We are proud to invite you all to our newest addition at MangoManjaro.se – our online store!

We offer you organic clothing and different kinds of cups (you know how much we love coffee ;) ).

All of it carrying our most important message: Fear is more dangerous than the things we fear.

This is our core message. Our heart beat. The essence of our trip. A few T-shirts and coffee mugs won’t make it justice. It’s rather the inevitable discussions that will blossom when you use it. So get talking! Spread the word: Fear is more dangerous than the things we fear!

Check it out and let us know what you think!

We have now been waiting around in Ankara for over a week expecting an e-mail from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran, that never showed up. One might think we should know by now, that’s not always how embassies work…

After applying for an e-visa on the Internet (yes, it’s possible!) we’ve spent over a week in Ankara waiting for an e-mail confirming Amanda’s application. Robin’s was done at the day of our arrival, but when we finally got to the embassy in Ankara, it seemed like Amanda’s just wasn’t there. It was lost in cyberspace, and a new application would take a few weeks.

Luckily we’ve been Couchsurfing during this time and therefore made some new great friends. Our host Deniz inspires us with her bakery skills! And as you can guess, Turkey is a country we don’t mind staying in.

Outside the embassy we got lucky to meet a Belgian couple on a long journey driving from Belgium to Vietnam. They recommended us to go to Trabzon in Northeast Turkey where Iranian visas are issued in one or two days. After an espresso with our new found friends, we called the embassy in Trabzon and confirmed.

Tomorrow we’ll be on the road again. See you out there, Njaros!

Though we often feel like we find new homes everywhere we go, the homes where we grew up will always and forever be our base, where our roots grow strongly as we explore the world.

It is just as awkward as it is normal, to step inside and hug our parents and siblings and pet our cats and dogs after a few months of traveling.

We have now recharged our batteries a bit and are ready to take off on Monday. We will fly back into Ankara in Turkey and from there we’ll cross to Iraq.

We received an extraordinary e-mail the other day from Jwan, who got roots in Iraq. He spoke just as warmly about his country as we do about our own families.
“I hope you don’t change your minds about hitchhiking through northern Iraq. It is a beautiful place, especially in the mountains.”

Thanks for following us into the new year!

First off, we’ve made a new introduction video.

Check it out, share it with your friends and let us know what you think!

Second, we want to congratulate Kim Jakobsson, the lucky winner of our podcast competition!
The correct answer is “Summarn Kummar”.

Third, we’ll be sending out a new gift today to Bodil Heijbel who has made another donation to us. Thank you so much for your support!
This is what the last packages that we sent to our supporters looked like:

Fourth, for anybody looking for inspiration we now have the pleasure of offering our readers a 15% discount on Chris Guillebeau’s well made guides for unconventional living. Chris has inspired us in many ways. He’s a talented writer whose core mission is to help people live remarkable lives. The discount is valid until Monday 29/11! In order to get the discount you need to enter the code “PUMPKIN”.

Keep shining, all njaros of the world!
Love,
Amanda and Robin

Somebody told us that Istanbul means half way to India. Depending on what way you’re going, of course,
but we feel like the second episode of this journey has started. We have entered Asia, the Middle East,
and the arabic culture. It is a whole new world where we so far didn’t hear any words for “hitchhiking”.
We’ll see how it goes!

Turkey has been a great pleasure. It has been easy to get around, and we have probably had more tea in 3 weeks
than we’ve had through our entire lives… A great time in a great country.
Now, we have just gotten our 15 day visas to Syria, and we are excited to spend some time here.

Since we are now in a country where both YouTube and Facebook are blocked, the use of Skype is techniqually illegal
and good WiFi seems to be more rare than common, we will probably not be able to post something on a daily basis.
In might also take us a few days to respond to e-mails and comments. So it’s not that we have turned ignorant
since we’ve entered Syria!

There is lots to tell, and we have a feeling that The Chicken Dance is gonna be something special here…
Just wait ;)!

Oh and by the way! We recently got featured at a travel blog – As We Travel.
They think that we’re the 18th most inspiring travel bloggers of 2010 out of 25! How about that :) ?

Welcome to MangoManjaro – part 2 !