We’ve told a lot of stories in the past 457 days. We’ve recapped our 15-month journey with photos, introduced you to elephants in Thailand with videos, and described each of the 135 thoughts we had hiking the Inca Trail with words. Our favorite stories we’ve told, though, have been with numbers. Our Travel by Numbers …
A lot of people from the Midwest winter in Florida. It’s not uncommon to fly south for three months of sunshine instead of three months of digging a car out of the snow. These sunshine-chasers are called snowbirds, and they’re usually about twice our age. So how did we turn out to be snowbirds at …
Beijing, China | I wish I was here writing an actual guide for celebrating Chinese New Year in Beijing, but I’m not. When we rang in the Year of the Dog in Beijing, we made a lot of mistakes, but they were mistakes that we think you could make, too. Today we’re here to share …
Chiang Mai, Thailand | Truth time. Before I arrived in Chiang Mai, I never really gave elephants a second thought. In general, I don’t consider myself much of an animal person except for being weirdly obsessed with birds. But when my friend (who travels a lot and I totally trust her judgement) told me that …
Medellin, Colombia | The city of Eternal Spring, where the street art is bold, the people are proud and the arepas are topped with the most amazing cheese. Medellin is a city that has so much to give, and the locals truly seem to love sharing their city with you. Though once plagued by violence, Medellin …
Paros, Greece | Paros is a small island that is part of the Greek Cyclades chain. It is often a stopping point for travelers on their way to more famous islands, like Santorini or Mykonos. If you find yourself on Paros (which you should), you will arrive on a ferry boat in the town of …
Fifteen months after we left on our year-long trip around the world, we’re finally back — back in the US, back to full-time jobs and back to US phone numbers. We’ve returned with memories of medinas in Morocco and alleyways in Australia. We can now say thank you in almost 40 languages. We put condensed …
Iowa City, Iowa, USA | Iowa City is a college town with serious Midwestern vibes. Located in the middle of Iowa, which is in the middle of the United States, it’s a small city surrounded by farms and rolling hills on all sides. The people here say things like “pop” and “ope” and they are as …
Spain | Well, folks, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’ve just landed in our last country on our 15-month journey around the world. I’m not sure how that’s possible, because we just left yesterday. It’s so weird that we keep finding ourselves doing things for the last time. Our last budget update. Learning …
Today we celebrate! We traveled the world for an entire year! It’s so weird to think that a year ago today, we were already on the road living this crazy lifestyle. It feels like we just left Chicago, and yet if we’d stuck with our original plan to travel the world for a year, our trip …