excited because it looks to be a pretty quick, but very fun trip. If you notice the pain reliever in the photo, that would be to help the ankle injury I got last night (wonderful timing). I was bouldering at my gym in the cave, flew of the ceiling and landed wrong on the incorrectly placed pads. I was scared, although fine the rest of the night. To help prevent any injuries I put ice on it before going to bed; around 4am I woke of in crazy pain and instantly worried about the Whirlwind Weekend ahead of me. Long story short, I got a brace on my way into the office this morning and did my best to stay off of it for the time being. Now to rest before starting another day of work ending with travel.

Came saw and conquered. Even got lunch with a good friend, who was also my wheels for the day.

Nothing like an Irish Breakfast for the journey ahead.

After a very enjoyable ride through France and the Chunnel, Rob and I reached London. We had exchanged stories and learned a number of things about one another. One of the main topics that constantly came up between us was the prize. What would Damien Hirst give everyone who finished the challenge? How big would it be? This has become a funny joke with Rob and I at this point.

A vacation to mysel

I landed in Rome Friday night and even touched down early. By the time I had gotten to the bus and eventually made it into town I wasn’t sure if any time was actually gained. Either way finding the apartment I was staying at was only a little tricky once I was on the block. My host sort of forgot to describe it to me. Regardless, she was extremely welcoming and then she headed out with her daughter (who I kind of wanted to get to know!). Anyway, I got situated in the very nice and spacious modern apartment in Italy’s capital. I love coming across new juxtaposed with the old. This high roof apartment had white walls, modern finishings and was on the top floor with great light; it was simple passing out here.

American? What are you doing here?

My last night in Rome was spent at the main train station. Well, for at least a couple hours I read and people watched. I had booked an overnight train to Geneva via Milan the second I stepped foot in Rome on Friday night. The Whirlwind Weekend has not just been extremely daunting on my body, but at times it’s been tough on the bank account as well. Due to this I figured a non-sleeper compartment would be find for the 7 hours to Milan! Next time I’m going to spring for the bed. Six people sitting sort of straight up in their seats for that long rolling cold night isn’t the most comfortable event. I felt like I’d stumbled into some movie, possibly a Wes Anderson piece. The train pulled into Rome already packed with a number of passengers. I found my compartment already loaded with a dude asleep at the door, two African men and a small woman from somewhere in Eastern Europe. Now, add in another Italian and myself – oh what a party.

Do you need money, watches or chocolate?

The train pulled into Geneva station and as I stepped out onto the street I almost couldn’t believe it. After all of those hours and the distance traveled on land in the last 24 hours, I’d made it to Lake Geneva. I was now in Switzerland!
I figured out which way I was pointing and headed towards downtown. Geneva is quite pretty and very clean. This wasn’t surprising that a Swiss city lived up to being extremely organized and well kept. I had also never seen so many financial institutions so close together in my life. That little series of sightings helped the Swiss live up to another stereotype as well. Nothing was hard to find around town, which meant arriving at the gallery was easy.

I found the door and made my way upstairs to the final Gagosian of my trip. I was greeted with a warm welcome. Upon seeing my pack and hearing that I was a little tired they asked if I was doing the Spot Challenge. Of course I was and handed him my card. “Oh you’re finishing” he said. He then mentioned that I could place my bag in the office and he’d begin taking care of the final stamp. Another man named Greg handled the stamp, papers, etc and then I was offered a glass of Champagne. Now this officially meant that I was done. How crazy it was. I talked to them about my journeys around the world and the method to my madness. Greg said I was the first person he’d met doing it my way. He also told me that I was probably the seventh person to finish the challenge in Geneva, which I though was pretty cool.

Everything (that they new so far) was explained to me and I thanked them greatly. After that I headed out to explore Geneva for the afternoon. I covered a good amount of ground and did my best not to freeze in the icy winds from the lake. I called my friend Michael back home to tell him where I was and that I’d finished the Spot Challenge in almost exactly a month! He went back to sleep and me the airport after a little more roaming of the lake. All I could do was reflect on what I had accomplished… and then the somewhat long trek home.

When did you enter?

This is a post that has been delayed due to the fact that I had been going nonstop for the entire month of February. Obviously because of that fact I had a few things slightly pile up. That’s why some of these final posts have been coming out slowly. Anyway…

Making it to Geneva and getting that final stamp was awesome, but my longest Whirlwind Weekend was still far from over. My trip home was a little bit of a tricky one due to flights, prices, and timing. So I was looking at three flights ahead of me before I made it back to NYC. Oh yah, and it wouldn’t be till the following day. Upon walking back to the Geneva train station I hoped on the free train to the airport (great!) and checked in with a nice Swiss girl. Leg number one of the evening was to Brussels where my connection was okay. The funny part is that I used Expedia for the first time in probably 6 years to book this connecting flight and it showed. I clearly just looked for the best price and timing. Apparently my connection from Brussels on to London was in business class, that’s a win considering they served me a meal with beer during a practically 45 minute flight. I had no complaints; I just got dinner with my plane ticket. We’ll get to that later.

We got to Brussels fine and a little early, but I almost got stuck there. It’s always the little quiet guy in class that has to be a stickler about a subject no one cares about. I had to pass through immigration before continuing on to Heathrow. Well, the Belgian guy in the both had concerns about my passport.

Dream of paradise

I woke up this morning and realized that I should share the music I’d been listening to during my weekend adventures. I’m sorry I didn’t make any special event mix for or during the trips. However, I listened to one album far more than the rest, and for good reason. When it came time to taxi to the runway or just after climbing out of any airport (typically JFK at the beginning of my trips) I’d play Coldplay’s most recent album “Mylo Xyloto” that came out in October. As everyone knows, the group is pretty damn awesome and they keep evolving over the years. Their sound is great for putting you in a relaxing and ambitious mood for taking on the world.

Another sign of why I needed to listen to the album constantly when flying was because Delta had it listed onboard in the music section as a new release. Yes, I had it on my phone too, but it was always there for me when I took a seat. When I think about it, the music helped ground me as I was continually on the move around the world.

March, specifically March 17th, marks the two year anniversary of the conclusion of the Spot Challenge. I finished about a month before that, but I wanted to make sure this post happened before April rolled around.

When I finished the challenge I wasn’t handed any prize, except for a glass of champagne and a nice congratulations. After the paperwork was handled I was simply told to be patient and wait for some form of contact from Gagosian. It took some time and during it my new buddy Rob and I joked about what or how large the prize would be. Months started to tick away and people were starting to wonder. I myself didn’t really care; I had faith something was coming and probably something pretty good. There were individuals taking part in the challenge that had far more money or influence compared to me, so they sure would make a stink if it all turned out to be shit.

Finally the notice email came with information about the prize and how to eventually obtain it. I decided to have mine shipped to the Los Angeles gallery instead of NYC. Rob on the other hand had to come pick his up in NYC since there wasn’t a Gagosian gallery near him. We made a fun morning of it with breakfast, picking up the print, which turned out to be pretty big, and then Rob headed back to the airport.