10 THINGS TO KNOW: Northern Ireland & ROI

1. Have a raincoat of some kind. Weather is cold and unpredictable. But be tough like the locals and go out there anyway. 

FAMILY REVIEW: Paris, France

The City of LOVE!

When we arrived in Paris, it was just as rainy as Ireland!

Even though we had never been to Paris or to France, it was still a familiar feeling returning back to mainland Europe.

FAMILY REVIEW: Northern Ireland & ROI

Welcome to Ireland, land of the DUNN'S!

10 THINGS TO KNOW: Scotland

1. The further away you go from Edinburgh, the stronger the Scottish accent will be. Edinburgh was still strong but the higher we went up the country, the stronger it became. But even when we were in Stranraer, south-west of the country, the accent was still pretty strong. We found ourselves nodding and smiling sometimes when people talked to us and we had no idea what they were saying.

10 THINGS TO KNOW: England (and Wales)

1. Expect unpredictable weather everywhere in England! It could be beautifully cloudless in the morning and stormy by night. Always take your jackets/umbrellas/ponchos. 

FAMILY REVIEW: England (and Wales) - PART I

LANDING AND ADJUSTING

After being in Athens for a month in mid to top 30s, it was a huge relief arriving in England and it was a nice cool 14℃!

10 THINGS TO KNOW: Athens, Greece

1. Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding. For reals though. Even though their Greek characters were based in America, some of their characteristics are so similar. Our taxi driver would say jokes to us on our drive from and back to the airport and he said them so flatly but while smiling that we weren't sure if he was joking or not. Just like in the movie when the brother and cousin said to Ian: "We're gonna kill ya!" while smiling. Not sure if they're joking, not sure if they're serious. Humour is different guys... but you just smile through it and hope they really are joking!

10 THINGS TO KNOW: Tuscany, Italy

1. Tuscany is a large region! HIRE A CAR to get yourself around - it will be worth it! The main highway between Pisa and Florence is not a toll road (yay) but go off that highway onto the autostrade and expect tolls.

FAMILY REVIEW: Pula, Croatia

CROSSING TWO BORDERS

In trying to keep costs down, we booked a bus with FlixBus from Venice to Pula. Their website said they had free wifi and USB plugs and a toilet on every bus. They only had the wifi.

10 THINGS TO KNOW: Venice, Italy

1. Venice City (the area you would want to visit) has only one road in and out as they are a cluster or islands just off the shore of the greater Venice area. 

10 THINGS TO KNOW: Verona, Italy

1. They do not have Uber or Uber Eats.

ARRIVAL: From Milano to Verona

After rushing through the Abu Dhabi Airport, we learned we needed to do things a little differently...

STOP OVER: United Arab Emirates

The UAE (not to be confused with the EAC... from Finding Nemo), was our stop over on our way to Italy. We purposefully chose this as our stop over and purposefully chose it to be 20 hours. In hindsight, I may have made it a longer stay over to just catch up on sleep plus have enough time to see what we wanted. It wasn't enough time for both. We made do with our choice though!

But back to the stop over...

How we nearly DIDN'T get here

I like reading honest blogs so I want to tell you the honest truth.

Life is hard, man.

It may seem like we are living a grand ol' life but it's harder than it looks to up and travel for so long. It felt like everything was trying to stop us from going, or at least making a miserable time of it.

Travel Block #1: Trying to sell our car. We were so close to cutting our losses and selling it for so much less than our spreadsheets had hoped for because of some rip off artists trying to squeeze as much as possible from us. It would have put a damper on our plans and I would have had to accept the dread of shared bathrooms in hostels or worse, we may have had to push a lot of things down and even accept defeat. It was a heavy stress to carry with weeks to go. Luckily, with some much needed advice, it sold just over a week before we left. It was such a blessing!

Hadrian's Post #1: Final Two Nights

It's only two nights until we leave for Europe. Yes, two nights until we take our long planned trip to the other side of the world. This may be the longest two nights of our lives. It's quite hard to explain to everyone that we were travelling all over Europe for 10 months(or so). I am so lucky! I am also lucky to not have to go to an actual school. But homeschooling does have its downsides.

I can't believe I have to spend nearly 10 months alone with my parents. I don't even get a break at school! They're my teachers! So although I am very lucky to travel, I will definitely need a break from my parents after we settle back down.😁😁😁😁

(I do actually enjoy my time with my parents. I am just following along with what my parents think I will do.)

Final Days

This morning was our final Sunday at our ward. Our last Sunday in an English speaking ward until around August! The person who said the opening prayer said it in Spanish and of course we understood nothing. I leaned over to Nathan and said: "This is gonna be us for the next few months... not understanding a thing". He was optimistic and said: "We will understand them". Umm, acca-scuse me? Is there something you want to tell me? Can you secretly speak Italian? 

Andiamo! Allons-y! Let's gone!

4 sleeps to go!

It's looking pretty real now :)

Our lives condensed into 5 bags!

Here's how it all began...

PS... yes I do mean "Let's Gone!"