Travel in Review, and the End of this Schmidt Adventure?

It feels like a lifetime ago Chris and I were living really comfortably in the gorgeous home we bought in Little Rock, Arkansas.  We had a solid group of friends and were both enjoying our jobs.  Chris’s commitment to the military was over, but we bounced the idea of agreeing to another assignment if the coordinator found us a spot overseas.  I’ve grown up traveling and Chris enjoys it as well, and we figured it’d be the best time in our lives to get to live in another country and explore Europe.  Careful what you wish for, right?  When presented with the actual decision – stay in Little Rock or move to England – we suddenly found it to be an impossible one.  We wrote a list of +’s and –‘s , which ended up quite heavily favored towards the –‘s.  At the end of the 24 hour deadline we fell back on the only deciding factor: “will we regret staying? Or will we regret not taking the chance?”  As with most things in life (other than marriage!) as tough as it is to leave a comfortable situation, it’s rare we regret taking a risk and moving towards something new.  Now, with three years’ worth of experiences, the decision would’ve been a no-brainer.  Although it would be nice to be more settled by this time in our lives, the memories and friends we’ve made over the past three years will be with us forever.  

I started this Schmidt Adventures blog on a whim one evening just before we left for the UK, three years ago.  I’ve never been much of a writer but wanted a way for our families to keep up with our adventures. I certainly hadn’t expected to complete 72 posts or have over 14,000 page views! I’ve been a little obsessive with scrapbooking and journaling since middle school and have been so thankful for the entries because it hasn’t taken much work to put them, along with extra photos, into the 12x12” hardback scrapbooks that beautifully document our time abroad.

Quite a few people have asked for ‘our favorite trip’ or other such superlatives.  We’ve had way too much fun reminiscing as we were coming up with the answers!

Overall favorite trip?  Iceland for me, Greece for Chris, Turkey came in a close second for both of us!

Better than we expected? Barcelona, mostly because Gaudi’s influence made it such a unique place.

Overrated?  You either love Paris or don’t… and we just didn’t find it to be as magical as some feel it to be.  Plus we ran a marathon there, which hurt. 

Best food? Chris:  Greece!  Greek salads!  Me: Italy, Italy, Italy.  Greece definitely was second place, but the two favorite meals of my entire life were both eaten in Italy.   Seafood + pasta + wine = heaven.

Least favorite trip: Copenhagen.  To be fair I was just not in the mood that weekend to be somewhere unfamiliar, we went in January and (shocker) the weather was awful, and I didn’t take appropriate footwear so I shouldn’t blame Copenhagen.   Norovirus ski trip for Chris.

Favorite experience? Riding a camel into the Sahara, or the Summer Olympics.  Chris: skiing in the Alps with a great group of friends.  Also, we have to mention the Ironman UK!

Scariest experience: thinking we were getting abducted by a cabbie in downtown Cairo one night, whispering to each other a plan of jumping out of the moving car when it slowed, and then realizing that the driver was taking a roundabout route to avoid stop-start traffic on the main road. 

Who came to visit?  In no particular order: Bret Wise, Michelle Mudge, Brett Rollins, Ginny and Michael Ahrens, Cara and Brian Robison (twice!), Steph Vasiloff, Justin and Lindsay Waugh, and both sets of parents (mine and Chris').

Biggest regret: hmmmmm….

Anywhere we didn’t get to that we really wanted?  Claire: Prague!  Although we did make it to Budapest, which we’ve been told is a mini-Prague… and Snowdonia in Wales, not more than a few hour drive from us.  We just kept thinking we’d have a better weekend to go.  Chris: St. Petersburg, Russia is the other place we just never got around to, mostly because it involved either taking a cruise or going through a ridiculous process to get a Russian travel visa. 

Most expensive? Per diem expenses were highest in Iceland even with bringing our own food and staying in sleeping bag accommodations. The most expensive flight was to Cairo, Egypt.

How did you afford all that traveling?!  Well, we did spend a good bit of money, but we live ridiculously cheaply otherwise, so for us it was our only major expense.  The budget airlines Ryanair and EasyJet helped keep things affordable, as did the flight search site SkyScanner and finding cheap hotels that were still rated high enough to suggest we’d be able to get a good night’s sleep (we typically used booking.com).

What’s our plan now?  Our next adventures will most surely involve this grand country we call ‘home’.  Quite a few UK friends have expressed interest in seeing more about the United States, so I’m guessing the blog audience will change quite a bit.  We’ll hopefully show them how beautiful the US of A is. Thanks for sharing in these past three years’ worth of Schmidt Adventures!