Today, I received a postcard in the mail from my friend Joyce, who along with her husband Jack, is currently on a Round the World trip. As the postcard shows, they were recently in Peru, visiting the famed Machu Picchu, a destination firmly anchored on our must-see list. Joyce and Jack have had a pretty crazy year. Joyce graduated with her master’s degree in June, they were married in September, and they left on their trip in October. It doesn’t get a lot more exciting than that.
Earlier this year, I got a phone call from Joyce. She was contemplating what she wanted to do post-graduation and said that Jack had suggested that they spend some time traveling. She wasn’t sure what she thought about this but knew I was the one person who wouldn’t think they were absolutely nuts for even considering it. Of course, I was all for it and spent the entire conversation cheerleading for travel. After all, I’d been planning a similar trip since at least 2005 when Jeff and I got married, but actually for much longer than that. I think we first discussed it as we were graduating college, and I was heading off to Greece and Jeff off to grad school in DC. This is a trip a long, long time in the making.
Anyhow, in the end, Joyce didn’t need a lot of convincing, and they’re now out seeing the world (with much, much less planning time than we’ve had!). If you want to read about their travels, you can visit Joyce’s blog or Jack’s blog. They haven’t posted a lot so far, but I’m hopeful that things will pick up at some point. I know I’m anxious to hear about their adventures.
For now, I’ll take the postcards. Though our itinerary will differ greatly from their’s, we are visiting some of the same places, so it’s fun to hear their impressions of places we will be soon. And while I know I’m too much of a planner to have done the trip with the relatively little amount of planning they were able to squeeze in between finishing up school and planning a wedding, it just goes to show that there’s no right or wrong way to do a RTW trip. It’s all about your style, your goals, and your dreams.
Have you started planning your trip yet?