trajectory update: the method to our randomness

in a few hours we leave for lebanon.  we'll be there for a few days (august 6-9) before we head to cyprus for about a week (august 9-15). then, we're off to finland.

if you haven't seen the pictures on facebook, our last trajectory update took us through june when we'd be in kenya (june 19-july 10).  we had ideas about where to go next, but nothing was set in stone.  since then, we've visited egypt (july10-july20) and we're currently in jordan (july 20-august 6).  

so, how'd we pick these last five countries (egypt, jordan, lebanon, cyprus, and finland)?  

1. egypt: we heard that tourism was extremely low in egypt which meant that we'd get to see the pyramids with hardly anyone around.  brian is a history nerd (coincidence that if you switch the "i" and "a" in his name you get "brain"?  i think not), so we looked into it and found decently priced tickets and comfortable flights from nairobi, kenya to cairo, egypt.  plus, there were cheap flights on to our next destination...

2. jordan:  the guy who ran the convenient store in our neighborhood in denver was from jordan.  when we told him we were leaving to travel the world, he told us not to pass jordan by.  back in april, as we were getting closer to the middle east, we read about all their is to see and do in the country and we were sold.  the past two and a half weeks haven't disappointed!

3. lebanon: we originally thought we'd head to greece or spain from jordan, but the tickets were a bit more than we were willing to pay.  so, we started shopping around.  the tickets to lebanon were mighty inexpensive and when we found out we could fly to cyprus from lebanon and the total would still be less than the ticket from jordan to greece, we took it as a sign from the gods (the greek ones, not the roman ones).

4. cyprus: it wasn't just that the tickets were the right price.  brian grew up with people from cyprus, so we had a connection.  we love connections.  one thing we've learned travelling is that knowing someone who knows the lay of the land is invaluable!

5. finland: for some reason, there's this one day in august when tickets from cyprus to finland are incredibly cheap so we figured why not visit a nordic country before hopping down to spain?!  plus, stephanie read that santa's workshop & reindeer are there!!!!!!

hopefully this gives you some insight into how our minds work and also why our route is a little sporadic at times.  

anyway, we know we've got a lot of blogging to catch up on (ethiopia, kenya, egypt, and jordan), so fingers crossed the internet is strong in beirut!

love and miss you all -

stephanie & brian