Well Hello again!

It’s hard to believe that here I am, on the road again, setting off to see the world one more time.  It feels as if I just returned from my last grand adventure, and yet suddenly my feet are swept out from under me, and I’m rambling down the road to adventure once again!

People often ask, “Where are you heading this time?” and so I list off the countries that my partner Travis and I decided on for this adventure. The follow up question is always, “How did you decide on these places? Did you just spin a globe and point?”. And that one is a little harder to answer. I didn’t sit down one day and say, ‘Okay, where do I want to go?’, and map it all out. It came organically,  bit by bit.  And it changed, often.

Of course, I had a few places in mind after my last adventure, places I knew I either wanted to return to, or places I really wanted to explore, but never had the chance to last time. And the rest came from fellow traveller’s suggestions, and from spending too much time on the internet searching all things travel related. Most things I look at these days relate to travel in one way or another – my Pinterest home page, my Instagram and Facebook feeds – down to the very books I read (Travels with a Donkey, The Pilgrimage, The Little Paris Bookshop, etc.). So there is no one simple answer as to how a route is conceived, other than it happens over time, and comes from many places, many people. And just as last time, while I write this Route here now, the chances of it ending up exactly as is, are virtually impossible. We are wanderers after all, and we shall ramble where our hearts take us! So I think of it as a guideline, a Wish List of sorts. I am sure we will miss some of these places, and others shall take their place. Such is the road 🙂

Well, the first place has been decided – entirely – as I am sitting here now, in beautiful México, as I write this. This country found its way on my list because of needing to go the dentist where I could actually afford it, but why wouldn’t one stay and explore? I have been to México once before, 14 years ago, with my family to an all-inclusive resort, – classic Canadian move, right there! I loved it then, and knew I’d only love it far more if I had the chance to get off the tourist track a bit and see the heart of the country. I am so confident in my burgeoning love for México that we decided we will stick around for about four months. Also México = tacos, and you all know, I love tacos!

Come February, we may hop over to Cuba for a few weeks… Or not… Who knows!

March, the plan is to head to Nepal for some hiking in the Himalayas. I just this moment realized that Holi festival always falls in March, and I will just so happen to be in Nepal right around this time! And so it has been decided, with Holi being March 1, 2018, I absolutely want to make sure I end up in Kathmandu or (India somewhere) for the big festival, as it has been a dream of mine for years! We haven’t decided how long we will stay in Nepal, but at least a month.

April/May sometime We’d like to head over to Japan. I’d love to see Cherry Blossom season, another dream of mine, but if we get caught up in Nepal and miss it, it’s not too big of a deal. Japan is a terribly expensive country, so we won’t be staying too long here, but we are hoping to do some WWOOF’ing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) while in the country to cut down on costs, and experience local life more intimately. Fingers crossed that my little brother and his partner Melisa can meet us here for some shenanigans! 

After Japan the plan is to head up to Europe for the summer/fall. I want to visit Snorre and Caro in Norway again, and see more of this spectacular country, and of course, hop back over to Sweden to see my dearest Kajsa again. I met so many wonderful friends from Europe along the way last time that I’d love to visit this time, so we want to stop in Amsterdam and see Jeroen, Yves in Luxembourg, Monika in Poland, Richard and Wisbey in London, Anthony in Munich, and the list goes on! However, Europe is expensive so we have to be careful and choosy here, as we are on a tight budget. We plan to spend more of our time in Eastern Europe – Georgia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Bosnia. And some time in Spain and Portugal. We hope to Couchsurf, camp and WWOOF our way around as much as possible to cut costs here. And near the end of our time in Europe, we hope to  meet the parents in Italy – our favourite -where we fell in love all over again – (read about love in Italy here! 

After Europe, things depend on the budget- if it allows, we head to Africa. Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania – not all of these, as it’s over the budget, but any of them – we are leaving it open until closer to the time. If the budget doesn’t allow, we sadly say goodbye to Africa until another time, and make our way down to South East Asia – Thailand to start, where we’d like to settle in for a couple of months, so I can take my Yoga TTC, and we can relax after the hustle around Europe. We’d like to explore Cambodia and Laos and hopefully even make our way down to Borneo.

Sadly we cut Australia and New Zealand as we just couldn’t fit them into our budget 😦 One day we hope to take a separate trip to explore these countries and visit friends. You know, when we’re rich!

And that about wraps it up! Again, it’s all just a wish list, and it will change as much and as often as we change beds I’m sure. But that’s the tentative plan for now! I decided to write a Route post again, because I loved looking back on my first one, and seeing how different the actual journey ended up being from the route!

So wish us luck as we wind our way around the globe with our backpacks, and hey – feel free to come out and meet us somewhere!

What does your dream travel wish list look like? Where would you suggest we absolutely cannot miss?