Trip Around the World Superlatives*: Part 1 of 2
We've been home for two weeks now from our trip. We are having so much fun seeing our family and friends! It seems that many of you wonder about our favorite places or where we would want to live, best foods, scariest moments, etc. So we thought it might be fun to share some of our thoughts about these questions.
We have been asked really interesting and thought-provoking questions as well as funny ones. There have been so many, in fact, that we decided to post two lists. So, here is the first of two.
Place we’d most want to live:
Kristi - New Zealand
Linda - New Zealand
Place that’s nice to visit, wouldn’t wanna live there:
Kristi- Cambodia
Linda- Nepal
Top 3 scariest moments:
Kristi –
1. Driving on opposite side of road in Birmingham, England which is a solid tie with the Cambodian driver who I thought was driving us to our deaths, playing chicken with dump trucks and cars in the middle of the night
2. Hotel fire in our high rise hotel apartment in New Zealand
3. Climbing the path to the top of Skellig Michael
Linda -
1. Hotel fire
2. Staying in Sihanoukville
3. Bathroom I had to use in Nepal
Top 3 most beautiful moments
Kristi-
1.Flying close enough to Mt. Everest to see it clearly in person
2.Seeing tiny blue glowing plankton in the dark of night in Cambodia
3. Kayaking in Milford Sound, New Zealand
Linda -
1. Hiking in the Swiss Alps
2. Cruise through the Norwegian Fjords
3. Kayaking in Milford Sound, NZ
3 Most unexpected/ biggest surprises:
Kristi –
1. Loved the Ghibli Museum more than I expected
2. The smell on Koh Rong Island – not good
3. How easy it was to live with so little and feel so untethered and how the rest of the world does not seem so stressed out nor do they seem to be slaves to materialism
Linda -
1. I loved the Nepal trek
2. How big a thing craft beer is in Cologne, Germany;
3 The amazing laundry service in Japan - seriously the clothes were cleaned, pressed, wrapped in paper and sealed in cellophane like brand new
Best meal/best food:
Kristi – Tie, Tie, Tie—Wood-fired sheep’s milk cheese and sheep sausage Pizza in Grindelwald, Switzerland (surprise—OMG) and Fish and Chips in Grindavik, Iceland and….every. greek. salad. consumed in Santorini
Linda - Greek salads in Santorini; Fish & Chips in Iceland; First meal we had in Japan (ack! can’t decide!!)
Best pastry:
Kristi - Pistachio Macaron with raspberry from Stohrer in Paris and two notable runners up: Chocolate covered baklava and orange olive oil cake—both in Santorini, Greece
Linda - Chocolate baklava in Santorini!!
Best coffee:
Kristi – Bellagio, Italy
Linda - Cafe mocha in Brugge, Belgium
Worst meal/worst food:
Kristi – Koh Rong Island because the smell of raw sewage was so overwhelming that all the food just didn't taste right. And most meals on airlines especially those between China and India where we had significant layovers
Linda - Trying to decide between: (1) The Cambodia fried rice overload due to an overall lack of food I wanted to eat in Cambodia, (2) all the airline meals, (3) the overpriced, greasy chicken with one broccoli floret at the “fancy Italian restaurant” at the Tokyo Dome Hotel
Best overall tour experience:
Kristi – Ireland, hands down
Linda - Ireland with John (private tour guide for 5 days). Miss him! He was great!
Best sunset:
Kristi – Santorini, Greece
Linda- Russell Island, NZ
Best museum:
Kristi and Linda agree - Musée d’Orsay (Paris)
Favorite cathedral/temple/stupa:
Kristi – Zenkoji Temple in Nagano, Japan
Linda - Milan Cathedral because not only was it amazing inside and out but you could go on top of it and walk amongst the spires!!
Most relaxing place:
Kristi – Wengen, Switzerland and Santorini, Greece
Linda - tie between the Blue Lagoon in Iceland and the Island of Santorini
Thing I learned about myself:
Kristi - I’ll be ok no matter what and I am capable of choosing any life I want. I have the courage to do the unexpected.
Linda - I can (and did) overcome my fears to scale a mountain (Skellig Michael off the coast of Ireland) because my desire to see what was on top was strong enough to motivate me. Also: I have changed a lot in 50 years and the things of tantamount importance to me have changed.
Things Kristi learned about Linda: she likes to nap, loves her chardonnay or pinot grigio and she loves memes more than anyone I know and because of these things I drank more wine (which was a good thing) and I laughed a lot (at her funny memes). We both like to laugh, a lot! And sometimes we have the same brain. It's a little weird.
Thing Linda learned about Kristi: she’s a nester, a foodie, and she LOVES desserts...especially if they contain chocolate. Also learned that Kristi and I are SO much alike in SO many ways that it is borderline scary.
What’s not worth the money:
Kristi - any tours where you’re driving/riding more than sight-seeing. That just means you’re cramming in too much.
Linda - The Castle tour in the Loire Valley, France (too many castles in too little time and too much time inside vs free time to explore gardens., etc) We would’ve been better off renting a car (or staying IN the Loire Valley somewhere) and doing the castles ourselves at our own pace &/or picking just 1-2 of them and exploring the villages surrounding the castles more.
Sobering/humbling experience:
Kristi – seeing the poverty in Nepal. There was an older gentleman who worked at our hotel and he always had the happiest smile. I still picture him and wonder where he went each day when he left work. I wonder what his home is like and if he has a family.
Linda - It’s a tie between (1) the discussion with the young woman who was our Nepal tour guide (and the overall state of Kathmandu - poverty, trash, earthquake damage); and (2) the Anne Frank Museum - seeing the Secret Annex
Most challenging logistic of an around the world trip (in order):
Kristi – transportation, especially travel days with multiple flights. It’s important to have enough buffer time so that one hitch doesn’t knock down the dominoes. And laundry -- oy!
Linda - (1) navigating security and customs and baggage requirements for various countries/airlines; (2) keeping laundry clean; (3) confirming reservations while traveling; (4) taking care of things back home (house, bills, kids’ needs, etc);
Best fellow traveler moment:
Kristi - having wine in Milan, Italy with a couple from Australia. They were travelling all over Europe because the wife is a singer and she was on tour. Super fun and they gave me some funny tips about their neighbor New Zealand.
Linda - meeting new friends in Santorini at the movies
Missed opportunity/Something we wish we could have/would have done on this trip:
Kristi – Parasailing in the Swiss Alps and Bicycling in the countryside of the Netherlands
Linda - Chitwan National Park (Nepal)
Best spontaneous decision:
Kristi and Linda agree- the flight over the Himalayas/Everest (Nepal)
Most exotic location visited:
Kristi - Nepal
Linda - Angkor Wat and other temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Best Shopping:
Kristi – Santorini and Kathmandu
Linda - Kathmandu marketplace; Japan (did a lot of shopping in NZ, too, mainly because it was the final stop)
Worst injury/health issue
Kristi – UTI
Linda - when I slipped and fell and hurt my tailbone in Nepal
One thing I wish I had known or thought of before embarking on this journey was:
Kristi – that my iPad wouldn’t work with our website. It didn’t and I hardly used it except to watch Bridesmaids
Linda - the portable WiFi (vs paying $$$ for International plans and then having to get on data so often because WiFi was not available); a storage plan for pictures (issues I️ had with my laptop were due to file sizes and memory limitations)
What to have in your backpack/purse at all times:
Kristi – hand gel
Linda -1. portable cell phone charger 2. hand gel and 3. food bars (granola bars etc.,)
What do I wish I’d brought more of:
Kristi – hand gel
Linda - A 2nd charger/converter (b/c I️ was trying to keep my phone, camera, GoPro batteries, portable charger - and for the first 1/2 of the trip, my laptop - all charged using one charger.)
Best travel songs:
Kristi – “Living in the Moment” - Jason Mraz; “Adventure of a Lifetime”- Coldplay; “Traveller” - Chris Stapleton
Linda - “Living in the Moment” - Jason Mraz; “Beautiful Day” - U2; “Dream On” – Aerosmith
3 places you’d go back to again in a heartbeat:
Kristi and Linda agree - 1. NZ (and so want to bring family) 2. Japan (barely scratched the surface there) 3. The Swiss Alps (OMG)
*sample size disclaimer: we did not visit every country in the world…yet