Closing Remarks - The Olive Oil Journey

I want to start by thanking you. It goes deep, but never in my life have I expressed myself as outwardly as I did throughout the 50 day blog. You were super loyal and stuck with me the whole time. It felt amazing to come back to New York and see the reactions to my time in Europe. Shocked me in the best way possible. I can’t wait for what lies ahead.

Birth of the Olive Oil Journey Blog

Immediately before flying to Europe I visited my brother at Ohio State University. At that moment, people kept expressing interest in following along the next 50 days. Typically, when I travel – I send pictures to targeted groups of people or my mom, who then send them around to the people interested. The problem here was I didn’t want to put pressure on anyone to distribute my daily images. And on top of images, there had to be backstories to the images / videos presented.

My Aunt Andrea has countlessly advised me to keep a journal when travelling, and even though I claimed to do just that, looking back on my past trips, those journals are very half – *** ***t. More importantly I was solo travelling! If I didn’t write down the stories, they’re gone.

These factors all scream start the blog. I still resisted during both of my travel days leading up to Day 1, but after my wild Day 1, I had to tell my story. Night 1, I thought of and created my Instagram Handle @extravirginguy while up at 3am from the Jetlag. The next afternoon I set up the blog and never looked back.

Popular Q/A’s

To be 100% honest, I have yet to read through most of my blogs or look through my pictures since the trip. But I’ve received many questions since coming home and here are some popular ones.

Q: Why did I go on the trip?

A: Very simple / complicated answer depending on how you view it. But the simple version is to find High-Quality Olive Oils and learn about the industry on the ground rather than on the internet.

Q: What did I do every day?

A: Easiest way to answer this is that I planned / booked every night, flight, car, or grove / factory visit. Add meals, social time, city exploration, writing the blog, posting on social, and implementing the plans, there is only so much time in the day.

Q: How much did I plan before the trip?

A: I literally had 3 things booked the day before flying out to Europe: NY --> Madrid, Athens --> NY (50 days later), and my first Workaway which still wasn’t 100% certain until arriving. The trip changed so much over the 50 days.

Q: What did I learn the most?

A: Plan chunks at a time by creating endpoints and working with what you have. Then finding the point at which planning is not worth it and rather ad-libbing becomes default.

For example, on my train ride to Puglia, Italy, I booked my flight to Sicily 4 days later. That endpoint gave me 3 whole days / 4 nights to get everything in. I listed the top places I wanted to visit, booked them all on separate days, and structured my day around those visits. Upon realizing I was going to the countryside, I booked the car rental. It goes on and on, but there was no need to book the car rental 2 weeks before without a set plan.

I used to live with 0 structure in my life. After leaving my job, I lived an over-structured life (which I actually still implement time-to-time). I think the way I planned time in Europe was the happiest medium for me. And note this type of planning has its faults – booking a rental car Christmas week in Florida – you’re doomed even if you book 7 months ahead.

Q: How long have I been growing the beard?

A: I last clean shaved ~October 20th. I decided to go to Europe without a razor.

And the question I most often receive above all

Q: Jack, what’s next?

Answer (Updated February 2nd, 2024)

I’m going to Asia on February 12th!

1 Olive Oil Takeaway

People in the US don’t care enough about Olive Oil & its quality. I will do everything in my power to change that.

-Jack