Back Home!

We arrived to the US, New York City to be exact, on August 27th where my(Kelly's) mom and brother were at the gate awaiting our arrival. We had booked an apartment for 3 nights in East Village to do some shopping, unwinding and eating. It was so nice all of being together again. We also saw Lauren in Brooklyn, where she is planning her next move. The NYC trip was a nice transition back into the US lifestyle after 10 months abroad.


Me with my mom and brother Joe in NYC!

While bored on long train rides, we often calculated some stats about our trip.
Here are some of them:

Time gone from US total: 9 months and 20 days approx.

Countries visited: 20

Languages: 18

Currencies: 11

*Sleeping Arrangements*

Beds/Places we have slept while traveling: 53 different spots

CS Hosts/Friends in other countries we have stayed with: 23

Hostels: 12

Boat: 1 for a week(Croatia)

Campsites: 3

Budget Hotels: 8

Overnight trains taken: 3

Overnight Ferries taken: 2

Sleeping in Airport: 1

Camper Van: 1
*Locations*
Farthest South: Santorini, Greece

Farthest West: Lisbon, Portugal

Farthest North: Bergen, Norway

Farthest East: Santorini, Greece

*Bodies of Water*

Seas/Oceans we have seen: Baltic, North, Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean, Atlantic, Mediterrean

Time Zones: 3

Methods of Transportation: 9

Unesco World Heritage Sites visited: 29

*Update- We are now both back in Key West, Fl, living with Kel's mom, waitressing on Duval Street and preparing for Fantasy Fest to make some money. Ellie lived in St. Augustine for a month to spend time with her family before we made a Florida road trip together and ended up back on the island.

Ellie with Papa Chuck

Ellie enjoyed getting to be part of regular life like hanging out with her little sister and getting to go to her track meets.


Ellie with Rachel, our engaged friend who's wedding we will be in in December. It was so nice to see our friends on the road trip.

This is Sophia, Kelly's baby niece who she hasn't seen in 10 months. Sophia has really grown into a cute little toddler now.


Our daily life in Key West consists of swimming in pools, riding our bikes, working very hard, drinking beer, going to Drag Queen bingo and eyeing the map feverishly to plan our next trip.




Swimming at the Southnermost House in Key West.


With Gena and Merlin on their visit to this side of the ocean!

Back home with our drag queens where we belong for now.


Keep checking back for more details as we plan to drive across the US and fly to Hawaii and move to Melbourne, Australia next May with a one year work visa and travel Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan and take the trans-siberian train through Siberia to Moscow, flying home 15 months later from Europe.

Thanks to everyone who has kept up faithfully with this blog and to everyone who supported us while we lived out this dream adventure. Let us know what you think and remember keep checking back as we will sporadically post blurbs and some photos of our island life. We miss Europe every day and everyone we met who made this trip a living dream. Until next time on the Kelly and Ellie show....