The world is such a beautiful place to explore!

This is not a travel blog but we are travelers. This week, I felt to share some really special places we’ve found along the way. Across two really different continents!

Last year for Mother’s Day, my kids surprised me with a T-Shirt that features a travel quote:

We travel because distance and difference are the secret tonic to creativity. When we get home, home is still the same, but something inside our hearts has changed, and that changes everything.

The shirt has quickly become one of my absolute favorites and I wear it too much. But I just love the softness and the sleeves. And what’s not to love from those words across the front?

The shirt is from Urban Undercover. Sadly, this is not an affiliate link nor do we receive any promotional products from any of these companies or vendors included in this blog.

Urban Undercover T Shirt with Traveler Quote

Travel is both thrilling and gut-wrenching.

It’s thrilling on the days when border crossings and passport queues are short and sweet.

It’s thrilling when the luggage checks are efficient, English-friendly and less than fifteen minutes!

It’s thrilling on days when we discover a hidden gem off the beaten path.

It’s thrilling on days when both we and our suitcases arrive at the same time and same place.

It’s thrilling when a really neat coffee shop is found and we splurge on a brown sugar latte.

It’s thrilling when the two of us hit the jackpot on long haul flights with an empty middle seat so we have stretching room!

It’s thrilling to see familiar faces after lengthy customs processing at the end of a 14-hour flight.

Some special friends who welcomed Kingdom Advance to their city

It’s gut-wrenching when any of the above isn’t short and sweet.

Or when the typhoon downpour is ripping your umbrella from your grasp and you are unbearably drenched but alas, it is yet blocks to your destination.

It’s gut-wrenching when you can’t seem to figure out the right tram or bus to take and ministry schedules are pressing.

It’s gut-wrenching and stretching when planes have turbulence for hours and the pilots refuse to turn off the seatbelt sign and you’ve already drank too much electrolyte water.

Just as it’s gut-wrenching when the ferry is navigating 18-foot waves and you’re questioning your salvation and sanity.

In our global travels, we have discovered some truly amazing coffee shops.

One coffee shop is called Sounds Good. Such a neat place filled with vinyl records and the best brown sugar lattes anywhere! The owner creatively imagined the shop decor from a theme of music and instruments.

Louisa Coffee is another coffee shop that was just a wonderful place to enjoy a latte and a breakfast sandwich.

This coffee shop had franchise shops across the metro area but our favorite was actually inside one of the largest city parks. There was even a subway stop near the coffee shop which made getting to church on Sunday’s super simple! Grab an iced latte, a breakfast sandwich and then, jump on the train. Just remember to eat and drink before entering the train since there are strict rules about NO eating or drinking while on the train or the subway platform. Guess how we know that? heehee

Coffee Shop and Subway station entrance inside the gigantic city park

Oh yes, that reminds me….you’ve gotta hear this!

Story time!

Another coffee shop where we excitedly ordered a “cheeseburger” from the menu, fully expecting an American-style cheeseburger…lessons learned when traveling!

We laughed til we cried when we received our order.

It was a soft, delicious bun, freshly baked that morning. On the inside of the “cheeseburger” was an egg and a piece of cheese and some sort of yummy sauce. We were amazed to discover that there was no “beef” on our cheeseburger! It was a breakfast sandwich that was just bread, egg and cheese.

As we soon would discover, one must order a “beef cheeseburger” to get anything close to what we assumed we were getting. When traveling globally, assumptions with ordering food and travel arrangements are never good.

Chocolate

Our last but favorite part of this blog post is….chocolate!

We’ve enjoyed so many delicious chocolates around the world.

We have narrowly decided that our favorite chocolate, hands down, is Fazer Chocolate in Finland.

From Wikipedia:

Fazer (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈfɑtser], Finland Swedish pronunciation: [ˈfat͡sær]) is one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food industry. The company was founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian café" in central Helsinki.[1] To day, it employs over 6,000 people across Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Norway and Poland.[2] Its products are exported to more than 40 countries.[2]

**Fazer Chocolate**

Great delicious display of Finnish candies and Fazer chocolate! The Mynthon mints are also some of our favorites!
Something in Finland that is very popular is
***salminakki***—a salty licorice.
I can’t think of anything worse but Rick loves it!

To be fair, chocolate deserves several entries.

We had a 16-hour layover in Zurich, Switzerland several years ago. We decided to tour Zurich while there for the long day instead of fighting to stay upright and awake. So, we found a tour bus and enjoyed a full day of sights across the beautiful city.

One of our stops was the Lindt Chocolate Factory. We were amazed to behold flowing, molten chocolate in the lobby of the factory in a series of glass tubes and gizmos. Be sure to check out the above link to see the lobby chocolate flowing from a Wonka-sized spoon in the ceiling.

One room was completely white. Sterile as a operating theater. In the middle was another Wonka-esque gizmo system of glass tubes. Flowing out of each tube was melted chocolate: dark, milk and white. All one had to do was unwrap a bamboo spoon to catch the flow and enjoy a sugar-crushing rush to the frontal lobe.

Chocolate pioneers from 1879. Lindt Chocolate Factory Tour

One last chocolate mention is Norwegian chocolate. Last but not least!

When I taught public school in northern Oklahoma for years, my teaching partner was Norwegian. When she would visit her family either during the Christmas holiday break or over the summer, she would often bring Freia chocolate from Norway as a treat for us coworkers.

Imagine my delight when I arrived in Norway to find that same chocolate. The same! My world was full-circle at that moment.

Now, I have more friends from Norway who generously share their chocolate with me.

Freia from Norway

**Super yummy. So creamy , dreamy and sweet!**

Hopefully, you’ve gathered the bottom line here…

Global travel is fulfilling and fun most days!

Enjoying some of the goodies found along the journey make the travel even more worth it.

Grab your passport and find a global destination to fly away to this year. Discover some yummy lattes and find the local chocolate. Time didn’t permit us to talk about the German chocolate bars Ritter and Milka, and the Hungarian chocolate. And then there’s the homemade chocolate we were treated to in Serbia.

Go find your favorite! Pack that suitcase and fly away!

You’ll return better!

Promise.

We’d love to hear your travel story. Your favorite things to nibble along the journey!

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One favor?

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Email us at kingdomadvanceok@gmail.com

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Reasons to Travel: Global Destinations, Coffee & Chocolate

Story time!

Chocolate

One favor?

Resilient Survival