1089 Nights: An Odyssey Through the Middle East, Africa and Asia : iUniverse : 9781440105203 : 1440105200 : 13 Nov 2008 : Ann von Lossberg and boyfriend Jim Hudock stand at the dock at Baltimore harbor and wave goodbye to their screaming-red VW bus en route to England--"just about the most beautiful magic carpet I've ever seen," Ann says. Quitting their jobs and selling their possessions, they travel around the world with no fixed itinerary-presuming that their odyssey will be no less magical than Ali Baba's classical odyssey. The first overland trip, two and a half years, is to the Middle East and Africa; a second trip to Asia is thirteen months. "Extended travel peels away the layers of your former self, especially the demands of Africa," Ann says. "Something happens when you give up wearing a watch and relinquish control over time. Experience found us; extraordinary things that just don't happen to people happened to us. We learned to leap, and the net always appeared." The language