THE NUMB3RS

We aren't quite done with this blog as we haven't even finished our accounts of South and North America. However, we are home and I have been going through things like: Where we went. I also noted other things that I like to keep track of. I am a little bit of a freak that way I'll admit. I'll start with the obvious: How many countries and cities we managed to visit. Now in order for me to count a country/city the consensus seems to be to count it if you slept there. Also, I debated whether or not I should count all of the countries we stayed in while in the U.K. as separate entities or just as one country. Well, if you ask any Scotsman they will give you your answer. All in all we visited 26 different countries, 27 if you include Canada, and 65 different cities and towns with populations as diverse as Tokyo's 32.45 million to towns like Trinidade and Anafi that I estimate to have a population of 200 to 400. Here is a break down of where we went, in the order we went there:

I) Canada -Vancouver (1)

II) U.S.A. -New York City (2)

New York's Guggenheim Museum

III) England -London (3)

-York (4)

IV) Scotland -Edinburgh (5)

V) N. Ireland -Belfast (6)

VI) Ireland -Drougheda (7)

-Dublin (8)

VII) Germany -Berlin (9)

VIII) Netherlands -Amsterdam (10)

IX) France -Paris (11)

-Bordeaux (12)

X) Spain -San Sebastian (13)

Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum near San Sebastian

-Barcelona (14)

XI) Italy -Rome (15)

-Naples (16)

XII) Croatia -Dubrovnik (17)

-Split (18)

-Plitvice (19)

-Trogier (20)

XIII) Switzerland -Geneva (21)

XIV) Hungary -Budapest (22)

XV) Greece -Athens (23)

-Delphi (24)

-Santorini (25)

-Anafi (26)

-Rhodes (27)

XVI) Turkey -Istanbul (28)

Istanbul's Blue Mosque

-Denizli (29)

-Izmur (30)

-Goreme (31)

XVII) U.A.E. -Dubai (32)

XVIII)China -Hong Kong (33)

IXX) Singapore -Singapore (34)

XX) Malaysia -Malaka (35)

-Pulau Penang (36)

XXI) Thailand -Bangkok (37)

-Koh Chang (38)

-Koh Maak (39)

-Chang Mai (40)

XXII) Cambodia -Siem Reap (41)

-Phnom Penh (42)

-Sihanoukville (43)

-Koh Russi (44)

-Kampot (45)

XXIII) Vietnam -Phu Quoc (46)

-Can Tho (47)

-Da Lat (48)

-Nha Trang (49)

-Ho Chi Minh Cit y (50)

XXIV) Japan -Tokyo (51)

-Shimizu (52)

XXV) Brazil -Sao Paulo (53)

-Rio de Janeiro (54)

-Trinidade (55)

Igreja de Santa Rita in Paraty, near Trinidade Brazil.

XXVI) Chile -Santiago (56)

XXVII)Peru -Lima (57)

-Paracas (58)

-Ica (59)

-Cuzco (60)

U.S.A. pt.2 -Los Angeles (61)

-San Francisco (62)

-Sonoma (63)

-Yosemite (64)

-Fargo (65)

As far as the usual "What was your favorite?" ...I don't think I can answer that. Far too many good times and very few disappointments. Honestly, disappointment is probably too harsh of a word... The overall feeling of "When's the next time we will be in 'X' " outweighed the

negative aspects. So suffice to say, nothing truly bad happened to us. I mean, sure, we got swindled in Istanbul and trying to get to Phu Quoc and I even had my wallet pick-pocketed in Cuzco. But we never felt like we were in danger.

We also added to my previous list of coveted UNESCO sights which I will recap... quickly. Once again, in order of appearance:

1) Statue of Liberty, New York City, U.S.A.

2) Tower of London, London, England

3) Old and New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland

4) Giants Causeway, Belfast, N. Ireland

5) Bend in the Boyne, Drougheda, Ireland

Passage tomb at the Bend in the Boyne

6) Palaces of Potsdam, Berlin, Germany

7) Rietveld-Schroder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands

8) Left and Right Banks of the Seine River, Paris, France

9) Palaces of Fontainebleau, Paris, France

10) Jurisdiction of St. Emilion, France

11) Works of Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain

12) Vatican City, Vatican City

13) Rome's Historic City Center, Italy

14) Naples' Historic City Center, Italy

15) Pompeii's Archeological Areas, Italy

16) Dubrovnik's Historical City Center, Croatia

17) Diocletian Place, Split Croatia

18) Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

19) Trogir's Historic City Center, Croatia

20) The Banks of the Danube, Budapest, Hungary

21) Athens' Archeological Areas, Greece

22) Delphi's Archeological Areas, Greece

23) Rhodes' Medieval City, Greece

24) Istanbul's Historic Areas, Turkey

25) Pamukkale & Heropolis, Denizli, Turkey

26) Goreme National Park, Turkey

27) Malaka's Historic City Center, Malaysia

28) Ankor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

29) Lima's Historic City Center, Peru

30) The Nazca Lines, Nazca, Peru

Nazca lines "The Hummingbird"

31) Cuzco's Historic City Center, Peru

32) The Lost City of Machu Pichhu, Peru

33) Yosemite National Park, U.S.A.

That's 27 countries and 33 UNESCO world heritage sights for an average of 1.222 sights per country in, as the song states, 525,600 minutes... Well, quite a bit fewer than that, closer to a paltry 432,000... as we had to cut our trip short 93,600 minutes or 2 months.

We will be back with more posts, I promise. And funner ones too!

Jason

a look back at europe

san sebastian - corina's favourite beach so far but we still haven't been to thailand so...

we left europe today for a few hours. we crossed the sea of marmara from the european side of istanbul to the asian side. it was a small reminder that soon we will not be in europe again for a very long time. even when we want to travel again, after we get home, it probably won't be to europe and it definitely won't be to this extent. so we decided to write a post about our impressions of europe.

food - one of the first things you see a difference wherever you travel. we have struggled with striking a balance between trying new things, sticking to a vegetarian/vegan diet and keeping in our budget. we've gleaned a few tips from our couchsurfing hosts and other travellers. here are our notes:

uk: fish & chips must be consumed in a proper fish & chip shop NOT in a pub...mushy peas are an individual's perogative. indian cuisine is abundant & tasty as are many other ethnic foods. the food choices in general are similar to what we have available in canada. packaged and restaurant food was all clearly labelled when it was vegetarian.

netherlands: i tried a form of food called hagel slag and even though i'm a sucker for nutella i didn't quite get hagel slag. first you butter your bread and then you pour chocolate, vanilla or strawberry sprinkles onto it. our favourites were the cheese and a mustard from the region of zandaam where we stayed with duckje and her family.

france: pain au chocolate...no need to say more...delish! of course we also had to try wine and cheese while we were in bordeaux with berenise & ben. jay ate the rockforte, which if you ask me looked and smelled disgusting. i mean seriously...moldy cheese? fyi - cheese is an appropriate and common dessert in france. we proudly carried baguettes home from the bakery almost every night. you could hardly tell we were tourists!

spain: ham is everywhere! for instance, you walk into any bar...there are legs of ham with hooves intact just hanging there from the ceiling...you walk into any grocery store, more legs...we are not just talking about one or two either. a common thing among many countries is to have only one or two flavours of potato chips available not like north america where name the flavour and you can get it. guess which flavour spain has...yup...ham. tapas is everywhere but we didn't experience much of it. vegetarian tapas is harder to come by...vegan tapas is impossible.

italy: pasta and pizza reign supreme here. the best pizza was not in naples as everyone will tell you. we had our best slice in rome from a tiny hole in the wall far from the tourist traps that plague that city. it was easier to eat vegetarian here but next to impossible once again for vegan. cheese tops all food. this is the country where my resolve to eat vegan began to crumble quickly. must have been the gelato.

croatia: meat, meat and more meat. jason cooked alot while we were here. when we ate out it was at a vegan restaurant in dubrovnik and a mexican dive in split.

greece: most of our meals included at least one of these items: feta, tomato, cucumbers, potato, tzatziki and bread. a local favourite breakfast seemed to be natural yogurt and honey. jay liked it but i found the yogurt much too creamy. we didn't have any baklava but we really like the galactoboureco which had the pastry and honey of baklava AND a fluffy white filling. so tasty!

some favourites from home that we've had a hard time finding are: peanut butter, tofu, beans, hummus, and almond milk. hopefully that just means that we will find them all the more yummy when we get home!

other differences we've observed

how people greet: UK same as Canada (ıe. no kissing just handshakes unless you really love each other), Dutch and Swiss kiss cheeks three times, French, Spanish, Italians & Croatians kiss cheeks twice and it hasn't been obvious in Greece if there is any kissing at all.

it is not common to find clothes dryers in homes. everyone hangs out their laundry for the world to see. or if its raining in their living room or on the terrace.

most buildings have their lights on timers so you have light as you walk through the hall but it shuts off automatically once you've reached your flat.

it's hard to find a toilet with a seat on it when you are in france, spain or greece. this didn't seem to concern jay at all while i on the otherhand had to become an expert at 'hovering'.

we've had a few questions from home and from people we've met on the road about what our favourites have been. here's our list to date:

favourite street food jason: veggie gyros with haloumi cheese, corina: pain au chocolate

favourite drink jason: beer in turkey, corina: hot chocolate in budapest

favourite place to sleep jason: pascal's place in split (wonder if that had to do with the twin beds?), corina: flo & rhea's place in berlin

favourite beach jason: sitges, spain, corina: san sebastian, spain

favourite UNESCO site giant's causeway

favourite ancient ruin pompeii

favourite place overall jason: paris, corina: amsterdam

jason wearing an eiffel tower hat

good-bye, tchau, doeıl, salut, adios, ciao, au revoir, szia, ya sas, güle güle,

corına & jason