Travel Archives · Page 6 of 8 · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

August 22, 2018August 22, 2018

Days 41- 45: Settled in Sardinia

I write from Hanoi, Vietnam while Rich completes fantasy football draft #2 of three (#priorities), and I am SO EXCITED to have great internet and to update the blog for two reasons: 1.) Sardinia was fantastic, and 2.) my stepdad, blog reader #1, has been slipping not subtle reminders that I am slipping on the blog posting. So here goes!

I almost titled this post “Sardinia: Living Like a Local,” but I’m sure an actual local would find that ridiculous. What I hope to capture is that of anywhere we have been so far, in Sardinia, we were most able to settle into a routine that included many of our favorite things to do back home: exercising, cooking, reading, not getting on a bus, train, or plane every five minutes, etc.

Day 41: Travel Like Whoa

While Malta and Sardinia are only ~400 miles apart, let’s just say the travel was not the easiest.

Our travel day looked like:

Taxi from Sliema to the Malta airport.
Flight from Malta to Rome
Flight from Rome to Cagliari, Sardinia
Two trains from Cagliari to Sassari, Sardinia
Bus from Sassari to Alghero, Sardinia

We left our apartment in Malta at about 4:30 AM and arrived to Alghero at about 6:30 PM- whew.

Two things of note:

Malta had an incredible airport lounge. We checked to see if there was one on a whim when we got to the airport. There was, and it was bougie and wonderful. The food in Malta had been really expensive so we looked like maniacs taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat spread. If you are reading this thinking about ever doing any sort of long term world travel, do not do it without getting a travel card with lounge access (our favorite is the Chase Saphire Reserve).
Breakfast in the Airport Lounge in Malta
When we walked from the train station to the bus stop in Sassari, an Italian woman Rich’s grandfather’s age (89) on a third floor balcony started waving to Rich like he was Brad Pitt. I thought she was going to come over the balcony. I obviously think that my husband is attractive, but it was clear that this lady believed him to be the MOST attractive. Rich was smiling for hours after.

We got to Alghero, got checked in, and ate INCREDIBLE, cheap foccacia sandwiches at Bar Focacceria Milese nearby.

foccacia in sardinia — Rich’s foccacia sandwich. Mine had eggs, tuna, sardines, and lemon on it and was insane.

Our AirBNB

I have had really positive things to say about our AirBNB’s so far, and well, this might be a “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” situation. I’ll say a little something though.

What was nice: the location as we were right on the bastions in the old town, near the water. The view out our window was unreal.

AirBNB view in Sardinia — Rich took this picture from our window.

Less nice: no air conditioning, no WiFi, VERY limited cell phone service period, and the place was JUNKY. Imagine a twenty four year old dude’s apartment but the dude doesn’t throw anything away for twenty years. Oh yeah, and the toilet tank leaked at least a liter of water every time you flushed.

Checking in was also incredible: Our host couldn’t meet us so he sent his dad, who spoke zero English, to check us in. As part of the check-in, he wanted Rich to make sure he could work the key.

So pops and I are in the apartment, Rich closes the door on the outside, the door locks, and then…Rich can’t get the door unlocked. Rich is sweating, the man is yelling directions in Italian, you can’t unlock the door from the inside without the key so I’m stuck in the apartment with the host’s dad trying to translate which way he should be turning the key. After about 4 minutes of stress, Rich figured out that while the man was showing me that Rich should be turning the key left which was what I was yelling through the door, in fact, you needed to turn the key right. The door opened! Let’s just say one of us found it infinitely funnier than the other.

Dayss 42 and 43: Enjoying Alghero, Sardinia

About Sardinia

Sardinia is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and is located south of Corsica. Sardinia is part of Italy– sometimes it felt very Italian to us, and sometimes it felt really different from the parts of Italy we had visited before (Rome, Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, and Venice).

Life expectancy in Sardinia is 82 years, and Sardinia ties with Okinawa, Japan for the highest rate of centenarians (>100 years old) in the world at 22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants. The birth rate is really low (1.087 births/woman), and here’s how these statistics play out: you have the proudest looking grandmothers and great grandmothers I have ever seen. Babies in carriages are gold– the babies are dressed up, the grandmothers are dressed up, and they parade around for everyone to ooh and aah over these fabulous, plump children. The women literally glow with pride.

Day 42 in Alghero

Rich and I chose to stay in Alghero because its central location allowed for easy day trips around the island, and Alghero had a lot to offer as well. Imagine a beach town (think Wildwood or Ocean City on the Jersey shore) that also has a medieval, walled old town in the middle. You have rides and a boardwalk type atmosphere, a long beach, and then a bustling Italian square.

We slept in until about 9:30 AM to recover from our busy travel the day before and then ran two miles along the beach. It was really hot and, not for the first time on the trip, people looked at us like we were crazy for running. Then, we decided to do an Aaptive workout by a fountain in a park (imagine push ups, jumping jacks, lunges, etc.), and the curious looks increased exponentially. We assumed the Italians didn’t work out.

running in sardinia — Post-run Rich. It was HOT. THe is covered in sweat, not fountain water.

We got home, ate some cereal (yes, it was chocolate), and headed to the beach. Rich and I spent several lazy hours there, and then ate our seccond foccacia sandwich at Bar Milese in 24 hours. After that, we went home, showered, read, explored the town a bit, then I cooked pasta for dinner. A solid day!

The DaVinci Code was left behind in the junky apartment. I had read it years ago but it made for a great beach read for Rich.

sunset in sardinia — Sunset views near our apartment

old town alghero, sardinia — Exploring Old Town

streets in alghero, sardinia — The streets of Alghero

dinner in sardinia — Dinner! Ravioli with homemade pesto and tomatoes with balsalmic and mozarella

Day 43: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

So Day 43 was almost an exact replica of Day 42- run, beach, reading, home cooked pasta with eggplant eaten in. The repetition may sound boring but remember that at this point we have been traveling for over forty days: routine was just what the doctor ordered.

beach in sardinia — More beach in Alghero. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was also really good. Although it is a novel, it should be required reading for anyone who works with children and adults with Asperger’s.

pasta in Alghero — Eating in again– pasta with eggplant, basil, and homemade bread crumbs (if I learned anything from Blue Apron, it’s to toast the breadcrumbs).

One quick note: we did wake up earlier- closer to 8 AM- and when we went out a few minutes later to run, there were runners everywhere. We thought Italians didn’t work out, but in fact, Italians just didn’t work out at 10:00 AM! They were smart enough to get it in early before the heat became unbearable.

working out in Sardinia — Post-workout selfie

Day 44: Daytrip to Stintino, Sardinia

The beach in Alghero was nice enough so I wasn’t exactly sure why we would take an hour long bus ride to go to a different beach…until we got to Stintino. WOW. I have never seen more incredible water in my life. After being at beaches in Croatia, Crete, and Malta, this beach wins. It was our hands-down favorite.

stintino, sardinia beach — We have arrived.

blue water in sardinia — No filter. The water is this clear and blue. It was amazing.

selfie in sardinia — Leaving Stintino after a happy day.

More reading, more sun, more beach, more water, more heaven.

Day 45: Daytrip to Bosa, Sardinia

On our last full day in Sardinia, we took one more bus ride to Bosa. Bosa is a beautiful town with brightly colored houses with a large castle/fort that overlooks the city.

bosa, sardinia blue house — All of the houses are really this colorful.

bright house in sardinia — Rich with a brightly colored house

We got up and went for an early run, grabbed a cappuchino in Alghero, then hopped on an 11:00 AM bus for Bosa. We got there at about 12:30 in time to hike up to the castle/fort, walk around the colorful houses, and then eat lunch.

For lunch, we stumbled upon this hipster fish foodtruck garden place– it would have been cool anywhere and was that much cooler because we were halfway around the world. We ordered two super cold beers and a basket of fried seafood.

beer in sardinia — Yes to the coldest beer on a hot day.

A note on the fried seafood: All of the little fishies still had bones. While we aspire to Anthony Bourdain levels of travel coolness, I’m going to go ahead and freely admit that we are not there. We devoured the calamari and clams and then tiptoed around the sardines and the anchovies a bit.

fried seafood in sardinia — Amazing homemade chips with fried fish

After our beer and our late lunch, we were ready to hop back on the bus to Alghero. Let’s just say that while bus travel in Crete was phenomenal, we found bus travel in Italy to be, umm, confusing.

The bus schedule posted online did not correspond to the bus schedule posted at the bus stop and then the time posted at the stop came and went with no bus. We ended up waiting at the bus stop for about an hour and a half, but let’s just say things got a bit dicey because we had zero certainty on how long we would wait in total.

Maybe taking pictures when things are tense isn’t the best strategy…

Guess who has the better attitude about waiting for the bus?

We made it back to Alghero and elected to eat dinner out. We went to a trendy wine bar and had a plate of meat and cheeses along with two glasses of sangria. While the bar was super hip, it was also super not air conditioned. I’m assuming there are no pictures from this night because all we would have captured was a big puddle of sweat!

sixers jersey in sardinia — Meanwhile, back in Alghero: two Italian kids: one with a Boston jersey and one wearing a SIXERS jersey. Trust the Process.

Final Thoughts on Sardinia

While our accomodations in Sardinia were pretty terrible, in every other way, this was one of the most relaxing stretches of our trip. The people could not have been any friendlier, and several times, actual Italians stopped us- us! American Rich and Amanda!- to ask us for directions because they thought we were Italian. If you have never been to Italy, see Rome and Tuscany and Cinque Terre first. If you have been to Italy before and want an Italian experience with a twist, we really had a nice time in Sardinia too.

Addendum: Reading in Sardinia

Getting a cell phone to work in our apartment was next to impossible- we posted Instagram photos from the same park bench in town each night- and we had a lot of beach time so I was able to read a TON in Sardinia. I have done the very worst job of posting about books I have read but wanted to name the ones I was able to knock out over a few short days internet free in Sardinia:

The Shore by Sara Taylor
The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Revival by Stephen King

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was phenomenal. I laughed, I cried three times, and I devoured this novel in less than 24 hours. Revival was the first Stephen King I have ever read– it was left behind in the junky AirBNB– and while it was okay, I’m not sure Stephen King is my jam. Feel free to tell me in the comments if there’s a different Stephen King I should consider giving a chance. The other three novels were really solid too, especially since The Shore and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime were also books left behind in places we stayed (read: free).

But takeaway: add Eleanor Oliphant to your reading lists. So good.

Does it get better than reading in a beach town with an espresso?

August 16, 2018

Mailbag! You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers.

Ciao! I write from Sicily from an AirBNB with amazing internet (grazie, Davide!). I am behind on getting our Sardinia post out (spoiler: we had a great time), but we got positive feedback from our last month-in-review post so I wanted to do one more quick stepback to answer some questions generated by that post.

And please keep the questions coming!

Question #1 from J: I can’t believe how much you eat in. What do you eat?

Thanks for the question, J! As we shared in the last post, during our first month of travel, we ate 68% of our meals in. That number is definitely going to drop this month as it is really hard not to eat out in Italy, but we have tried to eat in as much as we can to save money. Also, sometimes it is just way more relaxing to eat in your pajamas than to try to order in another language.

For breakfast, we eat a lot of chocolate cereal– something we pretty much never did in the states. For some reason, it is always, in every single country, the cheapest. And I mean, it’s chocolate, so it’s not going to taste bad.

Question: Breakfast food croatia — Our favorite chocolate cereal: Chocolate Pillows in Croatia

In Iceland, which was super expensive, we ate a lot of hot dogs– hot dogs in buns, hot dogs in pasta, pork and beans- really, a lot of hot dogs.

question- hot dogs in iceland — Hot dogs in Iceland. Eaten in the car to avoid the bugs. This is the night of our third wedding anniversary-ha!

Then we usually make pasta at least once a week because it’s just so easy and requires so few ingredients. We try to use everything we buy which sometimes results in totally strange behaviors like carrying extra garlic bulbs around in our luggage.

Related: Rich LOVES grocery shopping abroad. Sometimes I think we are never going to leave the grocery store. It makes him feel like a local, and he can play weird mathematical budget games to make sure we are getting the highest value on the eggplant versus the onion. Or something.

question: market — Sometimes we shop in markets. Usually, we shop in local grocery stores

Question #2 from a sweet relative: You say that Europe is very communal. Are you becoming a communist?

Europe does feel very communal, and I currently do not plan to become a communist.

I wrote a bit about this in our Agios Nikolaos post— when you go out to dinner or get coffee or spend time at the beach in Croatia or Crete or Sardinia, everyone talks to each other. Crazy, huh? No one– including teenagers– uses a cell phone. It’s possible that it is because all of these Europeans are talking about secret communist plans (I kid), but mostly it seems like people really like each other.

teenagers in Italy — People are together a lot in Europe. Peep the teenagers chilling together behind Rich

Question #3 from R: Speaking of really liking each other, how do the two of you spend so much time together?

You would not believe the number of people who pulled me beside before leaving for this trip to ask me if I really and truly thought I would be okay spending so many hours a day, every day, with Rich.

I am okay. I really like him!

Iceland selfie — Together in the rain in Iceland– with a waterfall

Have we had disagreements along the way? Absolutely. Sometimes is he grumpy? Totally. We have had some very early mornings and some very late nights. Sometimes does Rich tickle me and poke me and otherwise do annoying things? Yes. Like every ten minutes. Especially on bus and train rides when he has no cell phone battery.

And sometimes do I do dumb things? Only if you count irreversibly turning off the hot water heater in the AirBNB in Budapest resulting in 24 hours of cold water as “dumb.” Oh, wait, did I not share that story here on the blog before? Oops.

selfie — I’m pretty sure I thought he was going to lick me on the face outside the parliament building in Budapest.

Seriously though, it works. We have both done a fair amount of growth mindset work so whenever we mess up, together or individually, we try to reflect and learn and do better the next time. In our marriage, the phrase, “I need a minute,” is pretty sacred– when one of us says it, the other one shuts up and backs off, and I think that saves us from launching arguments that don’t need to happen(read: pretty much every argument).

We both feel really grateful to get to do this and are just as happy to do it together. Only ten months, one week, and six days of just the two of us together every minute left to go… 🙂

Alright, off to explore some Sicilian temples!

Keep the questions coming! What else do you want to know? What do you imagine would be challenging about a trip like this?

August 11, 2018

Days 36 – 40: Magnificent Malta!

When Rich and I started talking about stepping away from work for a year to travel the world back in January, but before we committed, we put a pinkie toe into the water by emailing each other fabulous destinations every day.

To satisfy some wunderlust, I would save the picture as my work computer’s desktop wallpaper. Eventually, we got more serious about the trip, and stopped with the emailing, and I was left with one desktop picture for the rest of the school year: Malta

computer screen with Valletta, Malta wallpaper — My Malta desktop wallpaper at my job in DC. I used to work so hard I needed two screens. Now I blog so hard…on a small Chromebook. With varying degrees of internet availability.

I feel like someone should pinch me to wake me up from the dream where we get to pick out some of the world’s most beautiful destinations and then travel to them. I feel unbelievably grateful and humbled by the experience while also feeling pretty proud of us to have the courage and willingness to take action on going after something we really wanted. We are doing it.

But I digress. Sorry for the sap! Let me tell you about Malta!

Day 36: Travel from Heraklion to Malta

Rich and I hopped back on a plane for the first time since leaving Croatia. We traveled from Heraklion to Athens (Greece, not Georgia- Go Dawgs!), and then we had a SIX hour layover in Athens. No big– we had big plans to take advantage of the multiple Athens priority pass lounges where we could eat and drink for free with unlimited food and drinks, comfortable seating, outlets, and WiFI.

Nope.

We were flying Ryan Air, the cheapest of the cheap airlines, and were relegated to a totally different terminal with the least amount of amenities imaginable. We tried to pass through to another terminal with a lounge, which required us to show boarding passes and passports, and we were looked at like we were the literal scum of the earth.

No Ryan Air patron would ever be let into one of the actual international concourses. It was literally a seven minute walk- on moving sidewalks to get to our lesser Ryan Air terminal.

It was a long travel day. Our first flight was an hour, our second flight was two hours, and our layover was six hours. It would be like flying from Washington, DC to Nashville, TN and having a six hour layover in Charlotte, NC. Except I’m sure Charlotte has a Chick-Fil-A. Someone please eat a chicken biscuit with honey on it, and think of me.

Day 37: Valletta, Malta

So let’s orient for a minute. Malta is a tiny archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily.

A Little History of Malta

Because of its highly valuable location, and its small size, just about everyone has conquered Malta. A brief history: settlers in Sicily first inhabited Malta in 5900 BC. Malta was then conquered and ruled by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, and Sicilians.

In 1530, Charles I of Spain, who was king of Sicily, gifted Malta to the Order of St. John, which was one of the orders of Christian knights fighting the crusades. Knights from all over Europe relocated to Malta, and they built hospitals, forts, and churches all over the islands. They also “patrolled” the seas (read: took the goods they desired from Ottoman ships they encountered). Between that and conquests to the Holy Land, it is clear that Malta experienced, and continues to experience, abundant prosperity.

In 1798, Napolean conquered Malta, and the French ruled for two years before the Maltanese regained control with the help of the British. Malta then became a British colony in 1814, and finally became fully independent in 1964.

Whew.

cannons in Malta (selfie) — Peep the cannons behind us.

All that to say, history is very much alive in Malta. I heard someone say that there are 365 Catholic churches in Malta– one for every day of the year. There are cannons everywhere. Valletta was the originial King’s Landing location for Game of Thrones, and it is clear why: it looks today like a Medieval capital city.

Valletta, malta from ferry — Valletta, Malta from the Ferry

Our Day in Valletta

We took a ferry from Sliema, where we were staying to Valletta, and spent several hot hours exploring (note how far south Malta is).

by the sea in Valletta, malta — By the sea in Valletta

upper gardens in malta — Arches at the Upper Gardens in Valletta

bocci bar in Valletta — Maltans! They’re just like us– a bocci bar

The Co-Cathedral of St. John’s was probably our most striking stop: under the marble floor are the remains of hundreds of knights. Outside of the Vatican, we agreed it was the most extravagant church we have visited in our travels.

St. John's Co-Cathedral, Malta — St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta

audio guide selfie in malta — When you want to take a selfie, but you also want to keep loving your audio guide

altar in malta — The Altar in St. John’s Co-Cathedral

relics in malta — Rich and I both went to Catholic school. This altar contains the relics of St. Clement. This is important because St. Clement was the rival of St. Barnabas, Rich’s grade school in Philly, and Richie still feels a lot of animosity towards St. Clement’s namesake elementary school.

Carvaggio Malta — Just a painting by Carvaggio in one of the chapels…

Finally, I would be remiss if I left out that Valletta was named the 2018 European Capital of Culture. I do not know if the streets are always so decorated and festive, but they sure were when we were there. I’m not the biggest Disney person myself (sorry, Missy) but it sure felt like a pretty organic, historic Magic Kingdom if I’d ever seen one.

Then back to Sliema to enjoy air conditioning and rest!

ferry in malta — On the ferry back to Sliema

Day 38: Mdina and Rabat, Malta

We decided to take a quick day trip to town neighboring medieval Maltan towns: Mdina and Rabat. We hopped on a bus and about an hour later, hopped back off to walk around and explore.

Not shocking: we saw more churches and more fortresses, as well as a Franciscan abbey where several famous Game of Thrones scenes were filmed (we know, we know). It was really fun to walk around at our own pace and was a lot less crowded than Valletta had been.

cathedral in malta- exterior — Outside another cathedral in Malta

mdina, malta entrance — Rich outside the entrance to Mdina

blue gate in Malta — Just a pretty blue gate

This was the abbey that served as a Game of Thrones location. It was almost empty when we were there and was really pretty to wander through.

cathedral in Mdina, malta — The inside of the cathedral in Mdina

Ornate church dome in Malta — It is unreal how many ornate churches exist in Malta

Mdina, malta — Rich at the entrance to Mdina

GOT door in malta — Jamie Lannister battled Ned Stark here in Season 1 (GOT).

For lunch, we found a great little spot where for 20 euros, they served up a huge plate of Maltan delicacies including rabbit, chicken, sausage, and homemade bread. YUM.

Then we hopped back on the bus to head home to air conditioning– seeing a pattern, yet?

Day 39: Marsaxlokk, Malta

Things got a little crazy on day 39. First, we enjoyed the air conditioning all morning and went out in the afternoon, and second, we partied with the residents of a long term care facility in Masaxlokk, Malta.

I’m not sure why we got going so late in the day (poor planning, perhaps?), but by the time we left our cozy, air conditioned Air BNB, it was about 2:30 PM. We hopped on a bus headed to Marsaxlook, Malta, a small fishing village about an hour away that was supposed to have great seafood.

So we got to Marsaxlokk around 4:00 PM, and it was beautiful. It was also super sleepy. Apparently, the town shuts down between about 4- 7 PM so while we could peruse menus to see where we wanted to eat, we couldn’t actually get anything to eat yet. We had time to take pictures and scour menus.

boats in malta — Rich with fishing boats

doors in Malta — I’ll take door #4 please.

Malta fishing village — Fishing boat selfie

We decided on Tartarun. The only problem– when we decided it was about 5 PM, and the restaurant opened back up at 7:30 PM. Ruh-roh.

Hard pressed on how to spend the next two hours, we found the restaurant with the cheapest Maltan beer. As I mentioned, the town was nearly deserted, but the place where we landed already had a few patrons. Perfect.

We get our first cheap beer- it’s cold and delicious. We look around. There’s an older couple, and a family. We drink a little bit more, and another group of older ladies arrive. Then a few older gentleman a table over.

When I say older, imagine 80+. We are loving it. “This is how we are going to be. Get it in. Live the life you have imagined.” You get the picture.

By the time it is close to 7:30, and we have finished our second beer, the outdoor patio is full, and we are now the only customers under the age of 70. We were giggling so hard.

We left to enjoy the best meal we had in Malta, and one of the very best of the entire trip. On the way back to the bus that night, we saw something that made us giggle even harder: a bus with the title, St. Vincent de Paul Long Term Care Facility. We had just enjoyed beers in the middle of an outing of a long term care facility.

long term care Malta — St. Vincent De Paul Long Term Care Facility– Our friends know how to have a good time.

We planned to head home and turn in following our big night out, but the Maltan bus drivers are not the friendliest, and a disagreement with another tourist couple resulted in us getting off one stop too late. This stop happened to be right in Valletta, which we had visited our first day there. Now, if Valletta is pretty during the day time, it is other worldly at night. We decided the next bus transfer could wait, and we had a great time traipsing through nighttime Valletta.

valletta, malta selfie — A result of our fortunate Valletta bus mistake

fountain in malta — The fountain where our bus driver dropped us off

Day 40: Rainy Day Chillaxing + Lebanese Food

Too much excitement the night before led to us sleeping in and spending a LAZY day in bed (literally in bed– our AirBNB didn’t have a couch) lounging, planning, and reading. We went out for dinner and got some of the best Lebanese food (hummus, falafel, etc.) I had ever tasted.

Not a lot to share, but happy to relax!

lebanese food in malta — Yum Lebanese food

Malta sea — Take a walk in Malta, and you may end up at the sea

street selfie malta — On our street in Malta

Final Thoughts on Malta

Malta felt very westernized, and the towns were gorgeous. It gets 300 days of sunshine a year, and while hot, there were some really nice sea breezes to cool us back off. We loved the celebratory feel of Valletta and had some great meals, but Rich and I both left feeling like, well, okay, now we have seen Malta. I would love to return to Crete in this lifetime, but if I don’t see Malta again, I’ll be content with our one trip there. Just our two cents. Keeping it 100.

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 28, 2018July 28, 2018

Our First Month Abroad: By the Numbers

Welp, we left America on June 26, 2018, and it is now July 28, 2018 so we have officially been traveling for more than a month. Rich and I thought it would be fun to run through our stats (all calculated by Rich) and share a few reflections.

Number of Days Away: 30 (June 26th- July 25th)

Countries Visited: 4- Iceland, Hungary, Croatia, Greece

Cities/Towns Visited: 12- Reykjavik, Vik, Hof, Budapest, Zagreb, Rovinj, Split, Hvar, Korcula, Dubrovnik, Chania, Rethymno

Transportation

Number of Flights Taken: 5

Number of Buses Taken: 14

Number of Ferry Rides: 4

Number of AirBNB’s Slept In: 9 (24 Nights)

Number of Tents Slept In: 1 (6 Nights)

tent in iceland — A little less comfortable than an AirBNB, but still not a bad view…

Food

Percentage of Meals Eaten Out: 29%

Percentage of Meals Eaten In: 68%

Percentage of Meals Eaten In Airport Lounges: 3%

Eating in isn’t all bad– In Chania, I made a yum watermelon salad with local feta and mint.

Physical Activity

See below for a list in which Rich decimates Amanda in all areas of activity despite the fact that we spend all day together every day. Someone’s FitBit is a little more sensitive than someone else’s.

Rich:

Total Distance: 566,332 steps (262.56 miles)
Average Distance: 18,877 steps per day (8.75 miles per day)
High: 36,619 steps (16.82 miles)
Low: 6,913 steps (3.17 miles)

Amanda

Total Distance: 461,943 steps (203.70 miles)
Average Distance: 15,398 steps per day (6.79 miles per day)
High: 33,638 steps (14.69 miles)
Low: 4,095 steps (1.79 miles)

Rich must have amassed those 59 extra miles the two times he walked to the grocery store without me. He says the difference is due to all the cleaning he does, which I won’t argue against, since I want him to keep doing the cleaning.

Overall Costs (As Percentage of Budget)

Flights: 20%

Other Transportation (Buses, Ferries, Taxis, Rental Car, Etc.): 21%

Lodging: 42%

Food: 15%

Gas: 0.05%

Sightseeing: 0.02%

Other: 1.3%

Before boarding flight #1 out of Baltimore

Favorites

Favorite Meal

Rich: Mazel Tov in Budapest, Hungary
Amanda: Mazel Tov in Budapest, Hugary

Favorite AirBNB:

Rich: Evangelia’s Place in Chania, Crete
Amanda: Evangelia’s Place in Chania, Crete

Favorite City/Town:

Rich: Korcula, Croatia
Amanda: Korcula, Croatia

Favorite Beach:

Rich: Rethymno, Crete
Amanda: Rethymno, Crete

Favorite Town Center:

Rich: Rovinj, Croatia
Amanda: Dubrovnik, Croatia

It’s annoying how aligned we are, isn’t it?

Deltas:

Can you tell we come from education? Let’s not call these weaknesses, maybe just things we might have done differently:

AirBNB Proximity. In both Rovinj and Dubrovnik, we stayed more than three miles from where we wanted to spend most of our time. While both of those homes were really lovely, we didn’t get to spend as much time enjoying the homes OR enjoying the towns because we spent so much time in transit, either walking or waiting on buses.
Skip Iceland. Don’t @ me. Rich volunteered this one, when I asked him what we would change, and then said he was kidding. But I do think our week in Iceland was easily our hardest week AND the hardest on our budget– even though we were camping and eating hot dogs for every meal. Don’t get me wrong, Iceland was beautiful and totally interesting. BUT could we have spent two comfortable weeks somewhere cheaper for what we spent on one week in Iceland? And could we have saved room in our bags by not needing long sleeved clothes? I’m not telling you not to go to Iceland; I’m just sharing that we have spent a lot of time discussing whether it was worth it, particularly since we will be traveling for so long.
Take less stuff. I cannot tell you how many times we have verbally “re-packed” our bags in the last few weeks. We packed a lot of things back in DC that we could have gotten cheaper and smaller abroad (ex: deodarant, sunscreen, etc.). It has also been so hot– Rich has worn a polo shirt once, and I have a long sleeved dress that while pretty, takes up the space that could be occupied by three smaller dresses. We carry our bags a lot, and it’s painful to think about hauling around things we never use. We have also already started offloading a thing or two…
Rich carrying TOO MUCH stuff on a long road to our AirBNB in Rovinj

A List of things we love:

Spending time together. Gag. I get it. But it really is a gift to have so much time together every single day.
The Communal Culture of Europe. Every time we go to dinner, we sit outside and are surrounded by young people and old people eating together for hours. There are no cell phones in sight, and people genuinely seem to enjoy being with one another. You have to ask for a check because restaurants want you to stay as long as you want and do not want to seem like they are rushing you. Same for the beach- young people, old people all in the water enjoying being alive. It’s really refreshing and beautiful.
How Healthy We Feel. Rich and I get almost eight hours of sleep every night. We try to run or work out on every non-travel day. We drink a ton of water. We spend time in the sun. I have been dying my hair since I turned 30 to hide gray hairs, and I have only seen one gray hair this entire trip. It is insane how healthy and young we feel free of the stress and pressure that comes with working and living in the US.
Old and young all enjoying being outside together in Dubrovnik

In conclusion, we are having an incredible time. Much like we agree on our favorites above, Rich and I also agree that deciding to take this leap and travel this year was one of the very best decisions we have ever made.