Journal #49 - And So The Adventure Continues...Year Two

Scattered across the hillsides of Greece, this last month was spent surrounded by olive trees. Their sage leaves are merely an accessory to the coastline, offering shade for goats and shepherds. When traveling inland though, moving away from the surf and the cars, it is there that you can hear the olive trees. Their rustle is like nature’s wind chimes. Their tiny leaves flicker against one another so softly that if you stand still you will feel wrapped up in their rhythm. It is as if you have been transported to a magical movie scene where nymphs dance around you.

These trees make a great place for contemplation and are a beautiful backdrop for rest, which we needed after two years on the road. We have learned to build breaks into the schedule over the last twenty-four months. The mini-break gives us the energy to see everything we would like when traveling to the next new place. It creates space between the exciting vistas we get to visit as well as it helps to avoid making it ever feel too normalized. And lastly, it allows us the space not to go out adventuring for a few days, at which point some intense planning for the next chunk of travel gets done (a key feature to our success). 

While working through this rest period, along the coast of Crete, we are looking back at our second year on the road full-time. This year has surprised us, thrilled us, entertained us, and most definitely fulfilled us. Year Two saw us travel back and forth across three continents to some impactfully beautiful countries and interact with many people who have shown us their warm hospitality.  

Highlights of this second set of twelve months have included trekking with wild gorillas in Uganda, some fantastic group trips with friends and family, having meerkats crawl on our heads (!!) in Botswana, Greek island hopping with our friends, and so so so much more.  

At this point in our travels, it finally seems real to our loved ones that Mr. Wanderer and I were serious about the plan to go “everywhere”. Many of our cousins and friends laughed – because it sounded ridiculous at the onset; but, here we are - every day continuing to make this happen. There is a newfound deep satisfaction for us in molding our actual dream come true.

We do try consciously to live in the now. Our goal is to taste all of the rich cuisines (that we put hours into researching). We aim to smell all of the herbs on the side of the road and to see the unique hue of blue that the water in different lakes, seas, national parks, and oceans becomes during the sun’s turn of the day.  

If there is a goal for the upcoming year it is to just, be. To continue to find thrills in the sights and experiences, and to appreciate the “good old days” right as we are in them. There is a high likelihood our lives could be peaking in excitement here and so we need to suck the marrow out of every chance we have got (living the full Keating carpe diem affair).  

It could be easy to allow ourselves to trip on the hedonic treadmill, chasing the next new sight, the newest high with a cooler city or the “it” place to visit; but that is not the point of our travels. Mr. Wanderer and I decided from the beginning that our purpose was to learn. It is why reading our country books, watching international films, listening to local music, and moving around across as many cities, towns, and hamlets as we can get to are all so important to us. Our purpose here is to bathe in the countries we visit and to soak up something new to us as often as possible.  

So, for our third year, the goal will be living in appreciation and sharing all of our wanderings with you along the way. For now, I shall return to these olive trees, and breathe them in while sipping on my Cretan herbal tea; and focus on just being in the here and now - because what could be any better than this? 

And so, the adventure continues...