Unpacked and Home

And so, one hundred and fifteen days, twelve thousand photos, forty-seven buses, thirty trains, twenty-five boats, twenty-four cars/taxis, twenty airplanes, fifteen tuk-tuks, four motorbikes, three kayaks, two bicycles, two inner tubes, two bamboo rafts, one rowboat, one oxcart and an elephant later we came home and unpacked.

Almost four months later. Here we are back at home (almost) exactly as we had left it. It was even cold and raining the day we returned just as it had been the day we left. Thanks for following us around the world. We may post a few more "best of" pictures after we find time to sort through all the many thousands of them. Until next time, take care. We'll leave you with a verse by T.S. Elliot.

We shall not cease from exploration

and the end of all our exploring

will be to arrive where we started

and know the place for the first time.

New York, USA

Ash got to meet Grandma Plonsky - a great visit.

Brothers bonding over a flaming skull, naturally.

Central park on a beautiful day.

The Guggenheim and Ashlei, together at last.

The Dublin airport on a layover between Madrid and NY and yes, they're both for me

Well, back in the USA... And we know that this trip is so, like, two-and-a-half-months-ago-

so-why-would-I-still-look-at-their-travel-blog-cause-they're-not-travelling-anymore? Because it's not officially over until it's over on the Internet! Actually it's just been hard to motivate myself to finish this since the return.

A trip around the world in one hundred and fifteen days may take only four months to complete, but it's going to take many subsequent years to process. Only now after being home for a couple of months do I feel like I can even begin to look back on it and to try to start understanding who I was in January and how I returned in May.

Anyhow, this is the post for our last week of the trip spent in New York. It was a really relaxing end to the journey. We got to hang with brother Andrew and see where he works at Trinity - and even attend a faculty soiree. We got some good time with cousin Dave, and with him drove down to Pennsylvania to visit with both Grandma Plonsky and Kay's parents too. We went to the Guggenheim, saw some live music, strolled Central Park and Manhattan, went to the Metropolitan Museum hung out with Trish and her girls and tried to pretend that our travels were not all coming to an end.

Hey, let's pretend it's not over! OK? So, you'll have to wait for the next exciting post to find out how it ends! Did they go home? Or continue on riding the winds of caprice on odd jobs and credit cards? The exciting conclusion - or continuation coming soon!

Hangin' with family in Madrid and Villalba , Spain

The whole gang !

Laura and John at the park in Madrid.

Clara, Anna, Laura and John at THE picnic.

We all played in the creek.

"Come on in, the water's fine!"

"Hi everybody!"

Brothers

Hey Al, this rum and coke is for you.

And so is this one...

And even the guy from the coke commercial is having one for you Al!

An afternoon in Madrid.

Our final night a O' Barquiño

Mardid was a wonderful week. We stayed between Mike and Maria's home in Villalba and Paloma's parents home in Madrid. Reuniting with everyone after wandering the globe was great. We are so glad that Mark, Paloma, Laura and John could come down too! It was one of the best visits to Madrid, without a doubt. We all (the whole gang!) spent one day picnicking outside of Madrid by a small creek in green, soft grass. It was a beautiful day spending time together in the sun while the kids ran throughout the tall grass and played in the creek - the big kids too. It's pretty cool when after traveling for so long and seeing so many amazing places that we're still having highlights and days unrivaled. That day was surely one of them. Thank you everybody for coming together and of course for all of the hospitality. It was so good to see you again.

Barcelona, Spain

In the gothic quarterof Barcelona.

Outside Sagrada Familia.

Inside. Wow.

A view fromtowers that look just like those ones.

Mmmm, ...

Relaxing in Park Guell.

Strolling through Gaudi's mind

Watching tourists is funny.

A view of Barcelona and the sea.

The best olive Ashlei has ever eaten. Ever.

Wow, we loved Barcelona. A week more would have barely been sufficient. I know that we say that we loved a lot of places and that we wanted more time and blah blah blah, but it's true. and for Barcelona it's really true. The city is big and beautiful and full of life and art and culture and architecture and great food.

By the way, that olive above was the best olive ever, for real.

We splurged on ourselves for the last two nights and rented ourselves a little flat! It was pretty fancy of us but was really comfortable and a little way to celebrate. It was worth it.

Onward to Madrid

Venice, Italy

A view down a Venice canal

A very important man about town
The real Venice dirty laundy and all!

Italy is yummy...

Venice more than met all of our expectations. It was like walking around a movie set. Everything you see is so picturesque that you almost can´t belive it´s real. What a great way to end our first visit to Italy. We are now with family in Spain and have been pleasently distracted from the blog! We leave for New York tommorrow and will report on Spain from there.

Florence and Pisa ,Italy

Ah, Florence...
Inside the dome you see above.
The view from the dome.

Ashlei helping out.

Florence is a beautiful town and the leaning tower of Pisa is really quite funny to see. We saw some great art and had some good fun too - could have spent another week just hanging around Florence. Alas, just another reason to come back.

Rome, Italy

Rome. This is Santa Maria del Popolo Square.


Come on! (outside the collisium, duh)

Inside.

St. Peters Square.

Trevi fountain.

Whoa, Rome was BIG. It was a lot to take in too, especially after the tranquilty of Positano. We adjusted but it took a few days. It was amazing seeing things that we had only heard of for most of our lives. The center of the Roman Empire! Endless monuments, fountains, oblisks (all stolen from Egypt) and crumbling remains of the might that was. It was overwelming at times to be somewhere where everytime you turned around you were faced with yet another treasure, be it ancient or modern.