Seasons Greetings card EN

Row 1 from left to right:

Photo 1: Amsterdam, with our little, orange bird Wilhelmusje, one of the mascots to the Dutch football team during the World Cup 2014 and promoting the national anthem of the Netherlands: ‘t Wilhelmus

Photo 2: Armenia – Khashkar or Armenian stone cross, expression of Medieval Armenian Christian art, elaborate stone carved crosses, you find them everywhere in Armenia, one more detailed than the other

Photo 3: Vatican City, in St Peter’s Church, a museum in itself

Photo 4: Somewhere on a mountain in northern Italy, probably in the Dolomites

Photo 5: Turkey, Istanbul, bazaar

Row 2 from left to right:

Photo 1: Southeast of France, Val d’Isère, in winter a booming sky resort, with 1^oC in June! This is what the inside of our home looked like.

Photo 2: Italy, Alberobello, typical drystone houses, known as ‘trulli’ in the province of Bari, in the Puglia region

Photo 3: Dancing at the wedding of Stefani’s sister

Photo 4: Rome, the Colosseum, an elliptic, Flavian Amphitheatre in the centre of Rome

Photo 5: Turkey, Istanbul, either the Hagia Sofia or Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque, photo taken from the other side of the Bosphorus

Row 3 from left to right:

Photo 1: Georgia, Batumi, the (Georgian) alphabet tower

Photo 2: Turkey, Karadut, near Nemrut Dagi, where we set up camp for three days at this delightful camp site. As mentioned, Saeed is our ChefJ

Photo 3: a kiss somewhere in Italy

Photo 4: Turkey, ruins of Hattuşaş, the Lion Gate. Hattuşa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age.

Photo 5: Italy, Fontana della Barcaccia in Rocca di Papa, one of the Castelli Romani, seven towns, in the hills southeast of Rome

Row 4 from left to right:

Photo 1: A sunset and attempt of some fun photography… in Iran or Oman

Photo 2: Georgia, Stepantsminda, formerly Kazbegi and still known as such, and its idyllic Gergeti Trinity Church on top of the mountain, a famous landmark most people will recognize.

Photo 3: Italy, on a mountain top near a war memorial, the highest point of the mountain always sign posted

Photo 4: Iran, Neyshapur, Omar Khayyam’s mausoleum (famous Iranian philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and poet, most famous for his Rubaiyat)

Photo 5: Oman, near Wadi Ash Shab, in the direction of the village Qur’ran on a mountain plateau where Saeed shows the goats passing by how to brush one’s teeth;).

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this letter and our wishes find you well and happy.

What a year it has been! Living our dream has been satisfying and rewarding, although it also has its challenges.

Attached you will find a few of our photos with our best wishes and Season’s Greetings.

Two and a half years ago we watched the film “The Bucket List” after which I asked Saeed what the one thing is, he wished to do before he will die: Travel by car to the other side of the world. Well, why don’t we??? And our dream was born.

We have been on the road since the 17^th of June 2014 and travelled by car from London through fourteen countries, experiencing the gradual change of people, physical features, ways of living, dress, food, accommodation, cultures, landscape, traffic, … travelling from west to east.

We have much enjoyed Georgia for its green landscape and Kazbegi; Oman for its wild camping opportunities, watching the stars and waking up with either goats, cows or camels next to the car; and Iran for its many enriching and historically important sights. Turkey for its Zeugma mosaic museum and the one camping site we so enjoyed to rest; Greece for Meteora, monastries on pinnacles of mountain tops; and Italy for the Dolomites with their many ‘tornantes’ (hair pin bends) and the impressive history by visiting Rome. Every country we passed through has left an imprint on our eyes, our heart and memory and it is a delight to browse through the many photos we have and relive the journey.

We have met with so many of our friends en route, and met many new people while on the road. Thank you all for your hospitality and kindness, we so much appreciate it, be it because you came especially over to see us, you made time in a busy schedule, you welcomed us in your home and gave us a possibility to get to our senses, or we just had a chat about life, the journey and day-to-day things: Thank you ˜ спасибо ˜ Grazie ˜ Sağ ol ˜ Dank je wel ˜ ありがとう ˜ დიდი მადლობა ˜ Vielen Dank ˜ Merci ˜ تشکر از شما ˜ Muchas gracias ˜ დიდი მადლობა ˜  شكرا ˜ Tak ˜ Teşekkür ederim ˜ 감사합니다˜ Hvala.

We have learned to divide the roles: Saeed drives, cooks, does the shopping, makes tea in the morning and is our safety & security officer; I navigate, turn the car around for sleeping and travelling (i.e. put all stuff from the back in the passenger front seat in the evening and put it back ‘on the bed’ in the morning), make breakfast, keep track of the budget, do stock management and read through the guide books. Together we plan, have much fun photographing, absorbing the scenery and noticing little nuggets of interest on the road.

The most scary moment on the road came in Georgia when we ended up in a heavy hail storm on a one-car-width off-road along a mountain, while driving to the next village from Kazbegi to look for a camping. There was a hill of stones we had to pass over while ground and stones were washing away from underneath and beside our car, the wipers were actively wiping away and you could hardly see a hand before your eyes. And to top it, there were two cars waiting a bit further on the road where we would be able to pass each other. After several attempts, we decided to reverse to a wider space a bit below as we couldn’t hurdle the hill of stones. One of the oncoming cars came forward, a woman came out into the hail and rain and by hand took away stones to flatten the area. So simple, but we had been so caught by fear that our minds had left us. When they passed us a little down the road, they assured us we would be able to continue our journey without further problems. Phfew!

The most heart-warming experience we’ve had were many, but when there was ticking on the window at 6am one morning when having slept in the car on the parking of Jabreen Castle in Oman, we first thought it was a bird, as we had noticed this happening before and we saw one on the mirror. More ticking. Saeed opens the curtains wider and sees the guard of the castle standing outside with a cup of tea! What a delightful good morning!

Questions of life, what would we like to set up together, where would we like to be, what would we like to create for our future, have been joining us on our journey. Definite answers have not filtered through yet and in the end might not show up, however we feel good talking about these things while on the road and use our imagination. Everything is possible!

We are looking forward to continuing our travels beginning of January to drive to the border with Turkey and from here to Greece, Athens, continuing to Italy and we’ll see where we’ll head for next. Tunisia and Morocco are some wishes, depending on the feasibility/political situation and budget necessary for ferry crossings. The coastal road of Italy, Spain, Portugal and France are also on the list and from here travelling a little more north to the Netherlands, before returning to London.

We look much forward to meeting again old and new friends and wish you all a wonderful winter period with a sparkling start into the New Year.

Much love and big hug,

Saeed & Stefani

PS: our website www.WorldDonya.com has proven to be more work to keep up to date than we thought, we wished to be more disciplined despite the circumstances. We hope to post again soon;).