So I need to accept this job offer this week....

[mtgordon]

I really hope that was a joke. If I ever found out that someone lied to me in a job interview there was nothing that they could do to get hired at my company. Although my company did not share lists of "blackballed" job hunters, I wouldn't be suprised if other companies did.

Saying that you were just doing whatever shows a lack of desire to do the job you are applying for. Companies are looking for people that want to work for them rather than people that would rather be doing other things but have to make some money somehow. A better answer would be "I have always wanted to travel so I took a year off to do so. Now that I have seen the world I'm ready to start working." The last part of the second sentence is a bit lacking, but I think you get the idea. It should sound more like something that you wanted to do at some point in your life so you took the chance to do it but now you're ready to bunker down and do some work.