1. Background

THIS TRIP

Where I'm headed: Turkey & Greece

Type of trip: Group tour

Tour Title: Steps of Paul and John

Tour Leaders: Ferrell & Elizabeth

Number of people on the tour: 40 (including Jessica, a classmate from Florida College, and Lowell who I met on the Israel tour).

Tour length: 11 working days = half a month

A BIT ABOUT ME

Where I've been internationally: England (London, Windsor), France (twice to Paris), Italy (four times), Spain (twice), Portugal, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Mexico (Tijuana, Monterrey), Canada (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Vancouver Island), Israel, Jordan, Egypt, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. That's it.

Why travel: It's a family past time. I'm not kidding. My great aunts & great uncle circumvented the globe at least 2 if not 3 times over the years. As a child, my Aunt Edie would let me look through her 3" thick photo albums of England, Germany, Spain, etc. Aunt Ila had Hummel dolls in sparkling curio cases. If I remember correctly, Uncle Keith was the photographer, Aunt Edie planned the trips and Aunt Ila was the archivist.

First travel journal: A high school Spanish trip to Monterrey, Mexico 1982. I recapped all the things that "went wrong." The good news is that I survived all of them.

First travel blog: Italy, 2004.

Wildest place I've slept: A mud hut in the middle of the Zimbabwe bushveld just down the road from Binga on Lake Kariba.

Memorable food: Vivoli's gelato in Florence. Honey dripping from a 4' tall honeycomb in Israel. A different pastry every day in Paris. Vips’ bar-b-q in London. Peter’s fish on the Sea of Galilee. Churros con chocolate in Madrid. Braai in South Africa just south of the Zimbabwe border. Fruit tiramasu in Udine, Italia. Beef in Toledo. High tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. South African meat pies topped with fruit chutney.

Famous people I've bumped into: No, not literally. I did get Henry "The Fonz" Winkler's autograph in the d'Orsay Museum in Paris. I also saw Hollywood/Hulk Hogan waiting for a flight at JFK. He was bedazzled before it was popular.

Ever scared? Sure. It was unnerving to see all the mine warnings at the Golan Heights. I didn't think I'd ever go there, but I did on my first trip with Ferrell & Elizabeth. During my initial trip to Rome, my cousin and I wound up in the "bad part of town." Running is always an option. And we did.

If I could go today, I'd return to ___: Depends. If I wanted to relax away from the hustle and bustle, I'd go back to the Tyrolean region of the Alps. If I wanted to draw, I'd return to the Valley of the Kings or Zimbabwe.

What's next on my list: In no particular order, India (2013?), the Czech Republic (2013?), Ecuador (2013?), Machu Picchu, New Zealand, the Canary Islands, Monaco and the Caribbean.