55 Comments

What a beautiful story and spectacular photos!

Thank you for sharing.

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Wishing you and Amie all the best for your move home! It may be the end of the road for now, but the places you’ve been never really leave you.

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Nov 12Liked by M. E. Rothwell

Look at you and your sweet smiles. Really enjoy the work, wherever you write it from. Peace.

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Nov 11Liked by M. E. Rothwell

Thank you both for sharing your travels! I’ve learned so much from both of you...so cool to hear your story✌️

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Wow. Big decision. I sure have enjoyed getting to know you just a tiny bit through your nomadic travels Mikey.

You have inspired me to go into art galleries and libraries wherever I might be—even when it’s near my own home! I still can’t see a map and NOT think of you every time! 😂

You’ve also piqued my curiosity more times than I can count.

All the best to you both as you settle yourselves back home.

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Thanks so much, Kim!

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I have so enjoyed knowing you both were nearby neighbors. May your re-entry be sweet & smooth.

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Thank you, Gillian — and thank you so much for all your Venice tips! Heading to the Armenian monastery tomorrow!

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♥️🇦🇲

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Nov 11Liked by M. E. Rothwell

Fabulous! And so good to hear your backstory. Also to know the countries you’ve been to. Enjoy your re- entry.

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Nov 11Liked by M. E. Rothwell

It'll be great to have you back! You've not missed much

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Wonderful essay and good to know the story behind the Substack. For this American, the extent of whose overseas travel has been three trips to Scotland, curious to know if your travels were encumbered by language difficulties.

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English has become such the lingua franca that is has never been an issue. I can speak a bit of French which was handy because they do their best not to speak English even if they can! Otherwise everyone else was very obliging for my philistine language skills. Making the effort to learn a couple of words like ‘thank you’ or ‘hello’ in languages like Albanian or Romanian is a great way to make instant friends when you’re visiting those places!

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Nov 12Liked by M. E. Rothwell

What a great adventure you two have been on! Even when its demanding and exhausting and not so much fun, it has given you memories for life. It is also such a valuable lesson to bring back home now that you are ready to settle back in England. All the best and I am looking forward to following your adventures from home

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Congrats on coming to another stage of your life. And couldn't agree more with you about being grateful that the Schengen rules forced us to discover countries like Bosnia and Macedonia.

As for the stamina, hmmm... I mentioned this to Brent and we both agree that we don't feel that it's required extra stamina from us. Yeah, there are part that get tedious -- travel planning, anyone? But any life will have it's tedious parts.

Anyway, enjoy what comes next!

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Well whatever it is, it’s impressive!

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Thank you, sir! Honestly, it's pretty hard to believe it's been this long. And when we left Seattle nearly eight years ago, we honestly had no idea what we were doing! LOL

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Thank you for sharing your journeys with us and explaining your motivations for leaving and returning. Your newsletters are such a joy to read!

Daniel and I have been on the road since 2019. I miss my books the most. But we feel we haven’t seen enough of the world yet ( and we know we will never be adult enough for a mortgage or children.)

Wishing you a smooth resettlement in London!

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Travelling ends up being exhausting. It is nice for a period of time, but most of the people need a routine to help us anchoring to life.

It's not exactly the same thing, but I used to travel for work around Europe. I did it for almost 11 years, but I only really enjoyed the first 3 / 4. Luckily I managed to get a possition to work remotely at the end of 2018, and I've been doing so from hometown ever since. And that's definitly the life I wanted!

It will take you a few months to settle down, but it will be definitly worth it!

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Nov 12Liked by M. E. Rothwell

I know it's weird but I so relate to "wanting more time for my writing." While traveling, there is so much to see and experience, but I also miss just having a quiet day in front of my desk thinking about things. And yes, access to my books! (And the ability to purchase more of them!) I'm very excited to do more of that when we decide to come home!

So glad you enjoyed your travels, I've loved seeing the photos!

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I have so loved reading your rich writing and now knowing the back story too. Best wishes as you settle back home. 💛

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Nov 11Liked by M. E. Rothwell

This was a very inspiring read, thank you. It is probably early for answering this but if you would have another DN life like this, what would you do differently?

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In another life, it would have been cool to be more detached from the timezone and gone as far away as Southeast Asia or South America. I also really wanted to get to the Caucasus, but we never quite made it that far.

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Nov 12Liked by M. E. Rothwell

I hope you can make it one day. As a Turkish person with Abkhazian roots, I also plan to visit Caucasus region one day. Wish you the best and thanks for this great publication.

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