ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Cyprus doesn't require its own separate blog post because there wasn't much too it. We were there for about 24 hours and I lay sick in bed the whole time. It rained, we scrambled to wash and dry our clothes, managed to step out for dinner, and Alastair went for a run. There wasn't much to it. We flew into Amman, Jordan and it was actually foggy and rainy. I was expecting desert; dry and hot, but it wasn't. We rented a car and drove straight to Petra. We only had a few days and planned our time quite well. We checked into our place for the night, only Alastair went in just to get the key. When Alastair got back into the car, I asked him if we were going to drop our bags off. He just said, "it's probably safer if we just kept it in the car." Disclaimer: it was safe and we were fine. It had a trip advisor award for excellence from 2013 or something like that; they should probably get that award stripped from them. One of the top 3 worst places we...

Christmas Eve day was spent in Bethlehem, which is in Palestine. We took a bus, which wasn't that long of a drive. There were some signs that warned you of the danger, but I honestly did not feel unsafe. And to be honest, everyone was so nice and it was such an eye-opener experience. I think media plays a huge role in how we perceive the world until you see and experience for yourself. So glad we went to Bethlehem, just for that. After getting dropped off, we headed towards the old part of the city. As we were winding through the narrow streets, we started to hear drumming. When we reach the top of the city, we looked down and saw lots of people and a large parade. There were various marching bands playing Christmas music. I've never been so moved, so proud, I started to cry. To be in Bethlehem, to feel the business of the place, and to celebrate the birth of our Savior. It was all so moving! And the business of the place puts you into how Mary and Joseph must have felt...

I’m at the library in Longyearbyen, Svalbard which sits at 78° North. It is currently -2C but feels like -9C, nothing compared to yesterday’s weather, when it was -11C but felt like -21C with the wind, which was 51 km/h. Kind of like Rexburg, haha. Actually, the day I proposed to Laleinia was colder than this although it wasn’t windy, with a low that day of -25C and a proposal time reading of around -11C! It is completely dark and there has been cloud cover for pretty much all of the trip. I was hoping to see the northern lights, and was told right when I arrived at the hostel that they were on display a few hours before I got there! Last night one of the locals told me that although this is a good place to see them, we are almost too far north. He said Tromso was better. Ah well. I’ve wanted to come here for a long time and it is great to finally be here. It is crazy, I feel like I’m at the end of the earth, which in some ways is true, this is the northernmost set...