Blue Dot Explore

November 13, 2023 - View of The Old Temple of Athena on the Acropolis. Athens, Greece. I've used the word "home" in many different contexts during this trip. When we're out and about in a new city, I say to Johnny "Do you want to go home?", referring to our current accommodations, whether that be a hotel, apartment, hostel, etc. Other times I may ask, "Anything new back home", meaning our friend group back in Arlington, VA. I might also share that "I have an update from home" to mean the farm where I grew up in California. Home can be lots of places. Throughout the experience of being "homeless" for the past year, the expression "home is where the heart is" has taken on a deeper meaning. For the most part, my home is with Johnny, but we all know that our hearts don't usually just reside with one person. Besides a partner, you share your heart with your best friends, your brother and sister, your parents...any numbe

*This blog entry was completed a couple weeks before posting, but we had to return to the US for a family emergency and everything trip-related got put on hold. We are planning on resuming our travels soon and there will be another blog entry with details to follow.  November 1, 2023 - Vista enroute between P ë rmet and  Korçë, Albania I don't think either of us expected to be in Albania for so long, but talking to people along the way, we just kept finding more and more places that we just couldn't miss. We broke our time in Albania into two parts, (with Kosovo in the middle) for a total of 34 days in the country.  After leaving Kosovo, the plan was just to hit a few places on the southern coast and then head off to the next country... but plans change, especially when you wing it. Johnny started doing research and found some road trip itineraries that caught his attention. Some of the suggested routes described dicey and difficult roads and, after our experience on the mounta