You Call This a Vacation?

   

    Tonight we are in Warsaw Poland, after another day of travel, and it's snowing ...

    Krakow was a beautiful city, but man, it was cold.  We aren't used to the rain and low temperatures, after so many warm and sunny countries.  And this morning while we were walking about and catching the sights, it started snowing.  

     Bad weather cuts down on your options, just staying warm becomes a priority.  We had to cut short our city walk in Krakow because we were so darn cold.  And this was after an intense day of travel yesterday from Lake Como, Italy.  So we were tired and we running on empty ...

    So we made our way to Warsaw, according to plan, and arrived here this evening.  It was snowing pretty hard on the way here.  We took a train, a bullet type train, very modern, fast, and smooth.  But the weather in Northern Europe is not as friendly as the Mediterranean, where we spent the last couple weeks.

    

    Why do we travel so hard?  Isn't this supposed to be a vacation?

    We haven't been using the phrase "vacation" to describe our trip ...

    The way we look at it, we are not trying to "vacate" anything, we are trying to "engage". 

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with taking a vacation, or "holiday" as much of the English speaking world call it.   They would say "so you're on holiday?"  when they ask us about our trip. 

    And our response is more like, we are traveling, and trying to visit some places off the beaten path, going around the world and looking for adventure. 

    

    Many of the places we've been have experienced (or are experiencing) tough times and even extreme violence.

    For example: When we were in Egypt, there was a bomb went off downtown, not far from where we were.  We were unaware of it at the time. At least one person was killed. That is precisely why people avoid traveling there right now ... we didn't.  

    And after we left Istanbul, they suffered a major serious power outage across the city, resulting in rather disastrous mayhem.  This was followed by an attack on the police station.
    And then there was the attack on the Museum in Tunisia, where gunmen attacked and killed a bunch of tourists.  This is very close to Malta - we were just there, it's only 218 miles from Tunisia. 

    And just today in Kenya, another recent stop on our trip, there was a ghastly brutal armed terrorist attack on a University and at least 147 students and others were killed in a shootout.

    Not to mention a plane went down when a pilot went bonkers and deliberately crashed into the Alps, not terribly far from where we were the last few days in Northern Italy.   

   All this to say that we are certainly not looking for trouble -although trouble seems to find us - but it sure doesn't feel like a vacation most of the time.  
    We have never yet once laid by the pool, or hardly even stopped to catch our breath.   Read a book?  Are you kidding me?  Wash your clothes?  Not a chance ...  (As I write this, Fiona is washing her socks in the bathroom sink in our room) 

    Every night this week we have stayed in a different hotel.  It gets tiring.  Three different countries already this week, with another one tomorrow - Portugal. But we want to make the best of our time and keep going. 
    We wouldn't have it any other way.  We like adventure, but it's hard to find the perfect balance between fun and exciting ... and ... exhausting and dangerous.    
    So, the word "vacation" probably is not appropriate.  Around the World in 80 days wasn't supposed to be easy, but we are heading down the home stretch with flags flying.  
    Booyah!