Xtina Travels

What do I miss most about the US?

2019-08-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that one thing I really miss from the US is the clothes washing situation. For any not familiar with the European washing process, it goes something like this.

Washing machines are the size of a small dishwasher. I cannot fathom how families cope with this fact alone.

Nearly all washers are front loading and 60% of them smell mildewy, so you leave the door open in the hope that the smelliness dries up.

Some have only a bunch of symbols and no decoder ring. If you’re lucky there are words on it you can translate if they’re not in English.

There is possibly a second dial for temperature. Don’t forget this is Celcius. Many times this is combined with the other dial so you just have to know that if you select Cotton it will be a higher temp and Delicate will be lower.

If you get the settings wrong you end up with infant-sized socks and your black and white bikini is now a black and grey.

There’s a drawer in the top with three trenches with no labels. Past experience and murky buildup indicates that the far left one is for detergent, the middle one is for softener which often has clogged to the point where it doesn’t make it into the wash, but enthusiastically sloshes out upon opening the drawer. I have heard that the third slot is for prewashing but no one uses it.

There may be a display showing the approximate number of minutes till completion. If you chose the wrong setting, be aware that it could take over three hours. Seriously. The normal settings usually take about an hour and a half. Again... how do families do it?

Close the door firmly and find a button with a triangle/start button hope for the best.

Some washers have a “dryer” setting. I put dryer in quotations because I have never found a setting which actually produces dry clothes. A British friend explained, “It’s easy, you just have to stop the wash halfway through when it gets to the dry cycle, and take half of the clothes out and then let it finish and then you can take those out and put the rest of the wet clothes back in and set it to dry only. You might have to finish up with hang drying, but it’s pretty dry. It’s easier than using a dryer.” Refer to the earlier note that Europeans don’t know what they’re missing.

Remove your clothes and look for the drying rack. If there’s a clothesline outdoors, and you’re in England, hang the clothes to dry, go inside for 10 minutes and then run back outside and take them all down because it has started to rain. Rehang them on the drying rack or if one cannot be located, use the back of kitchen chairs, towel racks, or cabinet handles and wait two days for them to be dry enough to wear. (Or wait 15 minutes when you're in Thailand summer heat!)

Put your clothes away immediately. You don't have the option to pop on the wrinkle out dryer setting!

Oh, one last thing, since there's no dryer, if you have pets or if you accidentally left a kleenex in your pocket, good luck removing all that residue from your clothes! Best invest in lint rollers!

Did you get all that? Now wasn’t that easy??

Americans, please go hug your washers and dryers for me and tell them that you appreciate them.

For my European friends, here is how washing works in the US.

Every home is equipped with a washer and a dryer. Each is typically a little less than a meter wide and a little more than a meter tall. When I was married and my husband worked construction and went through two pairs of clothes a day and I worked out and had a second set of clothes to wash, I could still fit everything into two loads - one for colors and one for whites.
Traditionally the washer is top-loading and the dryer is front-loading. No mildew smell unless you forget your laundry in there.
There is one dial on the washer where you select from settings like: Cotton (options for heavy, normal or light soil), Delicates, Permanent Press (colors that wrinkle easily) and possibly other settings for Heavy soil or Knits or Handwashing. There is another dial labeled cold, warm, or hot. There is another dial for load size: small, medium, large and extra-large.
You toss the detergent directly into the washing tub. There's a separate slot on the side or middle of the basin that is labeled Softener, but most people skip that and use dryer sheets for softener.
Close the door and pull the cycle selection dial out to start. The dial will turn as it goes through prewash, wash, spin, rinse, second rinse to note which part of the cycle it's on. There might be numbers to indicate the number of minutes. I suppose new models are digital, but this is the way mine always worked.
The wash cycle usually takes about 30 minutes depending on the setting you chose.
Remove clothes from the washing machine and place ALL of them into the dryer.
Remove the lint catcher from the dryer and make sure it's clean before each use. It's amazing how much lint and pet hair collects in this thing.
The dryer also has settings based on the type of fabric and options for timed dry or auto dry (less dry, normal, or more dry).
Throw a dryer sheet in to soften and scent your clothes.
Press start.
Come back in an hour or so and you have magically dry clothes!
If you forgot and left your stuff in there for a couple days, select the Fluff or Wrinkle Out setting so you don't have to iron them to remove those pesky wrinkles.

Joy! 😄

Going Home without Going Home

2019-08-22T08:14:00.002-07:00

Fellow nomads warned me that I might feel reverse culture shock upon returning to the US after 15 months of traveling. I’m not sure what that was meant to them, but I didn’t have it. Possibly I avoided it since I didn’t go “home” per se and I already had an outbound ticket back to Europe. I could treat it as another chapter in my adventure and not worry about it being an ending. (Spoiler alert: it was another fantastic chapter.)

It was comforting to slide back into a space with familiar language, customs, laws, and roads (built for big American cars on the right side). Plus - clothes dryers! Europe really doesn’t know what it’s missing out on there.

My mom’s family plans a reunion once every 3-5 years or so. Rather than having it in someone’s home or hometown, we choose a place where we would all like to visit. We pick a place with natural beauty and interesting attractions, then rent a place big enough to house all of us for a week. None of this spend one day together and then go back our separate ways nonsense! We genuinely enjoy each other. This is not some obligation to be fulfilled so it was a no brainer that I had to say yes when dear “Aunt” Ginger invited me to Pacific City, Oregon.

I have long appreciated that I am terribly fortunate to have such a great family (on both sides) but since traveling and hearing many sad family stories ranging from apathy to abuse, I came to this reunion with a deeper sense of gratitude and it was returned tenfold.

We met up at a Portland Food Cart pod before setting out to the coast and cousin Ben (7 years my junior) exclaimed, “Hey look! It’s that lady from the internet!”

Over the week, we touristed, we laughed, we shared stories, we took turns cooking and eating fabulous meals, we paid each other lots of compliments, we hugged, we played games, we sat around the fire and sang, roasted marshmallows, some played guitar, some played the keyboard. There were tears of joyful sorrow and gratitude at the end of the week. I am so proud to be part of such an amazing group of talented, inspiring, caring people.

Plus I got to meet someone I’ve had a HUGE virtual crush on since seeing my cousin post photos of her a couple years ago. Sonny was even more loveable in person! <3

I wish I could bottle up the joy, the stories, the laughter, the love from that week.

The rest of my time in Oregon carried on with the same momentum. I went to writing meetups, I attended parties, I helped throw parties, I hiked to waterfalls, attended festivals, discovered an unexpected romance, had my tarot cards read, got my fortune from Zoltar, made new friends, reunited with old friends, and was so fortunate to have visits from my dad and stepmom and friends from Kansas City, Southern Oregon and Texas. A new friend observed something about being a powerful woman to draw so many. Ha!

I got to see “my” cat, Miss Mia Pretty Princess Mole Slayer. I admit I was sad but not surprised when I picked her up and she looked to my brother with a face that said, “Save me from this strange woman!”

AND! I got to finally check an item off my bucket list. I got to have a bonfire on the beach! Even better, it was right before the Fourth of July so we sat back and watched the fire, drank wine and watched people light off fireworks on the beach while hearing the ocean tide rolling in. It was even more magical than I’d imagined.

Some asked me why I didn’t visit Kansas City, but no. I wasn’t ready. Even in Portland I felt torn in too many directions. I knew in Kansas City I’d be overwhelmed with scheduling visits. Plus, I envisioned questions that I haven’t found the answers to yet. I didn’t want to feel that I was going back “with nothing to show for myself”. I know that’s silly, but that’s part of my inner dialog. Logically I know that I have indeed accomplished things but not as many as I’d hoped I would by now. (I probably will never be able to measure up to my inner critic.)

It was hard to leave Oregon and all the amazingness it embodies. The wealth of natural beauty is hard to beat. Lush forests full of ferns, wildflowers, and moss; incredible waterfalls and coasts with some of the coolest rock formations I’ve seen in the world. The people there really value individuality. Plus it’s a foodie paradise! If I didn’t have a housesit in Slovenia lined up, Portland could easily have been the end of my amazing adventure and the start of a new one.

Gazing Over My Cuppa Tea

2019-05-28T08:55:00.002-07:00

A few months ago I got a message saying, "Tiddles and Shindig need you in May!" So here I am revisiting my first housesit. Greetings from Great Malvern, England. After a wonderful but uncharacteristically chilly and rainy stay in Germany, I told the homeowners that I was looking forward to going to England for some warmth and sunshine. I said it jokingly, but it's been surprisingly accurate.

It’s the first day since my arrival in England that I’m getting stereotypical English weather. Undulating shades of white and grey shroud the skies that were sunny, bright and blue yesterday. It isn’t exactly raining, but the air itself can’t seem to decide if its oxygen molecules are solo or married to dewy hydrogen.
My eye is drawn up from my “cuppa” tea to the clematis bursting with cheerful, pink stars pushing aside tiny, white clusters on the bush it embraces. I smile at the profiles of two wood pigeons; their heads bobbing in unison, propelling them forward like a child’s toy along the mossy tile roofline.

Sprawling burgundy Japanese maple complements the column of chartreuse cedar behind it. The jaunty, handlebar mustaches of the hemlock seem to taunt the droopy cedar fronds that imitate an old man’s unkempt beard gently wagging under the muttering breeze.
Sharply dressed magpies come to visit each morning. Drinking from the birdbath that’s clad in the same ruddy-brown moss that covers the roof. One struts upon it, pecking the moss, looking for food or maybe he’s just being contrary because he can. The magpies exude a cockiness that is absent in the bumbling of the pigeons and doves.

Behind it all are the Malvern Hills. For a Kansas girl, “hill” is an incompetent word to describe the enormous, green-blue shapes hulking far taller than the tallest trees or church spires. It seems unreal that those white speckles at the very top are sheep. I still remember my sharply aching knee and shortness of breath from the meandering hike to the peak last fall. The patchwork view and the conversation with my elderly hiking companion were worth the effort ten times over. Raining or not, it’s good to be back in jolly old England.

***Note - photos were taken when the sun was shining!!! 😁

Time Flies When You Follow Your Dreams

2019-04-02T20:04:00.001-07:00

It’s been one year since I boarded a plane with a one-way ticket for Scotland. Not long before my last day at work, a coworker told me that others were placing bets about me.

“Oh really?,” I asked, “Betting on when I’ll be back?”

“No, betting on whether or not you’ll be back at all.”

Shivering in the Edinburgh cold and watching a light blanket of snow coat the city seems so very long ago. Yet, it doesn’t seem possible that it was over a year ago that I sat at my desk and fired up Excel and Outlook. Time has a way of stretching and compressing and fooling us with its trickery.

Setting out, I had this naive hope that everything would magically fall into place by circumstance and chance during these twelve months. I would know what I wanted to be when I grew up and maybe I would even be heading on that path. I would have used the boundless amounts of time to complete my book and with any luck I'd be on my way to being a best selling author. My photos would be selling well on stock photo sites. I’d be proud of that my (door) Knockers of the World book would be gracing coffee tables near and far. I’d have found where I belonged and building my future there. And... just maybe I would have met Prince Charming and be living happily ever after.

None of it has happened. None of it.

All that time I thought I’d have? I was so wrong. As mentioned previously, time plays tricks. Turns out full time traveling is a job in itself. Don’t get me wrong, and sorry Garmin, it’s a much more fulfilling job to be sure, but it can be exhausting having so much fun! Not knowing where I’m going to be sleeping a couple weeks from now and making sure I get the best value so I can stretch out my travel as long as possible takes way more time than it should.

Some things that I was freaked out about before I left home ended up being no big deal:

Living out of a suitcase for so long.
Wearing the same outfits every day.
Not knowing when I’d make money again.
Not having a place to call home.
Not having a full social calendar.
Not being able to go shopping.
Traveling solo and being alone in a city of strangers.

Unexpected annoyances that I didn’t anticipate or thought would get easier:

Packing deserves a two-part complaint:

Staying below the weight limit is always a worry. Absurdly, my belongings fluctuate in weight just like I do.
Suitcase Tetris - sometimes things fit easily and other times, I have to sit on my suitcase and swear in order to get it zipped up.

Button-press-o-phobia - Yep, I’ve still got it. Finding the best deal on lodging/car rental/airfare and getting the dates right and pulling the trigger takes way more time and mental energy than I thought it would.
Choosing where to eat - Everyone can agree this is an ongoing universal struggle.
How long to stay - It’s impossible to get right, it’s either too much time or not enough.
Not being able to find Cover Girl Makeup or good Mexican food.

I have seen many amazing things and met many wonderful people. I traveled enough to circle the earth 1.6 times this year. I visited 14 countries, stayed in 51 cities and met up with 26 existing friends and made countless more new friends.

Things I’ve learned:

To say yes to more experiences and shrug off social anxieties and preconceptions.
Isolation brings along his friends depression and self-doubt.
House sitting rocks!
People around the world are more similar to each other than not.
Car rental companies are the worst swindlers of the travel world.
It’s impossible to answer the question, “Where is your favorite place you visited?”
Yoga & meditation are wonderful salves to ease a turbulent mind.
Everyone is braver and more capable than they realize.
The things you have the lowest expectations for often turn out to be the most amazing.
Getting started is often the hardest part of any activity worth taking.
Your worst fears never materialize as imagined.
Being in an amazing place doesn’t guarantee happiness.
Positive attitude, an open mind and the knowledge that everything will be ok can get you through just about anything.

As might be evident from this list, I alternate between being in awe of my experiences and wallowing in self-doubt and depression and everything in between. These questions plague me whenever I stop long enough to listen to my inner critic. What do I have to show for this year of travel? Am I being irresponsible in spending all this money? What am I doing with my life? Why didn’t I accomplish more? What should I do next? When is enough enough? Am I hopelessly ruining myself? How will life after this adventure ever measure up?

I don’t have answers, I may not ever, but I’m still on the road to find out. I’m not done and for now, I’m going to keep on rolling down that road, following my dreams with the knowledge that whatever happens it’s all gonna be alright.

PS - Regarding the question, "What's next?" I'm heading on a quick tour of Vietnam after my Thailand housesit is over. After that, I'm excited to be heading back to Europe. I'm really glad that I visited SE Asia a bit, but Europe still has my heart. I'll be in Germany for two more housesits in April, then revisiting my first housesit to care for Tiddles and Shindig for the month of May. I've got a few weeks in June where things are up in the air before I return to the United States for a family reunion in Oregon at the end of June. Following that, I'm excited to be housesitting in Slovenia for the month of August. I'm happy to report that I've been able to stick to my budget more or less (sometimes more, sometimes less) and I have the luxury of keeping on my path. Maybe the puzzle pieces I've been seeking (and more magic) are waiting for me in year two!

PSS - Regardless of all else, I'm so extremely glad that I took the chance to do this. This chance to live this dream. Insurance against regret. A chance to prove to myself that I could. I am eternally grateful to everyone that offered me support and encouragement and the biggest thanks of all to Stacy James for giving me the courage to get started. Getting started was the hardest part. The rest has been easy in comparison. I highly encourage any of you reading this to take the risk and find what makes you happy, what makes you glow with joy. In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take.

HSFTW! (House sitting for the win!)

2019-02-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Way back when Stacy and I started scheming our adventure, we discussed saving money by house sitting. We applied for a couple sits on TrustedHouseSitters.com but never heard a peep in return. It didn’t take much to discourage us since we hadn’t tapped into our reserves yet, so we just moved on and Airbnb’d it.

When Stacy went back home, I threw our original plan out the window and spent three months in Germany writing, contemplating, wondering what I was doing and what to do next. As luck would have it, I had a string of friends who had planned trips to Europe and gladly set my schedule to match theirs. With all this running around planned, it felt like a good time to give house sitting a try again.

TrustedHouseSitters.com works kinda like a cross between a dating site and Airbnb. Start with a profile describing how absolutely awesome and sane you are and what an amazing (animal) lover you are. Lots of pics of you and your pets to make you attractive to homeowners in need of sitters. From there, you put in a date range and a city or country and what types of animals you want to watch, find an attractive home and send a message designed to convince them that you’re the best match for their beloved home and pets. If you get chosen, you get a free place to stay and the homeowners get a free sitter. Win - Win!

I found a two-week house sit in a small town I’d never heard of not far from the charming Cotswolds area in the UK. In case you’re not familiar with the Cotswolds, it’s pretty much the epitome of quaint English fairytale villages. Buttery yellow stone homes each boasting a cute garden overflowing with hollyhocks and roses, many with black-thatched roofs set against rolling green hills with white sprinkles of sheep.

A few hours after my application, I got a message requesting a video interview. I was way more nervous than I am on a first date. I set my camera to selfie mode and did practice runs in various rooms with different lighting and different outfits; imagining what questions they might have for me and coming up with a few of my own. All there was to do now, was sweat in the Berlin summer heat, twiddling my thumbs for a couple hours till I got an incoming video call.

After hello’s, the homeowner said, “Oh good, you look just like your photos.” Guess she’d gotten catfished before, too! She asked me some easy questions and showed me around the house a bit as she held the phone up to the cats who were possibly even cuter than their profile photos.

Not long after, I got an email saying that they’d love to have me watch Tiddles and Shindig, so I booked my tickets for a couple months in the future; perfectly dovetailing with my other travels.

Once there, I found that staying in someone’s home was even more comforting than I imagined. I spent the first few days blissfully doing nothing more than petting cats, writing, and eating pre-made shepherd’s pies and Cornish pasties. Tiddles informed me that she’d always aspired to be a writing assistant. I admired her persistence though her skills were pretty limited.

House sitting took me so far off the radar of touristy destinations that even my English friends didn’t know of this town. I was charmed but didn’t feel a pressing need to run out and “do all the things”. I could slow down and just live. Live in a space that was actually lived in, with a kitchen people actually cooked in and best of all, KITTIES!!!

As my housesit in Great Malvern neared an end I found that I wasn’t ready to gallivant off elsewhere… I wanted more time with pets and a “real” home. Plus, there may or may not have been a certain boy that made it hard for me to leave.

I found another house sit in the area - this time with an even more amazing garden and two adorable Siamese cats.

Next, I found another at a home with two dogs (Fleur and Nell), one elderly cat (Tisha) and 14 sheep. While there, a friend of the family offered to join me for a walk with the dogs. We chatted like long lost friends and she invited me to her yoga class that evening. I liked it so much that I went again the following morning and happily accepted her invitation to dinner the following night! What a delight to make an unexpected friend. She had a daughter in Australia that she’d be visiting again in December. I’d always wanted to go to Australia so she graciously shared loads of insider tips.

My new friend informed me that Fleur would be devastated if she didn’t make it into the blog, so here she is. :-)

This home had been a barn in the 1700s and converted into a farmhouse somewhere along the way. I had fun learning how to use the AGA cooker. It’s always on. Two hot surfaces with covers to be lifted when in use. Three ovens at differing temperatures, burning, warming, and roasting. It warmed the kitchen as well. Fleur would stick her nose in the towel on the right when she was cold.

Though someone else tended to the sheep, I enjoyed giving them treats and petting them. They quickly recognized me and bleated whenever they saw me come out of the house.

By this time, fall had descended upon the Cotswolds and with winter looming, Stacy informed me that she was ready to escape the cold of Kansas and come travel with me again. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the prospect of the whole world being my oyster, so it was convenient to use Stacy’s distaste of winter as an excuse to chase the summer.

I found a gorgeous house sit in Perth, Australia over Christmas and New Years. We were enamored with the idea of spending Christmas on the beach. Again, it was in a town outside of the main tourist destinations near the super cool, funky town of Fremantle which we never would have known about were it not for the house sit. The home was as comfortable and lovely as the photos and the owners and cats were a joy. Van and Nala are possibly the most photogenic cats I’ve ever encountered and were very entertaining.

After our housesit, we flew to New Zealand to meet up with a dear friend from the US and another from the UK and raced across the country from top to bottom, East to West and back again. It was so lovely seeing them and “doing all the things”, but I’m ready to slow things down again do another house sit, recharge, and catch up on my writing! So now I'm looking forward to a month-long house sit near Chiang Mai, Thailand with two cats and two snakes!

I’ve always preferred Airbnb’s over hotels (especially Carole's Cinco B&B in Sintra, Portugal, with her lovely cats!). It’s so much more comfortable and makes for a more authentic experience of what it’s like to be a local, but staying in someone’s home and bonding with their animals takes it to the next level. I’ve kept in touch with all the homeowners and they’ve each told me that I have a place to stay even if they don’t need a housesit. It’s been such a fabulous experience. It would be super cool if I could make money doing this, but even just having a free place to stay and making friends is so worth it. Hell, I’ve chosen Airbnbs just because they have cats! To be honest, sometimes I feel like I should be paying them for the joy that meeting them and their animals has brought to me.

What is Identity Anyway?

2018-10-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

95% of the time when we meet new people, they will ask one of these questions and not get much deeper than that:

“Where are you from?”

“Are you married?”

“Do you have kids?”

“What do you do?” (Of course this always means what’s your job, not what do you for fun.)

Generic questions sketch a convenient caricature. For some, it’s enough. Enough of their identity is tied to one or more of these things that there’s not much need for questions of a different ilk. I'm not saying that's wrong, but for me these questions are pretty tricky right now. I’m from the US - but not particularly proud of that with the current political atmosphere. I don’t have a home, but to say that I’m homeless sends the wrong message. I have been mostly single for 11 years. I am not a mother and never will be. I don’t have a job (and I'm sure not confident enough to say that I’m a writer).

A few years ago there was a team building thing at work where they asked us to bring in a photo from our wedding or prom. Gee, divorced and never went to prom, so here's what I came up with. 😂

Though I would say that I worked to live and didn’t live to work, I’m finding that a big part of my identity was wrapped up in my job. I find myself referring to Garmin as “we” still and referring to “my coworkers” instead of “former coworkers”. I had a really hard time reconciling that when I got divorced & I'm struggling with it again now, though with much less pain this time around.

I went to Garmin night at Oktoberfest in Munich last week. It was good, but surreal seeing many people I used to work with. Enough time had passed that we couldn’t really talk about work much. Since I don’t have a replacement job, it almost feels like I’m on extended vacation rather than unemployed. A few of them said, “You’ll be back, just wait…” It’s nice to feel that door is open should I care to pursue it, but for now, I’m not missing work and having no trouble filling my time.

One of the cool side effects being in my unique position is that conversations go beyond these easy questions. I have had a higher concentration of meaningful conversations in the last 6 months than I'd had for years. When those four basic questions don't have simple answers it pushes us out of our boxes and sometimes our comfort zones. It urges us to question what is truly important to us and think about who we are and what we want outside of those four things. It's really cool seeing people light up when they hear about what I'm doing and get fired up considering that they might be able to follow their dreams, too.

A bunch of people have asked me what I've learned about the world or what I've learned about other cultures. I'd been traveling quite a bit before this adventure so I really haven't had new epiphanies about the differences (I find more similarities personally) between Europeans and Americans. I'm learning about myself. Slowly casting off misconceptions I had about myself and what's important.

I haven’t updated my Linkedin profile. What do I change my employment status to? Who am I? A traveler, an explorer, a writer, a vagabond, a professional friend maker/ socializer? I had to rediscover myself after getting divorced, and build a new “me”. Guess that’s what I’m on the road to do again. Maybe at the end of this road, I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up. :-p

A friend shared this instagram post which I love:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl4PT_UANGz/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=tnu536atbrh6

My story doesn’t always feel important.
Sometimes it doesn’t seem worth telling at all.
Who am I to think my words, life, or experiences could impact someone else?
And then I realize - how self deprecating.
My story may not resonate with everyone. In fact, it probably won’t resonate with many.
I am simply a human.
A woman.
A lover.
Joy filled.
Passionate.
To some, adventurous.
But I am a steward of this earth. A student eager for knowledge. A medicine woman aiming to heal. A heart cracked open to spread love. And those things are relatable. Those things are important. Those are pieces of magic ✨
So I share my story. Not because I am more important. Not because I am any different from you, in fact.
I share my story, because I have been lost. And it was other humans’ stories that led me home.

Stories are the essence of humankind, and if mine means something to someone, than it’s worth telling. A thousand times over.

--Eva Lousie

100 days of "Solitude"

2018-09-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today marks my 163rd day abroad, 100 days of it being “solo” travel. Can’t very well say 100 days of solitude. My worries about being lonely haven’t had much occasion to be tested. I’ve had visits with friends and family from the US, England, Norway, and Germany and have made new friends here in Berlin.

Stacy told me that I would be fine on my own; that maybe I’d be better off without her. I didn’t really believe her but knew that I wasn’t ready to go home and risk getting pulled back into the comforts of home and abandoning my dreams. After three months on my own, I’m enjoying the freedom of being able to move through life with only my own desires and winds of circumstance guiding the way. I’m finding a deeper sense of independence, confidence and calm as a result of my self reliance. Sure, I have times where I feel lost and lonely and question what the hell I’m doing, but less frequently and less intensely.

One of the unexpected benefits of being on my own is that it's motivated me to put myself out there and make friends with people in a way that I wouldn't have attempted if I had the comfort of a trusted friend to rely on. Berlin has a fantastic community of people who use Meetup to meet like minded people and explore all sorts of creative and entertaining pursuits. It's even available in Kansas City, just go to meetup.com or download the app. Check it out!

I'm rereading a book which I absolutely adore. What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman. She talks about how she was a shy little girl until her mom asked her if she'd rather have a vacation with no friends or one scary moment. My dear step father also liked to say something similar. It's taken a while, but I've finally embraced this way of life and as Kristin Newman found, it has big payoffs for little investment.

I’ve had the pleasure of using Berlin as my home base thanks to the generosity of my distant cousin and her husband’s family. I’ve been staying at her husband’s grandmother’s empty flat for nearly three months now. To say the apartment is barebones is an understatement. I can count the pieces of furniture on one hand, I’ve been sleeping on an air mattress, and there are only two lamps which I carry from room to room if I need more light.

Early on, I found it depressing. The emptiness of the apartment reflected the emptiness of my life - no home, no job, no cats, no commitments, far from friends and family. Just me. As time has gone on, I’ve been able to shift my perspective. It’s been comforting to have a place to come “home” to. Comforting to learn the public transportation without having to rely on google every step of the way. It’s liberating to realize that I don’t need my tempurpedic mattress, I don’t need much really. Just me is enough really. I am enough. If I can live 3 months in austerity, what else can stop me? (Choosing a new phone plan might break me though!)

My time in Berlin is coming to a close. I need to be out of “my” apartment by the end of September. Berlin has been fabulous for my creativity. My cousin encouraged me to attend a Meetup group called Shut Up and Write. We meet and chat for 15 minutes then write for 45 and have another 15 minute break followed by another 45 minutes of writing. I get more written in the two 45 minute sessions than I do in an entire day of in my apartment. I’ve met inspiring people from all over the world who share their stories, ask insightful questions, offer comfort and encouragement and make me feel like maybe I’m not crazy for doing what I’m doing, or if I am crazy I’m not alone. Today the lovely bearded barista at Handbestand saw me come in and an eyebrow lift later, my customary iced latte was delivered to my table.

Though Berlin has been good for me and I'm going to miss the friends I made here, it is not where I belong. When I visit many other European cities, I am enchanted by the beautiful architecture and cleanliness. Berlin doesn’t measure up in those categories. Considering that 90% of the city was leveled during WWII, and much of it was rebuilt in Soviet block style, it’s no surprise that the city isn’t as pretty as other European cities. Quite the contrary, it’s remarkable so much of it has been rebuilt and there is a feeling of resilience here that is tangible. I feel I’m being unfair to Berlin, it is more grand than my home town of Kansas City, but I’m not following my head right now, I’m listening to my heart.

The falling leaves tell me that summer is coming to an end and fall is on its way. Though the rebirth of spring is my favorite, I’ve always enjoyed fall. This time it’s bittersweet. I reflect on the wonderful things I’ve done and seen, but feel regret for all I never got around to. I really wanted to canoe or kayak or raft down a European river. The closest I got was a literally breathtaking cold dip in the Schlactensee, a lake near Berlin.

I approach the halfway mark of my commitment to travel for a year. It’s too early to allow the fears of what comes after or whether I’ve accomplished whatever I intended to on this journey. Still, like wolves circling a fire - I can feel the fears patiently waiting for the fire to sputter out so they can pounce.

When Stacy and I first dreamed up this adventure, her intense dislike of cold and winter led us to dream up a route that would chase the warmth. I abandoned our previous plans when she left, but now she’s reached out again and asked if she could rejoin me for a couple months. Perhaps it’s a good time to pick up our previous plans and pursue those activities that I didn’t get around to this summer. The next chapter is about to begin.

---Up Next!---

Meeting up with friends in Slovenia, Munich (Oktoberfest!), Avignon France, and my first house sitting gig with two adorable cats! 💗 😻💗

38 Activities From the Last 2 Months (I hear lists are popular)

2018-07-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

A few people have gently reminded me that it has been a very long time since I wrote a blog entry. This is especially embarrassing because I have mostly been staying put here in Berlin lately so in theory, I should have more time to write. So what have I been doing other than trying to decide if I should write blog entries to catch up on the past couple months or starting from where I am now or something completely different? I decided to go for the easiest for now. Check below for pics!

Here’s the high level on my activities since my last post:

I took a long ass but stunning hike of the lovely Ronda Spain.

Chased a sunrise.

Spent a couple OMG hot days in Vienna where they don’t have AC because they usually never need it.

Took a bike ride in the Wachau Valley and got caught in a flash flood. Seriously! Riding a bike in two feet of murky water after visiting three wineries is a crazy experience!

Rented an Airbnb in a tiny town in Austria mostly because it came with two gorgeous cats.

Saw baby swans! They look so soft and cute! The Ugly Duckling story is a lie!

Visited Hallstatt, Austria - the town so incredibly quaint that my mom says it’s the most beautiful place in the world and the Chinese love so much that they have built a replica of it in China.

Met up with my lovely friend David and his parents in Salzburg and had a great time on the Sound of Music tour.

Took the train to Munich and stayed with a former coworker who turned out to be more of a kindred spirit than I realized.

My friend patiently and calmly re-trained me on how to drive stick shift and even let me use her car and I only killed the engine twice!

Had a lovely hike in the Bavarian countryside.

Took the train to Berlin and met up with my cousin who lives there. I am so grateful to her and her husband for giving me a place to stay. Such a tremendous weight off my shoulders while I figure things out.

My mom flew into Berlin to visit for three weeks.

We revisited many of the incredible Berlin museums.

Fell in love with the town of Dresden. Even loved the museum of Mathematics and Physics.

Went on a bike tour of Berlin.

Went on a bike tour of Potsdam.

Rented a bike and made our own tour of Berlin with a highlight of the gardens in Tiergarten.

Took the train back to Munich and met up with my friends from the states, Sharerah and Shabnom.

Went on a bike tour of Munich and watched the surfers in the English gardens. Yes, you can go surfing in the landlocked city of Munich!

Visited the fairytale Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles.

Had an exceedingly pleasant visit with the first person my mom ever went on a date with and his lovely wife and their bunnies.

Went to the Sommerfest in Munich with Sharerah and Shabnom and explored foods, goods and music from around the world and bought a new purse that I love.

Traveled back to Berlin by train.

Went to the eclectic Mauerpark Flea Market.

Had a meal with a native German, an Indian who used to live in the US and now lives in Australia, a Russian who also lived in the US and now lives in Norway, an Armenian who also lived in the US but now lives in Sweden and were served by a Croatian waiter. Didn't get a photo but there are a couple of us!

Attended my cousin’s wedding.

Planted flowers on my balcony.

Met up with US friends Allison & James and their fun Airbnb host and Sharerah and Shabnom joined us for sushi.

Had multiple visits from the foxes that live in the backyard in Berlin.

Missed many buses (still don’t like them but I’m doing better).

Attended a really cool night festival at the Botanical Gardens with all sorts of food, music, entertainment, flowers, lights and fun.

Rented a bike and happened upon a Turkish market on the way to the graveyard and Viktoria park.

Visited the smallest disco in Berlin - perhaps the world (it’s the size of a phone booth).

Attended six Shut Up and Write Meetup groups. Feels good to finally be making some progress on my book and meet a supportive group of folks.

Bought a lamp which was advertised as being beautiful and faithful and he brings his own bulb. He may be the one for me!

Got a haircut. Now I look like a proper Berlin hipster.

Last but not least - stressed a million times over whether or not I should pursue a German visa and ultimately decided yes. They weren't happy with my health insurance so they gave me a three month extension to get that figured out. I've been having oh so much fun trying to find an insurer that is reasonably priced with good coverage and accepted by the German government.

Facing Fears and Finding Joy and Gratitude on the Road to Ronda

2018-06-19T04:01:00.001-07:00

On my last day in Seville, I felt less of the usual uneasiness when packing up and moving to a newplace. I felt ready to start the next chapter. Ready to say goodbye to Seville. I wouldn’t have Stacy along to split a taxi fare, so I agonized about saving money and taking the bus. I could walk 8 minutes to the bus stop and pay 1.40 Euro and or walk nowhere and pay 12 Euro for a taxi. I previewed the route in my mind; the warrens of narrow, cobbled streets girdled with sidewalks varying from 3 feet to 2 inches wide depending on how close the street pressed up against the building it traced. Then I recalled other bus rides:

Spending an eternity squinting at signs to puzzle out which corner to stand on and which number to get me there and feeling judged by the locals.
Bad tempered bus drivers scowling at me for not knowing the fare amount, not having exact change and not knowing which coins represent what.
Waiting 30 minutes past the scheduled bus arrival time, giving up and walking 3 minutes then seeing the bus speed past.
Giving up entirely and facing blisters over embarrassment of choosing incorrectly.
Ending up in a deserted parking lot miles from anywhere in the middle of the night in Hungary.
Being proud of myself for finding the right bus with ease, only to find that it was packed to the gills with loud school children loathe to make room for us and our bags.

Taxi it is then! Screw the few Euros I would be saving. Money's just like doritos, right? Don't worry, I'll make more? Somehow. Hopefully. Someday after I figure out what I want to be when I grow up!

My brother found an awesome route for our Oregon trip so I asked him for suggestions on a scenic route from Seville to Ronda. He replied, "LMGTFY" (Let Me Google That For You 😏) A TripAdvisor forum suggested a route. I mapped it out and downloaded offline google maps of the area. Yeah, I can hear you now, "But you worked for Garmin! Why didn't you bring a Garmin?" Well, not long before I left home, I accidentally left my car unlocked in my driveway overnight and someone stole my Garmin. Money and suitcase space were both in high demand so a new Garmin wasn't in the cards.

Once inside the brand new (no pressure!) Fiat 500, I looked at the gear shifter. There was an N and an R which seemed pretty straightforward, but couldn't find Drive or Park! I googled something dumb like "What letters for Drive and Park Spanish cars". No joy there, but a guide to driving in Spain came up so I figured I should read that. I noted that there are unmarked speed cameras which can ticket you by mail. Ok, no driving the customary 9 miles above the speed limit then. I elected to err on the side of looking like a dumbass over having an accident in the rental parking lot and proving it. I asked an employee for clarification. He did a great job of not letting it show that he thought I was an idiot and showed me how it worked.

Next, I channeled the spirit of Marcie who doesn't lose her cool even when driving in central Paris, with its tangle of clogged, one way streets in a tiny BMW with our moms crammed in the backseat with luggage up to the ceiling and a GPS uselessly searching for satellites while I navigated using the rental agency map. The calm she exuded was contagious. Soon the cries from the backseat changed from, "Marcie? Do you know what you're doing? Do you know where we're going? Are we going the wrong way? Were we supposed to turn there?" to, "Ooh! Look at that! It's the sister to the Statue of Liberty! Look, Notre Dame! There's the Eiffel Tower!" Intentions to pick up the car on the outskirts and heading directly to the coast, morphed into an impromptu driving tour of Paris that we couldn't have planned better and a good story to laugh about later.

The drive to Ronda turned out to be so much more amazing than I'd dared hope for. For the most part, the roads were nice and wide (200 times wider than roads in England, plus these have shoulders). Driving was a joy. The medians were brimming over with brilliant mafuchsia (you know, a cross between magenta and fuchsia) oleander bushes tall enough to block the view of oncoming traffic. Then came the fields of sunflowers. I saw this many sunflowers driving through Nebraska once, but let me tell you, seeing field after field of sunflowers on the sumptuous Andalusian hills with bright red bursts of poppies sprinkled in took it to a new level. The sunflower’s heads all brightly gazed toward the sun and stood in neat rows blanketing the hills until the hills grew to hazy blue mountains in the distance.

Also spotted on the drive: three castles (two towering over quaint, white villages); a huge herd of goats; olive, chestnut, and cork tree groves; a shepherd herding his sheep; stately blue mountains; and vast mounds of wildflowers in yellows and reds and whites and fuchsia, blue and purple decorating every nook and cranny. The air with so full their sweet scents that I could even smell it over the new car smell with the windows up.

Many times, the view would be so intense that I couldn't help but squeal with delight. I wished there was someone else along to appreciate, photograph or share it, but my longing for companionship never overshadowed the joy, wonder, profound sense of gratitude and I suppose pride that this is my life.

New Beginnings and Learning to be So-lone!

2018-06-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

Recently, A friend posted a very touching and candid video of her preparing to go on a solo journey. It reminded me that I'm not traveling simply for the sake of traveling. For me, this isn't just a vacation. I am searching for something. I'm not exactly sure what; hopefully I will recognize it when I find it. Part of my quest is to find a better version of me. I have learned a lot about myself in the last two months and have no doubt that there are numerous lessons and fears to face in the days ahead.

As I revealed in my last blog post, things haven't always been as great as they appear on social media. Without a doubt, I have experienced more beauty and awesomeness than anyone could ask for, but it has not been without its stresses. Stacy decided that she needed a vacation from her vacation and flew home a week ago. While I have my moments of homesickness as well, I feel that to go home now, even for a short while, could derail my momentum and invite all those questions I put to bed to come rushing back in. Besides, I don't have a home to go back to now. Of course I could stay with Stacy (don't worry, we're still best of friends!) or my mom, but it wouldn't be the same as going home for me. It was clear to me that I must carry on.

Fun fact, in Spain they dub most of their movies in Spanish and only select theaters in large cities offer "VO" (Version Original) - English with Spanish subtitles. Rumor has it that this started when dictator Franco was in power - dubbing made it easier to censor. Anyway! One of the last things we did before Stacy flew home was to see the new Star Wars Solo movie. Fun flick!

Our original plan was to suck the fun out of Spain, rent a car and take a leisurely drive up through Southern France on into Italy for the month of June. That much driving on my own didn't sound like the grand adventure I had imagined. I felt overwhelmed, sad, disappointed, and bewildered and that I needed to reevaluate everything. I spent pretty much two solid days moping and working on a new plan.

We had planned to revisit Ronda, the "cloud city" in Spain, which had enchanted and inspired us the prior year. This was the place where we dreamed of having a villa. This town captured our imagination and inspired us to dream. I'm not positive, but I think that this was the moment our adventure was born. We stood upon the Puente Nuevo Bridge, dizzy from looking down the plunging ocher cliffs, marveling at the stark contrast to the lush green hills and blue mountains in the distance. The spark was born. However, by the time Ronda fit into our schedule, Stacy had already purchased a ticket home and logistically it just didn't make sense to squeeze in before her departure.

As my turbulent thoughts struggled to become clear, Ronda kept resurfacing. Aside from the fact that Ronda is pretty much magically beautiful, another reason was I needed a new purse! My beautiful Spanish leather purse (red and black of course!) was starting to show that I had used it non-stop since buying it there the prior year.

Sooner or later, I was going to need to bite the bullet and drive in Europe. Might as well do it on a route that I'd ridden before and knew to be beautiful. Plus they drive on the right side of the road, just like at home.

I found an adorable Airbnb with an amazing view at a great price and decided to pull the trigger on the next stage of my journey.

Friends and Fears

2018-05-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

Each social media post is a window to that person's reality. The size, slant and tint of the window is influenced by what they want you to see, what they want to hide, where they are, who they are with, what they had for lunch and how they see themselves.

Many scorn Facebook for its fake nature. Personally, I love that Facebook has nurtured friendships and gifted me with a feeling of closeness to friends that I cannot see often. This is especially true when traveling. I have met some wonderful people that without social media would have faded away to hazy, fond memories rather than developing into friends.

Growing up in small town Iowa, I had fewer friends than fingers and most were my cats. I was an outcast because I didn't go to church, didn't wear trendy clothes and didn't have a good Dutch name starting with Van or De (the D & V sections of the Pella phone book comprised 60% of the entire book!) There were a couple fellow misfits who befriended me, but most girls were downright mean. It wasn't until I moved to Kansas that I discovered that I was only a misfit because the town I grew up in was too small to have my kind of misfit. Former classmates could have written this sentence from 30 Days to a Better Vocabulary about me:

A big concern about following my dream to live in Europe was that I would be lonely and I wouldn't make any friends. When I voiced this fear to friends, I was humbled at their astonished responses. "Christina, you make friends where ever you go! What are you worried about?" Objectively, I can see that truth, but I haven't convinced my inner 12 year old. So when Stacy said that she would join me on this grand adventure, I was thrilled to have an accomplice to explore with and slay ghosts of pariah past.

Stacy and I have been great friends more than half our lives and have lived together three times so we felt reasonably confident that we had a chance at making this work. Overall it has been wonderful, but it hasn't all been rainbows and unicorns. We post photos of breathtaking scenery and glowing smiles. We don't photograph the times we 're shooting Mechagodzilla beams out of our eyes at each other or are adrift in our private universes of homesickness, irritation or anxiety. Though we have many similar interests and often speak in unison; our personalities and social needs are quite different. Plus, we're both going through a lot of shit.

We're used to living alone. We miss our private spaces and our own beds.
I am accustomed to spending 5 out of 7 evenings socializing with different friends.
Stacy is a solitary person who lets a privileged few visit her outer fortress on her own terms and time.
Stacy has only recently transformed her childhood home into her private oasis.
I have no home to return to. I grieve that the place that I poured my time, money and love into is no longer mine and I have no surrogate place to transfer those feelings to.
I have thin eyelids which don't allow me to sleep when the sun creeps in.
Stacy treasures her sleep and has trained her friends and family to not disturb Herself before noon on weekends.
I exclaim enthusiastically when I experience something I enjoy and want to share. Stacy prefers stoicism.
I am a planner. Stacy prefers to go with the flow.
We've both been taught that you don't leave a job before you have a new one.
We have no idea when we'll be making money again or what we'll be doing to make it.
We miss our pets and friends and family and don't know when we'll see them again.
We're both already tired of searching for the next place we'll stay after the current one.
There's no avoiding the "What should we do for dinner?" question no matter where you are in the world. 😜

This adds up to a recipe for tension, misdirected feelings, irritation and strife. My instinct was to avoid talking about the tough stuff. Open communication about conflict was nearly nonexistent in my past relationships. In my marriage, I learned that dialogue about disagreements never paid off. Better to swallow those feelings and thoughts than let them be twisted against me. Thankfully, at Stacy's insistence, we have had remarkably constructive conversations. Stacy won't let that happen. "Christina, if we can't talk about these things, they're just going to fester." Already, I can see noticeable improvements in the way that we interact. It's going to take work, but just cracking open the window of free interchange is damn refreshing - even when it's hard.

Edinburgh, beautiful, friendly, wet and chilly

2018-05-08T02:22:00.000-07:00

Though it had been February on my first trip to Edinburgh and certainly not warm, it was sunny and only chilly, not blustery cold. I have been spoiled in my past travels and blessed with unseasonably great weather. So why would I expect anything less when visiting Scotland in April? My British friends knew better and scoffed at my naivety.

When we arrived on April 3, 2018 it was dreary, raining and 37. Lucky for us, we had the thrill of beginning our adventure to keep us warm! We were greeted to our lovely hotel, the Principal on George Street, by the very friendly, kilted concierge who introduced himself in a wonderful Scottish accent as Marchin. We actually didn't understand him the first 4 times so he finally said, "You know, like Marching to War" and pantomimed marching with raised knees and swinging arms. We didn't find out until the end of our stay that he was actually Polish but had lived in Scotland and learned English there for 14 years. His Scottish accent was convincing enough to our American ears.

I've got to admit... the first night when we were sitting at dinner in silence (I wasn't sure if it was companionable, exhausted, or stony silence), the shadows of doubts swirled in the space between us and haunted me when I tried to sleep.

The second day in Edinburgh it snowed! We only left the hotel briefly for food and haircuts and some quick photos. It was actually quite pretty seeing the town get a light blanket of snow. The realization that we have a full year to explore also helped stave away feelings of missing out and we were able to relax at the hotel and enjoy a quiet day inside.

By dinner time the snow had let up and we bundled up and headed to a cute pub we had passed earlier called the Queens Arms. It was "meat night" where they serve the meat of the day on a board with enough to split for two along with two glasses of wine thrown into the deal. It's like they knew I was coming! Meat and wine are two of my favorite things! Add a good friend and traveling and stellar cocktails to boot and I was pretty much in heaven.

Doubts, rain and cold had not made their last appearance, but I was quite happy to discard them for another day.

Here's a link to more photos from Edinburgh.

English Food and Haggis get a Bad Rap

2018-05-02T09:50:00.001-07:00

Steak and Onion pie at the Oban Inn

I first visited Edinburgh in February of 2015 with Marcie. Here's a link to an album of that trip. We absolutely loved it. We were captivated by the ornate architecture with wonderful sculptural details everywhere you look. Even the air vents are pretty. You can find live music any night of the week. People are friendly and have awesome accents. And despite popular opinion, I enjoy the food in the UK. Sure I've had some bland meals, but many of them are exceptional. You can find any style of restaurant from cozy pub to elegant eatery and you can find any nationality of food. Of course there's plenty of pub grub like fish & chips or chicken and mushroom pies (my favorite!). You can also find everything including Mexican, Thai, French, and of course Indian.
A former coworker asked me if I knew what the national food of England was. "Fish and Chips," I replied. "No! It's curry!" he exclaimed. In fact, if you're in England late, looking for food, pretty much all you can find is Indian; even in London on a Friday night. Oh, strike that, there's always fast food available. On my first trip to London, my coworkers and I sadly opted for McDonald's for lack of being able to find food anywhere else after 9pm. That said, there aren't fast food chains on every corner like you'd see in the US. They are sprinkled here and there, often disguised in local architecture, primarily the restaurants are locally owned.

Stacy ordering from the kiosk at McDonalds in London

Haggis (center) with Neeps and Tatties

Scotland's most well known food is haggis. Haggis is minced sheep or calf "offal" (heart,

liver and lungs) with oatmeal, onions, suet, seasoning and spices traditionally cooked in the animal’s stomach. Sounds awful right? Hell, "offal" is pronounced as awful. I was leery of trying it but a big part of travel for me is experiencing it through food. the photo to the left is from the first time I tried it in 2015. Marcie and I stopped in to a place called The Last Drop. the pub got its name from the fact that it was located just steps away from where criminals and people persecuted for religious beliefs were hung in Grassmarket gallows. The story goes that the condemned were allowed one last drink of alcohol before being hung.

The Last Drop is now a warm, cheery, bustling, traditional Scottish pub. Marcie & I were pleasantly surprised by our first haggis experience there. It's hard to describe how it tastes. This one had the texture of browned hamburger and had a mild taste kind of like sausage. There was no trace of the strong, disgusting flavors that I remember from liver. We tried it again two more times that trip and found that it varies wildly. It is traditionally served with "Neeps and Tatties" - mashed turnips and mashed potatoes. At the beautiful upscale restaurant Angels and Bagpipes on the Royal Mile, the haggis was cooked in an eggroll wrapper with fancy sauces. At the Contrast Brasserie in Inverness, a haggis bonbon was one of the sides. You'd never have guessed either contained haggis.

Chicken with chestnut mushroom sauce and a haggis bonbon

I was kind of surprised that Stacy tried it after her first response of "Oh hell no!" when hearing what it actually was. Our breakfast buffet at our hotel included haggis. It wasn't the best example of the dish and it's hard to muster up stomach courage early in the morning, but we did it!

Looking for rainbows

2018-04-14T02:26:00.002-07:00

I promise I'll write about my Scotland experiences soon, but I came across this quote today from Janette Tepas in an International Living article and it expresses something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

"I believe there are two outlooks on life: rainbow lookers or dirt lookers. The dirt is there, and I’ll deal with it… but, I’m always looking out for the next rainbow."

Here's a photo I took in Hawaii in 2013. It had rained every day (I'm not talking sprinkles, this was downpour) and was unseasonably cold. We spent 45 minutes on the beach in the 10 days we were there. This photo was taken from a very turbulent helicopter. Did you know that rainbows appear as circles from above?! So cool!

I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed to be in such a beautiful place and have the weather be so uncooperative. I could have chosen to gripe about it and be miserable (to be fair, I did gripe about it!), but I did not stare at the dirt, I looked for more rainbows. I saw more of them in that 10 days than I have seen in the rest of my life combined!

Also, you ever notice that when you are in a difficult situation with people that you enjoy that the good times feel that much more sweet? My brother & mom & I shared a lot of laughs that week and really enjoyed our time with each other.

Pretty sure this guy looks for rainbows! Ha!

This is the Day

2018-04-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is it.

Stacy sits next to me on the plane to Edinburgh, reading a fantasy novel about dragons. As surreal as this feels, we may as well be on our way to fight dragons ourselves. It hasn't sunk in yet that this is the day. The first day of what? The rest of our lives? The first day marking days different from all that have come before? The first day of our excellent and amazing adventure.

Well, that was it at least. 😉 I have been a bit belated in posting. Too busy storming castles, inspecting ancient inns, gazing out train windows, meeting new friends and strolling cobblestoned lanes.

Though I have been officially unemployed for three weeks now, it's still not real. As I wrote in my last post, the first two weeks were filled with far too much adulting. The stress of that time is finally wearing off after a week in Scotland. This just feels like a vacation at this point. There was a freakish moment when I was filling out the landing form on the plane. I was bewildered about what to write for profession. I don't really identify as being a writer yet. I spent 12 years as a project manager but that's not something that I felt defined me. A year from now I suppose I could go back to that, but I don't know that I will. I wrote "Former Project Mgr" but I think next time I'll take the advice of a couple friends and either write, "Explorer" or "Self Unemployed" or "Travel Blogger".

I'm *still* brooding over what the proper name for my blog should be. I thought I had it finally when "Go Find Glow" came to me but the vast majority either don't get it or don't like it. It came to me when I was in the midst of trauma right before I left. I had found that my sweet cat Aiko's health was at a point that I needed to let her go. I left the vet's office, taking her home to spoil her for one more week before saying goodbye. I was crying, bordering on hysteria so I fired up "Emergency Calm" on my Calm meditation app (love this app BTW!) and held Aiko and tried to calm down.

After a few minutes, it came to me in a jolt, "Just Glow". That's what I need to do and that should be the name of my blog! I need to do the thing that makes me glow with happiness and that's what the world needs. If I can inspire others to do the same then my mission is accomplished. Of course "Just Glow" is already taken... 😑 So, I came up with "Go Find Glow", but literally everyone looks at me blankly when I say it. My brother asks me why I care so much about what others think. It's a valid question. I suppose I always have worried more than I should about the opinions of others. I'm doing a pretty good job of following the interests that bring me joy; finding my glow. What makes me glow is often contrary to what is conventional so maybe I'm making progress.

Go Find Glow

Glow Bravely?

Glow Boldly?

Just Glow Away? hahah

Earlier options were Botanical Bohemian and Vicariously Christina...

Stacy says, "Just don't think about it so hard" but here I am after of months of thinking and hoping that the perfect name would appear. If I want to figure out a way to make money at this, I need to have a name that is memorable, and I need to have settled on a name before I can take next steps.

Anyway... the next entry will be more fun, I promise! Up next, some actual travel talk!

Stress, Spider bites and Sprained ankles

2018-04-04T10:04:00.001-07:00

I've got to say... I think my doctor was right when she said that god was playing a joke on me to see how badly I wanted to go on this adventure. I thought about not writing this post and glossing over the stress so I could get back to the fun stuff, but I've gotta keep it real. The past few weeks were some of the most stressful of my life. Frustration, guilt, sadness, stress, exhaustion disbelief and ultimately doubt overshadowed my excitement.

Recap of the the last two weeks: a couple dozen spider bites, a sprained ankle, multiple health insurance calls, automatic draft screw ups, people who were supposed to buy stuff ghosted me, clearing out my house in the sleet, finding that my clothing had somehow expanded since packing it a week ago and couldn't fit in my suitcase, and then came a niggling, ugly thought that maybe this barrage of bullshit is a series of bad omens warning me against this adventure. A friend told me something that calmed my anxiety, “One step at a time. It will all work out in the end. If it doesn't, it's not the end.”

Downsizing was a major headache. The thought of getting rid of 80% of my belongings was overwhelming and embarrassingly traumatic for me. I never considered myself to be a material person, but when it came time to let go of my possessions, I felt like Gollum from the Hobbit. Once I got started, it became easier (Facebook Marketplace is the bomb for selling furniture!), but it was a lot of work and I still had moments where I wanted to cry at letting go all of these things I'd spent a lifetime collecting.

Packing for a year's travel was also an monumental task. I'd come up with any excuse possible to avoid it. I read blogs about how to pack for an adventure like this, but primarily they were written by young men traveling to Asia. "You must only pack one backpack with one pair of jeans, three t shirts, three pairs of underwear and one dressier outfit." they'd say. Well, that just wasn't an option for me. I get tired of the clothes in my suitcase after only traveling for 2 weeks. No way am I going to wear the same three shirts in rotation! Finally what helped me was to approach this another way and box up or donate the stuff that I knew I wasn't going to take along. Once that was done, I remembered a friend had advised me to limit my palette when I was having a hard time finishing a painting. I settled on red, grey and black as my colors for the year. Anything that didn't match with at least two other items didn't make the cut. I managed to get everything into my 27" wheeled checked bag, my purse and my laptop bag.

Amidst all the negativity and stress, were also energizing moments of kindness, joy and wonder from friends and strangers that reminded me that I was on the right track. People I sold things to on Facebook Marketplace told me how amazing this is and asked if they could follow my blog. One woman invited me into her home and told her 13 and 11 year old daughters, "Put down your phones and come over here and listen to this woman's words of wisdom!" Ha! Friends organized dinners and happy hours and wrote sweet cards for me and told me how proud they are of me and what I'm doing inspires them to do the things that they have been dreaming to do. I've made a lot of great friends who I will miss dearly and it will be hard to keep in touch with all of them, but damnit I'll try.

Another thing was that I started looking at Kansas City with a new set of eyes. Knowing that you are saying goodbye to something gives you a new bittersweet perspective. Driving was when I noticed it most. I saw more beauty in Kansas; it's just a quiet, subdued beauty that you have to concentrate and squint your eyes a bit to recognize. Kansas City has grown into something that's far cooler than the outdated mental image which was imprinted upon me back in the 90’s when I moved from Iowa.

While reorganizing my suitcase one final time this morning, I found that Mister Right Meow had stashed one of his toys below my bag of socks. Seriously!? Is there anything more adorable? I'm sure gonna miss my little Casanova.

Last week another friend assured me that all this stress would melt away when I reached Scotland. Looking out the plane window as I saw the sun rising above Edinburgh, I realized he was right. It's not always going to be easy and I'm going to freak out from time to time, but it's going to be ok. No! Better than ok, it's going to be amazing.

Dave Grohl and Goodbyes

2018-03-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of my 12 year career at Garmin. Soon every day will feel like a Saturday but today is bittersweet. Yesterday I dropped my dad off at the airport. This morning my brother left before dawn with my sweet Princess Mia Mole Slayer. Today I say goodbye to the friends who have made going to work each day more than a job. Many more goodbyes in the next couple weeks.

When the countdown to my amazing adventure to travel for a year was more than 30, I would tell anyone I talked to, "51 days till departure!" Once it got below 30 I had to stop counting. Too real. Too overwhelming to think of all the things I need to squeeze in before April 2 and too overwhelming to think about how dramatically my life is about to change.

In my last post I was on the thriller portion of the roller coaster. More recently I've been riding the section where your stomach is in your throat and your heart is threatening to burst. And oh yeah, the wind is making your eyes water. It's totally the wind. I'm not crying... right!? Actually the roller coaster metaphor isn't broad enough to convey how it feels to completely reboot your life. You don't have time for sadness or frustration on a roller coaster.

A friend posted this Dave Grohl meme on Facebook - if you change the "today" bit to "this exact moment" then it comes a little closer to what it feels like. I've been hanging out in the 9, 6, 2 sections more lately. I'm sure I'll find my way back to #1 & 8, but for now, tying up all the loose ends between work and home feel too monumental to allow much room for happiness and excitement.

This is my first move that I've made as an adult (not counting moving across town). I knew it was going to be hard, and if I can allow myself to take a step back from Grohl #9, I can admit that many of my fears were bigger in my mind than in reality. However, I've also had a number of unexpected doozies crop up that my inner worry generator hadn't even considered.

I'm facing having to say the final goodbye to my elderly empress of snuggles, Aiko. I don't know how old she is since I inherited her, but she's at least 17, likely more. My awesome vet (who's also getting ready to embark on an adventure) said that she'd never seen a cat with grey hairs around her eyes before. I've known she was in the downhill part of life for a while, but I'm still not ready to say goodbye to this sweet girl.

The other big one is a health issue that has had me in major freak out mode for the last 2 1/2 weeks. My adorable doctor finally said to me, "Try not to freak out, and I know how hard that is, because I'm a major freaker outer, too. I think God just wanted to play one more joke on you and see how bad you really want to go on this adventure." I'm waiting for more test results, but the specialist said that they are thinking that it's something that can be recovered from with a few lifestyle changes. HALLELUJAH! (p.s. googling synonyms of hallelujah is worthless.)

Today also marks the first day of being car-free (still need some work before I'm carefree! sigh...) Sure feels strange after only living in places where a car is so necessary to life that it's a standard dating profile section right there next to height and body type. My Uber should be arriving soon so time to sign off!

This is happening!

2018-02-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

If you know me at all, you probably know how much I love to travel and I’ve probably told you about my dream to live abroad. For years I have been standing on the edge of a diving board, too afraid to jump in but too stubborn to turn around and walk back. Well, my friends, this is really happening and I'm terribly excited about it though tomorrow I might be terrified again.

A year ago, my dear friend Stacy joined Marcie and me in Spain and Portugal on her first visit to Europe. Stacy isn't the type to get excited about much, she's more of a stoic type, but her stoicism was no match for the beauty of Europe. At each jaw dropping stop on our trip, Marcie & I would joke, “Hey Stacy, why don’t you buy us a villa right over there?”

“Only if you guys supply the cabana boys.” Stacy would reply.

It was all in jest… sort of… The wheels were still turning in Stacy’s head when we returned home to Kansas City. After the vacation glow wore off and we were back to the daily grind for a few months, Stacy looked at me over her second glass of wine and said, “Christina, if you’re serious about living in Europe, I’ll join you, but we can’t just move straight to somewhere I’ve never been, we’re going to need to travel first so I know what I’m getting myself into.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m serious if you are.”

“I’m serious. Are you serious that you’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious if you’re serious.”

And so it went for the next couple months. Eventually the conversations shifted to us making lists of places we’d like to visit until the list became so long we realized that maybe we should make a list of the places that we don’t want to visit (cough – Turkey! – That deserves its own blog post later). We spent hours doing google image and map searches and eventually started the less glamorous research about international health insurance and travel visas. One of our goals with this journey is to work on writing our respective books, so we looked at our finances and budgets and decided that we could commit to a year.

In typical Christina style, this process required spreadsheets! By the time we’d decided that it was time to purchase tickets, our Amazing Adventure file contained 17 tabs of research topics and findings. Much liquid courage was required the night we bought our plane tickets. I verified my frequent flier mile balance, looked at the map again, double checked our dates, checked other destinations to see if we could use fewer miles if we chose a different city, poured another glass of wine, checked average weather for our destinations (again), found a flight that was perfect – leaving home not too early, arriving there first thing in the morning, only one stop with a short layover, poured another glass or wine, tried to find another reason not to hit the purchase button, had another glass of wine, and finally, at the count of three, we both pressed the purchase button simultaneously for two one way tickets to Edinburgh at the price of $11.95 + 60,000 United miles.

So far, we have only a loose plan to spend April in Scotland & Southern England; May in Portugal & Spain; June in Southern France and Northern Italy ("Don't forget ROME!" Stacy yells); July in Germany; and hopefully some time in Croatia in August if they haven’t become part of the Schengen zone by then. We would like to avoid cold weather if possible, so we’re thinking New Zealand and Australia are looking appealing for the winter.

I have no idea what my life is going to look like a year from now; the fact that doesn’t freak me the eff out tells me that I’m on the right path. By the end of a year of travel, I will have decided upon a new place to reinvent myself, decided to keep being a nomad, or perhaps I’ll have a new-found appreciation for all I’ve left behind. This decision to throw sand in the face of logic goes against so many cornerstones of my personality that I can hardly believe I’m doing it. I’ve abandoned listing pros and cons. This simply must happen.

Here's a video that really struck home for me. I know if I don't take this chance that I will regret it until the day I die. I am so very lucky to have this chance and to have such a great friend to share it with me!

We arrive at Lovely Arundel castle

2014-10-23T09:29:00.001-07:00

After a harrowing drive, we arrived in the town of Arundel which was much quainter and pretty than Southampton where I work 45 minutes away. The castle is very well preserved and still inhabited by it's family. Here's a photo I took on the walk up to the castle.

We must have still looked harried from the drive. As we walked into the grounds, an older gentleman on a golf cart offered to take us up to the castle. We were whisked around the bend and past the gardens and up the steep hill. We blew past families with strollers, and white haired people; feeling like VIP's.

We only had an hour and a half before closing time so we raced through the interior first. They didn't allow photos inside so I'd completely forgotten what it looked like until I looked it up online just now. I had forgotten about the beautiful library! My memory is terrible about that. Without photos, everything just blurs into a general impression colored by my last feelings as I depart. Here's a photo of the library I found online but it doesn't really do justice to how huge this long hall is. It was full of nooks and crannies and chairs of varying levels of comfort and style for readers. Obviously this family valued reading!

After rushing through the castle interior, we stopped in the courtyard where the Smugglers and Pirates festival was apparently going on.... Maybe we missed it. When we got there, it was pretty much a handful of people dressed in SCA type garb standing around looking bored. Oh well, I'd gotten my dose of pirates at the Musical Blades show the night before at home.

Besides, who needs pirates when you have amazing gardens!?

As we exited the castle interior, the same pleasant gentleman with the golf cart happened to be at the exit looking at us expectantly. Did we really look that worn out?? Regardless, we happily accepted his offer to take us to the gardens.

The gardens were incredibly lush this late in the year. The weather was beautiful; making me realize that I'd misjudged what clothing to pack. (All those sweaters would come in handy in Ireland at least.) The fountains, sculptures and structural elements were perfect to set off what plants remained. It still seems strange and out of place to see palm type trees in England. You wouldn't think they'd survive.

We managed to see everything we wanted of the castle (thank you Mister Golfcart!!). We set the Garmin for Southampton, dropped the car off, found a bite to eat and were all set to start a week of work.

Driving (or riding!) in England is scary

2014-10-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

My last European adventure began with my director renting a car in Heathrow and me navigating us South to Arundel castle which a coworker had recommended that none of us had ever heard of. I was especially excited because the day we were going to be there was a smugglers and pirates festival.

We hit the road and my director did a nice job staying on the correct side of the road, then after driving for about an hour we decided we were hungry and thought it would be cool to pull off at a random exit that had an interesting sign advertising a chateau or something. Once off the highway, the roads narrowed down to a two way, spindly, twisty paving barely the width of 1.5 American sized lanes with no shoulder. The tree archways that seemed incredibly charming when the taxi driver had taken me through them a few years ago now seemed like a cruel joke with my director behind the wheel. You know that scene from Planes Trains and Automobiles where John Candy ends up on the wrong side of the road and drives in between two semi's - Steve Martin hallucinating that Candy is Satan? Yeah, that's what it felt like to me as Chandra was yelling at oncoming traffic, "These idiots don't know what they're doing! Why don't they stay on their own side of the road!" and meanwhile driving hazardously close to the shoulder free side of the road. I valiantly tried to restrain myself to saying "Chandra, you're too close to the edge!" to once every 5 minutes, but probably averaged every 30 seconds.

Now, realize I am in no way saying that I could have done a better job. I have never been brave enough to even contemplate renting a car until Chandra said that she was thinking about it. I'm quite certain I would have done a worse job both in driving and in keeping my nerves and yelling in check.

Chandra kept barking that she was fine. I kept hearing the tires kicking up the crud on the edge of the road and the brush scraping on the side of the car and clenched my jaw and my butt cheeks. (I think between this drive and the driving in Ireland, both sets of my cheeks are still sore from extended clenching!) Not long after she did a jarring curb check, we found a pub and promptly stopped to let our nerves relax and enjoyed a lovely Sunday roast with roasted potatoes and Yorkshire pudding and a nice hard cider for me (none for the driver!).

We got back on the road feeling much better especially knowing that we were close to our destination and that we could take highways to get there!

It was only when we reached our destination that we noticed that the mirror was now broken and the paint was actually scraped off the handle of the car door!!

Appreciation

2013-12-05T07:50:00.002-08:00

Snow greeted us this morning. The first snow of the year. Just a dusting. My brother got a nice pic of it from his office window. He was kind enough to warn me this morning so I had time to mentally prepare myself for that first "Oh sh*t!" of the day and allowed enough time to warm up my car before departing. (Thanks for the remote starter, Marcie!) He also sent me a link this morning that has some incredible closeups of snowflakes using a point and shoot and a lens from a discarded SLR! I've never seen such detail! We've all heard that no two snowflakes are alike. These photos illustrate just how different and incredibly unique, detailed and beautiful snowflakes are. Amazing stuff here: http://www.webburgr.com/close-up-photography/

I'm also reminded of one of my favorite Demotivators from www.despair.com We're all beautiful snowflakes, don't you forget it!

I haven't had the luxury of parking in a garage since I lived with my mom years ago. The upside of this is the strange exhilaration I feel when I'm driving down the highway and a white stream of snow whooshes off the hood of my car, leaving a frosty comet trail in my wake. That and the sound of crushing dead, dried and crunchy fall leaves under my feet make the Kansas seasons worth it.

The snow is especially endearing today knowing that in a mere 47.5 hours I will be boarding a plane with 6 of my nearest and dearest friends bound for Belize for dear Stacy's birthday celebration. She's always wanted a picnic on her birthday. I am soooo looking forward to joining her in making that dream a reality that doesn't involve shivering our asses off in Kansas.

http://www.mibelize.com/index.html

Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle tours - too beautiful to be real!

2013-10-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we felt that our heads had just touched the pillows before the alarm went off for our early morning meetup with Gray Line tours. We picked up a butter croissant and cappucino in the central station. The public transport here is extremely efficient, clean, convenient and pretty easy to figure out as well as many of the stations having cafes and shops.

A couple hours into the gently swaying, sleep inducing bus ride, Marcie tapped me and said, "You might want to see this." I wiped the drool from my mouth and immediately dropped my jaw again.

There on the horizon were the jagged blue and white silhouettes of the alps and all around us down below were rustic, Chalet style buildings decked out in flowers dripping from every window box. If a building wasn't picturesque enough on its own, then elaborate, fake shutters were painted around the windows and medieval style illustrations of daily life or angels were painted on the sides. Not a single fast food chain in sight (Munich itself does a fair job of keeping these out as well), only small town flower shops, wood carving shops, ice cream vendors and the like.

Many tourists were wandering through these towns looking just as awed as we were. As we came around a corner in the incredibly beautiful town of Oberammergau, a rough looking woman passed by, wearing a Penthouse t-shirt with the eye grabbing headline, "F*ck me!" complete with illustration of how.... Marcie said, "Wow, I wouldn't have expected crack was easy to find here." Seeing a woman so seemingly out of place with the surroundings was a shock, but goes to show that no place is perfect.

Linderhof castle, inspired by Versailles, is nestled in a mountain valley. It was built for King Ludwg II in 1876 in French Baroque style. Ludwig was fascinated by the French royalty of 150 years before who had absolute rule and could get away with doing whatever their whims desired without answering to parliament. He became king at age 18 and tried to live like those kings. Parliament and Bavarian politicians had something else to say about this so he used his own substantial family wealth to build his own fantasy land. King Ludwig was such an introvert that he preferred to sleep the day away and come out at night when others had already turned in for the night. His dining room in Linderhof castle was equipped with a sliding door in the floor so that his meal could be entirely prepared and placed on the table in the kitchen below then the door opened and the table was lifted back up to the dining room when complete. He had an indoor grotto lake complete with artificial waves was where he was suspiciously found drowned along with his psychologist the day after parliament announced that he had been diagnosed as mad and not fit to rule.

We stopped for lunch in the town of Fussen at Hotel Muller. Started out the meal with a delicious dessert of Bavarian cream and a view of Hohenschwangau Castle on one side of us and Neuschwanstein on the other and the "romantic" smell of horse dung from the horse drawn carriages. We sadly didn't have time to tour Hohenschwangau. Next time!

The weather was perfect. The views amazing. We kept looking at each other and saying how unreal the whole thing seemed. The place was immense and everywhere you looked, you saw another exquisite detail in the carvings, paintings, and mosaicked floors. Here's a pic of King Ludwig's bedroom (Had to snag it from another site since we couldn't photograph inside). It took 14 carpenters 4 years to finish these carvings which tell the tale of Tristan and Isolde. The castle was inspired by and dedicated to Wagner's operas. It was never completed and the king only got to live in it for something like 126 days before his untimely death.

Europe is exhausting, eh?

2013-09-26T03:55:00.001-07:00

Day 5 in Munich is getting off to a slow start. It's been a wonderful meandering experience with very few firm plans other than nightly drinking with a great group of folks of all ages and origins brought together under common love of travel, fun and our gracious host, Bill Laughlin.

I'm not as ambitious as Mark with his very enjoyable daily blog entries from our final destination, Dinan, France. I thought I would write a bit more, but as we overheard from a weary Canadian Tuesday morning (still dressed in leiderhosen from the night before), "Europe is exhausting, eh?!"

We left home on Saturday afternoon and started off the trip with a delicious Boulevard Wheat beer and our traditionally shared meals in the airport restaurant in KC. Figured we may as well start practicing for Okotberfest. We arrived in Munich early Sunday morning. We were pleased at how easy it was to get from the airport to our rented apartment, just a block down from the UBahn train station.

The apartment is a little shabbier than we had hoped, but larger than expected, too, and with such a great location, we could hardly complain. Just 5 minutes walk from the English Gardens, 15 minutes walk from Marienplatz city center (5 minutes by train), and 2 minutes from one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever been to.

We dropped off our bags, freshened up & headed out to the glockenspiel in Marienplatz to meet Bill
for the traditional D&P (drinking and pissing) welcome party at the Augustiner beer garden. Everything about the rest of that day is embarrassingly blurry, but I'm fairly sure Bill tried to kill us with pear schnapps and beers bigger than our heads which seemed to get heavier with each sip. Tiberius tried to warn us about his dad's lethal form of hospitality the following day, but it was too late.

Monday we did our best to come back from the dead and also searched for dirndls with limited success. I found a really cute one for 80 euro but Marcie couldn't find one she liked under 250euro.
We had our first taste of Oktoberfest that evening. Imagine the biggest carnival you've seen and take that times 50. Carnival rides and games, vendors selling everything from stuffed animals, hats, steins, and roasted chickens, sausages of every size and flavor, dumplings, pastries, roasted nuts... and you really can't comprehend the massive, elaborate beer "tents" until you've seen them. These monstrosities can seat up to 10,000 people and take 2 months to set up each year. They are complete with fully functioning kitchens and blissfully clean and efficient plumbing.

It seemed we had hardly closed our eyes Monday night when it was time to meet up with our tour group for Neuschwanstein & Linderhof castles. These castles were built in the 1800's by "Mad King" Ludwig II. It obvious to see why Disney was inspired by these castles. The castles and the villages and lakes and mountains we saw were so amazingly perfect that they deserve their own blog entry.

Christina Rick Steves Howell

2013-08-12T10:57:00.003-07:00

After many, many hours of poring over library books, Rick Steves videos, public transport websites and traveller's forums, I have pinned down reservations for all major aspects of our upcoming trip and have been dubbed by Marcie as Christina Rick Steves Howell.

When I started looking at our transportation options, the Swiss pass looked pretty appealing with it's one price for all public transport including trains, gondolas, cable cars, buses and even boats as well as free entry to something like 5 billion museums. A bit pricey at $252/person for 4 days, but the one price, low hassle aspect is certainly worth consideration.

Ok, but since we'd be going to three countries, there was more (so much more) to take into account. Should we get the Swiss pass plus the German pass? Or the Swiss German combo? What about the French Swiss combo? Or the Global pass, or the Flexi pass, or the Half fare pass....? Of course there's always the more complicated option of buying point to point as we went.

I agonized over the options and tried in vain to find a site that would tell me definitively, "Yes, this is the solution for you." Add that I was working on an extremely complicated project at work, and I had serious concern that my head was going to explode.

Finally, I had to do what the people on the forums kept saying. I had to sit down and map out what each individual leg of the journey would cost for each option. I spent an entire day plugging in routes on Rail Europe and the German bahn.de and SNCF French rail and SBB Swiss rail. Ok, to be fair, there were substantial amounts of time when I got distracted by the beauty of all the places on our itinerary. ...And... I may have discovered Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/rathbone6/

At the end of the day, I had an Excel spreadsheet full of fares converted from Euros and Swiss francs that added up to tell me that my first instinct of going with the Swiss pass was the way to go. The German & French combo passes didn't cover any of the city public transport, so they were quickly ruled out. From my calculations, the Swiss pass would end up being very close to what we would pay point to point. Figure in the ease of just buying the tickets once and the 15% discount on the hotel and it was the clear winner.

I found that with the Swiss Pass, our best bet is to go from Munich to the first town on the Swiss border, St. Margrethen's, on German Bahn train then switch to the "free" Swiss train system from there. Same idea
applies for our trip from Switzerland to France. Take Swiss trains to Basel on the border of France & take French SNCF trains to Paris. We'll stay in Paris one night at a lovely hotel that Marcie found near the Eiffel tower.

Now if I can just get the pass in my grubby hands... UPS say they delivered it on Tuesday 6 days ago to my porch. No sign of it yet, but Rail Europe was kind enough to reprint and send another on it's way to me.

Europe Anticipation

2013-06-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

It seems Mark & Nita have fallen in love with France. After honeymooning there a few years ago and going back twice since, they decided to rent an apartment in Avignon for a month and invite friends to come visit. Marcie, Beth & I were so glad that we took them up on the offer. The apartment was beautiful, the food delicious, the vibe was perfect: quiet, laid back, cultured, beautiful, fun... kinda like Mark & Nita! ;) I always enjoy spending time with them, so when they invited me to Dinan, France this Fall, I could hardly say no.

Here's the website we put together for the Avignon trip: http://www.monavignonfrance.com/

Marcie & I had talked about how great it would be if we could go on a trip with our moms. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. Our moms don't know each other, but we imagined them getting along great and entertaining each other when Marcie & I felt the urge to spend an evening sharing a bottle of wine and laughing uncontrollably about nothing.

So the plan began. When I got an email from +Bill Laughlin, father of good friend +Tiberius, inviting me to join him at Oktoberfest in Munich the last week of September, (the week before our Dinan trip), I figured it was destiny. How cool to be able to say, "Well, I'll be in the neighborhood... Why not!?"

My mom is not a drinker. When I told her that I planned on going to Oktoberfest before France, she asked, "Why would you want to just go and drink beer? That sounds like a waste of time." When I told Marcie about the invitation, she said something like, "OH MY GOD! That sounds AMAZING! Of course I want to go!"

So we looked at a map. What's in between Germany & France? Switzerland! We had planned on going there a couple years ago to visit +Jenni, but she ended up not moving there so we scrapped plans to visit there and went to Amsterdam instead. Now that Switzerland was on the path to France, it seemed destiny was crooking her finger at us once again, telling us this trip was meant to be.

We found a great apartment at a very reasonable price in the city center of Munich on www.airbnb.com - the same site we'd had luck with in Paris & Amsterdam. It looks to be small but adequate for Marcie & me & not far from the Oktoberfest festivities.

The apartment Mark & Nita found in Dinan looks adorable. Check out the website I did for that portion of the trip here: http://www.mondinanfrance.com/

We haven't figured out the Switzerland portion of the trip yet, haven't figured out details on any portion really, but I'm sure it will be amazing no matter what happens.

Valley of 72 waterfalls Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland