This week marked two big milestones for us: We celebrated the eight year anniversary of the day we met, and we also happened to do it while marking one full month of location independence in Mexico. As we quaffed icy cold beers and watched the sky bleed from cotton candy pink into a glowing fuschia,…
One of my favorite things about traveling is when we find ourselves somewhere that defies all attempts to describe it. Often these places are impossibly beautiful, but they also tend to be incredibly foreign and unabashedly unique as well. I always hold a special place in my heart for these places, the ones that are…
My obsession began within seconds of seeing the “Welcome to Colorado” sign. “So, we’re definitely going to see some mountains today, right?” I asked. “Yup. Just wait,” Tony replied. “OK,” I said, squirming around in my seat as I craned my neck to and fro, hoping a little extra height would allow me to catch…
Fans of Arrested Development know the moment I’m talking about, but even if you’ve (wrongly) never watched the show, I’m betting you’re still familiar with what I mean. It’s that moment that comes after you’ve made a big decision or change, that moment when you feel like everything you’ve been working towards is crumbling and…
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? In my mind, I’ve written this post a hundred times. In reality, I’ve written it four times, trying to figure out where to begin, what to say to fill the space that has elapsed since I last wrote. It was never my intention to let the blog float silently…
From hectic cities and sleepy villages to stunning coastlines and imposing mountains, Turkey is a country of great diversity. This doesn’t even take into account its multicultural society or the delectable cuisine on offer. Several people go on Turkey holidays to marvel at Istanbul’s incredible architecture or enjoy the favourable climate at resorts such as…
There are hundreds of stories of backpackers crisscrossing the countries of Europe and Southeast Asia. The appeals of these places are obvious: Europe has profound cultural significance to Western backpackers, and Southeast Asia offers a completely foreign experience within any budget. However, there exists another continent, much closer to prospective American backpackers, that offers the…
Metaphorically speaking, it was our guts that lead us to Madrid instead of Barcelona. That worked out pretty well for us, so it is only fitting that once there, we continued to let our stomachs guide us, and in doing so, did our level best to eat our way through the city. We knew next…
Upon announcing that we would be visiting Madrid instead of Barcelona when heading to Spain, we were warned many times over that we were making a huge mistake: It had no sights or attractions of any real interest and was boring; the people were unfriendly; the food wasn’t great; it was more of a “living”…
*Caveat: Italy is a very large country and costs can fluctuate dramatically based on where you go. Thus, although we saw more than just its capital city, it feels a bit disingenuous to claim that this is a comprehensive budget guide to all of Italy. Really, it’s more an overview of traveling in Tuscany, Rome,…
Looking back, Tony & I did an embarrassing number of things wrong with regards to the European portion of our trip. For the most part, we moved too fast, were too tightly scheduled, and pinched our pennies too hard—we managed to stay under budget in a lot of places, but often at the expense of…
If you read our desultory food interview, Chewing the Fat, Italy is by far the most popular answer when we ask people to name their favorite food country from their travels. It’s a carb-lovers paradise—the home of pizza and pasta!—and we intended to eat very well during our two weeks in the country; I probably…
Writing this as I sit in the public library in Rochester, Minnesota, it’s hard to imagine that one year ago we were perched on tiny plastic chairs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It’s still harder to fathom that almost two and a half years ago we landed in Japan, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to…
I think the need for stories is hardcoded into our DNA. Stories don’t just capture our imaginations—the very best ones help us make sense of the world as well as our place within it. Stories impart meaning, and our desire for order and answers can sometimes cause us to look back and infer cause and…
When last I posted, I was writing from Toronto, Canada about our adventures in Italy. That was a little over two weeks ago, and although I didn’t intend for it to happen, writing blog posts swiftly plummeted to the very bottom of my list of things to do. Perhaps I should have known better: There…