Uncategorized Archives · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

September 26, 2018

Days 76 – 79: Visit. Siem. Reap.

Visit. Siem. Reap. Like, now. Whatever you are doing, just stop, and get yourself to Cambodia.

Alright, so getting to Cambodia may involve a bit of planning, but I would seriously highly encourage you to start at least considering it.

Visiting Angkor Wat was an unbelievable, other worldly experience, and then the town of Siem Reap takes laid back to the next level. It totally exceeded our expectations with about a million cool coffee shops and cafes that all seem to be giving back to some worthwhile cause.

Day 76: Travel from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Buses run from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap multiple times a day, and despite the ride taking six hours, we had WiFi and the trip was pretty straightforward. We were picked up at our hotel at about 8:30 AM. We arrived in Siem Reap in the middle of the afternoon.

As I shared in our post on Phnom Penh, while we were there we ate at this incredible little hip place called Backyard Cafe. Well, Backyard Cafe has a sister restaurant, Vibe, in Siem Reap that was just as fabulous, so natch we went straight there to detox a bit from the long ride.

Siem Reap Vibe Cafe — A delicious veggie burger and nut milk smoothie at Vibe

We both got veggie burgers (my meat-loving husband wanted a veggie burger!) which were divine. We went back to our great little AirBNB and watched Angelina Jolie’s film First They Killed My Father about the Cambodian genocide. It was understandably tough to watch but definitely instructive for our time in Cambodia.

Day 77: Enjoying Siem Reap

We had originally planned to go to Angkor Wat our first full day in Cambodia, but our AirBNB host gave us good advice to take a day to settle in to enjoy Siem Reap first. Our AirBNB was in an incredible location in the Kandal Village neighborhood, so we walked around the corner to Common Grounds, another adorable coffee shop to work for the day.

Common Grounds for Breakfast…And Lunch

We had muffins and coffee for breakfast, and then worked right through to lunch where Rich enjoyed A PHILLY CHEESESTEAK. Rich, Southwest Philadelphia born and raised, offered the following assessment: “It’s not as good as Philly, obviously, but it is done better than some places in the United States.” High praise.

cheesesteak in siem reap — Not sure who is cheesing harder– Rich or the cheesesteak

Siem Reap has a major ex-pat culture, most notably ex-pats from Australia. While we were in the cafe, we witnessed a nonprofit meeting taking place at one table while a mom worked on her laptop and her son did what looked like homeschool math homework beside her. It was cool.

Dinner at Miss Wong Cocktail Bar

Siem Reap has a total party themed area known as Pub Street because, well, there are about a million bars and pubs where beers cost about a quarter each. Seriously.

Pub Street, Siem Reap. It’s early; this is chill.

While walking down pub street, a ten year old boy asked Rich if he wanted to pay roughly $1 to eat a tarantula. As most of us would have, Rich quickly declined. The boy said, “Come on. Be a man.” Hilarious.

That scene was a bit rowdy for us, so we ducked down an ally to grab dinner and a drink at Miss Wong Cocktail Bar, named for the famous painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. The decor was super posh. The drinks were sophisticated. Rich and I felt a little more like the professionals we once were and a little less like the backpackers we have become. We had a great time.

Miss Wong in Siem Reap — At Miss Wong’s Cocktail Bar

Day 78: Angkor Wat

Visiting Angkor Wat was the type of experience that affirms that for every long travel day, every time we have gotten really lost, and every wrinkled outfit pulled out of the same dirty backpack taking this trip was one of the best decisions we have ever made.

About Angkor

Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer empire. Between the 9th to 15th centuries, historians believe that Angkor was a megacity, housing nearly 1 million people. At the time, that would have been 0.1% of the global population.

Today, in the Angkor complex, over 1,000 temples remain. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the most famous temples, but there are many small and beautiful lesser known temples as well.

All of Angkor stands as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These temples are incredibly well-preserved; there are hardly any areas that you cannot enter today. It is like a giant, historical playground.

Sunrise at AngKOR Wat

Our AirBNB contracts with a team of tuk tuk drivers, and they are pros at planning out the day. We received a printed menu of prices and locations, picked what we wanted to see, and arranged everything through our AirBNB.

We knew we wanted to see Angkor Wat at sunrise so our tuk tuk driver arrived to pick us up at 4:30 AM (!!!). He drove us about 30 minutes outside of town to be at the front of the line to buy tickets, and then we drove another 15 minutes or so to Angkor Wat. Using our iPhone flashlight, we followed the crowds– yes, crowds at 5:15 AM– to a prime view of the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

What is impossible to capture in words is the sheer scope and magnitude of Angkor Wat. How something so old can still tower so magnificently over the landscape is unreal. Watching the sun come up over Angkor Wat was amazing.

sunrise in siem reap at angkor wat — Waiting for the sun to come up at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap — At Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Sun’s Up– Let’s Explore

So once the sun is up, the couple of thousand people who had stood back to watch it come over the water head towards the entrance of the structure. The thing is, Angkor Wat is so large with so many halls and turns and stairs, that you can take a turn away from the crowd and find yourself alone in the temple. This has not been a common experience at most major tourist locations for us.

We wandered around, said whoa every other word, took pictures, and tried to take it all in.

We then got in line to climb to the top of the temple. After being in line for about 20 minutes, the worker informed me that having my scarf covering my shoulders was not sufficient coverage to enter the highest part of the temple because my straps under the scarf were small. I told Rich to go up anyway and got out of line.

Immediately, a t-shirt vendor arrived. We negotiated him down to paying about $3 for a cool Cambodia t-shirt, I put the t-shirt on over my dress, and we were back in business.

The climb to the top was terrifying. You climb the uneven stone steps straight up the equivalent of 4-5 stories. Rich was okay; I got to the top and was ready to kiss the ground and cry! In Europe and America, there would have been about a million warnings and signs removing all liability. Here, they figure you have enough sense to know if you can make it up or not.

The views of course were stunning. We were on top of an ancient world.

How I climbed all stairs all day. These stairs, at Angkor Thom, were a serious modern upgrade from the stairs at Angkor Wat.

To Angkor Thom and Beyond

You hire the skilled tuk tuk drivers for the day so when we finished at Angkor Wat, our driver was waiting for us. He took us to Angkor Thom, we explored, then we got back in the tuk tuk to travel to the next temple.

By the end of the tour, we had seen five of the largest temples. It was about 11:30 AM (remember, our day started at 4:30 AM). Rich and I were so sweaty, so dirty, so wiped, and so content. It had been an amazing day. Nap time!

Another temple. Remember, there are roughly ONE THOUSAND temples total.

Day 79: Rainy Season in Cambodia

The next day it rained. We slept in and then wandered to a late breakfast at New Leaf Eatery, another amazing cafe that donates a large chunk of its proceeds to local education.

We spent the rest of the rainy day inside, working on blogging and planning and just generally getting caught up.

For dinner, we walked three doors down– did we mention our location was amazing– to Crane, one more bar/cafe, this time focused on supporting local artists, where we enjoyed delicious curry for dinner. Siem Reap was the hippest.

If you want to have your mind blown by a wonder of the world, and then you want to eat lots of delicious, healthy food at places that support the community, Siem Reap is your spot. We could not have been more impressed by this laid back and lovely little Cambodian town.

September 21, 2018September 26, 2018

Day 74-75: Hello, Cambodia! Getting Started in Phnom Penh

After finishing off an amazing time in Chiang Rai, Thailand with a visit to a cat cafe, Rich and I jumped on a plane and landed pretty late in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

A unique, and totally endearing, Southeast Asia custom we have picked up on at almost every airport we have visited here is the friend and family welcome committee . For every passenger returning home, it seems there are at least three smiling faces eager to welcome the weary traveller.

Although come to think of it, maybe that is a southeastern U.S. tradition too. The husband of one of my dearest friends proposed to her when she landed in the Atlanta airport, and I know my sweet mother has met me in Nashville with a “Welcome home, Amanda” banner on at least one occasion (when I was 20+ years old).

But I digress. We were happy to land in Phnom Penh and even happier to see our names written on the sign held by our hotel’s driver!

Day 74: Exploring Phnom Penh…But First, Football

If you know us, you know Rich and I are pretty committed to football in general and the Georgia Bulldogs and Philadelphia Eagles in particular. We, of course, miss our family and friends back in the states. AND we also miss turning on the TV on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, plopping onto our huge grey couch, and watching football rabidly for hours.

I’m not going to give too much of our tradecraft away on how we have managed to do this, but so far, we have been able to watch two of the three Georgia games and one of the two Eagles games on our laptops. Because the Eagles played the Falcons in the NFL opener at 8:00 PM on a Thursday night, we saw the game live in Cambodia at 7:00 AM Friday morning.

Weird, huh?

When Thursday Night Football in America is Friday Morning Football in Cambodia

The Eagles, who happened to win the Super Bowl last year (#importantdetail), also won against the Falcons! While we were in high spirits, we got a particularly late start to our day in Phnom Penh.

We decided we would take it slow and walk to the Wat Phnom Temple. While only about a mile and a half in distance, this stroll took us a good hour because, much like Hanoi, sidewalks are not primarily used for walking. While no other city could be as frenetic as Hanoi, Phnom Penh was active. It had its share of motorbikes and tuk tuks, as well as street food being prepared on sidewalks. Interestingly, almost every car and SUV was either a Toyota or a Lexus– apparently there is a large grey market for luxury vehicles in Phnom Penh.

The Wat Phnom complex was a beautiful park with a temple sitting at the top of a hill, a larger-than-life working clock, children riding bikes, and pretty gardens. We even saw a monkey!

Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh — Outside the Wat Phnom complex.

Clock in Phnom Penh — I mean, this clock is awesome. And it’s 5 o’clock somewhere.

Wat Phhom interior in Phnom Penh — The beautiful inside of Wat Phnom

With our monkey friend (who rudely refused to turn around for the selfie)

From Wat Phnom, we went to dinner at Eleven One Kitchen. I enjoyed a delicious vegetable amok, a traditional curry dish cooked in banana leaves. Yum!

Our first full day: Birds win, and we settle into life in Cambodia. Not bad.

Day 75: Downtown Phnom Penh, Health Food, and Tragic History

Fortunately/unfortunately, there was no more morning football so we were able to head out to explore more sites in Phnom Penh much earlier than the day before.

The Royal Palace, Wat Langka, and Wat Botum Park

We knew we had a longer tour scheduled in the afternoon so we did a quick “walk by” tour of the Royal Palace, Wat Langka, and Wat Botum Park. It is clear that Phnom Penh is a city on the rise. There were many beautiful structures and monuments scattered about.

Additionally, while our walk the day before had been across cluttered, broken, and missing sidewalks, on our walk by more of the monuments, we found wider, cleaner sidewalks more like what we are accustomed to in the West. This part of town felt much more Ho Chi Minh City than Hanoi. It was pretty interesting to get a feel for both traditional and modern in the same city.

Royal Palace Phnom Penh — The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Rich with a war memorial in Wat Bokum Park

Rich with one of the major monuments. You can view the high rises in downtown Phnom Penh beyond the monument.

Rich with the Independence monument, signifying independence from France, and the Cambodian flag

Health Food at Backyard Cafe

For lunch, we stopped at Backyard Cafe, a vegan and plant-based cafe that supports a foundation providing healthy food and nutrition for school children in Cambodia.

Umm, this cafe was straight out of an Anthropologie + Goop collaborative Instagram spread. The decor was amazing and unbelievably on trend. Our vegan sandwiches (pumpkin, humus red peppers, etc.) were not bad either.

Yummy Backyard Cafe lunch with passion fruit juice

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was incredibly powerful and also really heavy too. I will do my best to share what I learned in the spirit of bearing witness.

Some Background on the Khmer Rouge

I am not a historian, but my (very) basic understanding is that Cambodia had been a part of French Indochina from 1867 until 1953. Cambodia became a constitutional monarchy. However, quickly the country became conflicted over what their involvement in the Vietnam War should be. While Cambodia wanted to claim neutrality, the leadership allowed Vietnam to transport supplies through Cambodia. Then they also allowed Americans to bomb Vietnamese troops in Cambodia as long as no Cambodians were killed.

This strategy did not exactly win over the Cambodian people, and following the war, there was a coup, and then confusion and a vacuum of power. Enter: Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot believed there was a fundamental difference between “old” people (farmers, laborers, etc.) and “new” people who were educated, lived in cities, and had new ideas. He wanted to return Cambodia to an agrarian society, and as soon as the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, they entered and evacuated Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge told people that the Americans were going to bomb the city and that everyone could return in three days. Instead, the city dwellers were forced into farm labor, the military, or killed.

The Tuol Sleng Prison

The Tuol Sleng prison had originally been a secondary school located in the center of town. When the Khmer Rouge invaded, they installed high fences of barbed wire around the walls of the school and turned classrooms into cells and interrogation rooms. It became a secret facility known as S-21.

Over the next four years, more than 20,000 Cambodians, as well as some foreigners, were imprisoned there. The Khmer Rouge tortured inmates to extract confessions, and they executed more than 12,000 of these prisoners. Many of those imprisoned were teachers; some were there for wearing glasses, seen as a sign of “intellectualism.”

The tour of the prison is grisly. You see the cells where the last prisoners were discovered. The Khmer Rouge took pictures of all of the inmates upon entry, and thousands of these black and white pictures line the walls. It started pouring down rain while we were there. It was just so grim.

There are two former prisoners who survived who return every day to tell their story, and the chief of the prison has received a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

Reflection

So I like to keep the blog light and fun, but we visited a genocide museum. It is terribly sad. We visited Dachau several years ago. Like Dachau, at Tuol Sleng, evil feels close and palpable. As it should be, it in unsettling, but I think that immediacy is intentional. May every person who visits learn enough not to be a bystander should he or she ever come into contact with such evil.

A takeaway for me was how quickly divisions within a country can become terribly dangerous as well as how problematic it is to despise education and ideas.

The Khmer Rouge killed roughly 25% of Cambodia’s population, and most who were killed were the educated. Once the genocide ends, how do you educate your population when all of the teachers were killed and all of the students missed four years of school? How do you build buildings without architects or heal bodies without doctors? How long will it take Cambodia to truly recover?

We walked home from the museum in the rain, took long naps, and stayed in for dinner because we were so beat.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Cambodia as they continue to rebuild, restore, and heal their beautiful country.

August 26, 2018

Days 46-47: Palermo– Sicilian for Let’s Eat!

Rich and I really enjoyed our time in Sardinia, Italy, and we were thrilled to head to Sicily for ten full days. We started in the capital city of Palermo before making a loop of Sicily. Priority #1 in Palermo: get Rich’s hair cut. Priority #2: let’s eat!

Day 46: Travel to Palermo, Sicily

Travel from Sardinia to Palermo was super straight forward. We took a bus to the airport, and then took two domestic flights, first from Sardinia to Rome and then from Rome to Palermo.

The flight from Rome to Palermo was about as rowdy as you would expect a flight into Sicily to be: lots of loud talking across seats and people stood up and started jostling with their luggage while the plane was still taxiing into the gate. No fears though: I was sitting next to a nun who said her rosary during takeoff AND landing. Peak Italian.

Our host Guise met us at our AirBNB, which was in a lively Sicilian market, and was absolute heaven after our AirBNB in Sardinia. We checked in and freshened up before heading to dinner at Perciasacchi, a restaurant featured in the New York Times’s 36 Hours in Palermo that focuses on staying true to the Sicilian tradition of using ancient grains in all of their dishes. Rich and I both ordered pasta that was excellent, and the deconstructed cannoli was a mindblowing, other worldly dessert.

Day 47: Let’s Eat!

Rich Gets His Hair Cut in Sicily

But first, if you have been faithfully following this blog, you will have noticed that Rich’s hair has gotten progressively longer and curlier since leaving for Iceland. When we lived in Washington, DC, Rich would only get his haircut at Diego’s, barber to politicians, celebrities, and apparently DC Public Schools Assistant Principals.

Diego, as you might have guessed, is Italian, and it was important to Rich that he got an authentic Italian haircut experience in our travels. And let me tell you, by day 47, it. was. time. So Rich hopped out of bed and headed to the barber while I stayed behind in the apartment to complete our Malta blog post. I told him to take LOTS of pictures. He came home with this:

Rich's barber in Palermo — Rich and his Sicilian barber

I guess taking mirror selfies at an Italian barbershop doesn’t exactly scream machismo. Still, his hair looked great, and we headed out to ~~explore~~ eat our way through Palermo with a little extra swagger.

Eating Our Way Through Palermo

Palermo is world famous for street food, and it did not disappoint. While we saw plenty of beautiful sites (the Palermo Cathedral, the Fontana Pretoria, and the Royal Palace of Palermo), we thought it would be more fun to tell you about all of the delicious things we ate in Palermo instead.

Breakfast: Coffee with a Pistachio Croissant

Pistachios are native to Sicily, and the Sicilians use them in every meal. Our cappuchinos and pistachio pastry were a yummy start to the day.

cappuchino in Palermo — Cappuchino time!

Pistachio croissant in Palermo — We shared the most delicious pistachio cream filled croissant.

Lunch: Arancini

So arancini are the ubiquitous fried, stuffed rice balls found throughout Sicily. In America, we think pizza and pasta as Italian food, but these treats are actually on every corner in Sicily. For arancini in Palermo, we went to Sfrigola, a hip arancini spot where you can watch the creation from start to finish. If it isn’t obvious from the pictures, these were delicious!

This is the yellow rice all rolled out. This gentleman stuffs each arrancini, weighs it, coats it in breading, then fries it.

amanda eating in palermo — Need I say more?

Snack: Granita

While it is pretty hard to beat gelato, granita is an incredibly refreshing runner up in the frozen dessert category. Similar to an Italian ice or water ice (wud-der ice in Philadelphia), it is a frozen treat made of sugar, ice, and flavoring. Sicily was hot, so this hit the spot. Also, in case you are concerned about authenticity, the place where we went has been in operation since the 11th century.

granita in palermo — I went with tangerine

Dinner: Panelle Panini

For dinner, we headed to Nni Franco u’ Vastiddaru, the ultimate in late night street food. They are located on a street that is closed to cars so at least a hundred people order at the window and then stand in the street, talking, laughing, and enjoying their dinner.

Most of the locals enjoyed a spleen sandwich, but we were not that brave. Instead, we ordered a panelle panini. Panelle are fried chickpea fritter-like medallians that they place on a soft roll and serve with fresh lemon. They were so cheap (~$1.75 a sandwich) and so delicious. And it was really fun to stand around in the street with all of the locals!

Rich enjoys his delicious Palermo pannelle

Amanda with her lemon and pannelle in Palermo

After Dinner Libations at Bar Garibaldi

Around the corner from Nni Franco u’ Vastiddaru was an incredible bar called Bar Garibaldi. While they had plenty of outdoor seating, they also had a small room filled with records where the Sicilian in charge would put a record on and let it play start to finish.

And what records they were! We were introduced to Bill Callahan and Moriarty, and the evening was magical– easily, hands down, the best bar we have visited on the trip.

Closing Thoughts on Palermo

Rich and I love to eat so we loved Palermo. There were a lot of ways that Palermo felt like a sister city to Rich’s hometown of Philadelphia: a little dirty, a little gritty, but the food is banging and the people are alive. I could have easily spent at least two more days there taking it all in (and continuing to eat street food).

I leave you with some final pictures to prove that we did more than just eat! Ciao!

Rich in the park outside the Palace of Palermo

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018

Day 36: We Are Moving to Heraklion, Crete

Deep breath, mom. I’m kidding about moving to Heraklion, Crete. Mostly.

There are places that are great to visit. Then there are places that you can imagine yourself living. Rich and I spent less than 24 hours in Heraklion, and, I’ll speak for both of us, we were ready to settle down.

Why Heraklion

I love being at the beach– my mom called this whole year of travel “our beach trip”– but with the beach come tourists. Landing in a spot where it felt like most of the people we crossed were locals going about their regular day-to-day business was really refreshing.

Heraklion is the largest city in Crete, and the fourth largest city in Greece. While there is a ton of history here– we visited the site of a palace from the Bronze Age— there are also lots of shopping and restaurants, along with the hustle and bustle you would expect in a vibrant city with young people.

Our Day in Heraklion

We traveled from Agios Nikolaos to Heraklion via bus. Our wonderful AirBNB host, Anthi, let us drop our bags at 11:00 AM and gave us a quick orientation on how to navigate Heraklion. Anthi also provided outstanding advice on our itinerary, encouraging us to head to the Archaelogical Museum during the hottest part of the day and explore Knossos later in the day when there would be fewer tourists. Smart!

The Archaelogical Museum in Heraklion

The Archaelogical Museum was unreal. This trip has already given me a new perspective on how big the world is, and yet, how similar people are everywhere. The museum gave me some good context on how old the world is. People have really been living the same kinds of lives and liking the same kinds of things for a long, long time.

For example: the Archaelogical Museum holds remains of ancient board games and small soldier dolls from 1700 BC– ancient GI Joe’s more or less. There are huge wine vats because for a long time, people have enjoyed alcohol. In America, we have the NFL and college football. In Heraklion, people enjoyed bull leaping. People are people. We are but a small blip on the radar of time.

jewelery Heraklion archaelogical museum — Jewelery from 2000 AD. I would wear ALL of this.

Board Game in Heraklion Archaelogical Museum — Ancient Monopoly

bull leaping Heraklion — Bull Leaping– exactly what is sounds like- was the favorite athletic pursuit and spectator sport in Minoan society

Heraklion giant axes — “Take my picture with the giant axes.”

Eagles versus Falcons in Heraklion — Go Birds! Rich and Amanda are huge Philadelphia Eagles fans, and the Eagles (left) take on the Falcons (right) in the first regular season game of 2018.

touchdowns HEraklion — We are going to need at least this many touchdowns to win.

The Venetian Fortress

From the Archaelogical Museum, we walked to the Venetian Fortress. Present-day Heraklion was founded by Arabs in 824, then came under the control of the Byzantines in 961, and then was bought by the Venetians in 1204. The Venetians wanted to hang onto their investment, so they built a huge, striking fort in the harbor.

Smart thinking. The Ottomans then waged a seige on the city for twenty one years from 1648 to 1669. The Ottomans proved victorious, but the Venetian Fortress still stands proud today.

Our Beautiful, Most Favorite, AirBNB

While this is perhaps of lesser historical significance, upon leaving the Venetian Fortress (and maybe after a quick trip to the first H&M we had seen on our travels), we got checked in at our beautiful, fabulous, wonderful AirBNB. Our host Anthi was incredibly chic and gracious, and after our small hotel room in Agios Nikolaos, we felt like we were spreading out in heaven. And these views!

We showered and rejoiced in its comfort!

airbnb bedroom heraklion — The beautiful bedroom in our AirBNB

view from balcony in Heraklion — The view from our balcony

airbnb in heraklion — Our table and living area

bathroom sign Heraklion — So this is DIFFERENT for my American readers: In Crete, you are not supposed to flush toilet paper down the toilet. You dispose of it in a small trashcan with a lid in the bathroom. It took some getting used to , but the practice was consistent across the island.

Knossos

A day or two before we headed to Knossos, I wanted to google it to learn more so I asked Rich to spell it. Rich’s reply: “Did you even study history?”

So maybe if you are a history person, you know everything there is to know about Knossos already.

I surely didn’t so I will share a little bit about what I learned: Knossos, also known as the Palace of Minos, is sometimes referred to as Europe’s oldest city because it is believed to have been settled in the Neolithic Period (7000 BC !). The Minoans built the first Cretan Palace on the sight around 2000 BC.

At the height of its development, nearly 100,000 people lived in the palace and just beyond its gates.

The site was discovered in 1878, and a British Archaeologist, Arthur Evans, led the excavation efforts starting in 1900.

In my humble, non-archaelogical opionion, Arthur Evans was really allowed to have his way with Knossos. He rebuilt structures, named rooms, and determined how various buildings had been used– he even got to name the Minoan civilization! I’m not professing to be any sort of expert, it just didn’t seem like Evans collaborated with anyone to make broad claims about how people lived thousands and thousands of years before he was born.

Still, we found the site to be totally cool and interesting. And we saw a peacock!

Peacock in Heraklion — A peacock! Let me tell you, this bird was not scared of people. He was like a giant, pretty pigeon.

The St. Minas Cathedral in Heraklion

We could see the cathedral from our balcony so we decided to check out the inside too. Beautiful!

Cathedral- Heraklion — Inside of Saint Minas Cathedral

cathedral in heraklion- exterior — Outside of the Cathedral

Dinner + Wine Down in Heraklion

We ate dinner at a delicious kebab fast food restaurant near the Lion’s Fountain, enjoyed Monday night people watching, and then headed home.

vegetable kebob in heraklion — I got one filled with vegetables- yum!

Anthi had left us with a bottle of local dry white wine, and we enjoyed it on our balcony, listening to the city below. We reflected on our time in Greece before catching a flight to Malta in the morning.

We love the friendliness of the Greek people as well as their joie de vivre. The country is beautiful, and the Greeks have the luxury of being laid back about all they have to offer. Theirs is the confidence of having existed as a civilization for hundreds of thousands of years, and knowing they may have figured out a thing or two about how to live. We can’t wait to move in! 🙂

July 3, 2018July 12, 2018

Days Four, Five, and Six in Iceland: A Plane Wreck, More Waterfalls, Glaciers, Celebrations, and Sunshine

Greetings! Blogging from campsites – as well as showering and staying warm, among other things- proved a bit difficult, but the free WiFi from the Reyjkjavik, Iceland airport is pumping right now so I will do my best to get caught up.

Continue with me along Iceland’s Golden Circle!

Day Four: The Solheimasandur Plane Wreck, the Black Sand Beaches of Vik, and the Skogafoss and Seljandsfoss Waterfalls

The Solheimasandur Plane Wreck

The legend goes that in 1973, a US Navy DC plane crashed outside of Vik, Iceland when the pilot failed to switch to the reserve gas tank, instead switching to an empty gas tank. No worries- everyone survived! The plane was abandoned, and now tourists walk two miles through black sand/rocks to see it and pretend they are doing a photo shoot for their next album cover. So natch, we did the same.

Have I mentioned that Iceland is not warm? Also, for most of our four mile walk, it was raining. It felt rather post-apocalyptic– imagine The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I was trying for the album cover look. It’s a miss.

The Black Sand Beaches of Vik

From the plane crash, we drove a short distance to the scariest road I have ever been a passenger on to overlook a very foggy cliff. I have no pictures of said road because I was simultaneously saying Hail Mary’s and helping my non-glasses-wearing husband avoid potholes the size of VW bugs while we drove straight up a mountain on a gravel road. I should also point out that when my husband drives and does not wear his glasses, he says things like, “Why is that woman lying in that field? Oh, she’s a horse.”

From the top of the cliff, we hiked a long path to a beach overlook with a perfectly fine parking lot that looked like it was reached via a non-terrifying, paved road.

Pictured: Heavy Fog
Not Pictured: The Terrifying Road We Drove in the Heavy Fog

The Long Hike to the Beaches. I do not know why Rich is running. I was not running.

The Skogafoss and Seljandsfoss Waterfalls

If you are into waterfalls, you will be into Iceland.

Day 5: Jokulsarlon Glaciers and Pork and Beans

Jokulsarlon Glaciers

The drive to Jokulsarlon was long (~4 hours) and gas is expensive in Iceland (~$8/gallon), but I have never seen anything like these glaciers. When we first saw the massive sheet of ice on the side of one of the mountains, Rich couldn’t figure out what they were: “Is that sky? Is that water? What is that?”

The other thing I wish I could capture in these pictures is the sound the glaciers make. We had been looking at them for about ten minutes when we heard a sound that approximated two cars hitting each other head on. Instead, it was the sound of giant car-sized pieces of ice falling off and landing in the water. It was unreal.

The Glaciers Meet the Channel to the Ocean

Pork and Beans

As previously mentioned, Iceland is expensive- hence the camping and eating only one meal out in Iceland. Our second-to-last campsite, Svinafell, had both an area for tents and small cabins as well as an indoor cooking/dining area. When we arrived, an Icelandic hiking club had set up a full-on feast– we are talking wine, flowers and candles on the table, toasts, desserts, music (so. much. Ed. Sheeran. ), revelry galore. While we understood not a word of what they were saying, the atmosphere was really fun.

And we ate pork and beans. Hot, delicious, and on budget!

Day 6: Sunshine in Iceland!

While most of day 6 was spent driving back to Reykjavik, we did make two quick pit stops to hike at the Skaftafell National Park and to get one more view of the black sand beaches. We woke up to sunshine, and it was just so glorious.

At the Black Sand Beaches. It was super windy, and my eyes refused to open any wider than this for the picture.

There are not words to express how proud Rich was of himself for climbing on top of this rock.

Next Up: Budapest, Hungary!