Friedman's travels

Velcome to Serbia! Note the early 1950's architectural charm we were greeted with.  Actually I really liked Serbia, partly because I was very familiar with the culture.   My observations: - They totally and completely LOVE their dogs.  You see them everywhere and in the parks, they are always off leash.  Everyone is good with them running around, (for the record the dogs were all well behaved).  It was awesome for me to see (I hate the thought of a dog not being able to run and play.) - These parks were also well used, people had dogs playing, were working out, and kids were playing in the fountains.    - Like many of the counties we visited, they smoke a lot.  This is odd for us to see because it is not common in the US. - We were surprised to see graffiti everywhere. From our experience graffiti was not indivictive of a bad neighborhood.  We walked all over Belgrade and I never felt worried for my family.   Talia needs to und...

I can't believe we are on our final day of our three-month family world trip.  We've covered seven countries across two continents and learned how to say thank you in five languages.  We've also spent an extraordinary amount of time on various transports including planes, boats, traines, buses, subways and transit systems around the world.  One thing I feel confident in is that the kids will be able to dive in and figure out how to competently navigate public transport anywhere in the future (especially with our good friend Google Maps).     I really appreciate the wonderful travelers that both kids have been.  They've been enthusiastic explorers with great attitudes, curiosity, enjoyment, and appreciation.  I think we're all ready to go home now, but it's been a wonderful adventure.  Interviewing each family member, here are some of the highlights across this journey: What have been your favorite things? Mark: Overall, definitely my time wit...

One very fun thing we did was a Via Ferrata. Via Ferrata stands for iron way and it is a climbing course on a cliff where you clip into metal wires and climb on metal bars sticking out or rocks. It is almost all in the sun so it can get difficult at times. It took a few hours to get to the top, but it was really fun. At one point there was a short cave you could go in and there was also a rope bridge where you balance on a wire and clip and hold on to another wire. I took a while to hike down but is was still all lots of fun. During the whole thing you could look behind you and get a great view of the lake, town and mountains. The Via Ferrata was definitely one of my favorite experiences on this trip. After the Via Ferrata we went to a lake to cool down and there was an area with small cliffs that you can jump off into the water.

  This is our last week on the trip. We are staying in a hotel. I love this place so much. It has a pool, and it is really close to the beach. I love the beach so much. The water is so clear and pretty, when you go underwater you can see so clearly and there are so many fish. The rocks are beautiful, and once I saw a little baby sea turtle. The pool is really nice. It is not that cold so it is not hard to get into. I love swimming and so does Peyton, dad, and mom. So far I have gone in the pool every day this week. It has been really hot lately so getting in the nice cool pool feels really good. I am excited to go home and see all of my friends and family, but I will definitely miss this trip. 

After almost two months traveling on our own, we've been enjoying time with family and friends in Europe.   Serbia Following our week in Rome, we took an unexpected side trip to Belgrade, Serbia to spend a week with my brother-in-law and nephew.  It was a fantastic opportunity to see a little bit of Eastern Europe and get a great visit with Aca and Luca.  The kids added Eastern Orthodox to the collection of houses of worship they've seen around the world (Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, Roman Catholic, and Jewish).  We explored Belgrade, enjoyed the cafe life along the river, hiked in the hills outside the city, and gave Peyton the chance to try water skiing on a pulley system with his cousin.  We've seen a number of cities where people clearly love their dogs, but Belgrade was the only one where dogs were happily running free throughout the many parks. Water skiing Amazing Serbian feast Northern Italy Part I We flew from Serbia to Milan and then drove about an h...