Easy traffic: Katie Spencley is running 10 minutes late to pick us up for our ride to the airport. It is a lovely sun-drenched late afternoon ride across the Gardiner and up the 427 to our flight to London. John has had a hectic day at work; I have eased into the final pack and clean up before we head east. We have said our good-byes to the kitties: Sydney looking the most forlorn; and also to Katie, who looks the least forlorn. We excitedly check in for the beginning of our adventure only to discover that the equipment has not arrived yet for our overnight flight to London and we will be delayed by about 40 minutes. Once aboard, our overly-friendly pilot tells us that “due to favorable tail winds” we will arrive on-time at Heathrow the next morning.

Easy flight: John chooses the “little blue pill and sleep” option while I decide to eat. I am famished. Cote de Boeuf and a salad, and because, we are heading to France, of course I take the cheese course. John is happily snoring while I quaff down my second glass of red wine, reading a very funny David Sedaris article in the New Yorker entitled ‘D’accord’. Just after 11 pm Toronto time I conk out. 4 am London time! I had already downed my little blue pill and finally settle into the comfy business class seats that, thanks to the many air miles racked up from followsummer 2004, make for a comfortable and easy flight over.

The snow continues its unabated fall: St. James and the park are covered in a clean, white carpet of the new stuff; from the 18th floor of our new condo, the crystals are falling up and blowing sideways, obscuring the view of Lake Ontario with a white, moving wall. We have a winter storm warning issued for the next 24 hours but are feeling very comfortable in our new digs, unpacking our brown-boxed lives, shelved and stored for the last fourteen months.


Our new condo, 2 weeks before closing.

We have gotten into the habit of retracing our trip from last year. We pick the day or the week and open the site. March 1st last year we were buying Speedos, settling in to watch the Oscars and planning the south-east Asia part of our adventure.

Life is strangely as we left it 14 months ago. We have settled into Toronto and are happy to see friends and family. Questions continue about our trip and when we run into people we haven’t seen yet, we listen to the same queries: “What was your favourite place?” or “Where would you go back to?” Occasionally (and refreshingly!) people surprise us with an unusual question. The best to date has “Where was your worst experience?” Luckily we don’t have many answers for that!

We are trying to stay in touch with everyone that we met around the world. The joy of the internet is that this is quickly and easily achieved. Yves and Marc in Gent, John and Francois in Paris, Fred and Michiel in Amsterdam and of course Eric, Graham and others in Australia.

The web site continues to be a popular outlet for people. If you are joining followsummer.com for the first time, simply click on the information bar on the right and choose a favourite country or further down, the month and day and enjoy exploring. And don’t forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them. Many people who are travelling have found it to be a wealth of knowledge. Enjoy!

The work search continues unabated for both of us. There are lots of leads and we also continue the networking process of lunches and after work drinks. John is talking to a number of firms. I have three organizations in touch, considering me for varying roles within each of their respective organizations. Whoever is offered a job first will be treating the other to a nice dinner.

Spring is starting to show her head, poking around the metal and granite corners of the high-rises downtown. She has certainly come in like a lion. Hopefully she will go out like a new born Easter Lamb, baa-ing her way into opened windowed, sun-speckled, warmer weather.

We are tired and emotional from seeing everyone during our two weeks at home. We both admit to each other that we will both be happy to be on the road again, without the physical and emotional baggage of the “return”. Some have asked us if there has been a defining moment for either of us on the trip; a moment of transcendental awareness that characterizes our journey over the last five and a half months. There is an assumption that we have changed somehow. We have an assumption that we have changed somehow.

We answer questions from family and friends that soon become familiar: “What was your favourite spot? Tell me the highlight of your trip? Are you coming back to Toronto? When was your transcendental moment!?” We politely try and answer as best we can. I feel guilty because I don’t have a transcendental moment to share, something to adequately throw to the hungry, curious audience. There have been many glorious moments on the road but too lost in the detail of everyday life to mesmerize around a drink, a quick cup of coffee or a party of 20 close friends and well wishers. I keep saying “have you been to the web site?” This seems to be the logical place to go to share the day-to-day magic of our trip. Our friend Tim goads me on… “oh, that bloody web site! If I hear another word about it…”

But there is a transcendental moment: I’ve come to realize how loved we are and not just for who we are but also for what we are doing. So many people actually visit the web site and followsummer but don’t check in with us because they don’t want to bother us. They are living completely vicariously through us. People have been gushing and ooohing and ahhing. I feel like a celebrity.

John: We recognize, on arriving “home”, that home is wherever we are. It isn’t, surprisingly, a physical place, or familiar things. It is being together, wherever, in conditions that range from the sublime to, more normally, definitely less-than. It is the sharing of experiences. We have learnt that the only thing we really need to be at home is a good book.

We leave Stratford with few tears, except from John’s mom. So very different from what we wrote on our departure 5 months ago:

A day of travel and time for contemplation. The beginning of a year of living in the moment, following an intense period of planning, when it often seemed that we spent all our time living in the future as we laid the groundwork for the trip.
The movie on the flight is “Under the Tuscan Sun”. The name of the villa, Bramasole, means “yearning for sun”, and it is an apt description of the year we begin. Some particular quotes from the movie stand out: “Terrible idea! - don’t you just love them!” and “Regrets are a waste of time.” I believe there are no coincidences, so I take all of this as a good omen for our journey.

Today is like leaving any country we have visited and left, our two week saturation point being reached. There is no guilt in these feelings; they are similar to the feeling of being ready to move on that I have had all through the trip – whether in Sydney, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, New Delhi or Istanbul. My memories of the lush, green rolling hills of newly planted corn outside Stratford are clear and strong; as are the familiar thump-thump, thump-thump of the wheels of the always-late Queen streetcar, heading towards the Humber, taking me downtown to meet friends for a drink, and our families, eager to fit us into their busy schedules, everyone hanging on our every word.

Some quick thank-yous for those who looked after us while at home. John and Jeff: thank you for letting us mess up your guest bedroom for our week in Toronto. Jim and Joanne for your impeccable (as always) hosting of our Wednesday night dinner. It was lovely. Jeff, Keiko and Noah, for an easy-going and relaxed BBQ with our friends from the MBA. Bill and Bob, what can we say: we overstayed our welcome – you should have kicked us out at 9:00! Sarah for a lovely lunch with our kitties, Carmela and Frank, thank you for sharing Katie’s graduation with us, David and Kathryn, arriving late to brunch is better than not arriving at all, right? Our lovely neighbours who all wished us continued good travelling, all the business and social lunches and parties everyone treated us to, and lastly, our families Gary, Louise, Kim, and Shannon, Pam, Nimi, Eric, Liz, Janet, and Chip, and especially to Nana, who graciously increased our storage capacity at the family house in Stratford, without extra charge.

“Terminal New” at Pearson greets us like every airport we have travelled through: sleek, big and mostly unknown. We pass through it’s various check-points, remembering the long list of screening procedures including passports, watches and belt buckles, shoes and computers to try and save some time if not some hassle. We make our way to the lounge and settle, making some final calls and organizing email. Our flight is comfortable but short – a mere 7 hours across the Atlantic. By the time supper is cleaned up and we settle in, we have little more than 3 hours of sleep available to us. We have preset our watches to Frankfurt time and I don’t get to sleep until after 4:30 a.m. We are scheduled to land in Frankfurt at 7:30! Someone neglected to tell us that the European Soccer Championships have just started and all of Europe is in soccer frenzy. Just our luck.

N 43°
W 080°

Southwestern Ontario is lush and green from a cool and wet spring. Our rush hour drive home from the airport takes us through the gentle rolling hills of both Wellington and Perth Counties and is uneventful other than the usual end of work day traffic on the 401. We arrive to a beautiful late spring dinner of BBQ'd trout with rosti potatoes and fresh asparagus prepared by John's sister Liz. Lots of fun, laughs and wine.

Our time in Stratford is all too short. We spend it unpacking and re-packing, planting John's mother's flower beds and visiting local friends and enjoying my best friend's opening of Macbeth at the Stratford Festival on Friday night. John's mum is dealing with a chest cold while we are home and we help with the nursing, bringing trays of chicken soup and glasses of orange juice up to her bedroom sanctuary on the third floor of Hibernia Street. Saturday evening, with John's sister Pam, brother Eric and nephew Nimi home for our visit, she is well enough to take us out for a lovely dinner at one of the local restaurants. Liz and Janet pop their heads in between classes at their popular cooking school, Chez Soleil, saying hi and sharing stories.

We start to focus on the next part of our trip. Germany and northern Europe are pretty well organized until we head for St. Petersburg on July 1st. We buy the Lonely Planet and Rough guides to Europe and confirm our train to St. Petersburg. We connect with our Russian guide, Nikolay, and repack our bags for our hectic second week in Toronto. We will return to Stratford in exactly a week for the final repack of our trip bags and won't be returning until the snow flies in Canada in December. I find it hard to believe that five and a half months have flown by already.

Gone fishin' for two weeks in Canada!

Happy Birthday to Graham O'Keefe down under on June 2!
Happy Birthday to Lorie Milone on June 5!

We are spending some R & R time with family and friends at home in Stratford and Toronto before hitting the next part of our trip. Please check the site over the next two weeks. We hope to update you on the Canadian portion of our trip.

See you on June 15th, starting in Germany.

Greg & John
The Boys at followsummer.com

On December 31, we got married. The ceremony was an intimate family gathering at Toronto City Hall Marriage Chambers. Following the ceremony, John’s mother toasted the happy couple, and many a glass of champagne was drunk before a celebratory luncheon. Happy New Year to All! And thus their trip turns into a year-long honeymoon!

Greg and John

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