We recently passed the two-month mark since we planted our feet back on home soil here in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Leading up to our flight back home, we had so many mixed feelings on how things would be once we got back from an incredible nine month adventure around the world. We’ve been a little quiet on the blog lately, so I thought it was about time to put together an update!

Keeping Busy

So what have we been up to? A whole lot of nothing and everything all in one. Our first couple of weeks back home were spent catching up with family and friends. It felt like we were still living the nomadic lifestyle, as we hopped back and forth between different family homes, lugging the same backpacks and clothes with us everywhere we went.

In April, we had the opportunity to catch up with Fred Hutton on the VOCM Morning Show, and Anthony Germain of the CBC Morning Show, both of which were really fun!

Last month, I went back to my old high school, where I talked to a Grade 10 class, in French I might add, all about our trip. It was fun to walk back down memory lane and run into some of my old teachers. The kids had lots of interesting questions, most importantly, did we wash our clothes on the road and did I bring a hair straightener and make-up with me (the answers, in case you are wondering, are yes, no and yes, respectively). A couple of weeks later, we headed into Steven’s old high school to speak to a couple of Grade 12 World Religion classes.

At the end of May, we spent a week in Toronto to visit with family, organize all of our stuff still in storage, and enjoy some real summer weather.

Finally, we’ve spent some time trying to process how this trip has changed us while trying to adapt back into the western world. I’ll save our thoughts on that for another post. 🙂

New Beginnings

If any of you had a chance to listen to our interviews on the radio, you’ll remember that we mentioned we’d soon be gearing up for an across Canada road trip. Well, in true ‘finelinetravels’ style, at the last minute, our plans have changed.

We are excited to announce that we are….

STAYING IN NEWFOUNDLAND!

Prior to taking off on our RTW trip, Steven and I spent eight years living away from Newfoundland, in Edmonton, Calgary and then Burlington. We had always said that we weren’t quite ready to make the move back to the Rock, because there were things that we loved about living away. Then, after a lot of discussion, Steven accepted a job transfer here in St. John’s! He started this week and so far it’s been going well!

We also bought a condo and moved in over the weekend. A year later, we are unpacking the same boxes we were so excited to pack up last year before the big adventure. I’m not going to lie – putting down roots again has some of bittersweet feelings attached to it. There is something so special and freeing about waking up in a new place every week with a wide-open schedule.

Drinking coconuts on the beach? Sure, why not. Hop on the motorbike and check out a new spot on the island? Um, yes. Nap at 2pm on a Wednesday? Don’t mind if I do. Dinner with complete strangers from all parts of the world? Sign us up.

Getting back into a routine has been, and will continue be, an adjustment. I think the best way to describe our last nine months is that a RTW trip is like a bootcamp on your senses, new places, faces, sights, smells and sounds everyday. But, we are ready to embrace this next chapter!

I’m sure you are all wondering, what does this mean for the blog? Well, first of all, we’ve still got a lot of catching up to do on the last couple of months of our trip; our experience as the first ever guests at Drop In Bungalows in Lombok, Indonesia, our return to Australia, our visit to Vancouver, and road trip to Seattle and Portland.

We’ve also been getting a lot of questions lately about the logistics of our trip;

How much did it cost? What did we pack? Do you have to win the lottery to travel around the world? How did you manage to stay married and not kill each other after spending nine months travelling together?

We’ll answer all of those questions in the coming months!

Once we get caught up on that, we plan to play tourist in our home province and will soon be putting together a bucket list of all the amazing things we want to see and do now that we are home. In case you missed it, we also put together a list of our Top 10 Things to Do in Newfoundland.

Finally, if you haven’t figured it out already, we’ve still got the travel bug. While we don’t have any concrete plans right now, we will definitely be checking out some new countries in the fall of 2015. We haven’t even scratched the surface on experiences we want to have in this incredible world of ours.

So stay tuned for an exciting summer of adventures from finelinetravels!

Oh – and one last thing, if anyone out there is looking to hire an accountant, who will definitely use all of her vacation time (and then some!), get at me!

jess