Top 20 Questions About Our Long Trip Abroad Answered!

Here are all the questions y'all keep asking me and a few I wish you would ask me that give a great summary our trip.

Where did you go?

In this order we visited the following places:

Dubai

Ghana: Accra, Tamale, Mole, back to Accra, Cape Coast, Kokobrite

The Netherlands: Amsterdam and Kampen

France: Paris, Verdun, Reims, Fontainebleau, Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Provence, Fréjus

Portugal: Lisbon, Sagres, Lagos, Evora, Porto, Villa Real, Pinhão, Sintra

Italy: Rome, Pompeii, Naples, Palermo, Bevagna, Florence, Pisa

Random stops: landed in Ivory Coast to switch flight crew, drove through Belgium, hiked across border to Spain for a few minutes, bussed through England between airports.

Was it safe to travel in those places?

Yes, every where we went I felt pretty safe. Many people ask if Ghana was safe and I always answer that I felt very safe in terms of the people and places we went with the most danger coming from consuming the food and water. The only other place that I felt was moderately dangerous was driving on the highways in Italy, with the blatant disregard to posted speed limits and basic driving rules. Otherwise our travels seemed generally safe and were free from any major incidents.

Where was your favorite place you went?

Super hard to pick a favorite but if pressed I would say the Mole National Park, in Ghana was my favorite place. So beautiful and such an unique place. Hard to beat baby elephants playing in a waterhole.

Where was the worst place you went?

The worst place was probably Frejus in the south of France. Again it is hard to pick a worst as every where we went we saw and did cool stuff. Some places in Ghana were hard to enjoy and we did not have a great experience in Amsterdam. But Frejus was the most disappointing even though we ate some amazing food and went on a super cool snorkel trip. But none of the fun stuff was specific to that place and it was overall a let down.

Which place would you most like to return?

I would love to return to Porto, Portugal and Northern France (Paris and Champagne, plus see Normandy)

Which country had the best wine?

Hard to say, the wine in France was pretty awesome, especially the champagne, while drinking Port wine in Porto was also amazing. Portugal probably had the better wine for the price while France had better overall quality. Italy was a distant third.

What was the best food you ate?

On our free night out in Lisbon we ate some truly amazing fancy foods. The croissants in Paris were fantastic, while French bread and butter were also amazing. I loved the food in Ghana, jollif rice with fried chicken. And I can't forget the pasta and gelato in Rome. Plus we made some amazing homemade dishes like beef burgundy, grilled steaks, tomato salads, ribs and grilled octopus.

Describe each country in 2 words?

Dubai: Desert - Opulence

Ghana: Polluted - Elephants

The Netherlands: Canals - Bikes

France: Wine - Cheese

Portugal: Beaches - Porto

Italy: Romans - Gelato

Did you get sick?

Yes I did. I got food poisoning in Ghana right when we arrived at Kokobrite Beach. It was a real bummer as I was looking forward to relaxing on the beach to end our time in Ghana, but instead I was very sick. I also had the flu in Portugal for a few days. Other than those two times I was fine.

What did you learn from traveling?

I learned that Alena and I are a good team and can handle a variety of difficult situations. Also our trip reinforced my belief that most people are pretty friendly and are excited to meet new people and are happy to help those who ask. We met so many kind people who gave us directions, fun travel tips or struggled through our poor or nonexistent foreign language skills to help us get what we needed. I also saw again how privileged we are in California. It's damn near impossible not to see a bit of life perspective when on a trip like we had.

How was traveling with your partner for that long?

It is so hard to travel with another person for that long without having breaks or time apart, but we did an amazing job putting up with each other's idiosyncrasies and the difficult situations we faced. You learn so much about the people you travel with, especially someone you love dearly. I'm glad we did the trip together and I believe our relationship is stronger for having gone through the trials as well as the amazing experiences we encountered.

Where was the coolest place you stayed?

Tie between the castle wall watch tower we stayed inside in Italy and the fancy hotel in Dubai.

What was the weirdest food you ate?

The accidental fish light soup we ordered and hated in Cape Coast had some super weird fish parts I did not recognize. We ordered a few things in Portugal that we had no idea what it was because of our poor translating (aka the veal sausage in Lisbon and the fish sausage in Porto). We tried escargot and duck stomach in France. And to finish off our trip, the full bodied octopus pasta was quite surprising.

How much did you spend traveling that long?

We spent about $7,500 each for our whole trip (96 days) including all flights, travel insurance, health costs, excursions, gifts and daily living costs.

Where most exceeded your expectations?

Kampen, in The Netherlands, was such an awesome experience with Anne and her family. We had a great time and we were just blown away by their kindness. I was also super excited about Porto which I wasn't totally expecting.

What did you bring for a trip that long?

We each only brought 1 carry-on bag. See my packing post linked here.

What was the most fun excursion/experience you went on?

We had such a fun time on our snorkel trip in Frejus even though the weather was terrible. The super local and low key wine festival we stumbled upon in Bordeaux was also a highlight of the trip.

What was the best moment of the trip?

Sitting next to Alena watching the elephants play in the water hole in Mole National Park, Ghana.

What was the worst moment of your trip?

Worst moment was getting really sick right when we finally got the beach resort paradise of Kokobrite in Ghana. It would have been pretty awesome if we were both feeling better. Instead it was a shitty few days.

Also getting eternally delayed on our flight from Ghana to Amsterdam was terrible. But it turned into a cool experience in the end.

What is your favorite picture from the trip?

Impossible to pick one. Here are my top 5.

Bonus Question: Where do you want to go next?

The top places I want to travel to next are Washington DC, Yellowstone, Japan and Patagonia.