Am I a totally new and improved person? No, not exactly. Do I feel different? Yeah, I do. The feeling is a special one: poignant yet incredibly hard to describe. For the last thirteen months we’ve been on the road: living out of our backpacks, finding our ‘happy-places’ on bus rides, bargaining our way into [...]
Traveling Americans have a habit of falling into a number of stereotypes. There’s the loud travelers, the cheap ones, the I’m-an-American-so-F-you crowd, and the people who refuse to eat anything that isn’t served at their local restaurant; the list goes on for longer than your attention span. While I may fall in to some of [...]
We all know that traveling isn’t what it used to be five, ten or fifty years ago. A lot of things have changed, some for the better, and some things are perhaps not the great improvements we once thought they’d be. Good things such as Skype (no more hyper expensive collect calls) and internet research [...]
Batumi is being pimped out as the next “it” place on the Black Sea coast. Construction workers are furiously working to revamp this coastal town. It looks to us like they’re trying to turn the town into a Nice of the East. While I understand their desire to bring in more tourists, I can’t help [...]
This is what qualifies as a light meal in Georgia: ten thousand calories of carbs, fat and pure deliciousness. The crust is actually a rich cheese pie that has been molded into a boat. Then, an egg is left to set gently inside the boat. A generous helping of real butter is then added to [...]
This ruin is unique in the way that it’s not really a ruin: it is a 2,000 year old intact Roman fortress. Gonio, as it is called today, was never destroyed or damaged by warfare, nor was it ever used as a quarry. Instead, it has been left alone to slowly decompose into today’s green [...]
We’ve only got a little bit left of our travel budget now, a time in our lives that of course coincides with our visit to one of the world’s premier shopping capitals. My current plan is to lock her in a cheap hotel room and throw away the key. I mean, seriously. This is [...]
I think it’s great when a town shows a bit of age. A few cracks here and a little rust there creates character. Knowing this, it’s no surprise that I’ve fallen in love with Batumi, the popular seaside town on the southern tip of Georgia. The air feels Mediterranean, the streets are wide, the [...]
We’re in Georgia – the country, not the US state. It wasn’t really a part of the original plan, but seatofourpants style of travel dictates that when an opportunity to travel to an interesting place presents itself, we hop on the next bus. The border between Turkey and Georgia was a pretty interesting place [...]
It took us only a few minutes to realize that Georgia has a VERY different alphabet. This above message is often found on doors to various establishments. It transcribes to something like ‘liaa’, whatever that may mean. Possibly ‘enter’. Probably not ‘free beer’.
I love food. It’s as simple as that. Catch me a few hours after a good meal and I’ll most likely be thinking about my next meal. It’s a habit that becomes heightened when traveling. Sure, it’s great to see pretty things, explore soaring mountains or wile away on an island beach. If I were [...]
This insanely beautiful expanse of water is Lake Van – Turkey’s biggest lake. There are a few settlements around the lake, but most of its shores are untouched by civilization. You hardly see any boats out there, just the impossibly blue water, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Pure magic. Instead of taking the bus around [...]
I had some serious plans for Dogubayazit. I wanted to chase down Noah’s Ark and see what it really looks like. See, a Hong Kong expedition claims to have found the remnants of the Ark, embedded in a glacier on the mountain. It sounded like a great little adventure. Failing that, at least I’d get [...]
Traveling as a couple has its ups and downs. For the most part it’s worked out incredibly well for Martin and I but only because we found a system that works for us. I call it Divide and Conquer. I ventured out into guest writing last week for Pam at Spunky Girl Monologues. My post [...]
We don’t make hotel reservations. Rather, I should say that we don’t usually make reservations. I think we’ve made maybe two in the last year of travel. That’s just our style. If a guesthouse doesn’t have a room available, the one next door probably will. We weren’t picky to begin with; we’re especially not picky [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
