It's more than a passort full of stamps

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We left Denver February 9th and it is now June 13th. Wow! Four months on the road. I decided to blog a few days ago about how we are doing instead of what we are doing. Some of you have asked, some may be silently curious and some may not find this interesting at all. To the latter, please tune in next time to read of our shenanigans throughout Ireland and the U.K. I will leave you with a teaser-we drink a lot of Guinness.

I just want to preface this blog by saying that in no way am I complaining about or unhappy with this journey. We both know how lucky we are to be able to travel for a year. We've definitely seen changes in our personalities and are thankful for them. We are fortunate to have great love and support from our family and friends that keep us going when things get rough.

When we left the states, we had just one flight and one hostel booked. I had a notebook full of ideas of an itinerary for the first few month and had looked up hostels in cities we thought we may end up in. But that was the extent of the planning. We knew we were going to be in Iceland on June 23 to meet my brother John and his wife Paula. In fact, it took us two month of searching online to find a round trip flight from London to Iceland that we could live with the price.

So basically, everyday is about decisions. Where to go, where to stay, what to see, what can we afford to pay to see, how do we get there and the one every couple can never decide on, what to eat. We have gotten quite good at knowing what is important for us when booking transportation or lodging. We got good at it mostly from experience. Experience is what we refer our mistakes as. For example, where to stay is directly connected to how we get there. How far is it to walk from the bus station or the train station? Is there a shuttle or a tram from the airport and more importantly, how much is it? Our budget is $50 USD each a day for Europe. That can get gobbled up before breakfast on transportation and lodging. So we are over budget a decent amount of the time in Western Europe. We are ok with it. We just make up by going to dinner at mall food court-though there is usually a variety of cheap delicious local cuisine on hand there. If not, pizza works.

Things we miss, in order:




• Keiko, our cat- Shout out to Keith: Thanks for the snapchat videos of her. We love them.
• Our bed mattress- We have stayed in 33 hostel bunk beds as well as 20-25 hotel beds-I use "hotel" loosely, think Motel 6 or less, we are on a strict budget. A place in Morocco actually sold us a room with just a box spring as the mattress. Seriously!
• Our pillows-You wouldn't believe how thin or hard or dirty most we have encountered have been. Some countries have weird long tube on double beds- think a thin body pillow that you share with your partner. You try not to think about how many others have drooled on a particular pillow. I just pretend that the pillow case has super powers.
• Our jobs- Most of you will think this is crazy, but we miss having to be somewhere to work at a certain time on a certain day. No routine can make you feel chaotic, even when know you aren't. I would like a time travel machine so we can go do a shift at the Icehouse Tavern. It's less about the money then you think.
• Our friends and family- Jordan would rank this more as number one. I know this should rank higher for me, but since I move around so much, it's become normal for me to not see people I love for long periods of time. What this trip has given me though is the opportunity to visit with old friend (a highlight seeing Andrea in Budapest and Shannon in Prague and soon a bunch of peeps in London) and to make new ones. We have met people that we will know for years and years (Arndis, Rory, Chance, Colette and Graham). But don't get me wrong. I miss my family and friends.


There are other things we miss. Having a car, the luxury of getting to pick out a fresh outfit and saying "I forgot I had this shirt", water pressure, big fluffy towels, in some countries- toilet paper and TV in English but mostly, a working phone number.

In turn, we have become accustomed to wearing ear plugs and sleeping masks, money belts and backpacks, and constantly looking for free wifi so we can plan the next 24 hours, the next bus, the next hostel and to download google's offline city maps. And we couldn't be happier! We have booked a room after the sun has gone down for that night. We have gone to bed hungry because everything closes on Sunday so we were fucked. We have paid way to much for food because we got hangry (angry hungry) next to a tourist attraction instead of eating at the hostel before we left.

As I write this, we are discussing our favorite places in Europe so far. We loved it all and wouldn't change a thing. Well, not getting robbed at a London Hostel would be nice, but we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. As violated as we feel, we have to let that shit go. It could have been a million times worse. They broke our locks off the locker, stole the $500 camera and our kindle. The camera had about 200 pictures from Ireland and the UK that we hadn't uploaded yet. Gone forever. Thats the part that hurts the worst. They left my iPad, Jordan's laptop and our passports and credit cards. A professional job, I say. They didn't want us to track them on the iPad. Just a quick buck for a few electrics . Of course the hostel and the police did nothing. We have great travel insurance (thank god we sprung for that). We have each other. I will admit, it has made me a bit sad and homesick. i have to remind myself that whomever did this can't win. He it the one that is a sad sack. I don't know how he can look at the pictures of Jordan and I on the camera and live with himself.

So back to the topic at hand. Yes, it's been hard to plan as we go. Yes, it sometimes leads to disagreements. But it always adds to the experience and what we are getting out of it. But we gotta admit. We can't wait to sit on a beach in Thailand for two weeks, doing nothing. No castles, no museums and no problem. Same same but different my ass.

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