Our Top Three List - Things We're Looking Forward To
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 1:19PM We're gearing up around here to hit the road, and our thoughts are turned to wandering. Today during lunch we got to talking about things we're looking forward to. Here's some we came up with:
OWEN: 1. Going up in the Eiffel Tower. 2. Hiking up this awesome mountain on the Mediterranean coast I saw on a dvd, and looking out across the whole Mediterranean. 3.When I get home it's going to be really awesome seeing my friends again.
ELEANOR: 1. Tasting all the pastries in France. 2. Climbing up the Eiffel tower. (Brenna - who is writing this - has just been informed that there is a secret plan afoot concerning the Eiffel Tower. Brenna knows nothing of this.) 3. Seeing the Rose Window in Notre Dame
BOB: 1. Seeing things I've seen before through my children's eyes. 2. Learning how to curse in Serbian. 3. Our first blog on the road.
BRENNA: 1. Haunting vintage and thrift shops in Europe. 2. Watching Eleanor bite into her first French croissant. 3. Watching Owen make friends with yet another kid in the village square.
Tell us what yours are! If you've been places we should see, (and for sure eaten places that we should eat!!) post them. Maybe we'll get there.
Bob & Brenna Redpath | 8 Comments | Email Article | Stumble, Digg, etc. | in family, kids, moving, travel, vintage
Reader Comments (8)
I love trying Mexican food in every different country I go to. Sometimes it's suprisingly good. Sometimes you get raisins in your burrito.
I have always dreamed of taking a notepad & paper and spending all day drawing in some of the great museums of Europe. Take your pick: London, Paris, Prague, Madrid. Lately, I have a growing desire to go island hopping in the Aegean Sea. Can't explain it...
A croissant is great, but pain au chocolat is to die for! It's always the first thing I buy off the plan or train in a French-speaking country. In Dijon, the chocolate is melted, in Paris it isn't. Other than Zermatt, you have to see Interlaken in Switzerland. Absolutely beautiful! And, the most beautiful train ride I took was from Zurich to Innsbruck. I also loved Dresden, Germany. Saw an opera in a restored opera house - the Semper Oper. Totally cool - one of the few buildings in East Germany the Russians put money into restoring completely.
I lived in Turkey for six years. There are some great places to visit there. Check out Cappadocia. The villages are Goreme and Urgup, as I recall. It is a really magical place to visit.
The antique junk shops in Turkey, by the way, are amazing. With our allowances we would find stuff like a Roman marble in a bowl mixed up with plastic beads and old coins, a Byzantine cross, a silver egg shaped opium box that was the size of a pigeons egg which hung on a flat chain, an old silver pocket watch,engraving, clockwork jewels and wind up key, or an embroiered Ottoman jacket. W always kept an eye out for Alladin's lamp but we missed it. Maybe Owen will discover it.
I could never get into vintage shopping when I moved back to the U.S. after shopping in Turkey. And even England, for that matter. (England... Devon clotted cream on pastries or berries, don't forget)
You might allow yourself a small travel allowance for junk shopping and mail your finds back to a friend to have when you get home.
When we went to the beaches in the Mediterranean, we'd collect old beach washed Roman glass, pottery chards and beach washed marble. Then we'd make mosaics of them. It's great to have a place to live for a few months at a time so you can do things like that. In some places the Mediteranean is an azure color. When you see it you will never forget it.
Also look up Nicosia, Cyprus. I wrote to you that I've got a connection for you there. It would be a great place to spend a month or two. I'll call my friend tomorrow so he can start following your blog. Start looking at how you would get there. I've heard that it's a lot of fun to go by ferry. FInd out how many days that would take.
When my son was eleven, my mom and I took him out of school and moved to Guadalajara for six months after my dad passed away. My son says that it was the best experience of his life; the thing that made him who he is now as an adullt. We enrolled him in an international school that was primarily Mexican enrollment. He had Spanish for 90 minutes a day. And he learned the language fast and made a bunch of great friends.
Consider driving across the U.S. and leaving out of the east coast, then sell the car and fly. Or take a train and stay at places on the way. It would get you used to traveling and give the kids some comparisons for when you get to Europe.
I've read through your blog tonight, all of it. I'm glad that you're starting to focus on traveling now. That is an important part of making a change like this. It's time to start lookikng forward.
Bob, you are going to feel so wonderful once you get away from the studios. I know you're probably tired right now and it's hard to comprehend how wonderful it will be. Leaving that job will extend your life. Someone told me that the average lifespan of a sound editor is 58 years.
Brenna, you are going to feel great too when he is not doing that anymore. You will find that he becomes a completely different person. I had no idea how much working in the industry was supressing me. After being out of it for four years now, I am so much more my old self, the self I was before I went into it. I can't believe that I gave eighteen years of my life to that world.
When I was a kid, I met people on the road who survived simply by buying in one country what was wanted in another and taking it with them on the road. I wonder if people still do that today.? Stuff like nylon stockings and blue jeans is what is was all about way back then.
It may be that if you bring your coats -- coats? You mean you need coats for winter? -- If you buy good coats for cold weather, that you can leave them at a friend's house over there and have them send them to you when you need them. Even places on the Mediterranean can be cold in winter. Last I heard, clothes can be a lot more expensive in Europe than say, Burllington Coat Factory in Pasadena which is where I went for a winter coat before moving here.. I'll check on that for you with friends who live over there.
Look into what is required to teach English as a second language. You might want to do a llittle of that. I have friends who have done that and lived all over the world. It would be a way to travel and settle for periods of time, to meet people and really get to know a place. Always being on the road gets wearying after awhile.
What is the most fun is getting off the beaten path and living somewhere for a time. The tourist spots are fun for awhile, but getting to know the people, doing small things like shopping or bartering for a good deal on your found treasure, that's where the real memories are made.
Think about buying a car over there. It will be a lot easier with the kids to have your own transportation. Also that way, you can take your pillows! That's what decided us on driving to Guadalajara instead of flying when I moved there with my son and mom. A grandma, a mom and a ten year old boy in a brand new Toyota Camry. People told us banditos would get us. We rolled down the windows and searched for banditos everywhere but we never saw any. We did meet a lot of nice peole, though.
Hurry up and make the change! I'm thrilled for you guys.
We are so glad we have connected again Catt. Our plan is to go over, buy a car, and stay in towns and villages for a month or two at a time. We'll travel into the tourist cities for sure, but most of our time will be spent off the beaten path.
Thanks for all the info and friends you are contacting on our behalf. As always, you are fascinating and inspirational.
Let's keep in touch,
Brenna
Brenna, I come from a family with long history of experience as Americans living abroad. My son is a fifth generation American who has lived abroad. We should talk.
Also, I encourage you to start working on a book. I have a hunch that your experiences are going to be worth reading about.
Has Bob made an announcement at work that you're selling and giving away everything to become gypsies? Your story should resonate with many people, at least as a fantasy of what they'd like to do.
Currywurst and Pomm Frits (spelling?) from a street vendor in Koln, Germany. Hold the mayo.
-Jeanie
Mmmm...currywurst.
Seriously folks. You've inspired me in more ways than one after 21 years in the maelstrom of the IT industry....at least I'm still alive and kicking to tell.
Thank you.