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Published: December 28th 2010
So we've been home for 8 months, and though I drafted this soon after our return I didn't quite get around to publishing it. So apologies for the delay, but here's the final chapter...
Well, we're safe and sound home in Sydney, and there's both happy and sad feelings mixing it up now that our epic journey has come to an end. And what a journey it was.
Twelve months, four seasons, seventeen countries (several of them twice).
In summary: Thailand, Germany, Poland, Sardinia, Poland, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia, England and Thailand. As I said, it was some journey...
We travelled by plane, train, bus, coach, ferry, car and campervan, scooter and pushbike and a great deal of foot work too, fancy or not. We covered thousands of kilometres, many of them in our camper in snow and ice.
We've been so cold that all our water containers froze, so hot that Nemo was living in ball soup and you couldn't towel off after a swim without breaking into a full body sweat. We've had coughs and colds, blisters, Thai
The one and only...
Koh Phi Phi, Thailandtummy and even chilblains. We spent quite a bit of time roughing it, and a good amount of time living it up.
The food of our journey was a definite highlight, with both of us being lovers of the joys of food. Wherever we went we tried the local foods and drinks as much as possible and despite the ick factor we found that specialities were special for a reason. Fresh berries, fish and chips, UK curries, onion soup with gruyere, chevre on toast, Alpine fondue, fois gras, haggis, boeuf bourgignon, pasta and pizza and everything in Italy, paella, crepes and galette and pain au chocolat were some of the dishes we enjoyed most while on tour. And considering we were eating 2 minute noodles and semi cooked pasta the rest of the time, we really, really appreciated it when we had it!
We'll never forget the incredible supermarket food available in France though, the sensational juices in Ireland, Spanish tortilla, the ready made pastas and sauces in Italy and the seafood in Sardinia and Croatia. To die for! French wines, Belgian beers, Polish vodka, Guinness, Irish whiskeys, Spanish sangria and Croatian grappas topped off the taste-bud titillations
and a good portion of our budget. Hey, this was our tour after all...
We visited the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic, the Andaman, the Gulf of Thailand, the English Channel and many more wee ones too. We climbed mountains in Poland and swam in lakes there too, dived in Thailand and Sardinia, skied the French Alps, fished in Mazury, hiked and collected fruit and eggs in Ireland.
The sights that we have seen will hopefully stay with us for life (with the assistance of the 15000 photos that we took). Countless churches, basilicas, cathedrals, abbeys, monasteries, mosques, temples and synagogues were visited by two people of questionable religious standing. Some were grand, some modest, some old, some new, some working, some ruined. But all left an impression.
Megalithic tombs, neolithic monuments, and Phoenician and Roman ruins were just some of the ancient world's offerings that we saw. Dozens of medieval castles, forts, towers and villages dotted Europe and they varied so much from country to country that we never tired of visiting. The palaces, art work and architecture of the Renaissance contrasted with the war memorabilia that is still prevalent in
Europe. All in all, it had the impact of a cultural bomb, that completely blew us simple Australians away. We felt awed, dwarfed and spiritually affected more than ever before in our lives.
Despite all of these incredible experiences, the most memorable will always be associated with the amazing people we were with. Old friends and new, loads of family some who we'd already met and some who we were to meet for the first time. The generosity that we've come across over the past year has blown me away and without it we would never have had the depth of experience that we've had. People have donated their time, cars, homes, clothes, food, booze, books and travel recommendations. It has completely changed the way that we now look at how we can best welcome guests when they come to visit.
So, in a little more detail and somewhat chronologically...
Alexander – thanks for giving us a last minute and very badly organised place to stay when we rocked up at stupid o'clock. And for providing some much needed wine too.
To my family in Poland – thank you for giving us a place to stay
and plenty of delicious food that you took pride in introducing us to. It was a pleasure getting to know you as an adult and learning more about my heritage and where I come from.
Dominika, thanks for driving us to so many magical parts of the country and for becoming such an important person in our lives. Kasia and Kazik - thank you for the walking tours through the mountains, and the tour of Zakopane and Krakow and for showing us the mountain way of life. My darling Grandfather, thank you for understanding our need to see as much as we could. My aunts and uncles (Jagoda, Danek, Asia, Marek, Andrzej, Malgosia, Iza, Marian, Olek) thank you all for the very warm and sincere hellos and farewells and for always making us welcome. Thanks to my cousins, nieces and nephews for putting up with us. A special to Jacek for helping me get my passport and ID card. It meant the world!
To Jazzy, for meeting up with us in 1) Hamburg, 2) London AND 3) Koh Tao!
To Jo, Billy and Emilyann, for having us to stay for such a long time and making us
feel so at home. Jo, your food will live on in my memory forever! It was so lovely to feel like part of the family and to see Emilyann taking some of her first steps. Veronica, thank you for the trip to the north, the place to stay in way too expensive Dublin, and the goats cheese tart!! Ralph and Caroline, thank you for letting us house/dog sit for you, and for the desserts, the amazing raspberries, the maps and the warm family dinners that we'd started to miss so much by this point in our travels. Thanks for the car too (sorry about the airbags!).
Sarah, wow. It was short but sooo sweet. Thank you for the tour, helping me come to terms with not seeing Nessie, showing us the lochs tourists don't usually see and introducing us to black pudding, haggis and REAL whiskey! Cannot believe we actually liked them! And thanks to your gorgeous parents – they made us feel so welcome.
Josh, Nicky and Evie – what can we say? We missed you so much and it was so great to spend time with you and finally meet the wee one! Thank you so
much for the nights of sillyness and the days of showing us the highlights of the midlands, baby poop or not! Thanks for the photos, the food and the chance to test our babysitting skills.
Ben! Again, it was a quickie but a goodie nonetheless. Thanks for an awesome place to stay. And for the trip to Cardiff, the chance to meet your family and the enlightening experience of a night out in Swansea 😉 (NA - THAT was awesome)
Paul and Jaime, I can't even fit it all in here. Thank you for the lovely place to stay, combined with the tours you took us on around London (while skiving off work!). Jaime, your cooking rocked our worlds. The wine experience we had with you left us in good stead for France, as we (kind of) knew what to look for. Thanks for the nights out on the town, the hungover days of admiring deer over bacon and egg rolls, the Brighton trip, the airport/bus station transfers, the loan of the car, the rock candy, the fish and chips and most certainly the rowwwwk! We'll do our best to reciprocate when you finally get to Sydney. In
the interim... keep standing in that Pookie town.
Merv, Jenny, Emily and James – thanks so much for the Les Gets experience. We would never have been able to see and do what we did without your help and it is without a doubt one of the highlights of our trip, even if it did take us a few weeks to get over our hangovers. It was amazing to meet you and we hope to catch you on one of your trips back to Oz.
Crooky, thanks for showing us the locals view of Italy, introducing us to your friends and for battling a cold to keep the dream alive. And for the truffle pizza! Ah, I still dream about it.
To our mates in Thailand, including the reprobates at Toddy's Apartments and the equally socially devastating people at Big Blue and BBT - thanks for the dives, the help with a place to stay, the help with scooters, the parties and the subsequent hangovers. It was wild and the best way to thaw out and get ready for the real world.
If we missed anyone, then feel free to tell us and we'll make sure
we flagellate ourselves.
While we did miss our family and friends back home, we were so lucky to have the opportunity to spend time with so many incredible people while we were away. People we hadn't seen in years turned their lives upside down just to make our trip that little bit more memorable, comfortable and complete. I can only hope that we will have the chance to repay your generosity when you're back in Oz.
And for all that the travels were probably the most amazing, awesome and life changing experience of both of our lives, we are very glad to come home to Australia. Being away just reminds me how unbelievably lucky we are right here in Sydney. But don't get me wrong... I'd be gone again in a second given the chance!
Lastly, thanks to our dedicated readers. Your praise and comments kept us going with this very time consuming task. It was often the last thing on our minds (as you can tell by how late some of them were) and they just took so long to write and to upload photos, but we're now so glad that we have this blow by
blow account of this unforgettable year of our lives.
See you next time,
Aleks
…........ WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIITTTTTTT!!!!! STOP!!! WAIT A FRICKIN' MINUTE!
You'll notice I didn't sign off. Not because I don't love you all... but because I can't take credit for this piece. Though I did the sizeable chunk of the work on the blogs as a whole, my sheer lunacy behind a keyboard needed a balance.
And thus the writing of Aleks was the yin to my yang. It was beautiful and poignant to counter my cynical and immature. She went through thousands of words and replaced pieces of the puzzle I forgot, and deleted my waffling crap. She yelled at me and rewrote the bits that I'd completely lost the plot on, or spelt wrong... or when she had to delete 212 pages of H's when I fell asleep with my face on the keyboard as a result of my international alcohol survey.
So the last thanks go better, for not only making this trip possible, but helping me to remember it through these blogs. Without them, as most of you know, most of my memories would fade to smoke in
my brain.
Thanks babe. And thanks to you guys too. You're cooler than ice cold.
Love Fishy
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Veronica
non-member comment
Awwww
Just read the final piece of your blog - Late I know but clearing up my inbox and saw the link so thought I'd have a look. Such a beautiful finale to it all. Really well written and thought out. Big hugs and sloppy kisses to you both. Hope to see you both again one day soon. XXX