We’re having a rest day today and have had some time to reflect on our trip so far.
We’ve been thinking that we took some of our research advice about how to travel way too seriously. From our observations we shouldn’t have stressed about what to wear in Paris or Rome as people are wearing jeans all the time, and not just tourists. We have each already posted back zip off pants and Dan has bought some jeans. We also should have not bought so much Kathmandu clothing as well as we’ve only worn one pair of thermals a few times in Africa on the cold nights, and have posted them back already.
We’re really please we didn’t buy a money pouch or wallet because we haven’t felt the needed for it. For our day trips we are taking a back pack that has a lock, which we don’t use and often we don’t even take a bag, just Ev’s small handbag and the camera bag. We have been careful not to leave things in our pockets, just in case, but a specific money wallet we think is way over the top. Walking though the city streets of Paris and Rome with a money wallet is like walking through the nearest capital city back home with a money wallet, and a bumb bag and a huge akubra hat with a sign that says ‘Outback Tourist’. We’ve seen other 50-60 year old tourists, the kind with socks under their open shoes, and they definitely look like tourists. We don’t want to look like that, so jeans have been perfectly acceptable and generally you don’t need to wash them everyday either.
And yeah, the Medication we’ve bought has been way over the top. We ran out of Sudafed because we did need that, and we’ve just bought some more in France. We found that buying medication, even in China is okay. The Pharmacist’s generally know what you’re looking for if you can hand them the packet you want because they have translation books at the counters. We certainly didn’t need two packets each of nausea tablets. And we have 10 bottles of malaria tablets because we each have to take one daily in Africa and for the Inca Trail. Our medication bag could have been halved...though the cautious side of Ev says ‘but we still have another month and a half to go’.
We’ve changed our itinerary. We’ve decided not to do the Inca Trail because Ev’s legs are still cramping every day as we head out on day trips. We asked Karen from Travel Managers to investigate the difference between taking the train up and just seeing Maccu Piccu, but we’ve decided to just cancel Peru all together (that’s 5 bottles of malaria tablets we can take out now, or donate to someone). Our trip is becoming very expensive and it would be good to have a week at home before going back to work. As it was, we would arrive home on a Thursday and Dan will have to start work on the Monday and that is really not a lot of recovery time. We’re feeling pretty homesick here in Rome, but still want to continue with our trip. We’ve been going non-stop for a full month, everyday going out to see some amazing sights, and this last week of driving and watching our bank account diminish has gutted us. We’ve planned a lot more rest days coming up, and we’re hoping Greece will be very quiet as well. We’re both looking forward to NY mostly because it’s a country that speaks the same language, has TV we can make sense of, food that will taste normal, theatres, and sport, Dan is very excited about the American Sport.
Being so far behind with our journal and posting on the blog has also been pretty stressful. We have a lot of information stored in our minds and things we still want to read from our souvenir books to incorporate in each journal. Uploading and sorting photos also takes a lot of time. It’s tiring to think about, but it’s worth it. We read through our China book all the time and are glad we took detailed notes then in 2006, so we need to make sure we keep up with it on this trip as well even if we just finish uploading things to the blog when we get back to Australia. There has been so much we have seen and all the days seem to blur into one at times.
We’re having another rest day tomorrow. Honeymoons are supposed to be relaxing right?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan-ev/collections/72157624677997272
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