Orta San Giulio, Italy
(T) This was the first time I visited Italy. G went to Rome and Pompeii when he was in high school with his art class. When thinking of places we’d like to see, of course, Lake Como came to mind, but we chose not to put it on our itinerary because it’s so well known and a bit pricy. Plus, with the high season just coming to an end when we would be there, we thought it may be overcrowded. So, I pulled up Google Maps, searched “Lake Como”, zoomed out a little, and began looking for similar places. That’s how we found Orta San Giulio on Lake Orta. After finding it on Google Maps, I looked at Google Images, liked what I saw, then started researching how to get there from Interlaken. Fortunately, we could take trains the whole way and it wasn’t difficult.
Nestled in the foothills of The Alps off of Lake Orta in the Piedmont Region, Orta San Giulio became the perfect introduction to Italy.
September 8, 2022
Switzerland has a great reputation for their trains being on time, so we weren’t too worried about taking 3 trains to go from Interlaken to Orta San Giulio since our connections were all in Switzerland. We were quite surprised when our first train was delayed and our first connection was tight! Fortunately, we made it with a few minutes to spare. The rest of the journey went smoothly although we didn’t get to enjoy the views as much as we thought we would be able to because we went through so many tunnels.
As we stepped out of the train when we arrived, it became clear to us just how small Orta San Giulio was. Their train station consisted of two tracks, a boarded-up building that was the old station, and a smaller, open building off to the side with two squatty potties.
The walk to our accommodation was less than 10 minutes. On our walk over, we noticed some lovely street art and during our time there we found numerous other beautiful frescos scattered throughout the town.
We stayed at Agriturismo Il Cucchiaio di Legno. If you go to Orta San Giulio, we highly recommend staying here. It’s close to the train station and a 10-15 minute walk from the town center so it’s in a great location but also tucked away. After we arrived, we got some good recommendations of things to do from the receptionist, settled in, sat on our balcony for a while, then went to dinner. They have an amazing farm-to-table restaurant that serves delicious, local products.
Satiated from dinner, we returned to our room, let our food settle, planned for the following day, then slept well.
September 9, 2022
Dinner set the bar high for breakfast, and we were not disappointed. After eating our fair share of the buffet breakfast, we set out for our first destination, Sacro Monte di Orta (Sacred Mountain of Orta), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the walk over, we had to stop to admire this absolutely stunning building which turned out to be just a hotel.
Then we made the climb up to Sacro Monte di Orta, situated at the top of the highest hill in the area, overlooking the lake. It boasts 21 chapels and hundreds of frescos and statues built over 200 hundred years from the 16th-18th centuries. You could spend all day here if you wanted to. The chapels and artwork are just as impressive as many other chapels and artwork in the bigger cities that we saw. Plus, they are not overcrowded so it’s a peaceful experience and it’s free. We spent a couple of hours wandering around Sacro Monte, then made our way down to the town center.
Sometimes, it’s fun to have a little impromptu photo shoot. We really liked these gates.
The town center is what I’d hoped Italy would look like. Cobblestone streets lined with vibrant, colorful buildings, some with frescos on them, and filled with pasta shops, gelaterias, cafes, trattorias, art galleries, chapels, and a grand piazza on the lake with Isola San Giulio in view. We spent some time walking through the streets before we took a taxi boat out to the island (9 euros round trip/person).
Isola San Giulio is a very small island with a basilica, restaurants, views, and the “walk of silence” with signs that guide you through a meditative walk around the island that takes only 10-15 minutes. We found it very picturesque and worth the visit.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Italy without gelato. When we got back to the town center, we ate some gelato, which really is better in Italy. We explored the town for a while longer before walking the entire lakefront perimeter. The walk took about 20-30 minutes. If we had more time, we definitely would have gone swimming. The water is beautiful shades of blue and green and very clean.
Eventually, we made it back to our accommodation, where we spent the remainder of the evening relaxing and packing to leave the next day.
September 10, 2022
1 full day was not enough. We think at least 3 full days would be ideal to spend in Orta San Giulio. Our train wasn’t scheduled until later in the afternoon, so after breakfast, we left our bags with reception and walked around the residential part of town where we found even more frescos and a quaint piazza.
We came back to the hotel and relaxed in their spa area until it was time to walk to the train station. Soon enough, we boarded our train for our next destination.
Hang Gliding and Hiking in Interlaken
September 5th, 2022 (G)
We woke early enough to enjoy breakfast at the hostel and then departed Geneva via train. As we headed deeper into the Alps toward Interlaken, we had an excellent view of Lake Geneva and then sweeping views of the quaint swiss countryside set in front of the more dramatic mountain peaks. After a few hours of fighting off train sleepiness, we arrived in Interlaken. Here we quickly found our Hotel which was truly an old swiss mansion and after dropping our packs off in a room perched on the highest floor of the 4 storied building, T set out to contact an old hang gliding instructor to see if we would be able to repeat the flying experience she had 12 years before. Meanwhile, I had to hop on a scale to make certain I would be light enough to go flying.
To T’s great delight, her contact answered and committed to immediately heading to pick us up, right after he brushed his teeth. He soon arrived, his character deserves some description. He was small of frame but of average height, with short curly gray and brown hair, clean shaven, with a wiry muscularity. He spoke with an Australian accent that seemed to have softened over time, but his words and manners had fully retained the jestful, joyful, and brutally direct style that is common in many Australians I have met and is generally admired by the world over.
I am happy to say that while I was just a kilogram or two over the stated weight limit of 95 KG, after taking a look at me, confirming my willingness to run like the wind, and picking me up once to manually check my weight, he agreed to take me flying. So it happened that before long we were all cruising up a mountain road in a van packed with a hang glider. When we arrived at the take-off location we assembled the glider, covered the safety instructions, established what was required of me during our take-off (run fast and look good), and waited for a solid updraft to begin our journey through the sky.
Before long the moment had arrived, all systems go, we’re running down a mountain cliff at full speed toward the edge. We’re running and running and then the ground has left us and we’re flying! Below we can see Interlaken and the gorgeous lakes to either side. The mountains are all around us and the ground far below is a patchwork of greens from the pine trees and fields. We cruise around with the wind whipping our faces merrily. Spinning, stalling, twirling our way down to an eventual smooth landing in a large grass field where T and the van awaited us.
After standing up and dusting ourselves off, he offered me a beer in classic Aussie fashion. So I sat sipping a beer beneath a tree as he and T hopped back into the van and headed back up the mountain for her flight. Before long I saw them soaring through the sky and in no time at all they too had made a smooth landing. With a final departing wave, he dropped us back off in front of our hotel with smiles on our faces. We spent what was left of the evening just resting in the hotel.
If you dare to go hang gliding in Interlaken, we highly recommend going with Hang Gliding Interlaken. https://www.hangglidinginterlaken.com
September 6th, 2022
Having completed one of our main Interlaken objectives earlier than planned we decided to focus on the next which was a hike higher up in the alps. We ventured by train up to Grindelwald and from there proceeded via cable car to First. Here we began our hike further up and further in, to a high picturesque mountain lake. After visiting the lake and greeting some of the local cows there, our trail turned back down towards Grindelwald. This trail offered us stunning views for the rest of the hike.
Several hours later we arrived back in Grindelwald where we stopped for a little while to revive ourselves, then caught the train back down to Interlaken. We were extremely close to the Jungfraujoch which is home to the Sphinx Observatory (pictured in the film The Grand Budapest Hotel) which would have been nice to see but, it will simply be an excuse for a return trip in the future for now.
Returning tired from our hike, we took a little nap and then spent the rest of the evening working on the blog.
September 7th, 2022
Having completed our two main goals for our time in Interlaken, we spent the seventh bumming around the town a little and visiting a nearby castle via local bus. There really wasn’t much else that we had planned and we enjoyed having a slow, down day to round out our time in Switzerland. The weather had been cantankerous and it rained off and on throughout much of the day.
September 8th, 2022
After breakfast, we packed up our belongings and caught the train off to Italy.
A Stop in Geneva
September 3rd, 2022 (G)
We arrived in Geneva late in the day, we stepped from the airport lobby to clean well-lit streets and caught a bus to our hostel. This hostel was located on the outskirts of the downtown section of Geneva, but still close enough to make it easily accessible via public transit. The building itself stood tall and modern along a broad street. We entered and checked in with the front desk. We quickly found our room which was very clean and well kept. Once we had dropped out packs and freshened up some we set out in search of dinner. If you recall from our previous blog entry we had not eaten in the Montenegro airport and now our tummies were voicing their displeasure.
T developed a near-constant craving for Colombian empanadas after our visit there in early 2019. No ordinary empanadas will do. T has tried others and consistently prefers Colombian. Fortunately, Geneva is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. So it was with great delight that T found a Colombian restaurant that was still open. Neatly tucked away in the central portion of a small shopping mall, we were met with the familiar and fond smells of Colombian cuisine.
The restaurant was filled with Colombians who seemed surprised to find two random, clearly not Colombian, people, but warmly welcomed us just the same. The ambiance was perfect. Everything from the hammock bearing the colors of the Colombian flag to the music and white-washed walls oozed Colombian spirit. We ordered and marveled at this small slice of Colombia that had been transplanted into the mountains of Switzerland. The food soon came and the empanadas did not disappoint, nor did the arepas. After enjoying a fantastic meal, we called it a night and returned to our hostel for the remainder of the evening.
September 4th, 2022
We slept late. Since we had no concrete plans for Geneva, we decided to wander toward the old section of the city and just meander. As we walked T and I talked about what things we had begun to miss. The start of September and the cooler climate of Switzerland had reminded T of autumn and naturally enjoying good cider that comes along with the season. Visiting the Colombian restaurant reminded me of tacos. Dear, sweet, lovely, messy Mexican tacos. Then the thought occurred to us. If we could find an authentic Colombian restaurant here, we could probably find cider and tacos. While we could have simply googled where to find these things, sometimes there’s a joy in just seeking things out the old fashion way first and enjoying the journey until you arrive.
So, as we wandered we kept an eye out. Eventually, we found a nice hill with a small cafe that seemed to implore us to pause our search. We stopped and enjoyed coffee together in a little outdoor seating area in front.
As we sat sipping coffee, T noticed that the shop next to our cafe boasted a craft cider. We saved the spot mentally for later in the day and after finishing our coffee set off once more. We walked the rest of the way up the hill and began down the other side until we spotted a somewhat mysterious looking set of stairs. We followed these stairs up and as we emerged from them found ourselves on the rear side of St Pierre Cathedral. This particular Cathedral began its existence as a Roman Catholic cathedral. However, during the Reformation, it became the Protestant Church of Geneva which it remains to this day.
We spent some time wandering inside the church then took a side road back down the hill where we were pleased to find a beautiful lookout point from which we could spot the Jet d'Eau which is a large water fountain in lake Geneva and is one of the city's most famous landmarks.
We followed the hill down in the direction of the fountain. As we closed in on the park that was situated in front of the fountain, we began hearing the rhythmic pounding of drums. It seems by fortune we had stumbled upon a food truck festival at the park! Food trucks with every type of food were present and after a brief search, I spotted a banner bearing the much sought-after food, tacos. We quickly purchased and devoured these excellent food truck tacos while sitting in the shade of the park tree. After tacos, time had now come to return up the hill to enjoy crisp cider.
We decided to take a slightly different route back to explore a bit more of the city and stumbled upon a few interesting buildings and old-school cannons guarding beautiful mosaics. We found an alternative viewpoint looking away from the lake and more towards the mountains and city. Soon after this, we arrived at the small cafe we had mentally marked earlier in the day. We sat and enjoyed cider served from small almost mug-like cups and enjoyed the cool air and bright sunlight. Knowing that this weather and cider were likely the closest things to real autumn that we would experience for a while, we savored it all the more.
After a while, we began our return to the hostel. Upon returning we had grown peckish once more and decided to grab a couple of sandwiches from the bar for our dinner. We spent part of the evening chatting with a fairly odd fellow from New Jersey. Perhaps it was his clearly very mathematically inclined logical reasoning applied to situations where it wasn’t totally warranted or that he was several beers deep and clearly intoxicated that struck us as odd.
In our experience, it is fairly atypical for people to get hammered completely alone at a hostel bar. Sure it happens, but usually, hostel bars are more socially focused, and more time is spent talking with fellow travelers than drinking. To each, their own. Though odd, he was friendly enough and harmless. When we were tired of chatting, we excused ourselves and returned to our room to prepare our things for leaving the following day.
Montenegro Let Us Down
Montenegro was a country I was super excited about visiting. I had researched its beautiful nature, full of beautiful beaches, mountains, lakes, and Europe’s southernmost fjord. Medieval towns are still sprinkled across the country. It didn’t seem as well known as many other countries so I hoped it would be a hidden gem. We dedicated more time to Montenegro than Croatia and Bosnia. While there are places worth seeing in Montenegro, it was the country I was itching to leave and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to visit there yet. If every place had it all, then no place would have it all, so we were bound to visit a country we didn’t like. Montenegro happened to miss a lot of marks for us.
8/25/22 - Herceg Novi
We took a bus from Dubrovnik to Herceg Novi. The arrival was encouraging enough. Although the lines were long at the border crossing, a couple of cats made it their personal responsibility to greet every person and welcome them to their country. They would spot a bus, wait by it, then walk by each person while looking at them and allowing pets if the visitor wanted. After about 30 minutes everyone was back on the bus and it didn’t take long to arrive at our destination. We walked about 20 minutes to our hotel which was near a beach. As we walked through the old town, I mentioned it looked as though we were walking through a Hollywood set. The buildings just didn’t look real. It was a hodgepodge of architecture through time strewn together. It was pretty cool.
Our hotel included breakfast and dinner. We checked in and settled into our room. It was already time for dinner so we ventured over to the eating area to see what was available. To our delight (and G’s demise later) it was a buffet. We piled our plates full of food, ate, went on a short walk, then returned to the room. That night G suffered gastrointestinal issues.
8/26/22 - Food poisoning in Herceg Novi
In the morning, he was feeling worse. By the afternoon his fever broke 102F (39C). We determined it was likely food poisoning because he had eaten different food than I had. I also wasn’t feeling well, but I’m pretty sure I had a sinus infection due to a lot of water that went up my nose while swimming a couple of days before (covid test was negative). Our hotel had its own beach; and, unfortunately, we were in no condition to go and only had one full day there. G’s fever finally responded to Tylenol and Advil that night and we were both able to sleep. We woke up in the middle of the night to check on his temperature, which was low enough to go back to sleep.
8/27/22 - Herceg Novi to Kotor Bay
G’s fever returned and his gastrointestinal issues worsened. We had a bus to catch that afternoon, so we drugged him up with Tylenol and Immodium. It helped enough for us to be able to take the bus to Kotor. We opted to take a taxi to the bus station instead of walk this time. Montenegro doesn’t have Uber, so our hotel called a taxi for us. We didn’t have any issues with this ride. We weren’t overcharged and the driver even printed a receipt that matched the meter. We wouldn’t be so lucky later in the trip.
In Montenegro, it’s imperative to print your bus ticket most of the time. Even if you had already printed it, you’re still required to go to the ticket window at the bus station to have another ticket printed and you’re charged a service fee for that. This system is very inefficient, wasteful, and a money grab.
Kotor is situated in the heart of Kotor Bay, Europe’s southernmost fjord. Old Town, surrounded by old fortress walls, boasts medieval charm all around with old stone streets and buildings. Cats are also the mascot in Kotor. The people look after them and they are quite friendly. It took about 10 minutes to walk from the bus station to our apartment in the old town.
After we checked into our new place, his fever was back and just as high as before. By this point, I was starting to worry because it had been over 48 hours, but we both thought maybe the Immodium was dragging it out. We spent the rest of the day and evening hiding out in our little apartment in the old town. I found a doctor relatively close to Kotor and we were planning on going the following day if G was still down for the count.
8/28/22 - Kotor Bay: hike up San Giovanni Fortress
G woke up fever free and felt ok! We relaxed for most of the morning and early afternoon to make sure his symptoms didn’t return. They didn’t, so naturally, we decided to hike up to the top of San Giovanni Fortress. In hindsight, we probably should have given ourselves one more day to recover as we both were still not feeling 100%.
The start of the hike begins at the edge of the old town and is easy to get to. We thought since everyone has to pay 8 euros to hike up the mountain that the trail would be well maintained, but it wasn’t. Parts of the trail were littered with trash, and at one point, the fort itself is actually used as a trash can with plastic water bottles piled at least 6 feet (2 meters) high. I wish we would’ve taken a photo of this. It was so disheartening to see. Trash was also scattered around the top of the fortress on the ground. It wasn’t the first or last time we would see a historical landmark or nature lined with trash in Montenegro. That was one of the most disappointing things. I’m honestly not sure what the 8 euro entrance fee goes towards as the area was littered and there weren’t any signs posted about the fortress or the history of the area.
Aside from the trash, the hike up San Giovanni Fort is quite nice. It was a very hot, sunny day and there was barely any shade on the trail. We recommend going in the morning or late afternoon unlike during the heat of the day like when we went. We slowly, very slowly, trudged our way up, taking a few water breaks along the way. There’s an old monastery part way up and the view at the very top is lovely. Hopefully, in the future, the site will be cleaned up and there will be some information about the significance of the area.
The hike down proved much easier than the way up. When we were back in old town, we stopped for some gelato for me and juice for G then returned to the apartment where we would relax for the rest of the evening. G had a little fever come back that we didn’t want to aggravate further.
8/29/22 - Kotor Bay: a day to recoup
Realizing we probably should have taken a day to totally recover the day before, we made a good choice to relax for the entire day. We both felt much better the following day.
I organized a tour to Ostrog Monastery that would leave the next morning. Ostrog Monastery is considered the holiest place in Montenegro. Constructed in the 1600s, it’s situated on a cliff face with much of the structure carved into the mountain. Over 100,000 visitors of all different faiths make the pilgrimage each year. Many pray to St Basil, who is entombed there, for healing for themselves or a loved one. We were drawn to it because of its location, 17th-century frescos and mosaics, and spiritual significance to others.
When we arrived in Kotor a couple of days before, I had taken a photo of a tour company sign with their info about popular excursions. The price on the board was 35 euros per person, but they quoted me 60 euros per person. I was a little frustrated but I understood when they explained that 35 euros is for a group rate and at the moment no one else had signed up. That’s fair. This correspondence was all in English.
We went to sleep early so we could be ready to go at 8AM for our tour.
8/30/22 - Day Trip to Ostrog Monastery and Perast
We woke up early and made it to our meeting point on time. I was sent a photo of the car that would pick us up and they were right on time. It was a smaller green car. G and I piled in the back seat. There were two men in the front seat. Neither one said much to us and they were speaking in Serbian as we were driving. This tour felt a little off but we didn’t feel threatened. We broke the ice and introduced ourselves. We learned the driver was our “guide” and the passenger was another tourist who was from Serbia. Fortunately, he was fluent in English and could translate for us because our guide spoke as much English as we spoke Serbian.
Our first stop was a scenic view of Kotor Bay. If you ignored the ground directly below you, the view was stunning. However, if you looked down, the ground was littered with trash.
The next stop was another view of a large lake which was nice.
Then we continued driving for over an hour, approaching the mountainous region of Montenegro and then high up into the mountains. When we arrived, we were lucky that we were allowed to park right next to the monastery. Oftentimes, you have to park down the mountain a bit and walk up. When we were approaching the monastery, I could feel the significance of this place and could see the hope and faith in the eyes of many of the other visitors. The location and view were as impressive as we’d hoped. We walked around for about 45 minutes, visited St Basil, admired the mosaics and the frescos, and then were on our way back toward Kotor Bay.
We stopped at a restaurant for lunch where G and I dined with our new Serbian friend. He gave us some background he had learned about our guide. Our guide had owned a restaurant until a couple of years prior when he was forced to shut it down because he organized protests against government corruption. From what we understood, the government was basically trying to intermingle with the Orthodox Church so they could profit from it. So, he went into the tourist industry. Montenegro is still a young country and it seems they may have a few kinks to straighten out with how they want their politics to function.
After lunch we drove all the way back to Kotor Bay, stopping at Perast before returning to Kotor. Perast is another beautiful, medieval town along the bay. It had 2 islands close by. One is closed and the other has an old church dedicated to Mary that you can visit via water taxi. It has been used to settle family disputes and many believe she has protected their ships at sea. There is a neat museum full of artwork dedicated to the island, many depicting ships. After we visited the island we took the water taxi back and our guide drove us all back to Kotor and dropped us off where we had been picked up that morning.
8/31/22 - Kotor Bay to Sveti Stefan
We slept in a little that morning, checked out of our apartment, and made our way to the bus station where we paid a fee to have our tickets printed again. I will say all of our buses were on time and it was easy to follow the bus schedule in Montenegro. Another thing we noticed though was that all of our bus drivers frequently answered calls and talked on their cell phones while driving the bus. I haven’t seen that happen in many other places and made us feel a little uneasy. The bus stop was super close to our next accommodation.
This place we chose for the view which may have been the best view in Sveti Stefan.
We had been trying to save money so we ventured to the market nearby to buy our food for the next couple of days. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing.
9/1-9/3/22 - Sveti Stefan
The only plans we had in Sveti Stefan were to relax and maybe to go to the beach nearby. The weather was mostly disagreeable to go to the beach, though it cleared up enough to walk down to it one day and walk around a little.
Other than that, we didn’t do much, and honestly, we were ready to leave. Something that had been bugging us is that everywhere reeked of cigarettes. Everyone and I mean literally almost every adult, smoked. There were ashtrays in our bathrooms in case we wanted to smoke. We could smell smoke in our rooms, at restaurants, at the bus station, everywhere.
9/3/22 - Time to go
The most frustrating experiences happened when we were leaving. Our accommodation organized a taxi for us to the airport. They quoted us 25 euros. When we were on the way to the airport, our taxi driver made a personal errand while he kept us in the car and kept the meter running. Even so, the meter showed less than 20 euros when we arrived at the airport. He asked how much our hotel told us it would cost and we said 25 euros. Visibly upset, he stated it would be 35 euros and not 25. We didn’t want to cause any kind of altercation so we just gave him the 35 euros and then he had the gall to ask for a tip. We gave him a few extra euros and left quickly. I contacted the hotel to let them know what had happened just in case it happens to any other guest. Their reply was 3rd party taxi drivers determine their own price. If that’s true then guests shouldn’t be given a quote.
We arrived at the airport very early because our flight wasn’t until 5:30 PM. It was about noon. We were planning on going through security and waiting in the lounge. At the Tivat airport in Montenegro, you also need to have a paper ticket that they need to print for you. You aren’t considered checked in until you do this, even if you check in online with the airline and have a mobile or printed ticket. And you can’t check in until 2 hours before your flight. Ok, we decided we’d wait at the cafe/restaurant only to discover they charged US airport prices for food and drink so we both nursed a couple of drinks for 3 hours. When it was time to check in, it didn’t take long to figure out why you had to wait until 2 hours before departure. The airport is tiny and not managed well. It’s the most chaotic airport we’ve ever been in. If a flight is delayed (and many were) there simply isn’t enough room for people at the gates. We were thankful to have lounge access. We hid in the lounge for a while then made our way back to the stuffed terminal where everyone was released at the same time to board our plane outside. We boarded the plane, took our seats, breathed a sigh of relief, and eagerly awaited the next stop in our adventure.
Montenegro most definitely could have been worse. It wasn’t the most terrible experience ever, but it’s not a place we would recommend visiting right now. It has tremendous potential that it’s not close to reaching yet. If you want to visit the Balkans, we suggest spending more time in Bosnia and Croatia and skipping Montenegro. We found those countries to be cleaner, more affordable, more attractive, and the people were much friendlier. Montenegro smelled like smoke everywhere, had inefficient and wasteful systems, was littered, and is overpriced. If you decide to go to Montenegro anyway, you will see some beautiful sites and we hope your experience is better than ours was.
A Few Days in Dubrovnik, Croatia
August 22nd, 2022 (G)
We entered Croatia via afternoon bus. Upon arriving at the main bus station in Dubrovnik, we waited for a little while to be picked up by a friend of a friend to pick us up and take us to our new accommodations. Before long she had arrived. A pleasant woman, who chatted with us as she drove and after she had helped us find the landlord of the studio apartment we would call home, she wished us well and left. We had hoped we might have a chance to see her again before leaving Dubrovnik.
Our landlord was an old gentleman with a bright smile and a twinkle in his eye. We communicated in gestures, the little Bosnian we knew, and broken English. Soon we had sorted out all the details for the apartment and were very pleased with it. It was only a 5-minute walk to Old town Dubrovnik and situated very near a bakery and market. After settling in and visiting the market for a bit, we decided to go for a little walk around to get our bearings. It was dark, but even at night, the mighty walled Old town was spectacular. We even managed to spot a small hedgehog by one of the stairways that led back up to our apartment from near the entrance of Old town. T saw a wild hedgehog for the first time when we were in Germany so she was especially ecstatic to find another one and to get to see it up close.
It didn’t take too long for the day of travel to catch up with us and we soon returned up the many steps to our apartment and called it a night.
August 23rd, 2022
We slept in and enjoyed a slow morning before setting out to explore the walled interior of the Old town in the light of day. The night before we had not actually entered the walled area which really is where the true medieval charm begins. Entering through the western gate, it felt like stepping back in time a little. It is easy to see why the place was a UNESCO site and why it was chosen as a main film location for Game of Thrones (which since we never watched the series we would not realize until later when we spotted a lifesize statue of Peter Dinklage).
We spent the afternoon wandering the white stone streets, all worn smooth and polished by the passing of feet and time. Small alleys, nooks, and passages beckoned us to explore them so before long we had left the main streets and squares and were delighted to find deserted passages beautifully decked with plants.
We eventually found our way to the walls of the city. We walked the walls and admired the crenulations of the walls and red terracotta tiled roofs with a backdrop of the beautiful Mediterranean behind it.
After completing a loop along the walls we re-entered the main streets and found our way up a flight of stairs to exit by the northern gate of the city. It was along this stairwell that we spotted the statue of Mr. Dinklage. His likeness was enshrined in all manner of GOT merchandise, tipping us off that this must be a film location. Turns out after doing a bit of googling, Dubrovnik was the filming location for King’s Landing the mythical capital of the GOT world.
After exiting the city we returned to our apartment and spent the evening cooking, planning the next day, and simply relaxing.
August 24th, 2022
Once again, we didn’t overbook ourselves and after another slow morning we headed down to a beach. The particular beach of interest to us was a bit further away than most of them. We worked up quite a sweat in the summer sun by the time we reached our desired spot. It was a small rocky beach which was tucked under a cliff making it feel secluded and quiet. Here we left our belongings and hopped into the clear cool water. We had picked this beach for its proximity to a sea cave that was normally only accessible by kayak or boat tour. We opted to swim for it.
For the most part, the swim went smoothly. T struggled some with the rhythm of the waves initially, but mastered their cadence in no time and we were able to swim the rest of the way without any concern. The cave itself was an intriguing spot. Reaching some 60 M (~200ft) in height. It faced southeast and was very open and airy with a wonderful pebble beach. It was well worth the swim. We rested there for a while, then began the return swim. We didn’t bring our phones or GoPro with us, so we didn’t get any photos. The swim back was uneventful. We lay in the sun for an hour or so until we were both dry and the sun was beginning to ride low in the sky. T had wanted to visit another beach for sunset so we collected out things and hiked back up the cliff to the main road.
Heading west we found ourselves passing by the Old town port and under the eastern gate. We walked through the main street again and out the western gate. After passing through the maze of houses outside the city walls, we arrived at a separate local beach that our friend recommended to us with a small rocky peninsula, which afforded beautiful views to watch the sunset. We spent the next hour just watching the sun dip lower and lower into the clouds on the horizon and finally vanish in a red blaze.
August 25th, 2022
We woke a bit earlier, packed our belongings, said fairwell to our landlord, and caught a taxi to the bus station. Our time in Dubrovnik had been brief, but lovely.
Resilient, Beautiful Bosnia
Background (T)
Some people may wonder, “Bosnia? Why Bosnia?” We’ve been asked that. Or some people have simply said “Bosnia. I wouldn’t have guessed Bosnia would be on your itinerary.” We get it. Bosnia survived a brutal war and genocide less than 30 years ago. This fact isn’t hidden when you visit. Honestly, it shouldn’t be. (A VERY simplified recap of what happened can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17632399)
As you walk through the streets of Sarajevo, the tragic realities of the past are evident in the markings of shrapnel bursts pitted in the walls of some buildings scattered around the city. It looks as though there are still literally millions of these markings present today. Other buildings show coverups waiting to be painted, and some look good as new. The 1984 winter Olympics billboard still stands boldly in front of the run-down train station. Blasted with bullets and worn with time, it’s a reminder of what was, both the proud location of the Olympics and the violence that followed less than a decade later, and it’s also a symbol of hope that Bosnia will again globally be widely recognized and accepted for the beautiful country it is.
Bosnia is still rebuilding and recovering, but tourists are warmly welcomed to their country. Trust us, it’s well worth the visit.
So, why was Bosnia on our itinerary?
Well, we lived in St. Louis for two years and St. Louis happens to have the largest Bosnian population in the US. We were fortunate to make a couple of wonderful friends who moved to St. Louis during the war. While working with them and getting to know them, they taught us about their country, their culture, shared some Bosnian food, and even taught us a few phrases (I love learning languages), so Bosnia has been on our list of places to visit for a while. It exceeded expectations.
August 17, 2022 - Sarajevo
We arrived at the airport in the afternoon, where our friend’s cousin was waiting for us. We were driven to the apartment where we’d be staying for the next 4 nights. This apartment had been in the family for a while and was only a 10-minute walk from the old town. On the way, she asked if we were afraid of dogs, to which we happily replied “no”. She informed us a friendly, elderly dog named “Blackie” lived in the garden of the apartments and we were delighted to have a K-9 companion for the week. Soon enough, we were dropped off at the apartment, which quickly proved to be much more comfortable and spacious than the hostel we had just come from in Vienna. Hostels have their charm, but sometimes it’s nice to have your own place.
We settled in and relaxed for a bit, then spent the evening walking around the old town. Our first destination was the Latin Bridge, where World War 1 started after Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie were assassinated right on that bridge.
After visiting the bridge, we walked around for a couple of hours, ate dinner, then returned to the apartment.
There were two things that really stood out to us as we went on our own walking tour of the city. The first thing was that we felt very safe. Many people were walking around before and after dark and they really keep to themselves, even those who are trying to sell something. We were less worried about violent or petty crime in Sarajevo than we have been in other well-known and popular European cities like Paris, Rome, London, Barcelona, or Brussels (G actually saw someone get pickpocketed in Brussels). The other thing was the amount of coexisting diversity. It’s one of the few places we’ve been where there are truly people of different religions and races in such close proximity to each other doing their own thing and that was refreshing to experience.
August 18, 2022 - Sarajevo
Another pro for visiting Bosnia is it’s quite affordable. We decided to go out for breakfast and we went to a place in the old town that had delicious omelets and coffee.
Next on the agenda was to go to the War Childhood Museum, the only museum in the world that focuses exclusively on children’s experiences with war. We believe it’s important to try to understand this tragic and important piece of Bosnia’s past and how it has impacted them. This museum has a very large collection of short stories of people’s memories from the war when they were children along with a visual representation of those memories consisting of personal items that the writers donated. 50 stories/items are displayed at a time. Most of the stories are from the Bosnian War, but they showcase a few stories from other countries as well. When we visited, they had a few stories from Ukraine when Crimea was annexed. We highly recommend visiting this museum. If you go, you’ll likely need to take some tissues that are strategically placed throughout the museum. Here are some of the stories that impacted us.
We needed to decompress after the museum, so we returned to the apartment for a while where we relaxed, planned, and worked on the blog. We liked these buildings and this street near the museum.
Our friend’s cousin gave us contact info for a local guide to take us hiking in the mountains nearby. We contacted him and set up an excursion for the following day. Now, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into, but I knew it involved hiking and walking across a bridge suspended between two cliffs high up in the mountains.
Every summer, Sarajevo hosts a large film festival which is widely recognized around Europe. Its first year was in 1995, the last year of the war, and it’s another shining example of Bosnia’s resilience. From their website https://www.sff.ba/stranica/o-festivalu, “Towards the end of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, with the desire to help rebuild civil society and thus maintain the cosmopolitan spirit of the city, in 1995 the Obala Art Center launched the Sarajevo Film Festival. Two decades later, the Sarajevo Film Festival has grown into an international film festival with a special focus on the region of Southeast Europe (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine) thanks to which films, talents and future projects from the region reach the center of attention of the international film public.”
We happened to be there during the film festival (one of our friends gave us the dates in advance) so, of course, we had to watch some films. We decided to watch a couple of documentaries and make the 45-minute walk to the theater. One documentary was about the research into the longevity of the habitants of Stravos and the impact of that research on the residents, called Microbiome, and the other was about the journey of a middle-aged couple in Hungary after they won a lottery, Paying a Visit to Fortuna. We really liked Microbiome. By this time, it was around 9PM and I was very hungry.
We slowly made our way back to the apartment, stopping at a local restaurant for dinner.
August 19, 2022 - Sarajevo and Mt Trebevic
We set out for breakfast, stopping by a bakery and then a local baklava place, where we ended up buying a kilo of baklava and eating it all in 2 days. Not our proudest moment. Worth it though.
Then we ventured to a Bosnian cafe tucked away in a side street. If you visit Bosnia, drinking Bosnian coffee is a must. The barista graciously taught us how to properly drink the coffee. It’s served with sugar cubes, a sweet drink, and a piece of candy (Turkish delight). First, you shallowly scoop the top of the coffee in the pot up and down in the pot a few times to get the grounds to settle, then you pour the coffee. If you want sugar, then you take a sugar cube, dip part of it in the coffee, lick the sugar cube, then drink the coffee. Then you take a drink of the sweet drink and repeat! At the end, you eat the piece of candy.
After we finished our coffee, we took a taxi to the train station to ensure our tickets we purchased online from Sarajevo to Mostar were valid, at the advice of our friend’s cousin. When we arrived at the train station, it felt like we stepped back in time. I provided the confirmation number for our tickets at the information desk, and the lady helping us expertly navigated through their paper filing system. She located our name and number, then opened a long cabinet drawer and sorted through numerous other paper files and tickets to find our tickets. Honestly, G and I were impressed with how efficiently she did this. If you purchase train tickets online, it can be done, but make sure you visit the train station prior to your trip to get your actual ticket. Then, we returned to the apartment where we got ready for our hiking adventure and hung out with Blackie.
Our guide and his brother picked us up right on time and within 30 minutes we were getting out of the car, putting on our harnesses, and starting our hike. Sarajevo is surrounded by mountains and there is great hiking, climbing, camping, and skiing spots all around. We hiked for about 20 minutes up a pretty steep trail until we made it to the climbing portion. G and I have both been outdoor rock climbing before, though G is much more experienced with it than I am.
At first glance, this route didn’t seem scary. It looked like a ladder of horizontal U shape metal attached to the mountain in most places and there was a sturdy cable next to it going all the way up. However, it didn’t take long for me to learn I’m a little scared of this type of climbing because we had to clip our carabiners on the cable as we climbed and sometimes the cable was about 15 feet (5 meters) long before we had to clip in again. So while I knew I wouldn’t die if I fell, I kept thinking about how far I could fall and what all I would hit on the way down and that freaked me out. I don’t think I would’ve been scared if I was being belayed. G was totally fine, of course. I entertained our guide as I invented a stabilizing strategy he had never seen before. Sometimes I would put one foot inside the ladder so I could lean back slightly on that leg. A couple of times our guide chuckled and said “I’ve never seen anyone do that before.” It worked because I managed to keep my balance and grip the entire way up and never fell.
We made it to the bridge which was really cool. This part didn’t make me nervous at all.
After crossing the bridge we had one more short climb up to the very top which had spectacular views. We enjoyed the views for a few minutes, ate a candy bar, packed up our climbing gear, and continued to hike for a ways through woods and a valley until we reached the edge of another side of the mountain that had a little rest area. There was a small building with a kitchen and living room and an observation deck outside. A big derpy dog that looked like Chewbacca, a smaller dog, and a black and white cat lived there. I wish we had taken some photos of them. Near the house was what looked like a life-size yellow toy truck that G was very amused by. We relaxed for a while on the observation deck, pet the cat, threw a ball for the dog, then began our hike back to the car.
The hike down was much easier and it felt like we made it to the car really fast. Part of that may have been because our guides were tall and I had to trail run (a bit of a hyperbole) a few times to catch up to them, especially if I paused to take a photo. When we made it back to the car there was a pleasant surprise waiting for us. Wild Bosnian horses! I walked over to them with one of the guides and got very close to them. They’re tame and friendly. It’s usually safe to pet them and you can feed them but I opted to just observe.
Then we headed over to the car and drove back to Sarajevo. On the way back the sun was beginning to set and a beautiful, warm pastel yellow hue highlighted the city below. We pulled over near Sunnyland, an amusement park on the mountain with a funny-looking rollercoaster that had one little car go at a time. We climbed up on a convenient rock on the side of the road and basked in the yellow light for 10-15 minutes then continued the drive back to Sarajevo.
After our guides dropped us off, we cleaned up then walked to old town in search of their recommendation for burek. It’s like a runza pastry meat pie. Our search was successful, and Nebraska, I’m sorry but burek is better than runzas.
We were tired so after we finished eating we walked back to the apartment and slept soundly for most of the night. It turns out we had timed our adventure well as storms were rolling in. The storm that awoke us around 4am reminded us much of the storms back home which we miss sometimes.
August 20, 2022 - Sarajevo
This day ended up being a relaxing rainy Saturday for us. We had been so very lucky with the weather on our trip thus far. Plus, Europe is in a pretty big drought so we really didn’t mind the rain… for the most part.
In the morning it was just overcast so we returned to the Bosnian cafe we visited the day before. We had a different barista this time who asked us if we knew how to drink Bosnian coffee and to our dismay we didn’t quite remember all the steps. She patiently showed us again. G and I enjoyed a slow morning sipping our coffee. Before we left, we spoke of St Louis and the Bosnians we know and the barista made a point to thank us for not only visiting her coffee shop but for visiting her country. Her generosity gave us the warm and fuzzies and reaffirmed our encounters with other locals were legit. Everyone was so welcoming to us and they really lit up like a Christmas tree at the few Bosnian words and phrases we would use and our desire to learn more. This is fairly common in other countries as well if you make an effort to speak their language, but the happiness on their faces in response to our efforts in Bosnia was much more evident than locals in most other countries we’ve been to.
We walked back to the apartment where we decided to spend the day catching up on the blog because we were pretty far behind. We knew this would take a long time. While I was working on the blog, G walked back into town to pick up some burek for lunch/dinner. On his way back, it began to downpour. According to him, water was shooting up an entire foot from the sewers in the streets. In a matter of minutes, the old town began to flood and G looked like he just finished a swim in the river. Since he was already soaked he decided to just trudge through the trek back to the apartment at the amusement of other bystanders. When the downpour started, I texted him our address just in case he wanted to take a taxi but when he walked through the door I saw he didn’t manage to escape the rain. He quickly dried off and changed. Then we ate and spent the rest of the evening finishing up the Norway post.
August 21, 2022 - Sarajevo to Mostar
It was another rainy day but we didn’t mind. We slept in and relaxed for the morning and early afternoon. We packed up our bags and cleaned the apartment. Our friend’s cousin was kind enough to give us another ride, this time to the train station. On the drive over, we had fun talking about the past few days together. We arrived in plenty of time for our train so we stopped for a coffee in the only cafe in the building. Soon enough our train was there and we were on our way to Mostar.
Across the aisle from us was a group of an American couple and a German and Spanish guy. I was dozing off and on, eavesdropping, and admiring the view out of the window.
We arrived in Mostar around sunset. We walked about 20 minutes from the train station to our hotel which was pretty close to the famous bridge, Stari Most.
We ate dinner and attempted to go to bed early, however, we unlocked a new travel pro-tip. When deciding where you’re going to stay, check a map to see if there are any clubs nearby. It was a Sunday night and a discoteque blared music until about 4am. Fortunately, we brought earplugs, but even they didn’t completely drown out the noise.
August 22, 2022 - Mostar
Our plans to wake up early and walk around failed due to the lack of sleep the night before. Instead, we woke up close to checkout time, quickly packed and drank coffee then checked out. We walked to the best view of the bridge which was surprisingly not crowded. I guess, try going at 11am on a Monday.
Stari Most holds significant history in Bosnia. It was built in the 16th century by the Ottomans. Then it was destroyed during the war in 1993. In the early 2000’s it was rebuilt to look exactly the same and they did a great job. Now, it’s also a popular diving spot. You can watch professional divers jump off of it and if you want to, you can try it as well. The professionals will have you do test jumps off a nearby platform to make sure you have the proper technique. I’m an adrenaline junkie, but we didn’t have much time and there is a risk of injury or death given that the bridge is 79 feet tall (24 meters). Maybe another time!
We walked back to the train station where we waited a little while for our bus at a cafe. We chatted with a couple of young Canadian women who were traveling and also waiting for the bus. When the bus arrived they had stepped away. G and I boarded and were in our seats when we realized the bus was overbooked. The Canadians and a few others were going to have to figure out another means of transportation. I considered giving our seats to them but then I remembered when I was their age (I sound old) I learned some valuable travel lessons due to strikes and unexpected cancelations or overbookings. They were smart, had smartphones, and were at a bus/train station, so I have no doubt they were able to find another bus or take a taxi. When I was in college and traveling alone, my flight was cancelled unexpectedly from Paris to London. I didn’t have a smartphone, so I followed the British accents and found my way to the Eurostar. Seriously though, I hope they made it to Dubrovnik ok.
Bosnia is most definitely on our return to list.
Heatwave in Vienna
August 14th, 2022 (G)
We were greeted in Vienna by the heat of mid-August. Up until this point, we had somehow outrun all the other heatwaves sweeping across Europe this summer. A quick train and metro ride to the Karlsplatz stop and we arrived at the Wombats City hostel. This was an excellent hostel. It had a great common area, decent bar, spacious breakfast area, and small but well-equipped kitchen. Our room sadly lacked AC. My single gripe with European windows is that nearly all of them lack any form of screen. Mosquitos don’t seem to mind indoor dining. If AC is lacking, at least have a screened window. Aside from this, our room was clean and very spacious by hostel standards which we greatly appreciated.
We dropped our packs and set off in search of food. T had a hankering for sushi, which was conveniently nearby. After dinner, we spent the evening in the common area catching up on blog entries and waiting for the temperature to drop enough to make our room more tolerable. Finally, we passed out around 2 am.
August 15th, 2022 (G)
We slept in some due to our late night and set out in search of a grocery store. Much to our disappointment the store was closed. So, not to be so easily defeated we searched for another. This too was closed. Our third and final attempt failed as well, but we spotted a sign on the door which explained why the grocery stores were closed on this particular Monday morning. The Assumption of Mary. This is a catholic holiday that is celebrated in Vienna and leads to our next pro tip: Check for obscure holidays in the country you plan to visit that will impact businesses and their services provided.
As it was now just past noon, we stopped at a cafe for lunch and returned to the hostel common area. We lingered there for a while to work on the blog then returned to our room. For dinner, I ventured down to the hostel kitchen, which was filled with 4 younger travelers of various nationalities all cooking dinner together. I chatted with them jovially while scouring the Free Food shelf to see what I could conjure forth. There were two college-age American women, a college-age Scottish woman, and a young man from Germany not much if any older than them.
Admittedly, I felt strange as I was probably a decade older than them on average, but then I recalled my own travels at that age and remembered that some of the coolest and most helpful people I encountered during that time were travelers that were at least a decade older than me. Another benefit of being a bit older is knowing significantly more about cooking than the youthful version of myself did. From the seemingly random ingredients available on the Free Food shelf I was able to throw together a very presentable risotto. After messaging T to come on down I plated up the food and did dishes while continuing to chat and swap stories with the young group of travelers.
T appeared and I introduced her before we left the kitchen to have dinner. After dinner, we spent another late night waiting for things to cool down enough to sleep, eventually drifting off to dream about the cool weather of Norway.
August 16th, 2022 (G)
We woke late again, but just in time for a free walking tour at 10. The tour took us past Otto Wagner’s art nouveau-designed apartments, the Naschmarkt, the Secession building, the Opera, and various other points of interest. We learned a great deal about the livability of Vienna. Affordable, high-quality housing for all people has been something that they have been conscientious about since 1918. This combined with public healthcare, a good metro system, affordable food, and a thriving art scene it’s no wonder Vienna is ranked the world’s number 1 most livable city in 2022.
We departed the tour and returned to the Naschmarkt for lunch. Enjoying the slow pace that accompanies the sweltering summer afternoon we lingered at a cafe for a while before returning to our hostel for a post lunch siesta.
After our siesta, we ventured forth to see the most famous work of Gustav Klimt (The Kiss) located in the Belvedere which is a historic building complex consisting of two Baroque palaces which now house art and function as museums. We had to hurry as we had only an hour before the museum closed for the day. On the way, we spotted several examples of modern urban art that surely would have made the Secessionists smile.
There are several works of famous art which are frankly a bit underwhelming (lookin’ at you Mona). Fortunately, the same can not be said of The Kiss. Klimt’s piece is larger than we had anticipated and more intriguing in person due to the texture and various materials used. The museum even had a raised clay sculpture next to it for visually impaired people to feel which was so cool. And, T managed to sneak a kiss while I was taking a selfie.
After enjoying the work, we used the rest of our time in the museum focusing on other Secession era and impressionist works.
Too soon the Belvedere was closing but fortunately the grounds around the museum remained open. So, we milled around the orangery for a while before leaving to wander our way back. While walking back we passed several beautiful buildings, a fountain that was gorgeous in the fading light, and a Soviet era monument now sporting a stone wall behind it painted in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag.
We paid one final visit to the Naschmarkt for shwarma. T was pleased to find fries at the bottom of her shwarma box. After this quick, scrumptious, and cheap dinner we returned to the hostel and called it a night.
August 17th, 2022 (G)
We woke early enough to pack our things, check out of the hostel, and catch our flight to Sarajevo.
Norway!
August 3rd, 2022 (G) - Family Cabin
As we prepared for our visit to Norway, we were truly fortunate to have met two wonderful Norwegians while hiking in the mountains of Peru. They are awesome.
Here are us 2 Americans and 2 Norwegians exploring Peru:
N is easily one of the coolest guys I’ve met in my travels. He sailed the west coast of Europe to the Caribbean and back when he was younger, taught surf lessons in Portugal, is now a pilot, an excellent chef, artist (check out @n.j.drawings on Insta), excellent fly fisher, and all-around badass. S also has a fascinating background, having lived in Australia and Sweden and traveled extensively. She’s an expert hiker, gourmet waffle maker, and likes Harry Potter and metal music. S loves animals and has taken care/takes care of them in a variety of very important ways.
Now, T and I try to be pretty cool, but really we have no idea why these two awesome Norwegians decided we were cool enough for them to hang out with… we’re not. We definitely felt more than honored when they offered to show us their Norway when we made it there.
That is how and why our preparation for Norway was significantly less than normal. We did of course visit the government website, search the web, and scour maps of the country for points of interest as is fairly standard for us, but we did not plan as much in the way of lodging or transportation as we normally would. Our friends advised us that we should rent a car to make the most of our time, but that generally lodging and transportation within the cities is a total non-issue. They were of course correct.
Upon landing, we took the easily accessible train to the city where S and their new puppy were waiting on the platform to greet us. We headed off quickly to meet N who was waiting with the car. We met up and greeted each other warmly. With great grins on all our faces, we were soon all in the car and on our way to N’s family’s mountain house. As we drove N remarked he was pleased to see that we still traveled so light (just one small backpack each) and after catching up a bit on the two years that had passed since we’d last seen each other, he told us a bit more about the mountain house as we drove.
It had originally been built by his grandfather and then expanded and remodeled by his parents. More recently N and his brother had built a gear shed with a bar, for those required post-skiing beers in the winter. We also heard about their grand escape from the Covid lockdowns of South America. Their escape had been every bit as intense as our own, but with a bit of luck and timing, they managed to return to Norway just as the country closed down. Had they waited, they may have been stuck in Rio, somewhere we would not want to be stranded.
We also stopped on the way up to the cabin for Rakfisk. Rakfisk originated from the particular region we were in and for those who may not be familiar with Rakfisk, I will save you a google search. Rakfisk is simply fermented fish. Originally, it was salted and buried in the ground and dug up for consumption later in the year, usually in autumn or winter. When first opened, it is especially pungent, however, I stand by its categorization as a delicacy. I will leave its culinary description for when we first tried it, further down in this post.
After acquiring some authentic Rakfisk, we continued on up a series of switchbacks and arrived at the cabin. Clad in black wood siding, with a covered porch, it was inviting. Upon entering it was easy to see that this place was built for comfort. Its history as a hunting cabin appeared tastefully and honestly throughout the interior, but where you might expect to find a certain roughness there was instead comfort. Images of N and his family gathered together in this place on cold, dark, winter nights flashed before my eyes. My imagination saw them there as happy faces illuminated by soft light from the original fireplace which was still used. Comfortable couches placed so that all might face each other and enjoy each other’s company or simply relax quietly for an hour or two. Which is exactly what N asked me to do. After we had dropped our packs into a marvelous little bedroom N produced a beer for me. When I asked if there was anything I could do to help with dinner he simply told me to have a seat and relax by the fire. I complied with pleasure.
After an hour or so of sitting and chatting with T and S, N reappeared from the kitchen and in the abrupt but efficient and endearing way of Norwegians said, “Okay, let’s do it” meaning dinner was ready. N’s homemade pizza was scrumptious. By the time we had finished eating, it was well into the night so we said goodnight and went to bed. The quality of our rest that first night at the cabin was excellent.
August 4, 2022 (T)
That first night in the cabin may end up keeping the top spot for best night’s sleep. The slightly chilly temperature was perfect and it was so quiet and dark. We slept in a little and woke up well rested. Coffee was waiting for us and N had already started on making a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with bacon and veggies. G and I tried brown cheese, a goat cheese cut into thin slices. We both really liked it. It’s creamy and slightly sweet. S had to work during the day, so G, N, and I finished our breakfast and coffee and then set out for a hike to summit the nearest peak to the cabin.
N assured us the peak looked far away but it only took an hour. G and I aren’t quite on the same hiking fitness level as N and S (even with the West Highland Way experience now), so I doubted it would take only an hour, but we must have leveled up because it did! On our hike up to the summit, we passed sheep on the side of the road who are let out to wander the mountainsides during the summer, trolls sculpted from old trees that appeared occasionally, street signs with each cabin name (we learned each cabin in Norway now has a name and address), a dairy farm with only 10 cows and the milk truck passed us to collect the milk even though it’s a small producing farm in the middle of the mountains, and a few other hikers. G and I marveled at the number of cabins that had natural roofs full of grass and wildflowers. The summit had a beautiful view of the landscape in all directions. We were hoping to avoid the rain, and we successfully did, though there was some in the distance. S was right, she had told us when there’s cloud cover, Norway’s colors are muted with a slightly silvery tone over them, and when the sun shines, Norway looks like another planet because it’s so beautiful. The colors are so vibrant and rich, unlike anywhere we’ve seen before. We sat at the summit for a while, admiring the views and the gigantic size of the raven that flew overhead. When asked if we wanted to return the short way or go to another summit close-by then return, we, of course, chose to go to the other summit first.
As we were on our way to the next summit, a Norwegian made some small talk with N during which G and I were honored with the title “American Vikings”. I felt as though we had just been knighted. I’ll happily claim that title. The other summit had beautiful views as well. We wandered back down the mountains, by some houses, around a lake, up a field, and found our way to a hotel that also boasted impressive views of the area and proudly hung a piece of N’s artwork in the entryway. We enjoyed a drink on the balcony and then returned to the cabin. S had finished her work for the day and she was preparing waffles for us to enjoy for lunch. Waffles and champagne is a lunch of champions.
After lunch, we relaxed for a while. G and I enjoyed chatting with S near the fire again while having some red wine. There was an increasingly enticing smell coming from the kitchen. We were eager to know what N had prepared this time. A couple of hours later it was time for dinner. The appetizer? Rakfisk! Tourists may chicken out to try it or turn their noses up at it, but we found it to be really tasty. It was served with sour cream and arugula on top and in a potato wrap. It was also accompanied by a variety of aquavit, a Norwegian liquor with a strong pine flavor. The texture of the rakfisk is incredibly smooth and the flavor truly is not bitter or acrid, as one may think, but instead retains the flavor of the fish with some additional depth. We both would willingly choose to eat it again. In fact, we asked for seconds to try it by itself. Even by itself we still liked it. The entree was boeuf bourguignon and it did not disappoint. G has talked about it a few times since because it’s his favorite boeuf bourguignon he’s ever eaten. N could open his own restaurant if he wanted to.
Because the American Vikings were going to be without their Norwegian Vikings for about a week, N and S were kind enough to help us write down a cheat sheet of Norske words and phrases to try on our own. They also gave us their recommendations of places to visit. We spent a while after dinner enjoying each other’s company and giving the puppy some pets and cuddles before retiring for another sound night’s sleep.
August 5th, 2022 (G) - Lom
After quickly packing up and tidying up the cabin, we all once again piled into N’s car and were off to pick up a car. This would have been truly impossible without N’s help as the pick up location was not specified on any sign. Fortunately, N came to the rescue and asked around a bit to find the right place. Far too soon, we were saying our goodbyes to N & S. We planned to see them again in Oslo after wandering the Fjords, but the time we had together was rich and we knew already that we would miss them.
As we got into our car we saw them drive off and our adventure into the unknown of Jotenheim began. Jotenheim is the mountain range that divides Norway, North to South. We were soon deep within the high passes of Jotenheim where we stopped for a hike to catch some spectacular views.
After the brief hike, we passed a herd of reindeer and then stopped again to do a random but spectacular little hike down to a river. The hike brought us to a place where the river narrowed enough to be able to jump across with relative ease. We spent a few minutes hiking around, then pressed onward to Lom.
Not long after, we arrived in Lom.
Lom has one of the oldest and best preserved all wooden (no nails were originally used just joinery) churches in Norway which dates back to the 1100s. This particular gem dated back to 1158-59. It’s one of the most unique churches we’ve ever visited.
We spent the evening there followed by visiting a bakery where T decided to begin a gluten bender because the waffle did not make her feel super sick. Pizza and a pastry was her first meal of choice. After dinner, we sought and found accommodations at a nearby camping and cabin company. The cabin, though small, was clean, cheap, and conveniently located very near the church and bakery.
We capped the night off with a pint of local beer. since it had been ages since T had enjoyed a real beer it was a welcomed occasion. Satiated, we returned to the cabin and slept.
August 6, 2022 (T) - Norway’s Tallest Waterfall & Kristiansund
We had a long day of driving ahead of us, so we woke up at a decent time and were quickly on our way. We decided to make the most of having a car so we chose a route that would take a little longer but would allow us to see more of the country. A few hours in, the landscape became even more mountainous, and G and I were both enamored by a specific waterfall starting way up at the top of one of these mountains. There was a rest stop near it, so we pulled off the highway where we uncovered that particular waterfall just happened to be the tallest in all of Norway and the 5th tallest in the world! It’s called The Vinnu, standing at an impressive 860 meters high (2,821 feet) and comes from The Vinnu Glacier. When we saw a sign for a quick(ish) hike closer to it, we didn’t hesitate to go for it. About 5-10 minutes later we figured out the short hike was to the trail, but we couldn’t stop and not make it to the tallest waterfall in Norway, so we followed the muddy and at times very steep trail right next to the waterfall for another 10-15 minutes. The hike was well worth it. We paused to enjoy the moment, snapped a few pictures, then were on our way back down. We were a bit nervous about how the way down would go because it was so steep and muddy, but there were plenty of trees that lent a hand for our support. When we made it back to the car, we didn’t stop until we arrived at our destination with the exception of filling up gas.
Our destination for the day was Kristiansund, up further north and west and close to the famous bridge that’s in one of the James Bond movies. The weather wasn’t very agreeable so we decided we would stop to admire it the next day. We did, however, admire the engineering behind the numerous, lengthy tunnels in Norway! G remarked they have to have dwarves in Norway and not just trolls because of how innovative these tunnels are. We’re familiar with The Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado in the US which is also impressive, but a normal tunnel in Norway is easily 3 times longer. Without them, driving around the fjords would take days or be impossible.
After we made it to Kristiansund, we decided we would go out for dinner. We walked to the harbor and chose the restaurant that was our host’s recommendation, Bryggekanten Brasserie Restaurant. As we were walking along the harbor, I noticed there were jellyfish in the water! Of everywhere we’ve been, this was the first time I saw wild jellyfish. The restaurant was a good recommendation and the seafood was delicious. Plus, our server appreciated our attempts at speaking Norwegian (using our cheat sheet) and she even spoke mostly Norwegian to us which made us happy. We spent the rest of the evening walking around town then went back to the apartment early to get ready for another long day of driving, seeing the famous bridge, and venturing deep into the fjord lands.
August 7th, 2022 (G) - James Bond Bridge & Geirangerfjord
We woke and quickly left for the bridge visit since the weather was clear and sunny. The bridge was impressively cantilevered and the area surrounding it was very picturesque. With the addition of the sunlight, it was magic. This visit to a Bond film sight reminded me of the first one we had also stumbled upon unwittingly in the high desert of Bolivia. It felt as though a puzzle piece had landed to bring us full circle, connecting the experiences of our first attempt to travel the world to this one. An odd sense of satisfaction in the completion of this circle of time, space, and experience lingered as we drove away from the bridge and deeper into the fjords to the south.
Sometime later, we found ourselves on a ferry that crossed one of the Fjords, it was here that our luck with the weather began to fade some. As we continued through the Fjords and tunnels (I still wonder where they are hiding the dwarves that dug them) it became overcast and eventually, a gentle rain began. The rain was not so intense that it obscured our view of the Geiranger Fjord. A lookout point which preceded a series of switchbacks provided us an excellent thought slightly grey view of the steep walls of the fjord.
On the way down into Geiranger, we spotted cabins and a hotel which boasted room availability. In a snap decision, we turned into the lot. After inquiring about a room and requesting one be held (just in case), we checked with a couple of cabin sights nearby before we returned. We had no luck booking a more affordable cabin. So, upon our return to the hotel, the hostess, who had perceived correctly that the price had been a barrier to us initially renting the room, offered us the room at a discount. We happily accepted the discount and with the money saved booked two spots for dinner at the hotel later that night.
Sometimes, most times, it pays to just be polite and speak kindly to anyone who works in the service industry. They put up with a lot from all kinds of people and behind their initial smile that greets you as you walk up, you really have no idea what the rest of their day has been like.
We spent a little time getting settled in a spectacular room with a view of the fjord, then headed up for dinner. T finally wore her black dress packed specifically for special occasions and I was attired in my best grey slacks and black dress shirt. Through luck or some device of the hostess, we were given what may have been the very best seat - a small corner table with glass walls that overlooked the fjord. The food provided was divine. T found a new wine to accompany the meal and we spent our dinner time enjoying the view and at times the antics of a small British family with a young son who at one point proclaimed, “I’m 46 but I’m very small”. After dinner still chuckling about the child’s antics and his parent’s equally humourous responses, we returned to our room and hoped that the weather would improve by morning.
August 8, 2022 (T) - Geirangerfjord & Trollstigen: A Top 10 Day
We woke up and promptly went upstairs to breakfast. This hotel had an amazing spread at their buffet: fruits, meats, cheeses, different types of eggs, breads, pastries, waffles, oatmeal, juices, coffee, etc. Really anything you could want. After feasting, we went back to one of the cabins because they rented kayaks. We were able to secure a double kayak for 11:00 so we returned to our room where we packed up our bags, put them in the car, then checked out of the hotel and returned to the cabin. The weather was spectacular. It was cool, sunny, and there was absolutely no wind. The hostess at our hotel told us she could count on one hand how many days have been that pleasant this season. This day was quickly turning out to be a top 10 day of the whole trip.
G and I hurried down to the dock where we were given life jackets and paddles, then we hopped into the kayak and started paddling away. We spent the next 3 hours kayaking in Geiranger Fjord. We passed 2 waterfalls before arriving at The Seven Sisters, a waterfall with 7 falls. Then we crossed the fjord to appreciate another waterfall and made our way back. The entire time we were in awe of the beauty around us, knowing and appreciating how special those moments were. When we were finished kayaking, we got in the car and drove away.
The drive out of Geirangerfjord, Trollstigen, is so amazing. The first part of the drive is filled with switchbacks up the mountain exiting the fjord with beautiful views the whole way up, then it goes to a mountain valley with stunning images of mountain peaks and winding roads sprinkled with summer cabins.
A bit further into the valley is a glacial lake and hiking trails. We had to stop and hike for a bit. G was delighted to find a troll’s table. I think it might actually be a trolls table because later we found a troll postcard with trolls sitting around a nearly identical table. We spent about an hour walking around, marveling at the vibrant shades of green, and G even drank fresh mountain water before we returned to the car to continue the drive.
The weather decided to rain a little so that was the last time we explored outside of the car for the day. A few hours later, we arrived at our destination for the night, a small B&B in the middle of nowhere, and rested until we awoke the following morning.
August 9th, 2022 (G) - Kjenndalsbreen Glacier, World’s Longest Road Tunnel
The weather remained overcast but the rain had subsided. After driving a short while, we reached Loen and the glacial lake nearby. Seeing that the road continued past the town itself, we continued to follow the road as long as possible. Finally, after a half hour or perhaps a bit more of driving on a single-lane road that hugged the side of the fjord and then into the saddle of the fjord the road ended. Experience has taught me that where a road ends is usually where adventure of one sort or another begins. So, at the end of the road, we were pleased to find a trailhead that lead deeper into the fjord towards the glacier that had carved it.
Naturally, we began the hike with enthusiasm and though it was not particularly well marked, we were able to follow the cairns built by other hikers with ease. Near the end of the hike, we had reached very near the base of the glacier and after pausing to appreciate our surroundings T grabbed a quick drink of fresh glacial water and we began the return hike to the car.
On the way back down the single-lane road, we stopped at a small picnic pull-off to dip our toes into the glacial lake and collect wild fresh raspberries for a quick snack.
After a bit more driving we spotted another picturesque spot where we opted to stop for a much smaller quicker hike. On the way back to the car we passed a small group of cows with a rather intimidating young bull that seemed to be deciding if he felt like charging us. Fortunately, he must have decided we were not much of a threat and we passed by without issue. After this stop, we finally were headed towards something which I had anticipated daily since we began our little road trip.
The worlds longest road tunnel which runs 24.5 km (15.23 miles) under the mountains. There are three sections that are illuminated and divide the length into quarters. Jokes about dwarves aside, it is truly a wonder of modern engineering and machinery.
After we exited the tunnel, we drove on a little further and found a cabin in a small viking village town. The accommodations were modest. There was a brief but spirited battle with flies for domination of the cabin’s interior, ultimately T and I were victorious. We then enjoyed dinner and called it a night.
August 10th, 2022 (T) - Viking Village
The first thing we did after waking up and checking out of the cabin campsite was make our way to The Viking Village. Now, we’re pretty sure this place is normally an attraction for kids and families, but G and I weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to see this viking village replica with live characters and try archery and axe throwing. We felt like it was worth visiting. Did you know it took 2,000 sheep to create a large viking sail?
Today was the day we said goodbye to the fjords and made the drive to Bergen. We stopped by a large waterfall on the way but that was the only stop. We were a little tired from all of the hiking and adventures of the previous few days, so after we checked in to the hotel we just relaxed for the rest of the day and saved our energy for our full day in Bergen.
August 11th, 2022 (G) - Bergen
We awoke to enjoy a generous breakfast, complete with smoked salmon and brown cheese. After breakfast, we decided to explore the mountains around the city of Bergen. The city itself is surrounded by 7 small peaks, small is relative of course. Given that the ascent begins at sea level they are still a nice hike. So after gathering our daypack we set off.
One of my favorite features of the city is the numerous staircases, most of which are unmarked, that link together the various switchback roads. By these stairs we wandered and wound our way up to the funicular. Rather than paying for the smooth rail ride up to the top we opted to venture forth on a trail off to the side which disappeared into the pine forest. The trail was spectacular. It was very well kept and enveloped by ferns, waterfalls, moss, and towering pines it felt like entering a different world, perhaps an elven wood or another fantasy realm. We were occasionally passed by trail runners or dog walkers which reminded us that this was in fact a real place. The trail itself was such a pleasure that before we knew it we had reached the summit point with a viewpoint of the city and restaurant. After a quick lunch, we sat and enjoyed the view, then headed back down to Bergen.
Our next stop was the old harbor of Bergan, Bryggen. The harbor was teeming with people, mostly tourists given the time of year, but a fair number of Norwegians could be spotted in the mix as well. The old buildings that lined the harbor were well kept and stood tall and beautiful in spite of having been originally constructed in the 1000’s and being rebuilt multiple times due to fires. These buildings with their distinct architecture and the tight streets that mazed between them mixed with the now overcast gray sky gave the place the deep authenticity that it deserved as a historic harbor town. After musing and relaxing on one of the piers for a little while we decided to return to our room to shower and change before dinner.
Feeling refreshed, we emerged from our hotel to find that the weather outside, was grayer and cooler than when we had left the harbor. The wind had picked up some and T was a bit chilly. I found it pleasant as I have a strong preference towards cooler weather. We walked around the town in search of a dinner venue that served Norwegian dishes and had availability. Bergen is a hub for gastronomy and did not dissapoint. We eventually found a cozy (or cosy as the Norwegians spell it) little spot and enjoyed an excellent chanterelle risotto and catch of the day. The quality and preparation of the food was excellent. After enjoying a slow dinner together, we returned to our hotel and prepared ourselves for the return flight to Oslo.
August 12th, 2022 (T) - Oslo
Our morning was spent eating breakfast, checking out, returning our car to the Bergen Airport, and then flying out to Oslo. That flight was the fastest flight I’ve ever been on. It was scheduled to take 55 minutes but we arrived 20 minutes early. As soon as we reached altitude, we began our descent. When we arrived in Oslo, we took the train to the city center, walked to our hotel, checked in, and mapped out our day with the help of our friends’ suggestions.
The first stop was the Opera House, which has really unique architecture and is situated by the water surrounded by city “beaches”. The building is white and glass, shaped with straight lines that create a series of rectangles or triangles, and the sides are sloped so you can walk all the way up to the roof to see a great view of the city and harbor. We were on the roof looking out at the city and the beaches when we noticed a structure that seemed out of place at the water’s edge. Red Bull was hosting the 2022 cliff diving competition in Olso the next day! We quickly added that to the list of activities for the following day as we watched the divers acclimate themselves to the platform, though they didn’t dive off.
The next stop was very close by, The Munch Museum. The building is very new and is home to “The Scream”. I always find it interesting which work of art becomes the famous one from an artist. Munch was incredibly talented at capturing human emotion in his artwork. Here’s The Scream and some others we were drawn to.
Our hotel offered dinner in the price, so we returned to the hotel where we ate our dinner and then spent the rest of the evening planning what we wanted to see on our full day in Oslo.
Travel tip: if you’re going to spend at least one full day in Oslo, download the Ruter app. You can buy a transportation ticket that includes local subway, buses, tram, and ferries for $10 for 24 hours.
August 13th, 2022 (G)
We woke early and snagged breakfast before heading off on a full day of art-fueled adventure. Oslo’s free art scene is really incredible. T had explored an interesting map of the city’s urban artwork which we appreciate and used to spend the morning walking around the area near our hotel.
Along the way, we found the old fortress of the city, Akershus, which now also serves as a concert venue, museum, and cafe. We took some time to enjoy the views as well as the history it held.
After this unexpected deviation, we continued in our search for the urban art pieces. Before long we had found several in a small harbor that held historic vessels; think pirate ships and industrial revolution era steamers. That particular day, the harbor was also playing host to a food and art festival with the expressed goal of making art and culture accessible to everyone! We grabbed a quick bite of some Thai food which we enjoyed at a park nearby.
After this, we set off to one of the city’s free sculpture gardens. This required we hop on the city’s tram, which we found easy to navigate and use with the help of the Ruter app. As the tram cruised up the large hill, we spotted the crowd gathering for the start of the “cliff” divers around the Opera. The event itself began at 14:00 (2 pm) which was a little more than an hour away. Plenty of time to visit the sculpture garden known as Ekebergparken Sculpture Park. This is a free park situated atop a hill to the southeast of the main city center. While you could spend several hours on the park’s trails there is a fantastic cluster of sculptures from renowned artists such as Rodin, Renoir, Dali, and a few others right at the park entrance. We weren’t able to hit all of them in the hour we had but found the sculptures and park itself very enjoyable.
When we arrived back at the Opera House, things were just kicking off. Having done some scouting the previous day, we were able to snag a spot atop the Opera House with a good view of the divers. The divers were excellent, but it was a hot day. having seen many of the divers perform their jumps, we decided to head back to our hotel for lunch before the sun’s kisses became burns. We relaxed for a little while before having an early dinner.
With the heat of the day having passed, we once again hopped onto the city tram. This time we were off to the west side of the city for the more famous Vigeland Sculpture park. This park was created by Gustav Vigeland (1869–1943) who is also famous for designing the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize. He created over 200 sculptures that are held within the park. We managed to walk the park during the golden hour just before sunset and caught the sun’s final rays of light as we arrived at our last sculpture to view, “The Wheel”. This park was exceptional and I highly recommend anyone who finds their way to Oslo stop by to experience it.
August 14th, 2022 (T) - Goodbye for Now
The time had come to say our goodbyes to Norway. I’m not sure we would have ever really been ready for that. We had seen new colors and landscapes that photos and videos can only attempt to capture. The people are friendly, happy, and welcoming. Viking history is unique and interesting.
We had hoped to be able to see N and S one more time before we left, but, unfortunately, S had an unexpected work emergency come up. We were still able to see N and their puppy at a cafe for a while where we talked about everything we had done since the cabin and expressed our love for his country. We also chatted about future travel plans and, who knows, we hope to meet up again in yet another country sometime soon.
One thing is for sure though, we will return to Norway one day.
Reroute to Greece
Greece Prequel
G and I traveled to Greece for the first time last year. We had an incredible time. One of our good friends had married a Greek woman and we got to join them for their wedding celebration and gender reveal party for their soon-to-be (spoiler) baby girl. We met her friends and family and really enjoyed our time together. We spent time in Naxos, cruising around the Cyclades, and Athens. We even met up with fellow Nebraska travelers, Nicole and Kyle (www.nebraskanomads.com), at the Acropolis. It didn’t take long for us to decide Greece must go on the “definitely will return to” list. Greece has so much natural beauty, rich history, friendly people, amazing food, and the bluest water I’ve ever seen in my life. When planning our second attempt for the big trek, we found out our friends were going back to Greece for their parental leave, so we rerouted when Greece would go in the itinerary to meet up with them again during part of our stay.
Greece Global Trek 2.0 - In and Around Athens
While we didn’t feel ready to leave Copenhagen, we were more than ready to go to Greece. We had been thinking of the food for a few weeks by now. When our plane was landing, we saw a long, thick line of smoke from a large wildfire that had broken out. Over the past few years, the wildfires in Greece have gotten worse. Fortunately, it didn’t prevent us from landing. Since we pack light, we made it off the plane in no time and our taxi driver remarked that we were the fastest clients he’s ever had meet him after deplaning. He was worried about some of his friends who lived near the fire. We didn’t have any issues driving into Athens though part of the drive was dark due to the smoke. After about 45 minutes we arrived at the apartment we were staying in for the next 5 nights, the longest we’d stayed in one place since we left. Most of our days in Athens were spent catching up on the blog, doing laundry, and relaxing, then getting drinks with our friends in the evening. It was lovely seeing them and their family again in Greece.
One day we took a day trip to Delphi, a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo. 10/10 would recommend. We booked our tickets with the local bus leaving from the main station in Athens. If you’d rather not go on a tour, this option is cheaper and allows you to explore at your own pace. We booked our tickets here: https://www.ktel-fokidas.gr/en/delphi/delphi-athina-delphi. The website wouldn’t allow us to buy round-trip tickets so we bought two one-ways and didn’t have any problems on the bus. It’s required to print the tickets. We took an Uber to the bus station. If you don’t speak Greek, don’t be intimidated by all the signs for bus destinations that are in Greek. There is one that says “Delphi” in roman characters. Look for that one and you’ll be set. The bus ride took about 3 hours. If you go, wear shoes with good traction and be prepared for a small hike. Delphi is situated high in the mountains on Mount Parnassus. Its setting is stunning and we could feel the significance of the site as we walked around it.
Another day we took a high-speed ferry from Athens to a nearby island, Aigina, with our friend’s dad. We rented a car and he drove us around much of the island, to a neat monastery, the Temple of Aphaia, and back down to the harbor where we ate lunch before returning to Athens. Aigina is known for its pistachios and they make so many products from them like liquer and pistachio butter, both of which are delicious.
Later that evening, he drove us to the Temple of Poseidon followed by dinner and drinks with him and his friends at a harbor. The Acropolis where The Temple of Athena is, The Temple of Aphaia, and The Temple of Poseidon are considered the Greek Triangle. So G and I have officially completed the triangle!
On our last day in Athens, our friend’s dad prepared a delicious lunch. One of G’s favorite memories from our first time in Greece was being the sous chef and he was delighted to be rehired for the position.
Greece Global Trek 2.0 - Crete
That night, we took the overnight ferry to Crete, where we would be for the next 9 days. Let’s rewind back to our covid quarantine in 2020 when we had to cut our original trip short and lived with A and E in upstate New York. We befriended their neighbors E and D. Neighbor E is half Greek and she still has family in Crete. Her father lives in the US but has a beautiful house in Crete that has been in the family for centuries. They arranged for us to stay there during our time in Crete and it was truly magical. We even had a pet cat. As soon as we walked in the backyard, Luna, the Greek cat, greeted us. She’s a very friendly kitty who is especially talkative. She visited us every day. We fed her breakfast and dinner and sometimes she’d hang out with us by the pool.
We got to meet some of their friends and family who were all so warm and welcoming. One night we ate dessert with them as we watched the sunset over Chania and on our last night they cooked us a fantastic meal.
We rented a car and spent most of our time visiting many beaches or relaxing at the house. Crete has our favorite beaches of anywhere we’ve been so far, including the Caribbean. Every single one is picturesque and yet different. We even got to explore caves at one of the beaches!
If you ask a local where they recommend going for beaches, they’ll tell you, literally anywhere. And they’re right. The furthest we ventured while in Crete was to the most southern point in all of Europe on the island of Gavdos, where Odysseus was captured for 7 years by Calypso. I thought I had already seen the bluest of blue water, but Gavdos proved me wrong.
We squeezed in visiting The Palace of Knossos. If you’re limited on time, and need to choose between Delphi or Knossos, we’d recommend Delphi. Although Knossos was definitely still impressive.
The time in Crete came to an end way too soon and before we knew it we were back on the ferry to Athens where we’d leave the following day. Greece is a country we plan to return to again and we feel we need at least a month in Crete.
If you’ve made it this far, please enjoy all these pictures of scrumptious Greek food.
Copenhagen, a surprise & delight
Monday, July 18th, 2022
As we departed from the Brussels airport we turned our thoughts to the next 24 hours. T through her wizardry of comparing flights, prices, schedules, etc had found that the most affordable method for us to be in Greece to meet up with our friends when they would still be there (more on that in the next blog post) would be for us to have a long layover in Copenhagen. As neither of us had ever been to Denmark, we decided it would be a great opportunity to explore one of its major cities. If either of us had any expectations, they were few.
Knowing time was short when we landed, we quickly found our accommodations at Steelhouse, an excellent hostel which also rented out private rooms with attached private bathrooms. If you are looking for an excellent spot to crash in Copenhagen, this is it. The building is right by a riverfront and is very close to some of the cities interesting architecture and attractions. Additionally, they have a generously large bar and snack area, a gym, and best of all bike rentals. It goes without saying that this last item, bike rentals, greatly expands how much of the city you’ll be able to see and experience in a short period of time and it helps that Copenhagen is the most bicycle friendly city in Europe, or perhaps the world.
We quickly dropped our packs and debated if we wanted to spend our evening game planning for tomorrow morning or just jumping right into wandering about the city. We chose to jump right in. On the walk to our hostel, T had spotted a particularly colorful building that she wanted to see more closely. So, we wandered over to it. Then we spotted another interesting building. Then we spotted an interesting square. Then we saw it. The entrance gate to Tivoli loomed just on the other side of the street. Our Uncle J had recommended if we had time we should stop and see Tivoli. The architecture, the plants, the amusing lighting all worked in concert to draw us in. Like a moth to the flame, before we knew or understood what happened we had entered the park.
For those unfamiliar with Tivoli, it is a amusement park combined with a botanical garden. The entrance on that night was lined overhead with magenta orchids that dangled down above your head and were mingled with the yellow lights of an old school travelling carnival. The sun was low, but still gave more than enough light and due to the clouds it began to appear like a mix of blue and pink cotton candy. The park was an eclectic combination of the fantastic and fanciful rides or stalls, tastefully grounded by both the humble and spectacular plants which blended together marvelously. Many cultural themes appeared throughout the park as well, buildings designed to bear likeness to the Orient or Arab countries were matched with Victorianesque or even Art Deco styles. We even discovered a old ship in a small lagoon that immediately drew up images of pirates, mermaids, and Neverland. While we did not spend nearly the amount of time at Tivoli we would have liked, the time spent was magic and the whole of it had come as such a surprise to us given that it was located in the middle of the city.
After reluctantly leaving the park, we returned to our hostel and picked out the few things we hoped to have time for the following day, before leaving for Greece.
Tuesday, July 19th, 2022
We woke around 7:30 am and quickly rented bikes. The excellent bike lanes, signs, and flat terrain allowed us to make excellent time. We first stopped at a small bakery T had wanted to grab breakfast from. From there we headed down the street to the old harbor lined with its iconic colorful houses. The area was interesting and while in some ways modest, made this observer feel comfortable. Next it was off to find the little mermaid statue. Along the way we passed through an old palace square guarded by soldiers bearing traditional uniforms. Biking along the river front we passed a series of sculptures and knew we were on the right track. Soon we found the throng of tourists and determined correctly we had found the little mermaid.
Surrounded by her admirers the little statue sits just off the shore. We were lucky that we were able to arrive between the departure of the original hoard we had spotted and the arrival of another group. We spent a few moments studying the details of the statue, snapped a few photos and left just as the new group began filing in.
It was now nearly 10 am and we needed to return to the hostel to pack our things and check out. We completed this with practiced hands and all too soon left steel house to catch our flight to Greece.
Mussels in Brussels!
Saturday, July 16th, 2022
Upon arriving in Brussels, we were pleased to find that our stop was just a quick walk to our accommodation. T had strategically selected a hotel room with a view of the treasured Manneken Pis (shown below) so that we could watch the hoards of tourist snap a photo with the little fellow. T and I personally don’t really understand the hype, but it was certainly entertaining to watch others enjoy themselves.
After dropping our packs we set off to find the central square, the Delirium brewery, Jeanneke Pis, and somewhere to enjoy mussels! All of these we found with extreme ease as the central square is only two blocks away from the square, the brewery was a block beyond the square, Jeanneke Pis (shown below) is located within the same street as Delirium, and we enjoyed excellent mussels just a block north of the central square. All told it was a evening spent wandering, eating, and drinking. The smells of waffles was nearly ever present in the air near our hotel and we spent the late hours of the evening planning a bit more and occasionally chuckling to ourselves as another tourist group found the Manneken Pis.
Sunday, July 17th, 2022
We enjoyed sleeping in very late and then after watching the tourists around Manneken Pis for a little while, set off for waffles, we were fortunate to find a venue that could accommodate T’s gluten free need. Unfortunately while she loves gluten, it does not love her biology back. I was perhaps a bit too keen and ordered two waffles. Turns out the sheer richness of the Belgian chocolate mixed with vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream on a decadent waffle was my undoing. By the time I began tucking into my second strawberry covered waffle I had to tap out. T on the other hand knew her limits and smashed her waffle like a champ!
We spent the afternoon wandering through the streets or back at our hotel taking it easy. Up to this point in our journey we had kept ourselves busy, but in Brussels we finally felt good really just taking a day to relax. In the evening we found a fries shop to serve as our dinner and then called it an early night as we planned to wake up before dawn to see the square. *protip if you want really great photos with few or no people be prepared to wake up earlier than you would ever normally want. Additionally, make sure to check if the day you plan to do this is the cities garbage collection morning.
Monday, July 18th, 2022
We woke up at 5:30 am, perhaps slightly delirious from lack of sleep, we wandered out into the predawn light to snap our own photos of Manneken Pis and the centra square. Unfortunately, our eyes were met with streets lined with garbage bags. We had failed to check the garbage collection date and would have been better off making this early rise attempt the day before. Accepting this as a loss, we made the best of what was clear of bags and fortunately most of the central square fell into that category. We snapped a few shots of the square as the first rays of sun emerged to meet the towering roofs.
After enjoying the rising sun, we returned to our hotel and fell back to sleep without the slightest hesitation. When we woke again we simply packed our bags, checked out and returned to the train station to head to the airport. In no time at all it seemed, we were flying away to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Two days in Amsterdam
Wednesday, July 13th, 2022
After passing the border between Germany and the Netherlands the air conditioning on the train cut out. If you have ever been on a modern European train then you will know that the majority lack windows that can be opened. This was true for this train. Normally, it’s not a huge deal, however Europe has received a massive heat wave this summer. Needless to say, the rest of the ride into Amsterdam was a rather sweaty and uncomfortable one. T made multiple trips to the small compartment in between rail cars because they had “air conditioning” in the form of wind.
Once we departed the train, we were immediately grateful for the cool breeze that floated over the water directly next to the central station. We were also impressed by the cleanliness of the train station and the subsequent metro stations. We arrived at our accommodation, the Van Gogh hotel, in the late afternoon. It was located a block away from the Van Gogh museum which T had as her number one wish as a place to see while we were in Amsterdam.
After dropping our packs in our room, we began planning to visit the museum, but were taken aback that there were no tickets available for the timeframe that we would be in Amsterdam for. We thought this surely must be some kind of mistake. Since the museum itself was not far, we decided to go and inquire in person. The museum staff informed us that the information regarding available tickets was correct. I cannot express how much this devastated T. Van Gogh is her favorite artist, and to be this close but unable to visit the museum containing his works was crushing for her. So much so that she broke down a little. Upon seeing this one of the staff, an older woman with short gray hair, told us that we should attempt to look for tickets online again tomorrow at 5 pm.
After gathering herself together T and I returned quite defeated to our hotel room and began searching for any alternative method to purchase a ticket for the museum. None of the options were good.
Finally, after multiple dead ends we resigned to check tickets again the following day as the staff member had suggested. Hunger had crept up on us while we were attempting to acquire tickets to the museum so we set out in search of a market. We were pleased to find one situated clandestinely underground beneath a large park area. After purchasing dinner and snacks we returned and spent a quiet night planning.
Thursday, July 14th, 2022
We had requested recommendations during our night of planning from a dear friend on mine that had lived for some time in the Netherlands and happily took her advice. T had booked us a canal small boat tour and we set off in the late morning for it. We found the pick up location early so we grabbed some Fabel Friet to satisfy our now grumbling tummies while we waited for the boat to appear.
We were the first to board the small ship and meet our captain and guide. He asked us where we were from and we said the United States. He asked where withing the U.S. and upon learning we were from Nebraska he excitedly exclaimed he knew of it! This was surprising as most often when we tell people we are from Nebraska we met simply by glazed eyes and a vague look. Our captain had however, learned about Nebraska from the film which shares the name. He had deeply enjoyed the soundtrack of the film and it meant a great deal to him due to the unlikely coincidence that he had been listening to it when both of his children had been born.
After chatting about this with him for a brief while, other passengers had begun to appear and the captain returned to the work at hand. In no time at all we were cruising the canals, enjoying the beautiful buildings and learning more about their history and construction. The dancing houses, buildings which leaned in various directions that is did not seem they should be leaning, he assured us were not intentional. They were instead the result of the shifting foundation, built of 20+ meter (60+ ft) wooden poles submerged vertically down into the peat and sand beneath. These poles are kept submerged to ensure they did not rot out. For that reason the canal water levels are constantly monitored and adjusted accordingly.
He additionally explained the early history of the city, the wealth is achieved due to trade and how the loss of sailors eventually led to the widowed wives of sailors lost at sea lighting a red light behind their homes after a year of mourning. This explained how a rather tragic series of events resulted in the creation of the Red light district of the city. A bit later we passed by the house which hid Anne Frank situated directly next to a church. The sound of the bells is mentioned in her diary which given the proximity between the two is understandably described as a nuisance.
Shortly after seeing the house and the church, we returned to our original location having circled the city via canal. It was now near 5 pm, so we waited with anticipation to check for tickets to the Van Gogh museum. Sure enough a minute or so after the clock struck 5, a number of tickets for the following day appeared available on the ticket website. The staff member had taken pity on us by stating that specific time and we will be forever grateful to her for it. After purchasing the two coveted tickets, we grabbed a quick drink from Gollem, an ancient looking pub to celebrate. Then we headed back to the hotel for a cheap dinner and called it an early night.
Friday, July 15th, 2022
We woke early, T was eager to use our tickets to the museum asap. We entered the museum and spent the next few hours pouring over the his paintings. The museum presents his work in the order of his life, which allows the observer to better understand his development as an artist, presenting also paintings from artists of the time which influenced Van Gogh and aided the creation of some of best works. It also presented the various events of his life which impacted his work. Altogether it is a wonderfully established museum. The only surprise was that perhaps the most famous and recognized of his works, Starry Night, was not present in the museum (being on display in New York City). Still it was a great experience.
After milling about the museum for hours we had worked up an appetite. We headed off to find Bakers and Roasters, another recommendation of my friend. The small shop is owned and operated by a New Zealander and a Brazilian and has some of the best brunch and baked goods around. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to order a flat white which as expected was most excellent. While I would have liked to have had a chat with the New Zealand owner who was originally from a city that I love deeply, they were not present. Instead T and I were lucky enough to chat with another Kiwi who came from Auckland.
After chatting for a bit, we cashed out and set out in search of a new pair of hiking boots for me. T had wisely purchased a new pair of boots prior to our trip, which fit her very well. I on the other hand, had hopped into an old pair, the leather had unfortunately shrunk and the waterproofing was no longer viable as I had learned during our hike in the highlands.
We found an excellent pair of Zamberlan boots. T picked a pair that looked especially snazzy and I happily agreed after trying them out a little. After purchasing the boots, we walked to a small park by one of the canals where willow trees dipped their leaves into the water. We were soon joined by a pair of birds which were quite friendly and definitely not afraid of me. T laughed as they approached me and joked that I must have been channeling my inner Disney princess since they practically hopped into my lap. After hanging out with us for a bit, the pair hopped back into the canal and swam off. We walked back to the hotel and dropped off the newly acquired boots.
Then we set out to spend the golden hour of the evening sitting outside of a small pub surrounded by random expats and other travelers. Covid and the lockdowns of 2020 had an enormous impact on travel, as we all know, but the damage to the travel community, the network, the group of vagabonds that existed prior to lockdowns is something that I still felt as we began our travel in 2022. Sitting there among various accents swapping information, tips on where to go, sharing bouts of raucous laughter made my heart crack a grin. Things are not the same travelling now, and there is still a long way to go before it will feel quite as free as it once did, but I have hope that others will feel that freedom again soon.
Saturday, July 16th, 2022
We woke up a bit late. Before we knew it we were aboard a train, thankfully air conditioned, and en-route to Brussels in Belgium. T and I could almost smell the waffles from the train.
Münsterland, Germany
Sometimes, maybe often times, people are why you gravitate toward a place.
Germany Transportation Tips:
If you are traveling to Germany at some point between now and the end of August, you should consider purchasing the 9 euro ticket. You can travel anywhere around Germany via many trains or buses for the month of July or August. The 9 euro ticket is valid for the month of July or August. If you will be traveling in both months, you’ll need one for each month. You need to sign the ticket and carry your passport or a photo of your passport with you. One other important thing to note is it doesn’t include all long distance trains, so pay attention for IC, EC, and ICE as those will need to be purchased separately. Check out: https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/9-euro-ticket-en for all the details.
Another important thing to note about taking a train in Germany, is it can be confusing AF. Many trains are delayed and sometimes the track changes at a moment’s notice. If you’re taking a regional train, look for a regional map of the train routes with the corresponding train numbers and double check the number on the sign on the track and in the train. They operate similarly to a metro. You may also want to download the app, DB Navigator, which will update train schedules and tracks for arrivals and departures.
Saturday, July 9, 2022
Pretend the “u” in Munster has the 2 dots above it in this entry.
The journey to Munster:
We woke up early to take an uber to the airport to make our way to Germany. We barely missed the 150th open at St Andrew’s by one day! Oh well, we were more excited to visit our friend (we’ll call him “P”) and meet his fiancee (we’ll call her “M”). I met him 10 years ago when I studied abroad at L’Universite LAVAL for a summer where he was a student ambassador/coordinator for many groups and activities. G and I had a wonderful time visiting him and his family in Dresden in 2013. Although it had been almost 10 years since we had seen each other, he openly welcomed us to stay with him and show us around his city. G and I have found, when you meet someone while you’re studying abroad or both on an adventure, you have a special connection with them due to the unique experiences you share. Back to this trip.
We had been reading about mass chaos in airports in the US and Europe over the past couple weeks and were a little nervous about how our experience would go, but we made it through security quickly with 0 issues and made our way to the lounge where we relaxed until it was time to go to our gate. When we arrived in Dusseldorf, the entry security line was also very short. However, we were held up by a few minutes because we needed to confirm when we would be leaving the EU. Unfortunately, we can’t stay more than 90 days at a time (or more than 270 days in a year, noted!). After we made it through security, we learned a valuable lesson in the complex Deutsch Bahn.
The train tickets we bought were from Dusseldorf Airport to Dusseldorf HBF then from there to Munster West HBF (HBF = train station). We quickly bought the 9 euro ticket for any other train or bus travel we may need for the next few days then easily made it from the airport to the main HBF. Then the confusion commenced. None of the signs for the tracks included Munster in the stop so we went to an information desk and were told to go to track 9. We went to track 9 and boarded the train. I found a map of the train system inside the train and was worried we were on the wrong train so G (the extrovert) asked a local if our train was going to Munster and she confirmed we were. About 10 minutes go by and he asked her if she knew what time we were supposed to arrive, which is when she checked her app and stated that actually the train switched tracks last minute and our train was not going to Munster. We watched our correct train from its new track depart as she was saying this. Fortunately, we had purchased that 9 euro ticket, which was valid on all the regional trains, and she helped us figure out another train to take (which also required an extra connection). My friend was also figuring out all the logistics behind the scenes and we were messaging back and forth figuring it out. Our next train was leaving in a few minutes. We ran to the new track, where they switched tracks and we followed the crowd down then up the stairs to the new track. From here it wasn’t as difficult. We arrived in Munster less than an hour later than planned.
Our friend was waiting for us when we got off the train. We found him and we all walked about 15 minutes to his lovely apartment in a great, centralized location within Munster. We met his fiancee, who is a ray of light. The whole time we were there she added even more positivity and fun to our endeavors. On day 1, we went to the store, cooked and ate delicious beet and goat cheese risotto for dinner, and then went to a little neighborhood kiosque with drinks and snacks surrounded with a small park and tables and a pay phone. Not just any ordinary pay phone. We learned this payphone had the ability to send text messages! Of course, we had to act on this discovery, so we texted our brothers. It was much more difficult than T9, iykyk.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
We took our time eating breakfast, drinking coffee or tea, and enjoying chatting with each other, then we made our way to the local schloss (schloss = a palace type castle, burg = a fortress castle) and botanical gardens. We walked by a lake on the way where there was a gaggle of geese crossing the path. Being from the Midwest in the US, I became nervous. Geese in the US are aggressive and aren’t afraid to fly at you. P and M said not to worry and these geese are friendly. I hesitantly continued walking and got within 1 foot of 1 of them who really didn’t mind my presence. It was a bizarre experience.
We made it through the gaggle of geese, past the lake, and approached a park where we heard music emanating from a small grove tucked next to the schloss we decided to follow the music and were delighted to stumble upon a juggling performance! We decided to stay and watch for about 10 minutes, then continued on to the schloss and botanical gardens.
The gardens are free and we spend a good amount of time walking around the greenhouses and paths outside. One of G’s favorite places to visit is a large garden.
After spending some time in the garden, we walked around town. If you’re blind, there are raised maps with brail around town which are super cool. It was a little rainy so we went to a cafe to wait out the rain. Then we wandered around some of the older areas of Munster where we saw some cathedrals - one of which had cages near the top of the building for the purpose of displaying dead sinners (brutal!), a statue of St Nikolaus, a building that is in a popular German TV show, and neat buildings.
We stopped at an Indian/Nepalese restaurant for a late lunch then went back to the apartment where we took a nap. G and I were a little tired from our travels the day prior. When we woke up we walked around the lake in the middle of the town and about halfway around it, we stopped by a museum with a centuries old windmill and an outdoor area with some goats and donkeys. Donkeys are one of G’s favorite animals and they always seem to like him. The donkeys walked all the way across the enclosure to let G pet them. Sadly, I didn’t snap a photo of that. We meandered back to the lake where we completed the loop and walked back to the apartment. We weren’t super hungry so we ate salads and leftovers for dinner.
After dinner, we played a fun game called Colt Express. It’s a wild west game where each player is an outlaw trying to rob a train full of passengers and a sheriff. If you like games, I highly recommend it.
Monday, July 11, 2022
We woke up and enjoyed another slow breakfast then we left to go to Schloss Nordkirchen, The Versailles of Westphalia, the region we were in. P and M hadn’t been there yet so this was a new experience for all of us! M has a car so we all piled into the car and drove to the schloss. It was built in the 1700s by a bishop and is now used as a school for finance. Nordkirchen is surrounded by a mote and gardens and is quite picturesque. We walked around the full castle, snapped some photos, and patiently watched as a large bird was stalking fish. However, we were disappointed as it gave up and moved on. M and I were getting hungry, on the way to hangry, so we left the castle and returned to Munster where we ate at a delicious fries place. After lunch, we walked around and then enjoyed coffee or tea in a nice outdoor square.
We walked home then cooked a great meal of stuffed tomatoes and polenta. After dinner, we played a fun game called The Mind which is a really fun card game that depends on how well you can read each other and communicate non verbally. We made it up to level 5, which is pretty good for our first night playing it together.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Unfortunately, M had to work so she wasn’t able to accompany us on our big excursion, but we P, G, and I used our 9 euro tickets to go to the largest lavender field in all of Germany! We called ahead to confirm it was in full bloom before venturing out. Dubbed “Petit Provence”, we set out to take the trains to Taoasis Lavender Farm. We didn’t have any hiccups on the way there and arrived for plenty of time to walk around, smell the lavender, snap some photos, and enjoy a snack before heading back. G and I had attempted to time the lavender fields at the famous Abbaye de Senanque in Provence region of France on our honeymoon back in 2014, but we were just a tad early for the blooms. This time it was a real treat to experience the lavender just before the harvest. We were amused by a beautiful type of butterfly we hadn’t seen before, which the Germans call a peacock butterfly. On the way back to Munster, we were not so lucky with the trains. One of our trains was late, which caused us to miss a connection (that, of course, was on time. if it had been slightly late we would’ve made it) so we had to reroute and it took a while to get back, but we eventually arrived in time for dinner with M, and we were using the 9 euro ticket, so we really can’t complain. Plus, G and I rather enjoy traveling via train.
We had not been to a biergarten yet, so all we hung out at one near the botanical gardens for a bit. Then we walked through town and stopped at a Polish bar for pierogis and drinks. While we were there enjoying our drinks outside in the nice weather, we all saw a random person walk by with the largest pizza box we’ve all ever seen in our lives. The people at the tables on each side of us had to mention it as well. I still wonder what type of pizza was in that box. M had to work again the next day so we called it an early-ish night and returned home.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Today was our last day in Munster. We had a train to catch around noon to Amsterdam. We ate breakfast, hugged and said goodbye to M, then P, G, and I took our time walking through town to the train station. Turns out, Munster has a very nice farmer’s market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so we visited that before we left. Then we walked through a few streets we hadn’t seen yet and stopped to have a coffee before going to the train station to say our goodbyes to P. Our time together felt too short and it didn’t feel as though nearly 10 years had passed. We will definitely see M and P again. If the stars align, perhaps for M and P’s wedding <3
Skye, Raasay, Inverness, and Edinburgh
We did not rent a car while we were in Scotland. The easiest ways to get around if you don’t rent a car are via bus, Citylink, https://www.citylink.co.uk/, or train, Scotrail, https://www.scotrail.co.uk.
June 30th, 2022
Waking around 8 o’clock in the morning we once again joined our new teacher friends for breakfast. Still feeling tired and a bit sore from the hiking we enjoyed a slow breakfast and then packed to catch the Hogwarts Express. The Jacobite train is truly a gem of old steam trains and after waiting a short while at the train station we hopped aboard.
We did not opt for the first class tickets; in retrospect perhaps we should have. The normal seats still afforded us a great view of the picturesque bridge shown in the Harry Potter films and T and I each enjoyed a chocolate frog from the candy cart.
Arriving in Mallaig, we had little time to explore the town which was perhaps for the best as I was not truthfully feeling 100%. We had worn masks since the morning when in public and continued to do so, except for our train photos, but we thought it prudent to simply make our way to our next destination with as little contact as possible. So, we skipped the town and headed directly for the ferry to the Isle of Skye.
Once there we waited for and eventually boarded a nearly empty bus which took us nearly all the way to our accommodations. Unfortunately, we had to catch another bus, however, google maps had lied and there was no stop for it. So, instead we walked in the general direction of our hostel. After passing a very strange horse (see photo above) we opted to wait until a bus came and we would attempt to flag it down there.
We succeeded and once again boarded a nearly empty bus which dropped us near our hostel. We checked in and went directly to our room. We had booked a private room and were very glad for it. As I still did not feel the best T suggested we use one of the rapid tests we brought to rule out Covid. Unfortunately, the result of the test was extremely positive for Covid. So, we resolved to quarantine ourselves as long as possible. We spent all 4 days and 3 nights which we had planned for the Isle of Skye locked in our room only exiting when absolutely necessary. T had symptoms shortly after me so we spent our time resting and watching Netflix when the Wifi was agreeable.
The view from our window at Skye.
July 3rd, 2022
I had shaken my fever and symptoms on July 1st and T was fever free, so we both felt well enough to carry on to the Isle of Raasay, remaining careful to limit our contact with others. Fortunately, the Isle of Raasay only has 160 people that reside there, so we continued to use our masks and hand sanitizer and carried on.
The Isle of Raasay was more charming than we had anticipated. T had booked us a stay at the scotch distillery on the island which was absolutely fantastic. The distillery was new and in fact, they were still working to complete some of it. The distillery was the result of a passion project. Two Scottish businessmen had started it as a way to provide a boon to the community that lived on Raasay and I will say we should all thank them for their hard work.
The scotch and gin they make is excellent, the accommodations cozy as anyone could want, the contribution to the island’s farmers and population substantial, but the real pièce de résistance was the absolutely phenomenal food created for their dinner menu. Though I seriously doubt this blog will ever be read by a true food critic, I would recommend, if for some reason it is that they go to the Isle of Raasay Distillery. The ingredients were local, the flavor profiles brought out the best elements of what was readily available.
July 4th, 2022
Happy Independence Day, USA.
After thoroughly enjoying ourselves at the distillery we were joined one last time by one of our new teacher friends. The other had returned home, and we had warned them both that we had caught the plague of our time, but she remained unconcerned and joined us for one last hike. Passing a few picturesque highland cows, we made our way this time up Temptation Hill on the island which afforded us a pleasant view of Raasay’s distinctive peak.
We then left Raasay and caught a bus to Inverness. On the way we passed the length of the fabled Loch Ness. We kept a sharp eye out for Nessie, but saw not a single dark ripple on or under the water. Arriving in Inverness, we quickly found our hotel situated in the city center and stopped in a local tavern for dinner and called it an early night.
July 5th, 2022
We slept in a bit and then moseyed out for coffee and a pastry for breakfast, then we went off in search of the largest used bookstore in the UK, Leakey’s Bookshop. This shop reminded me of a place which I adored in my youth, a 3+ level bookstore. I had spent hours there picking through old books, sipping a drink, listening to 3 old men chat about politics, history, or various other topics usually while puffing on a pipe. My nose was filled with the smell of old paper, leather, and ink as the mountains and walls of books formed a fortress for me to find solitude and tranquility.
Leakey’s brought all of that emotion rushing back. The same smells greeted me as I entered, my eyes twinkled to see stacks and walls of books matching those of my youth. I have every confidence the old man checking books out to people could have easily held his own in a conversation on geopolitics with a pipe in hand. Yes, this place was special.
We spent longer than intended here, searching through the treasures of knowledge and flipping through the authentic prints from over 100 years ago. One such treasure was this print which is of an actor portraying a school master. For all my previous teachers, if they have not given this look to me, they have certainly thought about it and will undoubtedly think about it again with some other challenging pupil.
After leaving Leakey’s we set off to find the Clava Cairns, a 4,000+ year old burial and spiritual site. We thought about visiting Loch Ness as well, but chose the path less traveled and after a bus ride and a half hour walk through the Scottish countryside (because no trip is complete without unexpected strolls through the open countryside) we found the Clava Cairns. Impressive in their age and construction, these sacred places had been preserved by the local farmers who had even planted a grove of trees around them in druidic fashion.
After enjoying this brief sojourn, we returned to the same tavern in Inverness for dinner and once again called it an early night.
July 6th, 2022
We caught a mid morning bus to Edinburgh. Most of the day was spent in transit and upon arriving in Edinburgh we made our way to our accommodations, the student housing for the university. With classes completed the university allowed the housing to be rented cheaply to travelers. The location was excellent and very secure, the laundry facilities more than adequate for our needs, but the mattress quickly reminded us that being a student had its drawbacks. One of which was a mattress that left no mystery regarding where the springs were located. A fact which the flock of sea gulls outside our window seemed to never tire of laughing about… all night long.
July 7th, 2022
Despite the springs in our back and the consistent laughter of the sea gulls we eventually managed to drift off to sleep. Upon waking the next morning, we set out to see the city. We climbed to the top of Calton hill which afforded us splendid views before going on to Victoria street (which served as the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter) as well as visiting the Greyfriars Kirkyard where we found the names of some Harry Potter characters etched on tombstones. After dinner, we returned to be once again greeted by the laughter of sea gulls and our humble student flat.
July 8th, 2022
A bit of a lazy morning followed by lunch at a local café and a search for rapid Covid tests swallowed most of our day. 3 supermarkets and 7 pharmacies later, we finally found some. We were relieved to see that we were both negative for Covid now and could safely visit our friends in Germany the following day, for which we were incredibly grateful. We did venture forth one last time to view Edinburgh Castle, which due to the 150th golf open was completely booked out and we therefore could not explore it to its fullest. Although we couldn’t explore the castle, we did wander around The Royal Mile. We found The Witches Well, Camera Obscura, and quite a few closes (random, small tunnels, many with nice views of the city). We will need to return to Scotland to go to Skye and the castle.
The West Higland Way! And I Would Walk 100 Miles…
And I would walk 100 more…
The West Highland Way blaze (a Scottish thistle)
If you enjoy hiking, I would highly recommend walking The West Highland Way in Scotland, and I would recommend booking a self-guided walk through Wilderness Scotland. We booked this hike with them before Covid in 2019 for our 2020 trip and they have been amazing to work with the entire time. They are responsive, have different budgets and itineraries to choose from, send you everything you need for the hike, pick local places to stay near the path, etc. (We are not getting paid to advertise for them. We really just were that impressed!)
Look now, G and I are in our 30s, so while we could carry our full backpacks and camp for 100 miles through the Scottish Highlands, our knees and backs would really rather we didn’t, which is why we chose Wilderness Scotland to help us out. We had our bags ported for us to our new hotel (side note - all had full breakfast included) each day and we carried a small day pack with food, a first aid kit, and water. Some super fit people hike the entire way in 5 or 6 days, many hike it in 7 days, and we chose to do it in 8 days. You can add another day if needed. Here’s a breakdown of the day-by-day:
Day 1: June 22, 2022. Milngavie (pronounced Mill-Guy) to Drymen. 12 (14) miles
Let’s rewind for a minute to the day we arrived in London Heathrow Airport. G and I were going through border security, and the first question the gentleman asked us was “How long are you staying in England and what are you doing here?” to which I replied, “Well, we’re only going to be in London for a couple of days to visit a friend and then we’re going up to Scotland for about 3 weeks.” He immediately lit up and exclaimed “Oh, that’s all you need to say! But, what all are you doing in Scotland?” We quickly realized he was Scottish. I told him we were going to hike The West Highland Way and he got even more excited. “North to South or South to North?” “South to North”. He confirmed that’s the best way to do it. I asked if he’d ever hiked it and he said just parts of it but never the full thing. He warned us about the midges, small flies that swarm and bite, and informed us the best protection would be midge nets to put over our heads that we can buy at many stores. We thanked him. He happily let us into The UK.
Fast forward to now. The two things I’ve learned since we’ve been in Scotland it’s I have no idea how to pronounce anything and a Scottish mile is truly slightly longer than a legit mile.
Ok, back to the hike. We ate breakfast at Premier Inn in Milngavie and went on a search for midge hats. The two supermarkets we tried didn’t have them, so we crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t run into any major trouble with them and embarked on the start of our hike. We followed a river for a while and after a couple miles we were completely out of town. There were a few hills but nothing too difficult. One of our favorite moments of day 1 was after we hiked to the top of one of the hills, The Highlands presented themselves. About halfway through, we stopped at Glengoyne Distillery. We were fortunate to get there in time for a tour and a tasting of their delicious whisky. We stumbled (not really) back to the path which eventually led to a country road that we followed for a while. We passed by slow hobbits and Troll Bridge, cows, and more farmland before making our way to Drymen. We stayed at a lovely B&B, Bolzicco’s B&B, where the owner had also been a long-term traveler and we enjoyed chatting with him about both our travels.
Day 2: June 23, 2022. Drymen to Rowardennan. 14 (16) miles
Day 2 quickly proved to be hillier than day 1. We giddily witnessed the most Scottish thing of our time in Scotland. After walking up quite a few hills over country roads, we made it out of town and back to the nature path. As we were walking down a hill, we heard a man singing in Gaelic. Then we saw him in all his glory. He was a younger adult, sporting a dark mohawk, beard, and of course, a kilt, walking 5 dogs through the forest merrily singing in his native tongue. He said good morning and we wished each other a good day. We continued hiking through the forest and made it to Conic Hill, which was quite a hill but had a rewarding view of Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater lake in Great Britain. After going back down Conic Hill, we went through a large pine forest that eventually led to a parking lot. We stopped in a store where we bought some midge nets! From there we hiked along the lake shore, up and down many more smaller hills until we reached Rowardennan Hotel, situated right on the lake. We settled in, ate dinner, then walked out to the dock on the lake where we met some wonderful friends - a couple of ladies who are middle school teachers in Washington. We chatted with them for a while, were greeted by a little duck family, then went to bed early.
Day 3: June 24, 2022. Rowardennan to Inverarnan. 14 (16) miles
Although there was not much elevation on day 3, we found it to be the most difficult part of the entire trek. Fortunately, though, we had great weather for the first 3 days. The first half of the day wasn’t that difficult. We hiked up some big hills along the lake then back down to a small town with a picturesque waterfall. The second half of the hike on day 3 was never-ending. We stayed along the lake shore going up and down countless hills. Hills that were full of boulders and the path wasn’t smooth for miles and miles. At times we had to rock scramble. I have no idea how many single-leg squats and step-ups we did. We made it by following our motto, “go mall” (brief backstory, in Ireland they had “go mall” painted on some streets which means “slow”, so we would often go mall on this hike). That wasn’t the end of that day’s hike. We walked through a nice field for a bit, then up some larger hills going away from the lake, then down into a valley where we found our accommodation, Beinglas Farm. We rewarded ourselves with a pint and a meal at the farm’s pub where we ran into our teacher friends again. We exchanged our information with them so we could meet up again the next day then we went to sleep early around 9 pm.
Day 4: June 25, 2022. Rowardennan to Tyndrum. 13.25 miles
The trail on day 4 was much more forgiving than day 3, and from here on out we felt like we were up in the Highlands. We walked mostly out in the open, up and down hills with the gorgeous Highlands all around us. We passed by some quant rivers and creeks. While walking through a couple of farms, some of the sheep lazily people watched the hikers as they passed by. Once we reached the top of this hike, we entered a pine forest and were surrounded by woods nearly the rest of the way to our accommodation for the day, Tig na Fraoch. G and I discussed the hike so far with the hostess, who confirmed our suspicions that a Scottish mile was longer than a real mile because she had said day 2 and 3 of the hike were also more than 14 miles for her as well. Our teacher friends were staying at the same place so we grabbed dinner together at a cafe in town.
Day 5: June 26, 2022. Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy. 7 miles.
We opted to chop one of our days up. Instead of hiking about 19 miles from Tyndrum to Kingshouse, we walked to Bridge of Orchy which was 7 miles away then the next day we would walk the remaining 12 miles to Kingshouse. That was absolutely the right choice because that day was the worst weather we would experience during the entire hike. Even through the rain and fog, our surrounding were still beautiful and we could see some of the munros (mountains that are over 3,000 ft in Scotland). It rained the entire time and was very windy and the weather worsened after we arrived at our hotel. We drank our tea and watched out of the window throughout the afternoon as the rain was blowing heavily sideways due to the wind. The following morning we were well rested because The Bridge of Orchy Hotel had one of the most comfortable mattresses I’ve ever slept on. Our new friends did not split the day but they were going to stay in Fort William for a couple of extra days so we planned on meeting them at the end of the trail.
Day 6: June 27, 2022. Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse. 12 miles.
The elusive Scottish sun graced us with its presence again as we got an early start for our hike. We hiked up hills through a forest then up some more hills to a lovely overlook of a lake. A group of trail runners slowly passed us one by one as we were hiking down the hill. We thought we were pretty cool for hiking The West Highland Way and here was a group of trail runners doing their thing. Maybe they weren’t running the whole way. It’s good to be humbled every now and again. After we reached the bottom of the hill, we walked along a country road and passed by a few houses and hotels, over a bridge, then to another lodge. Here the path was part of an old military road that wound through the mountains all the way to our destination. I lost count of how many times I said “wow” because the lakes and mountains and waterfalls and fields and sun were just so gorgeous.
Since many people do this hike, there were a few people we saw nearly every day. The most intriguing to us was this Italian man. He looked like he was in his 40s, had dark, thick shorter hair, a well groomed medium length beard, was average height and build, and was covered in tattoos. He was hiking by himself and we would see him on the path and other places, a pub or cafe we would stop in or he would stay at the same hotel as us. I am so curious what his story is and why he decided to do the hike, but we never spoke to him other than saying hello. On this day, we saw him in the dining area of our hotel that morning as we ate breakfast. He left before us but we ended up passing him on the path. He was taking a break, lying down on a rock, drinking a juice box and enjoying the sun.
When we were a little over halfway through that day’s hike, the Highland rain returned but only briefly. We pressed on and eventually made it to Kingshouse Hotel, a recently renovated hotel that was built back in the 1700’s, situated in a valley near a river surrounded by mountains. This accommodation was in the most picturesque location. After dinner and a couple of drinks, we enjoyed the views and got close to a wild deer!
Day 7, June 28, 2022: Kingshouse to Kinlochleven. 9 miles.
Rainy day 7 really could be summed up with: we hiked up quite a ways to the summit, then up and down some small hills, then down and down and down and down all the way to basically sea level to Kinlochleven.
My knees did not appreciate going down so many hills (pro-tip: trekking poles probably would’ve been worth bringing) but we made it to town too early to check in to Allt-na-Leven, our B&B, so we grabbed lunch and tea in the hotel pub next door. After check in, we took a quick shower followed by a nap, then went to a different hotel pub for dinner. We saw the mysterious Italian man there but he left before we could introduce ourselves and strike up a conversation about the day’s hike. That was unfortunately the last time that we saw him, but somethings are meant to remine a mystery.
Random fun fact for all our climber friends: Kinlochleven has the world's biggest indoor ice climbing wall, rock climbing and aerial adventure course!
Day 8, June 29, 2022: Kinlochleven to Fort William. 15 (17.5) miles.
WE MADE IT! The day started out hiking up and up and up and up since we hiked all the way down the day before. It didn’t take long for the path to mellow out. The Scots saved some of the best views for the last day. We walked through a breathtaking valley for quite a ways then through some farm fields, up and down some big hills with Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in Great Britain) in the background, then along a road for the remainder of the journey. We snapped a photo near the original end of the West Highland Way, but hikers found it a bit lackluster, so it was extended to take you all the way through town to the end of the main street where you can take a photo next to a commemorative statue of a hiker with sore feet (we get it). We thought the new ending wouldn’t be far, but it felt like it was so far away. Our energy was wearing out but then we saw one of our teacher friends waiting just for us and we got the turbo boost we needed to finish strong! We made our way to our hotel, dropped of our bags, then we all went out to a delicious pizza place and brewery where we spent the evening debriefing and enjoying each other’s company. It was a perfect way to end a 100+ mile hike.
London, touched it.
June 18th, 2022
After a brief stopover in Chicago to spend time with a few friends, we hopped on an Iceland Air flight to London. The way the flight was broken up made sleeping a futile endeavor, instead, we spent the time catching up on movies or in thought. I (G) found myself reflecting on all that had happened since our first attempt to travel and anticipating with cautious hopefulness all that the coming year of world travel might bring.
Soon we arrived at Heathrow airport, the favorite airport of a pilot friend we know, and were off to find the tube and make our way to the King’s Cross station stop. In no time we had arrived and checked into our hostel, the Alhambra, just a block or so away from the station. Our private room was on the top floor, which while rather tight, provided all we needed for the basic necessity of sleep. Shortly after arriving, I had received word from a dear friend that recently moved to London, being severely jetlagged we let her know that we would be glad to meet for dinner, but were in desperate need of sleep first.
After a 90-minute nap, we rallied, T and I headed off to Covent Garden and met up with my friend and another visiting friend of hers. We made an original attempt to eat at Dishoom, but the wait was greater than two and a half hours. Instead, we took the advice of an old co-worker, a charmingly snarky gentleman with excellent taste in food, who pointed us in the direction of the Cinnamon Bazaar. It was excellent, and we were fortunate that they had a table available right away.
After enjoying a fantastic meal together, we wandered the Covent Garden area for a little while and found a pub to grab a drink in and continue chatting. Too soon though, the time arrived for us to go. We meandered a little as we made our way back to tube and our respective accommodations.
June 19th, 2022
Still battling jetlag, we awoke late and made our way out to find breakfast. We found a spot called O’Neill’s situated directly across from the first stop on our list, the British Library. I can appreciate that a library may not be top of the list for most people, but after breakfast, we ventured forth to view the Treasures of the British Library. This consists of spectacular historic works of significance, beautifully preserved and on display to be enjoyed by all for free. Things like the Magna Carta, scientific writings of Da Vinci & Michelangelo, and holy writings from nearly all major and a few minor religions. My inner nerd rejoiced.
After departing the library we headed to the British Museum. On the way, we became sidetracked by a pub with a ghost story past and decided to stop for a pint. The Mabel Tavern, named after the original owner, held a mysterious tale. Little was truly known about Mabel, other than she had an orange tabby cat named Felix, but it is said that she can occasionally be heard operating the dumbwaiter, even though it has been removed for a fair few decades. The story was intriguing enough to lure us in like a couple suckers. With only having to pay the cost of a pint for the price of our curiosity we got off easy.
Resuming our original mission, we pressed on to the British Museum. We arrived and spent a few hours enthralled by the treasures of ancient people. Immaculately preserved, things found in museums never fail to inspire at least a small sense of wonder. At one point, these things were all new and used in one way or another by people just like us. How odd they may have thought it or perhaps how loudly would they have laughed if we could tell them then that their cutlery would be expertly guarded and preserved while providing a spectacle for millions of people each year. Another thought that passed my mind as I examined the objects of so many people and cultures here in a British Museum was simply how fortunate it is that they were preserved.
Next we headed off to the Tower of London, as we approached through a tunnel we found eclectic, but beautiful art displayed on the tunnel walls depicting historic places, people, or deeds from British history. Here are a few of the pieces.
As we left the tunnel, we were surprised to see the moat surrounding the tower full of flowers in full bloom. dubbed the Superbloom, this horticultural masterpiece was arranged for the Queen’s Jubilee. We spent time circling the moat before heading into the tower itself. Within the tower, we saw the graffiti left by various prisoners and the Royal jewels. While the jewels were brilliantly crafted masterpieces, I must admit that I personally preferred the blooming flowers to them.
After this, we headed off to meet with our friends for another dinner at Northumberland Arms, a charming little spot that still operated a manual dumbwaiter to receive food from the upstairs kitchen. Here we spent the evening enjoying each other’s company and discussing our next move on our trip, The West Highland Way. After saying our goodbyes and hugging in the London rain, we returned to our hotel.
June 20th, 2022
The next morning, we gathered our belongings and made our way over to King’s Cross Station, where we passed through platform 9 3/4 to board the train to Hogwarts…erm…Glasglow (The Hogwarts train came along for us later though!). We didn’t get to spend much time in Glasglow itself, which is a treasure of 1930’s art deco architecture, but what we were fortunate enough to see proved to encompass all the class of that age mixed with the grit of a truly industrial town.
June 21st, 2022
We made our way from Glasglow up to Milngavie (pronounced Mill-guy) and spent the day preparing for the West Highland Way hike!
The Past 2-ish Years
March 16, 2020
There’s a lot to cover in the past 2-ish years. I’ll try my best to keep this somewhat brief so we can move on to our global trek 2.0.
G left last the entry with us drinking wine in the Chilean airport lounge, in shock and trying to process that our year-long adventure was abruptly frozen after less than 6 weeks in.
My best friend had been texting me over the past week or so that if we needed a place to live for a while, we could live with her (we’ll call her A) and her husband (also our friend, we’ll call him E) in The Hudson River Valley, and that she had been buying extra food for us just in case the apocalypse was coming. I decided to use the business center in the lounge to look for tickets and managed to find a flight to New York that departed that night for about $700/person, flying with LATAM to Mexico City then United to Newark. Out of curiosity, we checked United’s site on our phones and those exact tickets were $5,000/person. I let A know our flight details and she reassured us she would be ready to pick us up when we arrived. LATAM fed us a delicious risotto dinner with wine. United tried to charge us $100/each for sitting in regular economy seats instead of budget economy, even though there were less than 10 people on the plane.
St Patrick’s Day, 2020
The Newark airport experience was such a stark contrast to the Lima airport experience. Rooms were empty. It took less than 10 minutes to get through security and customs. The TSA agent didn’t even check our passports to verify which countries we had been in and didn’t mention anything about Covid or quarantine. We hugged our friends, A and E, who picked us up and enjoyed the little snack pack they put together for us.
Our end goal was to travel again. We thought we may need to stay through 2-3 quarantine cycles before being able to relaunch. Little did we know it would be over 2 years.
St Patrick’s Day - Cinco De Mayo, 2020
Although we weren’t on our grand adventure, we were so lucky to be with friends and we actually rather enjoyed the beginning of Covid lockdowns. We went on many hikes in nearby state parks in the Shawagunks and Catskills, cooked dinners together, ate pancakes on Sundays, watched movies, went running (I went from detesting running to being able to run a 5k!), played games, planted a large garden, cuddled their dogs, hung out and became friends with their awesome neighbors next door, threw a themed 30th birthday party for E with the neighbors, etc. I even got to be the teaching assistant for A’s kindergarten class in a couple of video lessons.
As time went on, it became clearer and clearer that international travel would likely not be possible soon. Though our friends insisted we could stay, we decided to live with my brother and sister-in-law in Austin where all of our stuff was while we continued to wait to pick up our travels again. We were still holding on to hope.
May-July, 2020
When the world stood still and millions of people were isolated, we continued to appreciate being surrounded by our loved ones and realized how fortunate we really were. Our time in Texas was filled with morning workouts, weekly runs, walks, swims at the neighborhood pool, grilling on Sundays, movie nights, more cuddling and playing with dogs and their cat, and a few visits to state parks that were open. I hadn’t spent that much time with my brother since I was in high school and I will always be thankful for that time with him.
Late June rolls around. About 3 months had passed since our return to the US. Our previous employer contacts us and asks us if we would be interested in coming back as there had been a lot of unexpected growth in the company that year. Our gut reaction was, “no, we still want to travel”. We said we would think about it and get back to them quickly. Our thoughts led to us concluding that we wanted to be respectful of other countries; we knew many countries weren’t doing well and were actually stressed by tourists, so we didn’t want to add to that stress. Also, many places would be closed and who knew how many more lockdowns could occur. We were well aware of how quickly things could change. We decided we would return, and we would work in Omaha where our parents lived. We committed to at least a year of work. But we weren’t ready to give up on adventure quite yet!
July 2020
We flew up to Omaha for the 4th of July then went on a 3-week road trip through Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico back to Austin to pack up our belongings and up to Omaha.
We visited friends in Denver, tried sandboarding in the Great Sand Dunes National Park, explored Ouray (the Switzerland of Colorado), stayed in Eden, Utah in the mountains, went on a few hikes around there, went to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, hiked in Moonshine Wash Slot Canyon (in between Arches and Salt Lake City. Highly recommend. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Need 4-wheel drive to get there), drove up to Bear Lake at the Utah/Idaho border, swam in a glacial lake nearby, visited Bonneville Salt Flats, drove through Valley of the Gods and Trail of the Ancients, saw Monuments Valley, pretty sure we saw UFOs, and drove through New Mexico past Ship Rock. Our friend, A, joined us for the most of the Utah and Idaho portion of this adventure.
In late July we settled into our apartment and started working again, this time working from home.
August 2020 - February 2021
We enjoyed our apartment pool and the area of the city nearby, spent time with friends and family, and worked from home.
We made a visit back up to The Hudson River Valley to visit A and E in October and to see the Fall foilage.
Toward the end of 2020, a very noisy neighbor moved in above us. We had lived in apartments for years and had never had a neighbor this noisy. Sometimes it sounded like they were aggressively rollerblading and sometimes they would drop or throw something on the floor so hard that our walls would rattle. We tried complaining about it multiple times but it never got better, and we couldn’t continue to live and work from home with that going on. So, we thought, well, we were able to get a lot of our trip refunded and we have some cash, why not buy a house? It seemed like we weren’t going to be able to travel for a while still.
We house hunted for a few months, put an offer on a couple of houses and got outbid. In January 2021, we found the one, a craftsman-style house in the heart of Omaha. Our offer was accepted! We closed in late February and moved in during early March. Thus began our adventure in home ownership!
(BTW, if you ever need a realtor in the Omaha area, let us know and we’ll hook you up.)
February-August 2021
We quickly learned house projects never end. We had most of the house rewired and updated from old knob and tube to modern electrical and replaced many of the light fixtures. We replaced the sink - in doing so, the cast iron, farmhouse style sink had so much adhesive under it that we used a car jack to remove it from the counter, which broke part of the laminate countertops. New countertops were in our future, but would have to wait a bit. We replaced all the cabinet handles. We had the exterior of the house repainted froma dark brown body, darker brown base, and white trim to a grayish blue body, white base, and white trim. We named our home Merryweather, a popular name in the 1920s when the house was built and after the fairy in Sleeping Beauty who insists on making Aurora’s dress blue.
In March we visited our friends in New York again. We went on a few hikes and tried some rock climbing outdoors.
G made 4 large planter boxes and we planted a garden from which we would snack during work breaks all summer long.
In July, a storm plowed through with record-breaking winds that completely uprooted a giant maple tree in our front yard. Fortunately, it was on the city’s property so the city cleaned it up. Unfortunately, they refused to fix the sidewalk, so we had to take care of that.
In August, A and I went to San Fransisco, Napa, drove down Highway 1, stopped by an outdoor hippy library, went on a couple of hikes, I fell on some rocks and had to make a pit stop to the ER (I’m fine), then met up with E and G in Sequoia National Forest where we walked Trail of the Giants; and, wow, the sequoias really are quite something spectacular.
September 2021
It had been a year and a half since leaving the country and we were finally able to go somewhere international! We went on an amazing trip to Greece with our friends and met their family. We went to Athens, Naxos, and rode a boat around The Cyclades. We’ve never seen water in such vibrant shades of blue anywhere else in the world. The people are welcoming, the food is delicious, and the culture and history are rich. Greece is definitely somewhere we will be returning. Of course, we had to stop in New York on the way back.
September 2021- February 2022
The house projects continued. We repainted the main level interior. We got new countertops. We added railings to the stairs on the porch and a railing to our stairs near the side entrance. G created the perfect accent piece to go on our roof above our porch.
Merryweather (our house) proved to be a great hostess. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and threw an entertaining White Elephant party with my team from work. Our New York friends, A and E, came to visit us in January.
G and I enjoyed many snowy days by the fireplace.
February-March 2022
We were able to go on another international trip! This time we went all around Ireland: Dublin, Cork, Blarney Castle, Dingle, drove up the west coast to Galway, saw The Cliffs of Moher and the Buren, and Giant’s Causeway. We also visited the Loire Valley in France: Nantes, Tours, Chenonceaux, biked 30 miles from Chenonceaux to Amboise back to Tours, and visited a long time friend in Paris. Yet again, of course, on the return home, we made a stop in New York. We enjoyed a couple of snow days together there with A and E.
March-June 2022
We were hoping the time was approaching for us to be able to relaunch our year-long trip. If we went everywhere we wanted to go on this trek using time off at work, even with a 4-week sabbatical in the mix, it would take us 10 years, and we feel like it would be worse for us to have started it and not finish than to have never started it at all.
Our plan for Merryweather was to either rent or Air BnB her while we were traveling. We had grown quite attached to her and our neighborhood. I would be remissed if I didn’t mention our favorite neighborhood cat, a friendly black cat with bright green eyes who would frequently visit us. However, after much, much consideration, we determined that wouldn’t be cost-effective and didn’t want to risk any disaster happening while we were away or trying to sell her if the market turned to a buyer’s market.
It was time to kick our house projects into even higher gear! We finished repainting the entire interior, painted the kitchen cabinets, had the siding on the garage replaced, had 2 egress windows installed and repaired the drywall, painted the garage door and garage entry door, and completely renovated the upstairs bathroom. We could not have completed this all without the help of our family and friends. You know who you are, and we are very thankful for you! We contacted the realtor who helped us buy the house, and he and his wife successfully helped us sell the house.
On June 10th, we left our employer again, and again this time around, it was difficult to leave. My team and I had become quite close over the past year and I wanted to continue to be a part of their growth. They gave me a few extremely thoughtful parting gifts that made me tear up a little, and that is no easy feat. G had also built strong relationships with his team and was sad to leave the people he had worked with over the prior year. We had a happy hour with our colleagues on our last day and felt so supported by the turnout of people who came to say bon voyage.
We had been packing and moving our things into storage over the past few weeks. We finished moving everything before we closed on the 15th and we stayed with my parents the 13th-16th (thanks dad, for making us breakfast every morning), celebrated and had dinner friends, and then took off on the 16th.
There’s so so so much more I could write in here, but this is a blog and not a book, and we need to focus on our current adventure!
T, Mark Fleeing a Country off My Bucket List.
In this post, I (G) will attempt to recall to the best of my recollection the remaining portion of our time in Amazon and Lima before being forced to flee Peru due to Covid-19. I will then fill in our readers with the time between our initial and current attempt to travel the world. There were a few adventures between our first and second attempt to travel the world, which T will briefly address in a separate blog entry before resuming the global trek. Now, let’s wind that clock back a bit!
March 13th, 2020
The lodge I was describing in my previous post had a main dining area all of which was well screened. Its high ceilings were no doubt an attempt to keep it cool, but this still seemed to do little when matched against the humidity of the jungle. The dining area had a few screened wooden doors on each of the four walls the one on the left led to the kitchen, the right to another raised boardwalk that wound through the jungle to individually screened huts where guests would stay, and the doors immediately opposite the doors we entered to the dining area lead into a small cleared patch of grass hedged in by the dense jungle.
Kevin showed us to our hut which was on raised stilts to match the height of the boardwalk. T entered the screened hut quickly to avoid the wasps of unusual size that seemed to enjoy buzzing over the boardwalk. She attests she has since suppressed the memory, but I recall it well.
Board walk to the dining hall
We quickly dropped our packs and filtered water in the hut. The water was from the small, poorly lit, and slightly questionable bathroom that was attached to the hut. Hydration, being our primary concern, we drank and filtered water as often as we could. The heat and humidity of Amazon combined with the relative necessity to wear long sleeves to defend against mosquitos and sun (when on the river) kept T and I in a perpetual state of perspiration. This was something I had expected. T, however, was used to being cold most of the time. While she knew she would probably be hot, she didn’t realize that she, too, would sweat almost constantly. Hopeful our persistent consumption of water would keep pace with our perspiration, we gathered ourselves once again and returned to the dining hall to make our first excursion.
Village hut
For our first outing, we hopped back into our river boat and once again took to the river. I have no true recollection of how much time passed, but we eventually arrived at a small dock which upon disembarking led to a quaint village filled with high peaked thatched huts. Kevin told us he had grown up in a small village, not unlike this one and he seemed very familiar and friendly with all those we came into contact with. At one point he stopped to hand us each a piece of fruit. It was unlike any I have seen before or since, dark reddish-brown in color, about the size of a large walnut. The skin of the fruit was more akin to scales, under which a deep yellow fleshy fruit waited to be enjoyed. It was sweet but not to excess similar perhaps in taste to starfruit, but Kevin had not led us here simply to enjoy a piece of fruit.
Aguaje fruit, native to the Amazon palm tree, who knew!?
This was the entrance of a butterfly sanctuary, with the goal of retaining a portion of the unique biodiversity of the rainforest. Due to habitat destruction, the butterfly population of specific species had fallen significantly. We spent time learning more about the unique and truly beautiful butterflies in their various stages of life. The chrysalis of one species truly looked like little chunks of gold. Our time at the sanctuary ended with us releasing butterflies into the wild.
Amazon butterfly chrysalis
After this, we headed back to the river and deeper into the jungle where we made our second stop, Monkey Island! This game preserve was an island filled with a wide variety of hundreds of monkeys that had been rescued from trafficking or trade and were in the process of learning how to return to the wild. They were never forced to interact with humans but could do so if they pleased. The most social, rambunctious, and mischievous of them were the Woolly Monkeys. A trio of them spent no time in learning that if I held my hand out a certain way it meant one of them could grab it and I would swing them toward their two friends allowing them to tackle each other playfully. It was a joyful game that lasted a bit over an hour before they were tired and decided that grooming my hair was far more entertaining. After returning to the boats, we headed back for dinner.
Um, T, you got a monkey on your back
Woolly monkey!
Dinner consisted of rice, vegetables, cassava, and a bit of undisclosed meat, which we would later learn was a large jungle rodent, which was, fortunately, cooked well done. We then returned to our hut to rest until our night hike began.
Headlamps fastened and gum boots snuggly on, we prepared in the dining hall for our night hike. Kevin led the way out, large machete in hand. We passed through the small clearing and found a small dirt path that entered the Jungle. In the clearing, you could hear and see flashes of light from a distant, but approaching thunderstorm.
As we left the clearing the jungle enveloped us. The path we followed diminished over time, the jungle was very much alive and loud with the sounds of shifting plants, birds calling to each other, the occasional ring of Kevin’s machete, and a strange, high pitch tink tink sound. The green and brown shades of leaves, vines, branches, and trunks inched closer against us the deeper we progressed. Soon the dirt path became a carpet of leaves, and my mind shifted to concerns about the various pit vipers that call the Amazon home, how easy it would be to step on one under a leaf or perhaps mistake it for a vine and try to push it aside to move forward. How easy it would be in this environment for anything of great or small size to approach our little trio was truly unnerving. The path had all but disappeared and no matter which direction I looked my eyes would be met with green and brown leaves less than a foot in front of them, and the tinking sound persisted all around us.
All the while the approaching storm had been closing the distance and now after about an hour of hiking it had arrived. It did not arrive as you might expect to experience a thunderstorm, we saw no lightning through the triple canopy of leaves above us, merely a momentary, dull illumination that strained to brighten the dark tones of green. The rain did not fall immediately to us, being forced to slowly find its way down through leaves it fell in heavy odd drops. The thunder could be heard, but even this seemed dampened by the leaves above. However, the volume of the jungle seemed to increase overall as the rain falling to impact the leaves generated almost a dull hum. This hum was still not enough to drown the noise of birds nor of the tinking sound that persisted around us still.
“What is that tinking sound?” I blurted out to Kevin. He lowered his machete and asked, “what tinking noise?” I was only forced to wait a few seconds before another tink sounded to our left a bit above our heads. “That!” I said. Kevin grinned and in an unconcerned, matter of fact, tone replied, “Oh, that’s just the scorpions.” He then returned to blazing through the undergrowth looking for interesting animals or insects to point out. He had previously pointed out a bullet ant, a tarantula, and a jungle rat (which generally have white markings around their eyes making them appear bespectacled. We actually thought the jungle rats were kinda cute).
Having hiked and camped many places, some more dangerous than others, T and I did not expect our night hike to be capable of producing a genuine fear in us. That night, wet with rain and sweat, muddy, surrounded by scorpions, with no clear knowledge of how to return to safety on our own, and imprisoned by the shifting jungle, we felt afraid. Not a panicky brief moment of fear, but a deeper fear something close to the soul of humanity, almost primordial. While the night was dark it revealed the immensity of our world and the vulnerabilities we all share. It was terrible but in a way, I felt more connected to others because of it.
Another hour of hiking brought us back around to the small clearing near where we had entered. The rain now fell full and heavy and the lightning and thunder could be clearly seen and heard. This was when I noticed the difference between inside and outside the jungle. We returned to our hut and fell asleep with the sounds of the thunder and the noises of the jungle still in our ears.
March 14th, 2020
We woke and headed off to the boat once more, Alfredo had spent the night asleep on the boat in his hammock with only a few mosquito repellant incense sticks burning around him. Still, he seemed reasonably rested and before long he had taken me, T, and Kevin down the river to meet a local tribe. Similar to our initial port, there was no discernible marker that I could detect which indicated where we should stop, but Alfredo seemed never to need one. He pulled our boat in close near a steep bank sheltered by trees with vines dipping into the water below and a small pair of native tribe boys appeared and led the way across a narrow plank bridge spanning a swampy little ravine.
The “bridge”
There the rest of the tribe appeared, wearing very little clothing made of leaves and some of red fabric they had traded for. They were generally short, with the chief being among the tallest the top of his head only reached about the height of the bottom of my ears, putting him around 5’ 5” (165 cm) at best. Here we sat with the tribe and were quite promptly present with a pair of sloths to hold. T got the boy sloth and she and the children of the tribe fed him leaves. I received the girl sloth and also fed her leaves. As she reached for the leaves, I noticed her long nails had been painted with green nail polish, a humorous reminder that no matter where they are from, most little girls seem to enjoy painting nails and dressing things up. After feeding our sloths, we held them or rather they hugged us as we learned a welcoming dance of the tribe which we then performed with them. The sloths did not seem to mind either way and simply held on for the ride.
Sloth hugs!
After the dance, the chief taught me to use one of their blow guns to hit a target carved into a tree (sadly in the shape of a sloth. Fear not, their sloth pets were loved and well taken care of). I shot and hit the target a little low and to the right. Then I shot again, once more I hit the target but was a bit high from the center. T appeared next to the chief and still holding her sloth gestured to the chief (who spoke only his native tongue) that she would like to try. He quickly handed her the blowdart gun which was already loaded with a long thin dart. T, without waiting for instruction, took aim, fired, and hit the dead center of the target. The look of surprise and admiration on the chief’s face makes me laugh to this day. He looked from the target and back to T, then recomposing himself, gave her the head nod of approval as she handed him back the blowdart gun and returned to the rest of the tribe gathered under a large open-sided hut.
We stayed with them for another hour or so and lamented that we could not support them the way we wanted to by purchasing more of their wares which consisted of bracelets, handcrafts, and blowdart guns. I especially would have liked the blowdart guns as they were beautifully made and decorated; however, we did each purchase a small bracelet. We learned while we were with them that they were a native Amazon tribe which had originally had lived further north in the Amazon, but had been forced to flee south to where they currently lived due to a tribal conflict with a rival Amazon tribe of cannibals which were supported by drug-running guerrilla organizations. This explained the poke and stick tattoo of an AK-47 the chief had on his right upper arm. The chief had clearly seen some things.
After leaving the tribe, we went to a different part of the river to spend the afternoon piranha fishing. Using bits of the leftover jungle rodent from dinner the night before, we baited hooks which were attached to the fishing line with wire so the piranha would not be able to bite through it. The fishing line was attached to simple wooden sticks which gave the whole experience the feeling of an old-time movie. We fed a good number of piranha before finally catching one. I was the fortunate one and caught a good-sized piranha which we had later that night for dinner! That night was not a memorable one after our piranha feast and I cannot recall much.
Piranha fishin’
It’s a Piranha!
All cooked and ready to eat, it looked real angry about it, but it was delicious!
March 15th, 2020
The next morning we said goodbye to our hut and left very early to look for the Amazon’s pink dolphins. We were fortunate and were able to see a few before heading back to Iquitos. The journey back to Iquitos took 4 hours. Then after saying our farewells to Kevin and Alfredo, we took a tuk tuk to the airport and said goodbye to the Amazon basin.
Our plane landed in Lima, we quickly found our hostel and were joyful to shower and clean up a bit. After refreshing ourselves we set off to explore Lima. Being a Sunday, many of the sights we wanted to see were closed which added to T’s frustration when she received notice that our flight (originally booked for 5 pm the following day) had been moved to 8 am. We had hoped to spend half the day exploring and seeing the things which were closed to us on Sunday. So, after minimal exploration, we returned to our hostel to spend the remaining part of the day in the commons area. It was here, in the restaurant/bar area, that I was working on updating our pictures and blog.
Now, we had heard about Covid-19 and knew that it was serious. At this point, Italy was in bad shape and the US had closed air traffic from there. We had friends that were concerned, but nothing had been mentioned or even seemed to be hinted at during our time in South America regarding quarantine or border closures. I mean nothing.
Blissfully unaware of what was about to occur I typed happily at my corner table. People ate, drank, talked, and enjoyed the soccer game playing on the TV immediately behind me. It was just after 8:30 pm and things had remained completely normal. Then the TV cut away from the soccer game.
There was a moment of silence before I heard the voice trying very hard to sound at once forceful and reassuring. I stopped mid-sentence and closed the laptop. T gave me a meaningful look as I swivelled around in my seat. There on the TV I saw an older man in a suit with a red tie speaking behind a podium. My Spanish isn’t great, I only caught about 1/4 to 1/3 of exactly what was said, but it was more than enough to know it wasn’t good. Observing the shocked faces of those in the common area confirmed my hunch, but I wanted to get the details, so T and I walked over to the bartender and asked him for exactly the details of what just happened. He replied the country was closing its borders and everyone would be in mandatory quarantine starting at midnight…less than 3 and a half hours away at this point.
I jumped back to our table and grabbed the laptop. T and I had instantly agreed without words to make a desperate run for the border. Within 15 minutes we had packed, had paid the hostel (though we nearly forgot this on the way out) and were in a taxi on the way to the airport with all the speed our remaining Peruvian money could buy. I don’t recall exactly how much I gave the driver, but it was well over his requested amount. He drove quickly and we arrived to the airport in good time. Luck remained on our side as our driver knew of a side pedestrian entrance to the airport. He stopped and told us in broken English to walk and communicated that it would be faster to do so. We complied.
As soon as we passed through the gate from the street we understood. The main entrance for cars as well as the entire dropoff zone was a mess of cars and people in panic. I saw some people running over the tops of cars to get through and closer to the airport. It was mayhem. I have never seen an airport like that and hope to never see it again in my life.
We were among the first group to arrive at security, suddenly grateful our flight had been moved earlier, T suggested we use our existing tickets to get through security and rebook tickets for sooner inside the terminal and by doing so skip the ever-growing line of people attempting to rebook outside of security. It was a solid plan. T was able to get through security by showing her ticket for the next morning. I was not. My TSA agent refused to allow me to enter even though T had already passed through. I told T to go on ahead and just get us tickets to anywhere outside of Peru. I waited for another hour and a half before the resolve of my TSA agent dissipated enough that she finally let me enter. It was clear T went rogue and wasn’t coming back.
After finding T, I learned that Peruvian terminals did not have the ability to book or change tickets once through security. T had visited every airline gate with a flight out that night and none of them had the technology to sell a ticket. So, she had also been trying to call the airlines to rebook but could not get through due to long wait times and also had attempted to book online, literally every airline website had crashed due to the panic. Eventually, resigning to defeat we moved to the 24-hour lounge, which would be closing at midnight (less than an hour away at this point) to grab a final meal before figuring out what to do next. I decided around 11:30 pm it made the most sense to find the US embassy in Peru and make our way there. Upon checking their website I found a statement which read something like this; The border for all incoming traffic to Peru is closing at midnight; however, any outbound aircraft of a foreign nation will be permitted to leave until midnight tomorrow.
This meant that if our plane had already landed and didn’t belong to Peru, it would still go out in the morning as originally planned. We checked the flight boards to find that our flight had not been canceled and still showed as on schedule. Hope burned in us as the night dragged on. The lounge closed at midnight, so we moved to the chairs by our gate and tried to rest some without success.
March 16th, 2020
The following morning, our flight was there and began boarding on schedule. With great relief, we boarded found our seats and uttered a sigh of relief. That is until the pilots and flight crew huddled together at the front of the plane and spoke in hushed tones with worried looks all exited the plane…without telling anyone anything. After what felt like an eternity they returned. Then left again. Then returned again. Meanwhile, the plane filled more and more until it was completely full. Finally, two hours late, the plane took off and we landed safely in Chile.
Upon arriving at the Chilean airport lounge, we learned that Chile would also be closing its borders in 48 hours time. A few hours later, we received news that our ship bound for Antarctica would not be sailing. It was at that moment, T and I looked at each other and knew that it was time to find the next cheapest flight back to the United States. At least the Chilean lounge had unlimited free and high-quality, delicious wine :/
So ended our first attempt to travel the world, but the adventure didn’t stop there. T’s next post will fill in the gaps that led to the relaunch of our travels in June of 2022.
The final entry of the Amazon, BC (Before Covid).
Below is the final entry I (G) was in the middle of writing in the restaurant/bar area of our hostel in Lima, Peru about our time in the Amazon during our original attempt to travel the world…in 2020. I will add an additional entry to summarize the happenings immediately after this entry:
March 13 - Friday the 13th! Time to head into the Amazon! We woke and had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Then the doorbell rang; it was our ride. We grabbed our bags and hopped in the car. We drove to the office of our tour company, where we sorted out the final details of our tour and sized out boots for the night hike. Yes, the night hike... in the Amazon... more on that later.
Having made the final arrangements, we headed off once more to the market of Iquitos, which would be the launching point for our boat. Our senses were assaulted with every variety of stimuli. The sights, smells, and sounds of the market are difficult to describe with full accuracy, but I will make a brief attempt here.
The buildings were up on stilts, painted a patchwork of bright colors, on tables or spread in bowls were every edible or partially edible thing drawn out from the depths of the surrounding jungle. Fruits of every kind many of which I had never seen or heard of before. Root vegetables, mostly cassava or "jungle potatoes" whatever they are, as well as a variety of leafy greens. The selection of meats ranged from the most basic chicken to Caiman and large grubs, the size of a normal person's big toe, which were impaled and barbequed on sticks. The ground was a mix of broken concrete and rough-cut wooden planks. The space for walking was tight and littered with random bits of trash in places, everything from parts of animals to plastic bags and bottles had accumulated at the edges. The sound of people arguing over prices, calling out their wares, the thwack of knives cutting through food and stopping in wooding boards, the drone of small boat engines, and the sizzle of fires for cooking were all present. The air was thick with humidity and filled with smoke from the barbeques, with a hint of gasoline wafting in from the long narrow wooden boats docked nearby. It was in one of these boats which we would venture further into the jungle and off the beaten path.
Homes and river boat heading out of Iquitos.
We followed our guide, Kevin a small young man of slight frame with dark black hair cut short, dark eyes, and a bright smile. He led us through the market to a turquoise and blue boat. An older man, Alfredo, was at the stern of the boat and worked the small Yamaha engine with the expert skill of a well-practiced hand. Alfredo navigated through the maze of other boats and out away from Iquitos.
Tricia, Kevin, & Alfredo in our boat.
As the motor hummed, we moved swiftly with the main current of the amazon river. It was flood season and the river while not at its zenith had still thrown off the normal limitations of the main channel and in doing so swept up trees and plants which now floated down along the way with us. After about an hour and a half without any sort of discernable signpost or marker, we turned into a narrow inlet. Alfredo cut the engine, and we drifted in silence towards an unknown port.
The unknown port.
A moment or two more, and it became clear where the boat was headed. A tree with a few wooden planks and a semblance of a path appeared through the jungle. The boat drifted perfectly into place to allow the bow to sink into the mud just to the right of the tree where it could be tied in place.
Our little boat
After the boat had been secured in place, we hopped off onto the dirt path with our packs on, prepared to explore! We found a little way up the path, a raised and covered wooden walkway, this led us past jackfruit, wild mango, and a myriad of other trees, vines, and shrubs to varied to be recorded here. The air became heavier with humidity and the heat more intense as any thought of a breeze vanished in the thick vegetation that enveloped us. We found, at the end of the walkway, a screened dining hall. The hall was to be the launching point for our excursions. It had a very high ceiling, as if
(This is where the soccer game in the background cut to the Peruvian President and everything changed)
Down time in Cusco.
March 9 - We woke late and took our time checking out of Gaia house hostel. It was a pleasant sunny morning and we enjoyed the free breakfast to its fullest. After packing our things we checked out of Gaia house and promptly marched down the street, past the square, down a winding road and when the road ended in a set of stairs we scaled the steps, our muscles slightly sore from the mountain climb the day before. Down a little side alley was our new accommodation in Cusco, Tricia had originally planned this to be our regrouping accommodation after we had trekked hard for 4 days, so naturally it was a little more luxurious than normal. We checked in and found our room complete with a soaking tub. We lingered there for the remainder of the evening aside from a brief venture out to retrieve some papa rellenas to satiate T's ever-present hunger.
March 10 - We woke at 5 am to venture down to the main square in hopes of capturing a few photos without being heckled or having crowds of people in them. We succeeded and then after a brief nap, ventured out to the San Pedro market. The place was alive and buzzing with merchants peddling their wares. Everything from meats and vegetables to fine leather goods were present in some form or fashion. T found a much needed black leather belt and I spotted a small trinket that I would need to spend some time deliberating on.
After this, we began a ridged search for a matador freerain 24L 2.0 (an amazing packable daypack, which I highly recommend) to replace my long-loved Katmandu daypack. Sadly, we did not find one. Resolving instead to make do with our current damaged pack (the top seam had separated and had spread between the main straps of the pack) until we could acquire the freerain pack. We then enjoyed a marvelous lunch at the Inca Grill and spent the remainder of the day planning and working in the coziness of our new accommodation.
March 11 - We slept in late and enjoyed a late breakfast, we returned to the San Pedro market to claim the trinket I decided I wanted after all. We also decided to try out one of the many lunch options within the market. To our delight, it was only five Soles each (about $1.50) and included an appetizer and full entree. We both chose the quinoa soup and lentils with salad, rice, and a fried egg. Otherwise passed the day away in comfortable, boring fashion in our room, in-spite of the world declaring the Coronavirus a pandemic.
March 12- We again slept in a little, enjoyed breakfast, and then, after feeling fully recovered from our hike, packed our belongings and checked out of our small hotel. We had contemplated venturing forth again that morning, but sleep had overruled out plan. We waited for a half-hour or so before catching an Uber to the airport. Once there we checked in and enjoyed the Cusco lounge until our flight to Iquitos departed.
As we departed Cusco, I reflected on the small city. It was, though small, one of my favorite cities visited during this trip so far. A pleasant breath of quaintness mixed with a thriving center. It was clean, safe, and the people were warm and welcoming.
From the plane, we could see the landscape change from highland mountains to dense jungle. In the distance, we could see thunderstorms and swaths of rain. It was therefore not surprising that shortly after we landed a roll of thunder rang out and it began to rain. Fortunately, T had arranged for a ride to be waiting to transport us to our hotel in Iquitos. We quickly found our way to the car and in a short while were bouncing along the broken asphalt roads towards our hotel. All around were moto-taxies, swarming like mechanical insects.
Only slightly bigger than a tuk-tuk of Asia, the moto-taxis consisted of the front portion of a honda motorcycle and the rear was a retrofit pair of motorcycle tires wide enough for two or three people to sit abreast and usually a small luggage area behind them. Due to the heavy amounts of rain, they were covered and in place of a windshield the drivers would use clear or colored tarps which they would drop just below their eyes, thus allowing them to see over them. To prevent the tarps from wrapping around them they used a stick at the top and bottom of the tarp. These moto-taxies varied in color and vehicle parts in almost every way imaginable but generally adhered to this basic practical format. The roaring of their engines when a light turned green made us feel like we were in the first wave of a motocross event.
Fortunately, in spite of the wild driving and sudden maneuvers of the moto-taxis, our driver made his way to our hotel where he opened the garage and parked. We then met our host and realized our hotel was more akin to a homestay than a normal hotel. This suited us just fine. The room was clean, comfortable, and most importantly air-conditioned. It was now late in the day, and pouring rain, so we turned in for the evening.
- G