Sometimes it’s fun to do a year in review and look back at all the things you’ve done, experienced, and seen. Doing so for us was really quite fascinating, and it’s no wonder we decided we needed to slow things down and have a few months to just chill!
I hope you enjoy looking at our snapshot, remembering some things with us, and looking at the photo highlights from our crazy year.
- 12 different countries visited (10 in the first 9 months!). Some we visited multiple times.
- 4 continents
- We traveled 34,530 miles by air. In contrast, the earth is 24,859.82 miles around.
- Experienced 3 winters
- Used vocabulary from 12 different languages (and yes, I’m counting Aussie & Kiwi English as separate languages because they are!)
- 13 different currencies used
- Celebrated 1 year of self employment.
- Taught scuba on 2 different continents.
- Tigger realized a big dream by visiting Paris and the Eiffel Tower, the place where years earlier I had made the decision to adopt.
- Participated in a giant citywide water fight, complete with elephants spraying water on us.
- Visited the birthplace and home town of Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula).
- Saw wild elephants (and they almost charged us)
- Had a monkey crap on me
- Tigger got to hug a kangaroo
It’s a bit hard to see, but I have 1 monkey on my left shoulder & another climbing my leg. This was right before one of them pooped on me.
We began this year in a small town in rural Morocco. No one in the town celebrated. It was so quiet. No honking horns even. It was the first time I had experienced such sedate surroundings on New Year’s Eve.
Some of the biggest highlights of our year were the opportunities to meet up with fellow traveling families and bloggers with whom we had only been communicating online previously. Especially great was meeting up with the Bohemian Travelers family. We lived in their apartment with them for weeks. It was great having other adults to chat with while Tigger had some kid friends to hang with. One of their sons became Tigger’s best friend. They were practically brothers (without the typical sibling spats) while we stayed with them in Penang, Malaysia.
In New Zealand, we finally had a chance to meet up with online friends we’ve “known” for about 3 years! We only had a few days with the Edventure Project family, but it was so much fun, and it was hard to see them leave. And Jennifer not only introduced me to ginger wine, which is to die for, but made sure I had a pecan pie to celebrate my birthday!
When we moved to Brasov, we were able to connect with Travel Junkies. It was great to have another traveling family here. Tigger and their daughter Sydney got along great and even managed to have a sleepover! That’s a real rarity for nomadic kids.
We enjoyed our time with some other bloggers in southeast Asia, some of whom had been online friends since before we left the US! Naturally, a lot of those meetings centered around food, one of the most memorable being the night we joined Barbara of The Dropout Diaries, Dave of What’s Dave Doing, and Lauren of Never Ending Footsteps in Vietnam for a dinner which included lizard.
We were able to meet up with some other wonderful people this year as well.
Tigger had been wanting to see a building in Italy that was featured in a video game called Assassin’s Creed. I was able to find out that the building was the Pantheon, and while we were in Rome he got his wish. We only had a short time in Rome, but it was quite memorable.
Romania would end up being the only place we would actually stay in one spot for 3 months. We have fallen in love with the country, its food, her people, and, of course, Brasov. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we come back next year.
We will bring 2013 to a close by celebrating with another friend we met in Honduras. She’s Austrian and will be joining us in Vienna to ring in the new year. While we’re in Vienna, I will be attending a Mozart concert (with music by some other composers) in the home where Mozart lived and worked for many years, and we will, of course, be checking out some Christmas markets.
And Tigger received his first press pass for our visit to the Schönbrunn Palace.
While this has been an absolutely splendid year overall, we are sad that we will be ending 2013 without a cherished friend. He had been battling cancer for several months and died shortly after being admitted to home hospice. He will be missed and was very much loved by us both.
We look forward to more adventures in 2014 and hope you’ll share in our journey!
Have you ever done a year in review? It’s really quite fun and interesting.
February 6, 2014
OH boy! You had a busy year 🙂
International travel is such a great educator, isn’t it?
Hope you have even more fun in 2014!
February 6, 2014
We did have a busy year! And YES! It’s a fantastic educator. Absolutely love it, and 2014 has gone rather well so far, too.
January 8, 2014
Talon! Sounds like a great year! Might be a record for meeting up with other bloggers without attending a TBEX! 🙂 SO much fun to meet blogger friends in person 🙂 Happy 2014!
January 8, 2014
Definitely! We met more than we were mentioned so it was quite the year for meeting fellow bloggers!
December 30, 2013
Nice one Talon, cant wait to read your first post in 2014:)
Happy New Year!
Simon Lee
December 31, 2013
Thanks!
December 28, 2013
wow quite the variation Talon — and 3 winters — lol Oh well at least you did not need to shop much 🙂 can’t wait to see how 2014 unfolds for you — happy new year my dear virtual friend
December 28, 2013
Yeah, pretty much only needed clothing for 2 seasons this year. LOL Happy new year!!
December 28, 2013
Seems like a spectacular year Boys! I hope and wish you 2014 to be only better!
December 28, 2013
Thank you! It definitely was a great year. Very much looking forward to new adventures in 2014.
December 29, 2013
Looking forward to hear about your plans for 2014!
December 30, 2013
Not a lot of plans. Big ones are a housesit in Ireland and spending a month in Paris. The rest is pretty much up in the wind. 😉
January 3, 2014
Yes, found the other post later! Come one getting fluency in French is like the biggest plan I can imagine! Any other language I can try but French ha ha ha
December 28, 2013
Experiencing 3 winters in one year is really cool!
That and, of course, all the other amazing things you guys did!
Cheers to a 2014 full of travel and adventure! 🙂
December 28, 2013
It’s been weird basically skipping back and forth between summer and winter. Glad we got some fall in there, too.
December 28, 2013
It has been a great year for you two. Wonderful stuff!
Are you planning to come to Berlin? I would love to show you both some of my adopted city!!
December 28, 2013
Right now we’re looking at the beginning of March for Berlin, although we might come earlier as our Schengen time ends mid-March. Thankfully, our cycle begins over at the end of March, so we can come back if we like it enough.
December 28, 2013
But wait! You still have 4 days to go in 2013! Knowing you two, that’s PLENTY of time for more mischief and adventure!
December 28, 2013
True! 😀
December 28, 2013
Funny (well funny as in coincidence) it was in Bali that you got pooped on – my husband was attacked by 3 monkeys there when they thought he was protecting one who took shelter under his arm. They are seriously wild there!
Great year in review. I send a short version of this with our Christmas cards. It’s nice to go through the year and remember everything.
Hope you two have a great New Years. Look forward to next years adventures.
December 28, 2013
Those monkeys are definitely fairly wild despite being around so many humans. Hope he didn’t get bit.
December 28, 2013
Wow, lots of memories!
My older son is wishing to go to Rome because of Assassins Creed. Now he’s playing Black Flag and is happy to see Tulum in there. ( We live in Playa del Carmen).
Best wishes for 2014!
December 28, 2013
So cute. Makes sense. I think we’d feel the same way about some movie locales.
December 28, 2013
What a great year. It is almost impossible to remember it all, but it is fun trying. Thank goodness for the thousands of photos to remind us of those little moments.
December 28, 2013
Yes, indeed!
December 27, 2013
I love that you counted Australian and New Zealand Englishes as separate languages! Looks like it was a great year; all the best for 2014.
December 27, 2013
You truly have to, right? lol
December 27, 2013
Here’s wishing you and Tigger an even better year ahead! 🙂
P/S: You had a monkey pooped on you? Where was it? lol!
December 27, 2013
Yes, I did! After they had a little disagreement on my shoulder, one of them left me a stinky present. This was in Bali. 😉