London, England

Well, we are back in Paris for the week after a lovely long weekend in London. We caught up with an old friend from Australia and together we all discovered new parts of this huge city together. Some of our favourite things include seeing Beirut live at the HMV Apollo, carpark/rooftop pop up art display and restaurant, brick lane curries and doing a few things off Brian Ferry's list.
-morgan

Oxford - Abingdon, England

These last few days we have been exploring the locations of my parents youth around Oxford and Abingdon. It has been such a joy to spend time with my two Uncles (on both my mother and fathers side) hearing stories from the past and catching up on what is new. This is the first time Morgan has met my family living in England, and it has been so great introducing him. We have eaten many traditional English delights like strawberries, pork pies and drinking a pint of warm beer.
-kim

26 countries

The other week I did a little count and worked out I have been to 26 countries (other than the country of my birth) in my 24 years of living. I am pretty proud of this. In 2008 the count was at 21, just after I had my 21st birthday, and I am pretty happy that as my 25th birthday comes up in June, I have brought the country count up again, greater than my age. I hope as the years go on I can keep on traveling and explore more and more countries.

At this point in time I have spent time in the following counties:
Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Wales.

I know morgan and I have a few more countries we will explore in Europe in the next 12 months, and can't wait to see where that next place will be. But for now, I am happy with my memories so far of all the places I have been.

The following photos are from a trip I did in 2008, in which I went to 15 countries (mostly in Europe) with my friend Esther. Most of the photos used are hers.
-kim

2012: a review

Last year was a massive year for us, and it has been so so fun to be able to share it with you all here on the blog. Here are a few facts and figures about how we spent 2012.

362 = days spent outside of Australia
46 = number of beds slept in around the world
6 (Kim) & 8 (Morgan)= weeks of paid work
7 1/2 = months in France
15 1/2 = Countries visited (we never slept in Italy but went twice)
USA, Iceland, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Scotland, Norway, England, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey.
16 = cities/villages we stayed in France
9500 = km's driven in our Renault 4L around France
12 = number of airplane flights
6 = number of long haul bus trips (2-12 hours)
10 = number of long haul train trips (2-10 hours)
100 = Kg of baggage on arrival back in Australia
15,000 = estimate amount of AU$ we spent while away

We never would have of guessed what 2012 would have been like. Had we have known what was in store, maybe we would not have done it all, but we have absolutely no regrets. We have made so many new friends this year and had so many incredible encounters. As we look back, we are often overwhelmed at how amazing life can be. We are so pumped for 2013 and have even more unknown expectations as to what will come in the year ahead, but what ever it is, it is sure to be great.
-morgan and kim

And we are off...

Thanks to the wonders of discount airlines, we are off and away on a 3 week adventure to Scotland, Norway and England. Yesterday we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland and we having a great time exploring this beautiful city. Today we climbed up to Arthur's Seat, saw the castle, and even had our first deep fried mars bar.
-kim