As Jay-Z said, "I'm back, been around the world..."

I have approximately 1,200 photos of the trip, and the wives will have to sit through seeing all of them tonight! Mu ha ha ha! I will be getting to post-processing and resizing them asap so that I can begin to post them here.

I have been catching up on news today as I'm taking a break from reading my 800+ emails at work. So far I've found:

• O.J. Simpson is an absolute lunatic.
• Yelling at John Kerry will get you tasered in Florida.
• The Federal Reserve cut interest rates.

Any other news I should know about from the last few weeks?

Aside from unpacking and doing laundry, I'm hoping to catch up with you all soon. I'll be in Tacoma Saturday to attend Michelle's wedding (and possibly get a tattoo???). Aside from that, I'm going to pick up a new TV for Halo 3 and all the wonderful Fall sports -- Serie A soccer, college football, Seahawks, etc. Who's down for an Office Season 3 marathon?!

OMFG, canyoning was amazing, and I made it back in one piece. We (18 people total) decended 900 feet in about five hours. We repelled a few times but mostly jumped 30-40 feet into small pools and slid down 80-90 foot chutes. SO DOPE. My knee gave out a bit at the end, but I figure the adrenaline of it all kept any pain out of mind most of the way. I would definitely do it again.

Today I took it easy and hung out up at Grimmelwald, a small village way up in the mountains. Tonight I'm heading back to Zurich to catch my plane back to the States.

I can't believe the trip is over, but I've seen so much. I've kept MUCH more detailed notes as I've journaled through this trip than I've posted on this blog this far, so when I get home I'll furiously type them up and post them incrementally with photos.

Now I have a few thank you's to hand out:

• Thank you wives for holding down the Ballard Burrow.
• Thank you Katrine for lending me the backpack.
• Thank you Beth Evans for giving me the Rick Steves travel items.
• Thank you to all those who helped funding in some way. You know who are.
• Thank you Lonely Planet for the guidebook, which only failed me twice.
• Thank you New Balance for the dope shoes.
• Thank you Scott for picking me up at the airport tomorrow.
• Finally, thank you Paid Vacation.

Sorry if I forgot anyone. Thanks for keeping up here and commenting. I'll see you all on the other side.

- Paolo

With a shoulder likely to dislocate and a bum knee, I figure it's a good a time as any to go canyoning all day in Interlaken.

Whoa. Lake Como is something out of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Because I am neither rich or famous (yet), there's not much for me to do here within my non-George Clooney means. Also, the average age here is about 60, so I'm not meeting a lot of people that I wouldn't otherwise in Palm Springs. Even in the hostel, some people are in their 50s. Thus, I'm heading back to Interlaken tomorrow to party a bit before I head home. More later.

I am in Venice now. Love it. The canals and streets are beautiful.

Problem -- I did something to my right knee or hamstring. I can't tell which. I think it's the joint. All I know is that I can barely walk with my backpack. Forget about stairs. Thus, today has been a real pain in the ass as I've been hobbling around this very touristy city.

Everytime I try these canal bridge stairs my knee is like "FUCK YOU!" and I get a sweet shot of instantaneous pain. Lovely. So I'm leaving tomorrow to try and score a hostel at Lake Como where I can just sit back and enjoy the sun and view. Internet, like everything else here, is very expensive so I'm off for now. Painkillers, here I come.