trajectory update: north to south

On November 16, Brian and I ended round 1 of our travels and have been enjoying seeing our families & friends back in the states over the holidays.  

If you've been following our blog, you'll observe that we've only updated it through Finland (we were there in August) which means we've still got stories from Estonia, Spain & the Camino de Santiago, London, and our cruise back to the states to share.  I'll get to them-I promise...but I may have to come back to them later in order to keep y'all abreast of our newest adventure.  

In a few minutes we leave for Guatemala where we'll be taking Spanish classes in Antigua.  After a few weeks there, we'll be heading to Brian's old Peace Corps stomping grounds - San Juan Cotzal.  And then...well, we're not too sure what comes next.  Guess we'll all just have to wait & see!!

In the meantime, hope everyone has a great New Years!  May 2015 be a year of love, joy, and peace!

Xo,

Stephanie & Brian

First Impressions of the Land of Potable Toilet Water

On August 16, we arrived in Finland.  At 1 in the morning.  And so our first adventure was sleeping in the Helsinki airport.  Now, before you think we had no way of getting to our hotel or some mix up happened with our reservation, let me state that we excitedly opted to spend the night in the airport. While our ticket to Finland was a great deal, we were unable to find a hostel, hotel, airbnb room, etc within our budget.  When we read on www.sleepinginairports.net (yes, it is a real website) that the Helsinki airport is the 3rd best in the world to sleep in, we decided that was just what we would do to help keep costs down.  Apparently so did a ton of other people because by the time we landed all the benches were already taken and we found ourselves sleeping on the floor (we had our sleeping bags). We didn't mind though - with free and ridiculously fast wifi, a grocery store, adorable dogs waiting to greet their owners, and clean facilities, the airport proved nicer than half of the places we've stayed.   

When Brian was finally able to tear me away from the airport (I was seriously considering moving in), we discovered a city equally as impressive.

Cool architecture:

People with a sense of humor:

Restaurant Day!  (a day when anyone can open a restaurant anywhere)

(Mexican food made by real Mexicans! Made us miss Denver.)

But what truly wowed us was when upon asking if it was safe to drink the tap water, the staff at our hostel shared that Finland's water is so clean even the water in the toilets is potable.  My mouth dropped open and I excitedly exclaimed, "Really?!"  The staff laughed at my enthusiastic reaction and that's when it hit me that maybe we'd been roughing it a little too long -- I was just as excited about sleeping on an airport floor and potable toilet water as I'd been while touring the Great Wall, hiking the Himalayas, and standing inside the Great Pyramid.  

In case you're wondering, the tap water in Finland is fantastic.  As for the toilet water...we just took the staff at their word ;-)       

Feeling the Agape in Cyprus

After months of incredible, yet emotionally and physically intense travel through Africa and the Middle East, our week in Cyprus (August 9-15, 2014) felt like we were on holiday. Especially because of the Koufoudakis family.  Back in King George, Virginia, Brian grew up with Pete and Stephania Koufoudakis whose family is from Cyprus.  When he reached out to them for suggestions about what to see and do while we were visiting the motherland, they arranged for their family to show us the best the island had to offer - Cypriot hospitality.  There wasn't a day that Pete & Stephania's aunts, uncles, and cousins weren't taking us to unbelievable beaches, stuffing us with their favorite foods (which quickly became our favorite foods too!), and letting us be part of their daily lives on their beautiful island.  We left tanner, fatter, and with more members of our extended family.

What better to do on a Saturday afternoon than go to the 
local MC (motorcycle club) to vote for our favorite chopper? 
(The classic cream chopper was mine!)

Picking out Greek/Cypriot sweets with a sweetie.  Cousin Maria
hung out with us all week & was a fabulous tour guide & hostess.

One of the many stunning mosaics in the House of Dionysos,
a luxurious Roman residence dating back to the 2nd century AD.

Brian and Maria swimming at the birthplace of Aphrodite.
Legend is that bathing in the water will make you beautiful
like the goddess.  Brian stayed in the water as long as he could.

Our favorite beach to visit was Tramonto, cousin George's beach.
He has hammocks and cool umbrellas!

But the real reason it was our favorite was because of the company ;-)

Lamb and potatoes and hummus, oh my!

Lachi beach had the clearest water
we'd ever seen. It was stunning.

I think this might be the coolest place to camp. Ever. 

Maria & Brian climbing over old coral on our way out to the blue lagoon.

We arrived at Lara Beach just in time to rescue
baby sea turtles who were trapped in the hot afternoon sun.

We thought this goat was pretty cool.

And this goat thought this rock was pretty cool.

Thank goodness there's a goat crossing sign
should the goat ever decide to leave its rock & venture out.

Enjoying frappes, the unofficial national drink
of Cyprus, with cousins Effie & Maria.

On our last night in Cyprus, Maria and her
incredible mother prepared a feast for us.

The master chef! 

A huge thank you to these amazing people
for making our time Cyprus unforgettable.

War & Peace in Lebanon

During our first few days in Jordan (the week of July 21), Brian and I had some important decisions to make.  We knew we wanted to go to Spain to complete a pilgrimage to Santiago and we knew we wanted to start around the beginning of September, but we didn't know if we wanted to go to Spain directly from Jordan or if we wanted to country-hop our way over to Spain.  We did a preliminary search on skyscanner.com for tickets from Jordan to Spain and weren't too pleased with the results (everything was either more expensive than we had hoped or the flights were terribly inconvenient) so we started to consider other possibilities.  Using the "destination: anywhere" feature, we found that the cheapest flight from Jordan was to Lebanon … and then from Lebanon we could get a cheap flight to Cyprus … and then there was one day in August when the tickets from Cyprus to Finland were $125 … and then from Finland the tickets to Spain were fairly inexpensive.  Just like that we had our plan!  And the total of all the tickets would be less than if we had flown directly from Jordan to Spain!

We arrived in Beirut, Lebanon on August 6, 2014.  Our excitement to see the city hailed as the Paris of the Middle East and the homeland of one of our favorite authors (Kahlil Gibran) was overshadowed by news that a few days earlier ISIS had attacked a Lebanese town close to the Syria border.  While the Lebanese military had gained control of the situation by the time we arrived, we couldn't escape signs of the times- it took us over two hours to get through immigration, the military police were actively stationed around the city, and many roads and pedestrian areas were blockaded.  But it was also remnants from Lebanon's past that kept fresh the horrors of conflict and war.  We passed by a number of buildings still riddled with bullet holes from the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and the museum displayed pieces that had been damaged during fighting.  

During our three days in Beirut, I couldn't help but recall our time in other countries where we'd seen the scars of war... 

Nanjing, China where 300,000 people (half the city's population) were massacred over a period of 6 weeks during World War II.  

Laos where 600,000 tons of Vietnam-era unexploded ordinance still kill and maim people on a weekly basis. 

Ethiopia where an estimated half a million people were killed by the government during what is called the Red Terror.  

No matter where in the world or when in history or whether there is a good side and a bad side, the tragedy of war is that what takes seconds to tear apart - whether a building, a diplomatic relationship, a city, a life - is never mended as quickly, if at all.    

While our time in Beirut was more on the somber side, there were some really peaceful moments.  Flickers of hope, you might say.