literally<\/em> all but we have more than 40 days there so we are seeing a shittonne of it. Right now, the only song I can think of to provide the soundtrack is Tori Amos\u2019s \u201cChina\u201d which is kind of a downer so if anyone can make some suggestions I definitely need them. (Am I having a total brain fart or are there no China-based musicals? Booo.) We\u2019re visiting Beijing, Shanghai (bunsssss! I want steamed bunssss), Nanxun, Hangzhou, Huangshan, Guilin, Yangshuo, Chengdu (origin (not) of my dad\u2019s Chinese restaurant staple, Chengdu triple delight!), Xi\u2019an, and then through the western border via Urumqi and Kashgar. I\u2019m gonna see giant pandas!! And so much other stuff. A lot of stuff. It\u2019s hard to wrap my head around anything past Moscow right now but hopefully I will figure out a way to blog while in China or at least very soon after we leave so I can share everything we do.<\/p>\nWe exit China into Kyrgyzstan, which honestly I didn\u2019t know was a real place until we decided to go there. We have a lot of hikes and a lotttt of horseback riding in Kyrgyzstan because that is how they get from place to place, and no matter how much I don\u2019t want to do that, you have to in order to visit this country [ed. note: you don’t! we got around that! we walked!]. The beautiful, remote places we will get to should make it worth it. After almost 2 weeks in Kyrgs, we bus (peeee???) into Kazakhstan, which we are really excited about because we are going to make sooooo maaaaany Boooooraaaat jooooookes. They will hate us but man alive is that going to be hilarious just to the two of us. Chinqui!<\/p>\n
After Kazakhstan, we will be going to Uzbekistan, so by this point our trip is a huge challenge for Herman Cain to talk about. We see all the things (it\u2019s not until SEPTEMBER I can\u2019t fit the details in my brain just yet) before returning to Moscow via Volgograd to catch the train to Kiev, Ukraine. We are going to visit Chernobyl when there, which seems a little scary because of radioactivity but we decided to do it because who knows how much longer the planet has left anyway. From Kiev, we take the train to Warsaw, Poland, which I am really excited about because I\u2019ve never been to Poland and that\u2019s where the other half of my paternal ancestors are from (the maternals are all eye-tals it\u2019s a spicy meataball! I\u2019m so good at accents of my people). More of I go to old country! Finally, after Poland, we take our 500th and final train (at least of this trip) to Berlin, Germany, one of our favorite cities in the world, where Husband and I got engaged and the vegan food is beyond belief. Even though we won\u2019t be there for three and a half months, I already know what I\u2019m ordering from that all-vegan French bakery. Oh and vegan doner kebab! I\u2019m going to be hungry. I have so many nuts and protein bars in my backpack.<\/p>\n
From Berlin, we fly back to London, where we will probably have to be reacclimated to normal life like astronauts when they come back from space except hopefully we will have gotten better, not worse, at walking.<\/p>\n
Jeez I\u2019m tired just talking about everything we\u2019re going to do! It\u2019s going to be quite a challenge for me considering I\u2019ll be doing without my four favorite things in the world (sleep, television, gyms, green smoothies with Vega) but I think I will be better for it. (Ha you thought I was going to say theatre but we already have amazing tickets for the opera and the ballet in the next two weeks dance dance dance emojis!)<\/p>\n
I know it\u2019s kind of scary to be going to some of these places at this turbulent time. And I realize how, um, awkward it is to be going to Russia when their involvement in the election is the top issue right now (and should be until it\u2019s resolved). But as we learned in the last month, it\u2019s just as safe, or not safe, in London as it is anywhere we could go. We\u2019re all at risk of some sort as soon as we get out of bed each day, but we can\u2019t let that fear dictate how we live our lives, because a sheltered unexamined life is easily wasted (although there is a good Broadway musical song extolling its virtues hello \u201cWicked\u201d shoutout). I know that\u2019s high talk coming from me, since I am the biggest scaredycat and worrywart (#scaredywortworrycat) out there, but I want to travel and I want to have fun and see the whole world and I can\u2019t do that from my couch, as much as I love couch. You have to do stuff, is what I\u2019m saying, and live your life without fear of the worst possible outcome, because all the other outcomes are pretty great, and regardless I think we\u2019re all in some version of The Matrix anyway.<\/p>\n
But on that note, I\u2019m not going to be writing about any political issues or anything controversial in places like Russia and China, at least not while I\u2019m in their jurisdiction. As outspoken and political as I am, it would be beyond stupid to risk anything in countries whose freedom of speech laws are more restrictive than I\u2019m used to.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure about the internet connection I\u2019ll have over the next 3 \u00bd months, and when I do have internet, I\u2019m not sure which sites will be blocked (except for in China, where I know everything is blocked). I\u2019ll do my best to blog as much as I can, so make sure to keep checking back on the home page <\/a>for updates (that\u2019s the best way, because I know facebook and twitter updates will be hard if not impossible, and Weebly doesn\u2019t have a program for sending emails to subscribers when new posts are up (dammit Adam!)).<\/p>\nSo that\u2019s the big exciting news! What an adventure it will be! Be sure to follow along. And if you have been to any of the places we are going to, please comment or email (link at top) with any tips, advice, and recommendations you have! Da svidanyaaaaa!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u200bYay it\u2019s time for our big news! This summer (and some of the fall!), we are taking the incredible sabbatical trip that we\u2019ve been talking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-7559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-d1","tag-foodtravel"],"yoast_head":"\n
Travel Adventure Announcement! I Go To Old Country\u2026a lot of them - Laughfrodisiac<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n