Entry 10 (Mar 1, 2022)
One of our most asked questions is “How did you choose your countries?”
Did you throw darts at a map? Did you draw names out of a hat? Did you say “eenymeenyminymoe”? How can you narrow down 195 countries and thousands of cities to just 12?
Our countries may seem random, but there is a rhyme and reason. There are specific factors that went into most of our decisions. However, our planning is still evolving (especially with ongoing COVID restrictions and with tensions in Eastern Europe).
First of all, we want to circumnavigate the world, meaning hitting every continent. (Well, all except Antarctica. We will save that for our next time around the world ;).) We also want to spend most of our time in Europe, so that’s why we’re there for the first half of our year.
We also decided to visit countries we haven’t been to. Since we’ve traveled extensively, not going to repeat countries narrowed down the field. As much as I love Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Kenya, Greece, New Zealand, Tahiti and many other countries, we decided to not re-visit this time around.
However, there are a few repeats: Spain (I spent the summer of 1978 there and want to return to practice my Spanish); Israel (Woody went in 1982, but it’s been on my bucket list); and Australia (we both went to Tasmania in 1987, but we haven’t been to the mainland). And there’s still a chance we’ll land in Kenya. Still deliberating on which country in Africa.
Another factor in our routing, as I mentioned in a previous blog, is the Schengen rule. Since we can only stay in a Schengen country (which is most of Europe) for 90 days out of 180, that limits some of the countries we can visit….thus we substituted Romania and Montenegro for Switzerland and Portugal.
Weather is a huge factor. And Woody kind of won that battle. I would be fine to move from 80-degree beach to 70-degree mountains to 80-degree beach the whole year. But he is a 60-degree-temperature-kind-of-guy, so we routed ourselves to stay in more moderate temperatures. But not too cold, so we don’t have to lug heavy winter clothing around. (I will warm up in Chiang Mai, though. Not sure it’s ever under 80 degrees there. Sorry, Woody.)
I’ve been asked if Ukraine is on our list. No, it isn’t, but we do plan to visit the nearby countries of Estonia and Romania, and stop to see our daughter in Poland (August/September). Praying this can still happen, especially if we can be of any help and not a burden in the communities we’re staying. But, as I keep stating, flexibility is key to make this year happen. We make our plans knowing full and well God may have a different path. (Proverbs 16:9)
Thank you for joining us on our journey.
Three months and counting.
Hasta Luego,
Pam
“Praying for Ukraine!”