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United States of America…again (well times three and four at least). Upon returning from Iceland we landed into Seattle. The initial plan was to drive around for a while and explore, but that was before times one and two. We decided that the country was too big and since we were doing some driving in Canada and then the United States later (time four), that we should just have a sneaky break in Iceland for a week and relax in Seattle and Portland – which, obviously, we did. Continue reading
We are on a boat, well actually a cruise ship – so a really BIG boat! It is the luxury experience that we have looked forward to since leaving New Zealand. It is also the start of the end: the next time we enter a country it will be for work purposes. Continue reading
We headed to Vancouver by from Portland Oregon, via Seattle. It was a very long bus ride, although the border crossing was extremely easy – for us. The bus did leave a couple of people behind as the visa process was going to take a bit too long. This in our minds did not bode well for out next trip over the border, the one where we must convince the officials to issue our working visas without being left behind ourselves.
We decided to capitalise on a stopover that we had in Reykjavík, Iceland and stay the allowed 7 days and 9 hours (I know, very specific). In fact, we only stayed 7 days, 1 hour, and 20 minutes in total. Continue reading
Oh Italy, I think you are making us fat! We only stayed here for two weeks, but I think we ate for a month. We ate Italian style – an antipasto, a first dish (pasta), a second dish (meat), and then dessert. We also had beer and wine to wash it all down. If we added up the time we spent doing activities and added up the time we spent eating and drinking, I think that we would find it roughly even! Continue reading
A month in Paris – every time that we told someone that we were doing this they were amazed. A whole month? Isn’t that expensive? What are you going to do? We thought that we might relax after a gruelling schedule of 24 countries in almost 12 months, but this was not entirely to be… Continue reading
Next stop, Denmark!! One of my favorite countries in the world. I might be biased because it is the only place I have lived except for New Zealand, but I had a great time here and made some lifelong friends. And I was finally going to be able to see some of them again. Continue reading
We took the train up into the Netherlands, a quick experience since everything is so close in Europe. First stop, The Hague. I had been here in 2008 when I was living in Copenhagen, so I had an idea of what to expect. We didn’t have much time here (needing to be in Amsterdam the next day to meet a friend), so we got stuck right in. The main rush – getting to the International Criminal Court on time because you can actually go in and watch their proceedings!!! The case was against Ntaganda, a person accused of 13 counts of war crimes and 5 crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2002/3. Having arrived with about an hour of court time left, we were turned away – not because they were finished, not because there was sensitive information being heard, but because Laurence wasn’t wearing pants. Apparently, you must wear pants to court, not shorts. Even if no-one is going to see you and even if you have travelled a long way to see it. Last time I was in The Hague I watched a proceeding against an alleged (and subsequently convicted) war criminal at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. I happened to be attending with a Bosnian refugee from the same war. It was an incredible experience that I wanted to share with Laurence, but next time he will have to wear pants to see it. Continue reading
We were lucky enough to meet a couple from Belgium while we were travelling through Belize and Guatemala, they invited us to stay with them if we were in the area. Probably a big mistake on their part, but 9 months later we called them on it and they were the perfect hosts. Over the 4 days that we were in the country, they walked us around their city with the knowledge of a professional tour guide and drove us across the country so that we could see what we were interested in. They also cooked for us and provided tasty drinks. Continue reading
We were both a bit nervous to be heading off to Turkey, in fact Laurence had mentioned that if we felt unsafe at any point we would just take the next available flight out to our next destination. The travel warning was on high alert, and we were advised that only essential travel should be completed in this area. Admittedly, most of the extreme risk was in areas of Turkey that we were not visiting, but Istanbul was pretty high up there. Now that we are safe and have completed this portion of our trip, I am very glad that we did it. Not once did we feel unsafe and the country itself is awesome. We both agree that we would like to go back in the future. Continue reading