With the letters 'A, 'D', and 'K' hidden under other letters as we doubled over on our path.
The red is plane and boat travel, the blue is the car.
Ah! The car. A fan-forced oven clocking kilometres at break-neck speed, as loud as a helicopter with the windows down. No roof lining, the metal on the interior was so hot you got a burn blister from touching it!
But that Volvo travelled. About 9000km, in fact, and we travelled (by plane, train, boat, bus and foot) a lot more.
We visited or passed through 11 countries, and learned pleasantries in most of the local languages, as well as the essential "a glass of white wine, please".
Temperatures ranged from zero degrees Celsius to just over 40.
From Belgian lowlands to the soaring Hintertux in Austria, at 3250m, we climbed. And let's not forget the stairs. Hundreds of them, in castles, narrow streets, cathedrals, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower.
We saw all sorts, and many tourist attractions, including the giant boar, as well as visiting far off places that barely register on any map.
We were pulled over in Italy, and the car was searched for drugs and counterfeit money. We drove past a car on fire, with it's owner standing next to it (waiting for it to explode?). Evan even pushed a car without it's handbrake on, only to be reprimanded, have the car pushed back in it's spot, then watch as it slid back out into traffic 5mins later.
There was the appendix, some sunburn, the odd fall, and plenty of exhaustion.
Together we lost Leonardo Da Vinci (his likeness as a doll, that is), a necklace, a hairbrush, a compass, drink bottle, phone charger, the appendix, a full set of clothes, a degree of sanity- with only two being returned by the end. I'll leave it to you to work out which two. Did I say together? I meant they. I didn't lose anything.
Topping it all off was the plane trip home, with all of us suffering food poisoning (losing the set of clothes due to them being saturated with vomit). The only advantage of being like this on an aeroplane is being able to circumvent the toilet queues as you are designated a bathroom for your own personal use.
And so,
In conclusion,
After all those hours of hard work, over two years. The things I didn't buy. The gigs I didn't go to. The blood, sweat and tears of saving enough money to take three kids to Europe for three and a half months, and the endless late nights spent organising, beforehand, to do it as cheaply as possible….
and many, many times I didn't believe it was going to be possible
….It was all so, very, worth it!
For all of us.
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