Every-day-is-Friday five: Portland(ish) cravings on Day 365.

We have been on the road for a year.

A YEAR!! Holy cow.

When we were researching round-the-world travel blogs people would always say "I was only going to be gone a year, but..." We couldn't understand how that could happen. Now we know.

Occasionally someone asks what we miss from home. Other than friends, family, and regular access to good peanut butter, there's not really much. But we can't say there's nothing we miss either, so we thought Day 365 would be a good time to share five of our Portland(ish) cravings in no particular order:

~* PATRICK'S LIST *~

Craft beer. Having tasted beers throughout Canada, Central Europe, Turkey, Morocco (yes, even Morocco), and now Vietnam, nothing compares to the fine craft beers of the Pacific Northwest.

Prague, Czech Republic

Snowboarding. Oh, how I would love to make some sweet, sweet turns.

The weekend bacon routine. It was the only thing getting me through the work week. (Bonus points if it was from Laurelhurst Market.)

Lone Fir Cemetery. Taking a peaceful walk or an uninterrupted run through the cemetery was great since most other people avoid it. A lot of the cemeteries throughout Central Europe brought back fond memories of Lone Fir.

Rakowicki Cemetery - Krakow, Poland

Laurelhurst Theater. Pizza, beer, $3 movie... what better way to spend a rainy day in Portland?

~* JEN'S LIST *~

Cooking. The novelty of hostel cooking has definitely worn off. I miss poring over online recipes, homemade soup, my spice rack, and three days of delicious leftovers.

Lisa, Romania

Live music at Portland venues. The Doug Fir, Mississippi Studios and the Aladdin were our regular date nights. We get a little homesick when we see tour announcements from our favorite bands. We hope you go to their shows while we can't.

Comfortable personal space. Dorms have no space whatsoever; hotels have a bed (or two) and maybe a chair, once in a while a balcony or terrace. Usually the bed becomes our office, kitchen, sofa, sleeping area, you name it. Add to that, the fact that we have pretty much spent the past 365 days together 24/7... Yeah, comfortable personal space would be nice.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Running. We were running up to 20 miles/week back in Portland. I didn't bring running shoes/clothes figuring it would be too much to deal with, and I'm glad I didn't. But some days a nice three mile run would be nice. And some days a ten mile run would be so very awesome.

The Multnomah County library. In addition to borrowing every single travel book/DVD in their collection, at least once a week we would pilfer the media racks for familiar and/or strange finds. We learned how to buy an RV, how big structures are made, and why Attack of the Crab Monsters is one of the best B&W cheesy horror flicks of all time. We discovered The Walkmen, Woods, and The Tallest Man on Earth just to name a few. And we watched and listened to a lot of crap too, but that was part of the fun!

~* *~

So we mostly don't miss things, we miss experiences. That's pretty fitting considering what we are doing right now, and it's also probably for the best since we don't have a whole lot of things to come home to anyway!

Not sure how much longer we will stay on the road but we just renewed our travel insurance for another six months and there are no refunds for early policy cancellation... So you do the math.