Sphinx – Giza, Egypt

Elephant – Kruger National Park, South Africa

Opera House – Sydney, Australia

This one is a little different – the first two are similar to typical mosaics, but this one heavily overlaps and rotates photos.

It’s a given that you won’t come back from a world-wide walkabout as exactly same person.  Some people write books about their life-changing experiences, but for most travelers, the changes are small. To friends and family, the only immediately noticeable difference will be an annoying tendency to share world travel related anecdotes. “This reminds me of the time I was grilling kangaroo meat in Australia….”

But even if you have an “ordinary” world travel experience, here are some of the ways that world travel might affect you:

• An understanding of what a huge and diverse place the world is. There is a big difference between knowing and understanding. You might know that it hurts to break your leg, but until it happens you don’t
  

  Millions of Parisians live out their entire lives without ever eating a Sloppy Joe

  really understand. Everyone knows that 95% of the people on this planet don’t live the USA, but until you’ve visited some of these places and seen how billions of people live their lives in very foreign ways in very foreign places, mostly indifferent to what goes on in our country, believe me, you don’t really understand.

• Softening of tightly held opinions. When you grow up in any given culture, you inherit a set of opinions that seem inviolable. Freedom of speech and the inherent superiority of the free market are ingrained for us Americans. It’s shocking to encounter entire countries full of people who live out their lives valuing things that seem strange to us, and indifferent to principles we regard as fundamental. Your opinions probably won’t change at all, but you’ll realize that there are a lot of different ways to live out your life happily, and that that is all that matters to most people.  (Though maybe they would be even more happy with freedom of speech and a free market)
• A better understanding of your own culture. Somehow I had always assumed that because America is a melting pot of different cultures, that the way we do things is the just the most reasonable way, and what everyone else does is their “culture”. You might not carry around such a silly notion, but even so you’ll notice a million little things that people around the world do differently.  Everything from what time we eat dinner and how we hold our silverware to what our government taxes and where new shopping centers are built, it’s all cultural.
• A long list of ways America could be improved. As you travel you will inevitably encounter ideas for how you’d like to see America change.  Some things will never change – we work long hours and take insanely short vacations, it’s who we are. Others – like public transportation and an appreciation for fresh food – are objectively better and might find their way here if enough of us work at it.
  

  From here, Incan history looks more interesting

• Appreciation for America. Living in the United States, you can’t help but take a lot of things for granted. Travel the world and you’ll collect a long list of things to be grateful for.  Start the list off with free water at restaurants, one of hundreds of only-in-America things that you’ll miss when you travel the world.
• A Second Education. You might have thought history was boring in high school, but you won’t find it boring when you visit the places where history was made. Stand next to the massive rocks Incans built with, visit WWII concentration camps, and walk down the road – still with the same basalt paving stones! – that Julius Caesar walked down triumphantly on his return to Rome, and history is suddenly fascinating. The same thing goes for geology, geography, zoology, botany, and gastronomy. It’s the field trip of a lifetime.

Big Ice

Remember when we hiked around on a glacier in Argentina? Well here’s what ice crunching under your cramp-ons sounds like.
 

 

Sounds of Islam

Our introduction to the Islamic call to prayer was in Istanbul, where the eerily beautiful chants provided occasional background music to our sightseeing. At our next stop in Cairo, Egypt (a city of 10 million people, BTW) I was awoken every morning at 4am to this slightly stranger cacophony shouted across the sleeping city.
 

 

 

How to Cross the Parallel Bars

Walking near Bondi Beach in Australia, we stopped at a few of the “exercise stations” along the path. Here’s Ben demonstrating the parallel bars (or whatever this contraption is called). Just try not to laugh, I dare you.
 

 

 

Animals

A woodpecker in Argentina, penguins and sea lions in Chile, elephants fighting in South Africa, and fish galore at the Great Barrier Reef. Enjoy!
 

 

 

 

 

Didgeridoo music at the Sydney Harbor

Sweet sounds of the didgeridoo!
 

 

Airplane Fog

On a flight in Ecuador, Ben and I sat down, buckled up, and witnessed fog begin to gush out of the ceiling. We were a bit concerned until someone nearby said it was totally normal for this very humid climate.
 

 

The trip of a lifetime

The Costs

Total Travel Costs

Travel Costs by Country
Sorted by average cost per day in that country.

* NOTE: The “Other” category includes things like souvenirs, clothing, toiletries, laundry, internet, and guidebooks.
 

How it could be done MUCH cheaper

If this number scares you, but you’d love to take some time to travel, there are a few very easy ways to spend much less than us. I wouldn’t change a thing about our trip, but if I was going to do it again, I’d definitely be more aware of these tips:

An expensive bathroom break! (actually $0.20 USD)

Even cheap flights take a toll on the budget

Shopping in Paris

How we kept track of expenses

In case you’re curious, we kept track of every single purchase we made while traveling. I kept a small black notebook in my purse, and wrote down every purchase. Occasionally I would enter it into a master spreadsheet to add it all up and see if we were on track. This allowed us to see what we were spending our money on, and make adjustments if we were out of line with our budget.

Our home in Boise

Re-Discovering our House

Something I never anticipated was how nice it would be to return to our house and belongings after living out of a backpack and in hostels for 5 months. In some ways it’s liberating to have only a few sets of clothes and just the essentials with you at all times. While backpacking, you can’t help but wonder why you need that house full of “stuff” anyway – you’re doing fine with just these 30lbs. But, you forget about all the little things that make life so much easier and more comfortable. No – I didn’t miss the lawnmower or vacuum cleaner – but I was surprised to remember that I love wearing high heels and jewelry, and I now have the choice between at least 5 pairs of jeans and hundreds of tops. In addition to clothing, we have a kitchen full of nice dishes and appliances. We cooked a lot while traveling to save money, but the kitchens in hostels are nothing like your own kitchen back home. Dull knives, missing utensils, tiny fridges packed full of people’s food, and no cupboard with of your favorite spices and cooking supplies. Like I said, it’s really nice to be home.
 

What’s Next?

Now that we’re back, you might be curious about our plans for the future. We are too! We don’t have any solid plans yet, but I promise I’ll let you know when we do.

As for the blog – it will live on! We still have a lot to say about our past year of traveling, and we’ll continue to share photos of any interesting adventures that come our way. Some topics in the works include the cost of our trip, things we’ve learned, and more photo collages. Is there anything you’d like to know about? Please leave a comment and we’ll try to address it.

Thank you for following us on this incredible journey!

But back to the fun part, here’s our itinerary:

• Quito, Ecuador (3 weeks) – Alonna will be studying Spanish while Ben remains in Boise
• Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (10 days) – Ben arrives in Ecuador we head out for an 8 day cruise
• Patagonia, Argentina & Chile (3 weeks) – Hiking, biking, and enjoying the outdoors
• Buenos Aires, Argentina (4 days) – A little time in the city before leaving South America
• Istanbul, Turkey (6 days) – We missed Istanbul on our Europe tour, so we’re going back!
• Egypt (9 days) – Traveling further back in history from where we left off in Ancient Greece and Rome
• South Africa (9 days) – We’ll base in Johannesburg and go on an African Safari
• New Zealand (1 month) – Focusing on the South Island and all the adventures we can manage in a month
• Australia (3 weeks) – Three weeks somewhere in Australia
• Hawaii (1 week) – Bonus! Our RTW ticket lets us stop in Hawaii on our way home

All of this starts January 8th when Alonna leaves for Ecuador – only 1 week away! Our dates are flexible, but we plan to be back to Boise by the end of May.

Please share this trip with us! We are extremely interested and open to having YOU travel with us at any point of this trip. If you were thinking of going to New Zealand, Egypt, Hawaii or somewhere else listed above this spring, let us know because we’d love to meet up. Also please share if you know anyone in any of these areas that would be interested in meeting or hosting us. The more the merrier!

Favorite Scenery: Chamonix, France

Favorite Time Spent with Family: Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris with our Moms!

Favorite Ancient Ruins: Pompeii, Italy

 
Runners up: Pont du Gard in Nimes, France; Acropolis in Athens; and all of Rome

Favorite Hostel: Chalet La Source in Chamonix, France

Favorite Castle: Carcassonne

Favorite Landmark at Night: Eiffel Tower

Other Favorite Photos:

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/12/favorites-photos-of-europe/feed/ 3 http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/11/back-home-2/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/11/back-home-2/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:44:33 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=1716 Just a quick note to say that we made it home to Boise, about 22 hours after leaving our apartment in Rome. All of the flights went well, but we’re exhausted. It feels nice to be at home, and to be in the US where everything just seems normal and comfortable. And I was amazed when I got home to look through my drawers and closet to see how much clothing I own. And to think I used to complain about having nothing to wear!

We’ll probably keep updating the website now and then, with some general observations from Europe, maybe some details on what we packed and how our budget turned out, and of course, stay tuned as we plan the next stage of our adventure.

Now that I’m sitting here in the Boise Airport, I’m finally SUPER excited to be heading to Europe.  However, the last few days  have been a bit stressful.  As we tried to get the house ready for our renter and make final arrangements before heading off for three months, the time we had left to finish everything just slipped away.  And today when the taxi arrived (10 minutes early, which didn’t help), we scrambled to finish picking up and getting our stuff together.

Phew, but now we’re here.  Yay!  And as far as we know, we haven’t forgotten anything.  So we’re good

So, our plan is to blog throughout our trip.  We’ll see how it goes with frequency, but at the very least you should hear from us once a week.

The first stop is Amsterdam, where we’ll be joined by both of our Moms.  We don’t have internet at our hotel there, but we might get a chance to stop at an internet cafe.

Bye for now!

Getting Ready

I have borrowed TONS of books from the library.  I love reading guidebooks. If only there was more time in the day…
 

I also did a trial run of my new shoes and my loaner backpack.  I hiked up to Table Rock with about 15 lbs in my pack.  Success!  No problems with either items.  But my legs were a little tired.
 
 
Goals for the Year

On a different note, here’s a few of the things I hope to gain from this year of traveling:

• fun and adventure
• appreciation for different cultures and ways of living
• learn more about history and the world
• be brave and try new things
• improve my photography
• make friends all over the world
• remain flexible and open-minded
• learn a little of the local languages, and improve my Spanish
• share my experiences with friends and family

Over lunch on an otherwise typical day, Ben and I made the decision to spend a year traveling.  I don’t know what started the conversation or why it happened that day, but all of a sudden we realized that our dreams weren’t going to just happen; we had to make the decision to pursue them.

During our conversation, Ben and I questioned why we were saving up all of our money to enjoy at some future date (a.k.a. retirement).  While I do hope that some day we’ll retire comfortably and enjoy traveling and other hobbies, why we can’t do some of those things now?  Let’s face it, at retirement we’ll be older and might not be able or willing to travel in the same way we can now.  And who knows if we’ll even live that long or what will happen between now and then that could prevent us from doing something like this.  In other words, let’s live our lives now, not later.

We also talked about how we’ve found ourselves following the default life path: get a college degree, find a job, get married and buy a house, have kids, work for many many years while saving money and taking short vacations, and eventually retire and do all of the things you never had time for before.  While there’s nothing wrong with this path, we realized that we hadn’t really consciously chosen it.  Sometimes we all do things just because we think that’s how it’s supposed to be done.  But if you step back and really analyze what you want to spend your time and money on, what you believe in, and what you want out of life, you just might find that you’re not following a path that you would have chosen.  During lunch that day, Ben and I realized that, in fact, we do have a choice.  Ben said “you can either live the life that’s been defined for you, or you can define it yourself.”  And that really sums it up.

Once this realization hit us, it was pretty obvious what we wanted to do.  We had already thrown around the idea of taking more time off to travel the world.  Our previous week-long vacations just didn’t leave space for the kind of adventure we wanted.  But it wasn’t until this one day that it all came together and we realized that we didn’t have to wait to get laid off or for it to be the “right time” to make a change like this.

I realize that a lot of people would love to do what we’re doing, and that we are very fortunate to be in this position.  At this stage in our lives we have minimal responsibilities (i.e. no kids or pets) and have saved enough money to make this possible.  But what I’ve realized is that making this decision had very little to do with whether we could afford it or take the time off of work.  After all, there are always obstacles to every goal or dream.  Instead, what really drove this decision was realizing that it was even a decision at all.  Once we recognized that this was a real option, the decision was easy.

Lately we’ve realized that now is a great time to pursue some of the things we want to do in our lives.  We both enjoy exploring new places and seeing different parts of the world, and I’ve always dreamed of traveling for an extended period of time.  Working as engineers for the past several years, we’ve been able to save up enough money to make this happen.  Ben will be leaving his job at HP at the end of June, and I will be taking a one-year unpaid Leave of Absence from HP starting in July.

Some of the places we’d like to go include: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Asia and Africa.  So far we have the following plans for July through December 2009:

• July: Road Trip to Canada (1-2 weeks)
• Aug-Nov: Backpacking in Europe (3 months)
• Nov-Dec: Home and Family time in the US (1.5 months)

Over the next couple of months we’ll share more of our thoughts and travel plans on this site.  And while we’re traveling we plan to post photos and stories along the way.  We hope that you’ll enjoy sharing this adventure with us!