About Mel

Kate: Mel is the best travel buddy because:

She's never at a loss for fun facts.  

always with the guidebook

Mel:  Nothing says tourist like reading from a guidebook while you're walking around, except for maybe my American Tourister passport holder. Good thing I LOVE being a tourist.

Kate: I think this would be a perfect place for the picture of you in your flannel looking like the American Tourister superhero that you really are.

Mel:  I'm really touristing it up here with both the camera and the American Tourister passport holder around my neck. And I'm sure I must have had a guidebook somewhere in that backpack.

I'm not sure who I thought was going to steal my passport on the Inca Trail. I think I just love hanging as much crap as possible around my neck.

She's ballsy enough to climb to the edge of a church roof with a stranger in Peru.

mission accomplished

Kate: I love the thumbs up photo. You look like John McCain!

Mel: Oh god.  Apparently his campaign theme song was Barracuda so that can be the soundtrack in your head when you look at this photo.

I'm really not sure what disturbs me most about these photos: that I followed a complete stranger that I couldn't understand to a church rooftop, that I trusted that the rusty ladder wasn't going to collapse, that I climbed it so that I could basically stand on a ledge with next to nothing to keep me from plunging to my death, or that I look like John McCain.  

I am impressed that I managed to climb that ladder in China flats though since they are pretty much the flimsiest shoes ever.

Most impressive though is her bloodhound-level ability to sniff out a McDonald's anywhere, anytime.

Kate: I don't know if it's the neon light from the signs, but you're practically glowing. I've never seen you so happy.

Mel: I'm not going to lie; I was very happy. I think I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but sometimes I just want something predictable, even if it's predictably kind of crappy.

Kate: I think that's what makes it so amazing. It's much funnier BECAUSE you're usually so adventurous and inclined to avoid American food. But when you do, you go big or go home. #respect

About Kate

Mel: Kate is the ultimate city bitch abroad because:

She can pack for a two week trip in the time it takes to play a Michael Jackson song.

Kate packing for our South America trip while listening to Bad. Yup, she packed for the entire trip in 4 minutes and 7 seconds.

Kate: Omg these pictures are the definition of hot mess. I also love that my reading material for the trip was apparently an issue of Marie Claire with Mary Kate on it and The History of Love. The absence of US Weekly or In Touch is troubling.

Mel: We can only hope I was carrying the other trash mags. 

She's tough enough to carry a backpack that’s twice the size of her.

Kate hiking the Inca Trail. Badass.

Mel: I love how I can barely see you in these pics because the backpack is insanely huge. Also, the woman on the left clearly opted to pay a porter to carry her backpack because she was smarter than us. And I think the porter on the right is actually carrying less than you!

Kate:  I'd like to clarify that not only did we scoff at the people who decided to pay a porter to carry their bags but we also thought it would be genius to swap off carrying one ginormous bag with both of our sleeping bags rather than us each carrying one normal size bag of our own. #lessonlearned

Mel:  A small part of me still stands by our backpack idea but that might just be because I got to see the porters laugh at you every time they passed by.

Kate: The only time I really regretted that decision was when we were going down the "gringo killer" stairs and the bag was so big it got stuck while I tried to climb through a cave and then about 15 porters came barreling down the hill at me. I always wondered how frustrated they must have been with us tourists. Here we are with hiking boots and walking sticks struggling and they're basically running the entire thing in flip flops, while carrying all our food and shelter.

stuck in the cave 

Mel: Although to be fair, we didn't actually have hiking boots. We were probably the only gringos doing the trail in gym sneakers.

Kate: And everyone else was decked out in North Face and EMS gear while we're rocking Old Navy performance fleece and Goodwill flannel. However, we were the only ones who were prepared with ponchos, so that has to count for something.

She also does an EPIC Hammer dance.

Mel: One of my only regrets from our travels is not getting photos or video of your MC Hammer Dance. I'm sure I would have if the dance hadn't been suddenly interrupted by the person knocking on our door to get us to be quiet in our guesthouse in Chiang Mai. You have to promise to do it again on our next trip so I can get some video of it - people really need to see it.
  
Kate: Let's be honest. I love doing the Hammer dance and wearing big pants so the chances of you getting on video at some point are pretty damn good. Do you think it would become a "meme"? Am I using that word correctly?

Let's Do It!

Mel: Welcome to City Bitches Abroad!

Kate: Woot! Almost 15 years of friendship, 6 continents, countless yogurt pretzels, and now, 1 blog.

Mel: We might as well put it out there that we are probably the two most unlikely people to write a blog. I still use a flip phone and you don't have Facebook.

Kate: Very true. So why should people read this?

Mel: Well, we have a ton of travel stories about all the crazy characters we've met, the illogical decisions we've made, the off-the-beaten-path places we've visited, and the most ridiculous things we've seen (ahem, the Argentine erotic horse show?).

Kate: Oh right! The one where I was groped by the gaucho who ended up leaving because his wife was in labor. Or perhaps warn people of the dangers of underwear-eating rats in Laos?

Mel: Exactly! As our Inca Trail guide always used to say "Let's Do It!"