Bon appétit!

We had such a great time eating in France that it deserves it's own blog post completely dedicated to photos of food. Bon Appetit! 

We've relied heavily on other traveler's reviews before choosing a restaurant. The first night in Paris we took a lovely walk in the rain to the Montmartre neighborhood to Crêperie Brocéliande. Montmartre is up near Sacré Cœr basilica, an artsy district which offers gorgeous views of the city since you are up on a hill. Parisians eat late, and I think it was about 8 pm before we wandered in. Anyway, we ordered 2 savory crepes. One was stomach sausage and cheese and the other was something like a meat lovers with stomach sausage, pork sausage, blood sausage, bacon and ham. We had thought that maybe stomach sausage was just sausage cased in intestines (which is normal), but turns out we don't think it tastes that great. However, the caramelized onions and cheese that were in these crepes were outstanding! So delicious! I really want to go back so I can try everything else on the menu!  

Of course we had to order dessert, so I chose a crepe that was filled with banana, chocolate, almond, coconut and topped with ice cream and whipped cream. It was fabulous! We highly recommend this crêperie if you are looking for an authentic French restaurant in Montmartre. 

The next night we braved the rain again and picked up some take away to have with a bottle of wine near the Eiffel Tower! You won't find a place with better atmosphere!!!

We had been waiting to visit a bakery called Le Grenier à Pain since they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. They have multiple locations, but we visited their Abbesses location since it was in the Montmartre area and we could enjoy our baked good with a view of the city! Note: Jeff and I have eaten a primarily gluten-free diet for the past 6 years. To say that we were like 'kids in a candy shop' would be an extreme understatement. 

This is the definition of Paleo....

This is the definition of Paleo....

All of this food was even more delicious than it looks!

All of this food was even more delicious than it looks!

Raspberry macaroon! (This cost almost as much as the sandwiches above...)

Raspberry macaroon! (This cost almost as much as the sandwiches above...)

We took some of France with us on the train ride back to London. I had Jeff a little nervous because right before we were supposed to be at the train station we walked a few blocks in search of a Fromagerie (cheese shop). At the shop we bought &nbsp…

We took some of France with us on the train ride back to London. I had Jeff a little nervous because right before we were supposed to be at the train station we walked a few blocks in search of a Fromagerie (cheese shop). At the shop we bought  some brie de melun and comté to go with our French baguette and salami. Yum!

-Cara

Paris, quick and dirty

We only spent two nights in Paris, but because of the train times that we took, we had almost 3 full days. We got into town a little around lunchtime on Tuesday, and went to see when our hotel room would be ready since the hotel was right down the street from the station. Luckily, we only had to wait a couple minutes and we could get into our room and drop our bags.

We quickly headed back out and got tickets for the subway sorted out (we got a “book” of 10 tickets each for about $15 each, which turned out to be just 10 loose, small tickets. If you’re ever in Paris, this is a pretty good deal, just have somewhere ready to store a bunch of small pieces of paper. In retrospect we should have just gotten on “book” and then another once that ran out, but in the end it worked out perfect, we used the last tickets to get back to the station to catch the train for England. Once we had the tickets sorted out, we got ourselves on a train headed for Notre Dame.

There was a really long line to get inside Notre Dame, but it’s just a security/bag check line and it moves really quickly. Once inside you realize how huge the place is, and it’s a bit dark and ominous but really gorgeous. We snapped some photos and walked around, keeping one hand on our valuables as pick pockets are so bad they actually make almost continuous announcements to watch out for them. They had a pretty cool display chronicling the building of the church, and it took nearly 200 years to be finished. Can you imagine spending your entire life working construction on one site, and not have it be nearly completed when you die?

After walking through Notre Dame, we did a walking tour around that area of Paris and past some other sites. Cara had downloaded a tour put together by Rick Steves, and it was pretty good other than it including walking through a couple places that you had to pay entrance fees for, and we weren’t ready for that. Even though we decided not to pay the entrance fees, the tour was still pretty interesting, and FREE. We walked around the Louvre for a bit after that, but since neither Cara nor I appreciate art, we decided against going in. Note: The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.

We headed back to the hotel to clean up and then we walked about 25 minutes to a creperie that had gotten really good reviews. Cara is writing a post all about the food, so I won’t wreck that surprise. We also walked up the hill after we ate to have a look at Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church sitting right at the top of Montmartre, a hill overlooking Paris. On the downside, it was a bit rainy and misty so the views weren’t that great, but on the plus side the rain had driven nearly all the other tourists away so we had the place almost to ourselves. We enjoyed the view and walked back down to the hotel to call it a night.

We got up fairly early the next morning and hopped back on the subway to get to the Catacombs. If you only had time for one thing in Paris, this would be my recommended stop. Underneath the city there are tons of old limestone quarries where the excavated much of the stone used to build the city. During the 1700s some of these were starting to collapse and cause sink holes around the city, so they started going down and reinforcing them. Around the same time, cemeteries were filling up, especially one that had some many people buried in it that it burst the basement wall of a neighboring building. Can you imagine going down into your cellar and finding the wall blown out and a bunch of corpses laying around? Eventually this led to the idea of moving all the remains down into the now being reinforced mines, so an ossuary was formed and for nearly two years there were processions every night of peoples remains being moved into the catacombs. Be aware that if you want to visit, the line can be extremely long. They open at 10 am, and we were there about 9:05 am and still didn’t get in until about 10:40. They only allow 200 people down at a time, and it took us about an hour and a half to get through it all, but we were moving pretty slow. By the time they opened, the line was most of the way around the plaza that the entrance is in, but there are some nice little bakeries around, so one of us ran and grabbed some food while we waited. The audio tour was totally worth the extra money, we got 1 audio tour and 1 regular ticket and just shared the audio. There aren’t a lot of signs explaining what you’re looking at, so the extra information was great.

After the catacombs we went to the Arc de Triomphe and did a little walking around the city before heading back towards the hotel for a quick nap. That evening we got some take away Greek food and a bottle of wine and sat in the park near the Eiffel Tower for dinner, before going up the tower after dark. We did it the cheap way and took the stairs, which really weren’t bad, especially after half a bottle of wine each.

The next morning we grabbed some sandwiches and dined overlooking the city at Montmartre again, before checking out an urban cemetery, the mini Statue of Liberty overlooking the River Seine, revisited the Eiffel Tower one more time, and picked up some food (I promise, Cara will talk about all the French food later) to have on the train ride back. We made it back through customs with no issues and hopped on the train back to London.

-Jeff

Note: We felt that we do not have an accurate cost per day or total cost for us to travel to France, as our train tickets and hotel were both covered through the reward travel of our gracious hosts in England. We are so grateful to them for everything they have done for us!

London Sightseeing

Here is a photo journal of things we have been doing in London!

On the River Thames! Tower Bridge is behind us. It's not that old- they just built it to look that way, and the famed 'London Bridge' is not falling down, it's just not as picturesque as this one.

On the River Thames! Tower Bridge is behind us. It's not that old- they just built it to look that way, and the famed 'London Bridge' is not falling down, it's just not as picturesque as this one.

Tilbury Fort is right around the corner from where we are staying in Essex, so we took a few hours and went exploring. It's right on the Thames, and was one of London's first defenses to protect the city from invaders entering via the river. Some of the Culloden prisoners were held in this fort after the Highland uprising in the 1700's. We were lucky enough to visit Culloden while we were in Scotland. Jeff had fun at the Fort playing with the big guns. Instead of pointing them out toward the river to aid in the Fort's defenses, I found all of the barrels pointed at me while I was taking photos...

Back closer to London, we walked through Olympic Park, site of the 2012 Games. The following pictures document what happens when you haven't gone to a Crossfit box in over 2 months: 

We're not going to talk about how many trys that took. We got to see the pool, the outside of the stadium (which was closed because the West Ham football team was moving in), the handball courts, BMX track and the Velodrome (biking). London has some impressive plans to build the park up and make it a successful business park featuring high end housing and a college campus. With so many Olympic cities with abandoned stadiums, it's nice to see that the area will still thrive after the Olympics!  

Afternoon tea was on my English bucket list, and we waited until our last week here to experience it. I'm so glad we got to meet up with our friend Sarah, who is currently studying in London. She took us for a spectacular walk around  Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and to a great place called the Ivy for tea! Jeff was a good sport and ate all of his fu fu sandwiches. 

In the British Museum in London (FREE!!!!) they have many artifacts from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone. We got to see many of the sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens that were brought to the UK by an English explorer. Supposedly …

In the British Museum in London (FREE!!!!) they have many artifacts from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone. We got to see many of the sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens that were brought to the UK by an English explorer. Supposedly Greece is still a little bitter about the fact that their property is in London. We will see the rest of the Acropolis in a few months!

Buckingham Palace (Queen's main residence) and the changing of the guard, Windsor Palace (Queen's weekend residence outside of town), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Kings Cross Station (home of Platform 9 and 3/4). 

-Cara

Where is the Money Going?

Last time we talked about our credit/debit cards and a few tips for using/getting local currency. This time we’ll talk more about managing our finances and how we are tracking our expenses.

As mentioned before, we opened a Charles Schwab checking account before we left. In order to do this, you also have to open an investment account with them, but you don’t have to put any funds in it (and we didn’t). This account is our primary means of getting cash, but not our primary account for holding our funds. Be aware that if you do something similar to us, Charles Schwab takes several days to give you access to money when you transfer from an outside account, so make sure you don’t let it go to zero and then try to transfer in some money that you need to access right away.

We maintain our money spread between our joint and individual bank accounts at home and our Charles Schwab account, so that if we lose a debit card or our info gets stolen, we won’t lose everything. This also makes it easy to pay our credit cards that are already set up to be paid from our personal accounts.

The only issue with keeping your money spread out is keeping track of it. Before we left I built a very simple spreadsheet in Google Sheets to keep track of our expenses and money we had coming in, and now I’ve just continued using it to track how much money we have left. Having it on Google Sheets means I can pull it up on our phones or computer (or at work before we left), and I could update it at any time too. I update it about once a week with current amount in accounts as well as on our credit cards, and it tracks how much money we have left. I included a screenshot below, and again, it’s not fancy or pretty, but it works and that is all that really matters to me.

I blacked the amounts for security, but the left column is our current balances and WAS the income. The right column is our regular expenses and was updated with stuff regularly that we knew was coming up, like credit card balances or other bills.

I also made a simple spreadsheet to track our expenses, again, it’s not pretty or extravagant, but it works. Depending on how fast our internet access is, how much I trust it, and how much time we have, we either use a currency converter app that doesn’t require internet access, Google to convert the currency, or the actual amount that shows up on the credit card to fill in the expenses. All of these have been very close to each other, which is plenty good for our purposes. For example, we withdrew £200, and Google and the currency converter said it was $262, and our bank withdrew $264 from our accounts. Since we’re not trying to track with absolute precision and we’re not going to be audited on our expense tracking, our method works great for us to just get a close estimate of how much we spend in each country and an average per day for the trip.

Our expenses in Poland, there is a different tab for each country in one spreadsheet

The daily expense spreadsheet also has a main page that shows a comparison of what we budgeted and what we spent for each country, as well as calculates some totals for us and a daily average for the entire trip. We’re going to be spending quite a bit of time in the next few weeks filling in more of the budget column as we really need to figure out where we’re headed after Africa.

The amount spent in each country automatically pulls from each countries individual sheet, and the daily average updates based on the current date and amount spent.

Biggest Lesson: Figure out a system that works for you, whether you take a budget spreadsheet from any of the thousands of free online sources, build your own, use something like mint.com, or use paper and pencil, just track your expenses and know your budget.

In the future we’ll talk more about how we are doing compared to our budget and ways to save some money while you travel.

Cornwall

One of the benefits of being in one country for so long is that we have the chance to really get exposed to the culture of that place. This past week we were lucky enough to take a short trip to Cornwall- the west coast of the UK! Cornwall is a pretty inexpensive (by UK standards) place to take a quick holiday without leaving the country.

On our drive west, we stopped at Stonehenge. 

It's amazing to think that a society worked together to move these stones hundreds of miles across the UK to their final resting place at Stonehenge. Once they got them on location, they then had to move them into their circle shape and somehow get them on top of each other. Talk about engineering feats. Oh, and they did all of this 3000 years BC. BC!!!!! 

Stonehenge is unique only in the fact that it has lintels, or the horizontal stones that form the arches. In the nearby pastures there are many other standing stone formations and ancient burial grounds. 

Continuing west, we made picnic stops at Okehampton Castle in Devon. We were pleasantly surprised by the great audio tour of these castle ruins. I think that back in its day (early 14th century) this would have been the most decorated castle we have been to yet. 

Jeff at Okehampton

Of course I had to check out the latrines. They were actually indoors and 'plumbed' to exit outside the castle!

Latrine would have been in the exposed room above my head, and waste exited bottom left of the building. Of course a glamour shot here was necessary... 

We also stopped at Launceston Castle, which wasn't as impressive since it was only an entertaining castle for the Duke of Cornwall in the 13th Century.

'Wasn't impressive'...'only a castle for a Duke'....I think we are becoming desensitized to castles....

Early that evening, we made it to Newquay, where we stayed for 2 nights at a great B&B. Smuggler's Rest Guest House was great! For 30 pounds each per night ($40) we had a private ensuite room and a full English breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, tomatoes, mushroom, beans, potatoes and toast). The proprietors were extremely helpful and gave us a lot of advice for sightseeing during our short time there.

Newquay is a larger town on the west coast and popular with surfers. Walking around town we saw many shops selling tourist junk, restaurants advertising cheesy drink specials, families with small sandy children in tow, and old run down arcades. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we found the Virginia Beach of the UK. 

Instead of miles of boardwalk, there are scary cliffs to drop off of....

For our only full day in Cornwall, we drove North up the coast to Tintagel Castle. More castles! Fun fact: Supposedly, the Duke of Cornwall shut his wife away at this spot to protect her from the lusts  of the King of Britain. However, Merlin (yes- robes, wand and all!) magically transformed the King to look like the Duke so he could sleep with the Duke's wife. Kind of a messed up story, but it gets better! Of course the King (who looked like the Duke, thanks to Merlin) knocked up the Duke's wife and Arthur is born. 

In order to get closer to the legendary King Arthur, one of Henry III's younger brother built his castle at Tintagel!

Looking out from the cliffs of Tintagel. Merlin's cave was below us.

We made other stops at the quaint little town of Boscaslte, where we tried Cornish pasties, and walked the beach at Mawgan Porth. On the way back to London we stopped off the beaten path at Muchelney Abbey.

We toured what was left of the abbey and the nearby parish church. The 2 story building with the thatched roof (photo above) was the monks 2-story lavatory. (I swear I don't seek out the lavatories, they are all in the guidebook and the UK seems pretty pleased with all of their well preserved toilets.) It is in the middle of a small village and some of the property is privately owned. We witnessed someone vacuuming out their car in their medieval garage. WHAT? We still can't get over how old things are.

We really enjoyed our adventures to Cornwall! I give the Brit's a ton of credit. While Jeff and I were bundled up in our rain coats, since it was a brisk 60 degrees most of the time, everyone else was out on the beach in their bathing costume (we are picking up 'English words'). Nothing was going to stop them from enjoying their holiday!

-Cara

 

Getting Your Money Overseas - Currency Conversion, Credit Cards, Etc

One of our biggest concerns leaving the country was managing the money while we were gone, making sure we had access to it, and not losing any more to currency conversions than we could help. We picked up some really great tips from other travelers before we left, and have figured out a few things on our own too.

One of the biggest things we did before we left was open a checking account with Charles Schwab. They don’t charge ATM fees anywhere in the world, and they reimburse you for ones you are charged. We had no problem getting reimbursed automatically for the ATM fees we encountered in the States, but didn’t keep receipts from the first few ATMs we used internationally (Lesson #1) so we aren’t sure if those charged us anything or not. The amount that shows up as ‘withdrawn’ is always a very odd amount, as it is based on current conversions and those don’t generate even number (as an example, 1000 Icelandic Krona is $8.17 per Google right now, so pulling a few thousand Krona plus an ATM fee leads to a strange amount being pulled from the account and the conversion rate is always a little off from Google's listing, so it is hard to determine if a fee was charged). The vast majority of ATMs we have encountered in Sweden, Poland, and the UK have had free withdrawals, so it hasn’t been an issue, but now we’re paying much closer attention. Having the ability to pull cash in small increments because you aren’t paying ATM fees is much nicer than trying to pull large amounts and worry about keeping large sums safe while you travel.

The next thing we read about and made sure we had, was a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. We each had a credit card from Chase already (I have the Marriott card, and Cara uses the United one) and neither of them charge foreign transaction fees, meaning they don’t add a fee for converting from whatever the local currency is to U.S. dollars. Some credit cards add a fee of a couple percent just to bill you in US dollars, and this adds up to large amounts over a year. We try to pay with credit card for most things as it is easier and means we don’t have to carry as much cash, so those fees would end up having a big impact. (Cara’s note: We originally opened these credit cards to pay for our wedding. By charging large amounts at one time, we were able to gain all of the max sign-up benefits quickly. We gained enough airline points to get a few ‘free’ tickets via Delta and United.)

Sometimes at retailers, restaurants, and ATMs, the machine or cashier will ask if you want to pay in the local currency or USD. Provided you don’t have foreign transaction fees, choose the local currency! The exchange rate your credit card company uses is going to be better, as the machine is going to charge a premium for the conversion. For example, we were pulling £200 from an ATM to pay for some lodging and it asked if we wanted them to charge us in US dollars to the tune of $277. We said no, pulled the £200, and when I checked our account, Charles Schwab had pulled $264, so we saved $13 by using the local currency and letting Charles Schwab do the conversion. ATMs and credit cards will also give you a MUCH better rate than a currency conversion place (or likely your local bank), so don’t leave home with a bunch of US dollars planning on converting it at the airport, just pull cash once you land!

We left the US with 1 credit card each, our Charles Schwab debit cards, and debit cards for our credit union accounts as backups, only to be used in emergency. Cara had some issues last time she traveled to Africa, and the credit union card was the only one that worked. We also brought a small number of US dollars stashed in our stuff just in case we are stuck somewhere, we’ll be able to convert it to the local currency. We also got a few Euros from the local bank, but the exchange rate wasn’t as good as we would have gotten here. It is good to have enough to cover a few expenses on arrival in case you are having issues with all your cards, so you can survive for a day or two while you sort it out.

Biggest lesson: Keep receipts until you verify the amount charged on your card, especially for ATMs as this is the only way to know if they charged a fee.

In future posts we’ll talk about budgeting, managing and tracking expenses, and how well we are sticking to our budget.

-Jeff

Day trip to Dover Castle

Welcome to England! We have been here for a little over a week, and will be here for the next 3. We have extremely gracious hosts just outside of London. We are staying in their house while they are on holiday in the US!

Jeff and I have been extremely picky about what castle’s we spend our time and money at. It seems that everyone (and their brother) in the UK have a castle and visitors are welcome- for a price. Instead of spending money touring the inside of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, we decided to take a day trip to the east coast of the UK to check out Dover Castle and the white cliffs of Dover. And we are really glad we did!

The drive to the east coast is about an hour and a half from where we are staying in Essex. The ride there was pretty uneventful, minus the tractor trailer we passed that was on fire going the opposite direction at 11:30 am (this comes into play later). We arrived at the Castle around 12:30 pm and purchased a visitor pass that is good for 9 days and will save us money if we go to enough other properties included in the pass (Stonehenge next week!).

It blows my mind that, first, there are castles everywhere here. And second, that many of them are still functioning or have actually served a functional purpose in the last 100 years. I guess you can say our exposure to castles has been extremely limited. In America the oldest fancy buildings we have are from the 17th century, and no one built a castle to live in. Kind of what the Founding Fathers were trying to stay away from… Castles are supposed to be some ancient buildings with moats and knights and princesses in distress, right?

Wrong.

Dover Castle was built by Henry II in the 1180’s and it has been changed over time to remain standing as military fortification. Dover has a deep military history due to its location. It is so close to France that we could see the French shoreline! First we toured Henry II’s tower (castle building) and learned about his crazy family. His son’s included King Richard the Lionhearted and King John.

After experienced some real-life Robin Hood (NOT the Men in Tights version), we had a picnic lunch and went to take a tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels. Some tunnels were first dug during the Napoleonic Wars, and used up until WWII. During WWII, they were expanded. They served as a dressing station (form of hospital) and as the an operation center for all branches of the British Military. Most notable, it was the British Navy’s HQ for Operation Dynamo, which saved thousands of Allied troops by evacuating them from Dunkirk, France during a deadly Nazi advance. After WWII, the tunnels were used during the Cold War. They were to be used as a safe space for important government officials to survive and set up a satellite government in the event of nuclear apocalypse.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the tunnels- we think it’s due to the fact that the government still technically owns the tunnels and could use them in the future….except they aren’t secret anymore….

Above the tunnels, a lookout provides a beautiful view of France, and the white cliffs!

On the way home we ran into some traffic. Apparently the fire-y hay bale of a truck still wasn’t cleared from the highway. All of Kent county was a stand still traffic jam. Due to my fine navigation skills (and getting out of the car to tell other drivers where to move to), it only took twice as long to get home. But we were able to see some areas of Kent that we other wouldn’t have seen!

This is what the back roads in England look like! Yes- it's a 2-way road.

-Cara

 

How much money do I need for a round-the world trip?

We have started a specific series of blog posts focusing on finances for international adventures. We hope this helps someone in their future planning or aides curious minds. 

Let’s talk money! One of the most frustrating things I found while researching for our trip was the lack of information available about what kind of funds we would need to survive while traveling. I understand that sometimes money talk is taboo or uncomfortable, but I hope this post helps someone plan their trip in the future!

Our number: $50,000

$50,000 for 2 people, for as long as it lasts (hopefully around 1 year). I originally started budgeting with $40,000. Then we sold a bunch of our things (cars included!) and the number grew. Since we couldn’t find anyone that had really documented the amount they spent in a year of travel, we based some off what we could find for short trips and used guidebooks to budget a few countries (average food and lodging costs are usually listed, so you can use those to get a pretty accurate idea), plus using websites like Rome2Rio.com and skyscanner.com to find flight prices and put together some basic costs. We then looked at what we could realistically save based on our incomes and expenses and set ourselves a goal of $40,000. We then set a trip start date because we were meeting friends in Finland, and as the trip approached we had saved more than we initially thought we could.

Saving is like going up this rock scramble. Intimidating at first, but one stone at a time and its really not bad. How's that for a metaphor while fitting in a cool travel photo? Jeff on Mt. Katahdin. 

Let’s get something straight. Jeff and I did not win the lottery (not for lack of trying). We did not get a huge sum of money from an inheritance. We did not work the corner every night in OV. We just worked hard, tried to work a crap-ton of overtime, and didn’t live a lavish lifestyle while saving. We were extremely lucky to be able to live off of Jeff’s salary while saving mine.  We started doing this while saving for our wedding, and continued after. Jeff also worked at the gym as a second job, bringing in some extra money every month. Instead of making weekly trips to Lululemon or hitting the movies twice a month, we stayed home and ate in. Both of us are completely debt free. We paid the last of Jeff’s student loans off before we left the country. Don’t get me wrong- I like nice things, but both of us didn’t see the point of spending cash on anything but the necessities if world travel was going to be our other option.

I am extremely annoyed with myself for making the next statement. How much you budget for really depends on the person/couple/family traveling. All I wanted when I was planning was for someone to give me a magic number that I needed to save for. I’m sure that we will edit this post near the end of our trip to find out if we budgeted appropriately. So far, so good, but we have only been traveling internationally for 1 month. But we haven’t gone hungry yet! We also do not stay in 5 star hotels (unless we have free Marriott points). We have no problem sharing dorm rooms with people (occasionally) and sometimes we will eat rice cakes for a meal. It’s not all glamourous- but you know what is? Buckingham Palace! Eating pierogi in Poland! Celebrating Midsummer in Finland! Lounging at a beach in Thailand! We’ve been able to do all of these things (well- I’ll tell you about the beach in Thailand when we get there…)!

For reference: Average cost per day so far (as of 7/24/16, 2 months travel, 1 month international, including flights, food, lodging, peeing (not free in Europe), etc.): $96.64

- Cara

Round the World Packing List - Jeff's Stuff

If there is one thing I have figured out, it is that if you have space, you'll fill it with stuff. Pick a smaller bag and make it work. That being said, I know I packed more than I need.

So what do you take when you’re traveling for a year? Here is the list of the stuff I'm carrying:

Bags:

  • Osprey Farpoint 55L Pack (40L pack with 15L daypack, 15L normally empty when checking bag)
  • GoRuck Shadow Ruck (extra daypack)
  • Chicobag compact market bag

Clothes

  • 3 pair pants (Arcteryx/Lululemon)
  • 1 pair good shorts (Lululemon) – should’ve brought 2 pair
  • 3 pair running/gym shorts
  • 1 pair board shorts
  • 3pair compression shorts
  • 4 pair of boxers
  • 5 regular pairs of socks
  • 1 pair heavy wool hiking socks
  • 1 pair compression socks
  • Compression pants (compression is key on long flights)
  • 4 quick dry shirts (Lululemon and Eddie Bauer)
  • 1 comfy t-shirt (Rife Coach shirt)
  • 2 long sleeve, quick dry, button ups for layering (Eddie Bauer)
  • 1 quick dry tank top (Lululemon)
  • 1 Hoodie
  • 2 long sleeve base layers (Lululemon)
  • Raincoat (Northface)
  • Shemagh
  • Baseball Hat
  • Hiking Boots
  • Flip Flops
  • New Balance Minimus Trail Runners
  • Belt
  • Sunglasses (Oakley)

Almost all the clothes, a few are in the packing cubes.

Toiletries:

  • 1 microfleece quick dry towel (REI)
  • 1 microfleece quick dry wash cloth (REI)
  • Bar of soap
  • Safety Razor and shaving kit (shaving brush, soap, pre oil, after shave balm, extra blades) – definitely one of the luxury items I decided on when packing
  • Toothbrush
  • Crest toothpaste
  • Couple packs of floss
  • Cotton swabs
  • Nail clippers
  • Year supply of allergy meds
  • Bottle of Visine AC (allergy eye drops)
  • Advil
  • Body wash leaves
  • Laundry soap leaves
  • Chapstick
  • Band aids
  • Neosporin
  • Dramamine
  • Vaseline
  • Wet Wipes
  • Six months of Malarone (anti-malarial)
  • Lots of Zithromax (anti-biotics)

Workout Gear:

  • Jump Rope
  • Green stretch band
  • Voodoo band
  • Lacrosse ball
  • Nalgene water bottle
  • Wod logbook
  • Roll of athletic tape

Electronics:

  • 11” Lenovo Thinkpad laptop
  • Nexus 5x smartphone – Google Fi phone plan
  • Universal power adapter – with USB ports
  • Surge protector (also gives 2 outlets instead of the power adapters 1)
  • Amazon Kindle
  • Battery backup for phone
  • External hard drive
  • Headphones
  • iPod shuffle

Extras:

  • Deck of cards
  • Pens and pencils
  • Rain cover for bag
  • Inflatable pillow
  • Clothespins
  • Safety pins
  • 50’ parachute cord
  • MTU Flag
  • 3L Camelbak
  • Sleeping bag liner
  • 2 Carabiners
  • Drain Plug/Cover (for doing laundry in the sink)
  • Bag Locks and cable
  • Travel Alarm clock
  • Headlamp
  • Spare batteries
  • Sleep Mask

Packing cubes are awesome, they really help keep everything organized and in place, plus keep clean and dirty clothes separate when they all have to go in the same bag.

Its probably too much stuff, but it fits and I haven’t wanted to throw any of it out after a month. We’ll see how the list looks after a few more months!

Exercise, or a lack thereof...

Cara and I haven’t done a ton of working out since we left the good ole USA, but now that we’re stable for a few weeks in England that is changing. Our hosts here have an awesome backyard (aka ‘garden’) and we’ve been taking advantage of some great weather and getting some work done out there. Before we went to Scotland and we were in dorm rooms with a bunch of other people, we had started doing 50 situps, pushups, and squats everyday. That fell to the wayside while we traveled with the tour, but we’ve picked that up again now.

We have a clear goal of being ready for climbing Kilimanjaro in October, so we know we need to be putting in some effort. We are going to do a few two-a-days in the next few weeks and since we don’t have access to a barbell, we’re squatting each other and doing buddy carries to build some strength. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more odd objects to lift and carry while we’re working in Ireland, and we’ll continue training hard while there too.

In the next week or two I’ll put together a post with some pictures and some of the actual workouts we’re doing, we also have the original P90x (throwback!) so we’ll probably mix some of that in that we can do with zero equipment, and there a few nature reserves around that we’ll be doing lots of walking in, as well as all the walking we do whenever we go somewhere new.

A Scottish Summer Holiday

Scotland was awesome. We spent about a week and a half in Scotland and 7 days of that was spent doing a 7 day, Best of the West tour with MacBackpackers. We weren’t sure what to expect of the tour and to be honest we booked it so long ago we really didn’t remember what we were going to be doing. We flew into Edinburgh the afternoon before the tour started and stayed the night at the hostel where we would be picked up in the morning.

Edinburgh Castle - Our Hostel was on the opposite side of the castle

MacBackpackers is a budget tour group, so we spent all of the nights on the tour in a hostel, and had the option of cooking for ourselves instead of eating out. It saved our wallets a little bit, and the information and places that our tour guide took us were places we would have never stopped at if we were doing ourselves- totally worth it!

The first morning or our tour, July 4th, we met our guide, Graham, and the 11 others we would be spending the next week with. We didn’t know what to expect, but our group turned out to people of a variety of ages and traveling from a whole lot of locations, some just on holiday, a retired couple, and a few jobless travelers like us. It was great getting to know everyoneover a week and it was nice to make some new friends!

The first day we stopped in Dunkel to buy lunch and walk around a ruined chapel and then ate our lunch near a loch in the biggest national park in the UK. We spent some time that afternoon at the fields where the battle of Culloden took place and explored the great museum there before heading up to Loch Ness and going for a swim with Nessie and then heading into Inverness to settle down for the evening.

Nessie is out there...

Nessie is out there...

The second day saw us off to Corrie Shalloch Gorge and taking a ferry over to the Isle of Lewis. That day we had lunch on a gorgeous beach and saw a pretty cool lighthouse on the cliffs along the coast. We stayed the next two nights in traditional black houses (thatched roof and all!) and cooked communal dinners, which we great for everyone to spend some time getting to know each other over a hot meal.

We spent the third day climbing around a Scottish Broch, walking among standing stones they think were placed about 4000 years ago (that’s right, 3 zeros… super old!) that are second only to Stonehenge in their age and size, and then hiked across a ridge in the rain to see some of the country side. We lost a member of our group during the hike and had an hour or two of excitement trying to figure out where he went, but eventually we all made it back together.

The next day saw us on a ferry to the Isle of Skye and checking out some of the “gorgeous” cliffs and sights, although there was so much fog and rain that we couldn’t see much of anything. We spent a night in Kyleakin. We made s’mores that night using chocolate and caramel digestives. (Disclaimer: Jeff doesn’t like marshmallows, so he just ate lots of digestives. Second disclaimer: digestives are graham crackers.)

Cliffs of Skye in the rain and fog

Cliffs of Skye in the rain and fog

Day five we hopped another ferry back to the mainland and had a great hike that finished under the iconic bridge from all the train scenes of Harry Potter, as they go back and forth to Hogwarts. We stopped in Glencoe to hike near the ‘3 Sisters.’ It was an area of the family Campbell disgrace and was on of the most gorgeous places we have ever been. The river valley is so lush and green, and the water is fresh from all the rain and filtered by the volcanic rock, so I hiked up one of the hills and filled a water bottle straight from the stream. This was our favorite stop of the tour and we’ll be back sometime to do a lot more hiking and exploring.

Day 6 was a free day to explore Oban, and we spent our time touring the Oban Distillery and going to the free museum in town chronicling Scotland’s military and some of the local history. That evening we got a massive serving of fresh fish and chips from one of the many local vendors, and it was fantastic!

(Cara’s note: we decided we enjoy Bourbon more than Scotch…but learning about the distilling process and smoking peat was a ton of fun!)

IMG_20160709_135612.jpg

Day 7 saw us to Campbell Castle, a quick pit stop in Inveraray, Loch, Lomand, and lunch at a pub that has been around since 1705. We also made stops at Doune Castle and Stirling Castle, before heading back to Edinburgh and getting dropped at the same hostel where we started the trip. We spent a few more nights there, so we’ll be posting another blog diving into a few of our favorite times in Scotland as well as the last few days we spent in Edinburgh.

-Jeff

Modes of transportation: Plane, bus, 16 passenger van, multiple ferries

Castles visited: 4

Castles seen: Too many to count!

Cost of MacBackpacker 7 day tour:  $850ish for 2 (Did not include food or lodging. Lodging was about $25 or less pp, per night)

Total Scotland cost: $2,007.86 (including flight into Edinburgh)

Cost per day: $175.0 (not including flight)

Poland: the land of pierogis and packzi

I hope this post brings my Polish family a little closer to the homeland. Some of our relatives were from a neighborhood just outside of Warsaw, and Jeff and I are extremely lucky that we were able to visit Poland. I only wish I knew more of the language….singing ‘Sto lat, Sto lat…’ never really came up in regular conversation…

Our original travel plans did not include Poland. We ended up spending time in Warsaw because the flight pattern worked out to get us to a few future destinations on time. That’s the beauty of being somewhat flexible!

My first concern upon landing in Warsaw was stuffing my face with pierogi. ALL OF THE PIEROGI! Jeff is a little more practical than I am, and first we checked into the Warsaw Marriott where we were staying for 1 free night (per our credit card). After checking in, we went around the corner to a little café and had lunch outside. I was a little disappointed when my only options were meat or spinach pierogi. Since no meal is complete without meat, we experienced a salty, minced beef concoction in these dumplings. They were good- but I was excited that I had 4 days to experience more pierogi.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hotel. Due to our elite member status (thank you government travel!) we had unlimited access to dessert hour, happy hour and breakfast the next day. We ate like it was going out of style, which wasn’t completely necessary. It was great to get a few free meals, but Poland is extremely cheap compared to other European countries. The average dinner for Jeff and I cost a total of $17. More importantly, the average ice cream cone is about $1.50.

We only spent 1 night at the Marriott, and then packed up and walked less than a half mile to an Airbnb that Jeff had booked for 3 nights. We weren’t sure what to expect, as this was our first Airbnb experience- but it was awesome! We were right downtown and Warsaw is a very walkable city if you are willing to put miles on your shoes. Pedestrian warning: instead of crossing the street on the surface, you enter what I dubbed ‘The Polish Underground.’ You walk under the street to get to the other side, passing a bunch of shops and food stalls that are underground. These walkway’s sort of look like elongated subway stations.

Welcome to the Polish underground....

A common theme to travels so far seems to be guided walking tours. Warsaw was no exception! We had the best walking tour of the trip so far when we joined the Free Old Town walking tour. Our guide was extremely informative and the tour lasted 2 hours in the 30 C heat (80ish degrees).

Old Town in Warsaw is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world that is not original. The Nazi’s destroyed 80% of the entire city, and almost 100% of the Jewish part of town during WWII. Old town has been reconstructed mostly during the 1960’s and 1970’s to look as it would pre-war.

Photos: Old Town Warsaw, Walking Tour, Jewish Ghetto Uprising Monument

Last standing piece of the Jewish Ghetto wall. Currently located in the middle of an apartment complex. 

During our tour we learned about famous Poles, some living in Warsaw during the war: Fredrick Chopin, Marie Curie.

After the tour, I asked the tour guide where to find the best pierogis in town. Do you sense a common theme here??? So we went to dinner and this time tasted spinach, kraut, meat and potato pierogis. The potato were the best. For you Janer’s- it was like taking Grandma’s potato recipe and mixing it 1:1 with the cheese recipe. DELICIOUS! These were only served boiled, and I think they would have been a little tastier if they were fried. However, (I didn’t think it was possible), Jeff ordered the globki (stuffed cabbage) and it was even better than the pierogi.

More pierogis! 

The next day we spent some time catching up on emails and did a little walking in the city. At night we walked down to Fountain Park to see a water and light show at the fountain.

Fountain Park

During our final full day in Warsaw, we made a pit stop for paczki before went on another free walking tour, this one focusing on the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. Unfortunately, this tour was not as good as the previous tour we had taken with the same company, but you can’t win them all! We did learn a little bit more about the Jewish plight during the war. Luckily, Jeff and I had walked to the only remaining section of the Ghetto wall a few days earlier. It’s still eerie that the whole city was reduced to rubble and nothing we saw was authentic. Warsaw was the third most destroyed city during WWII, behind Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Jewish population is currently around 2,000 compared to the 375,000 pre-war.

What was authentic were the pierogi and paczki!!!!! Warning: NOT PALEO

We had a great stay in Warsaw and suggest it to those interested in WWII history and Polish culture. While we didn’t visit any museums while we were there, they have many and come highly recommended. Poland is also easy on the wallet and we didn’t have to feel bad eating out once or twice a day. If you are into the party scene, apparently bars are open 24 hours, as proved by the large amount of drunk people hanging out in the bars and streets as we walked to the bus station at 4am to catch a plane to the UK. Next adventure: Scotland. I hope you packed your kilt.

-Cara 

Modes of transportation used: Plane, bus, subway

Total amount spent in Poland (including flight):  $449.40 USD

Avg.: $58.89 USD per day- we spent 4 days in Warsaw

Types of pierogi eaten: Ruskie (potato and cheese), spinach, meat, sauerkraut

 

 

Ze Swedish Chef

My Dad's favorite Muppet character has always been the Swedish Chef. While we did not see the Swedish Chef in Stockholm, we did see a lot of tourists- many of them who were older. This one is for you Pop's- with the hope that someday you make it to the homeland!

Don’t you just love it when magical things happen? When random coincidences seem to come true? We’ve only been gone from the states for about a week and a half and everything has been falling into place in our favor! We landed in Stockholm at 7 am on June 27 and received a message from our friend Bri who just happened to be in Stockholm, who just happened to be staying with her awesome aunt, and just happened to be happy to invite us to dinner. Rule #1 of budget traveling: NEVER turn down a free meal!

After checking into the Marriott Courtyard in Stockholm, where we stayed 2 nights for free using points, Bri and Marie (these two awesome Wisconsin-ers were vacationing together) picked us up from the hotel and we headed to Bri’s aunts house.

I need to take a minute and brag on Bri and Marie. The girls were in town celebrating midsommer- which is the same holiday that the Fins celebrate (read our previous posts on Finland). Both countries seem to think that they individually are the ‘only ones’ who celebrate midsommer, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Bri has some famous family relations and she and Marie attended this party of 30 people or so, and the new Robocop and Will Smith just happened to be guests (Robocop is somehow almost related to Bri, I think. Or something like that, and he brought Will Smith). WHAT?! Pretty cool. 

Anyway, Jeff and I were a few days late to meet the Fresh Prince (of Bel Air), but we had delicious reindeer stew for supper and then went for a walk. Keep in mind we are still in the middle of Stockholm, but after walking 2 minutes from her aunt’s house we came upon a small male deer and later saw some Scandinavian hares. These things are like bunnies on crack. The type of crack that makes your body grow 3 times its normal size.

Bri’s Aunt told us, ‘I’ve never met so many fun and socially functional engineers!’ We also harnessed our inner children and played on the playground. Wayyyyy cooler than any other playgrounds we have been to! (Jeff's note: 'we aren't frequenting playgrounds on this trip, I think Cara means since childhood'...)

We also had a nice walk past Mr. Nobel’s laboratory. Nobel did a lot of experiments and eventually developed dynamite. Supposedly, later in life his brother died but the newspaper accidentally printed an obituary for him, instead of his dead brother, and it was negative enough that he felt that he needed to do something to change his negative perception in society. Hence, the Nobel prizes.

Bri and Marie flew out the next day, but Jeff and I had one more day to explore the city. The subway system in Stockholm is extremely easy to use once you get your bearings, so we took it to the city center. There we went on a free walking tour. We have become huge fans of these ‘free’ walking tours, because then we can just tip the guide at the end whatever we feel the tour was worth! The Stockholm tour was much better than the Reykjavik tour, and we learned many things about Sweden. Ikea is currently the main export from the country, H&M (the clothing store) is a huge Swedish success, they give out all the Nobel prizes except for the peace prize in Stockholm (peace prize is given in Olso, much to the Swedes dissent), the origin of ‘Stockholm syndrome’ came from a very f’ed up bank robbery, and Queen Christina from the early 17th century had gender identity issues until 1965 when her body was exhumed and proved she was born a woman. Needless to say, we got quite a bit of information during our 2 hour tour!

Old Town

Old Town

Right after the tour we ran across the street to the royal palace to see the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard happens at noon every day. Complete with a band parading around town, leading everyone to the palace grounds for the ceremony. We couldn’t get very close to see much, but thanks to this age of technology we were able to snap some photos above the crowd’s heads. The Swedish royal guard was dressed formal and they marched pretty much in a straight line- but they were nowhere as strict as other military events we have seen. For example, in the middle of this serious ceremony, the band starts playing ABBA. It was my favorite memory of Sweden.

Swedish changing of the gaurd

Next, we needed to find food. My brother Phil had been in Stockholm the previous year and suggested a place called Saluhall for authentic Swedish meatballs. Game on! Unfortunately, the old market building was completely under construction, but across the street vendors had set up shop. Jeff ordered steak, which ended up being thinly sliced pork, and I ordered meatballs. Both were fantastic!

Meatballs on the left, and 'steak' on the right!

After we ate we returned to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep. While in Sweden we encountered our first significant mishap. We’ll call it a ‘transportation learning experience.’ When Jeff was booking plane tickets from Sweden to Poland a few weeks ago, he found tickets at a good price and purchased them. However, we didn’t realize until we got into town that we were flying out of a different Swedish airport that was almost 2 hours away at 8:30 am. Much to my credit (patting myself on the back for this one), I didn’t get upset about it at all and I don’t think I was a complete purple minion at 3:30am when we left the hotel. It stays light almost all day this time of year in Stockholm and it’s a little easier to wake up at 3 am if the sun is already shinning.

We took a taxi to the bus station, hopped on a packed bus to the airport in the middle of nowhere, and a few hours later we arrived safely in Warsaw!

-Cara

Modes of transportation used: Plane, bus, subway, taxi

Total amount spent in Sweden (including flight):  $273.29 USD

Avg.: $86.45 USD per day- we spent 2 days in Stockholm

Ps. You will be seeing more of Bri and Marie (and her husband Chip!) in future a blog post this summer- get excited!

 

Fine Food, Fine Friends, Fine Times, Finland!

Finland is awesome. We had an absolute blast with our college friends Sara and Tony (and all of Sara’s family, thanks for letting us crash the family vacation). We spent the first 2 days in Helsinki after taking the red eye from Iceland, and Sara was super generous and got us rooms at a nice hotel which ended up working out really well, more on that in a bit. We then took a bus out to Sara’s family’s farm in the country near Loppi and spent the next 5 days there before heading back to Helsinki to fly to Stockholm and see Tony and Sara off to Italy.

WWII submarine at Suomenlinna

WWII submarine at Suomenlinna

Suomenlinna explorations!

Suomenlinna explorations!

We checked in and dropped our bags at the hotel that Sara booked in the morning, not long after Cara and I got into town. We then headed off to walk around for a bit and stopped at a small market and got some makkara (sausage) and pastries, including an introduction to Karelian pastries which were a staple for the rest of the trip (also, make sure you try them with egg butter, which is hardboiled egg chopped and mixed into butter). We walked around another open air market and then took the ferry to Suomenlinna which is a cool historical site with lots of old buildings, cannons, and even an old Finnish submarine. It is kind of like the Finnish version of historical Williamsburg. We hopped the very back to town and ate some awesome food at the open air market, including some small fish that were fried whole.

Now for the best part of the time in Helsinki: we went back to the hotel and cleaned up, intending to go out for drinks and dinner. The main entrance to the hotel was under construction so you had to go in and out through their restaurant, and as we cut through they were pouring drinks and people were just milling about, so we stuck around for a few minutes to try and see what was going on. Sara got the courage up to just grab a drink and see what happened, and we all followed soon after. Then they put out a big spread of burgers and sausages, plus lots of other food and desserts, which we helped ourselves to while trying to figure out what was going on, but we watched people just walk in off the street and help themselves, as well as people that seemed to be guests of the hotel. A DJ started playing and then they made an announcement that it was their grand opening and everything was free until 8 pm, so we made more trips for drinks and food of course. Then it got even better: what I can only describe as the Finnish Macklemore started rapping, and even did Gangsters Paradise (in Finnish of course). After the free drinks and as much food as we could eat, plus some pretty awesome live rap, we tried out the hotel sauna, which wasn’t very hot, and retired for the evening.

The next morning Sara’s parents met us at the hotel, which also had free breakfast (budget travelers dream stay!) and we went to the rock church and Seurasaari which is another historical area, similar to Greenfield Village for our Michigan Peeps. We then took a bus out to Sara’s family’s farm and got to see this “rustic” cabin we would be staying in. The only rustic part was that you had to walk outside to get to the toilet, but even that was nice!

Our "Rustic" lodging. Nicer than some hotels I've stayed in!

Our "Rustic" lodging. Nicer than some hotels I've stayed in!

While staying at the cabin we went to Häme Castle and a church from the 1400s. The church was the oldest thing I have ever been around, and they even had a baptismal font from the 1400s, sitting right out in the open in the church. The paintings were incredible and it was an awe-inspiring place. Definitely the oldest place we have ever been, nothing in the USA comes close. We also stopped by the Aulanko Tower, which is a pretty tall tower built on a hill giving you a really nice panoramic view of the country side, even if it is a bit random in style and location.

Tony, Sara, Tom, Anne, Cara and Jeff

Tony, Sara, Tom, Anne, Cara and Jeff

Makkara! Not pictured: Tony the grillmaster. 

Makkara! Not pictured: Tony the grillmaster. 

We spent the midsummer celebration at another family members cabin, having crepes and relaxing into the night, even though it felt early since the sun never really sets. We also went back there for a giant brunch on Saturday morning and coffee on Sunday. I felt like we ate pretty much continuously while we were in Finland, but I’m definitely not complaining about it. On the topic of food, I do have to mention pickled herring. I thought it would be gross, but it is actually really good, especially with potatoes. We had some fresh from the ground potatoes that were extra delicious too. The herring comes in a variety of flavors, and we tried the dill (relatively plain, but tasty), tomato (not as good), and a variety with onions, allspice, carrots, and that was the best!

Did I mention that we ate a lot of really really good food? A lot!

Did I mention that we ate a lot of really really good food? A lot!

All in all, Finland was awesome and I would recommend Helsinki and the rest of the country to anyone looking to visit a place where the sun never sets. Or barely rises if you choose to go in the winter…

This was pretty late, maybe 1030 or 11 pm? Not a bad place to be...

This was pretty late, maybe 1030 or 11 pm? Not a bad place to be...

Modes of transportation used: Plane, bus, boat

Total amount spent in Finland (including flight from Boston to Iceland to Finland):  $1480.53 USD, without the flights we spent $357.03 (includes some euros we took out to start the trip that we didn't spend all of and will hold until Germany, cost would drop a few dollars a day if we didn't include that)

Avg.: $59.51 USD per day (Doesn't include airfare, big thanks again to Sara and Tony for helping us keep this number LOW!)

 

Road Trippin'

Just wanted to give a quick update on our adventure so far. We left Virginia on 5/18 and spent one night in Pittsburgh with some friends. Then we drove to Ohio and spent a few days with my parents, and my sister came into town, which was awesome. We played some games and just spent some time together. 

After that we went to Cara's parents and spent a few days in Michigan, seeing a few friends and her parents were awesome and threw a party for us and so we got to see some of her family and a few more of our friends. We also dropped into Crossfit Grand Trunk, which is a great spot. If you're in the South Lyon area, check them out. 

Then we headed off to Chicago and saw some college friends and Cara's brother, and went on the Lagunitas brewery tour (more info on that tomorrow) as well as got some pretty awesome tacos. After Chicago we made one night stops in Madison and Minneapolis to see some college friends and then made our way out to North Dakota to see Cara's college roommate and her family. In a few days we'll make the trek back to Ohio with a pit stop in Milwaukee to see my college roommate and after a short stop there we'll be packing our bags for the rest of the trip and heading off to Maine before leaving the country. I plan on taking lots of pictures in Maine, so those will be showing up here sometime, depending on our access to the internet.

So far its been an awesome trip, although it still feels like a vacation and like we'll be heading back to work. The whole "year traveling" hasn't really set in for us, and I'm not really sure when it will. Probably when we leave for Maine with only the things we'll be carrying for the next year.

We have also planned most of the rest of the summer while we've been on the road, and now only need a few nights of lodging to have us all booked until flying to Africa on October 10th. Once the road trip is complete I'll post a summary of how much we spent on this leg too, and our estimate for the rest of the year.

-Jeff