Our names are Andrew and Adena and we are currently traveling the world from West to East for one year. We had great jobs in Denver, but after graduating college, working for the “man” for 6 years and getting married we decided we wanted to see the world. As we all know the average vacation time in the US is typically two weeks and of course you can’t see the world in two weeks; therefore, we decided to save our money, quit our jobs and planned a year-long adventure to travel. During our travels we have met dozens of people like us, young adults with a desire to see the world, but we haven’t meant any Americans who are traveling for an extended amount of time. Most Americans we have met are on their two week vacation, visiting one or two destinations at a time. All of them are intrigued by our motives and how we pulled this trip off.  Most often we hear “I wish I could do that”.  We encourage everyone we meet with words such as “you can!”.  We have traveled to over 17 countries in 7 months and still have another 5 months left to explore many more countries. We are quite frugal and are on a strict budget; therefore, we eat locally and stay at budget accommodations in each area. We seek out free or very low cost tourist attractions and try to live like a local as much as possible.

We’ve learned so much about history, culture and ourselves over the last seven months and believe that this type of education can only be obtained from first hand experiences. We meet people from all over the world who have visited so many places; many of whom have visited the US and have had great experiences there. However, it’s unfortunate that the two most common types of long-term US travelers are the post- college Europe backpacker or the tourist bus full of retirees. We feel that we act as ambassadors to the US by falling outside of this mold and are constantly conducting conversations about US policies and society, sometimes defending, while other times refuting. Regardless, it’s clear that there are certain things that other countries do quite well; often better than the US and these are areas that we as a country could learn from. We fear that the US hegemonic mentality restricts many of its citizens from opening up to potential foreign ideas and concepts. Not to mention missing out on the immense beauty and intrigue of the people, cities and landscapes who inhabit these lands. We think we are both better US and global citizens from our experiences and encourage others to do the same.

We have documented our travel experiences at http://www.wheresmyberger.com.  Please check it out and encourage other Americans to get out and see the world!