Parlare come Romani

Or Say That Again Real Slow 

I have been traveling for over 30 years.  I do not speak another language.  I have tried to learn other languages and found that I just do not have a talent or the proper ear to speak the language back.  Is it fear?  Most likely.  Is it laziness?  Don’t think so.

My husband speaks fluent Spanish.  He’s been speaking it since grammar school.  He studied it again in high school and refreshed his skills in night school the year before we began to travel.  His Spanish skills got us through all of Latin America and in some of the countries in Europe.  Spanish is spoken in almost half of the countries in the world so this one skill is huge for us.

In Croatia they speak Croatian and while the language looks really hard (they have almost no vowels in their words) it is pretty easy once you study it.  In many of the countries we have traveled to even if Spanish was not the primary language Mike’s Spanish was enough to help us muddle our way through.

Now, I can and will say phrases that have helped me on my way.  Really important things like; Good Morning, Please and Thank you, Where is the Bank; How far is the grocery store and my personal favorite – Where is the closest toilet!  We also look up phrases or important words on our computers and write them down and show them to vendors or sales people and that always works as well.

We have not found a software program or a portable translator that has good reviews so even though they might make our lives easier we tend to do everything the old fashioned way, we fake it!  Now we do not shout at people; we do not make obscene gestures to anyone and we do not barter with people to get our message across.  We try our best and mostly, if we try, people will try to meet us halfway and we can communicate well.  After all they are trying to sell us something or show us something too so it’s in their best interests to meet us half way.

For some reason I am able to listen to what someone in another language says and I can tell Mike what they want in English.  Not sure why but I seem to be able to pick up the languages I hear quickly and to know what they are asking for or what information they need faster than Mike who does have a slight hearing loss and no hearing aids.  Together we communicate well.

We have not allowed our lack of language skills to stop us from traveling somewhere or in getting someplace.  I suppose this might change in the future but we are certainly not going to let this stop us from exploring or in getting to see or know a place.  Now you might be wondering how we can travel or see things and learn more about a place or a culture by just muddling through and in not speaking the language.  Try this. The next time you are in a foreign country ask someone if you can take their picture.  Better yet, take your picture with them and smile.  For some reason that smile makes you friends and friends are going to help you communicate; or buy that loaf of bread; or find that toilet.

Yes, it would be wonderful if Mike and I both spoke 12 languages.  But we speak the one language everyone does understand, the language where we come in peace and we want to be friends.

Florence Lince

About.me/florencelince

Banks, Credit Cards and the Fees that Bind Us

Or There Needs to be a Better Way

We are not traditional expats which means we do not live longer than 6 months in any country.  This also means we do not intend to open a bank account in a foreign country.  I’m not sure why people do this in the first place, unless you are working in a foreign country and it’s a requirement I wouldn’t even consider it.

Some people do it because they are moving to a new country (expats) and they move their money before they have really lived in that country for an extended period of time.  I’ll give you Panama as an example.  Lots of people move there and immediately open a bank account because they think that will help them establish residency.  The problem is they have to start any account with no less than $5,000 and they have to jump through some serious paperwork hoops to get that account opened.  Then for some reason they convert their whole check or money into the foreign currency.  Even though the money that spits out of an ATM machine in Panama is the US dollar they are going to charge you to convert your money into Panamanian Balboa’s.  This is all fine and dandy if you really are going to stay in a foreign country when you leave the US but many of these fine folks do not end up staying in Panama (or in any of these countries). I constantly advise expats to not open a bank account in any foreign country for at least the first year.  If you think you are going to stay in that country after that point and you want to convert all your money over, good for you.  If you decide to leave (and most do return home) then you haven’t wasted your time and money in getting a bank account opened in a foreign country.

For us setting up a bank account so we can get cable TV or internet or even a cell phone is just a waste of money.  Having our money deposited into a so called International Bank to make banking easier is also a complete fallacy, unless you are a top tier member and have lots of money your account in the US might as well be in a local bank as in an international institution.  There is no benefit to you in establishing this account; no wire transfers will be done; no withdrawal of money will happen, no perks, no help and no customer service.  Your account in the US is just that; your account in the US.  It does not establish your account in a world bank.

Mike’s SS check gets direct deposited into a bank account in the US.  We use our ATM cards to withdraw the cash we need on a weekly or monthly basis.  We do not have all of our money converted into the currency of the country we are living in.  If we did this we would then have to pay the conversion fees to have our money converted back into US dollars when we visit the US.  ATM cards work on machines all over the world. Many of the countries we travel through, especially in the EU will take each others money as well.  In Bosnia-Herzegovina for instance they took the Euro, the Kuna (Croatian money) and then their own currency (Bosnian Marks).  Most countries will also take the American dollar. Most of our purchases are done with cash; cash of the country we are in; this way we also get to keep better watch on what we are spending.  Another tip is to know the pin code of every card in your wallet.  You never know when you will need that number.

The EU has gone to a credit card with a chip in it.  They don’t swipe cards any longer here and so our American cards are quickly becoming a nuisance.  Mike has a loyalty card with US Bank which he’s had since it began so it’s hard to get rid of and I have a card of my own which does not charge us conversion or transaction fees when we make purchases.  We pay off our credit cards every month electronically.  Our credit cards are used only for travel related purchases; airfares, hotel stays, etc.  We do not purchase souvenirs’ and we pay our rent and for food in cash.

So banking isn’t really a hardship or a problem. Our biggest task is to remember to let all the financial institutions and credit card companies know which countries we will be in and when. Many financial institutions only have the capability to flag your account with travel dates for 3 months at a time.  This means we are constantly calling them to update our travel plans.

We have had fraud occur, even with how careful we are.  This past September while we were filming the web series Discover Croatia someone used our credit card number and bought themselves some pretty fine dining; in Texas.  The problem was we were in Croatia at the time and we had video proof of our whereabouts.  I still had to call all the vendors to break the bad news to them and when I got some push back I simply gave them the website of our web series and the deafening silence on the other end of the phone when reality hit that they had been duped by someone who was fraudulently using our credit card number, was as they say, priceless.  My financial institutions know that we watch our ATM and credit cards like a hawk so when we have a problem they usually work with us quickly to get fees reversed and new cards delivered.

Banking is still a chore and a pain, no matter what country you are in.  We have heard that there is something called a Bitcoin that is all the rage right now but it has no source of currency to back it and until we are told it’s safe to use we’ll stick to our ATM cards.   There really needs to be a world wide currency that frequent travelers use. Maybe by the time we get ready to get off the road someone will have figured this out.

Florence Lince

about.me/florencelince

Get Our Immunizations

Or This Won’t Hurt a Bit

Some of the documentation I carry with us are our immunization cards that we received from the Center for Disease Control back in the US.  Listed on it are the vaccines we have both gotten and the dates of those shots.

Mike and I do not have ‘regular’ health care coverage and neither of us qualifies for Medicaid.  Medicaid does not pay for immunization shots so we have paid for them all out of pocket.  When we visit family in CA we travel to the CDC office (the Pasadena Public Health Department) and we get any new doses of vaccines that we need.

I am way more susceptible to catching things or in being bitten by bugs than Mike so I tend to get more of the shots.  The reason I carry our immunization cards is that some countries can actually stop us from entering their country without this proof in hand.  I have carried our cards through every border crossing we have gone through and luckily no one has asked to see them, but I have them just in case.

I also look on the list of countries that we want to live in and see what shots might be recommended.  Most shots listed for every country are merely ‘recommendations’ but getting the shot and perhaps heading off some future health issue or crippling disease is worth the expense, at least to us.

For example, one of the countries that we would like to live in is Thailand.  The most highly recommended shot for visiting there is the Japanese Encephalitis shot.  Since we try to live in a country at least 3 months, with a goal of staying 6 months, many health ‘warnings’ exist for those traveling to a certain place for 30 days or less.  If you plan to spend more than 30 days in any one location getting the shots is strongly ‘advised’, and could be the difference in you being allowed to enter the country or not.  Japanese Encephalitis is spread via a mosquito bite and the repercussions can be deadly so it really isn’t worth it to me to skip the shot.  The issue for us, since we don’t have health insurance, is that this one shot currently costs $453.00 in the US, which is way too steep a cost for me.  Since we won’t be traveling there any time soon I am on the hunt for a country where I can get the shot and where the cost might be way cheaper.  To assist me there is the International Society of Travel Medicine. This website lists locations of medical facilities around the world where getting verified doses of vaccines is suggested (a handy resource for anyone who travels outside of the US).

Some countries do not care if you are coming to them via the US where many of the diseases people need shots for are not endemic.  However since Mike and I are traveling from location to location and the US is not our base they check our passports more closely to ensure that we haven’t come from a country or a location that is at risk.  For example, the government of Thailand requires proof of yellow fever vaccination only if you are arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever. This does not include the US. If you are traveling from a country other than the US however, they have a list of the countries where having the yellow fever vaccine would be a requirement. The CDC website is therefore bookmarked on my internet since it is a very handy resource.

The next country on our list to live in is Spain and travel there requires only the basic vaccines. These include measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine, and your yearly flu shot.  What changes between Spain – Hungry – Romania is that having the Hepatitis A shot is strongly recommended in both Hungry and Romania.  I’ve had both Hep A (two shots) and Hep B, so I should be good to go. Many of the immunizations we have received should protect us anywhere from 10 to 20 years which is plenty of time for us to finish all of our travels.

For many people who are simply vacationing outside of the US getting some of these shots might be overkill.  For travel to areas that are more prone to infections it would be strongly advisable to make sure your vaccines are up to date.

There are a lot of issues with long term travel, some that people overlook or completely forget about.  This issue for us is foremost on our minds as we travel from country to country.  We are all in favor of seeing the world; we just want to make sure the only thing we take back to the US with us, is our memories.

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com

Finding Good Medical Care

Or An Apple A Day…

I’m writing this topic because I’ve come down with a cold, or the flu, not sure which but I feel lousy.  It does happen to travelers and since we travel all the time I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen to us more often.

Mike and I are incredibly lucky because we do not take any medications on a regular basis.  Mike doesn’t even take aspirin unless he is really sick.  I have had nine surgeries in my life the last being a hysterectomy which I had in the US right before Mike retired and we left to begin traveling.  I hope I’m done with the surgeries.

I have however had to see a doctor in several countries and I’m here to tell you that I have had some excellent care.

One of my surgeries actually took place in Zürich University Hospital in Switzerland.  A  doctor in the US told me to go ahead and take my vacation and I nearly hemorrhaged to death on the plane.  The doctors in Switzerland saved my life.  The nursing staff had a hard time installing an IV and I had bruises from that for weeks but overall they took excellent care of me.

I have always suffered from respiratory ailments (some call it the curse of the Gemini) and in Panama I was having a horrible time breathing properly.  So off to the doctor I went.  He told me to stop sitting outside because I was breathing in some of the pollen that was common in that area.  The doctor, who was educated in the US, spent 35 minutes with me.  He charged me a whopping $7 for his time and gave me a prescription for 4 mediations which cost me all of $33.  When was the last time a doctor in the US spent more than 15 minutes with a patient?  I had a doctor in the US tell me that she wasn’t allowed to spend more than 15 minutes with any patient and that rule came from the insurance companies.

In Cuernavaca, Mexico I again had an issue where my estuation tubes would not clear and I went to a specialist.  He was born in Mexico, educated in the US, worked at Boston Children’s Hospital in the allergy clinic and had even taken care of US servicemen.  He retired and opened his own clinic in Cuernavaca and he was busier than ever.  He told me that people from the US were the most allergic nation on earth and my problems stemmed from what I was eating and to feel better I needed to give up strawberry’s, chocolate, pineapple, processed foods, desserts and dairy.  He also gave me several prescriptions and said I would feel better in a month.  Not only did I feel better but my migraine headaches have also stopped, now that was a major benefit of having to give up chocolate!

How did I find these wonderful doctors?  By trusting the locals and asking around to see who they would recommend I go too.  I think one of the wonderful things that happens when a traveler gets sick is that everyone becomes concerned and they want you to feel better.  My landlord in Panama drove me to the doctors’ office to make sure I was taken care of and even helped me to get my prescriptions filled.  My landlord in Mexico made my appointment for me and then made sure I was taken care of.  As for the surgery in Zürich I had to leave that up to divine intervention since I was too weak to even assist myself.

And yes, I’m had every immunization shot possible.  What ails me right now is just normal and superficial stuff.  It is just enough to be annoying however, not enough to stop us from traveling the world.

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com

Socializing

Or You Need to Come Out of Your Shell

I do not think this will come as much of a surprise to many but Mike and I are pretty outgoing people. Because of this we meet new people everywhere we go; at the local farmers markets, museums, café’s, in a taxi, on a bus, you name it.  We have always found someone to chat with or trade email addresses with or even someone to have dinner with.  As I’m writing this Mike is out picking olives with a new friend here in Sibenik.

People are fascinated by how Mike and I live and they usually want to know more.  What impresses them most is learning that we are actually living in their country.  Many people around the world still dream of living in the United States so for someone from the US to move to another country and then proceed to tell them how beautiful their own country is, it makes a positive impact.

Being sociable has lead to us having some of the best travel experiences.  One day while waiting for a bus to take us from Cabo Polonio State Park to Colonial de Sacramento, Uruguay we met a young backpacker from Germany who was passing through.  She was waiting for the same bus we were and we began to chat.  After revealing our travel plans she gave us some great leads for what to see in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina which was next on our list of places to visit.  She told us to make sure and check out the proper way to drink hot chocolate at the Café Tortoni.

To have proper hot chocolate you melt the chocolate in hot water

Then add hot milk and sugar – the best!

One of the best ways to integrate into any country is to attend, or throw a party.  Mike and I have done this in every country we have been too.  We are currently planning a Christmas party for here in Croatia.  We have quite a few new friends we would like to celebrate with and our wedding anniversary is two days before Christmas.

We threw a birthday party for a fellow traveler who was visiting her daughter in Cuernavaca

Wondering what we do with any language barriers?  Just yesterday a guy walked up to me and began to speak Italian.  I knew what he was asking me and thank heavens Mike was with me so that he could translate.  The man said he had a girlfriend from the Basque region of Spain and I had the same facial features and he wanted to know if I was from the same region.  He was surprised when we told him that I was actually Italian American but that we were living here in Croatia for the next couple of months.  A half hour conversation using some Croatian, some Italian and some Spanish then ensued with him asking us questions about our lifestyle. The lesson here being that there is always a way to communicate with someone.  We have never let a lack of language skills stop us from traveling or in relating to anyone.

Up until the age of 18 I was painfully shy and hated any sort of public speaking.  I’m not sure what the catalyst was but around my 18th birthday I suddenly realized that life was too short to live it hiding away and I wanted to see the world.  I have now been traveling for more than 30 years and I  have some wonderful memories of all the people I’ve met.  While many of these people came into my life for just a short time and we haven’t stayed in touch during all these years I hold my time with each of them in a special place.

Mike and I travel the world together now, socializing, across borders, among the locals, making new friends every place we go.

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com

Funding the Dream

Or Don’t Pinch Me, I Don’t Want to Wake Up

There were a lot of considerations when we decided to live as The 6 Monthers.  First, Mike really didn’t want me working outside of the home because with his being retired he wanted to travel and have me around to do fun things.  When we added up a rent payment, upkeep on a vehicle and car insurance, food, medical coverage, utilities and more we realized that his social security retirement check of $1500 a month just wasn’t going to cover all of our expenses and I would most likely have to work full-time someplace just to put food on the table.

That is when we began the process of looking for countries we could live in where the cost of living was much lower than in the US.  There are many of them as you can tell from our website.

We began in Panama paying $300 a month for rent and $300 a month for food.  Spending no more than $700 a month on living expenses (since we do not have the expenses associated with owning a vehicle) did allow us to save and travel when we wanted.

In Mexico the rent was closer to $650 a month and still with food around $300 we stayed under our budget and traveled well during our time in Mexico.

Trying to live in Scotland turned into a nightmare and our expenses climbed to almost the entire $1500 a month range.  Because electricity was paid on a ‘as use basis’ eating was the one necessity we had to cut back on and if we had stayed in Scotland we would never have had any money to tour or explore anywhere.  Living in Scotland sadly was not something we should have done.

Here in Croatia we are paying a reasonable amount for rent ($400) and food is coming in around $300 a month.  And once again we will have enough money left over every month to travel and explore new and exciting places.

Now neither of us takes any medications nor are we doctoring for anything.  We do not have fancy cell phones so we do not spend any money on apps or games.  We are pretty basic with our expenses; mainly rent; internet and food.

Basically we view our lifestyle this way; since we have to pay rent where ever we live then we should just live some place new every six months.  In the long run this is actually a cheaper way to see the world than flying all over the place taking two week vacations.  We save a boat load of money in not flying long distances.  We can transition from country to country via buses or trains or even cruise boats which keeps the costs of travel down.  Living this way ensures that we get to see more countries, and it gives us the time to explore these countries (and their neighbors) in a more intimate way.  We still get a thrill when a local asks us “where do you live” and we tell them “right here, in your country.”

Traveling the world is fun.

Meeting new people is awesome.

Seeing the smiles on a locals face when we tell them we live in their country, is priceless.

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com

Stay one S.T.E.P. ahead

Using the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to stay safe

For many people who simply take a vacation now and again enrolling in the STEP program through the US government would be overkill.  For long term travelers; for those who are entering any country on their own and going off the beaten path and for expats who will be living abroad for any extended period of time signing up with STEP takes a few minutes but can be incredibly helpful.

I sign Mike and me up for every country we travel too.  Not that I think the US government cares where we are going but because when they do know the dates for our trip I receive immediate emails about any concerns they have about safety in a certain region of the world.  No, these are not personalized emails warning us about danger, but general alarm messages to give us important data and information.

For example Mike and I were in Chile in 2011.  The protests that are still taking place in Santiago were just getting started then and even before we left our hotel room in the morning I would get an email warning us to watch out for certain activity in a certain location.  In Chile they use water cannons to disperse civil unrest and their police look more like military police and they come to any demonstration in full combat gear.  We did not want to mess with them so we avoided those sections of the city deemed to be on alert.

We have received emails about fires burning in Torres del Paine national park; emails about trouble in Birmingham, UK concerning the recent demonstrations against nationals from member nations coming into the UK to steal jobs; we have received emails about violence in Panama, and many other notices about other disturbances.  I guess one cannot travel in all these diverse countries and not come across a demonstration of some sort from time to time.  It is just part of the perpetual traveler’s way of life.

Signing up for STEP is voluntary.  There is no falsehood here that just because the US government knows that we are in a certain country they will help us in an emergency.   The US does not interfere or stop an American from doing as they wish.  If we wanted to participate in any of these demonstrations we would be free to do so.  We would also be foolhardy to do so and then expect the US embassy to help us.  That is not how it works.  Another great reason to sign up for this service is that if our families needed to get a hold of us the embassy would know where to begin looking and help with any language barriers.  Signing up for STEP is sort of like buying insurance; one never knows when it will come in handy, but you are glad you have it when the time comes.

In most of the countries we travel too there is an American embassy, and I guess you can say it is a source of comfort.  We haven’t needed to use any of their services in an emergency and here’s hoping that continues.  We have gone into embassies to obtain visas for entry into other countries; for notary services; and soon for page additions to our current passports.

Being an expat is fun.

Being a world traveler is wonderful.

Signing up for STEP, is just smart.

 

Florence Lince

www.6monthers.com

There’s no place like home…

I just don’t know where that is exactly

I was born in Buffalo, NY.  I escaped when I was 18.  That’s a joke based on years of dealing with harsh winter weather.  Buffalo is a beautiful city with a great history and warm people.  And the food!  I think what makes people laugh is that when they tell me that they are going to Buffalo we recount all the places they need to visit to eat some of the best food in the US.  Yes, they call that Buffalo Proud.

I moved from Buffalo, to Glendale, CA in 1978.  I stayed in CA until 2005.  I had homes and family in Nevada by then so I was going between the two states.  In 2005 I met my husband Mike (on a singles cruise to Alaska) and he was living in WashingtonState.  In December of 2005 I had sold both of my homes (one in Nevada and one in CA) to be with Mike full time in WA.  We made Olympia our home.  It was a beautiful little city and is actually the capital of WA.  I enjoyed my time in Olympia very much.  They have an awesome farmers market and they host the yearly northwest a cappella competition which Mike and I attended.

In 2007 Mike wanted a career change and we moved to Redmond, Oregon.  It was a nice little town with a very homey and comfortable environment.  We lasted until 2008 when Mike took a better job based in Salem, Oregon.  I really liked Salem.  It has a great university town feel and is again the capital city of the state.  We lived across from the weekly farmers market and the city was central to all things cultural.  What was hardest on me was the white supremacist feelings in the neighborhood and with my clearly ethnic looks I never felt safe unless Mike was around.  I had never lived in an area of the US with such a feeling and while I was angry as hell about this situation it also made me incredibly sad that in this day and age stupidity and bigotry ruled the day.

By 2010 I had had enough of cold weather and we moved to Las Vegas.  Now, you can move to Vegas on two conditions.  One, that you do not like to gamble and two that you like it warm.  Mike and I do not gamble.  In fact in the two years we lived in Vegas Mike never stepped into a casino unless he was going to a buffet to eat.  Not too many people can do that in Vegas.  The second factor, liking it warm, really takes a lot of learning.  It’s not always scorching hot in Vegas, they do get some cool evenings.  It’s just that having it warm outside all the time is exhausting, so you have to learn to adjust.  Mike did a great job of it.  The real problem with Vegas is that making friends is really hard.  The attitudes of people in Vegas are just not geared towards anyone trusting someone else.  They are so used to people scamming them or cheating them that they don’t trust.  When Mike decided in 2011 that he had enough of the working life and wanted to retire I wasn’t all that upset over it and we looked forward to the next adventure.

I guess you can say I’m lucky since I have always enjoyed every place I have lived.  I can find something good about every place.  I just have never felt that I belonged in any of these places long term and no place has ever felt like home to me.  I have always had a bit of the wanderlust that people talk about.  Most people in my family stopped asking me “how are you” ages ago, they learned to ask, “where are you now”.  As Mike and I keep moving from country to country we have met some great new friends and have lived in some wonderful countries, but home?  I’m not sure what that is exactly.  If home is a place where I feel comfortable and happy and have everything I need then I guess every place we’ve been is home to me.  I think I’m lucky in this regard.  It helps me to want to keep traveling and seeing new places.  Maybe some day I’ll be a homey and have roots and one place to call home.  Until then I’ll just make the world my home…

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com

You have how many suitcases?

Or the Upside of Downsizing 

Part of the process in living as The 6 Monthers was the decision that keeping a home in the US just didn’t make financial sense.  So, we sold our house, both of our cars, all of our furniture and gave away or donated household items.  We were left with nothing but our clothes.  Now my husband Mike was never a fashionista and mostly I had to beg him to buy new things to wear, so he wasn’t a packing nightmare.  I on the other hand had filled every closet in our home with clothing, and shoes, so the challenge to downsize was really mine.

Packing for a two week vacation really doesn’t give you an idea of what life is like when you move around from country to country and you have to pack for every season.  What we knew immediately was that we were not going to spend a fortune moving large amounts of clothing around on airlines and paying those outrageous fees for shipping clothes.  We had to downsize, and downsize large!

On our first exploration trip of Latin America we each brought two large suitcases of clothing.  We had packed for every season since we were going to be gone for several months.  That seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. Not too long after we landed in our first country, Panama, we realized we had actually brought too many clothes and vowed to downsize again.

We began by making piles of the clothes we had left; a pile for pants, a pile for shirts (one for long sleeve and one for short), a pile for dresses and piles for underwear.  The only item we both clung to was our Gore-Tex raincoat which we knew we could not live without since with its zipped in liner it also acted as our winter coat.

Trying to pick the right number of clothing from each pile was the real trick.  The number 4 seemed like a good number to start with so we chose 4 pairs of pants, 4 long sleeve shirts, 4 short sleeve shirts, and we got the pile down to a reasonable amount of clothing.

I also had way too many pairs of shoes and so I looked at them realistically and went from 8 pairs to 4.  I kept the hiking boots; a pair of wet and dry sandals; a pair of sneakers; a pair of everyday sandals that I could use around the house as a bedroom slipper.  Everything else is gone.

We then packed the suitcases, using practical airline standard methods, where you roll your clothing instead of folding each piece just to see if it would all fit.

We now have one suitcase apiece and one carry-on bag where we put computers and cameras.  Our large suitcases we ship from country to country via a land carrier which is cheaper than using any airline.

Remember, we are not on vacation when we travel.  We are living in each country which means we do laundry at least once a week so we don’t need lots of changes of clothing because we can stop and wash whatever we need.  We only need enough clothing, or layers, to help us be comfortable.

If you had told me, a woman who had clothing in three bedroom closets and enough shoes to fill a store that I would be down to 4 pairs of pants; 4 shirts; 4 pairs of shoes and one coat; I would have laughed at you.  Now when I repack my bag to travel to the next county I just shake my head and smile at where my life has gone.  I smile at the memories that I am building with my husband; I smile at the thought of the great new friends I am making along the way; I smile about the great new adventures still ahead of me, and not once have I cried about the clothing I’ve left behind.

Florence Lince

http://www.6monthers.com