Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
Gustave Flaubert, 1853
Sophie and I feel very humbled and blessed to have had this wonderful experience. After 55 days of travel we are back home reflecting on our travels (and dreaming of future travel). While this trip seemed daunting at first, it was surprisingly smooth and easy. We didn’t really run into any road bumps. No canceled flights, no long lines at airports, no angry travelers, no short-staffed restaurants or hotels, no lost luggage, nothing stolen. We didn’t get sick from eating local foods. To borrow a phrase from a New Zealand family we met in Thailand, everything was easy breezy.
One reason for this was that we had time. Time is the ultimate luxury. We were fine taking an afternoon flight so we didn’t have to rush to the airport in the morning. We were fine never having a connecting flight – we always stayed at least one night at each destination to minimize the risk of any disruption. We were OK waiting for a restaurant to open or going to a different one if they were full. We were OK if our room at a hotel wasn’t ready or we couldn’t check out late. Easy breezy – we can adapt and be flexible.
Another reason is that Sophie and I are great travel companions for each other. We kept each other in check, made sure we didn’t over-schedule our days and delighted in our shared experiences – even if it was waiting at an airport an extra hour or two for a flight. As I stated at the beginning of our blog, Sophie and I fell in love traveling as exchange students. And now, our love has grown even deeper through these recent travels! There is nothing like exploring new places, food and cultures with your favorite person.
Looking back, here are some of our favorite things from our trip!
Stats
We visited ten countries in 55 days. We stayed in 19 hotels, 1 overnight cruise and 7 nights in a campervan. We took 18 flights, plus numerous trains, trams, buses, boats, bikes, taxis and tuk tuks. We walked over 600,000 steps and took over 10,000 photos!
Thanks!
We want to thank our awesome neighbors, Ken & Marilyn, for keeping an eye on our house while we were gone, clearing our driveway of snow and watering our plants! We want to thank all the tour guides, resort hosts, taxi drivers and other people we met for teaching us about their countries and making us feel so welcome! We want to thank everyone who followed our travels, made comments or reached out occasionally to keep encouraging us on. Finally, I want to thank Sophie for not only being a wonderful travel companion, but a great blog editor. She contributed to each post, approved photos, corrected spelling and grammar, and checked all my facts. Thank you!
What’s next? Stay tuned (or subscribe to our newsletter below) to find out!
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