Pulling it off

Here we are, both of us filled with nerves, having just had a lovely send-off of a day starting with a new years' brunch with dear Vancouver friends (yay Shaye, Jan, Alina, Amanda, Drew, and Eric), a calming tea with some more friends (yay Rob and Gloria), who incedentally took the keys to our car to babysit it for 5 months, and then a wonderful evening with our Vancouver family (sigh...Mom, Pete, Bubs, and Soph). Our bags are packed, clothes and contact lenses have been divided between the two bags in case one bag decides to stay behind, Steve has already practiced wearing the money/passport belt (which Bubs claims looks something like a beer belly), I'm dreading my final sleep with Helphy for a long time (for those unfamiliar with Helphy, she's my 29-year old stuffed animal who is staying behind in Vancouver), our quick-wicking plane clothing is sitting out for the morn, and now Steve's lying in bed trying to read himself into a deep sleep (of which he has been relatively unsuccessful as of late...you all remember that 3:45am blog last week, right?). Me? I'm just waiting for the sleeping pills to kick in and sure-as-hell hope for one final 8-hours before we take flight.

Our amazing send off from friends.

I'm feeling a bit numb at the moment, not yet filled with excitement, but instead finding some sort of a balance between utter fear of the unknown, complete disbelief that we've pulled this off, and chill acceptance of this MAJOR adventure we're about to embark on. I've packed plenty-a-suitcases in my day, but none have ever included such varied supplies - malaria pills, stuff sacks, 5 months worth of biodegradable laundry detergent, enzymes, etc. Admittedly, had I looked at the length of our (**now conmpletely crossed off**) to-do list 5 years ago when we "committed" to making this happen, I may have shrugged my shoulders and thought, "yeah right, like we could actually pull it off." But, by George, I think we've done it. As of 11:15am tomorrow morning, if you need us, we'll be at one international airport or another and every highway, backpackers route, or elephant ride in between.

With Mom and Bubbe and aaaaallll of our stuff...

Signing off for now at T minus 13.5 hours, from the quiet and familiarity of home, while on the brink of the unknown,

Happy 2011, all. So far so good.
Sarah

One, Two, Three...JUMP!

We usually don't get to philosophical on this blog, but I hope on the eve of the journey you'll forgive a little verbal wandering. A screw up with the flights has Sarah departing with Zephyr in 7 hours (ug 6am flights) and me following a little while later with Flora. Crazy upheavel on the last night but I suppose that's how it goes. In the end the few hours till liftoff were chopped in half and now we're standing on the brink, which has me thinking of a few moments from the past.

I transferred to Wesleyan when I was a junior, and at age 20 made my way across the country in an old Volvo with two old friends to live on the East Coast for the first time. I expected to find red and gold trees, harbors, and ivy, and while I found the brick and the professors, I also found out the trees didn't turn colors till the fall and what you got instead at the end of the summer was hot, sticky humidity. The inside of my miniture brick-sided room heated up during the day to the point where I realizing sitting outside in the beating sun was cooler. But what you also have in New England is ponds. On the west coast, ponds are little mudholes that form in the hills when it rains and dry up soon after, but on the East Coast, they are entirely different creatures. They are small lakes, hidden in thick forests, bordered with beaten down granite cliffs. And they are also how college students coming back to campus escape the heat.

 I went to Miller's Pond for the first time in the middle of the night, when the heat had abated just enough for the breeze through the car window to be pleasent. We walked the half mile from the parking lot by the light of the moon through the trees and finally crept forward with our toes onto the edge of the cliff. It was impossible to see the water below us in the dark expanse, much less to know if the landing was clear to jump. I felt fear in my chest and thought about backing out, but the others around me (Pete H included) assured me it was alright, and in the end I leap out into the night. For an instant it felt like I wasn't falling at all, like there was nothing to hit, but then I splashed into the freezing water, heart pounding and cool for the first time in days.

It feels a ltitle like that now, standing on the edge of a journey where we have no idea what lies on the other side but knowing that if we take that leap we'll land somewhere amazing. It's frightening to be sure, but also envigorating. 

I've posted a few shots of the very clean and empty house to ground us during our travels, to remind us of the home we've left and have to look forward to on our return in June. 

Good night everyone, the 3am alarm is rapidly approaching, as is a very big day.

A White Thanksgiving - And Musings on Trying Not to Freak Out

Late last night, I touched down in Vancouver after four days in chilly (and very gray) Toronto. Sadly, conferencing and work kept me too busy to explore beyond a two block radius, so no fun Toronto post this time, but this morning I woke up to three revelations I wanted to share. 1) It's Thanksgiving. (very anticlimatic in Canada as Canadian Thanksgiving happens in October). 2) There are another three inches of fresh beautiful snow covering the skylight over our bed. 3) We leave Vancouver in exactly 4 weeks. (cue minor heart palpitations).


I'll tackle these in reverse order - with the first being perhaps the most emphatic. Holy crap. We leave in four weeks. We've been planning and thinking about this trip for 5 years and in 28 days, we are going to put on our backpacks and hit the road. The jobs end, new people come live in our house, the cats get an extended vacation in California, we give a final squeeze to our friends' beautiful babies who will likely be walking and talking by the time we get home, and all combined this is the recipe for fairly serious bouts of panic. And ecstatic joy. There haven't been any Sarah spontaneous tears yet, but oh boy, you know they're coming.

And amidst all of our planning, packing, and applying for VISAs, its been snowing all week. Having grown up in California, the only time I saw snow was on vacation around Lake Tahoe, so for me, snow signals that feeling of take-a-deep-breath, spend-an-extra-fifteen-minutes-in-bed, put-on-snow-boots-to-tackle-three-inches-of-snow-cause-it's-awesome kinda relaxation. I wake up smiling every time it snows in Vancouver, I can't help it, it just makes me feel like I'm going to head outside, build a snow cave, pelt my brothers with snowballs, and sled down the hill, even when all I'm doing is heading to the office. Fortunately it doesn't snow enough in Vancouver for me to have to grow to resent the sidewalk scraping, slow commute, and general disarray of snowy weather. I hope this feeling never wears off.

Finally the third revelation. It's suddenly Thanksgiving. It came without any fanfare here in Canada as it usually does, located in the lull between Canadian Thanksgiving in October and Christmas break. I'm attending an awards presentation and Sarah's working, so as of this morning we had no plans at all.

I have those types of Thanksgiving traditions that go along with a family that went through divorce when we were kids - some vaguer memories of Thanksgivings at home as kids, playing in the leaves in the front of the house in Walnut Creek, or maybe in the stream in the back of the property if it was flowing full of rainwater, then more distinct memories of the range of different family traditions we tried on in the years afterward, with a varying constellations of family members, special dishes, and different cities. Always fun and full of family love, which was the constant to accompany the flux of change. And then leaving home, going to college and later to New York, meeting Sarah, and eventually developing a holiday trade-off where Thanksgiving is with her family here in Vancouver (being celebrated next weekend), and Christmas is with mine. It's been wonderful to be able to spend time with both families at the holidays and try out new traditions with each (tofurkey was definitely a one-year experiment only, but Sarah was so excited to see that she now had a stocking over the mantle at both of my parents' places).

The holidays are a time of traditions and family and I  look forward seeing my Vancouver family tonight, and to calling my California family later to say Happy Thanksgiving and hopping on the plane in four weeks to see them for Christmas. And to return to tonight - deciding we couldn't just do nothing on Thanksgiving, Sarah and I are meeting up for a late night dinner at our favorite English pub around the corner from the house (Three Lions). There might not be turkey, but it will be warm, snow will be falling outside of the big windows, and we'll be together. Hard to ask for more than that.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you have a wonderful one filled with food, family and friends (both new and old), and maybe even a little snow as well.

28 days till takeoff.

Travels in Our Own Backyard

Fall weather makes both Sarah and I nostalgic for the vibrant colors and feel of New England, whether it be Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, or the one and only Massachusetts. In recent years though, we've come to deeply appreciate the fall in Vancouver, which on certain years shows that it can go toe to toe with those east coast forests. I walk about 30 minutes to and from work most days and these leaves have kept me entertained for weeks, dreaming of far off places, watching the soccer games in the fields, and even getting inspired to start a new novel. Here is a little homage to fall in Vancouver and to remembering that the joys of slow travel don't necessarily have to take you far from home.

(56 days till liftoff!)

Bienvenue chez S &S!

I'm getting excited for our second venture into the land of airbnb.com this coming weekend. This is a fabulous site that we discovered on http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/ a while ago in which people advertise rooms, futons, couches, attached bungalos, etc. in their homes to travelers for cheap. In May, we stayed in Sarasota, FL in a lovely spare bedroom for the low price of $27/night. It was clean, easy to access with a yummy breakfast in the fridge for us the next morning, and it had the feeling of a real home away from home - what's not to love? Well, this weekend we are embarking on the "other end" of airbnbing - and that's hosting someone. This summer, we've had many requests to stay (after all, it's the best time to be in the 'Couv), but keeping in mind that the summer is not only busy with goings-on, shows, rehearsals, papers to write, dinner on the beach with friends and family, we've allowed ourselves to be picky when it comes to accepting requests. But this weekend, we've got some busy evenings and a spare key, so we're giving our first guest a go...and the money that we make from the weekend (less expensive than a Vancouver hotel, but, by no means cheap) will go directly into our trip fund.

Wish us luck! Hopefully our guest is happy with what she gets - a comfy futon, some snuggly cats, great transit - and she passes on the good word. Bienvenue chez S & S!

140 days till liftoff!

Vancouver Olympics Part 2 - The Whoa Factor

Steve here, continuing the Olympics saga. As I wrote about in an earlier post, I hopped out to Victoria for the Friday of Opening Ceremonies. When I got back, I met Sarah at our friends' house where people had gathered to watch the opening ceremonies. I was thinking about it kind of like the Oscars, neat to get together to watch, but ultimately not that engaging. And I felt that way, right up until k.d. lang sang Hallelujah - a tribute to the Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvii, who had died practicing that afternoon. I was blown away. She was not corny, or hokey, or overblown (like everything up until that point), she just sang beautifully and most of the people in the room had tears in their eyes. I think it was then I realized it was going to be a pretty intense couple of weeks.

The next night Sarah and I headed out to check out what the town was like with the addition 100,000+ additional people. (I'm making O's in the picture with my hands) There were rumors and ominous news stories all week about how crazy public transit would be, but we were able to hop onto Skytrain near our house, and while busy, it only took us a few minutes to jump the two stops to Yaletown. But then, walking out of the station, we encountered THE CROWD. Canada sweaters (you know the ones with the moose antlers across the chest), gloves with maple leaves on the palms, flags worn as capes, etc. Everywhere. There were probably ten times as many people in the streets as was typical for a Saturday night and what struck me the most was that everyone was talking. Loudly. And smiling. The energy of the crowd was amazing. We grabbed some sushi with friends then headed out. The LiveCity stage, which was right down by the water and playing nightly free shows, was completed packed for Wilco, so we decided to just wander and see the sights.

The first big Canadian event - women's moguls - was going on and people were stopping in the street at cafe windows and wherever there was a television available. The tension built and built as the event drew to a close, with Canadian Jennifer Heil taking top marks in the second to last run. Having never won a gold medal on home soil, Canadian were very, very excited. As it turns out, American Hannah Kearney beat her out in the final run, which only mildly doused the spirit of the crowd.

We walked down Granville Street - one of the main thoroughfares through the city that was shut down to car traffic. It was absolutely packed. Among the crazy things we saw in the crowd: an impromptu hockey game, a traveling dance party, art exhibits, and four half-naked Canadians painted completely red. It was...intense.

Finally, we stumbled onto Robson Square moments before the lights and fireworks show began. Lasers cut through the sky, fireworks roared overhead, flames shot out of towers, and fully-geared snowboarders zoomed over the crowd on a zip line hung over the city. Sarah and I stood shoulder to shoulder with a massive crowd and were completely is shock at how the city had transformed itself into this pulsating, lively beast. Check the out a video of the walls of flame:



On the Skytrain ride home (on the Canada line, which is our route), I had perhaps my favorite Olympic moment. The doors of the train opened and two clearly inebriated Canadian gents in full Canada regalia lean out of the doors and bellow "THIS IS THE CAAAAAAANADA LINE! COME ON BOARD!!" They proceded to lead the crowd in a rousing version of O Canada with much arm flapping and flag waving. Wow. Go Canada Go.

Vancouver Olympics Part 1 - The Torch

It's been a little while since Sarah and I have written on the blog as we were pretty busy with the entire world landing on our doorstep for a long three-week party. I've been so busy with school, work, planning for the big trip, etc, that I didn't give too much though to the upcoming Games. So when they finally came, I didn't have particularly high expectations. From the first day on, I was blown away. I'll try to put together a few posts highlighting some of my favorite moments.

 The Olympics hype started to hit a high note in the weeks right before the opening ceremony as the torch zeroed into downtown through a circuitous route through the city. A bit like a target floating around and finally settling on us... The torch itself was quite beautiful, white and arching to represent the vast lands of Canada, you can read more here if you are interested. A few days before the opening of the Games, the torch came by Women's Hospital where I work. We all headed out to watch. There was a particularly large crowd at the torchbearer was Jan Arden, who is a relatively famous singer here in Canada. I took a little video on my iPhone:



If you look closely you can see Gregor Robertson - mayor of Vancouver - run up to Jan as she runs away and have a bit of a chat with her. Just seeing the torch, which had traveled to within viewing distance of 90% of the Canadian population was pretty inspirational. Much more Olympic news to come!

Soup's up

Mmmm....

Matzoh ball soup on a cold and grey day.  Is it strange to post/imagine traveling into the future and an impending season change (which brings fun holidays and soupy goodness) on a travel blog?  

(Psst.  Hey Steve - does time travel count?  You're the sci-fi-inclined half of his blog.)

Back to dribbling soup down my chin.

Choices, choices, choices

Last night Sarah and I had dinner with our friends Rob and Gloria who had some friends in from Australia (Roger and Kylie). They were starting a West Coast roadtrip to SF and LA then are catching a flight to New York (very jealous!) so we had lots of fun circling our favorites in their guidebook, suggesting good restaurants or scenic vistas. They had a couple of guidebooks, including a Lonely Planet USA West Coast, which got me to thinking about my experiences with guidebooks. Here is our random collection of guides that we have picked up over the years for different trips, at used book stores or garage sales, and ones that have been graciously gifted to us. So here's my question - which brands are the best? I'm going to run through my impressions of some brands I've used and hopefully people will let us know if you agree or have better suggestions.


Lonely Planet -  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ - Roger and Kylie's guidebook for the West Coast seemed to have a lot of quirky spots (cafes, interesting restaurants, etc) as well as lots of detail on the low- mid-range options for housing/travel. It had Fig Cafe in Healdsburg, a favorite of my dad's, as well as Ikeda's in Auburn, a favorite of mine. They also have an option to build your own custom book out of chapters from other books, which Sarah and I are thinking of doing for the world trip, as well as a travel forum called Thorntree where I've gotten some helpful advice from in the past.

Will, Gabe and I used the Iceland Lonely Planet (brought by Will I think) when we were there a few years ago and I remember the same type of focus in that book. Lonely Planet seems to capture the age 20-40 traveler well, with a focus on authentic experiences over tourist traps. One particular adventure left me enamored with Lonely Planet. We were driving around the Ring Road that circles the island (there are no roads throught the middle) and on the northwest coast, started exploring the fjord north of the town of Hofstadhir. The book noted a natural hot spring called Gudrun´s Bath and we decided to take the couple hours to get up there. We had to open and close many fences so farmer's herds wouldn't escape and just when the road was about to peter out and we were convinced we were hopelessly lost, we found this tiny geothermal hot spring on the edge of the fjord overlooking the ocean towards the North Pole. As the book explained, the tiny island off the coast was where Gudrun, one of the heroes of the Icelandic Sagas, swam out to steal fire from a hermit (god? maybe? I'm dim on the details). When he finally managed to make it back to shore he found this spring and it saved him from hypothermia and allowed him to bring fire to the people. Will read it out loud as we sat in the spring and looked out over the wind-ravaged stone island sticking out the water. It's moments like that when I appreciate guide books the most, when they can connect you to the history of a place.

Fodors Travel Guides - But then again, there are lots of others that I have used over the years, including Fodors. Sarah and I used Fodors when we did our Southwest trip a couple years back, but it struck us as generally filled with activities and places that were out of our price range. It's recommendations seemed to favor exclusivity and cushyness to authenticity and experience. Though we did find a hike up Angel's Landing in Zion National Park, which ranks as one of my five top hikes. That's Sarah about to traverse the pencil thin ridge line and scramble to the final plateau.

Moon Travel Guides - I don't have much experience with Moon, but I hear they are from Australia and take a similar tack to Lonely Planet. On their website, they "ensure that travelers have an uncommon and entirely satisfying experience." Wonder if anyone has found them useful, I might try to pick up one at some point and give it a go. Maybe when we get to London next week.

Frommers Travel Guides - Frommers seems to walk the line between the upscale Fodors and the cash-conscious but experience-minded Lonely Planet. Though in my opinion it basically tried to do Fodors but cheap, without focusing on experience and instead just looking for getting the most bang for your buck.

Well, that's all I got for now, I'm interested to see if anyone has any thoughts on guide books, stories to share, etc. Or are we just better reading a history book to get a sense of place and winging the rest? I'm sure Sarah and I will be doing plenty of that as the trip unfolds. So bon voyage for now, it's off to California tomorrow then London on the 27th. It's tough to leave the new place overlooking the mountains so soon after moving in, but we look forward to filling you in about our adventures with the the nine-year old as they progress.

Have a great trip Roger and Kylie!

O.P.T. #7

I have another o.p.t. tip for thinking about other places when you're....well....here.  (For a long-winded explanation of what the hell I mean by "o.p.t", as well as 6 other triggers, read this blog post.) I promise to post more photos of Steve soon, but this sweeping shot of me in Vancouver's first snow (which became rain, of course) was too positive to pass up, especially considering this o.p.t. tip.

(Note to self - catch Steve doing something blog-worthy and photograph it.)                       

                                            

O.P.T. #7  Now that the Vancouver weather has gone from crisp and lovely to just plain shitty (pardon me, Mom, for writing "shitty" in a blog), in searching through our very unorganized bathroom cabinets, the only body cream I could find to combat the dry-skin-from-heat-being-on-all-day was the post-sunburn stuff from Burt's Bees.  The smell alone brought me back to this past summer, lying in parks, coming home pinker than I should be, and slathering on the good stuff.  I loved the feeling so much that I even put on some actual sunscreen to enhance the smelly sensation (despite the fact that the sun has officially gone into hibernation until March).  So, my tip for pretending you're in the sun when you're in the rain - put on some sunscreen, smell your arm, and let your imagination run wild.  This afternoon, with another dose of SPF 45, I'm heading to Guadeloupe with a stop off in Cozumel - anyone care to join me?

Leaving on a jet plane...

We haven't done a collaborative posting yet, so here goes our first shot:

  Steve: We finally had some snow in Vancouver! It was falling fast and heavy as Sarah and I headed over to Travel Masters in Vancouver to get moving on the round-the-world tickets. As it turns out, the airlines are crafty and have figured out that people were buying round the world tickets in order to travel on the cheap, so over the past five years, they jacked up the prices. Star Alliance (which is Air Canada, United, and others) wanted to charge us $12K...a piece. Crafty and completely not happening. Fortunately, our friend Joanna's older sister, Allison, is a superstealth travel agent with crafty skills all her own.

Sarah: It's an amazing feeling to escape from life for a couple of hours and chat about every possible way to make an amazing trip happen.  Whereas mine and Steve's decision-making conversations err on the side of "what do you want for dinner?" or "do you think it's a better idea to pay the BC Hydro bill with a credit card or through the bank?" our conversations this past weekend (in Allison's patient presence) were more along the lines of "How about checking out the pyramids since we'll be in that pocket of the world anyway?" or "I saw some gorgeous photos of Bali on a blog the other day - can we go there?"  Daydreams take on a whole new meaning when the possibilities and $40 r/t plane tickets are literally at yours (or your travel angel, Allison's) fingertips. 

Steve: As it turns out, when you are talking world travel, the shortest distance between two points may be the shortest, but it is definitely not the cheapest. The ideal flight pattern for cheapness is, as Allison describes, "the flower pattern." You choose a hub of a single airline (the center of the flower) and each flight transfers you through the hub to the next location, using only that airline. After much stealthy computer work, Allison worked out that our two hubs should be Hong Kong (via Cathay Pacific) and Istanbul (via Turkish Airways). This was very exciting (see Sarah's reaction above). So, the flights will look like this:

SFO- Hong Kong - Sydney (Cathay)

Sydney - Hong Kong - Thailand (Cathay)

Thailand - Hong Kong - Bali (Cathay)                                                           

Bali - Hong Kong - India (Cathay)                                                             

India - Hong Kong - Rome (Cathay)

Both Cathay and Turkish fly to Rome, so then the second flower begins:

Rome - Istanbul - Tel Aviv (Turkish)

Tel Aviv - Istanbul - Cairo (Turkish)

Cairo - Istanbul - Greece (Turkish)

Greece - Istanbul - Casablanca (Turkish).

Then we find a floating vehicle of some type (I'm thinking rowboat) to cross over the Gibraltar Straight to Spain and begin our 6-week Eurorail pass journey with the only set in stone destinations being France to connect with Sarah's family and London from whence we'll sadly take the flight home.  (Side note: when we returned home in an excited state our new, wonderful neighbor, Drew, said, "How do you fly home after that?"  Good point Drew, talk to us again in May 2011 and we may be setting up shop in Switzerland.)

Sarah: So, the ball is finally rolling.  In a new direction, that is.  We're unable to book anything now (though with mine and Steve's trigger fingers when it comes to booking things in advance, it was a real exercise in restraining oneself) because we need to wait until 330 days prior to departure.  Who knows why that magic number is preventing plane tickets from burning holes in our underwear drawers, but we must wait regardless.  Allison seems to think that we can start booking things in March 2010.  Until then, we're supposed to "spend as much as humanly possible" on our credit cards where we earn aeroplan points.  I don't think we'll do that, but it's good to know that we may be able to use some of our points toward the trip.  Incidentally, back in March of this year, I made some phone calls to Air Canada to find out about round-the-world tickets (because like novices, we thought that was the way to go...until this past Sunday), and they said that we wouldn't have enough to buy a ticket so, essentially, we shouldn't bother.  With that advice, we booked ourselves flights (with the thousands of miles) to California for Christmas and then to London to be with the Haynes famiglia (Hi Haynes family!  See you soon!) into the new year.  Moral of the story?  You can use miles to fly you around the world cheaply, but using miles to be with family is just as wonderful. :) Speaking of which, stay tuned for some blogging from the Bay Area and Londontown....

So, Steve?  How do you think this joint-posting thing went?  Okay?  Think we're going to confuse the masses?

Steve: I think it went fine. However, we need more shoutouts. Everyone loves shoutouts. Gabe! Noah! Rob! See - instant crowdpleasers.

Time to take the plunge...

Up until this point, Sarah and I have done many things to prep for this trip. We have researched, planned, hoped, asked for advice (and funds), saved, blogged, etc etc. But as of yet, we have yet to actually buy anything. That is about to change. In nine days time we head over to see Allison, our friend Joanna's sister who is a travel agent, and we book our round the world flights. FYI - they cost way more than my first car. Granted it was a bit of a beater and blew up on the freeway one day, but that's a story for another day.

In preparation for the meeting, Allison has asked us to prep a preliminary itinerary. It is copied below:
Leaving December 23ish, 2010
(fly) Vancouver to San Francisco

Leaving January 1ish, 2010
(fly) San Francisco to Sydney
Stay approx. 14 days (Aus)

(fly) Sydney to Thailand
Stay approx. 10 days (Thai)

(fly) Thailand to Nepal
Stay approx. 10 days (Nep)

(fly) Nepal to India
Stay approx. 21 days (India)

(fly) India to Israel
Stay approx. 10 days (Isr)

(fly) Israel to Turkey
Stay approx. 7 days (Tur)

(fly) Turkey to Morocco
Stay approx. 7 days (Mor)

(fly) Morocco to Tunisia
Stay approx. 7 days (Tun)

(boat) Tunisia to Greece
Stay approx. 7 days (Gre)

(boat) Greece to Italy
Stay approx. 14 days (Italy)
 (Eurorail passes) Stay approx. 28 days (Europe)

(fly) Paris to San Francisco
Stay approx. 3 days (SF)

(fly) San Francisco to Vancouver (arrive end of May)
home again, home again, giggity gig.

As you'll see, we've reversed the original order of the trip. We did this as we'll be chasing the summertime weather around the globe. In January, when we head out to Australia, it will be the middle of their summer time and hopefully we'll get to hang out with Tanja and Joel as they make their yearly sojorn back to the land of Russell Crowe and the wonderful movie Australia (just kidding Joel).

Anyway, very excited to get this booked and have tickets in hand!

What's in a (blog) name?

A couple of years ago, we rented Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's several-DVD set of their motorcycle ride around the world, traveling from London through Europe into Russia, Mongolia, flying to Alaska, down through Canada, and arriving in New York.  Where it sure looked like hard work (motorcycling through mud and stuff), we were constantly reminded that they had a caravan of fellow travelers and video equipment and, I'm sure, an "abort ship" lifeline at their fingertips at all times.  They did not need to make that call, and in turn made some very cool DVDs.  We're bogarting their concept, sort of, at least for the title of the blog (no motorcycles, though - but maybe a moped in Greece).  That being said - and giving credit where credit it due - here's a homemade YouTube video with the theme song for the series, "Long Way Round" by the Stereophonics.  It's a catchy tune and every time I (Sarah) glance at the blog title, I hum to myself, "ba da da da, ba da da da..."

Enjoy.

The pause before...

Now if only that big button had racing lights, the sound of a thumping heart, and a fanfare blaring...that would be the kind of feeling I (Sarah) tend to get before booking a flight, buying a train ticket, renting a car, etc.  Without fail, there's a huge race up to the act of purchasing something on line and then the pause before saying, "oh, okay, I'll do it!"  When it comes to travel - unlike my usually realistic trepidation prior to a big choice/decision - I always err on the side of "book now, ponder later."  I suppose that's a good thing.  Not that my usual thoroughly-thinking-through-things thwarts me from doing anything, I'm just someone who likes to talk things through, see all sides, obsess a bit, and then decide.  There's often a very good reason if I decide against something - but, as I mentioned above, the anticipation of travel brings out that competitive nature in me that tends to lie dormant every other moment of the day.

Part of that heart-thumping feeling may come from my gullible nature when it comes to the power of the interwebs: if the interwebs tells me I'm getting a deal, I tend to believe it.  Not to the point that I'll buy buy buy a service that will find all of my long lost high schools friends at the click of a button (and a swipe of my Visa), but if a reputable site (such as an airline) tells me I'm getting a great deal - I can't pass it up!

This brings me to the moment that just passed about 20 minutes ago.  Here I am, at home, having slept poorly last night due to upcoming move-related stuff (I'm sad to say, my periodic excitement-induced insomnia has rubbed off on Steve who now occasionally suffers from the same thing...hey, misery loves company), and I got word from my Aunt Laur in London who said that we may be better off finding a cheap flight up to Edinburgh from London over New Years rather than driving like we'd planned.  That's all I needed to get the ball rolling...AND SHE'S OFF!

(Please read the following aloud in a quick horse race announcer voice)

sarah reads an email from her aunt and IMs steve to see if he's received the forwarded email from her aunt about how it would make a lot more sense for them to fly instead of drive because of the traffic gas prices UK drivers, sarah waits impatiently for steve's google IM to respond (steve is typing...), as sarah waits for steve's IM to pop up, she's on ryan air easy jet and kayak all at the same time searching for the best price, lest we forget the frantic switching back and forth to a currency converter site because sarah has no concept of how much a pound is versus a canuckian dollar...steve finally responds with a "sure, sounds good to me" which gives sarah the ultimate go ahead to zoom in on the cheap flight that awaits her on easy jet, but wait - if she doesn't book it this very minute maybe some brit over yonder across the atlantic sea is about to book a quick flight home to edinburgh to see his mum, thus taking sarah and steve's cheap flight!  how dare he?! she must book it now!  she goes through all the rigmorale to register for the website (though she'll get annoyed by their email promotions in the future and send them maliciously into her spam folder) when finally the moment comes to purchase her tickets and she pauses...

heart thumping....
should she "click here"...?
what about the brit who needs to visit his mum...?
what about figuring out how to get to gatwick airport from her relative's home in london...?
what about that hot cup of water I left in the microwave...?
the crowd has gone quiet...

NO WAY, BABY!  THESE TICKETS ARE MINE!  I GOT HERE FIRST!  WHAT A DEAL!  WE'RE FLYING TO EDINBURGH, HOO-WEEE!
...
...
...

There's a hush as Sarah waits for the email confirmation to come through.  She takes a deep breath and IMs Steve, "booked." to which he eloquently responds, "cool."

And that, my friends, is how every flight, camel ride, boat tour, hotel booking, and on-line reservation for a show with dancing girls will take place when we're on our world trip.  If you hear cheering crowds and whinnying blaring from our living room window as we approach our departure time - you'll know why.

Home base....Found!

The ongoing plan there for a while was that when we left Vancouver to head the long way round, we'd give up our apartment, store our stuff, and find a new place when we landed back at the end of the trip. But then, we got to discussing the feeling of being away from home for a while, of sleeping in random motels, hostels, kind people's couches, etc and how amazing it feels to return to your own bed after all that. How it feels to wake up in the morning and know exactly where the coffee maker is, where the towels for the shower are, and that you are finally home. So, we decided it was time to go find the apartment that would be home when we returned. It took us a couple of months and some stressful nights of indecision, but we got it done. Lease signed last night. Home Base Found.

It's the top two stories of the house, funky space, great view of the city, very excited. And our friends Amanda and Drew rented the downstairs apartment! For you Vancouverites, its on 10th and Ontario, just west of Main St. Housewarming party details to come.

Thinking about the feeling of having a home base has also made us realize we'll need to have at least a week in the middle of the trip where are able to just sit and relax, do our laundry, and keep the running around to a minimum. Our initial thought is to rent a little condo on an island in Greece for a week, but we are up for suggestions! Other thoughts were the French countryside, the Spanish coast, or Turkey. The trick I suppose is finding a place you are with not running all over trying to experience, to have the experience be just sitting at home, going to the market for lunch, and taking a long breath. But which of this places embodies that feeling the most? Opinions?

We're looking forward to leaving on the upcoming trip so in the end, we can return to our little Vancouver home.

Counting pennies

I feel a combination of pride and sheepishness over the contents of this blog entry.  To some, this might be a pain-in-the-ass endeavor, but admittedly, the tactics I'm about to (and happy to) share have set me and Steve on a fun path and monetary method of travel.

For years, Steve and I, well....counted pennies.  Yes, we were "those people" who never have the extra 11 cents to help out the cashier at the used book store - "And your total comes to $8.11", "Sorry, I only have a 10."  "Okay, here's your $1.89 back."  Why?  Because we have always rounded up and....saved the extra pennies!  I think American Express or some bank was doing this for a while to help people save, but we were doing it naturally whenever we used cash to pay for anything.  After each day's spendings, we would drop the loose change in a glass jar and every few months or so, count it up, roll it up, and use that for travel.

 

We got a boost in our savings when moving to Canada thanks to the loonies and toonies phenomenom.  It's amazing how those little pocket busters can add up to hundreds of dollars in just a few months (after getting our laundry done, of course).  It also turned into a little household game - I (Sarah) have become slightly obsessive about this simple method of saving and because Steve knows how much I (admittedly) enjoy the sound of the "clink!" as coins are dropped into the glass jar, adding to our possibility of adventure - he now leaves little piles of coins around the house for me to find.  Needless to say, finding piles of "trip fund" coins never gets old...like looking for Easter eggs (I think) or the Afikomen. :)

To prove how this OCD method of saving has paid off in the past, before we pinched all of these pennies for our big-ass trip, we used our couple hundreds of dollars every few months to adventure in the following places:

Montauk, NY (two lovely nights at the big swanky hotel)

  (Sorry - no photo as this was pre-digital for us.)

US Southwest (a nifty $-saving hybrid, 3 nights at Zion Nat'l Park, a 2006 Nat'l Park Pass, etc.)

 

 

 

Provincetown during Halloween (think bunches of life-size bananas roaming the streets of P-town)

  (Sorry - no photo as this was pre-digital for us.)

Yosemite National Park

(Sorry - no photo as this was pre-digital for us.)

Montreal, Quebec 

(Sorry - no photo as this was pre-digital for us.)

To name a few...

Mind you, our money saving habits were not able to pay for the entirety of each of these trips, but having worked so hard to save to make even a portion of these trips happen, one has a real sense of pride when instead of swiping that credit card and paying it back when the pay check comes in, you know how you earned that money to buy that nice dinner, purchase that ticket to the botanical garden, get the ticket for the Long Island Railroad train, etc.  We would have made these trips happen one way or another, but the few pinches and cinches and loonies (both monetary and human form) certainly helped along the way.

I've passed this...um....wisdom onto some friends, whether they've found their own glass jars or wicker boxes (see below) to throw their change into and/or stick their tourist pins into with pride or just laughed it off as a "Oh Steve and Sarah are so silly sometimes" moment - ladies and gents, I'm proud to say I Am A Penny Counter and in addition to more traditional forms of saving, this maniacal sense of saving is contributing to our ability to take on the world in 2010!

So there's my two cents.

I get the news I need from the weather report

Sarah here!  Upon launching this blog - a fun way for our nears and fars to feel like they're abreast of our travels, travel plans, daily head-scratchings, and general excitement over this wild trip - it's been fun to think back on some of the ongoing ideas about this trip.  Below are just some of the thoughts that have surfaced:
1.)  Steve and Sarah have yet to go abroad together.  Silly, huh?  Granted, that could be questionable seeing as they (um, we) managed to up and move to another country a little over three years ago, but we all know that Canada isn't what a worldly traveler would call "abroad" by any sense of the term.  Granted it is a broad expanse of land, of which we've only seen a mere mini-chunk, but visas, citizenship applications, and strange politics aside - we've hardly "upped and moved" to an exotic place.  That being said - we are booked for a great trip to Europe for December into January and will practice our bloggish tendencies there.  Still, though, never traveled abroad together?  That's just silly.

2.)  New York Times - for those referentially-inclined, the title of this post is from a little ditty by a guy named Paul about being the only living boy in a big city.  I digress.  Yes, the New York Times - our continual news report of choice, our #1 iGoogle link, and forever our tie to the city that was and always will be one of our many homes.  Back in 2006 (so says my gmail archives), Steve started emailing me articles from the New York Times Travel section (ironically enough, the lead article in today's Travel section is about Squamish, BC - a sweet little stop off on the way to the big, bad Whistler/Blackcomb resorts and - hence the irony - about an hour+ north of our home sweet home in the 'Couv).  The play-by-play went like this: Steve reads about a really cool place in the Travel section, Steve emails it to Sarah saying something like "this is cool, let's go there!", Sarah skims the article and replies, "this is cool, let's go there!", Sarah files it in a folder titled "Honey Trip (aka Honeymoon + World trip = Honey Trip).  For years now, I've been putting these aside thinking that I'd return to them waaaaaaay in the future when it comes time plan our big-ass trip, but now, I can *actually* return to these articles and start sorting through which places we should visit!  How cool is that?

3.)  Having a date in mind is scary, yet a darn good thing to have.  Bottom line - I fear change.  I'll be the first to admit it, whether it be change in laundry detergent (you never know when you're going to get a rascally rash), moving (okay, does anybody really like moving even if they're moving to a place with windows that actually close?), employment (although, going from no employment to employment is a very positive change, it's still wicked scary), or something as huge as packing all cares and woes aside to change longitude and latitude again and again and again.....big changes coming up.  Several of them, if you count all of the places we're going to hit over our 6 month travels - but (here it comes), having a departure date set somehow lifts some of that fear and allows for one of my only tried-and-true change-soothing actions to take place: planning.  Yes, change is scary, but planning make that scariness not so scary.  I'm sure there will be plenty of commentary on that throughout this blog.  But now, especially since we're starting to spread the word that come November 1, 2010, we'll be on the road, I can start that much-needed journey of planning, thus quelling some of my fears of change.  After all, I can plan to get my plane right on time.  Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da....

More soon - and thanks for reading my first ever blog post.  Wasn't too bad, eh?

Our Little Black (and green, yellow, and red) Book

So, traveling around the world sounds like a great idea in concept - yea! amazing places, people, culture, wow!  - but, I have one word for you. Visas.

It's a depressing realization that as freely as we all travel around the States and Canada, that does not mean it will be that easy everywhere. Fortunately there are books like the one on the left to help out. We picked The Traveler's Handbook up recently and I've got to say it's invaluable. It details when you need visas, what to do to get them, and how long in advance you need to make the arraignments. Also gives you a little bio of each country, some dangerous areas to watch out for, a few spots not to miss, and other such relevant travel-related info. Excellent.

If anyone had come across any other books/resources for world travelin, we'd love to hear about them!

A caution. Do not read this book at work, in traffic, or in any other situation in which you feel trapped, tied down, or bolted to the ground by any other means. It will make you want to run to the nearest airport, train station, or submarine and just pick a destination you've never heard of off the wall and go.

The date is set!

Ok, now that we got that wedding nonsense out of the way, trip planning can begin in earnest. So, as our first official trip decision and first blog post, we'd like to annouce - It's official. Novemeber 1, 2010.

Here is a rough itinerary:

Australia
Thailand
Nepal
India
Israel
Turkey
Greece
Italy
Switzerland
Germany
Czech Republic
France
Spain
Morocco
Tunisia
Spain
Vancouver

Much much more to come.