Honeymooning & Some Challenges

Hi friends!

Thanks for following along on our journey. We appreciate every single one of you.

Since the last blog, we have experienced so much in such a little amount of time. We spent one week on the island of Santorini, Greece for our honeymoon. We experienced some MAJOR jet lag. There is a seven hour difference from Greece to the USA. The first day we arrived in our hotel, we fell asleep at 11 am and woke up at 7 pm. Every day we were in our hotel, we would fall asleep at 6-8 pm and wake up anywhere from 4-6 am. We both took at least one nap every day, too. Finally almost two weeks after we started this journey, we feel like the jet lag is over…thankfully! 

Our honeymoon was absolutely beautiful. We had a private infinity pool and indoor cave jacuzzi. We relaxed for the most part, ate a lot of dessert and street food, and explored some of the main parts of Santorini. (If you ever have the chance to eat a bubble waffle with gelato, do it. You won’t regret it.) Santorini is a such wonderful island. Right now, it is winter in Santorini and about 80% of restaurants, stores, tours, etc. are closed. This is the main part of the year that they do construction, building, and painting. The weather was nice a few days but it mainly stayed in the mid 50s. That’s a bit too cold for me (Ally). It only rained once and it was super windy some days, but it still was wonderful. We rented a car for a day and went from one tip of the island to the other. We got to see so many different cities, beaches, and views in such a short amount of time. One quick story: We were trying to drive back from the lighthouse at the end of the island to our hotel when all of a sudden people started flashing their lights at us. I (Ally) had the map in front of me the whole time trying to give Mario directions. Little did we know we were going uphill in a manual car on a one way road. We were the crazy white people that were going the wrong way. After we realized, Mario pulled over and since there was nowhere to turn around, he had no other choice than to go backwards. Then, our brakes stopped working. It was not fun. Thankfully, we got to the bottom and didn’t crash. Moral of the story: Stay calm when your car brakes stop working and try to figure out the one way streets. And to all the women that help your boyfriend/husband with directions in a place you’ve never been, I applaud you and I understand how hard it is. 

We’ve learned so much from this journey already. Our official backpacking trip started on Saturday (December 8th) when our honeymoon ended. Backpacking isn’t easy. Traveling isn’t all fun, pictures, and eating out. It is hard to fit all of your stuff in packing cubes and put them the same way in your backpack every time. It’s hard to know all the measurement and weight requirements for every airline. It’s hard to figure out transportation in another language in a place you’ve never been to. It’s hard to watch how much money you’ve spent and how to live without an income. It’s hard for someone to cancel your housing plans a few days before you stay there and having to find somewhere else to stay. It’s hard to drive a car and not know where you are, which roads are one ways, and where you can and can not park. It’s hard not being able to see family or friends for a long time and having to keep up with the changes between time zones. It’s hard to have patience with your spouse when all of these things are happening. But with all of that said, the Lord has been so good to us and has helped us grow individually and as a couple. We really enjoy traveling together despite the numerous challenges that are put in front of us. We are thankful for each other and the fact that we get to spend this time together. There are so many more positives than negatives when it comes to traveling and for that, we are grateful.

With love,

Mario & Ally 

Instagram: Marplusal

Youtube: Mar&Al

Wedding fun & Missing our first flight

These last two weeks have been crazy! We transitioned from our normal day lives of working, wedding planning, and travel preparations to final touches on the wedding, the wedding day, and full time traveling. We had such a wonderful time with our family and friends as they visited from the States to help out with wedding craziness. We are thankful we could spend time together before our traveling started. 

On Tuesday night, my parents dropped us off at the San Pedro Sula airport in Honduras. We left at 1:45 am and arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 5:15 am. We stayed in Fort Lauderdale for about 14 hours. When we went to check in for our 9:35 pm flight, we found out we had missed our flight. There was a schedule change that we weren't informed about. After three hours of talking on the phone trying to figure out why we weren't informed and how we were going to get to Greece, we were given a new flight and a place to stay. We knew there would be challenges, but we never expected our first two days of traveling to be completely changed. 

Proverbs 3:5-6Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Our wedding was one of the most special days of our lives. I (Ally) never knew how hard it was to plan for a wedding. Planning a wedding for 200+ people out of the country was the most challenging thing. We had a lot of help from family and friends. It was such a spectacular wedding and was one of the best days of our lives! Thank you for all of the sweet messages, comments, and love! Wedding pictures should be here in two weeks. But for now, here are some phone pictures! Enjoy!

After 3 flights (15 hours total), 4 days, 1/3 of our liquids being taken away, a loss of a water bottle and pillow, and extra baggage costs, we are safely in Athens! We plan on heading to Santorini tomorrow morning. 

Much love,
Mario & Ally

Continue to follow along on Instagram: Marplusal and on Youtube: Mar&Al

We're leaving the country and not coming back...for now!

Hi! Welcome to our blog! Let me introduce Mario and me. My name is Ally and I am 21 years old. I have a wonderful husband Mario, who is 19 years old. We both love Jesus, each other, family, friends, traveling, eating, and much more. 

Now for the good stuff. You read the title correctly! Mario and I are headed out of the country (USA) starting November 11th of this year. We are going to have our wedding ceremony in Honduras on November 24th and after that, we start our “no ending date backpacking trip.” We are planning to hit 34 countries as of right now. 

Here is our list:

Greece, Portugal, Malta, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Andorra, France, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland,           Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland

We have been praying, planning, and researching for the last year or more for this. It has taken hundreds of hours to pull this trip together and we still aren’t finished! The Lord has blessed us greatly with the opportunity to do this. We can’t wait to meet people and be able to share the gospel wherever we go. 

How are we doing this?

Money- We have been saving for awhile now and using our money wisely while we’ve been in the States. We aren’t being funded in any way and we definitely don’t have a huge amount of money to spend.

We are staying in hostels, workaways, couchsurfing, and with a few friends:

Hostels are usually not as nice as a motel, they have shared rooms (sometimes private), and are made for backpackers. 

Cost: $5-10 a night

Pros: Cheap, meeting new people, convenient

Cons: More on the sketchy side, can be dirty

Workaway is a family, couple, or single person that wants you to work for them in exchange for food and/or accommodation. If you work 2-3 hours (5 days a week), you get free accommodation. If you work 4-5 hours (5 days a week), you get free accommodation and food. 

Cost: Free

Pros: Meeting new people, learning new experiences, FREE

Cons: Working (Ha!), not having full week days to go explore

Couchsurfing is an online website where you find people across the world that are willing to host you in exchange for sharing dinner, teaching them a new skill, someone to talk to, etc.

Cost: Free (except the yearly subscription for the website)

Pros: Meeting new people, exploring daily, tips from the locals, FREE

Cons: Can be challenging to find a place, not completely private

Friends is the best way of accommodation and our favorite! We love staying with friends and being able to spend time together.

Cost: Free

Only pros…no cons!

Food- We plan on eating street food, shopping at the market and making our own food, and very rarely eating out.

Transportation- We will fly to and from most of the islands we go to and to the farther away places. Besides that, we will be taking buses, trains, or walking.

Well, hopefully you have made it this far and if you have, congrats! Thank you for reading and we hope you continue to follow along with our crazy adventures. We would love if you could pray for us and our safety throughout the trip. We also have Youtube channel where we will be uploading videos and vlogs. Check out the link below.

YOUR part: If you have any suggestions on what to do, eat, or see in any of these countries, please let us know! Also, if you have any friends that would be willing to host us in any of the countries, we would greatly appreciate it! 

Want more details? Or want to find out how to do it yourself? Feel free to ask.

Much love,

Mario & Ally Paz

Click to see Youtube Channel!