Where’s Wally: Australia

26 Nov 2010 1 Comment

by Robin in Australia, Where's Wally Tags: , , , , , ,

doing time

Today poor Wally is in an 1800s style prison cell inside the infamous Fremantle Prison – one of the places that the British convicts were sent in the 19th Century.

Wally actually has something in common with the prison though. The most famous escape, known as the Catalpa Escape, involved 6 Irish political prisoners.

John Boyle O’Reilly, the original escapist befriended a priest who smuggled him out of the prison on an American whaling boat. O’Reilly went on to become the editor of the Boston Pilot. After making his fortune he never forgot his friends. He disguised the Catalpa as a whaling ship and sailed to Australia where he rescued his fellow prisoners.

On there escape the Australian authorities caught up with them while still in Australian waters, however, the Catalpa raised the American flag and claimed that to fire on them would be to declare war is America. (how very American of him).

So the men sailed off safely to Boston…hopefully to become some of the first Red Sox fans.

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Introducing: Where’s Wally

11 Oct 2010 2 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure, Where's Wally Tags: , , , ,

Tim and I thought it was only right to take a little piece of Boston with us on our trip. For those of you who don’t know Wally, he’s the Mascot of the Boston Red Sox. “Wally the Green Monster” is named after the Notorious Green Monster in the left field of Fenway Park.

On Tap At Remy's

Today Wally is feeling right at home at Jerry Remy’s outside Fenway Park. More

Once In a Lifetime

05 Oct 2010 1 Comment

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: ,

[Audio https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9901364/03%20Once%20In%20A%20Lifetime.mp3%5D
On Life Change

The decision to travel isn’t just about travel. It’s a decision to take your life as you know it and lock it up in a 5′ by 10′ storage container. Everything you identify yourself with: your career, your community, your family and friends, in a way they get locked away too.

This is not easily done. I’ve recognized for a while though that life has a way of moving fast and slow at the same time, and despite my attempts, I have never been able to slow time down or speed it up. So failing at that, Tim and I are making a change.  One where the days are so different that they won’t be able to pass us by.
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One-Way Ticket

26 Sep 2010 2 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: ,

Why Long-term Travel

The most scary moment so far in the planning of this trip was when we purchased one-way tickets for an island most people have never heard of in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I had a moment of asking myself “why am I doing this again?” So I thought I would answer that here:

Adventure

Whenever I make the decision to go on a trip to a new place a vision tends to pop into my head: diving deep under water, wandering down an interesting alleyway, biking through rain forests, you get the idea. I love those kinds of adventures. It’s usually the ones I’m not planning on that are the best adventures though. Ending up in the wrong destination (that turns out to better than your intended one), attempting to order lunch from a waiter that speaks no English, or going out for just one quick drink and finding yourself at a 4am beach bonfire. The possibilities for these things on the road seem infinite.

Freedom

Unlike so many people, I loved my job. I didn’t love that my job caused me to be constantly attached to my email. I could leave for a week but my clients were still there while I was gone, and the requests were building up. I carried my job with me. To a lesser extent we all have obligations to our network of friends and family. Our “free time” is filled with baby showers, birthdays, helping friends move. We don’t mind these things individually, but we also enjoy the break. On the road, it’s just Tim and I. The days are ours – all of them. More

Life Less Ordinary

12 Sep 2010 4 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: ,

Here we go.

My husband and I are doing something insanely stupid. We’re giving up everything we have worked hard for years to achieve so we can spend the next several months being bit by mosquitoes, arguing in languages we don’t understand, and subjecting ourselves to some very ugly bathroom experiences.

And we can’t wait.

Today is the beginning, because it is the first blog post. It’s out in the world and we can’t take it back now. Of course, we have been mentioning plans to friends and family for years now.  The responses have been all over the place, but the biggest thing we hear is “I would love to do that, but…”    All types of things follow that…jobs, family, it just sounds so risky and scary.   They ask “aren’t you scared?” And the answer is – Yes! Scared s%!tless.  I don’t know why we tell ourselves being scared of something means we shouldn’t do it. It makes life more fun.

The idea for this trip started years ago. Tim and I were out to dinner one night and I was explaining that it would be hard to get to all the countries we wanted to visit by taking one or two-week vacations. He listened hesitantly while I mentioned long-term travel. I remember him saying “how about a month?” and I said “maybe,” but I always knew if we were going to do it we had to go bigger than that.
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