Full Show Script [simple creature]
Evo: So... that was Europe. 7 countries visited in 129 days of travel. We could do the math to uncover how many miles we traveled, but there are some other figures we think you'll find more interesting. Ones that have to do with money, not distance.
She: First, the cost of travel. Getting to and traipsing about Europe has to be expensive, right?
Evo: Not really. When we added up the numbers, our big travel costs -- five separate trips by plane, and another five unrelated trips by train to different destinations -- the total came to $3600. Yes, for both of us. And yes, that included getting to Europe from America. No, we didn't cash in frequent flier miles or fly on a friends-and-family ticket. Sheila's just really good when it comes to travel planning.
She: And then there's the cost of lodging. 129 nights on vacation should add up quickly, right?
Evo: Again, not really. Not when you get rooms the way we do. Unlike train and air tickets, we get a lot of free lodging. 13 of our nights were completely comped, thanks to the conferences that booked us. 32 more nights were free, thanks friends old and new that let us couch surf with them, a night or two here and there, but sometimes weeks at a time. Thanks again, Gillian! But the bulk of our time -- 74 days -- was spent house sitting. Free lodging in exchange for watering the plants and feeding a few animals. Easy.
She: That left ten days -- only ten days across four months -- where we had to pay for a hotel or Airbnb with our own funds. Total cost: just over $700.
Evo: That's $70 a night for those 10 days, which isn't a bad price. But if you divide it across the entire 129, it's only five and a half bucks each day. That's a smoking deal, and I think we deserve a beer for our efforts.
She: We took a break from the Ungagged conference in London to walk the Beer Head Mile, just south of London Bridge. It was only a little after 10 in the morning, and we both still had to function at the conference, so we only hit two breweries: The Kernel, which we knew and love, and then Brew By Numbers, new to us, but one we quickly grew to love.
[BBN]
She: Don't worry. I'm not going to let Evo make yet another craft beer nerd show. Instead, I want to draw your attention to the accent of Paul, the Brew By Numbers guy Evo's chatting with. He didn't sound like a typical Londoner to me, so I asked the obvious question:
Evo: The question Paul gets a lot -- where are you from -- is becoming harder and harder to answer for a lot of people. Us, for example. We haven't had the right accent -- or simply didn't speak the correct language -- for the last five months. It's pretty clear we're not from here -- wherever here has been -- so we get asked the "where are you from" question a lot.
She: It's a hard question for us to answer. Unlike a lot of long-term travelers, we literally have no home to return to. Do we say "Arizona", where we lived for the last 18 years? Do we say "Oklahoma", where we both grew up? Neither answer seems right, because neither of us really think we're "from" any one place.
Evo: Which brings up one interesting thing we've noticed during this European leg of our global adventure: It really struck me in Milan, Italy.
[cities look alike]
Evo: Sheila's mis-remembering of how expensive beer was in Copenhagen aside, cities in Europe all kinda look alike. And small towns... tend to look a lot like other small towns from other European countries. Sure, there are iconic monuments and features -- the Eiffel Tower Paris or the Pyramids of Egypt -- but once you get past the big "attraction" or some unique geography, you'd be hard pressed to figure out what city -- or even country -- you were in by examining the local mundane architecture.
She: Looking back at all that's happened over the last five months -- unexpected doctor visits, kidnapping, close encounters with acts of terror -- we really have had a great time touring Europe.
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