EDMONTON — They’ve already been on one around-the-world road trip, visiting 60 countries on five continents in 1,033 days, and now they’re at it again.
Michelle Weiss and Roy Rudnick, from southern Brazil, are part-way through their second trip around the world and this weekend their journey brought them to Edmonton.
“Canada is great. It’s big, it’s huge,” said Weiss. “We are having great experiences. It’s a beautiful country. We are being very well received here. All the people here in Edmonton are friends, they are offering their house to us to work, to stay warm. All the people are very kind to us.”
“We really enjoy nature and Canada can offer us really beautiful nature with all these lakes and animals,” added Rudnick.
After selling everything they owned, Weiss and Rudnick embarked on their first trip around the world in 2005. It focused mainly on the southern hemisphere.
“We wanted to change our lives, we wanted to experience something different,” said Weiss. “I say we get addicted to it. The more we know the more we want to know.”
“It was a dream that started out very small and then it was getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Rudnick.
This time around they hope to visit 50 countries on their three-year trip, which will mostly cover the northern hemisphere. The couple has spent the past 15 months on the road, travelling by car from country to country.
“Sometimes it’s not easy,” Weiss said with a laugh. “We are 24 hours, seven days, every day together.”
While tough at times, the couple has learned a lot about each other, not to mention the world and the people and cultures that come with it.
“I think one of the greatest things to be travelling is you change completely your life,” said Rudnick. “You have to live from inside your car and everything that you have is inside your car.
“You start living more simple. You start appreciating small things. It’s really great.”
From Edmonton, Weiss and Rudnick will head west through the Rocky Mountains and on to Vancouver. After a stop in Seattle, they plan to ship their car to Russia where they will continue their journey through the winter.
They will make their way back home by mid-2017, but for how long is unknown. Once you’ve been bitten by the travel bug it’s hard to stay in one place too long.
“I think it’s difficult to stop,” Weiss said with a smile.
“We have a lot of other dreams, so I think we’ll come back to the road.”
After their first trip, Weiss and Rudnick wrote a book about their journey. They’re using money from the sale of the book to fund this trip. To learn more about the couple’s travels, visit their blog.
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