Let's go on an adVANture
It’s March 2021 when we close the doors of our apartment and open the ones of our van. We start the motor wave our friends & family goodbye and head towards the unknown. It’s time to hit the dusty ways, the tiny paths, the silk roads. With liters of oil, a lot of enthousiasm and not nearly enough knowledge of our engine we start the trip of a lifetime. The trip we dreamed of for so many years. We are driving the ancient Silk Road, following the footsteps of many merchants.
Our adventures in blog form are found below.
A not so smooth reunification
For a couple of days we’ve been reunited with each other and Alexine but things don’t go as planned, neither do they go so smoothly.
The good, the bad and the desert
To the desert we go! After visiting Petra it was time to visit one of the most beautiful areas of Jordan: Wadi Rum! It’s also called ‘Valley of the Moon’. We first drive for a long while through more and more empty landscape until we arrive in Rum village. We...
Holiday in Jordan
Time flies when you’re having fun. It really does. One week in Lebanon was over within what felt like a second. The flight to Jordan (1.5 hour) felt longer than the whole week in Lebanon and we guess that’s a good sign. Arrival in Jordan Up to now crossing...
A week in Lebanon
So much happened in one week that we don’t know what to write. A summery wouldn’t do this week justice but an in dept journal would stop you from reading. So, we’ll try to share our week with you as a combination of photos and text. Let’s start at the beginning, but...
Staying at a 700 year old caravanserai
We are staying at a caravanserai tonight. A hotel / restaurant where travellers would spend the night, giving their camels and horses some rest and catch up with other travellers about the way ahead. This Caravanserai is the best preserved one in Armenia and was built...
Religion, war and waste management
The morning sun is a welcoming guest high up in the mountains. We are now at almost 2500 meters above sea level and the wind carries the cold air into the van. Great for sleeping, a little less for cooking and living outside. But, we are Dutchies, thus no cold air can...
Continuing our Armenian advanture
After five days at the beautiful campsite of Sandra and Marty (3Gs - check it out) we got waaaaay to comfortable with the swimming pool, two kitchens and a washing machine. Not to mention the showers, toilets and incredible wifi. You can imagine, it was time to...
From temple to church
Finally exploring again. We love visiting cities and staying in a hotel, guesthouse, airbnb for a while but we love it even more to explore the roads with Alexine and drive towards unknown destinations. Not knowing where we will sleep that night, but enjoying the wind...
Fixing Alexine and our vaccination
“If there was wisdom in beards, all goats would be prophets." - an Armenian proverb. And even though we have visited about 20 churches already, Yuri is still no prophet. Neither am I. But yeah, 14 days in Armenia and already 20 churches! Oh my. We don't visited...
The annihilation of the Armenians
Exactly 82 years ago Adolf Hilter said "...who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Let's proof Adolf Hilter wrong and talk about it. The definition of genocide To understand what happened in Armenia it's good to know the definition of...
Entering the ancient Christian country of Armenia
For the past days we’ve been residing in North Armenia. After five weeks of Georgia it was time to leave. Border crossing It wasn’t the easiest to cross the border. First, car drivers and passengers cannot get through together. Instead passengers have to stand...
Strangers becoming friends
Meeting strangers while traveling seems a lot easier than meeting strangers in our hometown. Or well maybe meeting them is not the difficult part but becoming friends with strangers is. Not here in Georgia though. Meeting a stranger on the road After a couple of days...
Conflict & Displacement
And again we left the mountains behind. This time not to travel directly to Tbilisi but to travel back to Tskaltubo. Well, we also tried to get into Abkhazia but that seemed more difficult than we thought. Abkhazia A Georgian region but not really. Even though most...
Things we didn’t plan
We weren’t planning a lot of things in Georgia. From several car break downs to driving the most dangerous road and the most car killing road. But visiting Svaneti was actually one of those things we planned for a second visit to the country. I, Milene, really want to...
We want to see mountains again, Gandalf!
While I look at the stars with my back warming up from the campfire we just made I feel small. I feel like an ant discovering the world, small but strong. Small because the world is just a tiny planet in this huge universe. Strong because most of those stars are...