This is a website about our family trip around the world. We will use it to describe our preparation, our travel, our resources and our transformation. The text is mixed in English and Romanian. At the top of the page, right under the blogger bar, you have a choice of several views for this site.
The main content is under the second tab "Blog". The other tabs are static, only occasionally updated and the title is self explanatory. This should provide basic information about us and our plans. We would appreciate any comments. We found inspiration in similar blogs published on the net and we hope that at some point some family would use our blog as a confirmation that you don't need to wait till the kids grow up to travel the world.
We started this page shortly after we decided to do our trip. We wanted to document the way our thoughts and plans evolved. Just this part is a journey in itself. Progressively, more and more content should be available here. Hopefully as we start our trip this would be an easy way to update our whereabouts. We chose the blogspot platform because it allows easy posting through email and is compatible with most feed readers. Also, it easily connects with my Google accounts, YouTube and Picasa.
To read the first post go to: Starting It All
To read the going public post go to: Crossing Into The Other World
To start the trip per se (and miss a lot of interesting stuff): Day One, leaving our home toward the airport.
How did it all start? Probably at some point many years ago with Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" and Michael Palin's documentary. A few years ago I read Nellie Bly's "Around the world in 72 days", an American journalist's account of following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg in 1889. She stopped in France to visit Jules Verne in his house and get his blessing for her trip. It is an interesting reading without the adventure or suspense of the novel, but she was a young lady traveling alone in the 19th century. She brought with her the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials. She carried most of her money (200 British pounds) in a bag tied around her neck.
Later I found out about cruises, $100,000 for 3 month, or about around the world plane tickets. We contemplated extending our yearly vacation in Romania with a few more weeks on one of this round the world trips. Spending tons of money on property improvements I started to calculate the costs in RTW tickets. We also considered at some point an educational 2-months trip to Europe when the kids would be old enough to appreciate it. Still, we were settled in our daily life, "waiting" for the children to grow up before we could start travel. When I learned on Rick Steve's podcast about a family that travelled for 8 months I first thought that they were crazy. A couple of weeks later, jokingly, I suggested that we should sell everything and go. The kids started to cry. Sixteen months later, nobody would admit the crying part because it seems so normal and natural to take this trip and we are all so confident that it is the right thing to do. We know we are lucky and we are grateful for that.
Reading again the book "Around the world in 80 days" I paused at the last paragraph which many years ago sounded like a dare and an invitation "But what then? What had he really gained from all his trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Truly would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?"
Or in French: "En vérité, ne ferait-on pas, pour moins que cela, le Tour du Monde ?" Interesting fact is that the Romanian translation completely skips the last paragraph, so what I was thinking 30 years ago?
The main content is under the second tab "Blog". The other tabs are static, only occasionally updated and the title is self explanatory. This should provide basic information about us and our plans. We would appreciate any comments. We found inspiration in similar blogs published on the net and we hope that at some point some family would use our blog as a confirmation that you don't need to wait till the kids grow up to travel the world.
We started this page shortly after we decided to do our trip. We wanted to document the way our thoughts and plans evolved. Just this part is a journey in itself. Progressively, more and more content should be available here. Hopefully as we start our trip this would be an easy way to update our whereabouts. We chose the blogspot platform because it allows easy posting through email and is compatible with most feed readers. Also, it easily connects with my Google accounts, YouTube and Picasa.
To read the first post go to: Starting It All
To read the going public post go to: Crossing Into The Other World
To start the trip per se (and miss a lot of interesting stuff): Day One, leaving our home toward the airport.
How did it all start? Probably at some point many years ago with Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" and Michael Palin's documentary. A few years ago I read Nellie Bly's "Around the world in 72 days", an American journalist's account of following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg in 1889. She stopped in France to visit Jules Verne in his house and get his blessing for her trip. It is an interesting reading without the adventure or suspense of the novel, but she was a young lady traveling alone in the 19th century. She brought with her the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials. She carried most of her money (200 British pounds) in a bag tied around her neck.
Later I found out about cruises, $100,000 for 3 month, or about around the world plane tickets. We contemplated extending our yearly vacation in Romania with a few more weeks on one of this round the world trips. Spending tons of money on property improvements I started to calculate the costs in RTW tickets. We also considered at some point an educational 2-months trip to Europe when the kids would be old enough to appreciate it. Still, we were settled in our daily life, "waiting" for the children to grow up before we could start travel. When I learned on Rick Steve's podcast about a family that travelled for 8 months I first thought that they were crazy. A couple of weeks later, jokingly, I suggested that we should sell everything and go. The kids started to cry. Sixteen months later, nobody would admit the crying part because it seems so normal and natural to take this trip and we are all so confident that it is the right thing to do. We know we are lucky and we are grateful for that.
Reading again the book "Around the world in 80 days" I paused at the last paragraph which many years ago sounded like a dare and an invitation "But what then? What had he really gained from all his trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Truly would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?"
Or in French: "En vérité, ne ferait-on pas, pour moins que cela, le Tour du Monde ?" Interesting fact is that the Romanian translation completely skips the last paragraph, so what I was thinking 30 years ago?
