Endings and Beginnings

So, clearly, we're back. Well sort of. We're in New York for a while, then heading to Austin to play with Zachary (clearly the best nephew ever). We got back just in time for Mike's cousin Carolyn's wedding (gorgeous) and will bookend it with Mike's sister's wedding (future awesome). Monday we celebrated our first anniversary(yay!). And since people say the only thing harder than travelling with your spouse for that long is building a house, we think we're prepared for anything. In fact, we had pretty much the best time ever.

Here are some fun statistics and facts about our journey (inspired by Adam and Becky, thanks guys!!)

Number of Different Places We Spent the Night: 102 (113 counting times we switched hotels)


Including: 2 overnight flights
2 overnight buses
4 overnight trains
2 overnight ferries
2 airports
Number of Countries Visited: 21 (if you include Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Countries We Spent the Most Time In:
Australia (5.5 weeks)
Greece (3.5 weeks)
Turkey (3 weeks)
Vietnam (just over 3 weeks)

Countries We Spent the Least Time In:
Bosnia & Herzegovina (1 hour total)
San Marino (5 hours)
Hungary (19 hours)
Jordan (36 hours total)

Best Food: Japan/Thailand/Greece
Worst Food: Croatia

Number of Times Mike Shaved His Beard: 3

Number of books read:
Mike: 34
Debbie: 56
Funny facts:

You can find tic-tacs in every country except Greece

In Croatia Hot Chocolate is like hot chocolate pudding and Hot Cocoa is normal

There is no signage in some Slovenian train stations, so I asked someone where the train to Ljubljana would be and she said, ‘um, it’s usually on 3?’

Things about bathrooms:

If you’re going to have a flushing squat toilet, why wouldn’t you just put in a toilet?

What is the point of a shower that doesn’t hang up?

Why do some showers in Asia have no tub/curtain/etc. soaking the bathroom every time you use it?

Why don’t we all have Japanese toilets with seat warmers? They are lovely.

If you’re going to have one thing be automatic in a bathroom, they should all be, my least favorite example of this is when there is a temperature knob on an automatic sink, so you turn it thinking it will turn the sink on, then put your hands under and burn yourself when it suddenly turns on.

Why do nice hotels think an open bathroom is romantic? When you’re taking a bath, perhaps, when you’re taking a…nother thing not so much.

On that note.... this blog ends... well sort of. The fact is, I think we both really enjoyed it and may continue in other ways, but we'll let you know. Thanks for being a part of the fun!