Recent Musings (from December)

Meg: We’ve been in Durham a few months now. That’s a long time. Let’s go somewhere.
Josh: Where?
Meg: Somewhere warm. Laos was nice.
Josh: We can’t afford to fly to Laos right now.
Meg: Right. What can we afford?
Josh: Ryan Air has cheap flights from the UK. They even fly from Newcastle, although only to four places from there.
Meg: Alright, what’s the cheapest?
Josh: Barcelona, Spain.
Meg: Spain is warm. Perfect. Plus I’m an architect, and architects are supposed to see Barcelona.
Josh: I have a full month off from school in April, but we can't spend a month in just one city.
Meg: Oh yeah. And we can’t spend a whole month in one country. That would go against Wall-stra principles; we’d see too much and maybe start to understand the culture or something.
Josh: Well let’s keep moving then. We could go around the Mediterranean.
Meg: That sounds like great fun. Except I don’t think we can make it in one month.
Josh: True. Let’s just do the part that won’t make our mothers worry then. We can stop in Greece.
Meg: Nice.
Josh: Although I’ve always thought Turkey sounded interesting.
Meg: The Hagia Sophia is in Istanbul. I should probably see that in my architect’s lifetime, too.
Josh: Alright, we drive from Barcelona to Istanbul this April.
Meg: That means we need a car.
Josh: We can’t afford a car. How about a bike?
Meg: Bikes aren’t very safe. But fun. They are fun.
Josh: I suppose it would make our mothers worry.
Meg: Nah, your dad owns a bike and as for my mom, well, she'll live.
Josh: Are you sure this is how the conversation goes? Not caring what other people think? That doesn’t sound like the Megan I know.
Meg: Shhhh. This is a post, keep it moving.
Josh: So we buy a cheap bike in Spain.
Meg: Do you think we’d run into legal issues purchasing as foreigners? And what about getting through borders? Wouldn’t we have some vehicle registration and insurance problems?
Josh: It’s all the EU now. I don’t think it would be a problem.
Meg: Montenegro and Albania are not part of the EU.
Josh: Where are they?
Meg: Somewhere between Croatia and Greece.
Josh: Wait. You’ve been doing research on this already?
Meg: Maybe a little.
Josh: (silence)
Meg: So can we afford this? We’d have to buy a car or bike; a camper van would be ideal. Maybe we take camping stuff back from the USA at Christmas and find a method to attach it to a bike. We’d have food and lodging and entrance fees. Plus petrol. Can we really afford this?
Josh: Probably not.
Meg: Perfect. Let’s do it.