One thing i've been asked often is the plan for the year. Although this is not set in stone, we do have a general idea of the locations we hope to get to.
So far we have been spending our time in Europe. We wanted to allot about a month for Poland to visit family. We have been fairly successful with that so far but it often feels like we are going at warp speed to try to keep up with seeing those we want to see. There is never enough time. But we are trying our best, and so far have been able to see parts of family all across Poland including random trips to Zakopane (Polish Tatry mountains) and Krakow along the way. Our ~1 week in the South of France was also good timing since my good friends were doing their student exchange there until late November--Barcelona adding to that trip was a fantastic plus! :) Other than that, Tom and I have done a good amount of Europe before and have also lived in Poland for 4 years for school so Europe was never our priority for this 8-9 month adventure. However, we will do a few days of Rome too, since neither of us has ever been there.
Next , the plan for November- December is East Africa---mostly Tanzania but partially some Kenya and Rwanda are possible. We decided to only pick a section of Africa because it is a difficult continent to get around and its not as far from home as some of the other places we want to visit in the long run (which will be harder to get to in the future). We will be staying at a mission hospital for a few weeks helping out, hoping for a few road trips to Kenya and Rwanda, and also hoping to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. We will see how much of that we will actually get a chance to accomplish in the 4-5 weeks we are there. We fly into Dar es Salaam,Tanzania so we have a nice long bus ride through the country before we reach the Mission hospital on the Northwest coast (near Kilimanjaro).
From East Africa we have a few days stopover in Rome, Italy before we head to Malaysia and Thailand and ?Singapore for a few weeks before Christmas. We will spend some time near Phuket and hope to relax a bit in Thailand. We also hope to check out Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and maybe Singapore. We will have roughly 2 weeks to work with. Then we hope to head to Australia for Christmas.....it will be my first holidays in Oz......my first ever trip to Oz!!!
We hope to spend a good 2 months in Australia & New Zealand from the end of December to the end of February or even longer (depends on costs, accomodation, how much we like it, etc.)--we hope to see the whole eastern coast of Australia and check out both the North and South islands of New Zealand. We have only heard great things and hope to meet many family and friends along the way there!
Next we would return to Southeast Asia--start out in Vietnam specifically, to meet up with a good friend of mine that lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. During a good 2 months in the region we hope to get to India (for a good amount of time), Cambodia, Indonesia, Phillipines, ?Hong Kong, ?Sri Lanka, ?Maldives....
Then its back to Canada around May- visit Vancouver and then to Windsor,Ontario. We take a deep breath and hope to finish off the adventure in South America-- will only have time for the Northwest --Peru for sure and hopefully Bolivia and Colombia....!! Will make use of our time as best we can !
That is the general vague itinerary in our minds. Each experience will teach us something new and in the end, we don't know exactly where or what we will want to see and do most....it will all be a day by day thing --with a few TO-DO lists organized in there ;)
To all my friends and family-- all of your advice/suggestions/help/etc. with travel ideas are much appreciated and encouraged!!! Would love to hear what you think and have to say about our ideas-- what you like/not, places you suggest/don't etc.
And we would love to meet up with as many of you as we can during these travels!!!! The more the merrier!! Taking each experience day by day and trying to take it all in....no matter how exhausting travelling can be ;)
Here we go! :)
"This wasn't a strange place; it was a new one. After all, what he had always wanted was just that: to know new places"--Paulo Coelho
