Andy and I have a bad habit of arriving somewhere only to realize we don’t know how to get to our hotel. So this time I made sure to find out how to get from the airport to our hotel and had Andy print out a map from Google. But after we paid our US$20 for a visa and snaked our way through the long passport control line, we found out the metro stopped running at midnight, not 1AM like we thought, so we had to find alternative transportation. The creepy guy hanging out near the closed airport metro station hoping to scoop up tourists like us was not an option.

Getting outside seemed to be the logical next step, but it was more difficult than you might imagine to actually exit the building. We couldn’t go back the way we came because the doors were locked. We took an elevator upstairs, saw buses through a window, but kept getting stuck in a third dimension of airport stairwells.

Finally we broke free. Darting through the lines of taxis and waiting relatives, we made it to the shuttle buses. No one really spoke English except to confirm that the bus did in fact stop at Taksim Square, which was where we needed to go. After paying 10 Turkish Lira each (about US$6 or 4€) for our tickets, we finally relaxed and gazed out the window.

By the time the bus got to Taksim Square, I realized I was starving. I didn’t really care that it was 1AM, I needed food. Luckily Taksim (and most of Istanbul really) appeared to be a place where no one really slept. (Sorry, I wasn’t in the proper frame of mind for taking pictures.) We saw dozens of restaurants along the perimeter of the square, so it was just a matter of finding something quick to eat. A few menus looked a little pricey, but then we passed a street vender. Several steps later, I stopped, looked back at the cart longingly as the smells finally registered in my brain, and decided that’s what I had to have.

Again, I wasn’t taking pictures, so you’re going to have to use your imagination. Picture a street cart with a grill. There’s a small crowd waiting anxiously for their 1AM lamb meatball sandwiches. There are two cops standing off to the side who look like they might be ready to issue a warning to the street cart vender about illegal business activities, but then you realize they’re just ordering sandwiches. There are a four men standing behind the cart, and though it seems odd, you realize they all work there. One guy flips the meat and constructs the sandwiches. Another guy sprinkles spices on them and wraps them up. “You want spicy?” he asked me. Yes please! A third guy handles the cash. And the fourth guy…well, I’m not really sure what he was doing but he clearly was employed by the sandwich cart.

We wandered through the streets towards our hotel, and I began to eat my sandwich. I was in heaven. The bread was simple. The lamb was warm and juicy. The onions and tomatoes were fresh. And the spices…oh the spices! I couldn’t believe I only paid 4 Turkish Lira for that delicious sandwich AND a bottle of water. We were totally lost because Google maps didn’t quite compute our destination correctly, and we were winding through narrow streets that seemed kind of creepy. (In the light of day we realized they were not creepy, but arriving somewhere at 1AM can have that effect.) Our bags were getting heavy, and it took about three times as long as it should have to finally find our hotel. But I didn’t care. I had the best sandwich ever, and all was right with the world.

Trapped in the Istanbul Airport and the Best Sandwich Ever is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

Last summer when I was trying to adjust to Germany and realizing that my expectations didn’t match reality, I just shut down. I sat in four hours of German class each day for the entire month of August trying to learn the language of my new home, but mostly getting frustrated. My mind wanted to speak English, or at the very least Spanish, and sentences would sometimes come out of my mouth with words from all three languages. By the time I got home in the afternoon, my brain refused to focus on anything useful. Andy has a Wii, so I started playing Super Mario Brother 3 (old school, from the original Nintendo) and eventually I was able to beat the game pretty easily.

When Andy and I were in Turkey a few weeks ago for our belated honeymoon, we had an extremely hard bed in our first hotel. I felt like I was trying to sleep on a slab of concrete. It made my body hurt. So for four nights, I didn’t sleep well and I felt sore. By the time we got to Cappadocia, I was a mess. The slightest little thing set me off into a pile of tears.

That’s when I realized my mind was confused. My subconscious was still trying to accept the fact that home is now Freiburg, so throwing the even-more-foreign Turkey at it was sending my mind into shock. One of the things I love most, travel, was backfiring on me. I used to gain confidence and exhilaration from travel. Suddenly it was pushing me over the edge. Sneak attack from a seemingly friendly ally.

Back home in Freiburg last week, Andy and I went to the bank. He needed cash and I needed to get my statement out of the machine. The bank will automatically send a statement every quarter, but they would prefer you to print it from the machine yourself, so they charge 0.55€ if they have to mail it to you. And as far as we’ve been able to tell, there’s no way to just tell them not to mail the statements. So there on my statement was a small but annoying charge for the last time they mailed me my statement along with the even more annoying 5.90€ monthly fee. I wanted to throw things at the bank tellers for stealing my money. I wanted my bank account back from the States that didn’t charge me any monthly fees or weird statement fees.

Then we went to the grocery store to stock up for the week. I can’t figure out the cheese here because most of it is just labeled with whatever Swiss valley it’s from. In the States, I mostly bought provolone. If it’s even available here, it would only be at some specialty cheese shop and I haven’t gone looking for one of those yet. But I also like cheddar, especially shredded in the fajitas we make once a week. They don’t sell it in the cheese aisle, we have to go to the dairy counter. Like the deli counter in the States, except they have an entire display of nothing but cheese. Not only is cheddar 16.90€ per kilo (US$22, and a kilo is 2.2 pounds) but they don’t even have it all the time. So on the same day as my bank irritation, the grocery store was out of cheddar cheese.

I hate it here!

Ok, that’s not true. But it’s amazing how little things like cheese and bank fees sometimes make me want to crawl under the covers for a few days.

I’m about to start German class again, but I think I’m better prepared this time. And when I went to the grocery store by myself the other day, I noticed they had restocked their cheddar supply. Luckily there was a chunk already cut, so I was able to say cheddar and “stück” meaning I wanted a block of it instead of slices, and I just pointed to the one that was already there. Odd how buying cheese can seem like a triumph.

I’m sure culture shock will keep sneaking up on me for awhile. Adjusting to a new country is a slow process. But I’ll figure out my attack plan one of these days.

Culture Shock is Sneaky is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

The tiny country of Brunei was never high on my list, but since Amanda and I were already going to Malaysian Borneo, we decided it was worth our time to make the short trip to Brunei. While I wasn’t overly impressed by the country, it was certainly different from the rest of Southeast Asia. We could tell right away that it was a wealthier country then most of the region. We could tell they take pride in their food, and it was delicious. And the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque was one of the most impressive mosques I’ve ever seen. I’m not in a rush to return to Brunei, but it was well worth the short visit.

I also contributed the Friday Photo for Meet, Plan Go. Check it out: Easter Island

Weekly Photo – Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Brunei is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

After figuring out the correct bus, we hopped on board and checked with the driver that he was stopping near Baldwin Street. Buses can be tricky because you can’t always tell when they’ve arrived at your stop, so I’ve found it helpful to let the driver know where I’m going. Often they will let you know when your stop is coming up, especially if you sit near the front. Luckily it worked this time, and we arrived with no problems.

It turns out Baldwin Street attracts quite a few tourists who want to climb up the steepest street in the world. I am not a fan of climbing steep things, so I was content to admire it from the bottom. (Why isn’t there a bus that drops you off at the top? I’d walk DOWN the steepest street in the world.) However, Andy did want to walk up it, so I took pictures of him at various points along the way. Here’s Andy about halfway up. Note that the sidewalk is basically a staircase because of the steepness.

And here’s Andy at the top. I’m glad I have a good zoom on my camera.

On our way back to the bus stop, we noticed a little museum where you could go in and get a certificate showing you walked up Baldwin Street. Andy decided this was unnecessary, so we didn’t go in. We also saw a few other odd things at the base of the street. Trees wearing socks:

And a sign (actually two, one on each side of the pole) from someone searching for a missing mitten:

“Very precious mitten is missing its partner.” Really?! And the sign had been up there for five months at that point.

So it was a very entertaining day in Dunedin exploring Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. If only we could’ve found that mitten.

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Andy and I were featured on Skyscanner as their bloggers of the month! Check it out here: Travel bloggers fall in love on Twitter

The Steepest Street in the World is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

We arrived a little too early to check in, so we dropped off our bags and started exploring. It’s not a big town, but the scenery is beautiful. We wandered down to the lake to admire the views of the mountains. Ducks and fish swam around, hoping we’d give them some food. A group of kayakers paddled into the lake. Dozens of people strolled along shore, enjoying the calm between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

As we started walking back towards our hostel, we noticed a long line of reddish plaques next to the sidewalk. It was the Wanaka Community Millennium Project which showed 2000 years of history. Almost every year had a plaque, some years had more than one, and they listed significant (and occasionally not so significant) events that occurred in that year. It was a history lesson on the street, although a bit flawed at times. One plaque in particular stated that Alaska became the 51st state in 1959. While the year is correct, Alaska was the 49th state admitted to the US (Hawaii was 50th if you’re curious, and in the same year), and there are only 50 states total.

After checking into our hostel, we found out that there really isn’t any public transportation in Wanaka. Since Wanaka Beerworks was a few miles away at the local airport, this meant we needed to take a taxi. I’m glad we went because it was really interesting to hear about their small business and how they use as many local ingredients and items as possible to brew and bottle their beer. The beer was good too, and we customized a six pack to bring back to the hostel.

Andy and I had a great time just hanging out with each other, taking pictures, and cooking pasta to eat with our local beer, but we weren’t blown away by this town. If you enjoy outdoor activities, this might be a good option for you. It sounds like it would’ve been a fun place to celebrate the New Year a few days later, so maybe our timing was off a little. For us, one day in Wanaka was plenty.

Go to the Wanaka Beerworks website for more information. They were really great people and interesting to talk to.

One Day in Wanaka is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

Today is Cinco de Mayo, which is celebrated more in the US than in Mexico. It is NOT Mexico’s Independence Day (September 16th), it’s the date of a famous battle in a town called Puebla in 1862. I’m sure many of my friends in the US will be feasting on chips and salsa, guacamole, tacos, burritos, and Corona tonight. Sadly, I will not be doing the same.

There are three Mexican restaurants that I know of in Freiburg. (There used to be a fourth, a restaurant in Markthalle, a food court type place, but it’s now an Afghani place. Run by the same guy. I’m willing to bet he’s neither Mexican nor Afghani.) I’m planning on trying them all soon for a blog post. But Germans, for the most part, don’t like spicy food, so I’m keeping my expectations low.

I’m also experimenting with salsa recipes so I can make my own. Someday I hope to replicate the salsa in the picture from Nuevo Laredo in Atlanta. If anyone can give me the recipe, there might be a reward. Have I mentioned I really miss Mexican food?

Weekly Photo – My Favorite Salsa is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

The Weekender Bag: Pros

The first thing I noticed about the bag was how many pockets it has. I love pockets! I always have a bunch of smaller items that are easier to store in a small pocket. This allowed me to put clothes in the main compartment, and then I could put things like my phone cord, camera battery charger, small notebook, brush, and laptop cord in the smaller pockets. It also has one of those handy little hooks for your keys so you don’t forget where you put them at the end of a trip. There are four compression straps on the outside, and each major outside zipper has loops for luggage locks.

The feature I was most excited about was the separate sleeve designed specifically for a laptop. It even has a strap to hold it in place inside of the pocket. I was too lazy most days to strap it in and my laptop was still just as secure. I loved not struggling to fit my laptop in with a bunch of other stuff.

The main compartment of the bag has a little divider in the middle, which was convenient for separating my clothes from Andy’s. About halfway through the trip, Andy ended up having all of his clothes in his bag, so I was able to unclip the divider and lay it flat. Nice to have if you want to be super organized or if you have two people’s things in the bag and want to keep them separate, but easy to move if you don’t want to use it.

I really like backpacks as opposed to wheeled bags because I think they give you a lot more freedom. You still have both hands free while walking around with your luggage, there’s less chance of knocking into someone with your bag, and they’re easier to handle on stairs or cobbled streets. But this bag was shaped and structured like a suitcase while still being a backpack. That meant I was able to find what I was looking for much easier than with a normal backpack. It also meant eBags didn’t waste an inch of carry-on restricted space.

The bag’s measurements (22″ x 14″ x 9″) fit most airlines’ carry-on restrictions, yet it’s around 54 liters, almost 60 liters when fully expanded! When I saw this on the tag, I thought there was no way I’d be able to take it as a carry-on, but after checking in for four flights on Turkish Airlines, no one questioned me and it fit in the overhead with no problems.

The backpack straps were comfortable and easy to adjust. The bag has a zipped panel on the back so you can hide the straps, which is perfect if you’re flying and want to check the bag. Hanging straps can get caught on any number of things in the bag’s journey from the check-in counter to the airplane and back to you, so I thought this was a great feature. (I did have to check my bag on our German Wings flight from Rome to Stuttgart because my friend Katie brought me a jar of peanut butter, which is considered a liquid.)

The bag came with a detachable padded shoulder strap. I didn’t use it because the bag was too heavy to carry around with just a shoulder strap, but if you are really using this bag as a weekender and only have two or three days of stuff in it, the shoulder strap would probably work just fine. The bag also came with a small pouch that snaps into the main compartment, perfect for toiletries.

The Weekender Bag: Cons

It also came with a detachable waist strap. I didn’t like it because it was just a simple nylon strap. It didn’t have any padding or offer any real support. A full bag can get heavy if you have to walk around with it a lot, and a good waist strap helps distribute the weight of the bag so it’s not all on your shoulders. But on trips where I’m not walking long distances to get to the hotel, or if I really only packed for a few days, it wouldn’t bother me.

I also wished it had a rain cover. Andy and I got caught in the rain several times with our bags, and since my laptop was in my weekender, I was a little worried about it getting wet. But the material is fairly thick and my laptop was fine. Having an umbrella helped ease my paranoia, but a rain cover would’ve been a nice bonus.

The Slim Packing Cubes: Pros

I had never used packing cubes before so I was a little hesitant. I’m the type to shove things into whatever little corners are left in my backpack, so I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the orderly nature of the cubes. But I loved them! There were three different sizes, so we ended up fitting 10 pairs of Andy’s underwear in the large one and 13 pairs of my underwear in the medium one. In the small cube I put my make-up, some medicine, and other miscellaneous non-liquid bathroom items. All three cubes fit perfectly into the outside pocket of the bag. It was a good way to keep clean underwear separate from dirty underwear, and we could easily assess how long we had until we needed to do laundry. (Yes we did laundry on our honeymoon.)

The Slim Packing Cubes: Cons

None! I really liked these, no negatives to report.

Really long weekend

So how much was I able to fit in this so-called weekender bag? A lot more than you’d ever need for just a weekend! Here’s what went in the bag at the beginning of the trip, before things got shuffled back and forth between my bag and Andy’s:

19 T-shirts

4 long-sleeved T-shirts

2 pairs of pants

2 bathing suits

13 pairs of socks

10 pairs of Andy’s underwear in the large cube

13 pairs of my underwear in the medium cube

1 bra

small cube with miscellaneous items in it

2 liquids bags

hair brush

small notebook

laptop and its cord

external hard drive

camera battery charger

2 phone chargers

All this when it was not fully expanded, and there was still a little wiggle room. Overall, I love this bag!

The bag and packing cubes were complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Review: eBags Mother Lode Weekender and Slim Packing Cubes is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

In most modern, westernized countries, the worst you are likely to see while traveling is a homeless person begging for money. That can be awkward enough, the dilemma of wanting to help versus what we’ve been told, that most of them will use the money for drugs or alcohol and that giving them money gives them no incentive to try to better their lives. But get out of these countries and into the less developed countries, and it’s a totally different situation.

The parts of Indonesia I visited weren’t so bad. The roads weren’t great, the sidewalks were in desperate need of repair, and the houses wouldn’t exactly pass inspections in the US. I knew this was not a wealthy country. But a few weeks later when I got to Cambodia, things really changed for me.

Cambodia

Aside from the already disturbing images of the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, men lingered at the entrances and exits asking for money. They were all missing a limb or two, most likely from landmines.

After visiting these museums to learn about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, I went to get a couple beers with another woman in my hostel. While sitting by the river, little kids constantly came up to us asking for money and trying to sell junky bracelets or bootlegged DVDs. We also saw a woman bathing herself and shampooing her hair in the dirty river just a few feet away from us. She either didn’t have running water in her home or didn’t even have a home.

In Siem Reap while visiting Angkor Wat, we were constantly hassled by people, almost all children. They were selling everything from cans of soda to junky jewelry to postcards, all for US$1. Not only did I not want what they were selling, but I had read that buying things from these children encourages their parents to keep sending them out there to sell instead of going to school. It also teaches the children that they can make money without even knowing how to read, reinforcing their parents’ reluctance to send them to school.

Laos

In the beautiful country of Laos, I was constantly aware of the destruction my own country caused. During the Vietnam War, the US dropped 260 million cluster bombs on Laos, making it the most bombed country in history. That’s approximately one plane load of bombs dropped every 8 minutes from 1965 to 1973. Read that sentence again. That’s insane! Approximately 75 million (I’ve read as high as 78 million) of those bombs didn’t explode and less than 1% of those have been removed, which means decades later, people there are still injured or killed by unexploded ordnance.

I didn’t even visit any of the organizations dedicated to helping victims, but I saw people with missing limbs or other obvious signs of injury, most likely from the UXOs. But the people of Laos were some of the warmest, nicest people I’ve ever met. No one even flinched when I said I was from the US, even though I’m sure every single one of them knows it was the US who provided them with a potentially never-ending supply of pain.

When my flight to Vientiane was delayed and I was stuck in the Pakse Airport for hours, a few of the airport employees wanted to talk to me. Aside from the normal confusion at a female traveling alone, they were shocked to hear I was traveling for five months. How much did that cost? How could I afford that? I blushed with embarrassment trying to answer the questions, knowing the amount I spent on five months of travel was more than they earned in several years. That was confirmed to me when one of the men told me how much he made: approximately US$140 a month. And that’s actually a lot since a job at the airport pays more than the average.

As difficult as it was to see these horrible situations, it reminded me how good my life is in so many ways. I love seeing the famous sites, eating the delicious food, and experiencing the fun activities. But it’s also important to look at the reality many people live with in many parts of the world. It might be uncomfortable, it might make me want to cry, but these difficult moments are just as important to my travel experience.

Difficult Travel Experiences in Southeast Asia is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

I still have lots to write about from my round the world trip, but since I just spent two weeks in Turkey, I’m going to start posting about Turkey as well. This is from our first day in Istanbul when we went to see the famous Blue Mosque. But as we were walking towards it, I realized I had completely forgotten that women have to have their heads covered to go into a mosque, and I didn’t have a scarf with me. We decided to tackle the scarf problem later and settled for taking pictures of the outside of the mosque. I ended up having to buy a scarf the next day, but at least I found one for about US$3.

Weekly Photo – Blue Mosque, Istanbul is a feed post from Ali Adventures.

The Best Laid Plans

Over the next day or two, Christchurch had a few more earthquakes. Neither of us really liked the idea of going somewhere that was actively having strong earthquakes. But we already had a lot booked: a bus ticket from Wanaka (our next stop after Queenstown) to Franz Joseph glacier, a hostel near the glacier, a bus ticket to Greymouth, the train to Christchurch, a hostel in Christchurch, and a flight from Christchurch to Rotorua. The idea of having to change all of that seemed daunting. But we started examining our alternatives to see if it was reasonable to change our plan.

The train ticket was fully refundable, and most of our hostel reservations were either refundable or had a small cancellation fee. The bus tickets were non-refundable, but they were so cheap we were fine with losing them. The flight was the major thing we’d have to change. We also needed to figure out where we were going to go instead of Christchurch and hope that we could find a room for New Year’s on such short notice.

Divide and Conquer

When we returned from our Milford Sound trip, we spent some time sifting through our Lonely Planet New Zealand book to see where else we might want to go. There were a few places north of Franz Joseph that I had heard of, but they sounded a lot more rural and outdoorsy than what Andy and I were looking for. We’re more the city types. But Dunedin, which is in the opposite direction, looked like an interesting college town. So we checked to make sure we could find a decent place to stay and went to work on rearranging our trip.

Andy contacted the hostels, buses and train to cancel those reservations and get refunds where possible. I called Air New Zealand and changed our flight to Rotorua so that we would depart from Dunedin instead of Christchurch. We booked four nights in a hostel in Dunedin and booked bus tickets there for the next day. We had to pay a few small cancellation fees and a change fee on our flight, but overall we didn’t lose much money. We had to give up going to Franz Joseph Glacier, but we wouldn’t be moving around as much either.

A lot can be said in favor of not booking ahead. It allows you to be more spontaneous and more flexible, and it means you won’t have to deal with cancellation and change fees. However, by having to rearrange out trip at the last minute, we were still able to be flexible and spontaneous. We also learned that having to make last minute changes and planning on the road aren’t as stressful as I once thought, and it keeps things interesting. I love the planning part of a travel, and this was just another aspect of my planning passion.

Changing Plans on the Road is a feed post from Ali Adventures.