Around the World Adventure

Wow. 15 countries later and I can't believe we're back from our whirlwind world tour! 

I don't think I can really "summarize" our adventure because I don't think I would do it justice. More than anything I want to record and share with you some of the life-altering experiences we had on this odyssey. We swam with wild dolphins in New Zealand and met some of the friendliest people there. Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef in Australia was an experience that I will remember and treasure forever. We immersed ourselves in the unique Japanese culture while trying some amazing food and enjoying the beautiful cherry blossoms. Celebrating with our airbnb host on the extravagant rooftop bar of one of the tallest buildings in Singapore was exhilarating. Seeing the wildness of the African safari was literally mind-blowing and we got to know some of the amazingly kind and humble Botswana locals and learned a little bit about their unique local customs. I can't describe the feeling I got when seeing the ancient pyramids in Egypt and the friendliness and respect we unfailingly received from the locals was definitely perspective-changing. I'll never forget the beauty of the sun setting over the Mediterranean Sea in the most scenic spot imaginable in Greece. We admired incredible views of the fjords in Norway and Matt's favorite spot on the trip was watching two rivers crash down the mountains in Trollstigen. We snorkeled in the crystal-clear water between two continental tectonic plates, rode horses through the lava fields, and hiked on a glacier in Iceland.

Then there were the not-so-good times. Most of these I never wrote about on the blog or even told anyone about because I didn't want to worry anyone and I always wanted to present a rosy picture. But of course there has to be some tough times, although we were undeniably blessed that they were few and far between. I feel like it's not a complete picture without sharing these with you as well, and it seems like these moments were the more defining times of the trip. There was the night we spent in a spider-infested teepee when I hardly slept at all (although that is funny looking back on it now). Then there was the time in a Japan train station where we suddenly realized that we had left our passports back in our hotel in Nagano, a whole day's traveling away (yep, we did that. Sorry I never told you about this, mom!). We had literally been seconds away from jumping on to our connecting train when Matt realized this so of course we missed the train, then we were so frazzled we proceeded to jump on the next train going in the exact opposite direction we wanted. After we got our bearings and on to our next hotel we were able to talk things out with Jack and get things figured out. Luckily we had stayed in a nice hotel and they overnight shipped it to us, and we were also lucky that we were in Japan and the postal service, like most Japanese things, is incredibly dependable. Then there were some other things including the time I got struck with terrible diarrhea literally right outside the Great Pyramids of Giza in Cairo (as cliche as that sounds) and I was crying by myself as my stomach writhed in knots in the disgusting port-a-potty which didn't have any toilet paper (so glad I had tissues in my purse!) and then to top the whole experience off when I finally exited the hellhole, weak and ashamed, there was a guy hassling me for money for using the toilet! I know I wrote that we never got sick in Egypt but since this ended up being a one-time occurrence I didn't think it counted as the "pharoah's revenge" traveler's diarrhea. Then I went and left my credit card at a gas station in Norway. I don't know how many people (strangers!) went out of their way to get that back to me. I also kicked myself for months for spending a ton of money on a sweater in Melbourne that I was told was merino wool but turned out to be fake.

I called out a few places above because of the friendliness of the people, but truly everywhere we met just honestly good people. People who just wanted to help us out when they could and wanted to make sure we had a great time in their country. People from all walks of life who wanted to learn about us and also wanted to share their experiences with us as well. And strangers we never met who went out of their way to make sure my credit card/passport/cash/whatever was returned to me. These interactions are impossible to describe but really affirms how many good people are out there.

Budget

For the whole international portion of the trip I spent $23,272. This is per person and in US dollars. There were two of us traveling together most of the time so most things were split equally two ways. Here is the breakdown:

Flights: $6,204. Almost all of our flights were purchased together prior to our trip through a company called Airtreks. They were great to work with and really spent some time learning what our priorities were and then they customized an itinerary and walked through each flight with us.

Ground Transportation: $3,639.

Lodging: $5,432.

Activities: $4,589.

Food: $2,118.

Miscellaneous: $1,290. This includes souvenirs and necessities while on the trip and also everythingI purchased for the trip prior to leaving (nice tennis shoes, sandals, travel-sized toiletries and such, travel adapters, packing cubes, etc.)

Summary

We had an amazing adventure that neither one of us will ever forget. I hope that I've inspired others to explore the world as well in whatever way they can. Thanks to everyone who has been following along, commenting, praying, or otherwise invested in our journey!