Next Sunday marks exactly the one third mark in our One Year, One World trip. Now that we've just made it to India and will no longer be returning to Europe or Africa on this trip, this seems to be a logical point to reflect on what we have seen and done so far.
It's probably fair to say that we haven't been totally surprised so far; we've expected to have a few misadventures, expected to meet some great and not-so-great people, and have expected to get diarrhea a few times. Having said that, most of the stuff we've done has been both spontaneous and serendipidous, and has exceeded our expectations in terms of natural beauty, cultural experience, and personal fulfilment.
One thing that has changed slightly is that we started off staying in pretty budget places, thinking that we'd need to save money pretty tightly. Well, we have decided that we could afford to spend more; the budget accomodation options weren't as tolerable as we expected--staying in separate rooms and trying to sleep in noise and cigarette smoke just wasn't fun. The last six weeks have seen us upgrade from youth hostels to two and three-star hotels.
Getting by with limited language skills hasn't been too difficult; the two countries where we thought we'd encounter issues, Morocco and Tunisia, were pretty easy to navigate with a bit of French and the usual phrases in the back of the guidebook.
Have we gotten homesick yet? Honestly no, but that doesn't mean that we haven't talked about home. Jen has been pining a bit for our cat Loki, and last week, we talked about what kind of home improvements we'd do when we return. But e-mails from friends and family as well as online chat and the occasional phone call have allowed us to keep in touch enough with home that we haven't gotten homesick, at least not yet. It has also been nice to have familiar faces join us during parts of this trip.
Access to the Internet has been easy in most of the places we've been, perhaps with the exception of Turkey, where we were limited by time rather than availability. The impact of the Internet has been huge in terms of ease of travel for us, as we've been able to look up accomodation options, research attractions in the next destination, and check out itinerary recommendations online.
We have been able to split our time between traveling with friends and traveling by ourselves, which has meant that we've had the best of both worlds. Meeting Ken, Ev, and Tijana in London, going on safari with Anne and Dave, traveling with Jon in Spain and Portugal, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Scott and Rochelle in Malta, and meeting up with Aimee and Karsten in Germany have all been a lot of fun. Of course, this is all in addition to the many, many friends we have made on the road, like Nancy, Harriet and Diana in Morocco, Abbe, Sylvie, and Sylvie in Kenya, Elizabeth and Arthur in Turkey... that particular list is a long one.
For the most part, we seem to have prepared our gear pretty well. I have sent a bit of gear back with friends to reduce some weight, while Jen has not had to change much. We've found that carrying a bunch of camera gear and a laptop plus corresponding accessories hasn't been too much of a problem. Updating the website hasn't been possible to do as frequently as originally expected, but being able to post blogs (our diary) has been relatively easy.
The food has been fantastic, especially in Turkey and Morocco, although in both Turkey and Morocco I was afflicted with cases of travellers' diarrhea. We have drunk bottled water most of the time, but have been fairly relaxed with our food, eating from street cafes and restaurants populated by locals. Even with the few uncomfortable bowel situations though, we are still planning on taking the same philosophy with our food, as we have felt that our culinary adventures have been richly rewarded so far. |
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We have been mixing our travel between tours and completely independent travel, and have found pros and cons to both. Tours have been relaxing, as we've not needed to figure out the next step each day, but we didn't have much in the way of time to ourselves. traveling independently, especially when we had a rental car, was great, and we had the most opportunity to either veg out or see sights, and the best chances for local interaction. However, a lot of time is spent getting tickets, doing research, and well... figuring out the next step.
Now, we know that people are asking what is the best thing we've done/seen so far, and that's a pretty hard question to answer. However, here is a very light, very subjective attempt at a "First Term Report Card."
MOST RELAXING DAY: Island of Gozo, Malta
BEST FOOD: Istanbul, Turkey; Marrakech, Morocco
BEST BEACH: Northern shore of Zanzibar
BEST SCENERY: Cappadocia, Turkey
BEST MUSIC: Fado, in Coimbra, Portugal
BEST DANCE: Flamenco, in Sevilla, Spain
BIGGEST ACCOMODATION SPLURGE: Villa Maroc, in Essaouira, Morocco
LONGEST BUS RIDE: 23 hours on two busses from Selcuk to Mt. Nemrut, Turkey
MOST FRUSRATING EXPERIENCE: Fighting our way though "line-ups" at the airport in Casablanca
BIGGEST MISTAKE: Changing trains at the wrong station in Casablanca, thus missing our original flight
BIGGEST LESSON LEARNT: Get as many visas from home before leaving on a long trip (especially India)
WARMEST RECEPTION: From staff of George Schinas School for Companion Flag presentation, Malta
MOST UNIQUE SLEEPING EXPERIENCES:
- On a sand dune, Erg Chebbi Desert, Morocco
- In a tent, getting bag stolen by wild pigs in Tanzania
CHANGE IN PLANS: skipping Greece to allow more time for our Indian visa application in Istanbul, Turkey
CLOSEST CALL: Almost having our backpack stolen in Madrid, Spain
WORST EMBASSY TO DEAL WITH: Indian Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia
MOST EXOTIC CITY: Marrakech, Morocco
MOST MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER: Speaking with Mouna and her mother on the train from Rabat, all in French
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:
- Watching lions attack a hippo that ran into them, Serengeti, Tanzania
- Being both fascinated and disgusted by a bullfight, Sevilla, Spain
- Riding camels and sleeping under stars, Erg Chebbi Desert, Morocco
- Watching the fans at a football match, Istanbul, Turkey
COUNTRIES WE WOULD MOST WANT TO VISIT AGAIN: Morocco, Turkey, Tanzania |
