Voila!

And we’re done.
Complete.
Over.
Done.

On Jan 5th, we left Phoenix for Bangkok and on Nov 5th we will return to Seattle. It has been 10 months of being on the road living out a trip that we had planned for two years. The money is gone (more than we expected!) and the adventure is over. I can’t believed it has been that long.

The Brawl, or I Hate Turkish Cabbies

Read the Lonely Planet.  Read any other travel book and they will all forewarn you that the biggest annoyance in Istanbul are the taxi drivers. There is no meter, so you’re advised to agree on a price before you get in the car.  AS IF that works. As we found out, it doesn’t.

We met my sister Emy and her husband Charlie in Istanbul.  While the Greiners enjoyed their 4 star hotel (sadly right next to the train tracks, but did the beautiful hotel description mention that? I think not), Tim and I went down the street to a hostel and shared an ok room with yet another stinky  and moist bathroom.  But this too, shall pass, I kept telling myself.

Taking Our Marriage on the Road

As Tim mentioned in a previous post, our year of traveling has not always been fun and games. Think about it: the common bickering between man and wife, the stress of traveling in a foreign country, and the sadness of finding yet another filthy bathroom all gets compounded. Worst yet, you are spending 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 11 months with the person you most love, but also the person who many times you’ve wanted to kill–and in a fight between me and Tim I would ALWAYS put money on ME and my Chinese cleaver.

Four Days in Istanbul

Honestly, if you had asked me about traveling to Turkey a few years ago, I would have had no interest. My thoughts on Turkey were mostly formed by the German thoughts of the late 80s. As a twelve year old living in the small town of Nußloch, Germany, I saw many immigrant Turks and heard the various complaints that conservatives generally have about immigrants – They take our jobs, they live off welfare, they are dirty, etc. I didn’t think much of Turkey or have any desire to go. We did not put it in our plans for our trip.

Heard in a London Bathroom

I was waiting in line in the bathroom.  As soon as one of the girls came out of the stalls, I turned to he girl behind me, who looked like she had to go bad: “Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick.”

As I said that, another English girl walked into thebath room: “Oh, but Asian girls take a looong time in the bathroom.”

Me:  “Hm.”

She: “Oh, but I can say that because my friend is Asian.”

That’s pretty much like Diesel making Asian jokes because he’s married to an Asian, which doesn’t make it any more acceptable. Let’s face it. Only Asians can make Asian jokes.

Me (rolling my eyes): “Riiight.”

London, or You Can Never Have Too Much Cream

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted. I know, but it’s like the more free time I have, the less I feel like blogging. And now, with TV in English and reality shows galore, it’s been like heaven!

So what are the chances that two very close relatives would be unemployed at the same time??? Pretty slim, but that’s exactly what happened in London.  My cousin Felipe (nicknamed Tico) graduated this summer from the renowned London Business School and between graduation and his new job, he enjoyed a whole month of staycation (because, as you all know, when you’re unemployed you have no $ to travel).

In Switzerland and Picasa

Will write more, but after an awesome week with my cousin and then Tim in London, I made my way to Lausanne, where I am hanging out with an old German friend who moved here.

Also, after SO many months, I finally accepted that I like picasa way  more than Flickr, so from now on, my pics will be posted on picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chowkelly

Off to London

We know it has been a long time since we wrote and I still need to tell you about how awesome San Sebastian Spain is but i am writing this from my iPhone and so won’t do that now.

I’ve been back in the USA for about 10 days, just enough time to get sick, get a traffic ticket for expired tags and start work. Today I am leaving for London, where I will meet up with Kelly and spend the next month working on a work project. Kelly is only there for a few more days and then shell head to Switzerland and spend the next month traveling trough germany.

On nov 5th, we will meet in paris and fly home together. At that point we will be back permanently in Seattle. Many people have asked if we were going back to NY and the answer is no. We never had any intentions of going back there and we have nothing there now. All of our stuff is in Seattle.

I don’t know anybody in London so when I’m not working, I’ll start updating the blog again.

Asturias

My last bus ride! Even if it was an uneventful and totally pleasant ride form Madrid to Oviedo, I’m happy to not have to take another long distance bus for a long time. 6 hours is about my limit before I start getting antsy and that is just the amount of time it takes to get this far north. Kelly has plenty more bus rides lined up for the rest of her trip but she is on her own for that. At least she’ll have the computer and a few seasons of Entourage.

We went to Oviedo because, of course, we had a friend there. Err, well, K has been getting onto me about calling her friends “our” friends because she wants to make sure everyone knows SHE knows everyone in Europe and not me. This is true. I don’t really know anybody here and anybody I do know hasn’t invited me to their house to stay a week with them and their mom, which is exactly what Bea did.

or at least I think she did. It really could be that we invited ourselves. Hrm. You’ll have to ask Kelly

But however it worked out, we ended up here in Arenas de Cabrales – a town of about 800 people in the state of Austuria and somewhat working the tourist market as the hiking and sceneary around here is breathtaking. I’m not just saying that to be all positive and nice. The state of Austurias really is beautiful. one of the most beautiful places we have been, in my mind.

Into Spain

We were really lucky to be able to fulfill a wish of ours for our trip. originally, we had planned to rent a place in the country of France or Spain in an attempt to save money and to really get a feel for life in one of these countries. But it wasn’t going to work out. We had too many places we wanted to go and no time to rent a place for the two months or so that we wanted and so we shelved those plans.As it turns out, our two weeks in Provence were exactly what we needed to replace it. We got to see what country life was like with a bunch of locals and slow down. We even got to cook a few meals – something we greatly miss while traveling. And when the two weeks were up, we felt we HAD been there long enough and were happy to move on.

After a short drive to Marseille where we had a wonderful dinner down on the beach, we went to bed in a hotel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The next morning we took a cab and a bus to the airport and after a heated dispute that with Ryanair over the size of our carry- on that ended with me forking over another 20 Euros, we were on our way to Madrid.

Madrid was hot like Provence but at least the nights were cool. We spent a couple days there with an old friend of Kelly’s and her family. I love French food but I have to say that sitting down to our first meal in their house provided a welcome change to the subtle flavors we had been eating. A tray of lomo and cured chorizo along with crusty bread came out, followed by ham covered in paprika and olive oil, three types of Manchego along with quince paste and olives in a tangy brine. The acidity and saltity so much different from Provencial food.

The next day we walked around the old city a bit and visited the local market, but the highlight was clearly the Mercado de San Miquel. Opened just a few months ago in a converted structure near Placa Mayor, this cooperative of food shops and tapas bars was buzzing with activity when we came by at 11am. People were circulating to different spots, picking up a dozen fresh oysters on the half shell, a 3 euro glass of wine from the wine bar (which had about 50 different types of wine by the glass), diving into ham and cheese croquettas, giant grilled prawns in olive oil and salt and then just hanging out with friends and family for hours, which is just what we did. I think we spent 2 hours there, just the two of us, enjoying the wine and food.