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Location: 1.27477° S, 36.8132° E
Today, the adventure begins!
These are the voyages of D&V. Their continuing mission, to explore strange new lands, to seek out new knowledge and cause happiness. To boldly create what no other couple has created before...
Before every trip, I always say to Vedran that “this one is the craziest yet”. I am also always convinced that he cannot possibly top whatever current adventure we are in. As it turns out, however, Vedran has been proving me wrong for the past 12 years, thrusting us out to more and more elaborate and dangerous adventures each and every year... and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This time, however, I am sure he has reached the pinnacle of his wild travel visions - He has created a philosophical travel route, following our planet’s big history, decorated it with outrages theories of his own (and where on the planet we can find potential proof of those theories) and even made me quit my job as it would take the better part of the year to cover all destinations. I have no idea how he will ever top this elaborate travel plan, but I guess the future will tell...
Let's start:
The first couple of weeks of 2016 were spent finalizing bookings, packing & preparing the house, and finishing year-end books for the two companies. Hence, the days were always long, going well into 2 am. Therefore, when the first flight of our 2016 voyage departed at 6:30, and we had to get up at 3:45, it meant that we only had one hour of sleep. It was excruciating ;-).
It was negative 12 degrees in Stockholm on Jan 20th. Since we were going to a warmer climate, we had decided not to put on winter clothes. It would have been an excellent plan considering we were only planning on being outside about a minute or so, waiting for the airport bus. What we did not count on was for the bus not to arrive...
Vedran, the ultimate IT Entrepreneur, quickly booked a taxi using his app. Unfortunately, it failed to show, so after a while, Dilek called the service using old fashion voice. When a taxi finally did arrive, we had been in the minus winter cold for 30min. We were not sure if this was the taxi we had reserved (it turned out later it was), but we didn't care as we had to get out of the cold ASAP ;-).
On the way to the airport, we overtook a bus, which was probably our original “no show bus”. We assume it arrived at the station a bit early, and as it was 4 in the morning didn't think of waiting for the correct departure time. For us, this meant that our next great adventure started off with some extra quick solve fixes... Which, you know, is always expected on a trip like this. It is also a great way to get to know your partner: their problem-solving skills after sleep deprivation and stranded in -12C degree weather. Vedran was great, but honestly, we have been in way worse situations (some even life-threatening), so this was like a walk in the park :-)
We arrived at terminal 5, which is the international one, only to discover that our flight was departing from terminal 2. Oops. So a quick rush to the right terminal, barely making boarding time (keep in mind, sleep deprivation does not make you more efficient). It was a very rough start of the eight-month long adventure and we hope that the rest of it will go more smoothly...
Dilek managed to sleep at the first flight to Paris, unfortunately, it was at Vedran's expense since she slept on him. This meant that Vedran was in acute need of coffee, but even though we had a 2-hour layover, the entire time was spent trying to reach the gate. Anyone who has been to CDG knows what I'm talking about.
Our plane was late, but we arrived in our hotel safe and sound at 23:30. We thought the weather was quite pleasant, but the Kenyans themselves were shivering in winter jackets.
It is always fun to re-visit a place. So many memory triggers; like the style of the airport, the long road from the airport, how we got stuck in a traffic jam and all the conversations with the driver. We even recalled the exact street to turn to get to our previous hotel in 2014. We will see what memories tomorrow brings, for now, it's off to bed.
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