Munich, Germany
One of several murals over the urinals in Oktoberfest beer tents.
Who do these people think they are, Kiwis!?
We did our very best to have as authentic an experience as we could at Oktoberfest
Continue reading “Lederhosen!”
Oktoberfest!
Munich, Germany
As we’ve said some things are just too time sensitive to wait.
The first was when we managed to make it to the London 2012 games and even scored tickets to what we came to call “The North-American Throwdown.”
This time we find ourselves at another festival of human endurance:
Life Achievement unlocked – Oktoberfest!!
Continue reading “Oktoberfest!”
Related posts:
But how much does it cost!?
Enroute Coff’s Harbour, AU
As many of you know the main question we get when it come to how get started as volunteer crew is how to deal with seasickness.
The second most often asked question is similar to the one Mike asked us a few weeks ago:
“All signs in my life point towards the adventure you two have chosen. My top two bucket list items right now are live on a boat and sail around the world. I thought these would be goals for much (much) later in life but as a 27 year old I think the time is now.
Do you have any advice for savings needed for say, 1 year of volunteer sailing?”
Well, yes, yes we do…
Continue reading “But how much does it cost!?”
Related posts:
Semper Gumby
Opua, New Zealand
So there we were (doesn’t every great story start that way?) in Coff’s Harbour and little did we know that this would be the end of our Australian East Coast Adventure.
[fgallery id=11 w=450 h=385 t=0 title=”Great Australian East Coast Adventure”]
We were doing a bit of work at a hostel in exchange for accommodation, deciding what our next move was going to be and looking at the boats available on FindACrew.net. Huh. Imagine that! There was a boat in New Zealand looking for a couple of crew to help deliver it to Australia! We got in touch with the owner, who was willing to pay us to fly out to his boat so he could get it delivered to a transport ship in Brisbane and sent back home to the US.
He seemed like a decent guy on the phone and since he paid for the flight, we decided to take a risk and were off back to New Zealand!
NZ North Island Grog Files
New Zealand – North Island
Soft Drinks
L & P
Type: Soft Drink
Rating: 3 sheets to the wind
Website: http://www.cokecareers.co.nz/products
(yeah, Coke bought ‘em. That’s globozation for ya.)
Notes: It would be wrong to have a page about the drinks of New Zealand and not mention Lemon & Paeroa. It’s the New Zealand soft drink and we’re really not sure why it hasn’t become a world-wide sensation! Like you’ll see in other places on this page, New Zealand does not save their best efforts for “the good stuff” because even their widely distributed common drinks are just excellent. Continue reading “NZ North Island Grog Files”
Lazy Birds
Dunedin, NZ
The Kiwi Roadtrip continues!
As long as you don’t mind the pressing need to bundle up in order to explore a land listed as “one of the closest to Antarctica” it’s sometimes hard to decide which is more magnificent, the countryside around Dunedin or the immaculate buildings in the city itself:
Seasickness – when all else fails
This is the third in a 3 part series on how to prevent and overcome seasickness by Greg. Take a look at the first two articles.
Mindset is critical. After all, seasickness is all in your head. No, seriously, it is (and yes, that means it’s all in my head too).
The short explanation for the reason people get seasick is that their mind is attempting to compensate their sense of balance with what they see and feel. (Long explanation here.) On a boat, what people see and feel for motion don’t always line up like they do on land. The mind gets confused in a new environment with odd motions and then wham, down you go.
So can someone literally think them self sick? Yes. Yes they can. That’s another reason for all the preventative methods. Dumbo has his feather and I have my eucalyptus oil. Placebo or not, who cares? It works and I even smell better than Dumbo. The good news is that you can also use the same mental effect to feel better. Though there is no cure for seasickness, I have witnessed time and again people feeling significantly better when forced to steer the boat by hand.
Yes people, the ship’s auto pilot is the enemy here – turn it off. There are a few possible explanations for why this works:
Is it worth it to go home?
Enroute San Jose, CA, USA
It provides us with endless amusement that after all the places we’ve sailed to, all the countries we’ve travelled around by boat, that we’ve flown into and out of Auckland, New Zealand…the “City of Sails.”
Sometimes we just enjoy being contrarian because we can be.
There comes a moment of truth in every long-term traveler’s trip when they are forced to confront a simple question with a heck of a lot of implications:
“Is this worth going home for?”
Volunteer Crewing 101
What are the three biggest unavoidable expenses of Travel?
1) Transportation
2) Accommodation
3) Food
Now what if, in order to not pay the first two, you were forced to spend your days in tropical splendor visiting the remote places completely inaccessible to common travelers? Continue reading “Volunteer Crewing 101”
8 Years Ago Today!
Hey, it’s our anniversary! We got married in Las Vegas 8 years ago today!
It’s been an interesting ride for us over the years, going from Coast Guard officers, to business owners, to around the world sailors, but we’ve enjoyed it all.
This is the second anniversary that we’ve had since we started our trip back in October of 2009, and it’s strange how people think we should celebrate it. “Normal” people go out for dinner, or on a short vacation, but we do that stuff all of the time! One person was stunned to hear that we don’t have any special plans for today. “You’re not going to go out to dinner? Well that’s not very romantic” were her exact words. But my question to you is – what exactly is romance?
Since we’ve been on this trip, we’ve spent more time in each other’s company on a daily basis than we ever have. And I mean EVER. Most “normal” people spend all day with their coworkers, not their spouses. Prior to this trip, the most time we regularly spent together was every evening and weekends. When we were working together we still didn’t spend this much time together because we went to different meetings and worked with other people. So what can be more “romantic” than getting to spend all day, every day, with your chosen spouse?
We thought about today, and talked about making plans to “do something”, but we already have lots of amazing things planned! Any one of them could be a “second honeymoon” or an “anniversary vacation”. Why does it have to happen now, today? We acknowledge between us the significance of this day, but it’s more of a “hey, cool, eight years!”
Like this article? Check out our thoughts on coming home by clicking on Greg’s last birthday entry “So, when are you coming home?“