Written by Mary - 10/29/20 - Wrapping up this Voyage

We’re on our way home and it all seems quite bittersweet! We didn’t move as much as the original gap year plan but we sure moved around a lot. 12 houses in 62 days. We learned our kids are capable of far more than we thought! Using restrooms they wouldn't dream of stepping foot into, Handling 17 hour travel days like champs, waking as early as 4am and then forcing mid day naps to regulate. They’ve learned how to self teach portions of school they missed and catch up on school work under the gun. They've learned to entertain themselves with out toys. Coasters, trash and recyclables became quick entertainment! They’ve also learned to communicate with verbal language and handle less boundaries than Americans are used to when it comes to touching them or speaking at them. When the girls and I arrived at our hotel air balloon destination at 5:30am, the van doors flew open and a balloon employee grabbed Rosie (fully picked her up) and carried her across a field (I was running behind to catch) and placed her in the balloon. He was just trying to help. I think I was more frantic than Rosie. Once when we were tasting wine at a vineyard a man pulled his motorcycle over, walked up and squeezed Rosie's cheeks and talked to her for a few minutes in Croatian. Our first day In Dubrovnik, a very elderly man walked up and blessed Mikey chanting over him touching the top of his head repeatedly. Mikey still refers to his short lived fine as a celebrity in Istanbul With fondness although he never cared for being picked up without permission! All of these instances they rolled with and although they couldn't underderstand it, they respected it. As we enter the US with spiking covid cases and virtual school, we're thankful to be home, but mostly thankful we took advantage of the guven time overseas!

Written by Mary 10/24/20 - We love Turkey!

Turkey: Istanbul is magic! The challenges (finding clean water, dodging scoters and taxis, late nights, finding your way when Apple maps are unreliable, etc) are all the things that exhaust me but what I love and crave! I love the Call to prayer as it frequently reminds me of our spirituality which is drowned out in the US, I loved the Pretzel bread delivered to your door by the man carrying a tray of them fresh on a platter on his head, the kids loved the Endless animals - cows chickens sheep (outside of Istanbul) and of course the Cats and dogs. All the things in any populated city - things we’ve missed since leaving Manila 12 years ago. The culture fascinates me. The male female interaction stumps me. I can ask for something or suggest something but it is best when affirmed by Andy. The modern cosmopolitan city with obvious old traditions and new additions are exciting. We are a sight with three kids. I’ve been asked several times if we are Mormon, asked onece if Russian, twice if Spanish and all remaining inquiries assume we're British. We've met no Americans in turkey but met many couples who have been separated since covid meeting up in turkey and Croatia. Thanks to advising of friends who ‘gap yeared’ before us, I allowed myself to shop away thru turkey as the dollar goes a long way and the handmade crafts in Turkey are glorious! Turks like to stay up late (like 2am in our apartment complex) and we finally adapted and stayed up late too (better than laying there waiting). After a week in funfilled Istanbul with bazaars, mosques, tours, boat rides, shopping and hummus (did I mention the food is outstanding); we headed to Cappadocia. It felt like leaving denver for the mountains. The air was cooler and the towns were peaceful. We rode hot air balloons, hiked and fell in love with the small towns!

Written by Mary 10/20/20 - Good bye Croatia

Wrapping up Croatia: I think my favorite parts of Croatia will always be how we lived there instead of toured there. We shopped at the grocery every two days and I even learned how to cook their fish (frozen) and bake their tomato soup (from a packet). We would school and andy worked everyday while I tried to figure out local laundry and reserve our next travel spot. Most of the time we just set out to to explore, unlike a planned destination of a tourist. We were there long enough to make friends, play in their playgrounds regularly and really learn about life there. So long Croatia! We saw 11 of your cities and none disappoint!

A few more pics...

Written by Lucy 10/20/20

I am VERRY exited for Halloween. It will be so fun. Even though we will not get to go trick or treating with all of our friends. I love my costume! Rosie is going to be an inflatable giraffe, Mikey is going to be the Pokémon siduk, and I am going to be a pageant girl. Happy Halloween!!!

Written by Lucy 10/13/20

One of my favorite things about Croatia is the waterfalls and the national parks we have been to. They are so beautiful. I rember walking down a wooden path and having small water falls underneath us. I also remember, that we saw SOOOOO much nature, we saw 4 frogs, two snakes and, A LOT of water falls. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Written by Mary 10/1/20

Things I love/notice about Croatia: I love the smell after a rain because it’s a combo of Seabreeze and Mountain Scent! I love how Croatians (like a lot of Europe) use real functional Shutters and I Love how homes are named - villa Franco (home of the Francos). We are getting our fair share of small towns vs big cities... But don’t expect to get anything done! Rain, holiday, you name it, and they close down! Sunday afternoons are a day of rest in Catholic towns Fortunately for us, there are groceries/small markets everywhere. Europeans loves their daily fresh food! Croatia has protected much of its culture. MANY Croatians don’t speak English (more than we expected), there are no Starbucks in country and I’ve only seen 1 McDonald’s - far less than western influence I’ve seen in Asia. Most Croatians are up to date on American politics, love the US (bc of our support during the Yugoslavia war) and want to discuss the upcoming election I haven’t yet met a Croatian who doesn’t smoke. Seems to be an important part of gathering and chatting. Church bells ring at random all day long as they are not mechanical but are run by volunteers who may or may not be on time As our honeymoon period wears off and we meet and talk more openly with Croatians, we learn more about the governmental corruption and how challenged their economy really is. My final observation (that applies to most of our overseas travel) is the privilege of predictability that America comes with. If a street posts a stop sign, you can assume cars will stop. If a sidewalk leads in a direction, you can assume pedestrians are allowed. Separating ourselves from our American tendencies/privileges and experiencing some culture shock, is one of my favorite elements of overseas travel.

Written by Mikey 10/1/20

My moms bday is tomorrow. I noticed that traveling is really fun bc we get to go on our iPads a lot. There’s lots of lizards and we almost get kinder joys everyday. It’s very different bc I noticed that’s there’s a lot of plants. I noticed that their language and their talking is different than us. The food is really good. We go’d out to eat last night and I like vegetarian pizza!

Written by Mary 9/22/20:

Well we left about 18 days ago and are already getting used to the Croatian way of life. We’re in our third house (heading to our 4th at the end of the week) and some things that shocked me in early September are now becoming expected... There are stray cats everywhere! When we first got here we wouldn’t let the kids touch any of them. Now we’re learning which are friendly and they’re actually darling. I’ve befriended our neighbor who is a local (surprising in this highly tourist town) and she and her Parisian neighbor run a ‘cat ministry’ where they feed around 30 stray cats daily! The kids are in heaven and excited to help! I’m finally getting used to the laundry and hang drying everything on drying lines. Hang up those towels bc the kids are in and out and in and out and then in and out of the pool again! Feeding the kids has been interesting... many of our American staples are not found. No mac n cheese, no peanut butter, no ranch (surprise), no tortillas, no salsa (poor andy)! Fortunately we’re practically in Italy and pizza and pasta are regulars! It also took me a few tries to understand the system of weighing produce at the grocery but I figured it out after the clerk turned me away and told me no that weighing and labeling was up to me before I made it to the register. We're also getting used to visiting the market every day for food. As a mom who depended on amazon fresh, it took me longer to convert to the European lifestyle! I think one of my favorite parts of Croatia so far is the stark old meets new! Our current town has a beautiful marble boardwalk that lines the beach that seems relatively new but you’ll stumble into an a 1475 monastery (today on my run), or an old structure made of limestone (Croatia is solid limestone) and concrete leading into an old cave or stairwell likely abandoned for centuries. Some things are so old it’s peculiar how they're still standing! Another item that has been blowing our minds is the topography! Now that we’re in Bol, we feel that we’re in Colorado sometimes. There are pine trees everywhere and even right up to the ocean! The scent of the air is a beautiful salt water and pine tree mountain mix. Did you know most Croatians have enough olive trees to provide them with enough olive oil for one year? Olive trees and vineyards are EVERYWHERE. We stumbled upon some local Croatians offering wine tastings (basically out of their basement) and as thrilled Americans, we immediately bought two bottles. We regretted not tasting it firsr bc it ended up down the drain. As andy would say - ‘life is too short to drunk gross wine’. Especially when the grocery sells it for $4 (again feels like Italy or France). There are tourists everywhere and it’s fun to hear German, Dutch, French, etc regularly, but there are really no Americans. Since being here, we’ve met two. All for now, miss you dearly, MT

A Few Pics...

Written by Rosie 9/20/20

Hi my name is Rosie. Me and my family is in Croatia it is so much fun and it is so pretty. I will be here for 2 month’s. In one of the  houses we Stay in there were 3 turtles 🐢 one of the turtles 🐢 was small and one of the turtles 🐢 was big and the 3d turtles 🐢 was really really big.I LOVE THE TURTLES SO MUCH .🥰💖😘💕😜🐢.

Written by Lucy 9/20/20:

Top ten family fun: 1. Going on a ocean blow up obstacle course 2. Snorkeling in the ocean 3. Walking on The Great Wall of Old town in Dubrovnik 4. Going to Lopud island 5. Seeing a octopus at the Lopud Island Beach 6. Seeing lots and lots of stray cats and dogs 7. The concert at Bol beach 8. Losing our teeth 9. Going on two fairy boats 10. swimming in all of our pools

Written by Mikey 9/20/20:

My favorite part about Croatia has been the octapus, sea urchins, swimming in the pools, a lot of fish. One time we were swimming at a sandy beach and I noticed an octapus swimming in the ocean! It was cool and it had a lot of arms. I love the green apples here. We have seen a lot of tutles here - 13 turtles in a neighbor's yard! Today we fed a cat in our yard and tonight we're going to help the neighbors feed all the stray cats - 30 of them! One day we went on an obstacle course on the sea. It had a trampoline and a ringer thing but I didn't do it. My dad fell into the ocean a lot of times. It was super fun! There was this ringer thing in a row and you do the ringers across and I did it! I loved the trapeze! I'm happy we're here but I miss Denver. Rosie got a toy phone and Lucy lost her molar and Rosie lost her front tooth and the Croatian tooth fairy came!

Written by Lucy 9/8/20:

Airplane: Me and my family decided to go to Croatia. First we had to fly to Newark (New Jersey). The flight there was about three hours. On the plane I saw mountains, farmland, and the Statue of Liberty. I saw it when we where about to land at the airport. Then we put all our luggage in the plane that was headed to Munich Germany. We boarded the plane and it was AMAZING. It had two rows of seats and a small tv on the back of the seat in front of me. You could dim the lights and everything! IT WAS SO COOL! Then we started to take off. I started watching a movie on my iPad. Two hours later, we got Into our pajamas. When it was time for us to go to bed, my mom gave me sleepy spray that tasted like mint ice cream. When we went to bed I had a whole row of seats to lay down with. I did not sleep very well on the plane. In the morning, I woke up and breakfast was getting served. I did not feel very well. I felt a little sick. When we thirty minutes later we were going out of the plane in to the airport. I felt a LOT better. It was time for lunch. We each had a giant pretzel. It was so good. Then we got on the plane for one hour to Croatia and took off. We landed. Croatia!!!!