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September 30 WTF #9, The Answer


The Last Reveal 

We all know Steve is the king of WTF blogs. They are so his thing, not only because he has that kind of sense of humor, but because he is a great observer of those little things as we walk or drive or metro around. 

I, on the other hand, am not funny and not a keen observer. But, in case you haven't guessed, I am THE blog writer and so I thought, with no new odd photos to use as a final WTF, and with the great interest in the WTF blogs, perhaps we should end on that note (actually there will be one more post before we go dark).

We got lots of guesses. Right away. From our usual players and from some first timers. From people who don't travel much to people who travel a lot. From guesses in Euros to guesses in Turkish Lira (good thing we're now experts at all those exchange rates). From low guesses to high guesses- they were all over the place. 

Then, so as to ruin MY first WTF blog (and possibly in fear of being usurped as the WTF king) Steve pipes up and says ' Hey, maybe this wasn't such a hot idea...what will people think (hmmmm, seems like Steve really has changed), after all, we really don't know who is reading the blog. If they guessed high, will we seem cheap? If they guessed low, does that mean they think we're cheap? If they didn't guess but read, will it sound obnoxious to say what we spent, high or low?

So, before revealing the actual answer, we will share two things.

1. I made a spreadsheet before we left with known and estimated costs. I did not take into account things like shipping boxes home or sailing for a week. With that said, I came in exactly $2,000 low on my guesstimate and Steve came in about five thousand high.



2. The guesses we got, in order of receipt, presented anonymously, but in a wide range were:

11,096 Euros ($14,999)
36,316 Turkish Lira ( $17,827.49 on today's exchange rate)
$67,235.00
$73,000.00
$35,000.00
$55,000.00
$34,792.00
$57,000.00
$74,700.00
$18,364.00
$72,500.00
$23,500.00
$39,825.00

Of course our trip was somewhere between the high and the low; how could it not be? It was, for us, extravagant but worth it, salting away dollars for the five years we were executing our Famous Five Year Plan (available as a prospectus for anyone else looking to undertake such a venture for the small one time charge of $100.00).  


We think we saw it all and lived amazingly well and stayed within our budget. We stayed in borrowed apartments, and 5 star hotels. We took yachts and ferries. We walked a lot, and we're greeted at the airport by limo drivers ( well, really a private taxi).... We really never skimped on anything, certainly not meals! 

And the final tally, including every airfare, every charge on our Cap One credit cards, every cash withdrawal, every meal, tip and taxi, and even our international health care policy, was......drum roll sound....




                                      $47, 125.00 


>>>>>> note : TOAL = Trip of a Lifetime <<<<<



So when you next see Steve or I as the greeter at your favorite WalMart, stop and talk, we still have a few more good stories to share about our Trip of A Lifetime!  Or perhaps for those of you who guessed way high, we better open our travel consulting firm, as apparently we could make a lot of money saving you a lot of dollars on your next vacation. 

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