About the author
Kristi K.
If you asked me how and when we started traveling I’d probably off the cuff say about 5 years ago we adopted the phrase “why not?” and have been traveling ever since! Which is very true, it’s been just over 5 years since our trip to India where the locals response to nearly every question was the most hospitable “why not?!” you’ve ever heard which inspired the fact that now anytime one of us comes up with another dumb but exciting idea the other one just looks up with a grin and says “why not?!”
>>This is where I would insert a laughy face emoji if I were texting.<<
But in reality when you look at our history we have planning little adventures from the get-go. We had only been dating about 6 weeks when we took our first road trip to Bueno Vista Colorado to go white water rafting! We were engaged a month later and I will always look back so fondly at that trip knowing that it solidified something in us that we both saw life and the future similarly. We entered our relationship with 2 little girls so you can rightly assume 21 and a family of four that money was TIGHT. So for about the first 10 years we were together we would save a portion of our money in our “Vacation” envelope and when we had enough we would search for cruise last minute deals and drive to Galveston to travel for the costs of like $500 total. I remember even scoping out parking lots near the port so we didn’t have to pay parking. At least our cars looked so bad no one wanted to break into them back then! In fact I think I might have some pics of us broke down on the side of the road during more than one road trip! HA!
Then fast forward to my 30th Birthday, now something you should know about Jake is that although he is my favorite person, he also the worst gift-getter. Or better yet, worst at-getting-gifts. Meaning I have woken up more than one or two Christmas mornings with no gifts. But when he does go for it he goes ALL. THE. WAY. So back to my 30th, I had given him a heads up at some point in the previous months even though I don’t really make a big deal about birthdays I did want him to actually be off work and plan something for me. But alas, he was scheduled to work, like residency schedule – it means business, no trading, no paid time off, 12 hour shifts. Or at least I was told he was scheduled. At 11:30 the night leading into my birthday he startled me as my eyes were closing to say “oh hey, you might want to pack before you fall asleep…” SURPRISE!!! New York City for my birthday at New Years Eve at Time Square!
And I think that trip to NYC broadened my view (if not both of ours) of the world. I mean where else can you be standing on one street corner trying to choose dinner between a German steakhouse, an Asian diner, Jewish baker and some trendy US pop up shop all within view? Oh and you bet those are all family owned, culture heavily influenced spots! The melting pot that is New York City is magical. A couple years later we took our first big international trip followed by a few more years and then finally we got rolling, each trip inspiring our desire for the next. The curiosity of it all gets me eveytime! So now here we are with the lofty goal of going to every country in the world. Now the rules are a bit blurry right now, we want to stay the night in every single one but logistically that doesn’t necessarily work for each one. For instance, the Vatican is cosidered a UN recognized country but you don’t sleep there. We will also eventually come across some countries that we can’t for security reasons but we are not counting cruise port destinations or flight layovers. We have to have a significant experience for it to count or be there over night (and outside the airport) for it to count. So there you have it. Thats our goal and we are so very excited to share our experiences with you! I’ll be back-tracking trips for awhile and working on current trips in real time so bear with me while I play catch up! So glad I’m starting this at 24 countries and not waiting until we are almost done!
Krajicek’s Take The World 