Bonjour-Mundo!

That’s the grand total folks for what it took to get me around the world and back. So I’ve been home for just about a month now, and I’m finally getting to writing this sum up blog…wow, talk about a slacker. Props to those of you who actually read this, you’re awesome.

 In any case, I figured to sum things up, I should make a list of sorts, a la let’s go picks. So, here we go.

 Best Place to get Orange Juice for under 40 cents: Marrakech, Morroco, and it’s the best stuff you’ve ever tasted.

Most comfortable train ride: Bangkok to Chang Mai, Thailand.

Favorite Country on the Whole: Thailand. (But Spain will always have a special place in my heart.)

Best Hot Dog: Prague, Czech Republic

Best places to buy a million things for under a buck: Sunday night market, Chang Mai, Thailand.

Best place to freak out Emily by making her ride on a motor bike: Thailand!

Most Impressive Landscapes: New Zealand

Best place to drink sangria by the gallon in a stein: Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain.

Best Sangria: Toledo, Spain, Bar La Boveda

Coldest place for my feet: Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Favorite small town charm: Cesky Kromlov, Czech Republic

Best place to get harassed by slimy men: El Jadida, Morocco

Most amazing sunrise: Merzuga Dunes, Morocco

My favorite view: On the bluffs overlooking Toledo, Spain 

Favorite Tourist Site: Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok, Thailand 

Best Food Market: Djema el Fna, Central Medina Foodstalls, Marrakech, Morocco

Best place to eat the most amazing shrimp with your feet in sand overlooking the ocean: Ndor (sp?) Island, Senegal 

Best Wine: Eger, Hungary

Best place to spot a mullet: Spain! It’s all about the fashion.

That’s all I can come up with for now. On a whole, this trip was the experience of a lifetime, and to date one of the most incredible things I’ve had the opportunity to do. I already feel like planning my next trip…on the list: Southeast Asia or South and Central America. And if I get my way, much more of Africa. Travel is something that has become a huge part of my heart and soul and has helped me figure out the person I am today. The people I have met and the incredible landscapes I have seen, from towering mountain tops and frozen glaciers to endless deserts and tropical beaches, never cease to inspire me. 

A special thanks to Em for her endless patience with my indecisiveness and for being the best travel buddy a girl could ask for. You will always be my travel B.F.F.!! And another thanks to Alex for joining our little journey, all my love, thank you for always making me smile.

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” — Frank Herber

Persue your daydreams.

That’s right folks, good old southern hemisphere for you. Winter in June. And the Kiwi’s know how to have a blast in the snow…in fact they seem to love the cold as everytime we go into a backpackers we find the windows open, along with no heat. Crazy people.

Anyhow, Em and I spent the last few days in Queenstown and had a great time. The city seems to be like the Aspen of New Zealand. Ski town with lots of fancy places to stay, definitely it’s fair share of fine dining to go with them, but luckily for us, also a few good cheapies and affordable hostels. The city is nestled in the mountains a looks out upon Lake Wakitupo, just beautiful.

The first night we got in was their mardi gras celebration. The evening started off with a more family oriented version of a mardi gras parade with people in masks, big puppet type things, colorful characters on stilts and the like. Lots of kids carrying little hand made lanterns as well. Then everyone met up in the center square where there was a huge bandstand set up with free live music all evening. There was also tons of food and drink stalls set up down the street. Lots of cheap yummy food, everything from beef bomber sandwiches to pumpkin soup, to waffles to thai and indian food. They also had mulled wine by the truckload. Something I’d never had before but have taken a liking too. Hot red wine with some spices, tastes kind of like cider. Works wonders for keeping warm outdoors in a freezing cold winter night. Although I ended up dragging Emily in as I was shivering, we had a great night for the most part.

The next day had more festival stuff, including crazy races and relays, a slip and slide, a drag queen obstacle course race, and lots of races involving guys dressed up in snickers bar costumes. All super fun to watch. We also took a gondola up to the top of a mountain overlooking the town. Gorgeous views. We also LUGED! Really good time, not quite on ice like the olympics, but on a concrete track around the mountain on a kind of laid back sled on wheels kind of thing. It reminded me of those sit and skate orange scooter things from the 80’s, not sure if anyone else knows what I’m talking about. Anyhow, it was great fun.

Today we wandered around and went for a hike up in the hills. A lot of the hike was through super dense forest, kind creepy, I expected some sort of creature from lord of the rings to jump out at me. But it was fun, and although the clouds were to low to see much from the top, what we could see was cool. Only problem was the ice, a lot of the track was icy, and I managed to slip quite a few times, once majorly biting the dust for a nice muddy bum, shoot. So much for my one pair of clean pants. Opps.

Anyhow, I am headed to the states tomorrow! I’ll probably post one last blog once I’m back. I’ll have plenty of time on my million hours of planes to think of something clever I hope. But I’m excited to see you all soon! Have a wonderful day!

First off, edit...in the last post I mentioned that the south island was a world heritage site, I meant the west coast of the south island, not the whole south island. Just fyi. So, I have officially decided that I want ... [Continue reading this entry]

After our wine tour Em and I have made our way down the west coast of New Zealands south island.  Apparently the entire west coast of the south island has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, and for good ... [Continue reading this entry]

I must say, I can't think of a better way to explore the wine country of New Zealand. It was a blast, although a bit chilly in the wintertime.  The little town of Blenheim is about a half hour from Picton. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, so I lied, not really wild. But we were in the wilderness! Our trip to the south island was a sleepy one, Em and I both were passed out cold for most all the trip. But upon arriving in ... [Continue reading this entry]

So after our adventures in Rotorua, it was time to begin our venture south. In order to catch a ferry over to the south island, we had to make a stopover for a night in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We ... [Continue reading this entry]

So, upon deciding to come to New Zealand I knew I was going to have to go white water rafting. From previous experiences in Ecuador, I love rafting. However, it's winter in NZ, this makes most rafting endevours rather difficult. In ... [Continue reading this entry]

We have packed our days in Rotorua full of activities, and we were told the Maori Hangi was something that couldn't be missed. Therefore last night we packed ourselves onto a touristy bus and went out to see what the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Although we had originally planned to go both volcanic places in one day, the icky weather prevented us from going to the valley, the second part of our tour. Luckily our driver was nice enough that he ended up taking ... [Continue reading this entry]