August 2018: Family, Writing, and Wild Blueberries

This Month

August was a month of transitions: leaving Europe, meeting family, and officially traveling well into a month when we're usually exploring obscure topics in American class relations. We took it pretty easy, lying low in various parts of Northern Europe with the knowledge that Central Asia (and lots of cheap street meat) was on the horizon.

WORKAWAY'S REVENGE

We toiled long and hard whether to give Workaway another chance (read June's update for manic Australians and way too much booze). When we arrived after hitch hiking for two full days to the small town of Pasmajarvi, Finland, we adjusted our expectations. This experience was homey, filled with steamy saunas and many late night rounds of pancakes AND Belgian crepes.

It turns out the EU still finances something more than denying refugees and asinine austerity measures. They helped pay for this community bilberry (wild blueberries) project. It turns out not many Finns enjoy foraging these days, but it's easy enough to convince foreigners to wander aimlessly in the forest for free food, amiable company, and spa access. Plus as many kilos of blueberries as you can stomach. If you're ever in Lapland during August, hit us up for Paivi's contact info:)

WRITERS FOR HIRE

As the blog evolves, we’ve decided to diversify our offerings. We’d like to branch out and offer our experience in writing, web design, and photography.

We're always on the look out for new projects, hint hint.

TRANSITION TIME

We're journaling from a 24-hour, Soviet era train in Kazakhstan. We got here with another wild Wizz Air deal, which also allowed us to soak in Budapest's glorious baths for a few days. Although a world away from high speed Europe, so far Kazakhstan (and this train) is clean, comfortable, and homey. We saw a lot of our families this month - after a brief but eventful Ryanair strike that meant Tori got stuck in London - and we miss them already. Thank you Per, Aedo, Ciara, Moll, Amy, and Reinhold for the quality time. We're ready, though, for a whirlwind month in Central Asia hopefully with lots of yurts, horses, and mountains.

Dorothy is not in Europe any more. Finally.

♡ Stef and Tor