The Amazing Dawdle

Our Last Say: The End to the Amazing Dawdle... for now!

2010-11-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

Sydney, Australia
Wow…. It’s over! We have a hard time believing that the trip has finally come to an end. We have dawdled since July of 2009, and logged in 33 countries. The trip has taught us a lot about long term travel, the world and our personal likes and dislikes. We’ve both loved and disliked parts of the trip, but never regret leaving Chicago to travel round the world. Some people thought we would never do it, others thought we were crazy, some looked down on us (yes, um, we’re not settling down), and the rest praised us for having the guts to live the dream. Life is for living, and doing what you want to do --- as long as you can pay for it!

We’re happy we took the Amazing Dawdle, but we’re also glad the trip is ending, as this vagabond lifestyle can’t go on indefinitely. We loved traveling, new cultures and foods, and meeting new people. We also realized what we personally like to visit/see at a destination, not necessarily what the guidebooks tell you. Our preference was walking the cities/streets/parks, sampling local cuisine, and observing life at cafes, not waiting endlessly to get into a museum or cathedral.

Would we do it again? Well, we would not do another trip in the same manner for a few reasons. Near the end of the trip (especially getting through the tricky driving in Eastern Europe), it became more of a travel marathon. The need for different gear for different parts of the world was a challenge --- like arriving in freezing Patagonia with no cold weather gear! Contrary to what we planned, it was not always summer where we visited. We’d also spend more time in the type of places we like – the beach and the mountains. Sometimes too many adventurous places in a row would leave us drained (Vietnam to India to Egypt!), and our preference was a more luxurious mode of travel (please no more overnight buses with no TP or hand soap!). In the future, we would break it down by area: the Pacific Northwest/Rocky Mountains/Great Plains by car; South America, but we’d travel with practically nothing that we would not want to part with; Europe, but see more of our favorites – and new favorites - in the Mediterranean; and Asia, with enough empty luggage for all the souvenirs (haha).

With every country notch in our belt, we learned as a couple how to make the travel work for us. Travel is not easy on a relationship, but has made us even stronger. We’ve seen each other at best and worst (celebrating with friends in Germany over the World Cup wins … and curled in a fetal position on a 5 star hotel bathroom floor in Egypt), just like our marriage vows. We still yelled at each other over stupid things like directions, but laughed over the funnier parts of the trip, like seeing the Naked Tan Man, and challenged each other, like rappelling in Argentina.

Everyone always ask what our favorites were… so here are our thoughts (in no specific order as we ourselves could not agree on an order):
1. Seeing all the wildlife in America’s National Parks
2. Microbrews in Montana and Colorado; wine tasting in Oregon
3. Rappelling in Argentina
4. “Bats in a snow globe” in Hervey Bay, Australia
5. Sitting on a bus and watching the world go by, sans electronics/TV. We recall being in awe as we zoomed down highways in Patagonia and watched the weather change to snow, or driving over the bridge from Singapore to Malaysia to find palm trees as far as the eye could see – for miles on end
6. Our amazing vegetarian meal at the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong
7. Whale watching in Puerto Madryn, Argentina – without getting sea sick!
8. Xmas celebration in Talca, Chile, in a town now sadly affected by the massive earthquake
9. Snorkeling at Ko Phi Phi, Thailand in a long tail boat --- with a crazy captain who we thought would sink the boat or get us killed with the incoming storm
10. Careening through the Goan countryside in India with Sunil our young cab driver while listening to “Africa” by Toto and “Do you Believe?” by Cher
11. Finding the “end of the road” where all the cars were driving to in Bansko, Bulgaria and eating in the mountain valley at a small tavern, where we had a perfect grilled pepper salad, a deep fried whole block of feta cheese, a local massive sausage, and grilled toast!
12. Driving in Scotland through the amazing Cairngorm National Park, while listening to Amy McDonald’s haunting CD (over and over) which fit the stark landscape, since there was no radio reception
13. Eating delicious French bread stuffed with chorizo/tomato and tomato/chevre in Paris while propping ourselves up on a bridge over the Seine on Il de St. Louis, admiring Notre Dame
14. Any beach in Hawaii!

We had some pretty amazing food and beverages on the trip, and without a doubt, we’d head to Argentina for empanadas, malbec wine, dulche de leche, and steaks; chicken tikka in India (where we never got sick – amazing!); Woolgoolga, Australia for some of the best pizzas on the beach; amazing grilled sausages in Germany; manchego cheese, tortilla espanola and a rose wine in Spain; any cantina for seafood in Greece; avocados in Chile; ghoulash in Romania; bison burgers in the Rocky Mountains in the U.S., wherever our friend Biaggio is for his excellent Sicilian cooking, and kahlua pork in Hawaii. Our favorite cuisine? We had so much good food in Vietnam (also thanks to the Vietnam Home Restaurant), that it was amazing we LOST weight in Asia. Christy is still figuring out how she could have the best potato salad of her life at a small café in Ho Chi Minh City.

And there were some trip disappointments along the way – Lima/Peru will remain a huge $$%^$# for us, we still can’t figure out why the Egyptian food made us sick all the time, driving was trying in Bulgaria and Romania, and Hungary did not meet our expectations (except for the Eger wine region!). But, on the flipside, we were completely surprised by places like North Dakota (Roosevelt National Park) and Idaho (famous for more than just spuds), Bulgaria, Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City!

We also could not have had as much fun along the way without meeting up with some really special people: Terry and Greg in Seattle – too much fun at a baseball game despite us rooting for the Chgo White Sox!; Misti and Jonathan in Portland for such a great time, and amazing wine and food; Nicci and Phil (and Pliner!) who met up with us in the beginning of our trip in S. Dakota; John for taking us on an exciting kayaking trip in Idaho; Karen and Russ, for a wonderful Chicago send-off; all our Chicago friends and family who came to our going-away parties; Doug and Jen – for coming from the farthest to say goodbye (and leaving the baby at home to do so!); Anne and Sean for wonderful dinners in Miami; Lucy and Pancho for amazing tours and veggie food in Santiago; Graham for some English kinship, good laughs and beer in Argentina; James, Mel and Baby Em – for always making us feel at home in London; our G. clan in New Zealand for putting us up and putting up :) with us over the holidays and to Denise and Phil for renting a house with us in Coja; Brett, Marnie, Hudson and James for a relaxing stay in Brissie, we’ll never think the same about a rubbish truck again; John and Lynn for bringing our AUS stuff back to NZ; Kittima in Hua Hin for becoming such a good friend during our stay; Rob and Vicky in Ko Lanta – for that welcome beer and a week of laughs and advice; Dang at Vietnam Home Restaurant in Mui Ne for some of the most amazing food, friendship, and a chance at fleeting fame on Vietnamese TV; Ika and Marianna for showing us Lisbon in a whole new light; Stu and Sarah for their UK hospitality right before they left for their round the world trip and then meeting up with us in Romania; Gloria and Biaggio for their warm welcome in Cologne, watching the World Cup in Kolsch style, and B’s amazing cooking; Maike and Andi for an awesome time in Ulm and one of the craziest nights on our trip (along with a special shout-out to Tina, Matt and Katerina!); Jonathon and Judit for a one day stomp through Vienna and the amazing Romanian grilled meats; John and Nadia in Greece for an amazing stay and great olive oil mmmmmm….; our new friends from Harmony Hills, Bulgaria (Don!) and from the Paris Hilton (Linda and Scott!); and lastly, Colleen and Dragan, who met up with us on their honeymoon in Sydney, for an amazing – wet – day and fun night out! Our time with old and new friends, and those we met on the road, really enriched our trip and made it very special. Thanks again! We hope we can show you the same hospitality when you come and visit! Lastly, we thank our friends and readers who provided the funniest responses/suggestions on our Facebook blog postings (Heath, think you may be the tops on that), as well as your support, emails, and letting us feel “in touch” with the rest of the world.

So for now, wheels down and time to carve out a new life in New Zealand!

XOXOXO,
Christy and Marcus

Hawaii: How do you spend 5 weeks in Hawaii?

2010-10-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Oahu and Maui, Hawaii, USA

So we finally arrived, jet lagged, in Hawaii. Yep, we know, don't cry for us Argentina.... it did take us a week to finally get over waking up in the middle of the night and being awake for several hours. Not fun. Our plans had us staying on Oahu for a few weeks, in lieu of China, since we could not get our Chinese vistors visa. So, we first stayed in Waikiki, where we had a 34th floor hotel room with a million dollar view. Thank you Hilton! While there, we hiked to the top of Diamond Head, shopped, laid out at the pool, walked the main streets, ate tons of Subway, sushi and local foods like salmon burritos and poke, and shopped some more. We also indulged in a new favorite called Teddy's Bigger Burgers, where they have amazing food, and tried kahlua pork, which made Christy so happy that she was not a vegetarian any more (it was pure meat magic)!

Then we moved to a VRBO rental on the west side of the island on Makaha Beach, which was literally 15 steps from a small beach, which we had to ourselves most days. The best thing about this was that there was a tidal rock pool that formed a natural "pool" which was protected from the waves. While here, we also cooked our own food (hello turkey tacos!), went to the Waikele Outlet Mall, and washed our own clothes in a real laundry machine.

Then, we were off to Kailua, on the east side of the island, where we had another VRBO rental one block away from one of the so-called "best beaches in America." It turned out to be the windward side of the island, and we had lots of winds, some

grey skies and occasional rainshowers. That being said, it's a great place to relax (heck, the President just announced HE'S even going back to rent a house there again this Christmas!) and chill out on the miles long beach. We loved our morning bike rides to see the beaches, the cool oceanside Lanikai Beach homes, the Lanikai Juice company (fresh smoothies), grilling out every night for dinner and even took a ride along the beautiful coast to eat amazing pizza at Kona Brewing Company. We also took a drive up to the North Shore, but we saw only minor waves.

Then, it was back to Waikiki, where we had our inital nights' reservations (which was booked pre-Chinese visa issues), and where we were upgraded to a penthouse suite on a high floor with an amazing private deck and sun loungers! Needless to say, we moved very little from the deck. While on Oahu we also indulged in some awesome shopping (love the Macy's sales) and hit every Costco on the island.

And then off to Maui! We stayed at one of our favorite beaches called Napili, where we seemed to hit a bad spate of misty weather and high winds. The upside of this was that the waves were amazing - we have never seen them that high before on Maui. We also found some time for awesome runs up into Kapalua (especially the trail runs on the Kapalua Coastal Trail), shopping, reading several novels, and checked out the Maui Brewery, which had amazing beers! After a few weeks on the islands, we just love the vibe here and can't wait to come back!

Next Up: The Final Blog

Japan: Sensory overload, crazy fashions and more salmon!

2010-10-18T00:28:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Japan (via Beijing, China)
Our next flight had us on edge - since we were unable to obtain our Chinese visas in Europe (since we were away from our home countries) - we were forced to change our itinerary to fly through China to Tokyo. Obtaining a Chinese visa is challenging - you should not book a ticket without obtaining your visa first, which can only be obtained 90 days in advance of your departure date... in your own country. Additionally, the cost is about $135 USD/visa. Changing our ticket meant additional time in Hawaii at the end of our trip - so we were not too disappointed! Our flight check in was easy and the competent Finn Air staff assured us that the information about our transfer and the directly checked baggage was sent directly to Beijing staff. Our flight was close to 8 hours long (overnight), and we still did not have our boarding passes for the next day's late afternoon flight. Our confidence was questionable....as you can imagine. During the flight, the captain announced we would be flying through both Russian and Chinese flight space. We both looked at each other, slightly creeped out! Upon landing, we were amongst the first to de-plane, saw a ground crew staff as soon as we walked out, and asked for traveler assistance. The agent walked us to the front of the line for the transfer desk, and the desk agent called JAL for assistance. No more than 30 minutes later, we were passport stamped and processed, walked through transfer immigration, were re-screened and were back in the international terminal. We proceeded to the lounge, where we slept off part of the 8 hour layover! We even tried the local Chinese food and some Chinese wine and beer. Our flight to Tokyo was aboard a 737, and it was ridiculous how good the service was! We could not get over it; you would have thought we were Mr. and Mrs. Trump. We landed on time in the early evening, passed through security, and were at our airport hotel and asleep within 90 minutes! What a travel day... a full 27 hours in transit.

After fitful "jetlag" sleep, we woke up early, had breakfast, and took the shuttle back to the airport to catch a train to downtown Tokyo. The NEX - Narita Airport Express - cost us $132.05 USD round trip, and Marcus found a great package online that included Tokyo Metro credit and a return ticket on NEX! NEX was really easy to use, although you had to know that the train split about halfway to downtown Tokyo. The NEX train has labels on the platform with what train car you take, based on if it is a split train or not. Your seat is pre-assigned and they even have luggage locks for you to lock your bags at both ends of the train! Once downtown, there were a few things we picked up on really quickly. First, the weather was warm and balmy! It was quite humid and in the low 80’s with semi-sunshine! We were so happy to have warm weather where we could wear shorts. However, as fast as we put on shorts, we realized we were totally on the fashion outs. Fashion in Japan is serious business, and despite arriving on Sunday afternoon in Japan (which we thought would be weekend casual), it was anything but! Weekends turned out to be the prime time to show your style. Men in skinny jeans strutted with pointy alligator shoes and long spikey hair; women had so many different fashions it was crazy …. Some wore dresses like Little Bo Peep, goth looks, some had massive booties with fur, and others wore the fashion “must have,” which were semi-sheer black stirrup pants worn with heels or flats. The weather also tended to have passing showers and everyone had the same clear plastic golf umbrellas. The weird thing was when the sun did come out, no one wore shades!

Our first day there, we took in the sights of the local Shinjuku neighborhood/train station, which was an amazing sight to see. Everyone promenaded around the streets since they were closed to traffic since it was Sunday. It seemed as if each shop facing the station was vying for customers with different tactics – singing girls, karaoke, megaphones… it was a sensory overload. We also found how to seek out good food – go down the side alleys. We found our sushi nirvana near the Shinjuku station this way – and had lunch at a sushi train restaurant! Yes, they all shouted when we walked in, but we expected that! We could not get over that we spent about $15 USD for a fresh sushi lunch with fresh seafood – tuna, salmon and cooked salmon. Amazing! This also continued the theme of having salmon again every day.... Closer to the station, there was a small smoky lane where all the small bars were selling yakitori (we think?), which were grilled meats and veggies on small skewers roasted over these teeny grills. Walking down the small alley was a total fluke, and we were sorry we had just eaten. We can still see the dark smokey alley with Japanese lanterns hanging across the narrow alley and smell the wonderful grill aromas - wish we would have had more time --- or bigger stomachs!

Our second day there, we decided to go a bit further afield, and walked to the Meiji Jingu shrine, a Shinto shrine, which is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken (their tombs are in Kyoto), who passed away in 1912 and 1914. Over 100,000 trees were donated from across Japan – and the world – to commemorate their passing and to create the shrine and surrounding forest. After 90 years of growth, the forest is said to be indistinguishable from a natural forest, and it actually harbors many endangered plants and animals. Sure enough, we walked through the northern end of the forest and it was so peaceful, you could hear the bird calls. It was gorgeous, and we really enjoyed seeing the park, especially the little seen area where we were, amazing considering we were in the middle of the city. That afternoon, we transversed all the way through Shibuya (home of the diagonal crosswalks), and Harijuku (similar to the Haight in San Fran), walking straight from 9am-5pm.... without really stopping. We were wiped!

Our last day in town we took it easy and decided to head for the shopper’s mecca of Ginza and mastered the Tokyo Metro to get there. We thought the metro would be really challenging to use – but it was so simple. Directions were color coded by metro line, in English, and the metro line’s directions (N, S, E or West) were straightforward. Additionally, on the train, there was a map lit up above the metro doors with an arrow as to which direction the train was heading, which would blink as you headed towards the next station. Even your exit and entrance was carefully controlled – there was a barricade so you could not get close to the tracks – and as the train stopped, the barrier doors would open. Once we exited at the Ginza stop, the Sony Building (which was supposed to be the mecca for techies) was located right across the road. Sony fell flat for Marcus, and Christy was pretty bored. Following the disappointing Sony experience, we took a stroll through the neighborhood, marveling at all the shopping. En route, we passed a small park, where all the Japanese businessmen were out for a luncheon stroll. It was quite warm and sunny, and we noticed how many of them had handkerchiefs they used to wipe their foreheads with. From there we went to the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Unfortunately, the Imperial Palace is closed to the public, except for two days during the year. However, you are able to stroll through a small part of the gardens area, and admire the massive moat with just as massive carp patrolling the waters. We watched as one senior fed the fish leaves from a nearby tree – and the fish were jumping up out of the water to get the leaves!

Our last day there turned out to be pretty short by the time we went to the station to book our return NEX tickets and get lunch. However, en route to the hotel we were stopped by a young woman who interviewed us for a Japanese radio station! Yes, this would be the 3rd time on the trip we were interviewed! Our last lunch was this amazing green colored bread roll made with with spinach, cheese, seaweed and walnuts, plus several different types of gyoza. Really, we could not have eaten better in Japan!

We really liked Japan and what we saw. We were indeed a bit nervous at the outset of this trip leg that we would find Japan difficult to understand and navigate. Japan turned out to be easy and a breeze. Sure, perhaps outside of Tokyo we may have encountered more of a challenge, but Tokyo allowed us to get a good feel for the country. We were also surprised by the prices of things – we incorrectly assumed that food prices would be really expensive. However, we found that lunches were particular good value ($10 USD and under) at restaurants, where they had specials of the day. Additionally, the food courts presented good value – you could see what you were ordering off the steam trays or in the to-go plastic containers. That being said, transportation costs are high. The people of Japan were so nice – helpful customer service, polite, and friendly – even down to the stooped senior who smiled at our difficulty in trying to get through the train turnstile and pointed us where to go. Everything in Japan was simple and orderly – and in a way it really felt like Germany. Everything worked, people were friendly and respectful, and it was just a feel-good place.

Next Up: Hawaii!

Finland and Estonia: Salmon Every Day, Sticker Shock, Cold and Fall Foliage

2010-10-08T18:02:00.001-07:00

Helsinki, Finland
We woke up early from our nice airport hotel, and were even able to get a full breakfast in that morning. From the Hilton Terminal 4 Heathrow, you were able to walk across a pedestrian tunnel and reach Terminal 4, where you could take a free train to the other terminals. It only left every 30 minutes, so it was somewhat of a pain. Our FinnAir flight was really good… we marveled at the good service we had onboard. The FinnAir business class section was like most European carriers – the middle seat was unoccupied –but they were still the same seats as coach, only we had linen and meal service. The flight was short, so we had our meal pretty quickly. Later, Christy would see the exact same mystery meat from her salad in the Helsinki Market Hall, which was labeled as …. reindeer!

We heard Finland was supposed to be the standard for above par European excellence; however, we disagree. Getting through immigration was ridiculous - it took us about 45 minutes. The next sign that Finland was not up quite to those standards was that the airport bus was perpetually delayed! We did note a curious thing though, many of the men looked like they belonged in the band the Proclaimers, a popular act in the 90’s. We kept singing “dadaadadadadadad umdiddlydiddlydiddly dadadadadaadadada. I would walk 500 miles....” A lot of the men also had facial hair (not the Proclaimers ones) – we guessed since it was always so cold up there!

One morning, we were up earlier than normal to work out and caught an amazing sunrise – we have not seen such a picturesque sunrise in months. With the approaching seasonal changes, we also noticed that the sun rose later and set earlier – making it hard for us since we like to rise with the sun and get up early. The same sun also had a different angle in the sky that really gave daylight a different spin – no matter what the time of day the sun always seemed to be an afternoon light. It was gorgeous, but the sunny days we were there, it made us feel tired!

Helsinki was a nice sized city, and from our hotel, we were able to walk everywhere. The first day we walked to the Market area, where they had both food (salmon paellas and sandwiches) and tourist items for sale. Finland sports many winter and wooden items (specifically juniper wood) for sale – gorgeous woolen scarves, patterned snowflake sweaters, stuffed bears, wooden spoons and beer steins. Christy really liked one cheese slicer made of juniper and metal – which had had the metal portion resembling a moose. It was adorable – but not for $18 USD! Everything was priced really high, and we wondered if it was the market itself or just Finland. We also saw the Buddy Bear Exhibit, which was placed in a plaza to promote peace and tolerance worldwide. The exhibit had large polar bears that 190+ countries had decorated, all standing in a large circle – taking up most of the plaza. We thought they were a riot – and they sure drew in the tourists. We sure wanted to also have our pictures taken with our respective country bears!

Our last day there, we woke up to cold and grey, and thus began our “wear everything warm you have” routine for the next few days. Christy wore thicker track pants, gymshoes, a long sleeved shirt, a fleece, a windbreaker, and her new Polish hat. Marcus wore his travel pants, a Tshirt, a long sleeved travel shirt, a sweatshirt, a windbreaker and scarf. Yes, and we were still freezing, especially with the howling winds. Despite this, we still decided to see more of the city. While walking through the park, we saw an interesting Finnish fashion – ABBA pants are apparently now in style (maybe they never left)! We walked around the city’s two lakes located downtown, and barely saw more than a few brave runners. Helsinki also has several famous wood old houses that resemble version of San Francisco’s “painted ladies” on the lakeshores’ rocky hills. We walked down the trails near the homes, and really enjoyed seeing all the leaves changing! That afternoon we caved in, and decided to have Subway. It was right across the road from our hotel, and was easy and sounded good. With the sinking dollar, and the high Finnish food prices, it cost us $20 USD to pick up two 6inch sandwiches + the soda and chips meal deal! Crazy!

Tallin, Estonia
Estonia – which we freely admit we had to look at a map to figure out where it is – is located on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, or about 60 km away from Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland. It’s also the smallest of the Baltic states, and borders Russia and Latvia. Apparently the country only has a population of 1.3 million – mainly ethic Estonians, although the country claims to have 26% of a Russian population. We were surprised to find out that forest covers about 40% of the country, and apparently (at least in two sources we read), wildlife is abundant, including wolves, bears, lynxes, boar, elk and otters. From our hotel, we walked to the Linda Lines terminal – and it was empty. This was a peculiar thing, since we were told to check in 1 hour early – and we were only 1:08 minutes out from the ferry departure time. We found the only agent on duty, who told us that the ferry was cancelled. She told us that we could catch the Viking Line; but that it left half an hour earlier at 11:30am, and that we only had 20 minutes to get to the other side of the bay to check in before they closed the gates. She said to take a cab – which was challenging since we barely had any euros left! So, off we ran/walked as fast as we could. No matter how light our packs were (we left our cases at the hotel and only took small backpacks each), it was hard work, especially as we had worked out earlier. Eventually we made it into the terminal with a few minutes to spare for check-in --- but we were sweat drenched. Luckily, we made it! Almost 30 minutes outside of Helsinki the sky became black with rain clouds. Luckily we did not feel the large waves that we saw overboard…we sat on the top "sun deck," but we guessed the large waves were the reason for the cancellation of the other ferry! Once we got a little closer to port, we took a walk through the boat to see what was happening. There seemed to be a lot of drunk Russians and other tourists around. Many people were dancing in one bar to a lounge singer, and others were listening to really bad karaoke.

Tallin’s claim to fame is the UNESCO World Heritage Status that it has been afforded (and yes, we realize that we have written about many of these lately). The city has taken steps to preserve their culture, and no building in Old Town is permitted to be taller than the St. Olav’s steeple. The city only has 400,000 people, but it feels quite big, although most of the activity seems to be centered in the Medieval Old Town Quarter. The city will also be the European Capital of Culture in 2011; we can vouch that the city does have a lot happening – ballets, concerts, opera – with a lot seeming to happen out of doors in the summer. Skype was also created in Tallin, or so the tout goes. We had also heard from some in Helsinki that the citizens of Helsinki actually take the ferries over to Tallin and have dinner and return – and it was still cheaper than dining out in Helsinki! Some of our reading also talked about the marauding that is done here – apparently it is cheaper for some country’s residents to come and sauna party here, giving the city a little bit of an unseemly reputation. We can say that there was a group of grey-haired Finns staying on our hotel floor having a very merry time - after we went to bed - and who were up for breakfast before we even were. Think the 80's movie Cocoon!

Tallin has some interesting slights, although you probably do not need 3 nights to see them like we had! We spent 2 1/2 days freezing on our walks around town, along with the few other tourists. We saw one large group of Russians, they were all huddled together – so it was not just us whining how cold it was! Tallin had a plethora of churches, including the Holy Spirit church and the St. Olav’s church, where the church was made of white stone and had the lowest chandeliers in a church we have seen! There was also the Cathedral of St. Mary (a Roman Catholic Church) that was oddly closed during the week, and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is the largest Russian Orthodox Church in western Europe. The old city used to be walled, so there are plenty of sights to see involving the wall, including the Great Coastal gate and Fat Margaret’s Tower (we never did get the naming reason there?), Tall Hermann’s tower, and the long walls of the tower, which still had several of the defense towers intact. We also saw the House of Parliament, which is perched up on a massive hill, and is in the middle of old town – what a view it must have! We were amazed that you could walk straight up to the gate – there was no security there (that we saw, that is). This neighborhood also had many of the ambassador residences and offices there, all in the open, also with no security fences. There was also a scenic overlook near here called the Troompea Castle Wall, which gave us a scenic panorama of the old town and the church spires, all the way out to the churning white capped sea. BRRRR. There were also the tourist stores in town, of which there were plenty, selling amber (not technically found in Estonia, but in other Baltic states), painted Russian dolls, linens, gorgeous alpine sweaters, juniper wood goods, viking hats, and some miniatures of houses and soldiers. We found it all to be incredibly overpriced and only bought two small things. We did enjoy the variety of liquor stores, however, (Helsinki only had the state-run stores) and were able to try a local specialty called Tallin Liquor, which was delicious! The town hall and square were really medieval looking – although there were the "Disney" themed restaurants on the perimeter that had the costumed staff in medieval outfits, Russian soldiers, etc. We skipped those. The remainder of the restaurants also seemed to be way overpriced and very empty since we were there on a weekday, not the weekend, and also at the very tail end of the tourist season. Main entrees cost upwards of $20 USD! We were floored, as even Rick Steves says Tallin is cheap on his online guide! We also found a few restaurants with interesting names, and one Depeche Mode themed bar.

Our return to Helsinki was a little nerve-wracking. Since we had confirmed that the Linda Line cancelled our first trip because the winds and storms, we were nervous about what to expect on our scheduled ride back. But we were re-assured once we walked in the early morning light to the Linda Line terminal. There were plenty of staff around, and a good amount of transiting passengers. Lucky for us, we were able to catch the sun rise through the clouds and picked up some gorgeous shots before the sun disappeared for the day in Tallin, a seemingly endless ROUTINE. The ferry ride return to Helsinki took us less than 80 minutes, there were no winds, and the boat even left on time!

Helsinki, Finland
Upon our arrival at 9:30am in Helsinki, we proceeded straight to our hotel. We were able to get a room at 9:40am, and we dropped off our bags, relaxed and went to the Market Hall for lunch. After a lot of deliberation, we went to a kebabs restaurant stall, where we ordered bread sandwiches stuffed with feta and beef gyros. We sat outside on the pier overlooking the bay to enjoy them, only to find out that the specialty Finnish bread was fried – like an American Indian fry bread. It was really greasy and one of the worst meals we'd had in a long time.

Following lunch, we went on a long walk around the bays to see the park and islands we had spotted from our ferry ride in. The sun was spectacular, and the foliage was breathtaking. We took a lot of great pictures with the fall sunlight and the trees in their full color glory. It was one of those days where we really liked being where we were.

We were really happy to have seen Helsinki with two really pretty sunny days - the city really seemed to sparkle with the good weather. We imagine it would be a great country to visit when the weather was warm. Exploring more of the country via car would also be quite cool, we imagined. Estonia was interesting, but expensive in Tallin and we wondered what the rest of the country held. We liked the breakfasts in both countries though - we had amazing lox every morning! We'll miss that. In the end, the cold weather was starting to get to us, and we both had colds from the chill. We left our cold weather clothing there, as we did not need it for the next trip legs!

Next Up: Tokyo, Japan!

Paris and London: Europe sans automobile

2010-09-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Paris, France
We were excited to get to France --- but on the same token, we were a little saddened to drop off our reliable – but somewhat annoying – Peugeot 207 SW. We loved having a car, but on the same token, we were getting tired of the driving. Rather, Marcus was getting tired of the driving stick shift, especially in traffic, and Christy was tired of not being able to help and drive, especially in Germany, where she could potentially drive realllll fast. She claims to have been scarred as a teen while trying to learn stick shift in the forest preserve, which is why she never mastered that skill.

We dropped off our car at the Auto Lease depot near the Charles de Gaulle airport. Our car tallied out at 9494 km… when we picked it up it only had 24km on the spedometer. So, it was quite a feat to drive thT far over 79 days! Luckily, the office also had a shuttle that took us to the RER station, which was outside one of the airport terminals. We bought our tickets to the city – which were all one price – a little under 8 euros for transit to the city centre. Unfortunately, the powers that be had decided that weekend was the best time to perform some rail upgrades, so we were shuttled onto a bus, and then dropped off at the next RER station. We had no idea what we were doing! We gradually worked it out that the RER was a light rail commuter line, which also had overlapping stations with the various Paris Metro stations. This is how we figured out we could transfer at the Gare du Nord station downtown. We were in the thick of the Gare du Nord station, and several Parisians also stopped to ask us if we needed help – talk about unexpected! As luck would have it, we would only need to transfer there, before reaching our final Paris metro line stop. About 15 minutes later, we were at our station, and only had to walk three blocks before reaching our hotel, the Hilton Arc de Triomphe. Don't bother staying there, it's a nightmare on every level - from snotty staff, to bad food, small rooms, to a horrid Exec Lounge. As much as we complained, we also had a great time in the Exec Lounge, where we met three fun couples from the U.S. We had a grand old time – and somehow always had more champagne bottles at our table when they cut off the free alcohol at 8:55pm! By the last night we were there, we found where the chintzy Hilton had hidden the spirits and tried armagnacs – delicious!

For those of you who have not been to Paris before, it is a really pretty city which it is why it is used in all of the romantic movies. However, it is also a city where you really do not neccessarily hear a lot of French being spoken due to the waves - and waves - of tourists walking around with their guidebooks tucked under their arms. Anything that is remotely famous in Paris has a line around the block --- and that you never see in the movies! What we like about Paris, however, is that there is so much more to see than just the famous sights. Walking the streets and boulevards you come across so many magnificent buildings, cafes, parks and shops. We walked many of the streets with no agenda, and just planned to visit a neighborhood, where you would soon be able to find where the hip macaroon shops were or where the REALLY good bakeries were. And that’s how we determined where we would eat each day --- we judged by the locals waiting patiently in line where we should eat. This ranged from crepes, to bakeries with chorizo/chevre stuffed bread, to sandwiches, and everything was divine! The one thing we still cannot figure out is how exactly people there stay so skinny…

So, what else did we do in Paris? We had a blast just walking the streets. We really liked our Sunday walk through St. Germain, Montparnasse, and the Latin Quarter. We covered a huge amount of ground, and our legs were killing us by the end of the day, since we just kept walking. Our stategy must have had us looking somewhat local (we never had guidebooks tucked under our arms) and with Marcus’ hat – we had several people ask us for directions! We saw so many neat little cafes, stores and found three small antique/flea markets. Paris is great on Sundays – although all the stores were closed both Saturday and Sunday! We also found a small festival promoting travel to the SE region of France right along the Seine river. It was so adorable – they were handing out bags of fresh produce and fruit from the region, and they had vendors selling artisanal foods – lots of foie gras, wines, breads, cheeses, sausages. It was wonderful – and then that’s when we decided the next time we come to France we’ll rent an apartment. Since we had a little much the night before in the Lounge, we did not buy a bottle of wine and sit on the edge of the Seine like many Parisians were doing. We were destined to keep walking. We then hit an amazing sight – we have no idea really what it was – some type of Brasilian festival in front of a large museum/monument. There were ladies dressed in massive bright hoop dresses, accompanied by men on drums who were singing and drumming. There were three policemen looking nervous and trying to control what seemed to be a large rapidly forming group – especially when we saw the large masses coming down the boulevard – there was a double decker bus that had a live band performing on it. It seemed to be a singer many people knew – they were all screaming with excitement! The bus had more walking drummers in front and behind, and eventually stopped at the monument/museum. We stopped for awhile and watched, not knowing what it ever was, but having fun in the moment.

Another day we spent shopping. We started off the day on the Champs Elysees – we had been there before and had a great time. Sadly, this time, we did not think it was the best shopping area. There seemed not to be as many shops, perhaps since we heard stores are charged exorbitant rental rates to have a shop located on the famous stretch. We did find some good shopping at Gap – but how silly would that have been when we’ll be in the U.S. soon?!? We then followed the Rue de St. Honore, which also had us walking down the equivalent of Oak Street in Chicago – all the VERY high end stores were located here. We had some pretty good people watching --- including watching a photo shoot outside Chanel. We also stumbled upon the President’s residence which was along this same stretch – who knew? No one seemed to be there lingering to take pictures like in the U.S. with the White House – but there were guards everywhere. We wished the Sarkozy’s well – they have enough drama going on with the retirement age and Roma issues at the moment. Vive le France we wanted to tell them!

Another day we wandered along to Notre Dame, taking a long meandering walk along the Seine to get there. We stopped to look at all the vendors selling items at the side of the river – and found some cute prints and posters – but we never made it back there for the funny vintage absinthe prints and posters. Notre Dame in the morning was a mob scene – there was a really long line to get into the church, and we could not imagine how long it would take to go to the top steeple. So having seen it, we took a bunch of pictures, including one of the crowds, and kept walking through the parks adjacent to the church. It was simply stunning in the bright sunshine, especially with all the fall foliage. Paris in the fall! We carried onto the Ile de St. Louis, which is a small island in the Seine connected to Notre Dame and the mainland by small footbridges. It had a lovely small main street, which was packed with small boutiques, shops, patisseries and bakeries. We had a good time wandering the small shops there, and found a few odds and ends to bring back with us! That afternoon, Christy went on a quest to find her Parisian shoes – she was looking for driving moccasins. She was unable to find any – which was a shame - to her, at least.

And then, it was off to London! We had pre-booked an Eurostar early morning departure a few weeks prior, and we obtained a really good price of about 33 euros each, which seemed reasonable to us for a fast connection to London in 2:20! Security at the Gare du Nord station seemed to be heavy – although we noted it is a major train station with both Eurostar and regional trains going everywhere. Check in for the Eurostar was easy and we were through pretty quickly. The ride was really smooth – and fast. Soon enough, we were in central London, and ahead again in time – and it was lunchtime!

London, England
Once we reached the St. Pancras station, we made a beeline for the London tube, which was connected to the Eurostar via a drop off point. We had been reminiscing for weeks about our next destination – the Gourmet Burger Station, which has several outlets in London. It was a restaurant dreamed up by a New Zealander, and has some of the best combinations of burgers we have had in ages. So we zipped over to the Canary Wharf branch, and arrived ahead of the lunch rush crowd to find a seat where our three suitcases would not get in anyone's way. By this time, our mouths were watering with the thought of the amazing sounding burgers – and we both ordered the avocado bacon burgers. We often end up doing that – we like the same foods!

That night, we spent with our friends Mel and James, plus baby Emily, at their flat. During the afternoon, we took a walk around the neighborhood, and found ourselves wandering around the local ASDA (grocery store chain). We gawked at the amount of variety within the store … we had a choice of 7 hummus brands! We could find English magazines! We could find some really cool beer flavors (Banana Bread, Sheep’s Dark, and even IPAs!), and even found a new spice packet by Ortega called "Mexican potatoes spice blend". Admittedly, we went a little crazy, but, it was fun. That night, we had a great time catching up with them over a fine dinner cooked by Mel.

We spent the next day trekking through the rain in London to get to the Hilton Terminal 4 airport hotel. Since we had an early flight out to Helsinki, we figured it made more sense to simply sleep closer to the airport given the early hour and the tube transit time. The hotel was actually nice – and we found ourselves actually wanting more time there.

We were glad to have had time in both Paris and London, but were glad to leave when we did. A few days later in Paris there was a massive government workers strike protesting the new retirement age. Then, we kept reading news that both countries were upping their security due to a variety of potential terrorist strikes. Ikes! We both agreed, though, while we love Paris, we prefer London. We love seeing the different cultures and accents (and English television too!). What a brilliant place!

Next Up: Freezing in Helsinki, Finland and Tallin, Estonia

Germany: Our last driving hurrah and sausagefest!

2010-09-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

After Poland, we were excited to return back to Western Europe. We missed the variety of breads, relative safety factor, and our wide breadth of language skills here (the 5 phrases or words we know... like thank you and hello…), and clean bathrooms (OK – so you sometimes have to pay for them), which now means Christy could travel without a wad of TP or Kleenex in her pocket. That being said, we will miss the inexpensive way of life in Eastern Europe… everything simply costs less and so we will discover sticker shock again! We will also miss the good, inexpensive hotel restaurants we have found along the way and the newness of discovering places off the tourist path!

Teltow/Berlin, Germany
We left our Polish hotel early after a delicious breakfast and took off. We were a bit perplexed when we got a little further out on the highway and found tons of cars parked at the side of the highway – Christy thought they were hunting since it is the start of the fall season. But we were happy to find out that all the hubbub was for mushroom pickers! People were out in droves with huge buckets, and you could sometimes spot them at the side of the fenced in forest as we zoomed by.

As soon as we pulled into Teltow, we loved it! It was a small gorgeous suburb, with leafy streets, a small village center, and massive trees everywhere. It reminded us of an Oak Park or Evanston outside of Chicago…Bikers ruled the bike paths, and nearly everyone was riding. Given the spectacular sunny, warm weather, we can see why! Our first day there, we took as a "down" day to find a new suitcase (something to do with "excess shopping") and also tried a local specialty for lunch called currywurst, which was served sliced with toothpicks to eat it, with a BBQ sauce sprinkled with curry powder. In reality (sorry!!!), it sounds better than it was (our personal opinion is that sausages belong in a bun). The next day, we drove into Berlin on Sunday for the free parking - where our hotel was located, it was nearly perfect – we only had to make about three turns in 14 kms! Soon enough, we found free parking near the zoo. We aimed to see as much of Berlin as possible and vowed to walk all day till we could no longer manage it … and we did made good on that promise! We also were flying without any tour book guidance, and only had a ripped out map from a tourist magazine (how backpacker of us)! We started our journey by walking around the zoo, and heading through the large park that is located in the center of the city – it reminded us of Central Park. We walked through the peaceful park, and it was gorgeous in the morning – it was quiet, shaded, and the sun was stunning --- streaming through the autumn hues of the trees. Runners and bicyclists were out in full force but the park was large enough to make it seem quiet. There were statues throughout the park, so we took a picture of a Russian monument, and then marveled at the massive Reichstag. Apparently, this ancient city gate was off limits when the Berlin wall was up – it was in no man’s land and between walls. Thankfully, it was restored to its former glory after the wall went down. The heart of the Berlin government is located nearby, and is a modern marvel – all glass, steel and stone in modern looking buildings, perched near the river. We loved the views! From there, we kept walking east, and hit what we called monument and museum row. Whichever way you looked, there was another outstanding building! It reminded us of all the monuments in Washington, D.C. We then came across a festival, which was guarded by police. We were not sure of what it was until we circumvented the fair – turns out it was against neo-nazis. We stayed away, but did venture into the grounds to pick up bratwurst sandwiches for lunch. This vendor had a really neat spinning BBQ grill which we had never seen before. We ended up eating our sausages outside the art museum, enjoying the sun and beautiful sunny day – it was a trip moment! From there, we walked down to Checkpoint Charlie, where we heard there was a museum, as well as pieces of the wall. We found it was one of the most interesting parts of the day. The museum had posted 6 foot tall interpretive panels over about two city blocks, all telling the story of the war, the wall, the people inside the walls, and the aftermath. We were stunned to learn how awful it was for the residents who were caught in the eastern side of the city – it was so tragic the way families and friends were torn apart – literally overnight. What makes it even more stunning is that this happened during our lifetime! The city has made it a point to make it part of its history. For instance, there is a brick path that marks exactly where the wall was located throughout the city, there are interpretive signs at many of the relevant sites within the city, and the city has also protected and encouraged memorials/monuments along the former wall for where locals who had tried to climb the walls had perished. The only cheesy factor we found was that there was a fake American guard standing in the middle of the street at the “checkpoint,” who was holding a U.S. flag --- and charging for pictures. Near the museum, there was also a car yard where you could rent out small communist era cars – all painted in crazy colors – for the day. That’s a must for the next trip!

Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city with 1.8 million people, the wealthiest city in Germany, and can also be called a harbor-opolis! We found the architecture to be reminiscent almost of the Netherlands, with lovely pastel buildings clustered along the canals. There was also a cutting edge side to the city, and the old warehouse district now featured sleek buildings, housing Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpel and Gucci. The downtown area featured a lake, which was supposed to have many cafes and bars surrounding it that came to life in summer; there were even supposed to be boats you could rent to sail on it! However, when we arrived, it alternated between solid rainfall and huge wind gusts. So, there would no sailing or chilling out at cute lakefront bars for us. Apparently the blustery weather is normal for town! We also wandered through the Landungsbrucken area near the wide river, where there would also be a great vibe if the weather was better – there were tons of bars called “Beach Club Hamburg” or “Hamburg del Mar” which looked like fun. There were two ship museums there that you could tour, including the Museum Ship San Diego. We also spied a Brazilian warship moored there, which was hosting a local group of dignataries. On the waterfront, there was also a solid line of cafes and restaurants selling fish and chips. We saw one guy eating a fish sandwich that still had the skin on. Ewh! Lastly, the nautical inspired architectural influences are really fantastic – down to the weathervanes! Most of the churches charge fees to see the inside, and also have unique programs or tours, like crypts, towers, or … “Night-Michel-Hamburg at Night with a Drink” which is an alcoholic drink at the top of the St. Micheal steeple viewing platform at night. Our second day there – and at the suggestion of our friends Mika and Andi – we went to Miniatur Wunderland, which is a destination! It is one of the most visited destinations in Germany, with more than 4 million visitors, and includes 43,000 square feet of exhibit space, 200,000 mini inhabitants, 820 mini trains, 4,000 mini cars and mini ships and 300,000 mini lights on streetsigns, in mini-homes, etc. The overhead lights in the exhibits also change from night to day, and the exhibits feature real and “inspired” scenes of Scandinavia, Germany, the U.S. and more. Some of the scenes include some racy stuff, including women sunbathing topless, pigs mounting one another, a man holding one woman’s breast, so you had to look close to see the details. They are in the process of building and expanding the exhibitions, which will include an airport (we saw a UAL mini-plane!), as well as France, Italy, Africa, India, GB and the Netherlands. Check out the website - it is a riot! For lunch, we checked out the Groninger Braukeller, which was the city’s only brewery. It was a lovely restaurant, which was built on the first floor, and even had beer barrels as booth seats. We liked their pilsener beer, but did not like the orange beer, which we thought would be a fruitier enhanced beer. Instead, we think it was Fanta and their pilsener. ICK. This seems to be popular in some circles of Germany! For lunch, we went back to the town plaza, and had Krakeur sausages, which we heartedly enjoyed. We followed that up with a mohnspietzel, a sweet pastry made of sweet dough and poppyseed swirls, at one of the numerous bakeries we saw. It was a good stay!

Bremen, Germany
Bremen is a sweet gem of a “city,” located in NW Germany and set on the banks of the Weser River. It is famous for the Brothers Grimm fairytale, consequently the donkey, who has the dog, cat and rooster standing on his back, is all over town – on souvenirs, statues, etc. It is quaint! It also has two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the market square (which is stunning even after all the medieval sites we have seen), and the grand statue of Roland, built in 1404, and symbolizing the town’s “statue of liberty.” Town also features St. Peter’s cathedral, a gothic Protestant/Lutheran Church that was built in the 13th century. This was actually a fascinating church – the interior is striking, and has been painstakingly restored. Some of the pieces that they found during the restoration are now displayed in a museum at the back of the church. The museum is well put together, and includes religious artwork and clothing from prior bishops in the 15th century! The clothing was specially restored, and is housed in a special room with dim lighting behind glass. Volunteers work the front desk and exhibits - the docents were an elderly German couple and were so kind – except the man had such a thick accent we could barely figure out if he was speaking English or German! The best part of the church, though, is what they found while rehabbing – a crypt located beneath the church that had coffins in it. The ground is lead, and so the bodies actually became perfectly mummified. The mummies are now displayed in the crypt in open caskets, and are pretty creepy. There are about 7 mummies, including a young man who died in a duel with his mouth open so it looks like he is screaming, a countess, and a few others. Since they are perfectly preserved, you can still see some details, including their fingernails. It was ...creepy. Bremen also showcases the Bottcherstrasse, a small lane that was built in the 1920’s, and contains a museum, shops, a wine bar, and a casino. It was adorable! That afternoon we had our last sausage in town near the shopping promenade – and decided to try something new – a Bauernwurst. More like the rest of the sausages, but it was served on a smaller bun. For our last whirlwind activity in our one day tour of Bremen, we checked out the Shuttinger Braueri, which was located a short 2 minute walk from the Hilton, and was located next to the Ramada. We joked maybe it WAS part of the Ramada, but fortunately it was not --- it was a brewhouse packed with locals. We hit the “it” spot for the after work crowd. We enjoyed their home brewed pilseners, pretzels and massive bowls of potato soup! It was a fitting meal for the 50F rainy weather!

Cologne, Germany
We were saddened to carry on to our last German port of call, but were happy to know that we were staying with friends Gloria and Biaggio at their home. Staying with friends is always nice! Luckily for us, Biaggio, a wonderful chef, also prepared a specialty Sicilian pasta with real imported Sicilian pasta. We had skipped lunch (no more sausages!) since we had a late breakfast, and were grateful we had – it was fantastic! The next morning, Gloria took us to a small park located near their house, where the city brings orphaned fawns. They have a large meadow, and are protected there. There is also a small petting zoo, and we enjoyed watching the toddlers there on an outing feed the animals – they were adorable in their bright safety vests, long raincoats and rain boots!

We loved Germany and cannot wait to go back. Everything is wonderfully run, friendly, and efficient. The beers are brilliant, the food is marvelous – and where else can you go and have a different type of sausage each day of the week?!!??!

Next Up: Paris and London

Slovakia and Poland: Food comas and shopping frenzy!

2010-09-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

Kosice, Slovakia
Our departure from Romania started off great – Jane the GPS knew the way, and we had an early start. Since we were also going back an hour with the European time change, we were pretty excited to get to Kosice with an early lunchtime arrival. HAHAHAHA, it was not meant to be. We pulled up to the Oradea border crossing and we sat…. in line… for almost an hour and a half. The massive glut of cars was indescribable, and we wished we would have gone up to the more rural crossing we had used before. What a waste of time. Luckily, the skies brightened up once we crossed the border, and we sped the rest of the way across Hungary to Kosice, making it by lunchtime.

So, what is Kosice (ko-seech-ey) famous for? Apparently, the city has the oldest European marathon, and is the second largest city in Slovakia. Who knew?!?! Andy Warhol’s parents were from near there, and there was a small exhibition of his works while we were in town. Kosice is really small and compact, especially the old medieval core, which is about 6 blocks by 3 three blocks long and is mostly a pedestrian mall. We saw the main sights of St. Elizabeth’s cathedral, which is the oldest Gothic church in Eastern Europe, the Franciscan Church, the Street of Handicrafts (lame in comparision to Veliko Turnovo!), the Immaculata statue, and Urban’s Tower which now holds the wax museum of famous Slovakian people. We skipped the wax museum for obvious reasons. The city was quite pleasant and had gorgeous small cafes and restaurants lining through the streets, and an upmarket feeling. We were really excited to be there! Part of the specialness of the city was just being able to stroll the streets. Our second day there we walked town and watched a few weddings at the cathedral. At the first ceremony we saw, the ceremony had just let out of church, and there was a gathering in the yard… we had fun listening to the live trio playing and people watching. Apparently they send off the bride and groom on a bicycle which has the aluminum cans attached. Kosice was a lovely two night stop, and we wished we would have had more time to explore the gorgeous rolling countryside we drove through.

Zakopane, Poland
Our route took us across forests and hills, along a pretty one lane road in each direction. As it was a Sunday, there was really no one on the road. It was gorgeous! As we climbed in altitude, we noticed that the temperature kept getting colder --- we were wearing shorts and long sleeves and sandals and were not thrilled! As we kept driving, the weather began looking worse, with huge grey clouds rolling across the horizon, and covering the tops of the hills. Pretty soon the temperature was 6C, and we saw snow covered mountains every so often poking out of the clouds. The weather was not looking up for us as we headed into Zakopane!

Zakopane was a small village until the 1870’s when artists and musicians moved to the mountains in search of inspiration. This is apparently how the Zakopane school of architecture was born, which features homes with a heavy timber look and sloped roofs. The village grew after after World War II, and a funicular up the side of the mountain was built, assuring it a spot as a tourist destination. The walk downtown from our cute pension took us about 30 minutes in the cool weather, but it seemed like everyone else was out and walking around. We noticed the architecture, lots of beautiful wooden homes with pitched roofs. Amazingly, many of the yards still had colorful blooming flowers, and the lawns were still manicured and really green! We figured it was still “summer.” Town was really nice, as it was not terribly built up with condo buildings, mainly one story timber buildings and chalets. Downtown had a lot of small restaurants, all of which were opening for lunch, and were lit dimly with candles flickering on all the tables – tres romantic! The shops were pretty good – a lot of sporting stores, amber jewelry, and the usual tourist schlock with Polska gifts everywhere. Once we were about halfway up the pedestrian street we found a statue of a man reading a Zakopane-Chicago newspaper, with one of the pages missing. As we later found out, many people from that area emigrated to Chicago, and the actual newspaper was published in Chicago three times weekly! We quickly found out one of the great things about Zakopane were the cheese shops and kiosks that were everywhere – you could sample the different types of cheese – there were all types of sizes, patterns and colors. They apparently did not need refrigeration – although it was cool enough anyways out of doors! We tried one cheese – it was pure heaven and we struggled to not buy another one. Once we had been up and down the pedestrian street a few times, we decided to head towards the funicular. Once we did that a whole new world opened up – there were towns of small tourist kiosk shops and stalls set up. By then it was after 1:15pm, and we were getting hungry, so we stopped and picked up another specialty – grilled pieces of farmer cheese – a crunchy outside with melted cheese inside. Wow. We found lunch and had a plate of pierogis each at a local “fast food” place – and learned that some of the pierogi there are steamed and not fried! After we had eaten lunch, we forged ahead for some serious shopping. We picked up a few gifts and wool slippers for Christy. That evening, after the included dinner in our pension, we spent the night eating cake and watching the dancing in the cafe! What a nice way to pass time in the mountains.

Lipnica/Jablonka/Wadowice/Wieliczka
The next morning, we were up early and out the door for our next adventure – looking up Christy’s relatives. Her grandmother had given some information to her, and we sought off to two towns to the west, near Slovakia. We then drove to Lipnica, which is a smaller town located about 15 minutes away from Jablonka, along a small pretty road that overlooks a lake and mountains in the distance. We pulled into town and it was a cold morning – we were not prepared for the 5C temperature! We parked the car and decided to go poking around, and looked around for the St. Lukasz Church, where Christy’s great-great-great grandmother was baptized. It was pretty hard to not miss the massive spire of church, and we were delighted to find that it was indeed the same church, which had been built in the 1700’s! We were also able to look through the graveyard, where we saw a lot of common surnames of people we knew in Chicago. After speaking with some locals, we understood that many people left for Chicago in 1900. We eventually had to carry on, and decided to make Wadowice our next stop, due to the fame that the town held – it was the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. We finally reached town, which was fairly small and easy to get around, and we parked near the town square (for a fee, grrr…) and went in search of food. Town was a little light on restaurants, but heavy on their claim to fame – the cream pastry. There were tons of small cafes and bakeries advertising the cake! We ended up eating lunch on the town square and had a meal of meat and sauerkraut/mushroom pierogi, and then decided that we could not eat anymore! No pastries for us. We did enjoy the small town and the lovely cathedral in town. Legend has it that Pope John Paul’s statue outside of church actually points to his favorite pastry bakery! That night we stayed at a small pleasant hotel – the Hotel Solny - in Wielicza, which was right outside of Cracow. We arrived there near dinnertime, and were pooped from the ride, and planned on eating in the cute restaurant in the hotel. It seems that the pension/hotel food we have been getting in the smaller hotels has always been really good --- so why ruin a good trend? Sure enough, the food was amazing – we had more meat pierogi, a Hungarian pancake and boiled potatoes. The next morning, we were meant to go to the Salt Mine in town, but we read the tourist brochure, and found out it was a three hour tour that would cost about $20 USD per person…. And we were itching to get downtown to see Cracow, so in the end, we forewent it!

Cracow, Poland
Cracow is over 750 years old, and was the royal capitol for over 500 years. Amazingly, it escaped much damage from World War II, so it still has many Gothic and Renaissance masterpieces. However, it was not without some losses – 65,000 of the city’s 260,000 inhabitants were Jewish, and they were herded into ghettoes or sent to concentration camps. The city was also looted by the Nazis, but never saw much combat or bombings. After the war, the main city grew, expanding its suburban areas, and became the third largest city in Poland. We started off our first day in town with a walk into Old Town, and loved it. There were a ton of restaurants all around town, including the one we never made it to – the Wegetarian Bar! Old Town was located between the old walls, and had the full cobblestoned streets, shops, restaurants and shops galore. There were also the tour hawkers – and in Cracow’s case their specialty were Old Town tours in golf carts, some of which would peel around the streets and high speeds, blasting punk music. The town plaza called the Rynek Glowny was also gorgeous, and once it started warming up throughout the day, we loved it even more! We liked walking on the streets that were off the main streets – there was a surprise around every corner. Marcus remembered that there was a brewpub in town and off we went to the CK Browar bar, which was outside the city walls. Their specialty were three and five liter “tubes” of beer which could be brought to your table and tapped right there. It was a pretty great gimmick! Their food prices were also really good (in addition to the dark beer), and we had an amazing meal of schnitzel and wild boar, accompanied by the most amazing roasted potatoes. Food comas... again. The next day - we shopped. we ended up buying Christy an amber pendant and picked up some Polish crystal glasses. Christy was a happy camper! We also had more food coma Polish food – Christy had cabbage rolls with fresh mushroom sauce and Marcus had a “wheat pocket” which was more like a pizza calzone! Incidentally, the way the Poles spell cabbage rolls is completely different than how it is pronounced. Confusing for us English speakers that read Polish phonetically.

Legnica, Poland
Legnica turned out to be a nice stop for one night, despite the somewhat crappy review Lonely Planet gave it one of their books. We stayed at a cute small hotel situated on the outskirts of town. Town was meant to have been knocked down completely during World War II, and had been rebuilt in the years afterward, but you would have thought the cathedral had been there for years. We wish we would have had our camera for our walk! The only bad thing was that town seemed to have been invaded by huge mosquitoes. Our hotel had the windows open in the hallway, and you could see them all attacking the glass in our room. We had not seen anything like that for some time. That night, we did not eat in our hotel restaurant, which looked good, but which – unfortunately – did not serve any Polish food. Who could deny a food coma for the last meal we would have in Poland? So we checked out the hotel restaurant across the road. We ordered red wine for Christy and a beer for Marcus. The waiter brought out white wine and tried to explain there was no red. Great (did not help he later charged us more for it)... We should have just left after that … everything we ordered turned out to be different. Instead of one meat and one sauerkraut/mushroom pierogi, and one order of potato wedges and one sauerkraut, we got two orders of the same pierogi and potato balls. Oh well - still good!

We really liked Poland, and we wished we would not have saved it to the last of the trip as we are a little tired. We were also looking forwards to hiking, so with the weather, we were dealt a little disappointment. However, we found the food to be amazing, although we would have had to restrain ourselves sooner or later – the food is simply too much! Someone would have needed to roll us over the border eventually… We also enjoyed the brief time in Slovakia, and could have spent more time in the hills and mountains – it looked charming!

Next Up: Our quick tour of Germany

Romania: Rain-mania or Road-mania???

2010-09-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Predeal, Romania
It was with huge reluctance that we had to leave Harmony Hills, our small little gem in the hills of the Black Sea. We just thought we’d have a really long drive and get to the place we really wanted to spend three nights in next - Predeal. Our 7am departure had us cutting across Bulgaria in a NE direction, and we crossed the BULG-ROM border at General Toshevo, which turned out to be very quiet at 8am. We decided we would take the faster route across Romania towards Bucharest and then take the ring road north through the mountains. That "speed" never really caught on; we were caught in ring road construction traffic outside of Bucharest, and then in weekend mountain traffic once we hit the foothills. Total traffic time? NINE hours, three hours longer than expected.

We stayed at the Medieval Pension in Predeal, which turned out to be the small gem of a pension on our trip! It was so nice and relaxing we would go back in a heartbeat! We had a loft bedroom, with a fireplace and animal skin rugs, and a massage multi-jet shower. It was so cozy – we even had a massive picture window overlooking the forest and ski hills. We also had a new small gym, a billiards table (Marcus won), a bowling alley, and had a delicious meal at the restaurant – grilled chicken with garlic sauce and polenta. We’ll stop gushing – but it was pure heaven! They even sent us away with packed sandwiches when we checked out. AHHHH.

Predeal is an adorable small town, more akin to what a mountain town should look like – right in the middle of massive hills and mountains, cute cafes, restaurants, a small fruit/veggie market, and a small market. It was not mobbed by tourists from other countries necessarily, probably more popular with local Romanians. There was also quite a lot of ski runs up in the hills (it actually has one of the highest ski runs in the mountains), so we’re sure it is hopping in the winter! We liked Predeal so much more than Brasov, and if we had to do it again, we would base ourselves in Predeal. While we were there, there was also a massive road rally driving through Transylvania, and the cars were fun to see “racing” through the same weekend traffic we did the day prior.

The next day we took on hiking in the mountains! We aimed for a local favorite road called Trei Brazei, or three trees, which has three of the area’s oldest trees. Incidentally we could never find them. We ended up walking there from town, which took us up an asphalt road, which had some local auto and foot traffic on it. It also seemed that everyone was walking up in that direction! There were some walking paths in the forest on the side of the road, but there was some mud, so we stuck to the pavement. After an hour, we finally reached the hilltop. The scenery was stunning – you could see mountains and lush forested valleys for miles! It was an outstanding view, and unfortunately, we shared it with a million other weekenders! We have never seen anything like it – there were tents and RVs pitched everywhere, no rhyme or reason, and apparently no rules on camping on public lands. Then there were people who must have driven up for the day – collapsible tables and caravans of friends grilling out! Cars were perched precariously on the side of the roads, and they drove up any semblance of “road” to get to their spot. The only unfortunate effect of all the people in the area was that there was a bit of trash on the roads and in the forest, especially plastic bottles. It was a little sad, especially since the both of us have always been schooled on “bring out what you carry in.” We also found a route back to town through a really dense forest - the trail was really steep and really muddy! That night, we were woken in the middle of the night by thunder, lightning and really heavy rain! We went back to bed, and slept in, pretty much inferring that hiking the next day would be out, unless we had knee-high farm boots! Sure enough, when we woke up, it was still pouring – and what was worse – the temperature dropped to 10 C! It was freezing!

Sibiu, Romania
We hoped that the drive to Sibiu would be easy and quick, but it was not to be… the road was largely one lane in either direction, and was heavily traveled by trucks and farm equipment. To make matters worse, the route took us through many small towns, so it was largely stop-and-go. Grrrrr. Additionally, cars pull off quickly, stopping to pitch up hitchhikers, which is a widely accepted practice. Everyone hitchhikes --- young mothers with babies, seniors – and you see them near bus stops or at the end of towns with their thumbs outstretched. You don’t see many buses on the roads, and we read that the hitchhikers actually pass on gas money. On our drive we did find some of the road signs funny, towns called “Beclean” and “Brotuna,” which had us giggling, along with a phrase everywhere we inferred meant "thank you" or something similar, “Drum Bun.”

We were disappointed by the town of Sibiu, which was awarded status as a European heritage city a few years ago. Perhaps it was the freezing weather, the clouds, the overglut of medieval towns we have seen in Europe … but it was a little stagnant! We were not really impressed, and even had a hard time finding restaurants, as there seemed to only be cafes. Additionally, the traffic in Sibiu was insane, with pedestrian crosswalks everywhere, which snarled up traffic for blocks on end. We did end up finding a massive Carrefour grocery store and were excited to self-cater lunches – we even found the first hummus since we left London in June! In the end, we were glad to stay there just for some R&R since it was always raining, cloudy and cold, so we used our hotel gym and jacuzzi, and tried to stay warm!

Oradea
Our last drive and night in Romania was bittersweet – we had 320 kms to drive on roads – and we knew it would be a rough drive. Yet, we really enjoyed the hospitality of the country and the stunning vistas! The last few days of rain and cool really reminded us of Scotland, and we realized how lucky we were on our drive south a few weeks back that we had decent weather. Who would have thought that the temperature would drop 20 C in a matter of weeks when swinging back up north through the country?!?!? The drive west from Sibiu to Deva was rough --- tons of semis, one lane roads, and incessant small towns with pedestrian crossings and roundabouts. We used to play a game of “beat the initial GPS time” in the States… but here it became a game of “let’s hope we don’t fall too far behind the initial GPS travel time!” Seeing minutes get added on to your travel time is never fun. Once we split from the main road to Oradea with 200 kms left – we hit scenic vistas with less traffic, but horrible road conditions. While the weather was still cool, dark menacing clouds hung low in the foothills, and rain splattered down occasionally, it fit the country drive and the last day we would spend in the country. We had scenic views of town churches in distant hills, you could see the tops of the churches from miles away! Most of the surrounding lands were fields or orchards, and the hay bales had unique shapes, and looked like village sentries. The fields were being farmed, and we could see pumpkins and gourds galore. We passed one small town where the local peasant women were selling apples and a liquid in plastic soda containers, which we guessed was fresh cider. And then both of us hit reality – fall was in the air! The farther we drove into the foothills, the more autumn-like it became – some trees had shed their leaves and others were just starting to turn! People had on their warm weather gear – farm boots, fleece jackets and knit hats. After about 6 hours of driving, we pulled into our hotel, well-positioned at the outskirts of Oradea, in a more industrial area, and relaxed and geared up for the next day’s big drive. Luckily our hotel had a good restaurant, and we were able to enjoy a delicious last Romanian meal of ghoulash. It was one of the best we had, so we savored it.

We really enjoyed Romania, and were happy we did visit, despite initial misgivings. Our second time through, we were disappointed with the cool weather and rains, but, it fit the atmosphere. We had a hard time with the traffic and driving in Romania heading north- it was tough work. However, the goodwill, hospitality and generosity of the Romanian people is beyond words, which makes up for the lack of road infrastructure. We'll be back!

Next: Slovakia and Poland!

Greece and Bulgaria: from the Aegean to the Black Sea

2010-08-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Psakoudia, Greece
Our drive to Greece was meant to take at least four hours, and we were not excited by this prospect, especially since we had to cross the border. However, we had routed ourselves so that we would hit the border early in the morning, and sure enough, we were there at 8:30am, and there were no lines. As soon as we crossed the border, the landscape began to change again, and the hills soon grew into mountains! It was gorgeous, and we were happy that we had a good day of driving and watching life go by. Once we made it to our small town, we struggled a little to find our rental, and had to ask someone on the main road who pointed a short distance away – 50 meters down the lane! Our host, John, had told us that Psakoudia was small, and if he was not at home, we could ask around town to find out where he was! Here is his website if you are interested in a fun Greece holiday: http://www.jpavloudis.gr. Psakoudia is located in northern Greece, south of Thessaloniki, and is on the middle peninsula of three mountainous peninsulas that have a popular following due to the sand beaches!

The rental we had was perfect – a small kitchen counter with a two burner/small stove set-up, a small fridge, and a real coffee maker! We also had a/c, a good sized balcony with a laundry rack for drying beach clothes, and shaded parking. The other great benefit was being able to use the weights in his gym! The rental was situated right behind a bakery, where, every morning, we got to smell what they were making that day. We sampled quite a few things during the week – veggie pies, chocolates, and we were always impressed. We were happy to have an ocean view, and enjoyed the short two block walk to the beach. Town was small and cute, and had a number of wonderful cafes and restaurants, and some bars where we heard there was some weekend dancing on tables!

We used the week as serious R&R. What do real people do on vacation? Well, we surmised we did what they do --- go for walks, lay out in the sun, go swimming, sleep in, stay up late, drink local wine, read a few good novels, eat out quite a bit ... which is exactly what we did. While we had our own kitchen, we decided that since we would be in Greece, home of magnificent food, we would be eating out one meal a day. Since we were traveling on the euro, food was certainly more costly than what we had been paying in Romania and Bulgaria, although the costs were manageable. For the price, we had great quality – a plate of amazing grilled calamari would set you back about $9.50 USD. During the week, we sampled plenty of amazing foods – chicken souvlaki, moussaka, pastistio, grilled calamari, Greek pastries, gyros, tzatiki, eggplants salads – and left feeling like we could have kept eating there. There were also plenty of fresh fruit stands that were located close to town, and we were able to pick our own fresh produce for salads! We also tried fresh figs for the first time ---- not dried as we have always eaten them – is an amazing experience. Lastly, the cool thing about being in the Mediterranean was the amazing variety of Greek yogurts you can get in the grocery store…. And many of them are even the low fat variety.

One day we went to take a drive around the peninsula, and we were blown away by the fantastic scenery! The further south you drove, the prettier the beaches become – there were many places to pull off on the west side of the island with stunningly blue/turquoise waters that just sparkled. Wow, we can’t say how gorgeous it was! The numbers of people and cars trickled down to barely any the further south we went, and soon we were going up and down the mountains. It was not what we expected – with stunning craggy rocks and trees – our ears even popped with the change in altitude! We came out of the mountains and hit the prettiest of all beaches, a huge sandy bay with practically no people on it, and we stopped. We barely had our towels on the sand before diving into the water! It was all sandy bottomed, with barely any sea weeds, and a gloriously cool temperature! At the end of our week, we were really sad to keep going - everything about Greece is amazing and we would have loved to stay. It also signalled the "end" of our European trip, as we had reached the farthest southern point, and it was time to head north. Neither of wanted to leave, probably a first for us in a few months!

Bulgaria - Part 2
Nessebar
So sadly we had to leave Greece, and to make matters worse we had to leave early! At 7am we were ready to leave and said goodbye to John, who gave us a great place to stay in Greece for the week. He even sent us on our way with olive oil from his olive trees. Yum! So off we drove, we had decided to follow the highway across Greece to almost the Turkey border before heading north up to Bulgaria. It took us about 5 hours of pretty easy and fast driving to reach the border. The highway took us along the coast and the views were spectacular. We needed to stop for gas and unlike the United States or other parts of Europe, we had to pull off the highway for gas - there are no oases there! We pulled off and followed the signs to this BP look-alike station and filled up with the most expensive we have hit in Europe so far – about $75 USD to fill the tank! Christy also found the worst bathroom since Vietnam --- a filthy squat toilet! We had no issues at the BG border, and were stamped through with no wait. Then we drove off into … utter mayhem. It was a small dusty town that we popped out into --- and there was nothing there but dusty roads, horses and carriages and wacked out looking signs in Bulgarian indicating roads to Istanbul, but nowhere else. Luckily, Jane the GPS had somewhat of a clue, and sent us in one direction. Great --- we thought --- until she had us going up a highway that was literally a rubbish street where locals threw out all their garbage. We tried a different way, and we were on some small side road that we kept expecting would pop us out onto a bigger road… this never happened for TWO hours. It was easily the worst driving we have ever done. It was a small country lane road, filled with potholes that took us through forests, hills and pastureland. More spectacularly, it took us through complete ghost towns! These towns gave the impression that they were abandoned around the time of the fall of communism. All of the brick homes and commercial buildings were empty without windows. There were no inhabitants except for one solo car parked by a house in one of the three ghost towns that we drove through. It seemed like the beginning of a horror movie - creepy. Luckily, we finally made it Nessebar, Bulgaria --- after 9 hours of driving!

Our stay in Nessebar was more like a vacation. Nessebar is a UNESCO village, due to its unique architectural and historical treasures in the old town peninsula extending out into the Black Sea. There are many old churches built of timber and stone that have survived countless hundreds of years. The village, which has been partially taken over by merchants selling everything and anything to the cruiseboat tourists, is still a gem, with small squat houses made of a dark timber and whitewashed walls. It was delightful walking around the island, there were a ton of cafes and restaurants, all perched on the steep cliffs overlooking the sea. What a great spot! There were quite a few fisherman willing to take you out on their boats, too, some of them had young chaps out with megaphones to attract you to their business. We would not step foot on their boats though --- in addition to the condition of their boats, the sea had huge rolling waves and was quite rough! There was also a small “beach” on one corner of the island, a tiny small bay that an enterprising local had set some umbrellas up to make a few dollars. There were quite a few people packed in, and a few more on the other side of the jetty, where the water was really rough. There we saw Standing Naked Tan Man, who was away from the locals, who were getting being bashed by waves, but standing with a woman while tanning himself, alternating between his back and front side, completely in the nude. He timed it so that he would face the sun every few minutes, but used his hands as to not get his nether regions … um… burnt. New town (on the “mainland”) was also quite nice, and full of shops, cafes and restaurants, and was teeming with tourists! There was also a section of town that fronted the larger "box" hotels with a long thin beach packed with thatched shade umbrellas and plastic loungers. We saw how expensive it was to park yourself on a beach there – for two chairs and a cruddy small umbrella it would set you back $15 USD! We had a great few days there, except for our wacky hotel, the Italia Hotel, which was run by this guy who kept using a fake Italian accent; every sentence ended in "mama mia." The beds were round and it was like something out of a 70's movie, he was also a sexist jerk, and while his wife looked exhausted, he hammed it up with guests at the pool all afternoon and night!

Rogachevo
We stayed in Harmony Hills Village in Rogachevo, which is a small speck of a town about 15 km away from Balchik, a pretty town on the coast, but that had pricier lodging. We paid $105 USD for three nights in Rogachevo for a lovely studio with a balcony and small kitchenette, and an amazing pool, the biggest we have seen in Europe! As it turned out, the property was composed of individual owners, but was run by a management company who did a fine job in managing the massive development. The complex was busy, but not crazy, and there were a lot of British apartment owners around – the English language was amazing to hear! The funniest thing about this place was that there was a free “animotion” duo that had activities for kids all day (pool games, pin the tail on the donkey, table tennis etc.), and three times a day they had the kids dancing at the pool to a few songs, including Shakira’s “Waka Waka.” It was hilarious! We’ve never seen such a large group of kids speaking different languages having fun together! We intended to do a little bit of driving while we were there to see Balchik and other spots, but the setting was so nice, and the company was terrific, so we did not move for three days! We felt badly that we never did make it down to the English “house bar” near the complex for karaoke the night before our early departure to Romania --- our big drive (which took us 9 hours incidentally….). We have learned the hard way never to go out the night before you have a long drive!

We had a great time seeing the coasts and hoped we would have a good time heading back up through the mountains next!

Next Up: Romania and the Slovak Republic!

Bulgaria: Europe's Sleeper Surprise!

2010-08-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria
First, we will come clean and admit that Marcus was not looking forward into driving into Bulgaria; there are far too many horror stories on the internet about the country. According to various sources on the internet, there is an abundance of criminals waiting just over the border to steal your car. Yes, we know that we are only driving a Peugeot 207 station wagon; however, as Bulgaria is at the economic bottom of the EU, the reading made it sound like thieves would jump at the chance to take the Peugeot off our hands. Apparently, the car thieves dress up like police in a “marked” car, pull you over, put a gun to your head and steal your car. One website described what a police car looked like and if a car not matching that description tried to pull you over, it suggested that you try and outrun them. It went on further to say if they persisted with the chase, they were probably real police and you should stop and explain your concerns to them. !!!! After hours of driving, getting lost thanks to numerous closed roads in Bucharest, we finally we hit the Bulgarian/Romanian border, which was over a toll bridge at Ruse. This was a crazy toll bridge where you paid 26 Romanian ($8 USD) to leave Romania and cross the bridge to Bulgaria. Sounds like one of the last pay tolls at the Illinois-Wisconsin border! On the other side, we had to stop and show our passports and our car registration, and after 10 minutes we were waved through. The next thing we had to do was buy a vignette to drive on Bulgaria’s roads, which we accomplished right after customs. After Ruse, we kept driving --- through the country --- and were in need of a bathroom break and stopped at a scary-looking gas station. While Christy was in the station, Marcus started watching a guy fill up his mid-eighties BMW from a plastic gas tank, and to Marcus’s horror the guy had a blue uniform on with handcuffs hanging off his hip. A fake policeman who definitely looked like he would consider the Peugeot a trade up from his crappy BMW!!! But to Marcus’s relief, he drove off without a second look.

Our first night in Veliko Turnovo, after the really long drive, we just crashed and actually slept in a/c, which seems to be a novelty in most of Europe! The next morning, we were out and about before the heat of the day set in, and finally found the really cool Monument of the Asens. The only way to get there is to find the small pedestrian bridge to reach the isolated "island" in the bend of the river. The statue is part obelisk, part statue of famous townsmen defeating the Byzantines years ago. It was a massive statue, and there were only a few tourists milling about, making it a really great experience. Next up was the Tsarevets Hill... which was across town and about 3km away from the monument. We reached the entrance to the site, which was a long bridge over to the tall Tsaverets hill, and paid our admission fees of about $9 USD. There is no literature in English, so luckily we had our printed out Lonely Planet chapter to help us! The fortress dates back thousands of years; Thracians and Romans used it as a defensive postion, but the Byzantines built the first fortress there. It was rebuilt and fortified by the Slavs and Bulgars, then by the Byzantines. Apparently, the Soviets did undertake renovation efforts to preserve the sites, although the exact historic nature of their efforts has been questioned. The hill has the remains of over 400 houses, 18 churches, gates, towers, and the Royal Palace. The best parts are the views from the end of the hill, which overlooks the valleys and towering white cliffs in the distance. The top of the hill has the Patriarch’s Palace, also called the Church of the Blessed Savior, which has been restored since it was built in 1253. The murals inside are …. Scary. The murals are in black, grey, and white, and have scary shapes, forms, and sinister looking depictions. We took a picture, and we were quickly chided by a guard, and told you have to pay a $3.50 USD fee to take pictures. We did not, but were glad we did get the one shot. Later that afternoon, after a hot walk back to our neck of the woods, we stopped and bought a pottery chip and dip bowl set, although we are not sure that it was not marketed as such. Marcus talked Christy out of buying anything else larger. We also found out that there was a massive fruit market adjacent to our hotel, and so we went fruit shopping, and ended up buying lunch – tomato and red pepper salad, with a sausage sandwich, and fresh peaches for dessert. We love Bulgaria!

Sofia
As we began our drive into the city, we noticed it was quiet --- no one was on the road. As we learned from some reading, Sofia empties out in August, especially on the weekends, as the city heads to the shore out east. We did not mind, as we headed into the empty Sofia Hilton, where our car was one of three parked in the lot! Sofia is Bulgaria’s biggest city, with 1.4 million people, although it never felt that large to us. After checking into the hotel, we decided to head on out and see the city and find lunch! We walked up the pedestrian street called Vitosha, where there were lots of shops, most of them open, and we decided to follow the Lonely Planet walking tour. This seemed like a great way to see the city and have a narrated guide! There are quite a few historical buildings and monuments to see, including the Banya Bashi Mosque, the city’s only mosque, built in 1576 by a celebrated Ottoman architect. Outside of the building is an amazing site – large water fountains that continually spout warm mineral waters. Many citizens were gathered around the numerous taps, filling up liter bottles, some even had the large massive blue water containers used for purified water coolers! There was one other tourist couple there taking the same shots as we were, also baffled. We continued walking, and by chance, caught a view of the hourly changing of the guard at the President’s Palace, which actually shares a building with the Sheraton hotel! The walk down this street was amazing, and you actually follow a yellow brick road! We carried on till we hit the massive and monumental Aleksander Nevski Memorial church, which is one of the main “symbols” of Bulgaria, and saw a wedding being photographed there. The church was built between 1882-1912 in memory of the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria’s feedom during the Russo-Turkish war in 1877. The church was built in a neo Byzantine style, and on the inside was adorned by gold and black paint, with massive murals of various saints. The air was smoky with incense, and had dim lighting punctuated by flickering light from huge candlebras (where people would add and light candles for prayers). There was no sound in the church, it was almost eerie, and the silence was punctuated by a guy scraping wax off of the floor. We noticed all the animal heads all over the walls, and have to admit, it was quite mystical. The next day, we walked the city's neighborhoods; we found a Turkish barber who cut Marcus' hair, and then we walked around the local markets where the locals (no tourists) shopped. We found more pottery (Christy bought a crock pot) and had a sausage sandwich lunch in the park. Sofia was amazing; quiet, modern, and a real cafe society! Additionally, we think our hotel on the edge of downtown had the best view of the mountains!

Bansko
Jane the GPS took us the ABNORMAL way to get to our next destination, and while the drive was very scenic, it took us on roads of an interesting caliber, where we literally slowed to a halt, see adjacent photo! Bansko is weird, it has a lovely old town, which has small cobblestoned and rock lanes. The small streets have some small tavernas, many of which were closed, since it was off season. The small pedestrian street is also charming; there were many small cafes, restaurants, and a few shops, really a town that was still geared towards the locals. However, on the outskirts of the original town, lots of modern chalets have sprouted up, some obviously not finished due to financing. Many of them just looked like they were plopped down, without regard to whether or not there were streets there initially, and with little thought to city planning. The area around all the chalets also was ill-designed and ugly – there was no landscaping. So, given the area’s dry climate, it resembled a dusty moonscape, with lots of scrub and dirt. It was an odd juxtaposition between the old and the new. However, old ways can still prevail – goats with their herder passed along our property every afternoon. Our first full day there, we took a trip up to the mountains in Pirin National Park for some hiking. We found a walking path and went walking for over an hour, it is a real DIY park, not much is marked. We spied an older couple hiking in a bikini and speedo, complete with walking sticks! After that, we kept noting everyone driving UP the mountain, and hoped that there was something to that…. so we kept driving up the mountain. However, this was a little nerve-wracking, not only for the small roads with plunging views --- with no steel reinforced side barriers --- but the way our car was dangerously dropping in gas tank levels since we were heading uphill. We passed a few hotels and then popped out where everyone was parked – at a small outpost in the mountain valley where they had this awesome little al fresco basic dining hut with picnic tables. Since we had no lunch plans and it was 12pm, it was perfect! We had grilled green pepper salad, a deep fried block of Bulgarian cheese (feta), grilled breads and a massive grilled home-made sausage. Don't worry - we did not finish all the cheese. It was a real trip moment! The weather up at the top was cool – we had jackets although we took them off once we acclimatized. After lunch, we went for stroll down in the valley past the campground, where it appeared there was a walking path next to the river. We noticed twisted bits of iron and twisted fences. As we walked further it became a little more apparent there must have been an avalanche there; the rock path turned into huge boulders, just stacked on top of one another with lots of debris piled up. It turned out not to be a path, but we enjoyed the walk anyways, and ended up chucking big rocks in the fast river and making them splash.

Sandanski
Our routing took us close to this small town situated 40 km north of the Greek border, and about 1.5 hours away from Bansko. The scenery we passed enroute turned very Mediteranean-looking, with dramatic dry looking rolling hills, and scrubby green looking trees. Town was famous for being the birthplace of Spartacus, a spa centre, and numerous hot springs. We certainly were looking forwards to seeing town, but were put off the first day, as the routing took us across an ugly entrance into the city. Were we wrong! Town featured a busy town pedestrian avenue brimming with cafes and tavernas and a food and everything-will-sell market, and town was packed when we walked through in the morning. However, we noticed that it was a ghost town in the afternoon, due to the 38 C heat! Town also featured a massive park which ran adjacent to the burbling little river, which had numerous decorative fountains, fresh springs to drink from, and a series of pools for the locals to use. We also stayed in Sandanski due to its proximity to Melnik, which was a wine center of Bulgaria, or so we read. We took a scenic drive thru the country to get there, Melnik was 17 km SE of Sandanski, and the roads became smaller and hillier once out of Sandanski. We knew we were getting close when we saw vendors selling their wine at the side of the road. Soon we saw the sandstone pyramids that the town is famous for – they were jagged outcroppings and hills – which were very scenic. Melnik turned out to be a gigantic rip off town, and we were really disappointed! We had to park on a curb and hoof it through town in 40 degree heat, which is enough to make anyone crabby. We read about one winery actually located in town, and so we hiked up a steep rocky path hillside (more like clambered) and found Mitko Manolev Winery. The waiter there was eating his lunch and looked us up and down when we asked if there were tastings. He responded – actually he sneered – and said that they were not free. We asked how much they were, and he asked what size. We asked for a small sampler, he looked us up and down again and randomly said, “five leve.” Whatever, we wanted no part of it and walked back down. After seeing the prices of bottles of wine in the local shops, we decided it was a waste of money and time, and decided to buy some local wine on the side of the road from locals – the old phrase, “support the locals,” came into play. We bought 1 liter from an elderly gentleman for 5 lev, about $3.50 USD from his tabletop “store” in a small town heading back. We also found another guy on the side of the road who let us taste -for free – and bought two liters of white wine for $6 lev, about $4 USD. We would have bought more, but with the free drinks at our hotel and the import rules heading over to Greece, we figured that was not prudent.

We passed the last night in Bulgaria on the patio of the hotel, watching this amazing storm rip through town – we noticed it coming by the winds, which brought dark storm clouds. The rain intensity was not too hard in town, but it was enough to have the hotel clearing all the tables off the uncovered bits of the patio!

We really enjoyed Bulgaria, and were pleasantly surprised by how much we did like it! It was the sleeper surprise of the European trip, and we could not fathom why a lot of the tour books were so negative about it! We look forwards to our drive back through Bulgaria to the Black Sea Coast after we reach Greece, the southernmost part of our trip!

Next Up: Our big fat Greek seaside vacation

Roamin' Romania: Driving+, Vlad and Ghoulash

2010-08-11T23:32:00.000-07:00

Cluj-Napoca, Romania
We had a long drive planned from Hungary over the border, and once again, Jane the GPS routed us some goofy way --- we had no idea where we were! Finally, we saw the border and all of the guards, there were about 4 car pull-ins, but only one was open, and so we sat in line with the rest of the group, all of whom had EU or Romanian license plates. Of course, having the leased car meant we would be asked questions about taking our car over the border (many car rental companies do not allow you to do so), but we had all paperwork in order, along with our passports. Easy. So, 10 minutes later, we were over, and breathed a sigh of relief. No sooner than we had crossed the border than we saw a stray dog. We had read that there were packs of dogs that run wild and loose, especially in Bucharest. Jane the GPS then took us off of the main road, and so we were a bit concerned about where we actually were, as the map book that we have only includes a real basic map of Romania and Bulgaria. There seemed to be higher concentrations of gypsies living along the border area… these were weathered women and men all of whom had horse and carts. Of course, all the horses left their mark of the road, and we tried to avoid having a car that stunk as best we could. So when there was not a horse and cart, there were other obstacles to avoid on the road – rippled asphalt, potholes the size of Texas, tractors, farm equipment, weird pavement junctions in between roads…. It was a real interesting drive. The land was gorgeous, though, we went through rolling hills, green rolling hillocks, and clear blue skies. It was all beautiful, and rough…. There were no billboards on the side of the roads, nor many other cars on the road. Luckily, we pulled into our hotel with not too much effort, although since Jane the GPS does not know Romanian cities, we did have to stop and ask for directions.

Our full day there, we took a stroll downtown which was a very short walk down the hill and across a bridge which spanned a small river. The first thing that struck us was the old houses/ buildings that looked like haunted houses, similar to a cartoon or a Disney type happy horror film. They were grand, beautiful and run down with huge overgrown grounds. The main street kept the same theme with multi level buildings with large pointed turrets like witch hats. The shops were nice and the town had a good feel to it, even though it needed a lot of restoration work to bring it back to its former glory. At the end of the pedestrian street we found the opera house, a large fountain and a stunning Orthodox Church. We stopped in the church to admire the interior, and found there was a wedding going on! It was remarkable, and soon we felt guilty for watching, although, there were plenty of other people doing other things in the church. We noticed that people show up at any time for the wedding, and also bring their own flowers. Do you not have to be on time for an Orthodox wedding? Outisde the church, there was an animated fountain moving to the classical music playing through the speakers around the park. There were quite a few people sitting on the park benches around the fountain watching it, and a few children playing. Lovely way to spend the day, especially once we found a great pizza place called Gente Pizza down the street from our hotel - that was where all the locals were eating!

Sighiosoara
We decided to tackle our drive to Sighisoara as an early morning drive, thinking that it would deter traffic. For 8am, there seemed to be quite a bit of traffic on the road! We also saw the first working lady on the side of the road! The driving that morning, while challenging given the state of the road conditions (ripped up, mixed asphalt) and the traffic, was interesting. The scenery was always changing – from plains to hills to mountains. The clouds seemed to hug the top of the hills, and always kept moving. Additionally, the buildings are better kept than in Hungary --- many buildings seem to be colorful, modern and bright with metal banisters or gorgeous balustrades. Additionally, unlike in a few other countries, there seemed to be plenty of small roadside pensions/hotels, all complete with small restaurants and cafes.

Sighiosoara is famous for being the birthplace of Dracula, AKA Vlad Tepes, and for being one of the “big three” of famous medieval towns in Transylvania. The walk up to the medieval town was pretty steep, cobblestoned and sunny… so it was quite a workout! However, as soon as you stepped through the main gate near the citadel, you were rewarded with quite a fine view! The Clock Tower was right there, and was a fine sight to behold. The Clock Tower (from 1648) is quite famous in Romania for the small figurines located in the tower, and is a source of local pride in Sighiosara. The cool figurines in the clock represent characters from the Greek pantheon - peace bears an olive branch, law yields a sword, and figurines represent the days of the week. We also noticed that the clock was ahead one hour…. Hm. This was a little perplexing to us, and we started checking out people’s wrists. We finally found a tourist who looked like he could speak English (we did guess well as it turned out), and confirmed it was indeed one hour ahead. Oooops. At this point in time, we had been traveling in Romania for three full days and never noticed the difference, since we stayed at small pensions and hotels, which had no alarm clocks. Suddenly, a lot began to make sense … too many odd things with time had happened in the last few days. We kept walking through the gates, and found our way to the main plaza, which is where the original house of Dracula is located. It is has been remodeled and is now a fancier café restaurant. The plaza is also where the House with the Stag is located, named for obvious reasons, and is one of the best preserved houses in the town. We continued our way down small cobblestoned lanes, walking by homes that were hundreds of years old, marveling at the small bars located beneath the streets. At that time, (ok, early lunch now…), we still had the streets mainly to ourselves. We walked counter-clockwise around the area’s 14th century fortified walls on the hill, and began to find the various towers around the walls. Each of the towers is named for the old guilds (tinkers, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers…) that were responsible for their upkeep and fortifications ---- which existed until 1875. In the Tinker’s Tower you could even see the remains of cannonballs and bullets in the walls. We continued our way around the walls, and walked up to the covered stairway, which had 175 sloped, old, uneven and worn stairs to the top. Call that an ortho nightmare, especially with the stair landings that were all smooth rocks of different sizes. As soon as we got to the top, there was a small gypsy girl begging and touching people as they went by. An American guy gave her money – we wanted to tell him no – everyone says that encourages them! We walked by the 1345 gothic church on the hill, which is meant to be the prettiest Gothic church in Romania, and was built with the supervision of St. Nicholas. Probably what impressed us more was the really amazing German cemetery, which is covered with many old – and new – gravestones. We enjoyed walking around the somewhat overgrown and forested cemetery, reading the names and years. We kept hearing rustling in the weeds, and finally figured out that the area was also the home to tiny lizards which we did not expect to see!

Brasov
We had high hopes for Brasov and were excited to see the town of Dracula. We had woken up early (at the right time!) and wanted to get all the driving under our belt. As it turned out, it was a relatively “quiet” stretch of road, and took us about 2.5 hours. We were also meeting our friends Stu and Sarah in Brasov, we were excited to have friends to meet up with. Old Brasov is encircled by a 12m high wall and a one km long 15th century wall, which defended the city against the Turks. Bastions along the side of the wall were defended by a guild, whose members, pending danger, would ring the warning bells. Despite the impending looking storm clouds, we walked to the White Tower and the Black Tower, which offered nice views of the city. The view from the top of the hill was impressive, as you looked down the hill, all you could see was the center of the plaza, and a sea of orange tiled roofs. The rain did start to pelt down, but we were lucky and stayed pretty dry, since we walked through the thicker forest. We then decided to walk to the Mt. Tampa Park and see if we could find the cable car, which took you to the top. We pulled up to an antiquated small house, and purchased tickets - $3 USD apiece. What a bargain. A few minutes later, we hopped into a rusty rolling cable car that bounced and jiggled from side to side. We hoped it still functioned! The car worked, and soon we were at the top of the mountain, which was actually the site of Brasov’s initial fortress, and where Vlad Tepes actually impaled many fine folks. Now it holds a large Hollywood-like sign “Brasov” which has a viewing platform over the city below. Outside of some large mosquitoes dwelling up there, it was a fine place to spend some time. We wished we would have had a little longer – we would have hiked to the top! Having no agenda and since it was very late afternoon, we decided to pick up a two litre container of local wine and some beers and hang out outside our guesthouse. We all finished our beverages, and took up the owner’s recommendation and went to the Tudor restaurant, which was about two blocks away. The owner told us that all the locals ate there, and we would later see the restaurant advertised on a billboard. It had a lovely alfresco area, and was crowded, even when we arrived later in the evening. The meals were also delicious - we had chicken schnitzel, local sausages and local wine… $1.50 USD for a massive glass. Sarah even had venison (most expensive thing on the menu) which only cost about $8 USD!

The next day we had a late start, and headed out to Bran castle, which was an easy day trip away. Bran Castle is 60 m tall and is absolutely impressive; we wished we could be there in the winter or fog, it would have been scary and impending. Instead, we shared the view with hundreds of others in the sweltering heat! We paid our $7 USD to enter, and climbed the hill to enter the castle. Bran is famous for the setting of Dracula’s Castle, but in fact, has only an inkling of a connection. It was actually built by the Saxons in 1382 to defend Bran against the Turks, and may have housed Vlad for a few nights as he sought shelter from the Turks in 1462. The castle itself was pretty impressive, with a ton of rabbit warren-like passages and rooms, many of them built for very short people! Apparently the fountain in the courtyard also is above many secret underground passages. An English tour might have been nice – but none were offered. In any case, we might not have been interested, as the castle was so crowded, you could barely move. Christy had some big guy brush off his sweat onto her, and kept breathing down her neck; on the way out, Sarah found a booger on her calf. Too close quarters!

After the castle, we were eager to see less people and decided to take a drive into the country to find a picnic bench! We ended up at a gorgeous pull off and had an amazing simple DIY lunch, with possibly the best vista we have had in weeks!

We were pleasantly surprised by Romania; it is a contrast in both old and modern times. The scenery was stunning, and the country is still very “raw” for tourism. We were hampered by the slow driving, which makes going anywhere a small challenge. (For those of you wondering, our car is not allowed to go through Serbia due to insurance, so we had to drive that way and back in order to hit Greece!) We loved the foods, and will quite look forwards to passing through again!

Next Up: Bulgaria

Hungary: Bulls Blood, Goulash, and Why We Say No to Chinese Food

2010-08-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Zalakaros, Hungary
Our routing into Hungary took us through some backroads from Vienna, and we have to say we're really not sure where Jane the Trusty GPS had us cross the border. The former border station was just a shell of it's former self, with the windows broken out. We slowed to 40km, however, when there were no authorities on either side of the border, we kept on going. So once we passed the border, the anxiety hit, as we had heard that in Hungary there was a vignette system (prepaid highway toll) in place and there were hidden cameras that had number plate reading software. Apparently you would get a fine if you hadn’t purchased the said vignette from a local gas station. As we drove further into Hungary, we still had not located a gas station (JANE!). We finally found a gas station with an attendant who spoken a little English and he helped us buy a vignette for 10 days for about USD $11. Hurdle crossed! As it would turn out, the roads were relatively quiet since it was a Sunday. We drove for about 2 hours in Hungary, turning south towards the Lake Balaton region, and there was barely anyone on the roads. Our routing took us past some real bleak, communistic-looking small towns with serious concrete monstrosity housing near the border. However, as we kept heading south, the landscape began to look like Wisconsin - rolling hills, farms, and plenty of small two lane roads. Rows of corn and sunflower farms dotted the countryside - very pretty!

In Zalakaros, we rented an apartment with a two ring kitchentop burner, minifridge, and a real drip coffee machine. Our studio had a nice kitchen table and chairs, a queen sized bed, full bathroom, and a small semi-shaded porch with a drying rack, and al fresco outside table and chairs, which overlooked the fruit bushes (raspberries!) and gardens outside. It was perfect for us! The best thing was that we were the only occupants of the rental building until our last night there. The weather there during the week started off mild, went crazy hot (36-7), and then cool winds, storms and rains headed in for the last full day we were in the rental. We did not do too much while in our little rental, we intended it as a break from traveling!

While there for our week, we learned that the north was the nicer looking area, towards Keszthely, but did not have as nice grocery stores. The south, to Nagykanisza, soon got our nickname of “naggy hag,” due to the prostitutes that would wait on the side of the road for customers. They had some crazy outfits, including short Scottish kilts and neon bikini tops. The grocery store stops also scared us a little – the people were weird looking. We tried to avoid eye contact – there were some rough looking BIG men with huge bellies and tattoos and hard looking women with yellow dyed hair, and lots of see through plastic heels, plus some dark looking ethnic minorities. Toto?!?!?

We took some interesting jaunts to the north around the lake area. One day we drove to Badacsonytomaj and had our first lunch out at the Borbaratok, where we sampled ghoulash and pork, red cabbage and mashed pots. We learned that the food is a peasant type fare, and was quite heavy. After eating our heavy food – in the serious heat – we were ready for a nap. Alas, however, the waiter ruined that --- he told us we could have a complimentary glass of wine next door at their family winery. So, off we went! There was a local film crew there, so we eagerly tried to get on camera for again – and then in garbled Hungarian and English, we sampled some local wines. We were surprised at the fine quality of the Szurkebarat (pinot gris), Olasrizling (riesling), and Bianca, and ended up buying 2 litres in a cool green jug for $4.50 USD.

We also checked out Keszthely, sight of the Festetics Kastely castle, where the grounds were open to the public as a park. The castle was built by the family of George Fesetics hundreds of years ago, and was a gorgeous surviving castle, one of the largest in Hungary. Amazingly, a two story wing is just for a library, now open only to citizens of the city. The gardens and vistas were pretty amazing, and everyone saught shelter from the sun and heat in the cool gardens. While in town, we caught the local market, buying perfectly picked peaches, and enjoying a hearty peasant lunch of cabbage rolls and bean stew.

Budapest
We had reservations to stay inside the Castle Hill district at the Hilton, which was outstanding. Amazingly, this was one part of the city where you could park on the street for free! Our spot was directly in front of the hotel, which the hotel told us to take advantage of. The Castle Hill district was beautiful and was all within old castle walls. We had done a little bit of reading before arriving there, and were surprised at the condition of the city considering it was pretty much destroyed by both the Nazis and the Russians in World War II, due in part to Hungary changing sides during the war; therefore becoming everybody’s whipping boy. Germany retreated from Budapest and left their mark on their city by blowing up all the bridges connecting the two sides of the city. To this day, they are still finding unexploded bombs in the city ---- as many as 2500 a year. These bombs came from Germany, the Allies, Russia and Romania and the bomb disposal units have to identify them before disarming them. That must be one hell of a job! On the first afternoon we took a walk around the Castle Hill district which was very interesting. All of the buildings appeared to be at least from the 1700’s, though we knew that was not the case. Bullet holes still mark some of the walls, it is amazing! From the top of the hill you had a great view through from the wall out across the river to the Pest side of the Danube. Yes, Budapest is really made up of two historical villages, one called Buda and the other called Pest. Over time both sides have grown and become a city. The river is spanned by several bridges that have been rebuilt since the Germans blew them all up when they retreated from the Russians in WW2. The new bridges are spectacular and each has its own theme. The Castle at the end of the hill has a museum inside of it which we did not go into, however we walked all around the walls and got some great photos of the surrounding views. All in all it was a beautiful and stunning area to be in. We particularly enjoyed all the fountains which were simply stunning!

The next morning we had a plan, we decided that we would spend damn near $300USD to get our tourist visas for China which would free up the rest of the Europe trip from this task. You are only able to get them 90 days in advance of your entry into the country. We decided to “expedite” the handling of them for one day processing, and were prepared to pay an extra $90 USD to have this done. The issue was that some Chinese embassies in countries we plan to visit are only open certain days of the week – and you can not get a definitive answer on what constitutes the official number of working days that they process the visas in. Since we are country hopping, we did not have the luxury of time, nor do we like traveling without passports on us. So we got up early, ate breakfast and headed off to the Chinese Embassy on foot so we would be there for the 9am opening. The walk was about 2.5 miles and it took us into the Pest side of the river which was really amazing with massive elegant buildings and graceful tree-lined boulevards, filled with cafes and upmarket shops. We also passed the Hungarian Opera – which had to have been one of the coolest buildings! We arrived at the embassy about 25 minutes before it was due to open and were first in line. Before long, there were about 15 people waiting outside the embassy. We had completed the forms, had photos, our passports and the cash and we walked in! We were met by the most unimaginative embassy official you could ever hope to interact with. The first thing he did was look at our USA passports dismissively and asked where our Hungarian visas were. To make a long story short, it went to hell from there, and we were flatly denied and told to send our passports back or fly to the USA for processing. Right on. It was a really bad experience, and once you are denied, you have to state this on your next application. After some stress, sleepless nights and moodiness, we finally talked to the most helpful manager at American Airlines via Skype who helped us resolve our ticketing issue. As a result, we now have 19 extra days in Hawaii at the end of our trip. Um, who's the big winner?!?!?

On our last full day there, we walked through the castle palace again and headed down to the town area of Pest. We enjoyed a fine walk along the river. We found the market, which was a massive building, on the ground floor there was supposedly a fish market, however we have seen them before (and we could already smell it on the first floor) so we didn’t take the stairs down. The ground floor was fresh foods which included veggies, herbs and spices and baked goods. We had to try the chocolate goods - which turned out to be chocolate rum balls. Yum! Upstairs there were the tourist souvenirs, however as with most things in Hungary, we found them to be very expensive, or at the very least, more expensive than they needed to be. One of the funniest things in the market was a tee-shirt that said “I heart BP,” which we thought was funny because of BP (oil giant) which was still all over the news with the spill. We’re sure the Tshirt designers meant it to be BudaPest.

Eger
Our hotel was walking distance to the town and to the wine area, so we decided to hit town in search of sights and food. We really were not sure what to expect. Lonely Planet has said there was no reason to NOT like it, so we decided – hesitantly - that this must be a good sign. Sure enough, it was one of the highlights from our Hungary trip! It is famous for the old baroque buildings in town, large pedestrian streets and the Eger Fortress, or castle … and the famous bull’s blood wine.

We first came to the Basilica, which is is the only classicist building in town, and the second largest church in Hungary, built in 1831. Quite honestly it looked like The Pantheon, it was massive, bright colored, and was covered on the roof with amazing life-sized statues. We were sufficiently wowed and kept walking…. We saw town’s other interesting sights, the Provost’s Palace, the Lyceum and the Minaret, which is the northernmost historical building from the Turkish era in Europe. Town’s main square had amazing larger-than-life statues commemorating the victory over the Turkish in 1552. Sadly, however, this was not the end to the Turks, who re-took the city again in 1596, and occupied the town for another 91 years. We kept walking and marveled at the town, it was gorgeous. The nice thing was that it was not crawling with tourists, and even the locals were all out and walking. Many were sitting in the village square and having lunches and drinks in the small cafes ringing the pedestrian streets. We had such a good time, we stopped to try a special delicacy, which is a hollow tube shaped cake which comes in different flavors. We had our cake fresh off of the “cake spit,” which cooked it. It was melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon goodness. It sort of had a monkey bread taste to it (for those of you in the states that remember that childhood treat!) We could have kept eating more, and we wish we knew the name of what it was. By the time all was said and done, it was almost dinnertime (or mosquito eating time!), so we decided to walk to our hotel, and have a meal at the Western Etterem, which was adjacent to our hotel. There was a steady stream of people pulling into the restaurant when we had arrived earlier, and the hotel owner had recommended it, so why not? We were not disappointed, and found that the food was really good! Marcus had schnitzel and Christy had veal ghoulash with spaetzle, washed down with a few local glasses of wine. The meal cost about $25, which was a really good treat, although not the healthiest.

The next day we took our time in the morning, and headed off to Szepasszonv-volgy, which means the Valley of the Beautiful Woman, at 11am, which is a famous wine valley. The ancient valley was named after a goddess of pre-historic religion to whom sacrifices were apparently made, although other folklore talks of a famous beautiful woman who used to sell wine in this area out of one of the cellars. Never-the-less, archivists are unable to tell how old the cellars actually are. Cellars are actually carved into the rolite tufa rock, and maintain a temperature – permanent – of 10-15 degrees Celsius. The Eger region is famous for the “egri bikaver,” or the “bull’s blood,” a registered trademark. The wine is a blend of at least three grape varietals, giving most of the wines a ripe bouquet, some with more of a tannin note. We were novices and did not know how to taste there or how to buy…so we struck out on our own.

We came across one cellar, where the young man invited us to try some wine. He ended up pouring wines from the expensive bottled wines, which were quite pricy at between 20-25 USD! We had seen signs for litres of wine starting at 1.50 USD! So we now knew a good, fun fact – if you want to buy, try the liter wines, which were not as expensive. This proved to be true at all of the vineyards we tried. So after we bought a glass of wine, we learned you could sample, buy a glass if you liked (ours cost 50 cents USD!), and then buy wine in litres, half litres, etc. Some people bought in their own containers (empty Coke or water bottles), and if you did not have your own, the cellars would sell plastic bottles for a small fee. We slowly headed in a clockwise fashion around the valley, and tasted at Prokaj Pinceszet#26, where the woman had to be the nicest, and we met up with two hilarious Spaniards. They were also deciding where their next vacation was going to be… between get this… New Zealand and China. We talked a hard talk, and think we made some decisions easy for them! We then carried on with the Spaniards to the #40 Juhasz Peter Pinceszete, where the Spaniards continued their hilarity. The afternoon went on, and the Spaniards left to find food in town, and we met some Aussies from Melbourne, who had just lived in Auckland. As it happens, they were traveling the long way round the world, too! We had a nice chat with them, and listened to the gypsy music on the deck enjoying the day. We then winecellar crawled for a bit and ended up at #27, where it was getting to be dinnertime. We loved it (who would not at that point… 6 hours into the day?!?!?) and bought a two litre bottle of red wine there, before all heading back home. It was a great day, but let's just say the 6 hour drive into Romania the next day was not as fun.

We really liked Hungary and were appreciative of the time we had to get to know the country. The scenery was lovely, and it was like being back in the rolling hills of glacier-carved Wisconsin. Budapest was a wonderful surprise, and Eger was a real trip highlight. We found Hungary to be more expensive than we thought, especially foods, gifts and goods. We were glad to keep moving for a few reasons, though… We had to get away from the Austrian/Hungarian style toilets! Let’s just say we called them “display” style… they had a really short drop to the large flat bowl, and then a small flushing hole. That should be enough of a description – gross.

Next Up: Roamin' Romania

Austria... the hills were not alive with the Sound of Music since everyone was inside trying to stay cool!

2010-07-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

Innsbruck, Austria
The first part of the journey started off well enough… the ride was fast and easy along the German autobahn. The landscape soon became amazing ... all of the sudden the Alps appeared in the haze! It was stunning scenery – you could see the sheer jaggedness of the grey rocks in the distance, which was in stark contrast to the bright blue sky. We were baffled as to why there was no snow on the peaks ---- we barely saw any! The scenery up to the mountains began to appear rolling and green, dotted with cows grazing and gorgeous little houses with the whitewash and dark wood and flowerboxes. It was precious! After we crossed the border into Austria, however, the road changed from the autobahn into a slow one lane road car parade, complete with camper vans, trucks, and motorcycles all getting impatient. Add to this the fact that we were climbing in altitude, and we were burning a ton of gas going up the mountains in slow motion. It was pathetic! We kept going and the roads got even worse and curvy, in slow motion with a stick shift car…. And that was the end of it for Christy: hello car sickness. At least we got a good picture out of it - see left. We finally made it to the hotel, took in a ton of water to combat altitude and the heat, and napped. After the nap, we both made it up and were starving… we had not eaten really since the day prior at lunch. We walked all the way around the town without finding anything… since it was a Sunday most things were closed. Then, the cutest noise and sentence came out of Marcus… “Oh…… is that a Burger King crown…. Look…” and even though Christy has contacts, she could barely make out what he was looking at, but as we walked closer, we could see what it was: the BK logo! We hoped it was open, as it was right across the road from the train station, and sure enough it was open! It was like a gift from the gods for $18 USD. Hey, at least we own some YUM stock.

In Innsbruck, we did what we considered to be “the thing” to do in Austria…. Go hiking! We drove to Hungerburg, which was where the cable cars took off from, and decided to hike up until the next cable car stop, and possibly ride down from where we hiked up to. Our hike was straight up the side of the mountain, was not very scenic as we went through thick forests with no views, and went on and on for about 3 hours; we only stopped at one hut (small rest mountain houses that serve food and have overnight lodging) to eat our sandwiches we had packed. About 7km (all uphill) into the hike, we came to the mountain hut Bodenstein Alm at 1661 m. We decided to stop and have a soda there and sit. The last 1.4 km had a marker that said it was 50 minutes to the cable car stop, and appeared to be straight up the alpine scrub. We decided to stop and descend the mountain using the access road, as it was nearly 2:45pm in the afternoon, and there seemed to be a tendency for afternoon showers. The hike left us with awful black fly bites (they draw blood!), sore glutes for a few days, and one tick on Marcus' inner thigh (sorry no photos). Yuck!

Innsbruck's very close proximity to the mountains was pretty amazing – we were thisclose to the mountains! As for town, it was ok... but a little dull after the fun we had in Germany. The river that cut through town was pretty amazing – it was a very fast moving river, it seemed be quite high, and was filled with brown swirling water. It had poured the night before, so we wondered if the rains were washing down from the mountains? A nice stay for three days but we were eager to move on.

St. Georgen, Austria
Our next drive was focused on routing us across the country in order to get to Vienna, so we decided to find a scenic spot, about two hours into the country after leaving Innsbruck. So once we hit Mondsee, and pulled off at the tourist information office. The area is meant to be full of a few lakes, with towering granite cliffs, and very scenic. In the office, Christy asked for a hiking map, and the young girl gave her one, ad circled points of interest. This was great – until she charged us for a map! That galls us – if you are trying to highlight your area – why SELL maps?!?!? We kept driving around the lake. Finally we found what most of the locals did – pulled off one some small little access roads and found a grassy verge to have a picnic on. We had a great lakeside picnic, enjoying the views and watching all the Austrians swim in the clear blue lake. The Austrians do seem to have some funny beach traits, though. All of them walk around in their bathing suits … doesn’t matter how young, old, skinny, or heavy you are. It’s all there hanging out, even as you eat, or even… ride your bike. Seriously, we saw some very beer-bellied seniors wearing speedos biking along the road. That night, we stayed in a small pension in Sankt Georgem, which was a very small village with only a few houses and the B&B. It turned out to be quite good though, the rooms were huge, and there was maybe one other guest. We had a wander downstairs for dinner, and had a lovely simple meal of spinach crepes and schnitzel, with local drinks.

Senftenberg, Austria
Our next night in the middle of Austria was also determined by the proximity to Vienna, and was about 2 hours away from the St. Georgen area. We decided that we would ride the autobahn out of town by 1.5 hours, and then take the small backroads along the river, which was highlighted as “scenic” on the map. Well, the map did not lie, and we had an entirely scenic ride along the Donau river. The Donau was a fast moving broad river, which had bike paths along both sides of the river. The driving was slow, and went through small picturesque Austrian villages along the way. Villages are cute and tidy, but for the most part are very quiet. After a stop at a local grocery store, we again picked up some provisions for a picnic, and sat by the side of the river, and had a nice picnic lunch. It has become quite an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon! We pulled into our pension in Senftenberg in the mid-afternoon heat, hoping to have an escape in a cool old building. However, after a few hours of driving and lots of water – Christy needed to use the bathroom. As soon as we entered the bar/restaurant area, Christy made a beeline for the toiletten sign. However, as she walked, there were blackboards set up in a large room, hiding what was in the room. As the blackboards stopped, she heard noises. She turned to find a naked woman in her 50's sitting NAKED on top of a table, and a bunch of people sitting around tables and desks looking at her. Christy quickly turned on her heels and the people in back yelled something, to which she just yelled, “I’m sorry!” If this was not awkward enough, she walked back through the restaurant area to find Marcus in the bar area, talking to a man in no pants. AWKWARD! If that was not bad enough, she had to shake his hand, and try not to laugh! Leo turned out to be the owner and explained that it was too hot to wear pants.

With the afternoon heat not cutting any slack in the hot hotel room, we decided to get some exploring in, and went to hike on the hills in town to climb to the Ruine Senftenberg, which was an old castle. Townspeople have lovingly restored a good portion of the castle, and it is a showpiece in their town. It is also used for many parties and events in the summer months, and we could understand why. Views were spectacular across the valleys and the air was much cooler with lovely breezes at the top. The village itself was adorable and was pretty quiet, with many of the houses having the huge wooden or metal shutters closed over their windows, trying to keep the houses cooled down. That evening, we decided to head to Weinbau Fam. Prosenitch-Eichelmann, which had been recommended by our innkeeper as a good place to get cheap food and good wines. The walk down to the tavern was pretty easy and quick – about 5 minutes walking – and we noted the storm clouds that seemed to be creeping up on the horizon. You could actually hear thunder off in the distance, but it did not sound like real thunderstorms – only heat induced rumbles. At the restaurant, we sat in the open air courtyard, and had our own picnic bench, which was lucky, as it was a packed restaurant. The hostess was really nice, and spoke a little English. She was able to half-translate the menu for us, and gave us some recommendations on what to eat and drink. The wine tavern made their own wines, and everyone was drinking it…. And we ended up tasting a .5 l of the rose and a .5 l of the white…. It ended up going down nice and easy in the heat. We then ended up ordering two platters: the first was a meat platter, which had all different types of “lunchmeats” on it, including hams, Serrano hams, a roast beef, accompanied by hard boiled eggs, a paprika cheese/yogurt dip, a garlic/parsley cheese/yogurt dip, horseradish and some pickles. The second dish she had described as a meat salad with cheese, pickles and tomatoes and eggs. We were envisioning a lettuce salad with the same accompaniments…. But what actually came out was a diced version of a processed meat (which sort of looked like a bologna but did not quite have the same taste), processed cheese slices, and pickles, mixed in a balsamic vinegar type sauce, with hard boiled eggs. It looked pretty … wrong…. And we wish we would have had our camera. However, we are happy to report that it was pleasant enough to eat. Shortly after finishing the food, however, it started to rain, so we moved to a table under the eaves, and shared a table with a few other folks.

Vienna, Austria
The next day, we had a slow morning and decided that we would stop in Krems, which was the larger village in the area, and purportedly the center of wine production. The village itself was larger than we anticipated, although quite manageable in size. Just a note for anyone visiting Europe, as a rule the locals do not like to pay for parking, so all it takes a little bit of driving around and you will find an area where the locals park that will be free. Without exception we have found this to be true in most small to medium sized cities. Krems was not an exception. Krems was also in the middle of an apricot festival so we decided to check out the apricot products.... They were selling apricot juice, jam, syrup, schnapps, kuchen balls, cakes, liquors, and anything else imaginable. We also tried a poppyseed liquer in one of the tourist shops, which tasted like eggnogg!

We arrived at our friends' Jon and Judit's house in Vienna that afternoon. We were impressed by their neighborhood, the houses were huge and neighborhood in general was very up market, we learned later that the area was one of two very expensive neighborhoods in Vienna; there were actually several embassies in the area. The next morning we got up early and went for a jog into the Schonbrunn castle area, which is about one km away from their apartment. It was amazing – the sight of the Hapsburg’s summer palace. There were gardens and fountains galore, a huge palace now divided up into apartments and a restaurant, and the entire grounds were open to the public beginning at 6am. Once in the gorgeous gardens, we saw our fair share of early morning joggers, all eager to have the heat of the day in front of them, as we were. Thankfully the tall trees and shrubs gave us a ton of shade at that time. We took in the rest of the city later with our friends and their adorable baby Klara.... first, we were shown around the city flea market, which was half-way rained out. There were some interesting looking goods there, but a lot was being packed up since it had started to rain hard! That market actually led directly to the Naschmarkt market, which was an amazing outside fresh veggie and fruit market, about 4 blocks long. They had the hold on amazing looking goods, even freshly-picked herbs and even dragonfruit! There were also a lot of restaurants and cafes… it was a whole smorgasboard of amazing looking food. By the end of walking through there, we kept walking through the neighborhood and realized how hungry we were, and ended up having lunch at the city’s only bagel café. We finally had our first real bagels and cream cheese after leaving the US last September! After lunch, we went by the Karlsplatz church, the Musicverein opera house, the site of the famous NYE gala ball, Ringstrasse street (which had notably good shopping), and then paused to admire the massive Vienna Opera House. Later that night, the downtown area was the site of a huge opera gala called the Live Ball. Every year there was a theme, and this year’s was something to the effect of “it’s alive outside….” As we walked through the downtown area, we saw two men at a salon getting their hair done up ---- with spiders on their faces and heads. Wow! Bill Clinton was a famous guest there, and Whoopi Goldberg played a large role in it…. We wished we would have known! Downtown Vienna has amazing looking buildings, all in a gorgeous architectural style, huge and really impressive. We wish we would have longer to admire the city!

Next Up: Hungary!

Germany: World Cup Madness, Beer, Sausage & Good Friends

2010-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

We started off our German adventure with great enthusiasm. Christy is of German (not forgetting the Polish part either) heritage, and we both were really keen to visit Germany – especially to see some of the areas that we had never seen before. We planned our route based on the Rhine River, a few stays with friends, and areas we really wanted to see (grapes! hills! small villages!)

Cologne
After picking up our leased car in Lille, we set up the new GPS, and we were off! It was a little confusing as our GPS does not give line by line driving directions, so we never knew where we were. Our drive took us through a tiny part of France, back through Belgium, and then into Cologne, Germany. That night we were staying with friends Gloria and her husband Biagio, a truly international couple (she's Mexican, he's Italian, and they are living in Germany); we had plans to watch the Germany game. Since the weather looked inclement, and the train did not go all the way to downtown (due to the number of people in the square and in front of the tracks), we first went to a small bar downtown where we had a few Kolsch beers while watching the game. They cost about $2.80 USD apiece, and the barman just kept bringing trays around to people since they are only smaller glasses. We then went to a brewery downtown - the bar was a little crazy – a good mix of young and old, and the ones that had been drinking, plus one barking dog perched on its owners lap. It was a convivial group that got louder and louder as it became clearer and clearer who would win. Germany won 4-0! At the end, everyone went crazy and danced, and the bar played Madonna’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” which was classic. As we walked through town, there was also a huge gay festival happening, so there were all sorts of colorful people celebrating. The main street in town was also closed off, full of people waving flags, singing and mulling about – later we would hear fireworks from downtown. The streets that were open around downtown became an informal parade route, with beeping cars and people hanging out car windows and waving flags. The crazy thing as that there was no heavy police presence, it was all quite calm. Downtown Cologne was also impressive - a nice mix of shops, a lovely cathedral, cafes - all along a river. That night, Biagio made us homemade pizza, which was outstanding! It was quite possibly the best pizza we have had in ages, and we ate it all, followed by ice cream and appertifs for dessert. Europeans really know how to entertain, and we were sorry to move on!

Rhine River Drive/Mainz
The Rhine River was quite broad and fast moving, and flanked by roads on either side, along with bike paths on either side. Our road had quite a low speed limit and was one way in either direction, so we were able to enjoy the views. For a few miles, the land was flat, then soon enough, there were hills and bluffs, which also soon became covered with vineyards. Then we started playing, “Hey look there’s a castle!”… there was one every few minutes on both sides of the river. It was outstanding, and something we have never seen before. We stopped in Koblenz, which is where the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine rivers occurs. Both are important rivers, particularly for the respective areas of viniculture. We had a really good time at a local festival there, especially watching a local "battle of the bands."

Rothenburg ob der Tauber “over the Tauber” (river)
We pulled into Rothenburg in the sweltering mid afternoon heat. We disregarded our GPS directions initially as we did not think our hotel was actually in the walled city, but turns out, it was located immediately within, so we took a small one lane bridge straight in. Fortunately, the Gasthof Breiterle had its own small parking lot, which was very convenient. Rothenburg is a walled medieval town dating back hundreds of years; in 1142 King Konrad erected the Imperial Castle and slowly, a community developed around the site and it became a strategic town, noted for it’s hillside location, moat, and tall walls. Two prominent churches were also located in town, including St. Jacob’s, which is meant to have the most impressive altar in Germany, and holds a drop of Christ’s blood. Rothenburg also had medieval walls that you could walk on, at least for a portion of some of the city. However, we learned that some wall portions were destroyed in 1945, but were rebuilt over 20 years with the help of donations, beginning in the 70’s. We saw someone from Elmhurst, Illinois who had donated, and had his name on a brick! As it turns out 40% of the eastern part of the city was destroyed, but rebuilt, and the entire city is now protected by preservation laws.

Our first afternoon there, we took a long walk around the town. We’re not sure where we read that Rothenburg was adorable, but everyone else seemed to have it on their radar screen as well. We even saw busloads of Japanese! The Castle Gate was really neat, and there was a mask on the wall where hot pitch was poured onto attackers; there is still a black stain at the bottom of this face! One of our favorite sites in town was called the Plonlein, or “Little Square,” which was a small medieval square with a picturesque house. Town was just so cute you wanted to squeeze its cheeks! Town also had outstanding water fountains --- for drinking water and for fire purposes, since housing materials were very flammable and posed a great threat. We saw one fountain that had a statue that looked like a popular religious figure on a coffee chain’s corporate logo.

Rothenburg also had really great eating options, which is something else we noticed as we had started to head away from Belgium --- the food got better looking and became cheaper! We saw a ton of restaurants selling sausages from their windows, and also some good looking small eateries. The first night we were there we tried a restaurant on the plaza. Yes, we know that restaurants usually that are located on the plaza are not the best to eat at – quality, quantity and price-wise. However, this trended against that – the prices were about 8-12 euros for the main German fare (schnitzel, sausages, etc.), and were immense. Christy ordered pork, and it came with three massive cuts, a huge bowl of red cabbage and two large dumplings. In addition to the huge sizes of beer that they served, we felt like we won the food lottery! Lastly, there seemed to be a regional specialty of “schneeballen,” which (we think) is an … end product of leftover pie crust which is baked/fried into a large ball. This eventually led to an evolvement of the delicacy, and newer forms of it found it in various chocolate or caramel or sprinkle covered forms. Crazy, but we tried it!

Ulm
In our hurried research to learn more about the area we were driving through, we came across the Romantic Road, which was a small road of castles and small medieval towns stretching from mid-country to the border of Austria. In Rothenburg, we were able to garner a map with English information on highlights of the entire German Romantic Road, which had more information than we were able to find on our own. Our favorite town we stopped at was Nordlingen, which was magical, and looked like a German Disney. All of the houses were tall and had many floors, painted bright colors, with brimming colorful flowerboxes in every window. All of the houses if not colored, were built in the white walled-dark timber fashion, and were simply huge! Some of the roofs held stork nests, which we have not seen since Spain! The town center was big enough to host a few guesthouses; and we likely would have stayed had we not had plans elsewhere. There were enough shops and restaurants and a nice town vibe. We filled our German sausagefest wish again, this time with a street vendors’ specialty, which were two long thin sausages in a small bun. We sat and ate guiltily on the church plaza, enjoying the sausage and shade.

We drove into Ulm to stay with friends Maike and her boyfriend Andi, who lived in a popular area of Ulm, one of the last stops on the tram to the west side of Ulm. Their neighborhood was really quiet and residential, and really adorable! That night, Andi grilled a smorgasboard of meats and sausages, including one local specialty called “fire sausage,” that was a thin very long spicy sausage. We also met their neighbors, Tina and Matt, and found out Matt was a New Zealand transplant. At one point, Maike brought out a bottle of schnapps and gave us all a shot of it. She explained that it was given to her by her grandfather who had just turned 100; he swore the schnapps was the secret to long life.

The next day we left early to avoid the heat of the day to climb the Ulm Munster. Surprisingly, it was relatively inexpensive to ascend- only 4 euros to climb 768+ stairs and get an incredible view. If the weather cooperated you could see the Alps, some 2 hours driving away! The Ulm Munster was completed in 1890, and – amazingly – survived heavy bombing during World War II. The climb actually took part in three stages, an ascent to the first level, where people were going both up and down, which was hot, but not too challenging. This brought you to a veranda and floor where you could see the bells below; we joked about who would be put in the pulley and wheeled down to bang the bells, which turned out to be automatic anyways. This level had a really nice wider (but fenced for the “jumpers”) verandah around this floor. The next ascent took us up further up a narrow one way tower, where a sign pronounced “no way down,” and left us at the top of one belltower, where we started to get a little more freaked out due to the heights. The next level was really freaky – you climbed inside an actual spire, which had barely covered stone windows.The city centre of Ulm is gorgeous, and really pretty, and maybe our favorite in Germany so far. The newer parts of the city had a modernistic sleekness. The older section of the city was built along the primary river, and a smaller section of the river, which ran through the buildings. We loved the older section of the city, where the clear river ran right through between older buildings, brimming with the flowerboxes, it was just spectacular. The town hall building, which dated back from 1370, had the most amazing frescoes. This is the section of the city also known as the Fishermen’s and Tanner’s Quarters (also the most expensive real estate!), where, during the Ulm Festival, they water joust.

That night, we had plans for the group of us to head to Wilder Mann, a downtown bar to watch Germany battle for 3rd place in the World Cup. We were there about 2.5 hours early, and we thought, based on the amount of activity we had all day, we would need a nap by the riverfront. However, as the hours went by, the crowds gathered, and the craziness ensued. We saw a Bier Bike go by, slowly pedaling and singing… check out www.bierbike.de to see what they look like. (Incidentally the company claims to be calorie neutral and produces zero emissions… hilarious!)Finally, the game played, and the crowds went wild! As soon as the Germans won… we heard a rumor that the Wild Mann was offering free beer. Let's just say a good time was had by all, there was even dancing and arms up in the air, we had a blast!

Germany was simply put, so much fun! We truly thank the friends and new friends we met there --- you made our stay so much more special! :) Germany is a fantastic place to visit - easy roads, great foods, and amazing scenery. We had such a good time we're routing ourselves for our return trip to hit northern Germany!

Next Up: How will Austria compare?

Belgium and one day in France... back to the Continent

2010-07-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Brussels, Belgium
We started off our journey really early in the morning – 4:15am to be exact! We had to be up and out to catch our 8am flight, and we had no idea what to expect at the airport nor on the 40 minute drive to the airport. We thought that the airport would be quiet at 6am, especially at that time of day! Our drive in only took about 35 minutes, and we easily dropped off the car in the Budget lot. No luck with a quiet airport - it was a madhouse since the school holidays had begun the day prior!

Our flight to Brussels on the commuter jet was easy – it only took us 1.5 hours, and when we landed, it appeared really different! The land was flat, green, pasturelands and …. SUNNY! We easily got our luggage and headed off, deciding to take the airport train downtown to the Metro to our hotel. It was a pretty straightforward journey, which took one transfer and a new ticket, and a little caution on our part – pickpockets were in operation! About 1.5 hours later, we rolled up to the hotel. In Brussels, we heard about the antiques market, which turned out to be right up the road from us. It was a darling little market, all of all kinds of higher end treasures, including rings and jewelry (for Christy), pocket watches (Marcus), and general neat silverware, paintings and other antiquities. Next up – it was time to check out what the Mannequin Pis was wearing… it is this tiny statue of a small boy who is urinating into a fountain. The city loves him, and has devoted a museum to his clothing, as he is dressed every day in something different. We wonder what that person’s resume reads like!!! Every tourist shop around the city sells Mannequin Pis souvenirs, for example, you can buy garden figures which will water your garden in the shape of the statue, chocolates in the shape of the statue, and a cork screw where the screw part replaces the statues' nether regions, we kid you not! We carried onto the Comic Museum, where Marcus shopped at the gift shop, looking at comics about Lucky Luke, Smurfs, Tintin and Asterix, while Christy sat on - free- email. We then walked back to the hotel via the Plaza (which was quite ornate), Old Town, the park and palace, which were wonderful, filled with lots of locals and tourists having a good weekend day.

Brussels was interesting, as it was a very cosmopolitan city, but it did not grab us necessarily. We found the city was very urban and chic, and thought we looked scruffy walking around in our shorts. We also found it to be really overly expensive. Most luncheon entrees started at 15 euros – and that was at the cheaper cafes. It was a lot of sticker shock for us, and we were not as prepared for it!

Bruges, Belgium
Our train ride to Bruges was fairly simple… we only had to walk 20 minutes to the Central train station and buy tickets. However, we were a little befuddled at the station since we walked in on the pedestrian entrance, which is where the tracks were. We eventually figured it out, and went upstairs with our – heavy – bags to buy tickets. Two tickets to Bruges cost 25 euros total, and we were happy that the train only took an hour.

In any event, we rolled ourselves 20 long and hot minutes away to our B&B Het Wit Beertje, or, the “Little White Bear” B&B. It was located right outside the city gates, and was a really cute small rowhouse. It was located only one block away from the canal, and the city gates, in more of a residential neighborhood. We had vowed to start eating less cheese and white bread (our favorite foods which we had been eating too much of), but it was hard at the B&B.... breakfast was amazing! We had a full basket of breads – two sweet rolls, two sandwich rolls, crackers, wheat breads – meats, two types of cheeses, yogurt and fruit. Delicious!

The town of Bruges was really adorable – it was large enough to have a great variety of shops and restaurants and restaurants in the city center. The city was surrounded by a series of moats and canals and little rivers, which added to the allure. People in town also dressed up – everyone was in heels and dresses or suits and more formal wear. Cafes filled up during the day and late afternoon, but would empty by 6pm, in preparation for the early closing of EVERYTHING in town. Even the grocery store closed at 7pm! There were several large city plazas in town, including one main one where all the streets seemed to radiate from. Our B&B owner warned us not to eat anywhere in the center of town – as we would pay close to 6 euros per coffee. We took this advice to heart and planned our meals - and eating times - very carefully, especially as we noticed that the food was very expensive in the restaurants. So one night we ate at a pasta bar, with indoor seating, which seem to be all the rage in Bruges. Pasta bars generally have one up to several types of pasta and sauces… where you pick the size of pasta, the sauce, and the type of pasta. If you want it to go, it is served to you with a fork, and in a container similar to a Chinese take out box. Everyone was walking down the streets with hot pasta – but miraculously – no one was wearing any.

We spent a lot of time in Bruges walking the streets and seeing the sights… we had no guidebooks which meant we had no agenda for two full days. One day we walked to Saint Salvation Church, which was an ancient church dating way back. Throughout the years, the church had been rebuilt, each architectural style was replaced, and sometimes buried with new additions on top. Archeologists found Roman-style crypts buried beneath a newer wing of one of the church additions. The inside of the church was eerie (check out the picture of the statue) – it seemed as if the church was undergoing a massive renovation, while still being an active church. The church had different chapels, all of which held amazing things, many of them saint’s relics.

Lille, France
We pulled into the Lille Flanders Station, and were pleased to find out that our hotel was literally right across the street from the Flanders Station. Our hotel Le Napoleon was panned in Tripadvisor, and we had no expectations, but were pleasantly surprised. We stayed there since we had planned to arrive in Lille that afternoon, and pick up our car lease from the Lille Eurostar station the next morning.

We had a lovely time walking around Lille, especially the old town, which was outstanding. The streets were cobblestoned, and the boulevards wide, although there was not as much green space to the city and it did seem to have a seamier aspect. However, the heat made us tired, so after a fresh home-made yogurt each, we went back to the hotel for a siesta. It is not only Spain that siestas!

That evening, we checked out Carrefour, the grocery store, which was located in the mall across the road. Yes, their are groceries in malls, which sounds strange, but is something we noticed in both Europe and in Australia. We went through Carrefour and nearly fell over – the wine aisle had an aisle just dedicated to rose wines (our favorite wine for hot weather)! Additionally, the cheeses were also too amazing, and there was a separate cheese deli! We had to make a decision on cheese since we were only in France for one day – and decided to forego the great cheese and white bread two-day fast – and had pecorino and goat cheese and a stick of bread along with a homemade salad to balance it out. MMMMMM.

So in the end, we enjoyed our stay in Belgium and as always, enjoyed France. We were excited to be done with public transport for a bit and looked forwards to our lease car and Germany!

Next Up - Germany by autobahn!

Scotland by car...

2010-06-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh
We arrived in Scotland happy to be on the ground, and found the Airlink 100 bus that took you to the downtown areas – one stop at Haymarket and one to the central station. The cost was really inexpensive - 3.5 GBP each way – for a bus that came every 10 minutes, was double decker with a huge baggage area, and free wifi onboard. Perfect! We got off the bus at the Haymarket bus stop and looked around in a pretty bewildered state, and within one minute someone stopped and asked if we needed help. This repeated itself a few times in Scotland - world's nicest people!

Our first full day there, we saw the Edinburgh Castle, a magnificent castle which perches right on top of the hill, and is still used by royalty. Of course, it is not free to enter, so we admired the view and took a few pictures before carrying on. From there, you are able to walk up the Royal Mile, which is filled with government buildings and universities, typical tourist shops, cafes, restaurants, museums and kiosks with local artisan wares. And if you veer off to the sidestreets, some of them are actually bridges! You can look over the edge of them, and you are several stories up – and the storefronts that you think are on the ground level, are in fact, on the 4th or 5th level of the building. Strange, but cool! Edinburgh is also very well signed posted, with historical markers galore (even on old pubs) telling the story of Old Edinburgh. At the very end of the Royal Mile, we found a small garden, land which had been reclaimed by the government, and returned to the people. Since the area had historically been for brewery workers and had been a park, the locals decided they wanted to have a small garden with landscaping reminiscent of what the park would have been like years ago. At the very bottom of the Mile were a few attractions that were simply outstanding, the Holyrood Palace, the Scottish Parliament and the Holyrood Park. Holyrood Palace is the home of the Queen when she is in Scotland, and is a gorgeous massive structure which can be toured. We admired the fine gates and the greens around the pace, which looked more like a castle. Due to Christy’s background (ex-Washington D.C. worker), we had to stop at the Scottish Parliament (SP), which was a curious building, and actually looked like something we might see in New Zealand. The building was all concrete and glass, with odd angles, light blonde wood ornamentation and beautiful streamlined fountains in front. The building said it was open to the public so in we went. It was a really stunning building, and we thought that the SP would be hard pressed to not back any environmentally-friendly initiatives due to the amazing view outside the windows. Our last day there, we decided to attack the Holyrood Park, which was at the far end of the Old Town, which had gorgeous hills you could walk up to see the views. It took us about an hour to walk down to that area of town, which we did at a brisk pace, and luckily, most of it was all downhill, and the tourist traffic was light at that time of day. The park is massive and is composed of several really large steep hills, covered by craggy rocks, lichens and green grass. Since it was a Saturday, there were many more people out and about on it then the day before. Many locals also had their dogs out, and we watched and laughed as some of the sheep dogs and springer spaniels bounded about, looking for small animals to hunt or elusive sheep to herd.

Scottish Highlands
The next morning, we were up early for our big drive. We were able to have a nice full breakfast and then decided to trot down to the airport bus stop one block away to pick up our rental car at the airport. We barely missed the first bus, and we thought it would be quite some time before another bus pulled up. Actually it took 8minutes!

Our drive took us through Cairngorms National Park, which is where our hotel was located. To be fair, we really did not know much about where we were going or staying, one of the “surprises” that comes with not having a guidebook. We had not even heard of this national park, or Ballater where we were staying, which was a shame, as we would have spent much more time in this area. The area took up a large swath of the highlands, and had mountains, forests, brooks and streams, lochs (lakes), and alpine mountains and glades. As we entered the area, it was simply amazing! We started to ascend through these really small little roads, which were traffic free. The scenery was stunning – huge hills that were covered with red scrubby brush or yellow gorse, and craggy. It really was alpine, and something we did not expect to see. Certain areas of the land are also open sheep grazing, and there were some funny signs on the side of the road warning you to slow down. Our base town was home to the Ballater station, an important train stop, which was used for Queen Victoria’s visits to the Scottish Highlands. Ballater was also quite cute – there were a few cafes, two small Cooperative grocery stores, a jewelry store, a few churches and more inns and B&B’s. It was quite a good base for travel, as opposed to some of the other towns on the same road that really did not have much to offer (Crathie and others further south). There is also a royal castle at Balmoral in the adjoining town, Crathie, which is more like a park with its sprawling huge grounds. The Royal Lochnagar Distillery is also next door, which must have pleased the Queen! We were not as impressed, as the people working in the distillery were a little snobby. We decided that we would stop visiting the distilleries after that, as what we were looking for (no tours – just paid tastings at a small bar with an explanation) were not available. Once up north, we really noticed that it never really got dark - this picture was taken at 10:30pm from our hotel deck!

Inverness
We were a little nervous about heading north to Inverness, but the drive there easily took it off our minds.... We had frantically booked a place to stay a few days earlier, as everywhere we found online was really expensive. We finally found one within our budget, which said it had street parking and internet and was within walking distance to downtown. All those things were true, and so we also breathed a sigh of relief that we would have the bathroom to ourselves since the owner had not rented the other room out. However, at the end of the night, we determined that we DID share the bath…with the owner (who always seemed to be in there). This was just wrong!

Inverness was a medium sized town situated next to a river, and had a caste in town. It was supposed to be a tourist stop for the highlands area, but it did not seem overly touristy. Many of the people walking on the streets were locals not just tourists, it seemed! We did notice that an overabundance of barbers and salons in town seemed to be “all male” barbers or salons in town. It was weird – there were three such shops in one block alone (maybe there were wolfmen in town). We did find a sweet little pub with food specials and good beers on tap to watch the World Cup match. Argentina was playing, and there was an Argentinian watching the game at the bar in his team jersey – every few minutes he would belt out a Spanish “Ohhhhh Maradona" and have the rest of the bar laughing at him. Guess the Scottish are still reserved. The bar also had a good whiskey menu, where we picked two to try at the end of the night. We decided it was more cost and time effective to try a few at the bar and also buy a few miniatures rather than sit through whiskey tours.

Fort William
That morning, we got our hike in at the Falls of Foyers, which was a nice trail down to gorge which had a huge waterfall. Apparently Robert Louis Stevenson wrote some famous poems there too! There were several different trailheads there, and we also took the “red squirrel walk,” which also had with CCTVs to monitor the squirrel population. We did not note any squirrel population that was active while we were there. We know of a place called Chicago where they can get a lot more common squirrels from!

The main street in Fort William was pedestrian only which was really nice, and we walked it. There was also a really long paved path along the foggy lake, which was impressive. The rain started to fall at this time, which was quite a nice change from the bright and sunny weather that we had experienced to date. That night, we went to the bar in the hotel for a beer and to watch the soccer on the big screen. One funny thing about the pubs in Scotland is their ability to attract all sorts of people during any time of the day. We have seen grade school kids, teens, and in this case, there was an elderly couple having tea at 8pm while watching the game. How cute!

Crianlarich
We decided that we would have an inside day, as the weather was quite cool and gloomy. We ended up deciding to go and see the Harry Potter Bridge, which was really very touristy for us! We drove to Glenfennis, which is about 25 minutes drive from Fort William. We pulled up, and there were several seniors tour buses, and they were all waiting. We had no idea what the fuss was about, until one senior yelled at Marcus to take his picture and get out of the way. We had no idea what was happening – and turns out the twice daily steam train was coming by momentarily, and you could get a pic of the train going over the bridge. So we quickly hopped a wire fence, where we proceeded to get yelled at by another that we were in their way (mind you – this was about 150 feet away!!!). So in the end, we happened to catch it by chance with a million other people! It was not without incident, however, as we heard some folks complaining about the pesky midgies...and we noticed all the little gnats around us. Had we known how bad they would be, we’re not sure if we would have sacrificed a week’s worth of itchy pimple sized bites (10 on Christy’s chest alone!) for art’s sake.

We ended up staying at a gorgeous B&B in Crainlarich (very small quaint town) in the middle of the country called Inverardran House, which was everything you would want a B&B to be - friendly owners, wonderful Burmese Mountain Dogs, great room, quiet night, and wonderful Scottish breakfast. AHHHH, where is more time when you need it?!?!?

And in the end, our Scottish journey came to a close, and we were sad. Scotland had truly been a great country to tour (even on your own!), and the people were so kind, scenery was stunning, and the food/drink were superb. When can we go back?!?!?!

Next Up: Belgium + One Day in France

REAL Madrid and London Calling - Blog Update

2010-06-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Madrid
We were really excited to see Madrid – Christy had travelled there in high school, and remembered it as a fun city! We took off early our first full day there and once again conquered the Madrid Metro – and took it clear across the city and exited at the La Latina stop, which was about 14 stops away, for only 1 euro per trip. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating – it was cool and rainy! That was not expected and we had pants and sweaters + rainjackets on! At La Latina, we enjoyed walking the cobblestoned streets, seeing “real” tapas restaurants (with really good prices on “fixed price” meals) and seeing the small local shops. Madrid’s old neighborhoods are literally a maze of cobblestoned streets and small alleyways, gorgeous old buildings with lovely balconies over the streets, with the occasional al fresco café or tapas restaurant. So after awhile, we gave up on the map and just let instinct take over. Once we did that, we found the Plaza Mayor, which is the “main plaza” of Old Madrid, a massively large cobblestoned plaza, lined with painted buildings and (very overpriced) cafes. We were there early in the morning, and it was very calm and quiet – not many tourists about, and in fact, workers were still putting out chairs and tables! Madrilenos just don’t do mornings! From there, we veered to another sidestreet, where we stumbled upon the El Mercado, which was a real epicurean adventure…. Small little stalls selling the best of Madrid food! Everything was for sale – breads, cheeses, desserts, coffees, sweets, wines…. It was amazing and looked like a place you could spend your lunch or dinner hour at! Unfortunately, we had arrived at mid-morning, and simply weren’t hungry – even for the freshly prepared foods. We vowed to get back there if we could! We continued on, and decided to find the Catedral de La Almudena and the Palacio Real, which was located up the magnificent Calle Bailen. By walking up this street, we passed by many of the government buildings, all of which appeared to be think tanks or policy organizations. There were quite a number of Secret Service looking types around, and we wisely kept walking and tied not to jay walk in front of them. We finally arrived at the Cathedral, and were amazed at the gorgeous church! There were huge statues on top, but these did not even begin to compare to the inside of the church! The stained glass inside the building was remarkable – a modernist kaleidoscope of colors! Thankfully, there was some sun despite the cool, so the colors just jumped out of the ceiling. Immediately adjacent to the church was the place, which was gorgeous – but a little stark! The massive building was situated in a large plaza and surrounded by a black and gold ornamental fence. There were tourists inside; but the sign outside said that the grounds were closed for a state ceremony. Hm, we were a little befuddled, but not so much nearly so as by the guards’ hats!!!

We then decided to do the Gran Via, which is one of Madrid’s oldest shopping streets, and sure enough, it was chock full of shops and restaurants. However, we were not that impressed. There seemed to be quite a bit of seedy looking people walking about, and the street seemed to be missing something. We did stop in Zara and H&M, where Christy stocked up on some new Tshirts. After a lengthy session for Christy’s shopping, we were starving and decided to check out the Chueca district. We found a few places in the Chueca District that looked amazing to eat at, including a café that the Luxe Guide recommended. However, we decided in the end to go with a menu del dia at the Pizzeria del Vesuvio, a small Italian restaurant that was located on one of the main streets and had a hand lettered menu of the day outside. We figured that it must be really good if it had a hand done menu! You might question the Italian food factor while in Madrid… however, there was a real dirth of places that were non-Spanish in Madrid. Or… at least we never saw them. So when we saw something different, and it almost being pizza Friday (a Gilmour tradition) we jumped at the chance to have a ham, mushroom and cheese risotto, ham and cheese brick oven pizza and coffees. The food was delicious and we were ready to roll out of the restaurant! What a great meal – and the first time we had had decent Italian since (hahaha) Vietnam in April!

That afternoon we walked through Retiro Park, which is almost the Central Park of Madrid. It is a huge green sprawling hilly complex, full of small cafes called terrazas. We had heard that the Madrilenos use these all the time in summer to meet up with friends and family; unfortunately due to the weather while we were there, they were all shuttered. No matter, we were able to listen to a busker playing jazz music at the Alfonso XII memorial, watching the ducks and the massive jumping goldfish. Additionally, we did take pictures of the “Estatua del Angel Caido,” or the fallen angel monument (i.e. the devil). According to the tour books, this is the only monument dedicated to the devil – fitting – since the height of the statute is 6.66 meters!

The rest of our time in Madrid was spent shopping... we needed to find a vintage bullfighting poster, a sangria pitcher, and a metal bull to put on our (future) car. Sadly, we found only one of those items - which was the metal bull at a carshop near our hotel. We did enjoy our time in Madrid, although it would have been nice to have a local show us around. We felt like we were missing out on some good tapas experiences!

London
We flew from London to Madrid, and were grateful for the quick easy flight on BA! Our ride across London from LHR via the Tube to our friend's house in Canary Wharf took us two hours and a few changes where we lugged our suitcases up and down the stairs all for $15 USD. Let’s just say that some of the older stops on the tube are not exactly created for ease of access.

We had two sets of friends we stayed with in London, and we had a blast. Both live in two very different neighborhoods - one in Canary Wharf, which is a newer area of the city that has been re-claimed, and the other in Putney Bridge, in the southwest of London near Wimbledon. Both areas of the neighborhoods bordered on the Thames, and are gorgeous, each with their own little neighborhood areas with "high" streets. We really enjoyed our walks and runs on the river!
Our first day, we checked out a really neat kite festival in Greenwich, up towards the observatory, and through the village green, where there was huge festival on. There were rides for the kids, food vendors (including a meat pie company that did not sell pies), demo areas for different types of bicycles and quad bikes, and a really neat show area where there were some incredibly talented master kiters who had their kites synchnonized to music. We have never seen anything like it! After some threatening clouds passed over (with no rain), we walked through Greenwich. Greenwich is a really nice small neighborhood with a massive park and the Royal Observatory and Museum (where Greenwich Mean Time starts), a “high” street with shops and cafes, and the Royal College. It is a lovely area of town, situated right by the river, where you can take the “Thames Walk” for quite some time along the side of river, observing the tidal river, and the industrial, historical and residential areas. There is an underground (under the Thames) tunnel (with an elevator at both ends), where both pedestrians and commuter and casual bicyclists (non mounted of course), can walk across one side of the river to another. Yes, we did find it spooky that there is water (in the form of small puddles) in the tunnel in the middle part! There is also a small lovely market with antique and new finds from Wednesday-Sunday. We had seen a lunch place called the Gourmet Burger Kitchen that morning in the Canary Wharf Mall while getting our morning Starbucks, and there was a chain in Greenwich. We had to go – especially since it looked like it was kiwi owned! Sure enough, it was, and it was really good, although 2 burgers and 2 beers in GBP can set you back $38 USD!

We also headed to the British Museum --- we had not made it there on our previous travels, and intended to check out the Egyptian exhibit, which we hoped would fill in the blanks about our previous few weeks in Egypt (without getting violently ill, ahem). The exhibit did not disappoint, and we really learned quite a bit. Apparently it is the #1 tourist attraction in London – and we can attest to that. The museum was packed! We also walked through the Roman exhibits, which was also well established. It helped us remember the ancient history of Europe, which we wound soon be traversing through. One of the most fascinating things we learned was that the Romans practiced “damnation memoriae,” or erasure of memory. Apparently if an emperor was deposed or was ill thought of, all objects relating to the emperor were then destroyed, and in some cases, the statues depicting them simply had the heads removed to be replaced with later emperors! We also checked out the clocks and watches exhibit, as it was on the same floor, and were fascinated by their collection, which included a “mystery” clock by Andre Gilmer, from the 1860’s. Christy liked them so much she vowed to find one or our house eventually.

Our last day in London (with the nicest weather forecasted), we decided to hit the Camden markets, which were about 45 minutes away on the tube. Camden is northwest of the city and is the home of all the “alternative” markets, where Doc Martins, plaid ripped punk tights, those ugly trendy neon plastic sunglasses and audacious t-shirts are sold. We are sure it was a little different back in the hey-day, but now of course, a Starbucks had moved in, and so had the big chains. Regardless we still had a great time shopping around all the fringe stores, mostly doing window shopping. In all honesty, we are a few years past the prime of shopping there, but it was still good fun. They also have a cool little food area where you can sit and eat on old Vespas, which was great, especially in the opened up sky (we finally saw the sun!). It was also a little hard to shop there, since all of the clothing at the markets was summer – and it was about 65 degrees. We found a great Thai restaurant near the zoo, which cost 5 pounds, about $7.50 USD, for an appetizer and a main entrée. Later as we took the tube home that afternoon, we had more delays, as there was a “person under the train” for the second day in a row. How crazy is that!?!?!

We had a great time in London and think the city is great! Admittedly it would be even greater if we had the GBP, as it is still quite a strong currency, but ... oh well. We looked forwards to carrying our way up north to Scotland and continuing to watch the World Cup games. We do have a problem --- too many teams to root for! USA and New Zealand are naturals.... and while staying in the UK - do we go for England? The underdogs?

Next Up: Scotland!

The Wine Still Flows... Sintra and Lisbon, Portugal and Merida, Spain Part II

2010-06-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sintra, Portugal
After getting a ride to the Coimbra B station from Marcus’s parents, we sat on the platform and waited for the 9:20 train. Finally, two hours later, we made it to Lisbon where we discovered that we got off the train one stop early (Lisbon Oriente) which meant we had to ride the Lisbon Metro train system longer then we otherwise would have. Our ride to Sintra (via a Lisbon commuter line) was about 40 minutes long and took us through some interesting neighborhoods with graffiti on the buildings and stations. Finally, we pulled into Sintra, where the station was nice and there was an information booth in the station proper. We asked for a map and then asked the location of the B&B where we would be staying; we were told it was a 15 minute walk, however, the agent advised it was a steep climb to get there so we should catch a cab with our luggage. We looked at each other and decided to walk. So armed with a map and dragging our luggage we set off up the hill. We are not going to lie and say it was the easiest walk up the hill, especially while dragging 22 kgs of luggage or so each, plus our carryon bags, but we did it.
We finally arrived at the Quinta das Murtas, which was a charming bed and breakfast. As it turned out, the property owners are bird collectors, and there is a lovely aviary outside, with parrots, cockatoos, peacocks, and other birds you can feed and put on your shoulder if you so dare (like Marcus!) The hotel was also situated in a great neighborhood, it was a short walk downtown to the “main” tourist area with shops and restaurants, a walk to the train station (uphill or downhill on whichever way you were walking) and the town commerce center, and a short walk straight uphill to the trail leading up to the Moorish castle, which connected up to the Pena castle. Sintra was made famous by the ruling Portuguese royalty who decided to use Sintra as an escape from the Lisbon summer heat, where they built fine castles. As the location became popular, more of the Portuguese society also built lovely homes there. Consequently, the area is now an UNESCO world heritage site, with good reason. There were numerous castles you could visit, including the two most famous, La Pena and the Moorish Castle, the National Palace, museums galore, lovely forest trails, gardens and everything possible. We arrived in the late afternoon, and were pleased to find our way around the town quite easily. It was a sincere pleasure to walk around, shopping and seeing the gorgeous architecture.

The next morning we slept in, which was a treat, and had a late breakfast at 8:30am, which was the earliest the B&B opened breakfast. We decided to work out after breakfast and take the “strenuous hike” up to the Moorish castle. We are pretty sure it was Rick Steves (in our outdated 2003 “best of Portugal and Spain”) who said it was hard hike, and that you could also avoid the entry fees to the Moorish Castle if you went up the hiking way through the village and in via the forest trail. Well, Rick, you let the cat out of the bag on that one! Sure enough, too many people must have read it, as there was a sentry and small ticket office by our hiking path. Since we had to check out of our B&B at 12pm, and it was 10:30am, we did not bother with paying the 6 euro fee, and continued the pleasant walk to the La Pena Palace, which was about a 15 minute walk away. We had read some reviews about it being an all day “hike,” it was more like a walk in reality.

Lisbon, Portugal
On our RTW trip, we always have the best times with locals, who take the time to show you their city favorites, and can explain the local culture, people and foods. In Lisbon, we had plans to stay with friends we met several years earlier, Mariana and Ika. That evening, we went to a very famous fado restaurant called, “Guitarras de Lisboa.” Fado is an old Portuguese tradition, a type of sad folk music, with roots deep in the seafaring mariner tradition. The lyrics were characteristic of longing and missing, and could be sung by both men and women. Eventually, some songs also became happy. Apparently, the restaurant we went to had the best selection of singers, and we agree! The restaurant was located in the Alfama neighborhood, known for its fado tradition. The neighborhood was jumping, and there was quite a few fairground stands set up, with vendors setting up restaurant and band shells in preparation for upcoming religious festivals. At the restaurant, the servers quickly brought us breads, cheeses, chorizo and olives, and fish salad dips. In Portugal, this is normal routine, and you will be charged if you taste them. If not, just don’t eat them! We ordered traditional foods, including calamari, veal and codfish, and Ika ordered wine from a region close to where his vineyards grew, along with an Oporto wine. Marcus had the bacalao, which they sell dried, salted – and flat – in the stores. After cooking it, it fluffs back up to the huge steak size portion! Before dinner started, however, the lights dimmed, and the first singer began her set. She was passionate, sizzling and full of emotion! We were seated right next to the two guitar players (one of whom had a traditional Portuguese guitar with 12 strings and a different shape), and very close to the singer. After the first set, we received our food, and the second set began. We almost felt guilty eating during the performance! People at the restaurant were very polite, and there was no noise or cell phone usage. In Portugal, fado is revered as an art, which is a change of pace from what you might experience at a performance elsewhere in the world. After the shows, Mariana asked for a photo with all the singers and the musicians, and they happily obliged. We thought it would be a great photo for the blog! After getting home at 2am, we ended up sleeping in the next day….after a delicious breakfast together we were ready to hit the town. Ika drove to the area of town known as Chiado, and parked underground. The Chiado area is gorgeous, and includes a massive plaza, hilly cobblestoned streets with fantastic cafes and shops, and small pathways up to the top of the legendary 7 hills of Lisbon. We climbed up to the top of one hill, where the Castle of Sao Jorge is located. We ended up walking along the top of the hill, and had drinks at a small café overlooking the city. We eventually found our way back to the city and had lunch at a small biologic café called Quinoa, owned by one of Mariana’s friends. We had an excellent meal – the girls had a mini burger trio and the guys had steak sandwiches – with papaya kiwi juices. For dessert we had coffees and chocolate fudge balls. We felt like rolling back to the car! You would think that that in itself was a full day…. But the day had only just begun! We carried onto the Expo section of the city, which had been redone years ago in 1998 for the World Expo. There was a lovely pedestrian area where you could walk next to the river, and we passed by many cool looking cervecerias (beer houses), bars (one had a very famous gin and tonic), clubs and wonderful smelling restaurants. It was one place where we could have spent the day or evening.

After refreshing at the house for a few minutes, we carried on to the town of Santa Cruz, a small beach town to the west of Lisbon. The drive took us through a very hilly section of the country, which was dotted with many massive power generation windmills, which towered over the small traditional ones. Before arriving in Santa Cruz, Ika drove us past an old monastery, which was destroyed by a tsunami in the 1700’s. It was later rebuilt at the top of the hill and marked with a large cross, which still stands today. We saw the beach, and it was everything we expected and more – windswept, empty, huge cliffs and crashing surf. The air was fresh and clean, and the dark clouds gave the weather an ominous cool vibe. Mariana’s parents owned a small townhouse in town where we stayed. That evening, we were in Santa Cruz to hang out with Mariana and Ika’s friends, and celebrate the arrival of their long-time friends who had been in France. Their local friends had a flat right across the street from Mariana’s house and they welcomed us with open arms. We had a wonderful evening, starting with a toast of white port. Their friend Nuno cooked dinner that evening, and it was amazing! He made two massive meatloafs, which had to have at least three pounds of meat each, including beef, pork and chorizo. These meat beauties were then cooked with wine, carrots, leeks, onions, red peppers --- one was even rolled with ham and cheese. This was only topped by a massive three liter bottle of wine that Ika had brought for us, a vintage from a few years back. We were wowed by the food and drink! We had dessert at 12am, which was a fresh strawberry gelatin/fruit creation…. Mmmmmmm……

The next night, Christy offered to cook a vegetarian dinner for Ika and Mariana; they really wanted to show us the local Santa Cruz market where we could obtain the best produce. After picking up the fixings, we all reluctantly headed back to the city. Ika and Mariana had to work the next day, and we had to carry on, so it was all a bit sad. That evening we celebrated our last night together with a brilliant fresh pasta – Christy made rigatoni with an olive oil (the olive oil was from Ika’s property), fresh tomato, red and green pepper, garlic, olive and onion sauce, accented by cayenne and paprika, tossed with fresh goat cheese. It was a food coma part II as we all filled up on the fresh food, bread and more of Ika’s wine. We carried the conversation long into the evening, over port wine and a local drink called “firewater” which was 40 proof delicious liquor that tasted like a sweet bourbon, but made with wine grapes instead.

We had a lovely time in Portugal, and really enjoyed our stay there. In Sintra, we found the people to be really hospitable and welcoming to tourists, and also found the transportation on our own within Portugal/Lisbon very easy to use. It seemed everyone spoke a little English, and was willing to use it if needed. In Lisbon, we were welcomed with wide open arms to Mariana and Ika’s home, and equally welcomed by their friends. It was a sad parting as we had so much fun with them! It was a delightful experience, and we genuinely wished we had more time to explore the country. We had heard that the west coast between the more popular south and Lisbon was gorgeous and had dramatic scenery. We hope to return there one day to see it!

Merida, Spain
There was no quick way to get from Lisbon to Madrid, where we would be flying out of, so we needed a stopover. We decided to catch a bus from Lisbon to Merida, and had arranged for the first row of seats, which guaranteed us a good view. We stopped once for 30 minutes, another time for 25 minutes in Badajoz, and arrived on time as scheduled in Merida. The location of our hotel was great – we could walk to the Roman ruins and museum in a matter of minutes, we were across the street from the good grocery store, and adjacent to an upscale apartment/shopping area, which had great looking restaurants. We were pretty pleased.
Merida itself is a relatively compact city, and is located on both sides of the river. The older side of the city contained the roman ruins and the pedestrian shopping venue. There were many opportunities to see local ruins, which included the Roman bridges, old aqueducts near the train tracks, amphitheatres and other neat structures. The pedestrian streets were lined with shops, and we’re not sure how people afford to shop so much – everyone had shopping bags all the time! There were quite a few numbers of restaurants and cafes – some were obviously targeted at the tourists near the ruins, and others were placed circling the town squares and fountains. The town also featured a lovely park on the river banks, had lovely gravel paths, and huge amounts of greenery, plantings and flowerbeds. You could access the park from the old roman bridge, or from a number of small footbridges connecting them to the mainland.

The next morning we slept in until 8:30am, and went walking by mid-morning, trying to make the most of the day before siesta! Christy also shopped for a bit. That afternoon, we struggled to find something to eat; we ended up checking out a doner kebab restaurant. Hands down, it was the worst meal we have had since the fried Thai satay chicken and we did not eat it. Fatty chicken “hunks” mixed on a hamburger bun with yogurt-mayo sauce and ketchup?!?!?!
That afternoon, we passed a hair salon, and Christy asked how much it cost for highlights. At this point, she had not had her hair cut and colored since December…. things were getting a little desperate. She had not wanted to get her hair done by women/men in Asia who had never colored her type of hair before. She had her hair done – finally – while Marcus checked out the old roman ruins. The ruins consisted of two stadiums- one where the Romans used to watch the gladiators, where they could be killed or spared with the pointing up or down of the emperors’ thumb. The stadium was in disrepair; however, you could walk through a number of tunnels. The second stadium was a theatre where the Romans would watch plays and other forms of entertainment, which was really well preserved and easier to imagine what it would have been like. There were even pillars, about 4 stories high, and intact statues. Outside this theater there were the remains of Augustus Ceasar’s palace where you could still see the tiled floor. It was really amazing when you think of the age of these ruins.

We ended up our time in Merida by eating another grocery meal in the hotel for dinner, over a movie. We have had a harder time finding affordable “different” food in Spain. While the tapas are really good, they are not the healthiest and there are no veggies or lettuce salads to be found. We also really dislike the fact that many people here smoke, and there are seemingly no restaurant/cafe anti-smoking laws yet….. However, we have enjoyed our tortilla espanolas, cheese, breads and inexpensive wines … and it is time to retire some of that for some healthy food now!

Next Up: Madrid and London!

Tap Water, Cheese and Wine: Spain and Portugal Part I

2010-06-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

Madrid, Spain
After a 5.5 hour middle of the night flight from Cairo to Madrid, we finally landed and sighed relief….ahh western Europe and the western world was back with us. We even used a real jetway instead of riding a bus across the airport to the arrivals/baggage claim hall. The Madrid airport is large new and clean, and huge! It took us about 20 minutes of walking and riding internal trains linking the terminals to get to the baggage claim area. Outside the baggage claim area, everything appeared to be nice, clean and safe. We decided to camp out above the Metro station in terminal 4 for the next 1:45 minutes; we rolled our beach towels out and went to sleep with our luggage chained together, using our backpack and purse as pillows. We awoke about an hour and a half later and saw that people were starting to line up to catch the first Metro train at 6am. Buying tickets were easy from the vending machines - they cost 2 euros per person which allowed us to ride any where in the Metra system in Madrid. We rode line 8 and changed to line 10 to the Charmartin Station which is where some Spanish RENFE overland trains leave from. We purchased tickets to Salamanca (using a credit card – a first in a long time) which left at 8:45am and cost 19 euros per person. The station was orderly, people on the escalators stood on the left and walked on the right. They queued to the right and waited their turn; it was so nice to be in a part of the world where we understood the rules again. Christy dusted off her Spanish and was conversing with the locals like an expert in no time.

Salamanca, Spain
We arrived 2.5 hours later in Salamanca, which was the last station on the line. We got off and started walking with our luggage. We were planning to hail a cab but there were none to flag down so we started walking. The first thing we noticed was the air was cool (about 65 degrees) and clean. We could breathe it - it wasn’t choked with fumes – and it was relatively quiet - there was no honking of horns. This was a great place to be!!!!! Christy used her Spanish to ask a pedestrian and asked how to get to the square where we were staying. The gentleman told us it was tricky but gave us a general direction to walk in. The cars stopped at the pedestrian crossings so it was easy to walk where we wanted to, although again we had to ask an elderly gentleman how to get to our square and he replied that if we followed him he would point us in the right direction. Sure enough he told us which street to turn down, and within 5 minutes we were at our hotel on the Plaza de la Libertdad. The Square was beautiful and old, with churches and buildings around it, with the center a lovely small garden. After a nap, we found a small tapas restaurant about two blocks away from our hotel, where we had two “bocadillos” with jamon iberico (special Spanish cured ham) and chicken and Manchego cheese, along with two Spanish style tapas, and wine. We then walked the streets, which are absolutely amazing; Salamanca is an old university town with lovely churches, university buildings, a central plaza and gorgeous old churches. After our walk through town, we found Marcus' parents, Denise and Phil, and had a lovely time catching up with them over some wine.

Portugal
The next morning, we were all out the door by mid-morning, and off to Portugal, where we had a house rented together. The drive across Spain for an hour was interesting – windswept plateaus, which slowly gave way to rolling hills, covered with stones and boulders, and the intermittent olive tree. Our drive across the Portuguese border was easy, there were some border police, but we kept on going – no need to show a passport. Once into Portugal, the road infrastructure totally changed. In Spain, the roads were straight, and well-marked. In Portugal, the driving became a little difficult, especially given that Phil’s GPS was missing some of the roads AND our small town was not even on the official Michelin Iberia map. Roads were curvy, the road numbers seemed to change; and there was no real direct way to get somewhere. It was a little frustrating! However, the driving was spectacular and really very different – the hills became taller and more like small mountains, and the landscape became more scrubby. The architecture of the homes also changed – soon we saw whitewashed homes with the orange tiled roofs, with brilliant red, pink, yellow and white roses in front of very home. After “Karen” the GPS had us going down an unpaved road, we finally found our small town, Coja, which was perched on the edge of the river Alva. Our rental home was adorable and suited our needs perfectly with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two floors and English cable tv.

The next day, we headed out to try our hand at wine tasting and perhaps have a nice lunch out at one of the winery restaurants. However, we neglected to bring a local map and the wine map, so we dawdled over the countryside without really knowing where we were going. The countryside was gorgeous – lovely green rolling hills, clear mountain streams and gorges, and green everywhere. We finally stumbled upon Quinta das Marias winery, and it appeared no one was there. So, we did what we needed to – used the bathroom first. Phil knocked on the window by the wine barrels, and then the owner appeared. Turns out he had lived in Australia for awhile, and was Swiss, so we had a nice conversation about his wines. He opened both a white and red wine, both new bottles. We had a lovely tasting and asked to buy a bottle of the olive oil and the white wine. Unfortunately, Senior Peter did not hear us, and bought in two bottles of the white wine and the olive oil, and did not have change for the purchase, about 1 euro. The wine was priced at $8 euros apiece, expensive for Portugal, although still well-priced for a small boutique operation, where the bottles are still hand numbered. Senhor Peter ended up giving us a bottle of the unskinned (not yet labeled) red, instead of change and we called it a day.

The next day, we decided to go and find the hills where it was rumored that there were port sales. We drove about 1.5 hours north, to the Duoro River Valley. The landscape we passed through was amazing, and we actually got up to an altitude of 3000 feet, which made our ears pop and closed our windows due to the huge temperature plunge. Then we started a descent to the Duoro River Valley, and the landscape changed yet again – to huge rolling green hills, covered with terraced grape wines. It was a beautiful setting. After we got off the main road, we started seeing small vendors selling fresh fruit by the side of the road. It was amazingly gorgeous, and we stopped at a local grocery store to pick up the fixings for a picnic lunch. Our next stop was Oporto, which was directly on the coast at the mouth of the Duoro River. Port grapes were grown upriver, and then made into port. The product was then put onto a boat, where it would make its way downriver to the town, which all had warehouses storing the products there. Today, most of the English and Spanish port houses still have large warehouses right on the river there. The views were remarkable, and there were plenty of tourists strolling on both sides of the waterfront. It had a very nice vibe, with plenty of waterfront cafes, entertainment and tourist shops. On the Vila side of the river, you could take tours and have tastings of the port, however, since we arrived in the very late afternoon, we were a bit limited for time. There are about 12+ signs for port companies spread out over a small area, but we preferred not to take paid tours. Yea yea yea, wine tours are great, but we’ve just seen far too many wineries, and they’re really all the same anyways. We did enjoy a "tasting" at Kopke, which was actually a full pour, and discovered we really liked white port, typically a product not exported out of Portugal.

We enjoyed the rest of our time in Coja, town had a slow warmth and regularity to it; every morning the town woodmill across the river from us blew a whistle/horn at 7:55am, and again at 8:00am for work to begin. The woodmill blew again at 12pm,and then again at 1:00pm to signal the end of the lunch hour, then went off again at 5:00pm. The town bustled during the weekdays, as the townspeople enjoy their coffees, and shop for the day. The river flowed quickly with fresh cool mountain water, and the goats and sheep with their tingling bells grazed by the long river grasses. After the first two days, the days began heating up quickly, but the mornings would always start with a dense fog in the hills, which would burn off by 10am. Marcus and I ran a few afternoons, enjoying the warmth of the end of the day and running to the next town, where the locals eyed us suspiciously. We also enjoyed cooking in the rentals' kitchens, and having local wine. It was a great time to be with family, and to take time to enjoy Coja and the warmth of the Portuguese countryside.

Next Up: Portugal and Spain, Part II

An all inclusive adventure: Hurghada and Cairo, Egypt

2010-05-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hurghada
After a great time in Luxor, we needed to travel across to Hurghada, a northeast trip of about 250 kms. Unlike in Cairo, in Luxor there was no shortage of travel agencies we contacted to find the cost of a private transfer. The first few prices we got from agencies was 420EGP and the cheapest was 350EGP. Andy Cool our driver from the trip to the Valley of the Kings quoted us 400 EGP, but when he heard that we got a price of 350EGP he agreed to match it. So on checking out of the Sheraton, we meet Andy Cool outside and he helped us load our luggage that was getting heavier and heavier due to the shopping that one of us continued to do. Andy informed us that he couldn’t drive us as he was driving to Saudi, but his brother Mamul would drive us instead. We had met him earlier and he spoke better English than Andy, so that was not an issue. So off we headed, just as a note to other travelers who may do this trip, it is important that your driver has the correct permission slips for the trip or they will be turned away at the tourist police check points. These checkpoints are pretty serious and at one of them our car was searched to make sure our driver did not have any drugs with him, which included a check of the drivers' cigarette box. Of course, Mamul didn’t have anything, but once we were through the check point, he said he had to go back that way and pay a bribe to the official that let us through. It seemed quirky to us that an official system would consist of such outright bribery, and further, the driver would return with the bribe after he dropped us off. Our driver also told us the Egyptians are not free to move around the country and he had to have his pass to travel to another state. It appeared as if the government tries to stop the entire population moving to the wealthier areas, located near the Nile river. Our route took us up the Nile for about an hour and half before turning east out into the desert towards the Red Sea. The driver stuck to the speed limit of 80km until we entered the desert and then all of the cars and buses started moving like bats out of hell until they reached the next check point. The desert was amazing to travel through, and the topography was stunning. At different parts of the desert journey, we saw desert that appeared like moonfields, then rock dunes, then crumbly rock mountains. At one point we stopped at a rest area where a number of tour busses stop to use the bathrooms. This time we had to pay for the pleasure, and there was a man guarding each bathroom with his hand outstretched, with no way to get around him. We inquired as to the price of a can of Coke and were shocked at the price gouging that was going on. They were 15EGP ($3USD) where as in town they were only 2.50EGP. Probably the funniest thing about this oasis was the fact that there were all these foreigners in the middle of nowhere milling about, and there were a handful of enterprising locals with animals looking for tips for photos. Some had goats standing on top of small burros, others had camels. We wish we would have gotten a sneaky picture – it was bizarre. Once we arrived in Hurgada, our driver got lost and couldn’t find our hotel, which wasn’t surprising considering the large number of giant resorts along the never ending beach there. We had read in Lonely Planet that Hurghada was a concrete mess, and we generally have to agree with that. It appeared like Las Vegas, with megaresorts lining the streets. We stayed at the Hilton Hurghada Long Beach Resort, an all inclusive resort, which was located at the end of the strip. We had hoped to enjoy a few nights of down time enjoying the beach. We were not disappointed, necessarily. Since we have good status with Hilton, we had a nice time, and received really good perks. The resort was located right on the Red Sea, and had a massive number of beach umbrellas and loungers on the large abutment. There were also a series of small little lagoons about two feet deep, where people were practicing windsurfing. We loved the marvelous colors of the sea, which ranged from deep azure to brilliant turquoise. Our four days there were quite windy (up to 45km/hour), and the sea quite cool (which was a surprise), so we actually never made it into the water. There were some advertised snorkeling (priced in euros and expensive!!!) trips which we were tempted by, but in retrospect are glad we did not do, as it was just huge gusts of wind which would have made for a seasick boatride! There were also numerous pools that you could use if you preferred; we counted five. We alternated between the beach and the pool. The clientele at the resort were nearly all Russian, which was interesting! As we have noted before, they are not a highly outgoing group. Every day the buffet featured fresh whole fruit, and they would take plates and plates of it, and then bring it back to their rooms. Seriously, what person eats 4 peaches a day after eating several of them with their meal? We were fortunate to have dinner one night at Marhaba as one of our perks, which was a restaurant on site that required reservations and was not included in the package. We were excited as the menu looked good and they had an entertainment program! The entertainment was short but interesting – they had a twirling male dancer who performed, and eventually his skirts all lit up with holiday lights! They also brought in a belly dancer, who then tried to teach all the patrons how to do it. Marcus obliged! We’re sure wine had nothing to do with it. Our last three meals were spent at the Podium restaurant, which served a rotating menu of your choice of three fixed selections – salad/appetizer, entrée and dessert. We really enjoyed this restaurant and had quite good food there in comparison to the rest of the buffet food. It was nice, as there was always a choice of beef, chicken or veggie, we were able to dress up every night for dinner, and the staff was amazing. In retrospect, the most enjoyable thing about the hotel was the staff. Everyone – from the front desk staff, to the cleaning crew, to the pool bar staff, to the towel guys – went out of their way to ask where we were from, say hello, and tell us that if we needed anything, to find them. They always guessed we were from Holland or Germany, and some of them had no idea where New Zealand is. All of them told us that they loved to have the English guests, and that they were the nicest.

Our resort was also huge, and the manager said that there were currently 1250 guests at the hotel. As all resorts have, there were quite a number of activities for the guests. One morning, we passed a Russian work out session; everyone was doing aerobics in their bathing suits. Another class offered was belly dancing on the beach (again, in bathing suits), which was enjoyed by people of all ages, regardless of their ability to dance, but... notice the lack of smiles in the picture.

We did finally meet up with some other non Russians! One night at Podium, the waitstaff alerted us to the fact that the four people at the back of the restaurant lived close to us. In fact, they were from Italy. We approached them after dinner, and found they spoke very little English, and we spoke only a few words of Italian, but we found we could all understand by talking a mishmash of Italian, Spanish and English. We had a good laugh that the waitstaff thought that Italy and New Zealand were in close proximity. We also met a really great English couple, and had drinks with them one night. We always enjoy meeting others who have a similar approach to traveling!

In any event, we finally wrapped up our stay there, and had to find a way back up to Cairo, which was over 400 kms away. We asked for a quote for a personal car to drive us, but it would have been ridiculous, we had prices from 850-1700 EGP! We sourced ticket prices for a flight, and it worked out to be slightly more than a car, so off we went.

Cairo
Our flight to Cairo was smooth until we hit scary wind turbulence, bouncing our small jet up and down; freaking us out a little. We think that should have said it all about the city, bad omen! We flew into the domestic terminal, and we able to get a fixed price taxi for only $80 EGP, almost half of what we paid in the international terminal. Scoundrels! No matter, we had a nice ride to our hotel, the Conrad, which was situated next to the Nile river, and adjacent to the World Trade Center. The room was nice, however, and we did have a nice porch overlooking the Nile, the gym was clean and had new equipment, and the Executive Lounge was spacious and had indoor and outdoor seating. We arrived at lunchtime and checked in at the lounge, and they had set a small luncheon buffet with finger sandwiches, fruits, and magnificent French pastries, served with French pressed coffees. We were in heaven after bad coffees for most of the stay in Egypt! We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and at the gym … and headed upstairs for the happy hour buffet at 5:00pm. We were pretty excited, since we hoped they served Egyptian wine and local foods. Sure enough, they had a great spread, but both of us felt really weird and wound up wanting to head to our rooms before it even finished. Hmm, we do like our chichi foods and wine, so something must have been up.

Disaster struck Christy then … the curse of Cairo! She found herself with a pure evil form of Ramses Revenge, and spent 24 hours in a fetal position. We looked it up and read most travelers diarrhea was E. Coli, meaning it was likely picked up from someone’s inability to wash their hands or washing with contaminated water. Ewh, and back on antibiotics --- again. The next morning we both woke up, and were thankful for a later check out. Christy spent the day trying to get up and not making it. So, we found it a little unfair that Cairo was not meant to be, and we saw nothing of the city, except for our cab rides in and out from the airport, and the views from our 5 star hotel rooms.

So, truth be told, we were really happy to see Egypt, and Luxor gave us both the sights we had wanted to see, but after being sooooo sick, we were happy to leave. By staying at the Red Sea, we also determined that we would be happy to see more of the area there, and would stay at the Sinai Peninsula next time and do some snorkeling. We loved the people in Egypt and would be interested in also seeing Aswan next, as we heard rave reviews from the people themselves about how nice it was. However, we were really in shock with the food – we had survived Thailand, Malaysia, AND INDIA with not many issues. We had some minor stomach troubles in Vietnam, but it passed pretty quickly. Nowhere have either of us been so violently sick. We met two charming ladies from Texas at the airport on the way out; they said people were getting so sick on their tour that the tour guides resorted to passing out preventative medicine to their group every day. Ikes! In any event, we’re ready for tap water, fresh wines and beers you can buy at the grocery store, Spanish and other languages we can understand better, veggies we can buy from fresh markets and trust, meats, cheeses, dairy products we know have been refrigerated, proper queuing, standing right/walking left on escalators, reliable internet access, and finding a refresh of some clothing that will fit our body sizes! We’ve been in Asia/India/Middle East since February, and we are ready for a change of pace, but have really enjoyed our time over the past few months, it has been simply amazing.

Next Up: Portugal and Spain!

Egyptian wonders and Ramses Revenge - Cairo and Luxor, Egypt

2010-05-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

Amman, Jordon – Airport Layover
Our flight from Mumbai to Amman Jordon took us over an interesting flight path, but not over Iraq as we thought; we actually flew over the ocean, and then over Saudi airspace. As we started to descend, the desert looked amazing – deep canyons, brilliant desert colors and a sense that we were landing in the middle of nowhere! We got off the plane, and were shepherded into a first class minibus that took us straight to the terminal, where we waited to get our connecting flight’s boarding passes, and then off to the biz class lounge. The lounge was great – it probably had the best food of any lounge we have seen. They had hummus and labneh galore, with fresh breads, olives, pickled vegetables, cheeses, salmon, fruits, a real cappuccino/espresso maker … it was wonderful. We gave ourselves the 40 minute window to catch our connecting flight, and by the time we got to the gate they were making a last call! Yikes! We showed our ticket to the agent on the gate and he told us to get out of line and wait beside the gate for the special bus to take to the plane. Everyone else was pushed onto the economy class bus, and we waited for about 5 minutes. Finally, another man showed up, and we shrugged our shoulders for the wait. For posterity’s sake, since we thought it was hilarious that we had our own small bus, we asked the other man to take a picture of us. We made small talk for a few minutes about Egypt and Cairo and how we were sad that we were not visiting Jordan. The man turned out to be the Jordanian Ambassador to Egypt! Wow, we were impressed and felt like idiots for asking him to take a picture of us.

Cairo, Egypt
Upon landing our next goal was to get our tourist visa. We had read online about the small bank/currency exchange where you purchased visas on arrival. So we passed over our USD $30, and received a small sticker, which the agent instructed us to bring to immigration, who quickly stamped it. We had read horror stories of the cab services from the airport, and how they would extort more money once you had agreed on a price, or try and talk you into more tip money. Everything is done for baksheesh, small coins or more given as tips by tourists. So we explored the car rental counter, received a quote, checked the “tourist” desk, checked the Le Meridien (our hotel) office, and had some people approach us in the terminal. Finally, we asked the Le Meridien rep for help in getting a taxi, and he asked us to name a price. We asked for one for 125 EGP ($25 USD), and off he went for us, and came back with a guy named Camel. Camel took us to the other Guy, who tried to sell us a tour, and then introduced us to Zazeel, our driver, who whisked us off to Giza, just outside Cairo. Our driver took the direct route straight through the city, going through the leafy green “garden city” suburb of Heliopolis. There were gorgeous old colonial mansions, some of which served as embassies or consulates. We slowly inched through the city, and the vistas were amazing – the old fort walls, the city of the dead, mosques, the park, and finally over the Nile. We finally glimpsed a sight of the pyramids and had an “oh” moment; they were simply stunning and massive! ZaZeel was a great driver, stopping or slowing down so we could get some great shots. We stayed at the Le Meridien hotel (colossally bad hotel for the record) and met Maged, who became our favorite staff member. He even upgraded our room to a pyramids view! No doubt, we had a fantastic view of all three pyramids. The best part was that you could partially see the changing colors of the sound and light show from our patio. Little did we know, that was as close as we would get to the pyramids.
Our first morning there, we walked to the grocery store, which was about 5 blocks away. A guy in a sketchy tourist police white uniform started to follow us; we lost him once he asked us if we needed help crossing the street. We figured he was the fake police that would ask for the baksheesh. Just a note to travelers, real tourist police have guns and their uniforms actually fit! We went back and enjoyed a really great al fresco lunch and contemplated what to do… We spoke to the concierge desk, and the only tours they had available were private tours for $60 or $90 USD pp for ½ or full day tours. We did not know much about what we wanted to see, and really needed a better guidebook to help us! Maybe we were tired and not feeling well, but there was a clear lack of information and tourism infrastructure where we were. It was weird to be so close, yet so inaccessible. Sure, the taxi drivers would offer in their broken English to take you places, but …. there was the issue of good reliable cab drivers. We really had liked Zazeel, but not having a phone, and his lacking English skills gave us some issues that we didn’t have the energy to overcome.

The next morning we had planned to get up at dawn and run up to the pyramids, but as Marcus was still on Ramses Revenge, we had a slow day at the hotel. Things were not looking good for the sightseeing in Cairo! So we ended up splurging and getting internet for the day - $30 USD! We had not made any plans for the trip down to Luxor. We had heard that the bus rides were overnight and painful, then read that the Man in Seat 61 loved the train trip. After reading a few web sites and blogs, it did not sound like the train was all it was cracked up to be. Let’s face it; the era of glamorous train travel probably does not exist on state run trains or at our price point (decidedly Amtrak – not the Orient Express). So we booked a flight to Luxor 22 hours ahead of time and were able to get two tickets for $216 USD. The train sleeper would have cost us about $130 USD, so we figured we would arrive there refreshed, not crabby, and with far less of a chance of getting sick from the train food.

Luxor, Egypt
At the airport, we noticed that security in Egypt is heavy, and were pleased. When you first enter the airport you must go through the X-ray with your baggage, a copy of your itinerary and ID before check-in. Eventually we went through the gate security and took the bus to the plane – turned out we had a comfortable 2x2 leather seated configuration, slightly larger than an Embrauer jet. The flight was easy and smooth, and all the passengers probably hated Christy as she tried to stifle her impressive sounding coughing fits. We landed right on time at 9:45am, and found a car driver in the lobby to take us to the hotel. His prices started at 100 EGP, and we brought the price down to 40 EGP; as it turned out, we could have had one for 25 EGP outside the doors. All in all, we still thought that was a good price considering we were 11km away from the town.

Our hotel room had a fabulous view, we were able to watch the Nile River go by and relax from the comfort of the room or our patio. The pool also was situated right on the Nile, and became our favorite place to spend the afternoons.

Luxor itself is a small “city”, and located right on the banks of the Nile River. As we were flying in, you noticed how fertile and green the plains beside the Nile are. The roads around Luxor have green plantings around them, up to one mile away from the river. The greenery is composed of fields, plantings and trees, with many people farming the land and riding small donkeys, who were festooned with small bells and ornate bridlery gear. Whenever we left the hotel grounds, we were immediately surrounded by hawkers, offering, felucca rides down the Nile, taxi rides, carriages rides to the market etc. We do understand the complaint of some that you feel like a walking wallet, but that’s probably no different than anywhere else in Asia; the Egyptians are perhaps a bit more aggressive than anyone else we have seen. If you understand that concept it makes the trip a little easier. Sometimes someone would get too aggressive and we simply let them know we did not like their approach and they backed off immediately. But most were really charming and fun to haggle with.

While in Luxor we did get to see the following sights, all of which are immensely rewarding:
Luxor Temple is across the road from the Nile and was about 2 kms into town from our hotel. When we walked outside there was the wall of taxi drivers and carriage drivers. Christy loves anything to do with horses so we negotiated with a carriage driver to take us to the Temple. It took about 10mins and cost us 10 EGP. It was a nice ride except for the fact the driver wanted to take us to the market instead. The temple cost 50 EGP ($10USD) pp to get into the complex, but it was well worth it as it was very well preserved. We were there in the very early hours, and were able to have a really quiet visit; just as we were leaving, hordes of the buses and small vans started to pull up. The avenue of the sphinxes was situated in front of the temple, and was 3 km long, connecting to the Karnack Temple. You can walk down about 300m of it and see the government workers unearthing and restoring more of the sphinxes, one by one. Apparently, the master plan will have the entire 3 km unearthed, despite there currently being buildings in the way. We loved seeing how the light and shadows played off of one another on the various columns and sculptures. After the temple was built, and as time went by, the original temple changed. For instance, kings would take down parts of the temple – or add on. After the Romans arrived, they really shook things up by frescoing over the original temple. Some of their artwork can still be fund in the temple today.

We had met a cabdriver the day before, “Andy Cool,” in front of our hotel, where apparently, the cabs are registered. He seemed nice, spoke a little English, and offered us a good price (90 EGP or $18 USD) for the drive to the West Bank, so the next day we took him up on his offer. First, we stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, which are two large solitary statues that welcome modern day visitors to the heart of the Thebes Valley. These two large statues are the only figures that remain of the temple of Amenophis III, which happened to be the largest Theban temple. Incidentally, the two statues are the only draw at this small site, and happen to be free to visit. We stopped for a photo shoot with the Spanish contingent on a tour bus (we seemed to have found their tourist trail), and carried on.

Next, we threaded our way up into the desert mountains, and ascended into the hills. We passed through a tourist security check into the Valley of the Kings, one of the largest royal burial sites. The site is very strict and does not allow cameras. We ascertained that we were able to visit three tombs for 180 EGP ($36 USD) for the both of us; there were a total of about 12 or so that were open to the public. Tutankahamen’s tomb (the most famous and intact tomb discovered) also cost an additional $20 USD to enter, along with the bus tour masses. We were a bit befuddled, since we had no guide to lead us around, and we were hesitant about which of the tombs to visit. In the end, we asked a nice looking guy at the camera check desk, who steered us towards three tombs which he said were the best. He also asked us a strange question, which we had heard asked two times before, “is that your only pen?” People really wanted our pens with the clicker system at the end! Therefore, as a note to someone coming to Egypt, bring a box of pens and they will serve as baksheesh.
We saw the following tombs:
Ramses III: One of the more popular tombs, which had a throng of people waiting. It had magnificent coloring and seemed a bit more advanced with the hieroglyphics.
Ramses IX: Again, one of the more popular tombs, with spectacular colors, but a bit shorter in total length. At this tomb, we were fleeced, hook line and sinker. There seemed to be a number of locals “working” the tombs. They always had flashlights and were eager to show you things, “look, Osiris”… “oh, you married, you look just like Osiris and her husband…see right here…” “Oh, see the harp here, music…” Inevitably there would be a flashlight, showing you the depth of a small passageway or into the sarcophagus. It did start to get a bit annoying, and you had to learn how to get away from them. In this case; however, we had a hard time edging away. We tipped him, and he had the gall to tell Marcus he was not tipping enough. All that for trying to be polite and listening to a few sentences about seeing harps!
Thutmes III: We liked it since there was no one there and it was in a less visited section of the park. You had to access the tomb by climbing up about 4 floors of stairs, then entering into a hot oven – literally.
Siptah: This tomb was our favorite, perhaps, again, since it was empty, which spooked us a little. The entry had spectacular colored mosaics on the ceiling, and the heiroglypcs were simply amazing… they featured stories with huge animated pictures, of scarabs, people with sparrowheads, dogheads, deerheads, and the mysterious antennaheads… amazing pictures. It was something special – and spooky – to be the only three in this tomb (besides the local guy with his flashlight). It also was strange since this tomb was significantly cooler than the other tombs, especially since it was next to Thutmes. The tomb ended with a large room containing a massive granite sarcophagus, covered with amazing writing and symbols.

At every entrance, the guards would use a hole puncher to record how many visits you had on your ticket stub. However, at the mouth of one of the tombs, one of the guards asked us where we were from. We answered New Zealand, and he grinned. He asked us if we had a tour guide or if we were with a group. We told him we were alone and received another huge grin, and he waved us through with a wink. People in Luxor really seemed to like the New Zealanders!

Our last day in town we decided to visit the Karnak Temple at 9:15am, and there were already several large tour buses in the parking lot. The temple was quite spread out, and not as well preserved, in our opinions. It was also expensive to visit at 80 EGP ($18USD pp) to enter; and was the site of the evening Sound and Light Show. There were different sections of the temple that had been added on at different periods of time. The main section of the temple that you first walked into was best, in our opinion, as there were many intact columns, which soared up about 30 feet. They were marvelous, and you wished you could transport yourself back in time to see what it must have looked like when it was new. Each of the majestic columns was covered in hieroglyphics of various sorts. As you proceeded through the temple, rehabilitation works were under way. Some workers were off in the far field section unearthing new artifacts. As you kept walking, there were noticeably less people, and we found a really neat section of the temple. It was called the “Botanic Room” and featured non-indigenous flora, fauna and animals. By the time we walked up to the front of the temple, it was a mob scene with bus load after bus load of tourists arriving. We were glad we had made the effort to get there earlier!

For those of you following Christy’s shopping trips, there is a market in Luxor and Christy managed to do some small damage. The Egyptians are masters at their markets. As you walked down the small lanes, the common line was “only 5 pounds,” or some really low price. That was the hook! After you expressed interest, they would take you into their shop, and upsell, upsell, upsell. You of course did not want the cheap shirt with a bad thread count that would shrink! You would of course not want the cheap and ugly shoes with the inferior leather! You of course did not want the cheap short scarf that would fray as soon as it was washed…..and on and on. She learned quickly as to how this worked. In the end, if they took you to the shop, it was a bad sign, especially since they would never start off with the upgraded product price. It was always a question of how much you wanted to pay and “be happy.” We did get a good price for some shirts, a trio of pretty blue alabaster pyramids and a short scarf.

Our last night there, we felt like trying the local beer, called “Stella.” The trick was in finding it, as no local stores actually stocked it (being a Muslim country and all). Turns out you had to do it on the sly – and shop keepers would take your order and you could pick it up in 20 minutes. And so, we arranged to pick some up at the store outside of our hotel and took a walk to kill some time. Before long, we were watching two local shopkeepers play chess on this amazing looking Egyptian chess set. They invited us to sit with them, and within a flash, we had two stools to watch them. It was pretty amazing to watch them battle it out with one another and listen to the banter. One shop keeper invited us to check out his store, and he ended up turning into a friend by the end of the night. He was so genuine and just wanted to talk, listen and learn more about you. By the time we left, he wanted to know if Christy had any single friends, and invited us to stay with him the next time we were in town. We ended up buying a pair really neat cufflinks for Marcus and a small lapis lazuli stone for Christy.

Next Up: Hurghada, Egypt

India Part II: Calangute Goa and Vashi (Mumbai)

2010-05-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Calangute, Goa, India
We found our last Goan hotel called the Casa de Goa, on one our our walks down the beach. We ended up paying $52 inc. taxes for the hotel, which seemed to be a low price, given the fact that the rates had been much more earlier in the season. The hotel was decorated in a Portuguese fashion, and resembled an old mansion. The inside décor was a bit tired, and the bathroom was not the most modern. Needless to say, it did the job. We had a lovely little patio that overlooked the courtyard pool, which was about 10 feet away. We started off with a standard room in the main hotel, but were upgraded to a suite room across the road at the quieter and more expensive section. Reason? We had several flooded sewage backup issues in our bathroom, as a result of a shoe being stuck in the pipe. We're not sure how they knew that. The location was perfect, two blocks to the main town road, but completely quiet on our small lane.

Our first day there, we had heard of the Mapusa market, which took place on Fridays, and was where the “locals” shop for cheap. Say no more – we were there. With the end of the season, they had cancelled the Saturday Night Anjuna Market and there was a question of whether or not the Wednesday Hippie Market was taking place…. So by then, Christy was itching for a market. We hired out a taxi in front of the hotel, and found the most delightful kid to drive us named Sunil. This kid was a ball of energy and just crazily hilarious. He would have this crazy giggly laughter and then look at us in the rearview mirror to see if we were laughing with him. He then asked us if he could play his favorite song, which turned out to be “Believe” (yes, by Cher), and his next favorite “Africa” (Toto) and a Stevie Wonder song. If you can only imagine careening through the gorgeous countryside, listening to 80’s music, while whizzing by gorgeous Portuguese crumbling mansions & churches, amazing green fields and hill, seeing cows all over the road, and women walking down the road with huge baskets balanced on their heads. It was truly a surreal moment, and one of those where we would not have done anything else. Forget the cubicle life!

The Mapusa market was was mostly locals, as Sunil explained. He told us to bargain hard to get the local prices. We told him we would be gone between 1-1.5 hours, and he waited for us in a parking spot, that could only have been gleaned by parking karma. Shops were made up of local interest clothing products, like t-shirts, shorts, shoes, sandals, saris and tons of children’s clothing and a food section. We then saw the spice market portion, which was a brilliant array of colors in overflowing sacks. And the smell!!! We were drooling with the array of freshness…. Cloves, cinnamon, masalas, and things we had no idea of what they were! A few owners tried to sell us small sachets, and it was a little hard to explain we were traveling and could not bring it back with us. The price of the saffron was ridiculous … a container for only $2.50 USD! The chef in Christy nearly cried. Who would not want to stock up their kitchen with fresh spices?!?! Christy resolved to find the local Indian stores in New Zealand to find similar products. This brings up an interesting point …. We have not seen any cooking schools here yet! There were a few local “indigenous” looking women who were festooned with gold, including these amazing ornaments on their ears, noses, and eyebrows. They were selling jewelry, and would ask you to visit their shop and would throng you… but their "shops" shared a blanket. It was a bit awkward. The ladies at the front of the market were particularly latching on to us, and holding our hands. They were a little upset we did not want to buy --- even Marcus was being festooned by bracelets. We quickly figured out the pricing structure for India. Every country has a scheme with how much they mark things up for the tourists. In Goa, they would name a price, and you would reduce the price by 2/3, and usually wind up paying between 1/3 and ½ the starting price. It usually helped to explain that you were not from Russia and from New Zealand. That brought smiles all round – New Zealand is famous here for their bad cricket team. We picked up a tablecloth with these beautiful blues and silver threading, a Kingfisher T-shirt, two gorgeous pillow covers, a double-sided printed pink pashmina, and this really cool duck bracelet by this guy that should have been an artist selling at an art fair! In the end we found Sunil in less than 1.5 hours, and he was impressed by our bargaining skills, “you pay local prices!”

We found some good places to eat in Calangute! There was a Brittos sandwich outlet where you could get a chicken tikka subs and veggie burgers for $3 USD for three sandwiches. We also found the first real looking Irish pub we had seen in months and months (maybe since Aussie in January?), which unfortunately, due to the season, was only serving Indian beers. We also found a really good place called the Treehouse, which was on the main road. We had great beers and Indian wine, positively BRILLIANT non-greasy chicken tikka, and vegetable masala. Christy liked the dry Indian foods, and had been having a hard time finding tikkas, as many places said they had closed the tikka ovens or something like that.

In Goa, we loved to watch the daily routines of the local people. We learned that the bicycling bread guys came on the local lanes in front of our hotel after 6pm. They all had bicycles with “clown horns,” and would beep the horns to alert you that they were bicycling down the road. You would not notice them otherwise – their bicycles had bushel baskets tied to the back racks, and covered with tarp. The Goan bread was light and puffy, and in the shape of a large sandwich roll. Delicious and inexpensive – about 25 cents USD for four huge rolls.

The beach in Calangute was pretty decent and did not look anything like we had pictured it, nor was it as dirty. Again, we think it was the time of year that we had been traveling, at the far end of the travel season. (You would never guess it by our hotel; however, it was jumping busy.) The beach had plenty of beach shacks, which had the restaurants and the parasols/sun loungers. The beach was also a lot more “local” towards the far north of the beach as well. At the far end of Calangute, almost near Candolim, were a huge amount of massive tankers. There was a large river outlet near this section of the beach. At first sight, one of our walks, we noticed a tanker that was just heading up the river. However, the next day, on our run, we decided to run in that direction and actually physically see the river. This was also the hardest run we would take – the ocean was up at high tide, and it was only soft sand. We got to the far end of Candolim, and noticed that there were bulldozers all over! It appeared that there was quite a bit of erosion at the river entrance. Additionally, the biggest surprise was that the tanker was actually stuck in place at the river’s mouth … it had been stripped down and was in fact anchored down. We were not sure if it was a permanent man made reef?? The waves were pretty fierce in this area, and thought that might be why it was there.

We left Calangute feeling pretty good about the beach and India, but, we wondered, what would Mumbai hold for us? We waited for Sunil our happy cab driver who was meant to drive us, but the other cabbies (who we now knew on a sight basis and waved to them every time we went out) alerted us that his car was broken, and they all looked around to see who the sucker would be to take us. In the end, we had a smaller cab, with a real quiet cab driver. It just must be our thing, but we were nervous enough about leaving at 11am to catch our 1:40pm flight. The cabbies had assured us that would be more than enough time. With the roads and crazy traffic, we were not confident, but winged it. Sure enough, we crawled along, which was made worse by the fact that our driver had to stop for gas. In India, it seems that there are not as many gas stations, and so there are always lines to wait, depending on what type of vehicle you have. We waited for a bit, in the sweltering sun, since our car had no a/c, or, our driver just did not turn it on. We finally took off, and were relieved until 15 minutes later, a policeman pulled us over, just after we had seen an airport 5km sign. !!! Our worst fears started going through our heads…. But we were relieved to find out that our driver had a license and had his papers.

Mumbai, India

The flight to Mumbai was uneventful; we had the token children sitting around us crying, screaming, and kicking seats etc. But the flight was over within an hour and then it was off the plane and onto a minibus to be bused back to the terminal. We had read all about the scams that taxi drivers and we decided to use a prepaid cab. We had expected a rate of about $25 USD, but we received a rate of half of that from Cool Cabs! As soon as we pre-paid, the agent gave us a strict rundown of everything that was covered in the fare we had prepaid – tolls, gratuities, etc. He said to give money to no one, and told us only to give one half of our two sheets to the security guard. Sure enough, as soon as we exited the sliding doors, everyone was on us … well, mostly on Marcus. "Sir, sir” or “We will take you,” or “Come with me my friend.” We just walked by the human swarm, headed to the security guy, and turned in our sheet to The Guy. He pointed us to a cabdriver next to us, and another guy started fumbling around us and opening doors. We then ignored the fumbling guy, and insisted he not help us. They likely either want tips or will run off with luggage. Our luggage is way too heavy for most Indians to lift, they really struggle with our cases. We were pretty nervous in the cab, and knew the tricks the cabbie would try and pull…. Toll money, wrong directions, more gratuity money, etc. We just hoped we would not wind up in the sketchy neighborhood, as is another common “scare mongering” trick to extort money from you. However, we hoped that since we had prepaid the company, the driver would make haste back to the airport to collect his payment. That in itself is a pretty smart system! To ensure our driver knew that we had people waiting for us at the hotel, we let him know we had a meeting at 4:30pm with the boss at the hotel. We chirped incessantly about Christy’s boss, her symposia, how we had been to India before, about the work dinner, and on and on and on. Turned out to be a good story! Well, nothing would go to plan. Marcus noticed that our driver was on “E”, and soon he turned into a gas station that had about 20 cabs in front of him. So we sat … and waited. Then the cabbie started a fight with another cabbie that cut in front of him. The drama did not end…. The cabbie tried to charge us for the toll money, so we had to show him the voucher, so he begged off. The final straw was that he did not know where the hotel was, and pulled off the highway going to where we thought was the wrong direction. He pulled over and asked some people, and indeed he was going the wrong way. We rolled out of the cab at the hotel so fast he did not even have the opportunity to ask for anything else.

We stayed at the Four Points in Navi Mumbai, Vashi, which is outside the city centre. With the terrorism on high alert, we felt better about staying out of markets and out of the chic downtown hotels. We had also read that the hotel was adjacent to a great fancy mall, and in close proximity to other good touristy things. Say no more! Security was very tight at the hotel – we had a bomb sniffing dog, a security man examine the undercarriage of the hotel with a mirror, and then had to pass through a metal detector before entry to the hotel reception area. The hotel location was odd, from the description, it seemed like Vashi was the happening place to be in. We’re not sure about that, necessarily. Sure, we were next to a happening mall “Inorbit”, that clearly was a destination. We also had two other malls within 2 blocks away; but these were clearly a class or two apart from the one we liked. We were also close to a Metro stop, but we never did use it. The area around the hotel also looked a bit dodgy, with a tent city to the rear of the hotel, and the streets looking like we should have been in a war-ravaged country.

So we passed our two full days in the hotel relaxing and enjoying ourselves. The hotel was not necessarily equipped for tourism, the best we could get was a private car service for the entire day, but there was no suggested tour itinerary. Travelling without a guidebook sometimes can be a hassle. So we ended up having a really nice time walking the malls for two days. Yep, we know this sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what we did for two days! We slept in, enjoyed a later breakfast, checked email before the mall opened at 11am, shopped, grabbed a really late lunch, siesta-ed, and then had a late afternoon workout, and went to the mall for dinner! We ate most of our meals at the mall at the tandoori outlet, where they had awesome tandoori veggie platters, chicken kebabs and chicken sausages. We also found a place to order freshly made hummus and enjoyed. We ended up buying a few different things at the mall, including a necklace, a new Bluetooth device, a dress, and some magazines.

Our last day there we had a 9pm checkout, and sat in the lobby waiting for our car service, while surfing the web. It passed slowly, as we got even more nervous about our flight. We were not excited about traveling through the city at 12am, although we had been promised a safe ride by the concierge desk. It brought us back to being mugged at night in Lima in our cab. So our driver showed up in a … no exaggeration… battered and dented compact hatchback (with a missing colored panel door) Daewoo. For $30 we had the privilege of driving 40 minutes through what can only be described as a scary route(small side roads?! unlit streets?!), where we thought we would be mugged and robbed and left in some shanty. Our driver demanded that we pay the toll, and so luckily, we had our concierge’s number, and the driver was able to call her and sort it out. We also asked her to have the driver please stick to the main routes. He did after that call. So we pulled up to the airport, after the longest fear induced 40 minutes of our lives, and waited for 1:20 minutes to check-in at Royal Jordanian. For the record, there were no clear lines at the check-in, and they just opened the gates when they felt ready. By the time they finally opened their check-in, people were about to commit mutiny and revert to their own self-check-in, there were 2 lines with about 40 people each streaming through the terminal. It was insanity, and we were very glad when we finally reached the haven of the Clipper Lounge where we were able to wait- sleepless – until 4:45am when we were able to board the plane!

We will miss India and would consider going back. We’ll miss the niceness of people, and their wonderful kind disposition. They are a real people-pleasing culture, and are very welcoming. While we were at the mall in Mumbai, we had several people ask us how we found India and if we liked it. One father and son also took about 10 pictures of us and them together! Everyone wanted to make sure we liked it and enjoyed our time there. That was a refreshing spirit, especially since everyone always had a smile.
Next Up: Cairo, Egypt!

Beachin' it at Colva and Candolim, Goa, India!

2010-05-09T01:38:00.001-07:00

Colva, Goa
We started our journey pretty excited to get out of the Novotel Bangkok Airport hotel, where we had been holed up for 3 full days and two nights, due to the craziness in the city centre. After dropping a wad of cash (that we hope will be partly refunded by our expensive travel insurance company), we were eager to head on out.

Regardless, we rolled over early through the parking lot to the airport and were able to check in early to the Cathay Pacific flight which was good. We made our way through security (we love the fast track service for Business Class), and spent a few hours in the lounge eating our last red bean paste baos and drinking wine! We also made haste to use up our last coins in Thailand since we knew – after being burned several times – that we cannot exchange coins at any foreign exchange stations. So, for about $6 in leftover coins, we were able to get a bottle of sunblock, re-hydration packets and gas-ex indigestion tabs. We figured that would be a wise bet for the upcoming next country!

We ended up on an old Cathay plane, and there was no planned meal service per se, since it was a 1am flight. It turned out to be no problem for Christy, who promptly fell asleep as we were delayed on the taxiway (almost 45 minutes). So she slept through takeoff, some turbulence, and only re-awoke as we were getting ready for landing!

Then it was our first taste of India. Christy had pre-arranged her visa for India while we were in Australia (US passport), whereas Marcus had elected to try the visa on arrival approach, only available for 5 countries (including New Zealand) as a 2010 trial run. This is where things started to get complicated! As we approached immigration we noticed that the visa on arrival desk was closed. We got the attention of a customs official who gave Marcus a form and instructed him to wait in area and complete the form. Christy decided that her waiting would not be wise as our luggage would be on the other side uncollected, so she went through immigration while Marcus waited for processing. As soon as she had gone through, the immigration officials came back, and asked for Marcus’s NZ passport and a copy of the onward itinerary. Disaster, as Christy had the itinerary in her datebook and she was on the other side. After a lot of explanations and questioning….finally one of the officials waved to Marcus to join the queue for immigration. Success? No! Marcus was led to the airport police station. Christy was still nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, she had joined the queue to get the luggage, having to force her way in between everyone who was huddled at the luggage carousel. Christy has never seen anything like it – people were 4-5 people thick! As Marcus was sweating it out, Christy was comfortably ensconced in the now empty arrivals area playing endless Solitaire on the I-touch, and watching some worker blow his nose – sans Kleenex – directly into the garbage bin. Don’t ask – it was gross – and that was not the only time she saw it that week. Then two Indian officials in uniforms came barreling towards her – never a good sign. They explained something to the effect that she should not have gone through immigration, and needed to give them the travel itinerary. Finally, Marcus was led past customs to pay a USD $60 fee, returned to the police station, and then led back to the immigration desk and was processed with his visa. Phew!!!

Once inside the Mumbai domestic terminal, we staked a claim at a 2nd floor café and ordered coffees and breakfast – toasts, omelets and wedge fries. Delicious. We were also able to get a couch, and after breakfast, Christy passed out for over an hour. We stayed there for several hours, certainly not a bad place to spend $14 USD and a 7 hour layover! Our flight to Goa on Spicejet was cheap, short and easy --- we landed into a scrubby little terminal in Goa within the hour.

Truth be told, we were a little tired at the start of the India trip (Vietnam had given us a run … trying travel, too much travel jumping, and … stomach issues.) We arranged our India trip, therefore, as a vacation away from our vacation. Christy really wanted to see more of the country --- but it is simply huge --- and so many fascinating places to see… Kerala and Rajasthan were really at the top of the list. We know some people say Goa isn’t the “real India,” but we wanted to dip our toes in and see how it went, and stay in one place for a bit. We had also been warned off by many people about the conditions here, but really, in retrospect, we’ve been doing so much travelling, that we’re somewhat adapted. And at least, we hoped, we were our stomachs adapted, and hoped we would not suffer the Delhi Belly revenge.

We stayed at the Beleza by the Beach, located in between Colva and Benaulim beaches, which turned out to be an amazing spread of property with gorgeous gardens and trees and flowers everywhere. Lodging was very nice – we had a room on the second floor of a villa with a lovely deck overlooking the pool. You could rent the villas out, as they only contained three rooms …. And they had two sitting/common rooms and a basics kitchen (including a toaster and PURIFIED WATER!). The property abutted the ocean, and you could walk down a short shaded path to their small gazebo, which overlooked the beautiful beach. We were immediately glad we had booked for 6 nights there. Tina and Nelson, the managers, were wonderful, and we felt at home. The restaurant was the real gem! Our included breakfast buffet included fruit, an egg station, cereals and a few hot meals (usually two hot Indian meals) + traditional hot western style breakfast foods, like potatoes, grilled onions and tomatoes. We never went hungry, and liked trying the different India foods they put out every day – we had potato/onion/chili pancakes, puffy mini pancakes, and flatbread. They came accompanied by amazing sauces – a fluffy green paneer “cottage cheese” like sauce, a salty picked dip another day. Christy ordered a tandoori veggie platter, which was massive and covered with skewers of broccoli, red and green peppers, onions, mushrooms, paneer, garlic naan and coriander sauce. We also tried to local Goan specialties, which included Goan sausage, which reminded us of our friend Dapins’ chili – slightly spicy and sweet and DELICIOUS! We also sampled chicken xacutti and chicken cafreal and a few other local specialties. After trying several different restaurants in town and on the beach, we decided that nowhere was better than the hotel restaurant. Sure, it was slightly more pricy; maybe $1-2 more in total! However, the quality, serving size and variety of the fresh food was amazing. We played cards there a few nights while waiting for our meals and really had a nice time! The other fun of sitting and waiting for our food was the theatrics with the local animals, while scary; it was actually funny, kind of almost vaudeville. One night a frog hopped into the restaurant; the waiter chased it into the bushes. Two nights in a row we had “Pepe the dog” re-visit us again (see Chile story), she would normally sleep in a curled little position on bottom shelf of one of the patio tables in front of our villa. It was a cute sight, and she was a friendly dog, no doubt encouraged by handouts from the rest of us. She would appear out of nowhere and saunter into the restaurant, and the security guard with some 6th sense, would just lumber out of thin air and start chasing her slowly with his night stick. She’d prance ahead wagging her tail and outrun him, like a game. The last night, the scraggly mewling kitten appeared at the restaurant. She had been there at lunch, and one of the waiters was feeding her; at dinner, a waiter chased her with a rock, and then the night guard appeared out of nowhere again.

At our property, we again seemed to stumble unknowingly onto another Russian tourist trail. We had seen a number of Russian tourists in the South of Vietnam. Generally speaking, they are not very friendly at all, and don’t acknowledge you or even make eye contact. At our property, we (well, Christy) was determined to break through. We’re not sure if it is a language or cultural barrier? However, once you started saying hello, people warmed up, even if they don’t speak English. When we first got there, no one talked to us, and by the time we left, we were all saying hello and goodbye. One up for breaking down barriers.

The beaches here are unbelievable, very different from what we have ever seen. You pass through beach yardage of windswept sand… which in the heat here, feels like the Sahara desert. During the weekdays it actually looks it, as the beach is just deserted. Weekends and evenings had more locals there. The wave action while we were there was amazing; we wondered why no one was surfing. The government here is very serious about ocean safety – there were lifeguards posted every couple hundred yards. Goa beaches are known for their rip tides, and many tourists have died here. Over the course of the time we spent there – we walked both ends of the beach – once to Colva and once to Majorda. We received a shocking number of locals who wanted us to be in their pictures, although Christy had more offers …. She took about 10 pictures with one group of young boys. If you see any pictures of Christy in a black beach dress with a floppy beach hat on the net …. You now know why.

One day the Russians just disappeared, and then it was literally just us. We had the pool to ourselves that day; we joked that the Russians had gotten the last charter flight out. Sure enough, no one was at dinner with us – they were really gone. And we … missed them, well, until we figured it was like having our own personal resort.

Candolim, Goa
We planned to check out different parts of Goa. Having experienced the tranquil south Goa, we headed north to where the action was supposed to be. However, as we were learning, the season was really coming to a grinding halt. The last Russian charter was on May 10, and the last British one shortly to follow. We definitely saw the signs --- as we left Beleza, they only were making breakfast a la carte, since there were only 7 people guests, and were emptying the pool! We checked into our next property, called the Sonesta Inn Hotel, about 1:15 by cab there. We had obtained great rates online, and …. We should have learned our lesson there. We were pleased to know they only had suites available for $33 USD. We went to check in, and turns out the place was under construction --- they were demo-ing the full lot of rooms surrounding the pool. This meant workmen leering the whole time. If that was not bad enough, it was not posted on Agoda and the gym was also closed. We went to address it with the manager Jacinta, who turned out to be the rudest manager we have yet to meet in our personal or professional travels (which number in the thousands…). She actually had the audacity to start the head wobble, tell us we were in the wrong, and threatened to throw us out of the hotel as we did not have a print out of our Agoda reservation certificate (not many open internet cafes in South Goa!) stay away, folks.
Despite the annoying stay, we did manage to have a nice time. We took a long walk down the beach one morning after breakfast and enjoyed seeing the beaches that everyone says are dirty and full of a certain breed of tourist. Yes, there are a lot of beach shacks there, set up with the loungers and "palm" umbrellas....see adjacent picture with them in the background... We were not sure of what the fuss was about, but then again, we were there after all the Russians had left. One of the beaches (Cargao?) had some trash on it once you got to the top of the beach near the shops, but it was not as bad as we expected.

The local restaurants were nowhere near as good as the Beleza! We have found that like anywhere, some places are really good, and some places just serve … food. It’s a bit like anywhere in the world… It is a bit harder as the Indian cuisine seems to use a lot of oil, deep frying, ghee (clarified butter) or cream, so it always feels like the meals are a bit heavy for us, especially with the rice. We wound up eating bread and jam and yogurt/cereal for lunch/dinner just to have something light. Food portions also seem to come and go. We ordered skewers in one restaurant for $5 USD, and they were four small pieces of thin meat (consistency/thickness of gyro meat) served on a plate – no rice. In any event, we definitely did not starve, and we love the interesting foods and flavors that are essentially India! We also ate a few meals at the Old Mango Tree, near our hotel, and Marcus had vindaloo! He was sweating from every single pore! There was just a sheennnnnn of sweat!

We also enjoyed the local bit of nature, which was evident in small ways … we saw a variety of really neat songbirds, including the kingfisher, a brilliant blue bird. In the afternoons, the eagles would circle above the town, looking for prey. At the Beleza, there were a ton of crows, one morning, one came up to our sliding door and knocked on it with its beak! He repeated the same thing to Marcus when I was out! (we thought that a bit spooky). There was also a curious absence of seagulls there, but were there were huge crows everywhere that plied the shores. We did not see too much sea life on our walks along the ocean, so we’re not sure if there is good snorkeling or dolphins in the ocean. What we did see on a few occasions were the dead sea snakes that had washed up. These were nasty long snakes that had a row of vicious teeth. That was pretty much enough to keep Christy out of the ocean! (Note –the running tally for not swimming in the ocean is now at Vietnam AND India!) There were also the obligatory cows walking down the middle of the street – we found this to be hilarious! Cars just simply went around them and the cows just …. Did not care! Lastly, we did find that there were a lot of stray dogs, and most of them were um, not fixed. They all looked alike with the same pointed ears, and the same short fur. Inbred dogs! Our favorite dog story actually seems like something induced by hallucinogenic drugs (but wasn’t!) … we were walking along, and all of the sudden we heard this rustling next to us. Turns out to be one of the inbred looking dogs, who was perched on the top of a five foot wall, eating a dead potted plant!?!?!? There was no ledge we could see, and we have no idea how the Super Inbred Dog (or the Cat Dog) climbed up there. Further, what dog has ever eaten a plant? It was all a little bizarre, and so we hurried up the walkway, convinced he was one … sick puppy.

Next Up: Calangute Beach and Mumbai, India

Southern Chic in Mui Ne and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Bangkok Airport "BKK" Style...

2010-04-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Mui Ne
We had searched town in Nha Trang for bus routes, and had decided we would take a sleeper bus to Mui Ne – and we decided we would take a daytime one so we would not have to travel at night. Our company stated it would take 4 hours, although everyone else told us 4.5 to 5 hours. We paid $8 USD for the tickets and determined that all sleeper buses are not created equal! The bus ride went pretty well, although right when Christy was walking up from a nap, she saw Marcus bowling up to the front of the bus (3.5 hours into the trip), and soon enough the bus pulled over and he was outside reallll quick. This started a urination revolution, and everyone exited the bus onto this piece of land that was covered in trash and bramble bushes. Christy ran out and found a bramble bush, and got a toot from a passing bus. After about 10 minutes and everyone having to use the field, we pulled back out. Apparently, despite the fact that the bus company had passed out bottled waters at the beginning of the trip, and there were close to about 15 kids onboard.... the bus never planned to stop mid-way for a break!

The ride to Mui Ne was fascinating, we started off passing dry mountains that were just literally all boulders and cacti. After that, we seemed to start climbing into the “highlands” and the earth changed to a bright red color. Finally, we saw the coast, which was windswept and had small rolling dunes, covered by fir trees. Finally, 4.5 hours in, we pulled into the few kms. of the rambling town. We were lucky that we had booked our bus company, as it stopped for a break at their company café in town; our hotel was a one minute walk from there! So we walked on over to the Novela Mui Ne and checked in. We were pretty blown away by our room! We had paid $43/night for four nights on Agoda, which had given us a beautiful room with a chaise lounge, sliding wooden doors onto a terrace overlooking the main road, a huge bathroom with quite possibly the best shower we have had in weeks – it was a "rain" showerhead with superb water pressure, and an open style bathroom with tons of room. The pool looked very clean, and was surrounded by chaise loungers. The hotel was also right on the beach front, and had a about 30 chaise loungers – with mattresses – on the ocean. The tides there were quite high, so there were about 10 steps up to the ledge where all the loungers were, which were covered by shaded thatched roofs. We were in heaven and decided we wanted to stay for an extra night, as it was the best hotel we had in the whole of Vietnam.

Town itself was pretty spread out over a few km, but luckily; we seemed to be in the hub. The northern end of town had a few decent looking places to eat (including a place that looked like it served Texas BBQ), and a few hotels. There was about 1.5 km of empty stretches, with a few guesthouses, then the main town. From our “main section” of town, there seemed to be another 1 km of quiet, then more of a larger stretch of activity and restaurants. The larger resorts also seemed to be located down at this end of the beach. On the street near us, there were quite a few places to choose from, and on the beach side, there were also some good looking restaurants and lounges. Mui Ne is also famous for the kite surfing, there were easily 30 of them out when we arrived. They were great to watch – the conditions looked brilliant! What we did see many of them wearing, however, were wetsuits, and for an obvious reason – there were monster jellyfish in the waters! As the week went on, however, the winds seemed to die down a bit. Mui Ne is also famous for the proximity to the beach dunes, which you are able to climb, rent slides from the kids, and then slide down a few times. However, the tours started at either 5am or 2pm, and neither of those was appealing to us, especially since it was close to 40 degrees every day we were there.

During our week there, we caught up on a lot of busy work we needed to do and have not really had time to do, which included the start of booking for the next weeks. We also finished two books each, sent a lot of time by the lovely pool, and took some great walks down the beach. We also started to get back into our fitness routine again after having been on the go and sick. We took some interesting runs down the sidewalk, which became like a game of Frogger – dodging potholes, chickens, scary little dogs and garbage. Marcus got caught in one of their sewer door handles and went flying! Not the best running place! We also did start to do laps in the pool to supplement the runs, which was a nice change of pace (literally!).

The food in Mui Ne was interesting, and really good value. We spent quite a few meals in Vietnam Home restaurant, where they had great Vietnamese food! We had some great squid and red salt chicken that were delicious, as well as great happy hour specials (including a two for one "007" martini). Apparently the government also thought so - they sent a TV crew down to Mui Ne to film a special show on tourism there and that was the only restaurant that they filmed in. We had gotten to know the manager Quyen, and were excited for him! The film crew was also going to three different hotels to film, and our hotel was also selected. We must have been doing something right! We also went to another restaurant where we had this amazing grilled calamari and mixed meat skewers. It took them about an hour to cook, but they were simply amazing. Christy ate squid for about 4 days in a row it was so good!

Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon)
We decided to splurge and to get a car service to Ho Chi Minh City (known by Saigon by everyone that works or lives there). We had heard it was really a dangerous city, and we were not keen to turn up in a big city at the bus station and have to deal with unscrupulous cab drivers. We had done a pretty good job avoiding them thus far, and sometimes the extra money is worth avoiding further hassles. Our drive that morning turned out to be easy – and our driver was skilled and careful in a seemingly chaotic highway system. Seriously, there were so many crazies on the road we thought we would be toast. People would pass (on a two lane road), on the shoulder or the other side of the road. The oncoming traffic would blink their headlights, which indicated they were coming through no matter what. Additionally, it was a holiday weekend, and that day was the start of a three day weekend. So there were MOBS of tour buses on the road, all packed with tourists. There was quite a bit of jockeying on the road for road positions and passing. We did end up making it in one piece to the city, in a mere 4.5 hours and just in time for lunch, which was the plan.

Our HCMC hotel (Renaissance) was in a great location, right on the riverside, at the start of the downtown district, and within walking distance to everywhere. We were amazed by the city, as it had gotten quite a pan from some guidebooks, and we were initially going to skip it. Heck, we wished we had spent more time there! First, the city was dead when we pulled in on the holiday, although there were more people out and about the next day. The city had wide boulevards and sidewalks, and was gorgeous. There were modern hotels, gleaming skyscrapers, and a huge amount of new construction going on (24-7!). We almost thought we were in a different city that what we imagined – it was hugely upscale – with Versace, Gucci, Rolex, Tag and Marc Jacobs all lining the streets. Colorful cafes and trendy restaurants filled other spaces – and one could pretty much find any ethnicity food represented. Then, there were the wonderful tourist shops filling in the other storefronts, with silk, lacquer and artworks. It was a marvel for the eyes! Granted, most of our wandering was in District 1, but it was amazing and buzzing. We did not come across any of the con artists really, some of the guys on motos asking “where you go?” and one guy who inexplicably wanted to shine Christy’s "wedding" sandals (remember the ugly Payless Shoe Source $13 gold lame ones we bought last September in Panama)??!!!? Of course, we were cautious with our wallets, but we felt safer there by miles, as opposed to Hanoi. We also decided it was in our top 5’s of Asian cities – we just liked the vibe and would definitely go back!

We had some phenomenal eating in the city. We went to Wrap and Roll (as recommended by Luxe Guide), and had an amazing meal- steamed pork rolls with sauce, and this really neat “roll your own” grilled beef rice paper wraps with fresh herbs and sauce, similar to a fajita! We also had to have Pho 24, and have our last bowl there! Lastly, we had two meals at Juice, which was also mentioned in Luxe guide, which we happened to stumble upon. It seemed to be Aussie-run, and was the smoothest and quickest service ever. For lunch we had rotisserie chicken sandwiches, Marcus with fries and Christy with potato salad. Considering Christy hates potato salad, this was the best potato salad ever. Later that evening we went back and got carryout cheeseburgers with more potato salad and french fries so we could have a movie night at the hotel!

Our last day there, Marcus had to see a doctor, and went off to a western medical compound. Everything worked out fine, until the doctor jokingly laughed that he could treat his inflamed elbow with a whack to the elbow with a bible. After that, we hit the market and really got down to business. Christy figured her shopping was slipping out of her grasp – with Bangkok beginning a slow descent into madness. Within about an hour, she had procured two pairs of beaded sandals for $10.50 (original starting price for one pair was $48!), two purses, two hats and a few other odds and ends.

Then we hit the must-do on the traveler circuit – the “Reunification” Palace. We had the mental picture of the image from April 30 1975 in our heads … the lone tank crashing through the gates of the President’s Palace. While we were too young to remember the sad details of the effects of the Vietnam War, we thought it was important to see. Since the 35th Anniversary is looming soon, so did many other people, including a brigade of South Vietnamese vets. That really hit home to see these men in their uniforms; we had a host of questions we longed to ask about the effects of the war. The museum charged a small entry fee of less than $1USD, and the price included a tour guide. We were lucky to walk in just as a small group was starting. The building was amazing; most of the details have been preserved as they were when the President surrendered years ago. For instance, receiving rooms are still carpeted and furnished exactly as they were, with the same artwork. The most fascinating part of the tour was seeing the basement, which served as the war room. Rooms snaked off for miles, and there was a room for everything – the radio, the lighting controls, the troop action map etc. The palace and surrounding streets were also being festooned by enormous quantities of lights and colored lit decorations for the upcoming remembrance. We are sure it will be quite an event.

And sadly enough, our time in Vietnam wrapped up to a close. We had an early flight to Bangkok, using Air Asia. We had two small problems enroute, however. The first occurred when we were put into a “safe” cab by the Renaissance staff. The cab charged a flat rate, which we reconfirmed twice. Inexplicably (or not), as we went to pay, the price jumped. Christy waited patiently by the curb, until she decided to take action: she wrote the cab license plate on her hand, showed the driver and said she would call the hotel to tell them. He was not speaking English (Vietnamese only to us) but – miraculously understood that statement and backed off immediately with our correct change. Ah-ha. Second, we would caution everyone to use up their dong before leaving the country and getting to the airport. There is only one currency exchange in the airport, which charges extraordinary rates. We shop everything, and decided we could change it in Thailand, where they have many currency exchanges in the airport. Wrong on the dong! You can not change VND at the Bangkok airport – only downtown – where it was not safe to go!

Bangkok Airport
We had been closely following the news on Bangkok’s protests for the last few weeks. However, we found out 24 hours before we were meant to leave that the UK, USA and NZ governments had advised that all citizens avoid all non essential travel to the downtown. They reported that the airport transfers would be ok. We decided to stay safe at the airport, rather than sorry downtown, and camp out at the Novotel Airport hotel, and splurge out on their executive room (with included breakfast, afternoon teas/coffees, appetizers and drinks in the evening, and wifi). We definitely did not regret the splurge, we had the most amazing food there … we had great breakfasts with deli meats and fresh lox. For appetizers we had sushi and GOOD WINE! We had not had a decent bottle of wine since the Hilton Hua Hin, at the start of our adventure in early March. It was also nice to dress up for dinner - see attached photo! We enjoyed the wine a little too much, and got our fill over the course of the next three nights. We did joke that it was probably Yellowtail Aussie wine. We also met another stranded couple and enjoyed hanging out with them in the lounge!

We were very glad in the end we stayed there as the news we read every day in the newspapers was shocking – the Red Shirt protestors were taking up residence in high rise buildings and hospitals, chasing out 5 star hotels’ business by camping around the facilities, blocking public transportation, closing down highways so military convoys could not proceed southwards. It is a very sad situation for the Thai people.

After 2.5 busy days, we finally were looking forwards to India!
Next Up: Goa India

The things we never thought we'd do/see... but when in Vietnam... Hoi An, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang!

2010-04-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

Hoi An
We had arranged for a private car to take us to Hoi an, as arranged by a small travel agency on the main strip. We were sold by the fact that the driver would be ours for the day, and would stop whenever we would want him to. Our driver spoke very little English; he tried to point out a couple of areas on the way but really was not able to explain them to us. The weather was horrid - by the time we got to the major mountain pass we couldn’t see a thing. As we headed down the other side of the mountain we got to see the ocean and beaches below, however there was nowhere really to stop so we carried on to Danang, to the Cham Sculpture Museum that was one of the local attractions. This Museum had a lot of different marble carvings that had been found up in the mountains and countryside. So we stopped there for “30 minutes” and then continued on to Hoi An. This turned out to be a great thing (i.e. toilet stop), as Christy was feeling really car-sick (no surprise from the horrid roads and stop and go).

Danang looked like a pleasant enough place to lay your head for a few nights, and the real beach action took place to the south of the city, in the popular “China Beach.” The beach down at the south end of town was different, filled with small sand dunes, and scrubby fir trees. You could feel the humidity in the sea air, and feel the moisture that threatened to drop a monsoon on us, although it never quite rained despite the ever-present clouds. There was a flurry of construction down at the end of the beach, and we suspected that the area would be the big “next.” The Park Hyatt was building, and there were several HUGE mega complexes (a la Las Vegas) that seemed very out of place in the middle of the country. These were practically adjacent to the Marble Mountains, which are not really mountains, but rather huge rock outcroppings. They were certainly scenic, but not worth a separate trip.

We finally pulled into town and were situated at the Southern Hotel & Villas. This was the first of three hotels we checked into over the course of three nights for the following reasons: 1. Nasty, moldy and needed an environmental clean-up; 2. Nice but raised their rates incredibly when we wanted to add on an extra night, and 3. Conveniently located guesthouse down the road from #2 that we stayed at for an additional night and saved a bundle. All we have to say is that one should stay at a hotel based on location there, as it can make or break your stay. For us, we preferred the half way mark of the Hoi An Pacific/Orchid Guesthouse, as we were within farther walking distance of Old Town, but it was much quieter, and within short bicycling distance to the beach.

The town was amazing; there was certainly a small business core, where the locals did their business, which, after you kept walking through, put you into the old city. The architecture was amazing and simply ancient – buildings were orange and taupe, covered in soot, and a little crumbly. The street lanes were gorgeous and small, and lined with stores that sold everything you can imagine (if all you could imagine was souvenirs, clothes and food). Every tailor shop is amazing to look at – there are millions of fabrics loaded up in every store and millions of mannequins standing around. It was heaven for Christy, a shopaholic and a self admitted dress and skirt lover. You know it was really bad when she started drawing her own designs for people to make it up for her.

Our first night there, since we were both tired, we decided to stay local at our distantly located Southern Villas. We had seen two westerners drinking at a place around the corner and decided to try it out. We watched with amusement over dinner as the old guys that were drinking next door started to leave to head home for the evening. There was the one guy who walked over to the dark area next to the restaurant, sloppily undid his pants ….. and then relieved himself a few feet away. This same guy hopped on his motor bike and promptly rode it into another parked motor bike before dropping it to the ground. Another of his friends ran to his aid and pointed him to the road (5 feet away) and sent him on his way. Another guy staggered to his motorbike and everyone ran out to him… not to stop him, but to make sure he put on his helmet. We guess the motto here is “friends don’t let friends ride drunk without a helmet.” The friends helped him negotiate the curb, aligned his bike in the middle of the road, pushed him off after a bus passed by and we watched as he swerved away. This might be a reason we continued to take daylight buses.

Our second day there Christy’s stomach was still acting up, and so we decided to sit still for the day – sort of. We decided to pick up bikes and head to the private beach club that the hotel owned. We rode through the small towns for about 15 minutes and had a lovely ride just checking everything out. We did find the beach club, and a handy attendant gave us numbers as claim checks for the bikes. The beach reminded us of Oregon, as it was really a diamond in the rough. There were some rough small dunes, and a steep downgrade to the water, which was pounding hard with surf. There was fog in the background towards the north, and the beach was fringed by green palm trees. It was pretty empty, and we had a great time chilling out and doing nothing but reading our books. Food in town was ok ... nothing special and we began to crave things we would never eat. Christy ended up eating several dinners of steamed shrimp, which turned out to be pretty good, although she has not touched it since.

We also did check out the local tailors, it is pretty hard to avoid. There was one on every corner, and it started to drive us nuts with all the invitations to come have something made. However, it is a way to make business, and that’s the bottom line! Christy ended up getting fitted for two items, which were decent (but not perfect). Never the less, Christy designed what she wanted and got pretty close to it. Enough so that she went back for round two the next day.

We also did decide to do some clean up in Aisle 5 while we were there. First stop: haircut for Marcus. We were strolling through Old Town and came across a small barber shop, which was basically all the locals, sitting around in the small plastic chairs or squatting. Marcus got his hair cut by a shirtless man. His experience: man nipples in his face and strong body odor. We also decided to partake in the local spa, and we can tell you, they are all not created equal. Marcus got the neck and shoulders massage, feet stress treatment, a free pedi, and Christy got the coconut wrap/scrub, Vietnamese massage and pedi. To start off, they served us both free waters and pineapple. Then the fun kind of stopped… Marcus went to the bathroom, which turned out to be in someone’s house, with no soap. We were both bought upstairs and told to take our clothes off. This sounded scary, as we were in a room with two tiny Vietnamese ladies, and thought there would be some … modesty. Nah. So after we stripped down to undies, they instructed us to sit in these tiny upright chairs while we were waited for what was next – a foot soak. Let’s just say it is really hard to feel comfortable sitting ramrod straight in your skivvies while soaking your feet. Finally, Christy went up to the massage table and she had some interesting work done … bones pulled and thrust, which made her laugh, and then rolling over. The girl was small and literally was up on the table stretching, massaging and then straddling. Then she was wrapped in this schmear of white stuff by the same lady for the wrap. Then they took her to the “bathroom” where the girl hosed her down, (yep, like a women’s prison), and she had to rinse off in a bathtub of flowers and cucumbers. Yes, this would have been nice, but she did not know if other people had bathed there or not, and … it was a little gross. We paid a really cheap rate for what we got, but it really was awkward and not very zen!

Quy Nhon
We decided to head south and skip Dalat because the country turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought, and the roads have just been crappy thus far. The actual mileage is low, but it just takes a lot of time to get there due to the conditions. So we decided to hopscotch our way along the coast and stop at a few towns on our way. Quy Nhon was “hot”, and meant to be “the next Nha Trang,” in due part to “kiwi Barbara” who ran an excellent western style café and dispensed great traveler advice.

Our bus to Quy Nhon had about 23 Vietnamese men and us on a sleeper bus, see picture. It is a clever concept, and has two “levels” (like a bunkbed) with seats that nearly recline, and a little space for your feet and bags. We were quite comfortable, despite the fact that the journey took us 2 hours longer than expected. We were also not sure if the bus would stop for lunch, and it did – and the people were enthralled with us there. They spoke no English, but were happy to make faces and gesture. What we gathered was that Marcus was old and tall, Christy should have been wearing pants (she was wearing shorts), and there was something wrong with Christy’s feet in sandals. We pulled up into the town of Quy Nhon after 7 long hours, and it only took us 2 minutes to get to our hotel. We were nearly the only the only people staying in the hotel for the first two nights, except for a contingent of New Zealanders; as it turned out there was a section of the New Zealand Embassy in town for a an aid project and a reception. We did not meet the Ambassador, but did meet staff. The view from our hotel was amazing, we were at the south end of the bay, and had a large rocky hill to our right hand side, while the bay arced in front of our eyes. As a result of being farther away from the town center, we had the beach nearly to ourselves every day. At night, we watched the stars come out, and watched the squid boats turn on their lights, hoping to attract fish! It looked like an entire city on the water – it was beautiful. As beautiful as it was, it was also bizarre – the place was huge, but no one was staying there. The pools were green and filthy, and the tennis courts and gym were “being renovated.” Sad.

All the locals used the beach; they were playing soccer galore, flying kites, RUNNING, and just hanging out on chairs that enterprising locals rented out. Our first afternoon, we walked from our hotel all the way down the beach, and the people were so friendly. You can tell they do not get many tourists there, as we were stared at - not maliciously – just curiously- and many of the locals would wave and say their only few words of English they knew, “Hello” “Where you from?” “How long you stay?” It was really endearing. We just smiled and said the few words of Vietnamese we knew. We also had a mission – to find the infamous Barbara’s (had read about banana and choc chip muffins!). We nearly fell over when we finally found it… it was a small hovel looking place with a grumpy lady manning the front desk. We thought we must have been mistaken that the café was there, but sure enough, there were a few mangy looking tables and an unappealing looking menu. That’s when we started dreaming of KFC.

Town in itself is not set up for tourism yet as there is no real infrastructure there yet, i.e. more western style restaurants, eastern restaurants that cater to the English speakers, or tourist agencies. We were a bit amiss about where was safe to eat at! One afternoon we went on a hunt, and searched in vain until we found the town “mall” with shops and a video arcade. There were cafes all around (they only serve coffee!), but nowhere with food. So we ended up getting steamed buns “bao” from a local ice cream vendor. Try and imagine us trying to figure out which meat it was by making animal noises. All went well until Christy pulled out a short black hair out of hers (pubic?), and Marcus found a secret surprise hardboiled egg (does not eat eggs, ever)! We were pretty happy to move on.

Nha Trang
We had no expectations for Nha Trang, and as a matter of fact, several people had told us they hated it and not to go. We decided to use the city as a base before heading onto the next leg. The bus passed through some stunning scenery, winding mountain roads, and we watched the geography change from green to a more semi-arid landscape, which had cacti. The country was still busy - we watched the locals literally chopping apart the huge boulders (rock chips), farmers working the rice paddies and directing oxen pulling huge loads. About 1/3 of the way in, we came over this mountain pass, and it was just gorgeous, beautiful sea vistas and sea bluffs and dunes. We tried taking pictures from the car, but that just does not do it justice! And then 1.5 hours into the trip we stopped for a bit to eat and “relax.” So out we poured, and we decided to use the bathroom. A young Vietnamese friend pointed to Christy and told her the women’s was on one side, and the men’s was on the other. Christy walked into the women’s bathroom door and it was simply a very small “closet”, a floor, and a small hole out the back. She has never been so puzzled! Kind of like a urinal for women, but then you … urinate on the floor and it runs out the back hole? Let Christy tell you, there was no safe place – or any place – to put toilet paper. As it would be, she walked out, and used the “men’s block” and used the squatters and her own toilet paper. Marcus reported he urinated into a trough which went straight into the river. Yep, that is the gist of Vietnam.

We pulled into Nha Trang and immediately liked it - upmarket with lots of dress shops, car dealerships, and fun looking cafes, including a western section of town. As we pulled onto the main beach road, it was great! There was a public path, and lots of people strolling the waterfront, which was edged by lots of palm trees, in stark contrast to the ever-so-marine-blue ocean! The hedges were made into conical shapes, and there were sculptures placed intermittently. There was quite a bit of building activity right on the main beach road, including construction for a new Marriott and Intercontinental. A Sheraton had just celebrated their “soft” opening, so you get the idea that the place is really going to take off, if it has not already!

In any event, we hit some really good food (finally) in town. We were starved for good food, so this was a good thing, and we probably put on the weight that we had just lost! We ate at Truc Linh 2 twice, and had marvelous meals each time. We had spicy lemongrass beef, spicy lemongrass calamari (so good it melted in our mouth), grilled tofu and amazing hand rolled spring rolls. Western food was – not unsurprisingly – mediocre, although we did find decent pizza. The nightlife also rocked there. We first tried out Why Not Café for a drink, where their happy hour prices were ridiculous – about .90 cents US for a double vodka and tonic or rum and coke. Apparently the town keeps going until 4am or so. We made it to 10pm and called it a night! The next night we went to La Louisiane for fresh microbrewed beer and were pleased to learn that it actually was pretty good. The pilsner was reminiscent of a very mild IPA and we were in heaven. Additionally, there were tons of international people and some locals, all listening to this great Vietnamese band. They had two female lead singers – one who sang in Vietnamese and another who sang in English (including a wonderful rendition of la Bamba in SPANISH!) Probably the funniest moment of the trip in Vietnam then happened. Our English singer then started singing CCR’s “Suzie Q,” which came out like “Suzie Koo,” and some random guy in bare feet started interpretive/ballet dancing to the song. It was hilarious, and everyone around us was laughing. We hoped it was a dare and he was not actually serious.

So we really did things outside of eating and drinking… we checked out the Dam Market, where we were told we should bargain by 50% off. We’re a little tired of price haggling, but Christy wanted to shop, so off we went. We also picked up new computer speakers and silk dresses and were happy campers with the prices. The Po Nagar Towers were also in the middle of town, and we walked down to see them one morning. Of course, the front desk told us that they were a 15 minute taxi ride; it took us maybe an hour to walk along the coast. Since it was overcast, it was perfect to catch the breezes, until we were about 5 blocks away and the clouds just burned off. The views were amazing and we had lovely scenery to look at during our brisk walk! The Cams had built the towers a number of years ago, and now they are protected, although still used for religious practices. They were really neat to check out, as we have seen evidence of their culture throughout Vietnam.

Our time did come to an end, however, and we were a bit sad to leave. However, we were holding out hope for the next locations.

Next Up: Mui Ne and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam