Nine months into our journey and we have traipsed through 43 countries and walked 2,275 miles. I am writing from the island of Santorini with 5 more countries on the itinerary. We plan to work our way north through the Balkans with our final stop in Croatia. However, plane ticket prices back to California will influence where we fly out, so we may add Austria or southern Germany if their airports are substantially cheaper.

The end is near which is comforting, not sad and gives us new energy to purposefully enjoy this last month of international travel. However, we don’t want to buy plane tickets home yet. We want to keep our open itinerary until the last possible moment. Or until homesickness overtakes us and we need a return date for our sanity.

Our goal for this next month is to eat well, hike as much as possible, and enjoy the beaches on the Adriatic coast.

We have kept spreadsheets of expenses and trip data, and we are both very excited to review our data from every perspective once we have access to Excel again. I told Aaron that I really missed pivot tables, and he told me that he has that same thought all the time. Soulmates. Until then, the budget page is updated and our book count is 70 for me and 45 for Aaron.