This part of the shoreline of the island has some impressive blowholes where the waves shoot out of. It's so beautiful and impressive we could have watched it for hours.

At the cultural center of Tonga they showed how they made and decorated a special type of mat called Tapa. We got to paint the Tapa with a typical design.

Everyone here is said to have the Bula Spirit within them. With everyone so welcoming and friendly, you can feel that Bula Spirit all around. It sounds cool too!

Fauzie, un artista indonés que lleva 15 años residiendo en Liechtenstein, nos habla de la suerte que le ha brindado la vida y cómo ésta le ha brindado felicidad: el haber tenido la oportunidad de estudiar arte y conocer a su actual esposa, originaria de Liechtenstein; el haberse mudado a Liechtenstein y formar una familia; el haber renunciado a un trabajo de 9 a 5 para dedicarse a su gran pasión, el arte... Me siento afortunado de poder estar en su estudio compartiendo y escuchando sus historias. Me hace recordar la importancia de ser libres y asumir nuestras responsabilidades para poder ser felices.

The constitution of Uzupis is for everyone to see on the wall of a side-street, written in three languages. You will find articles like : 'everyone has the right to loved', 'Everyone has the right to not be 'Everyone has the right to be happy'. My personal favorite is 'A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need.'

We're in Zurich at this a-m-a-z-i-n-g vegetarian restaurant. I used to be a vegetarian for almost 7 years. Whenever I talk about the subject with Tony he tells me: 'I would love vegetarian food if it had bacon", hahaha. But today vegetarian food is so delicious that even Tony is happy to be eating veggie... And he hasn't asked for bacon!

In the capital of Lithuania lies a small district called Uzupis. The area is inhabited by many artists that leave their mark all around the place, paintings on walls, sculptures along the river, statues in the square. In 1997 the residents declared the Republic of Uzupis with its own president and its own constitution. Their national day is on the 1st of April. As you can see on the sign welcoming you to Uzupis there are four important rules to follow : Always smile, stick to the speed limit, appreciate art and you will fall into the river if you do not respect the first three rules.
Who knew there was an extra country to visit? expedition 206 just became expedition 207!

This wonderful lady is known across Vilnius. She comes into the city every day by train, sporting her most colorful clothes. She walks around the streets and begs for money with a great lipsticked smile and a friendly greeting. The locals are used to seeing her on their paths and often have a few coins ready as they get close. She told me in a tiny sweet voice that happiness to her was being in good health. 'Without health you have nothing' she said with a serious look in her eye. A few moments later her expression softened and she said with a coy smile : 'I also find happiness in my wardrobe', following a childish giggle, 'I really love my clothes.'

In Istanbul we met up with Zeynep, a Expedition 206 finalist we met at the interviews week, and her husband Jo. They play host for us and showed us around the city. The place is amazing. It's got a great vibe. You can easily understand why this awesome couple chose to live here!

This guy from Montenegro tells me that: "from time to time my job makes me happy but what really makes me happy is to spend time with my family". He has long shifts at his work, very busy schedules and sometimes he has to work overtime and even overnights. Therefore he's learned how to appreciate even more the time he can spend with his family.

Coffee in Bosnia is the social backbone. You drink it with business, with friends and with new or old loves.

We watched the match Slovakia-Italy in Bratislava. This is just after
Slovakia scored for the second time. The Slovakian people were going
crazy!

One of the things I love about Zagreb is how the locals flock to the city center on Saturdays.

Speaking about happiness, guys: Slovakia's third goal!

Kelly and I are watching the Slovakia vs Italy game. As soon as we got to the public viewing area they told us that since we are here we should paint a Slovakian flag on our faces. Everyone's wearing the Slovakian colors and they seem super happy... So we are experiencing local happiness by rooting for Slovakia!

Caroline, a Greek visuel artist talks about her design for the Coke
bottle representing Greece.

The sun is finally shining here in Vienna after a week of rain. The
place is full of happy people soaking up the sunshine. Everyone is
lying around chilling with their friends. There is a great vibe here
in the city.

In India, happiness is in the differences.

Met up with some cool kids this afternoon. I showed them how to blow a vuvuzela :-)
They told me all about their happiness and dreams. They love to spend time with friends, be it shopping or cricket. Most of them told me if they could do anything without worrying about restraints they would travel the world. These guys were so much fun. They showed me that where ever you are in the world you will always find things in common with others. Happiness has many similarities all around the world. It's just in the way you express it that you find differences. Difference in culture and customs. These differences makes our world the interesting and amazing place that it is.

We came to this High School in Swaziland to meet the students: you should have seen how crazy they went when we asked them to show us their joy, their happiness. Everyone started laughing, screaming and just genuinely smiling. High School happiness that's a good thing to remember!

Soccer City went crazy yesterday in the Opening Match. The stadium was a huge celebration: it didn't matter where you look everyone was, one way or another, celebrating and supporting South Africa or Mexico. Tony and I were supporting "El Tri": the mexican team! We had a blast!

Our new friend Mike -which we met outside of Lesotho's airport- is gonna show us around his beautiful country. It's early in the morning, it's cold outside, the landscape is just amazing. We're enjoying Mike's big smile and his slow way of speaking. His telling us about the things that he loves about his country: the nature on its infinite manifestations: mountains, caves, waterfalls. Now he's gonna show us around. I'm glad we met him.

Getting some traditional face painting at an African restaurant at Zoo
Lake.

Copa Coca Cola was won by the young guys of South Africa! We can see how full of joy they're in here celebrating their victory!

You see those horns? They are called vuvuzelas and they are LOUD and they are everywhere here at the World Cup. They actually come from South Africa and they definitely enjoy using them here as the sound of this blaring horn can be heard all over the city. I'm told that if I don't where earplugs at the stadium, I'll get permanent ear damage from the 40,000 plus vuvuzelas that will be blowing through the matches.

Our new friend Hisham in Syria showed as an simple, yet amazing day.
It was so cool hanging out with him and seeing his home and happiness
through his eyes. At the end of the day, he capped it off with the
rest of the locals sharing a cup of tea on top of a mountain
overlooking the city. There, with a great view, he reiterated the
message of the day: Happiness in Syria is simple.

Leaving Cyprus to head to Beirut, we had to stop at the lost and found to get our bags and we met the most amazing lady. She had the most infectious laugh and as you can see from the pic, she couldn't hold it in. She told us that a day without laughter is a lost day.

She also told is that when the sun shines in a place almost all the year round you will have happy people. The sun was super intense today, which may account for her extraordinary cheer.

And lastly, her parting words to us were, "Eternity is always in silence so we should enjoy the sound of laughter while we can."

This lady made my day. I definitely enjoyed the sound of her laughter.

We went to the beach today in Cyprus and one activity that dominated the beach was this game with two paddles and a ball. It seemed that everyone was playing it, lined all up and down the beach. Antonio and I would have loved to join but our luggage was lost, for the second time, and we had no swim wear.

One thing that people in Iceland adore is their beautiful country itself. With views like this, I can't blame them. Standing on moss-covered volcanic rock that stretched to the horizon, I could feel the earthly pleasure that the locals here must feel everyday.

When we asked this guy from Cyprus to tell us in one word what happiness is he said: "Alexandrus" and he began to look for someone; suddenly this little kid appeared and we were able to witness the happiness of this father.

We arrived in Copenhagen and we found some trembling abandoned luggage
waiting for us. Such a sad sight... And such a happy reunion! Sorry
luggage! We didn't mean to loose you!
A big thank you to the people in Accra and Brussels who helped us and
made it possible for our bags and us to be reunited so quickly. Thank
you!!!

So, we were headed to Sierra Leone from the Ivory Coast, flying through Ghana. When we arrived in GhanaN we were told our visas weren't in order for Sierra Leone and we couldn't go. We also realized that our bags were no where to be found. Having no visa for Ghana either, we hopped the next flight to London. Now we are in the UK, with only the clothes on our backs and dressed in shorts for the African heat. Lol, this is going to be interesting.

Nous voici dans ce petit village en Côte D'Ivoire à manger un bon
repas tous ensemble. 'Partait que c'est ça le bonheur ici. Je suis
d'accord! Sauf pour l'Agouti...

Here we are in a little village in Ivory Coast eating a meal all
together.
Thy say that this is happiness here. I agree! Except for the Agouti...

Voici les sources du bonheur de ces gens : Satisfaction complète,
santé joie et paix du coeur, paix intérieure, a l'aise, libre, la
paix, avoir tout ce dont on a besoin ds la vie, la liberté, selon
l'humeur, réaliser son rêve, satisfaction de vie, satisfaction
totale, l'esprit tranquille, résultat satisfaisant, le bien-être, la
tranquilite.

On our road trip from Togo to Benin, we could see very quickly that something as simple as shade was a very sought after thing in this blazing heat.  It seemed that literally every piece of shade we passed was occupied by people trying to escape the sun.  It was crazy the many different things people were sitting under including the shade of low brick walls and as you can see in the picture, the shade of a parked eighteen-wheeler.  Wherever there was an eighteen-wheeler parked, you could bet that there were people take shade from it.  Once, I even saw people laying on the road under the parked truck and another time I saw ladies sitting under a truck selling wares.  With this type of heat though, shade, I can understand, is very important.

Love, dance... And money! :-)

It is on the journey towards our goals that we find happiness.

Haibao is happy to be home again!

Meet the "crazy squad" of NYP university. These amazing people kept
the energy flowing throughout the whole afternoon. They are unstoppable!

The NYP university of Singapore has welcomes us with a lot of
enthousiasm. They put on ahreat show for us! The contagious energy
wave here is pulsing through the campus. I asked the MC of the show
where all that energy came from. He has a very simple answer...

Coca Cola Hoople: a project by Coke where philippine pro basketball players teach (for free) kids how to play basketball. The project helps in a lot of different ways but, mainly, in promoting a positive and healthy way of living keeping the kids doing cool things! This is a coach, and he performs an awesome job working with the kids!

"In Manila you have to eat at least once a week with your family: it's almost a sacred moment" said one of our hosts while eating traditional philippine food with us. We experienced a bunch of different flavors while talking about life, food, happiness and funny words. Mmm, yummie!

Here we are saying goodbye to our hosts. We had a great time hanging around with them and learning about their happiness: the energy that Hong Kong has; but, at the same time, the harmony and balance they're looking for. It's all about balance in life!

Mongolia's Ghengis Khan... or Chengis Khan? Apparently everyone except
the Mongolians say it wrong. No one knows why. It's assumed it got
lost in translation somewhere. So the real way to pronounce his name
is Chengis Khan. Now you know!

My friend from Belgian recently returned to her Korean roots and
showed me around Seoul. This is her and her friend. They say the main
things that represent Korea are : IT and advanced technology, food
(Korean barbecue is a must!) and... Fun stationary and cool socks...
Yes, very random but it's original to say the least! :-)

We're having a traditional meal on a busy street in Hanoi. On itsy
bitsy teeny weeny chairs and tables.

Bahrain has a huge expat population and it has it's benefits.

Happiness in Bahrain summed up perfectly. Any place where happiness
is food is a good place for me.