We were of course greeted by masses of grey cloud and cool temperatures (although it soon became gloriously sunny). Seeing the familiar faces of family and friends has been a great reward, though.
Our short time here in London was supposed to help us tie up the loose ends of our upcoming travel for the year. But as happens in life, we have been thrown one curve ball after another. It has only been in the last day or so that I have been able to relax into the twists and turns that have been appearing.
We set off on Monday on a big road trip. We are driving to a small island off of the Croatian mainland to Claude’s childhood haunt. We’ll be spending all of June there lapping up the salty Adriatic Sea and pumicing our feet on the rocky beaches.
Following Croatia it was our plan to spend July and August in France, but our house-sit there fell through. We were really optimistic at first, as we had applied for another house-sit in Spain and the response seemed positive. But then it appeared as if Spain was going to fall through, too. We energetically began researching other European rental options only to be slapped in the computer screen with high-end rental prices. After all it is peak season in Europe.
After thinking out of the box, we decided to maybe spend some time in a beachy place in Albania or we had a reply back from a place in Italy that would suit our needs, although more than we ideally would like to spend on a month’s rent.
As this was all playing in our foreground, in the background we have also been working on our plan for after Europe, trying to snap up a good flight deal in the process. We thought we had it all figured out. This was our tentative plan: 2 weeks in Toledo visiting my family, 4 weeks in FL (3 of which I would be doing my Hippocrates programme), 2 weeks in Trinidad with my best friend, 6-months in Brazil, 2 months in Uruguay, 2 months in Argentina and a return to the UK.
It all seemed like such a breeze. But as we began researching how to obtain a Brazilian visa for me, we uncovered a nasty little deterrent. Although Zenchai does not need a visa to enter Brazil (he would use his British passport), all children between 3 mos. and 6 yrs. are required to have a polio vaccination.
For most children this would not be a problem, but we have opted to not vaccinate Zenchai. As this is a very hot topic I’ll leave it at that. So we don’t think there is anyway around this hurdle and therefore would forgo a trip there until he is older.
Back to the foreground. Our Spanish house-sit seems to have revived itself and it is looking very bright. If that does go down the drain then we have ruled out Albania due to not being able to get car insurance coverage there. Instead we will head to Italy.
And for the convenience of our London-based family we might just push our departure date to Toledo forward and thus the rest of the trip begins. The idea to head to South America is still there, but missing out Brazil could open the possibility of heading to New Zealand, Australia and Asia from Argentina.
Things were feeling in limbo and though everything is still a little unclear, I have settled a bit more. I guess this is all just a part of life on the road.
Watch this space and as our itinerary unfolds we’ll be sure to update it here.
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