Cambodia - Thailand

October 14, 2010

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Hello Friends and Family,

After a few overnight buses, ferries, border crossings, etc., Adam and I have made our way to the small island of Koh Tao, Thailand.  Koh Tao, known as Turtle Island, is located on the east coast of Thailand in the Gulf of Thailand.  We are not sure ho long we are planning to stay since this part of Thailand is still experiencing the rainy season (sunny or overcast for half the day, rainy the other half) yet thinking the west coast (Andaman Coast) may be calling our name.

Our travels.....

During the last few days in Phnom Penh, we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (or the Killing Fields).  Both places reflect the unique and horrific 3-4 year rule of the Khmer Rouge (or Democratic Kampuchea).  During their rule (1975-1979), the regime implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of society to try transform Cambodia. 

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a former high school that was transformed into a detention center and place of persecution. Also referred to as S-21, it was predicted that over 10,000 Cambodians passed through facility and were brutally tortured by the Khmer Rouge.  The goal was to obliterate the former Khmer culture which consisted of differing beliefs, political interests and/or backgrounds.

After Tuol Sleng, we visited the Choeung Ek, also known as the Killing Fields. This facility detained over 17,000 Cambodians, some brought from Tuol Sleng (S-21) to be executed in the most horrific ways, bludgeoned and beaten (bullets were precious and not to be wasted on prisoners).  The Killing Fields is now an orchard with a memorial stupa (or Temple) in the middle that is dedicated to those killed; it displays more than 8,000 skulls of victims along with their ragged clothes.

After visitng both places, we felt drained and extreme sadness for what Cambodians had to endure during this time period; it's hard to believe that something so horrific happened only a little more than 30 years ago.  Furthermore, both places provide a memorial and reminders to the atrocities committed, and play a role in hopefully preventing something like this from ever happening anywhere in the world again.

After Phnom Penh, we headed south to some beaches in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  We enjoyed a few days of the beach and then sadly said to goodbye to our fellow travelers (Lucia and Eddie) as they headed to some small bungalows on Bamboo Island and we headed to Siem Reap to enjoy Angkor Wat, a series temples surrounded by a moat, and the largest religious structure in the world.

More to come on Angkor Wat.....

Love and miss you all,

Cathy and Adam



Vietnam to Cambodia

Mekong River - Vietnam to Cambodia Slowboat Tour

Hue - Hoi An - Nha Trang - Saigon, Vietnam
September 22-October 1, 2010

Mopeds with families of five (seriously), beers for .20 cents, $13 hotel w/pool, sandy beaches close by, cheap food, and friendly requests (many) of “you buy something from me- it happy hour” --this was Hoi An. A truly charming and artsy little town located a mile from the infamous China Beach where we enjoyed a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle of some of the larger cities in Vietnam.

Hoi An is located on the east coast of Vietnam between the northern city of Hanoi and the southern city of Ho Chi Min or Saigon. Known as a former international trading port, Hoi An features unique architecture, local art and plenty of affordable custom-made clothing shops. We enjoyed relaxing mornings frequenting our favorite cafes for coffee shakes and banana pancakes while heading to the beach in the afternoon to enjoy a noodle bowl, a few beers and our favorite books.

One afternoon Adam and I decided to check out the custom-made clothing and visited a few local tailors. We picked out the clothing style, fabric and color and then got measured; 24-hours later we had our new clothes! Adam got a nice blue button-down shirt, a pair of khaki shorts and a pair of unique Thai-style linen shorts while I had a colorful skirt, orange top, green cotton skirt, and a more formal gray-silver dress all custom-made and all very affordable. For instance, the skirt I had made cost $10 while Ad’s blue button-down was $8.

After three days in Hoi An, we (Adam, myself, Eddie and Lucia) headed to the beach capital of Vietnam called Nha Trang. Located further south on the east coast, Nha Trang offers an endless beach with views of mountains looming in background. We enjoyed our first sushi visit since traveling (which was amazing and a 1/3 of the cost), some Indian food, $5 one hour massages on the beach and then decided to head to Ho Chi Min City-Saigon.

To travel the length of Vietnam from Hanoi to Saigon we purchased ‘open-ended bus tickets’. The best price ($40 each) does not necessarily mean the most comfortable ride. We endured four, 10-hour overnight bus rides that were bumpy, loud, and crowded, with Vietnamese videos and music playing most of the bus TV. To save our sanity we relied on I-Pods, ear plugs and valium--our saviors. Buses were double-decker style, but with beds (made for little people) instead of seats. Once on the road for a few hours the driver would pull into a bus stop and give everyone a chance to eat; food usually consisted of fried noodles, fried rice or Pho (noodle soups).

Our last 10-hour bus ride brought us to Ho Chi Min City (or Saigon) at 5:30 am. As we departed the bus in “central park”, we were surrounded by people walking, running and a large group of women (100-150) doing a rhythmic-jazzercise type of class to the sound of music over a loud speaker. Women (and some men) were shuffling their feet, pumping their arms up and down and back and forth, twisting and thrusting their hips…it was a lot to take in on at 5:30 am in the Saigon.

Instead of sightseeing in Saigon, we decided to leave on the 8:30 am local bus headed to Chau Doc to start our Mekong River trip, a slow-boat floating us from Vietnam up to Cambodia. Our local bus was filled with all Vietnamese with the exception of us four. As we headed out for our 7-hour non-AC bus that stopped often, too often. Every time it stopped, a small group of locals would climb on the bus selling cold jasmine tea, salted fish rolled in a banana leaves, herbs, boiled quail eggs, etc. It was crazy! And we can’t forget the occasional cigarette a local would enjoy as the ashes made our way back to our faces sitting in the back of the bus. I felt like The Dude on the Big Lebowski when Danny passed away and Donny decided to throw his ashes out of a Folger’s can out on a windy day – and there was no hope of dodging the ashes either.

As we rolled on down the bumpy, degraded highway, we had the opportunity to mingle with the locals. They seemed interested in us: our IPods, what we ate, what we were reading, our sunglasses…. while neither understood one another’s language it was fun trying to communicate. They shared their salted fish, we played with their kids, explained where they lived – all by pointing, smiling and laughing at one another. While the travel day was long, it was truly a unique, humbling and an unforgettable experience.

October 2, 2010 – Arrival in Cambodia via the Mekong River

After our local bus ride, we arrived in the small town of Chau Doc located by the border of Cambodia on the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest rivers reaching areas such as China, Laos, Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia and Vietnam. After a night of enjoying “hawker-style” food, open-air stalls serving inexpensive local food, we got up the next morning for a 8-hour slow-boat along the river taking us from Vietnam up to Cambodian.

As we slowly made our way up the river, we observed locals working on their boats or in rice paddies, cruising down the river, kids laughing and playing in the water, water buffaloes enjoying a break from the heat… it was relaxing yet a bit too long when your butt and feet fall asleep from sitting in the same position for more than an hour.

Once arriving to our destination in Cambodia, we took a bus for another 1.5 hours to the town of Phnom Penh (or “Hill of Penh”). Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital and largest city and is filled with temples, pagodas, surrounded by small villages and is rich in culture and history. As we venture out to learn more, we will share our pictures, what we learn and experiences.

Thanks for following our journey.

Miss you and much love,

Cathy and Adam



Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam

Last few days in Nepal, Singapore, Hanoi & Halong Bay-Vietnam

September 13-21, 2010

Hello from the other side of the world! Adam and I are currently in Hue (pronounced “whey”), Vietnam and enjoying a restful and relaxing day to catch up on both sleep and update our blog in this quiet town located south of Hanoi and off the east coast of Vietnam.

Nepal – Our last few days

On one of our last days in Nepal we headed to the Swayambhunath Temple located atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley. The temple is filled with painted images of deities, prayer wheels, shrines, prayer flags and many other religious objects. It is also known as the ‘Monkey Temple’ and filled with monkeys who roam freely and are considered holy according to ancient traditions. As you can see from our pictures, we were able to feed a few of them with a cucumber--Ad was much more comfortable than I was.

Our next stop was Durbar Square, a plaza opposite of the old royal palace in a bustling section of Kathmandu. Considered a Unesco World Heritage site, Durbar is filled with temples and surrounded by spectacular historic architecture designed by artists and craftsmen over the centuries. Due to an earthquake in the 1930’s, the buildings reflect only those that are still standing and some are severely damaged.

If there is one thing that I have learned about traveling is that you never travel alone. You are constantly meeting amazing and interesting people along the way that enrich your travel experience. During our last few days in Nepal, we enjoyed a some beers with a local Nepalese guide, Ang Tseching, (a friend of Krammy’s) his two friends, a woman from Malaysia, a man from Bhutan, and a couple from Minnesota staying at the hotel. It is fun to share stories, travel experiences, see other cultures, and most importantly, make new friends.

Regarding our new friends from Minnesota (Eddie and Lucia), we are lucky to have had a chance to meet them. Less than a few weeks before our arrival into Kathmandu, a plane went down by the Lukla Airport (airport servicing Mt. Everest treks) sadly killing all 14 passengers aboard; ironically, the pilot's name was 'Lucky'. Eddie and Lucia were scheduled to be on that flight to trek Everest Base Camp yet due to inclement weather they decided to postpone it a few days instead; angels must have been watching over them that day.

Singapore – September 15

After Nepal, we flew through Mumbai and onto Singapore. Singapore, officially called the Republic of Singapore, is an island country located on the tip of Malaysia in the very southeast part of Asia. The city is cultured, clean, outdoor-oriented, cosmopolitan and one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We learned that Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial center and its port is amongst the top five busiest in the world. One of the reasons it is unique is that you cannot chew gum, graffiti or litter in this country or you get a big fine and possibly jail time, as signs are posted everywhere; if you bring drugs into the country, the penalty is death – which was clearly written on the visa paperwork we filled out upon arrival at the airport.

Hanoi, Vietnam – September 16-19

We arrived in Hanoi on September 16 and had a car pick us up at the airport. We heard that you get mobbed by taxi drivers, as well as potentially scammed by some that purposely take you to a hotel in which they receive a commission. Yet, we were grateful to arrive to a surprisingly peaceful airport and didn't have any problems.

Hanoi, translation, "Ascending Dragon," is the capital of Vietnam and located along the bank of the Red River. We stayed in the Old Quarter which is described as where the old meets the new. The streets are swarming with motorbikes, “hawkers” (vendors cooking meals on the side of the road for locals as well as tourists) fill the streets, and the sound of horns honking are in the air. If you plan to get anywhere, you must maneuver both motorbikes and cars in the street. It is pedestrian survival--you must cross the streets slowly to give the motorbikes sufficient time to judge their position and pass you on either side. It’s crazy and unlike anything we have experienced.

We spent a few days walking around the Old Quarter enjoying the lake (Hoan Kiem) in the middle of the city, delicious local food specialties like Pho, fried rice with seafood, things you didn’t know but tried anyway, looking at temples and enjoying the outdoor market at night. After a few days in the city, we decided to head to Halong Bay, one of Vietnam’s unique treasures.

Halong Bay – September 19-21

Halong Bay is best described as both majestic and mysterious and comprised of over 3000+ islands among emerald green waters. Also a Unesco World Heritage site, the unique bay is filled with vegetation-covered limestone cliffs that create breathing taking views; it's one of the best sites of Vietnam!

Ad and I decided to book 2-night, 3-day tour of Halong Bay through a travel agent recommended by Lonely Planet (Ocean Tours-and for the record they suck! Don't use them). The package included one-night on a boat, or a “junk” as they refer to it (and it's name deinitely represented the boat, it was a piece of junk), and one night in a bungalow located on Monkey Island. After we arrived in Halong City, jumped on a small boat to take us to our “junk”, we were bummed to arrive to a less than glamorous boat (it was really a junk boat) compared to most others out in the bay. Regardless, we made the best of it and enjoyed the company of the other 11 people on the boat.

We cruised out on our “junk” heading to tour a cave, then kayaked and ending with a slow ride toward Cat Ba Island (a national park where we would spend the night in our bungalow) while enjoying a beautiful sunset and conversation with new friends. We woke up on the boat the next morning and disembarked to Cat Ba Island. At this point we had the choice of either a hike or biking around the park; due to the 90+ degree weather (and 85% humidity) Ad and I opted for the bike.  Sidenote: we called our bike a 'geared single speed, as it had gears, but only one worked.  I (Adam) felt like Chris Farley in the movie Tommy Boy, but instead of 'Big man in a little suit', it was 'Big man on a little bike' VERY LITTLE BIKE. (Still crushed our 2 pack a day smoking guide-KAW)

After the bike, we were taken by another small boat to Monkey Island where we enjoyed a private bungalow (which was great!) on a sandy beach in a small cove. As the sun was starting to go down, we all enjoyed a few cocktails out in the water and slowly watch the beautiful sunset.

The next day, we took the boat back to Halong City and then the 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi.  Once in Hanoi we caught an overnight bus to Hue (15 hours south) which would be our next stop on our travels down the coast of Vietnam.  

We hope you are all healthy, happy and enjoying your life.

We miss and love you dearly,

Cathy and Adam

Traveling

We are a little more than 2 months into our trip and are really enjoying our time.  Thank you to everyone who sends us notes and comments, we truly appreciate them.  We really miss all of our friends and look forward to seeing you all again soon (sooner if you come and meet us somewhere!); we also miss Elke tremendously!!!  Amy, you are so great and thank you so much for taking care of our girl, we really owe you. 
The different cultures and people are amazing!  Adjusting to the many languages takes time, but we try to pick up the key words, such as, 'thank you', 'please', 'hello', etc... wherever we go. 
Spending 24/7 with someone can be stressful at times, but it also creates a bond like no other and we love that.  What we really really like though is that everytime we see something on our travels it makes us think of specific friends, we just laugh. 
As we sit here in Hanoi, Vietnam (at time of writing) it is HOT and HUMID and we can't help but think of how the leaves must be turning and the weather becoming cooler in Colorado...we miss that (our favorite time of year). 
We are going to go on the Halong Bay tour in a day or two and it's said to be incredibly beautiful; 3 days and 2 nights, a night on the boat (Junk) and a night in a bungalow, and more monkeys on 'Monkey Island', can't wait!  After Halong Bay we are going to buy a open-ended bus ticket to travel down the whole coast of Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min City which will take us about 3 weeks or so.  We will stop along the way in a few places and stay, then get back on the bus to continue.  We are really looking forward to chillin at the beach on quite a few different islands in Thailand, getting certified to dive in Ko Tao, and taking Thai cooking classes.
Anyway, hope all of you are doing well and we miss you.  Until the next post...

Amsterdam (Final day), Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Nepal

"Fishtale", The Himalayas, Nepal

Amsterdam (final day), Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Nepal

Amsterdam – 8/30-31 (Cathy)

For our final day in Amsterdam we headed to a small village called Zaanse Schans located roughly 15-20 minutes outside of the city on the banks of the Zaan River. The village once called the Zaan District had once grown rich through trade and fishing, and built their first windmills around 1600s. Known as the windmill society, Zaanse Schans was founded to preserve the windmills for future generations and has developed into a small industrial area manufacturing dye for fabrics, paper, rice, barley, etc. with the windmills as well as making wooden clogs and manufacturing cheese in other areas.

The area is incredibly charming with small houses located on the banks of the river surrounded by patches of flowers, waterways, walking paths, small bridges and fishing boats. Sheep and goats roam freely through the tall green grass as the windmills churn in the background – it truly is adorable and a must see if you visit Amsterdam.

Abu Dhabi- 9/01/10 (Adam)

So, I made ‘Abu boo,’ Abu Dhabi is NOT Dubai, it’s about 2 hours away. I don’t know if I thought ‘Abu’ was a prefix for city names or what, but I made our plane reservations to fly from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi, not Dubai, however, I made our hotel reservations to stay in Dubai; we realized this during our flight to Abu Dhabi. So what does this mean? We had no place to stay when we arrived in Abu Dhabi. Rather than pay 300 dermas (about $70) to take a cab (one way) to Dubai for only 18 hours, we found a hotel in Abu Dhabi and ate the loss of the $60 hotel we had booked in Dubai, make sense? Not a huge loss, but still kind of a bummer.

Did I mention it’s HOT in Abu Dhabi? Try 100 degrees at midnight, how do you like them apples? The short time we were there we found it to be enough. Here is what we know: Abu Dhabi is LOADED with money (this city is the one that bailed out Dubai when they over spent by about 30-40 BILLION when doing their recent building), it’s a huge desert with man-made everything, the Zayed Grand Mosque is the most beautiful thing in the city and is truly spectacular, the oil reserves in Abu Dhabi is speculated to last for the next 150 years, whereas the oil reserves in Dubai are only said to last for the next 15 years. Ramadan is wild, not party wild, but very different wild. Everyone fasts during the daytime hours, no food or water at all, no smoking at all, no booze, no public displays of affection. If a person is caught doing any of these things they get taken to jail immediately; once night time arrives everyone indulges. Glad we got to visit, but happy to be heading to Nepal the next day.

Nepal 9/2-9/14

Arriving into Kathmandu was exciting! We were finally going to the Himalayas, a place I have wanted to visit for many years. Before our arrival we set up a 7 day trek starting in Pokhara heading towards the small village of Ghorepani in the Annapurna Range (west of Mt. Everest). I was recommended this trek by our friend Ang Teshing Lama who has been guiding in Nepal for nearly 20 years -thank you for all your help Ang!

Kathmandu is the capital on Nepal; it’s a busy town with many small streets (mostly dirt) and filled with shops and bicycle taxis; it’s also a dirty town, but there is a charm about it that we really like. When we arrived it was raining (as it would for most of the time we were there) so most of the streets turned to mud and made commuting a bit hectic.

Upon our arrival and after we got our visas, we were happy to see Arun (the representative from Trail Finders-the trekking company we used) holding a sign that said ‘Adam Rongey’. He was there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Arun is extremely nice and very helpful; he made sure we got to our hotel and answered any questions we had. Being our first time to Nepal, it was a good idea to have someone pick us up at the airport as it is pretty crazy with many people who wanted our business (and everyone wanted to give us a ‘good deal’).

We stayed at the Ambassador Garden Hotel for our first night and were given masala tea (which is incredibly tasty-similar to Chai) as we were checking in for the night. Our place was pretty nice and located right in the middle of town, but as we would find out later, a little more expensive then we probably needed to pay. Cath and I went out for dinner and had great pad thai, spring rolls and green chicken curry, it was delicious!

The next morning we had a nice breakfast before Arun came to take us to Trail Finders to finalize the details of our trip that would be starting the next day. Two English girls (Esme and Ellie) were going to be joining us on the trek along with our guide and porter (Alok and Netra) and were already in Pokhara waiting our arrival. The trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara is about 7-8 hours by bus (which is probably a great trip), but we decided we have had enough long bus rides for the time being and bought plane tickets, which was only a 30 minute flight.

Our trek would be a 7 day loop starting in Nayapul (an hour drive NW of Pokhara) and staying in tea houses along the way, and ending in the same place we started. Each day our we would trek from 4.5-6.5 hours, and the total distance would be about 37km, with a total elevation gain of 2500 meters (about 8000 ft.), so not very long, but a good amount of climbing.

Pokhara is much more chill then Kathmandu which we really liked. Our $17 hotel was decent and the home base for our trek. We met Esme, Ellie, Alok and Netra and talked about what to expect for the next 7 days. The highlight of the trek was to reach Ghorepani, then hike 45 minutes up to Poon Hill at 5am the next morning to view the sunrise overlooking the Dhaulagiri in the Annapurna Himalayan Range (said to be the greatest view in the whole area).

Our drive from Pokhara to Nayapul (the start of our trek) was very interesting; we passed many families homes (little shanties built from recycled tin and cinder blocks), people working in their yards, children being washed by their mothers outside with a garden hose and soap, and cows walking around wherever they pleased (they are considered sacred and therefore get to do what they want); seeing these things made us realize how lucky we are to have what we do in America. It was amazing to see how little these people have (or need) to get by.

Our first day trekking began in the rain and took us to the small village of Tikhedhungga, about 5 hours away UP through the beautiful mountains; it was a fairly easy day, just long…and wet. We stayed in our first ‘tea house,’ which was really a plywood box with a bed and the bathroom out the door and around the corner; I should mention that bathrooms or ‘toilets’ are not the sit down type, but a hole in the ground with a bucket of water in the corner for cleaning. For dinner we had Dal Baht (which we would choose to have every night), which consists of rice, curry, vegetables and a spicy sauce; it was good! We hung out for awhile, read our books and went to bed.

Day two was our toughest of the trek (but it wasn’t raining so that was great), as we had to climb roughly 4000 steps or something like that up to Ghorepani where we would spend the night. This day’s trek was only about 3 miles or so, but we climbed 4000+ feet, so it was very steep the whole way (imagine hiking the beginning part of Mt. Sanitas, for 5.5 hours, seriously; I was a sweaty mess within 20 minutes. We made it to Ghorepani where we would have had an amazing view of the Himalayas if the fog and clouds weren’t covering everything; at this point we were at an elevation of 3100 meters (10,000+ ft). Because it is still considered off season there weren’t too many people in this small village and we had the ‘Poon Hill Guest House’ to ourselves. The highlight of the trek would be to wake up at 5am the next day and hike 45 minutes up to Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the Annapurna Range; it is said to be THE BEST view in the whole region. Unfortunately for us it dumped rain the entire night and continued through the morning (and most of the day), the result being all fog/clouds and no view, such a drag. Disappointed, our guide gave us the option of staying another night to see if the following morning would be clear and provide us with the view we had been waiting for; we took him up on the offer, but to our dismay we woke up to more rain and still no view; we would still have another chance when we got to Tadapani, the next village about 6 hours away.

We trekked up the ridgeline out of Ghorepani towards Tadapani. The rain was coming down hard and the wind was blowing like crazy. Our trek was all single track that consisted of dirt, rocks, steep narrow slopes, washed away trail, exposed roots, and a ton of mud; oh yeah, and leeches! Not the big fat ‘Stand by Me’ leeches, but the little bastards that would get into your shoes and then through your socks. We were given small bags of salt to rub on the leeches if they attached themselves; Cath and I had a few between us, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Once we made it to Tadapani the rain stopped, but the clouds and fog were still blocking any type of view of the 6-8000 meter peaks (18-24,000 feet), which were just across the way. We ate dinner and played cards before going to bed. The following morning at about 6:30 some of the clouds lifted and we got our first look at the INCREDIBLE Himalayas! Oh my, the most stunning mountains we have ever seen, even if it wasn’t the whole range. I was in awe and snapped a bunch of pictures, but really, no picture can compare to seeing these beauties in person; absolutely incredible! As we ate breakfast of oatmeal with fruit and masala tea, we watched the mountains fade back into the fog and clouds; next stop Jhinudanda, another 5.5 hours away.

The trek to Jhinudanda was more of the same BEAUTIFUL scenery that started off by taking us down 700 meters through the forest to the rushing river on the valley floor. On the way we passed many waterfalls, and got to see monkeys (called Langurs) playing in the trees which were really cool. Once we crossed the river, via the narrow swaying bridge, we had the pleasure of climbing back up (like very steep up) 700 meters and made our way through several little villages where we got to see locals going about their daily lives; it was a great experience. We reached the summit of this day’s trek and saw our tea house in the distance, another 700-800 meters down very steep steps. Once we arrived we all walked down to the river to enjoy the natural hot springs; it was a nice way to end our long day of trekking.

Our final day of the trek took us 6.5 hours, not difficult and mostly flat, but very long. I think by this point we were all a little tired and ready to be finished. We came upon a group of local men butchering a water buffalo and let me tell you, it was a sight. We couldn’t stay too long as Esme’s stomach couldn’t really handle it, in her defense it was pretty gnarly. As we were finishing our trek, we enjoyed watching many children walking back up the valley from school with their families. Sitting on the bus for the hour ride back to Pokhara was welcomed; it was a great week!

Troy-Gallipoli-Amsterdam

August 26-31, 2010

TROY TOUR

Adam and I decided to book a few tours as we made our way towards Istanbul. Our first was a tour of the archeological site of Troy. Also known as Ilium, Troy was built as early as 5000 BC and located in northwest Turkey and best known for being the focus of the Trojan War. The believed history is described in two of the famous Greek poems, Iliad and Odyssey written by Homer.

As we walked around Troy, we learned the stories of Helen of Sparta (the Troy), Achilles, former wars yet was we found to be fascinating were the different empires such as the Roman and Byzantine that ruled the city Troy that both demolished and reconstructed the city nine times beginning as far back as 3000 BC until 500 AD. Sometimes the city was demolished by war and other times by natural causes such as earthquakes and floods. Today, some of the ancient city’s walls and artifacts (pottery, arrows, etc) have been preserved and surprisingly are in good condition, a tribute to the craftsmanship during that time.

Another well-known legend of Troy is the “Wooden Horse”. While many people came to the aid of Troy during different wars, it was during the Trojan War that the Greeks used a “Wooden Horse” to gain access to Troy. The Greeks presented the “Wooden Horse” to the Trojans as a thank you to Athena yet well-armed men hid inside it that ultimately destroyed the city.

GALLIPOLI – ANZAC WAR TOUR

Our next tour was the Anzac War, or Gallipoli Campaign. The war, the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The war took place at Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey from April 25, 1915 to January 9, 1916. A joint British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and secure a sea route to Russia. The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.

The war was a defining moment in history for Turkey as it liberated them from the crumbling Ottoman Empire allowing them to become an independent country. The war is often referred to as the Turkish War of Independence led by the infamous commander and Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In almost every home and business in Turkey, you will find a picture of him as Turkey attributes their independence to him.

BACK TO A-DAM!

Yes, we decided to take a vacation from our vacation so, we spontaneously booked two tickets back to Amsterdam! After traveling through Turkey, we were craving cooler temps and non-Turkish food and decided to head to Holland.

After a few hours of researching flights and few beers, we had our tickets for the next morning. We arrived around 6:30 pm (we missed our 20-minute connection from Munich) and were excited to back to the Dutch city we had only spend two days in roughly a month ago. We headed to our hotel (which was near the airport for the first night), dropped our bags, showered and headed to find a place for dinner.

Lucky for us, Amsterdam was celebrating “Restaurant Week”, similar to “First Bite” in Boulder, highlighting Amsterdam’s dining scene by offering 3-course meals at a discounted rate. We stopped in a small, hip local restaurant in downtown called Bistrot Neuf, which offered a French menu. The food was amazing along with the selected wines that accompanied each course. We both enjoyed a filet of beef served with béarnaise and served over sweet potato mash, with fresh asparagus and onion compote. The tiramisu dessert with vanilla bean ice cream was incredible! More to come as we still have our final day to enjoy…..

Turkey is Hot!

Pamukkale, Turkey

BODRUM, TURKEY (August 19-23)

We left Santorini by ferry last Friday at 12:20 am and headed to the town of Bodrum via Kos, another Greek Island, where we arrived at 5:30 am. Bleary eyed and tired, we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and exchanged travel stories and tips with a group of Australians who were also headed to Bodrum. Next, we boarded the 9:00 am ferry from Kos and were off to our 8th country, Turkey.

In more ways than one, Turkey is hot. Hot because of the 100 degree temps and hot because everyone is traveling here; as well they should! Turkey is friendly, inexpensive (sometimes), beautiful and rich in culture and history. Bodrum, our first stop, is a quaint and somewhat modernized port town located in the south western part of the country where the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas meet.

Once through customs (which took us a little while- Ad had to run to the nearest ATM to get some ‘Lira’ to pay for our visas), we headed to look for food and a place to lay our heads for the night. During our lunch, we heard a man chanting over a loud speaker and asked our waiter what it was. He explained that it was the religious tradition of “Amom”, when the priest or pastor calls his people to prayer five times a day from the minaret, or bell tower. At first, it felt too much like an religious extremist group, yet after a few conversations with locals and acquiring a better understanding, we have more respect for the very rich and misunderstood tradition and began to use it as a reminder to be thankful to God for all that we have.

A side note, Greece and Turkey are very similar yet their main cultural differences are their language and religion. In Greece they speak Greek, Turkey they speak Turkish yet their religions are different: Greek Orthodox Christianity versus Islam, one of the fastest growing religions. The other strong cultural similarities (food, how they look, architecture, etc) relate to their history as one country ruled by Greece before the rise of the Ottoman Empire in which they were split in two.

Our first evening in Bodrum, we headed to a restaurant for Turkish food. We feasted on eggplant mixed with fresh tomatoes and herbs, sardines with chili sauce, yogurt mixed with onions and garlic salt, and fresh sea bass; it was delicious! We headed home early to catch up on sleep and just as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed another little creature joining us in our room – an unwelcomed cockroach, eewwwhhh!

While in Bodrum, we enjoyed a traditional Turkish bath. A Turkish bath consists of a sauna, scrub, soap and then an oil massage (in your ‘swimming costume’). You begin with a sauna designed to help open your pores and eliminate toxins. Next, you lay face down on a circular marble table for a full-body rub- down, then a full-body scrub to get rid of the dead skin, finally, the pouring of refreshing cool water over your shoulders and legs. Next, they gently pour handmade olive oil soap over your body, it feels amazing! Once finished with the bath you end with a 20-minute relaxing oil massage. Ad and I very much enjoyed this Turkish experience.

On Monday, we headed out for a boat tour that took us around to 5 different bays in Bodrum. It was here that we met a really nice Dutch couple, Anna and Kim. Anna and Kim are from a small town (around 6,000) in Holland called Olst located close to the German border. They were enjoying day #4 of a two-week vacation in Bodrum.

We had a lot of fun drinking some beers, jumping off the boat (and off 35 foot rocks) into the beautiful blue water and dancing on the top deck, and we loved the conversation with our new friends. Anna is a nurse who met Kim while working together at the same hospital, a rehabilitation hospital that helps young kids with mental illness. Kim is a nurse and also specializes in training professionals on how to deal with individuals with aggression and who have mental imbalances.

As we were leaving the boat for the day, we met another nice couple, Ece (Turkish) and Vedran (Bosnian), recently engaged and living in Australia. We struck up a conversation regarding our trip and their possibility of relocating to the US, then decided that we should all head out for dinner together. Thanks to Ece (pronounced “A-jay”), she took the reins and ordered up an amazing Turkish feast for all of us to enjoy. After a wonderful dinner and evening, we exchanged hugs and contact information then said our goodbyes.

PAMUKKALE (August 23)

On Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5:45 am to catch our 6:30 am bus to Pamukkale. As we waited for over 30 minutes for our bus (the bus that was to take us to the tour bus), we called the travel agent who booked our trip and told her that no one had arrived. Less than 10 minutes later, a gentleman picked us up and we were on our way. For the next hour and a half, we cruised in a small-passenger van at roughly 80 miles an hour up hills, around corners, and passing cars and trucks to make our way to the tour bus that was originally supposed to take us to Pamukkale. As it turns out, our van picking us up in the morning mistakenly picked up the wrong passengers and our driver had to chase the tour bus down so we could make the transfer. Once we arrived, our driver explained to us that his driving was like a “rocket” in order to catch up with the others.

Pamukkale, or Cotton Castle, is a little town and host to an amazing natural site that is unique to the world. Underground thermal springs loaded with calcium carbonate salts creates stalactites and white water basins filled with warm pools of water rich with minerals. The terraced mineral spas have been used since Roman times for their therapeutic powers to help with such ailments as arthritis and other circulatory issues.

SELCUK (August 23-25)

We enjoyed our time at the very unique and natural site of Pumakkale, and then caught an afternoon bus to Selcuk (pronounced “Sel-chuk”), a small town nearby the ancient ruins of Ephesus. Selcuk is close to the coast and less than 20 kilometers from Kusadsi. We checked into our hotel which we found to be…comfortable and pleasing with a very kind owner. Directly across the street was the town square where we had another great Turkish dinner. What we liked most about this town were the extremely friendly people always saying, ‘hello’ and ‘have a good evening’ as we walked by.

The next morning (Tuesday) we ventured out on foot (despite the 90+ degrees) to see the ancient ruins of Ephesus, roughly 3K from the town of Selcuk. Ephesus was once a port town and commercial center of the ancient world created in the third century BC, and a site dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Included in the ruins is an enormous ancient temple that included a theater, gymnasium, baths and Library of Celsus.

Located up on the hill above Ephesus is the home of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that after the death of Christ, the Virgin Mary was brought to Ephesus where she is said to have spent her last days in a small house built for her high up on the hill.

After our tour, we headed back to Selcuk for rest of the afternoon where we had a nice dinner, then sat with our new friends (Marco, Ali, and Aydan) and talked about life in both America and Turkey. It was very nice relaxing and enjoying great conversation and learning more about the Turkish culture. We hope our new friends will come to Colorado for a visit.

We are missing our friends, family and our lil’ Duker girl, Elke!

Love to you all,

C and A

Santorini, ahh, Santorini!

August 18, 2010 (Adam here)

We are in Santorini!! Finally, a place where we have been able to chill for a few days (not to mention, a place that we are LOVING!). We were in Athens for two days checking out the sights before we made our way to the island of Santorini. After the hot 7 hour train ride from Meteora to Athens, we found a very decent hotel ($55 Euro per night) that we were happy to rent (even if everything outside the hotel was a little sketchy) which included air conditioning as well as a private bathroom. Excellent!

We decided to go to a travel agency to try and put together a schedule before we did anything else. Ultimately we need to work our way over to Turkey as we have a flight out of there on Sept. 1. Our thought was to check out a Greek Island or two, then hop on over to Turkey and “jam with the Stones!” –Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Ok probably won’t ‘jam with the Stones’ but regardless, we do need to work our way over to Turkey at some point.

We knew we were traveling in high season and that Europe would be our greatest expense, but we didn’t know that this week was the ‘busiest week of the year’ in Greece. A girl named Efi at the travel agency was extremely helpful and very friendly in trying to put together a package (yes Gurst, I said package) for us, however, the package was way out of our price range. Cathy and I decided to take a chance and book a ‘Super Fast Ferry’ over to Santorini for the next morning, hoping we might find some place to stay when we got there.

After we booked our ‘super fast ferry,’ we looked online to see if any place might be available for us to stay (in hindsight, it would have probably been smarter to find a place to stay, THEN book the ferry, but that’s kind of how we roll). As it turned out, we did find a place in the beach town of Kamari, which is on the east side of Santorini. We had no idea what our place would be like, but the price was right and the reviews were good, so we booked 3 nights; after the many ‘not so clean places’ we have stayed, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Well, we are here now and it’s AWESOME!! We are truly on the beach (ok, 3 meters away), our room is SAWEET w/ air con, private bath, clean, and a real double bed (not two twins pushed together (although two twins pushed together….ok I won’t go there). There’s a beautiful pool, and a bar (basically swim-up bar). There are TONS of GREAT places to eat, an open air cinema, ATV/moped rentals, many different tours, and sunsets that are said to be the best in the world! How’s $75 per night sound? KAW!

Once we got to ‘The Boathouse’ (our place), we grabbed a bite to eat (on the beach) then jumped into the very refreshing ocean. Oh, life is good! There is one piece of sad news; my wedding ring fell off somewhere in the ocean and is gone; I was/am very bummed about this. I have NEVER had any issues with it falling off before; I was getting out of the water, looked at my hand and it was not there 8(

We have been chillin out for the past four (we booked an extra night when we arrived) nights and have been enjoying some down time; it was needed as we have been in constant motion for the past month.

Cathy and I decided to see the island by way of 'Quad Runner'.  We rented a fairly new 150cc (not very fast, but that was ok with Cath) machine and took off on our tour. Driving around Santorini can be very confusing and we got lost on more than one occasion. We thought we were headed towards a few proclaimed 'amazing beaches' (which I am sure they were) but ended up on top of the highest peak on the island (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing).  We drove to the oposite side of the island, weaving in and out of traffic in hopes of reaching Oia (pronounced 'eea'). This is said to be the premier spot for viewing the sunsets on Santorini.  However, we were there during the middle of the extremely hot day and were in desperate search of water.  Dripping with sweat, we made it to Oia; we successfully made our way down the 283 (or so) steep stairs to the small port and we were greeted by an amazing bluish/green ocean. Just around the bend of the port was an incredible spot where quite a few people were enjoying a cool swim and jumping off 10-15 foot cliffs into the ocean, it was so refreshing! 

After we enjoyed the ocean for about an hour we decided to head back [I should say that we were about 45 minutes from our hotel on a LONG desolate road].  On our way back on the quad, we were enjoying the breeze (because we were sweating again from ascending the 283 or so stairs we came down earlier) when we ran out of gas.  What! Yes, we were out of gas.  I stayed with the quad while Cathy headed out to find a gas station; she ran into a couple of super friendly Greek guys who took her to the gas station and then drove her back to where I was with the quad.  Extremely grateful, we thanked them and we were again on our way.  As we were headed down the hill, we saw many cars coming towards us with a few flashing their lights; this is when we realized we were going the wrong way on a one-way road-oops.  We turned around and from that point on everything went smoothly as we made our way back home. 

Once back at the hotel we jumped in the pool, relaxed, then went to eat amazing Chinese food (the BEST green curry we have ever had in our lives!) Can't wait to eat in Thailand!

We leave by ferry for the island of Kos (which is just off the coast of Turkey) at 12:30am on Friday; we will hang there for a couple of days before making our way over to Turkey. We are excited to see another new country; we here great things about Turkey.

More later, Peace!

Meteora, Greece

Kalambaka, Greece (National monument, Meteora)

August 12-13

We arrived around 1:00 pm to the small town of Kalambaka, located directly east of Igoumenitsa in the northern center of Greece. Sleepy and slightly disoriented, we got off the bus and looked around and noticed a sign, Hotel Astoria. Located less than a block away, we walked up and were greeted by a very nice Greek gentleman and his wife who provided us with an air conditioned room for a couple of nights as well as a wealth of great information about the area. They had been living in Kalambaka their whole life and running the hotel for the past 40 years. The hotel felt like a monastery-it was clean, quiet, peaceful and serene and we were subtly surrounded by pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

That evening, we headed to the town square to enjoy a dinner of Greek salads, beef and chicken syrtaki and some Greek white wine. After dinner, we went walked around town, talked to a few friendly locals, enjoyed some traditional baklava and picked up our laundry from a local dry cleaner who cleaned and neatly folded them (and they smelled amazing).

The next morning we woke and walked downtown to catch our bus to Meteora. While waiting, we enjoyed seeing the local farmers market of vendors selling fresh tomatoes, watermelons and cucumbers, grilling corn on a BBQ, handmade quilts and paintings being sold – you could feel the small community of Kalambaka.

We caught a bus up to Meteora, or “suspended rocks”; it's one of the world’s most unique national monuments. Monasteries (6 monasteries today) were built to serve as a peaceful place for monks and nuns to follow the teachings of Greek Orthodox. While perched up on rocks pillars to deliberately make it difficult to access, monks built their monasteries by using long ladders to access and hoisting building materials and people up by ropes, nets and later, by a unique pulley system, see our pictures.

Today, there are roughly 4-6 monks that are still practicing in this area. Most of the monasteries serve as a museum for tourists to better understand the history, teachings, paintings and life as a monks as early as the 14th century in this area. At times, you can hear a bell ringing from a distant monastery. It is a place of great beauty and both mentally and spiritually refreshing and I definitely recommend a visit.

If you are looking for a place to travel, I definitely think you should consider Greece!

Rome, Italy; A little Pisa; Arrival in Greece

Colosseum, Rome

August 7-10

On Saturday morning, we packed our backpacks and headed to the train station in Monterosso destined for Florence, Italy. Florence is known for its famous galleries and churches yet after a few moments of standing in front of the train departure schedule, we contemplated our decision and the idea of crowded museums, sweating in long lines with other tourists hoping to do the exact same thing and decided to take the fast train to Rome. This is the luxury of having a Euro Rail Pass, no itinerary and no hotel reservations.

Before getting to Rome we had to change trains in Pisa; we thought, ‘great opportunity to see the leaning tower! Let’s jump off and check out it out then we’ll continue to Rome.’ Seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, we should have skipped it. We walked for about 1 ½ miles (and it was FREAKIN HOT!) until we finally found it. Yes, it was pretty cool to see, but after 5 minutes of checking it out and watching all the tourists take pictures of their family members pretending to push the tower over, or hold it up with their hands…we were over it and ready to get back on the train. We stopped for refreshing lemonade and a crappy pizza before making the trek back to the train. We got a little lost heading back and I (Adam) led us in a big circle; but we finally made it. To sum it up, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, ain’t worth Pisa! Skip it.

After our brief stop in Pisa, we were back on the train and headed to Rome, the capital of Italy. We arrived around 1:00 pm and headed to the desk called “Hotel Reservations – Last Minute”. A friendly Italian woman helped us find a decent hotel centrally located around Rome’s well-known monuments and museums.

Rome is a treasure chest of history. While we saw many amazing historic sites, I will highlight some of our favorites. Our first historic site, the Trevi Fountain, or Fontana di Trevi, tucked in between buildings and at the junction of three roads is one of Rome’s largest and most beautiful fountains. Otherwise known as Aqua Virgo, this fountain is one of the aqueducts to supply water to ancient Rome.

Next, the Colosseum, originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, is located in the center of Rome and considered one of the most famous pieces of architecture built in Rome. Constructed by the Flavian dynasty under the rule of Nero in 70 AD and completed in 72 AD, this giant iconic piece of history hosted 50,000 spectators to gladiator fights (yes, like the movie Gladiator), battle reenactments and later, housing, a fortress and a Christian Shrine.

Today it stands as a historic piece of the Imperial Rome. Its partial ruins are due to past earthquakes and stone-robbers. With its strong ties to the Catholic Church, religious processions are hosted at certain times of the year such as Good Friday.

Last, but not least, our visit is Vatican City, a sovereign state within the city of Rome along the Tiber River and established in 1929 with only 800 residents. Vatican City is ruled by the bishop of Rome, the Pope, and Catholic clergyman from various nationalities and the home of the Pope. Adjacent to the city is both Saint Peter’s Basilica and the infamous Sistine Chapel, two places Adam and I visited.

The St. Peter’s Basilica is a late Renaissance Church and has the largest interior of any Christian Church in the world holding over 60,000 people. It has been regarded as one of the holiest Christian sites and believed to be the place of death for St. Peter himself. Decorated in marble, surrounded by famous paintings (Michelangelo) and contains a large number of tombs of popes.

The final historic site, the Sistine Chapel, the best known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. The chapel is famous for both its architecture and decoration of frescos developed by Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, who painted over 12,000 square feet beginning in 1508. His most famous, The Last Judgement, is believed to be his best achievement, includes a series of frescoes depicting the life of both Moses and Christ and began in 1533 while finishing in 1541.

Bari, Italy -August 10-11

We left Rome for the long journey to the port town of Bari; this is where we would catch the ferry to Greece. This 9.5 hour series of train rides took us through the southern part of Italy, stopping regularly in small towns. At one stop, a few of the locals seemed surprised to see Americans and welcomed us asking where we were from, helping us find our way to Bari and provided us with snacks. Once arriving in Bari, we frustratingly realized we missed the boat out of Italy by 40 minutes and ended up having to stay in a dumpy hotel before we could leave for Greece the next day.

We woke up to a new day and new attitudes; we were ready for Greece and put Italy behind us. We enjoyed the many wonderful and beautiful cities Italy offered, yet in Rome, we felt that the people we continued to meet were hard to get to know and we were tired of consistently having miscalculations with our bill every time we ate. In many parts of Europe, there is a charge for what feels like everything! They charge you for bread service as well as if you sit down at their outdoor seating spots. To give you an example, we went to a restaurant in Rome that offered a unique Italian ice-cream dessert called Tartufo. If you took the ice-cream to go, it would cost you $5 Euros, if you sat down at a table outside, it would cost you $10 Euros for the dessert plus a service charge (around $2-3 Euros) for the waiter or waitress to serve it to you – basically move it 10 feet from the restaurant’s ice-cream bar to the table. Hmm, it wasn’t a hard decision to simply order it to-go and then enjoy it on a park bench in front of the Navanno Fountain.

We checked out of our hotel in Bari and headed to the port to secure two seats on an overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa, Greece. Standing in line, we met a nice, young 20-year old traveler from Fort Collins named Alex. After exchanging a few travel stories, we headed to enjoy lunch at the ‘Titti Twister Pizzeria’ (which was actually the best pizza we had while in Italy) and then a dip in the Adriatic Sea to cool off from the sweltering hot day. We arrived at the local beach just down from the port, and in less than five minutes of being there, a few locals began to warn us while pointing to their eye that we needed to keep close watch of our backpacks. As a few shady locals circled us and our packs, we decided to quickly enjoy the water and then get the heck out of there and head back to port.

As we waited to board the ferry, we flipped through pages of their brochure describing the trip to Greece -- “enjoy a goodnight’s rest and then wake up in Greece” - this sounded perfect. We boarded the ferry and headed to our “airline” seats as described on our ticket. The options for passengers were: deck, airline seat or cabin (depending on your ticket). Because of our first-class Euro rail pass, we were delighted to not be sleeping out on the deck for the eve and headed for the airline seats.

The room with the airline seats, which they truly were, was set up like a small movie theater with two sections of roughly 60 seats per section and a wall with a flat screen TV separated each section. For the rest of the eve, Ad, myself and over 100 other people did not enjoy a “goodnight’s rest.” Our evening included but was not limited to: endless snoring, people talking, cell phones ringing, text message alerts and three old Italian men having a conversation as if no one else was around.

Igoumenitsa, Greece – Thursday, August 12

We arrive at 6:00 am to the sun rising in Igoumenitsa. With less than 3 hours of sleep, we immediately head to a café in the boat terminal to enjoy a morning cappuccino and Greek pastry (I had no idea what it was) and then head to the local bus station. We left the terminal and immediately felt completely lost and confused by all the Greek signage – a series of confusing symbols that make no sense, it’s like setting your computer font to ‘Wingdings’ and typing a message. A few friendly locals directed us to the bus station for our next journey, a 3.5 hour bus ride to Kalambaka, our final destination for the evening and the home to the unique monument of Meteora.

As the only Americans on our bus, we joined locals on our first ride through the winding roads and mountainous terrain. Up hills, around curves (some littered with shrines dedicated to the unfortunate who overshot the guardrail), over hilltops with Thievery Corporation playing in the background (yes, we had good tunes on the bus ride in Greece), the bus driver drove until he suddenly pulled over to the side of the road, grabbed a few blue plastic bags and handed them to a local passenger who thought she might “toss her cookies”. After a few moments, the local regained herself and requested that the driver proceed more slowly through the turns.

Tomorrow, I will share stories and pics of Meteora!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, Italy

 August 5-7, 2010

After leaving Varenna, Italy on a rainy Thursday morning, Ad and I headed to Cinque Terre, Italy’s five hillside villages located along the Italian Riviera by the Mediterranean Sea. Cinque Terre, which means “five lands," is a unique series of beautiful villages that are all “car-free” and only accessible on-foot or by train. From east to west, the seaside towns include Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso.

We arrived in Monterosso, our home for the next two nights, unpacked our swimsuits (or as our new French friend, Luc Jaujou likes to refer to them – “swimming costumes”), grabbed our towels, books and headed for the beach. If there is something I have realized during my travels, is that “beach” doesn’t always refer to huge amounts of beaming white sand covering an endless blue coastline. In Cinque Terre, it could mean beaches of desolate rocks, crashing blue waves and occasional topless women camped out on a lonely rock.

After our swim, we decided to enjoy a picnic of fresh bread, cheese, bresola, grapes, a jar of pesto and “vino delle Cinque Terre”. Cinque Terre is known as “home of pesto” and famous for their local white wine grown in the region. As we sat by the window in our room, we enjoyed our feast, the town chatter below us and an early night’s rest.

The next morning, we started with what has become our everyday morning ritual – a cappuccino, a croissant or the local bakery’s fresh pastry of the day. As we planned to hike and explore all five villages in one day, the Australian coupled sitting next to us explained to us that it would take “at least 5 hours to do it all”. Of course, this presented a challenge and Ad and I decided to plan to see all the villages in less than 3 hours.

As we started to hike out of Monterosso, we climbed a path that included a series of rocky steps and dirt paths along hillsides overlooking the Sea that seemed both relentless and endless. As we made our way around each hilltop, we were stunned with the views as well as the next village off in the distance, Vernazza.

We arrived in Vernazza exactly an hour later. As we arrived, this small, charming town on the water was bustling with locals grabbing their morning coffee and newspaper, exchanging ‘giorno’ (short for good morning in Italian) as they walked by one another. We stopped and enjoyed watching a few locals jumping off the end of the pier at low tide (roughly a 10 foot drop) and waiting for a high swell to bring them back up to lift themselves out of the water only to turn around and do it again.

We jumped back on the Cinque Terre trail – next stop: Corniglia. As we headed out on the trail, we found that this part of the trail seemed more forgiving than the route from Monterosso. Forty-five minutes later we arrived in the hillside town of Corniglia, the only town not directly on the water. This small and quaint hilltop town offered amazing views of the Riviera extending all the way down to the French Riviera coastline off in the distance.

Hiking down from Corniglia, we made our way around the hillside along a charming promenade, arriving thirty minutes later to village #4, Manarola. Once there, we enjoyed watching locals and tourists diving off rocks into the water, sunbathers finding a remote spot to catch the rays and delicious lunch of mussels and linguini and troffe, a local pasta and sea bass.

As we made our way from Manarola to Riomaggiore, the final village of the Cinque Terre, we enjoyed the unique promenade called Via dell’ Amore or “Walkway of Love”. This 15-minute section of the Cinque Terre trail offering a panorama view of the coastline is littered with colorful locks dangling from metal nets, displaying small tokens of the people’s commitment to their love for one another.

As a celebration for our journey across Cinque Terre (in 3 hours), Ad and I decided to enjoy a nice seafood dinner at a local restaurant in Monterosso called Ciak La Lampara. We noticed this restaurant as we continued to walk by and watch the chef/owner prepare his infamous fish soup dinner (or Zuppa de Pesce) in the restaurant’s window each evening.

Once seated, we ordered the Risotto alla Mare (risotto with seafood) for two, a bottle of Cinque Terre Levante (local white wine from the town of Levanto) and some Pellegrino. Sitting at small tables lined up closely next to one another, we sat next to a young Italian couple. As they listened to our conversation, they proceeded to giggle after hearing our own interpretations of some the local street signs we found cryptic to us – ‘the sign means drunken sailor who can’t find his way around town’; ‘no, no --it means don’t poop here’. (We found out later that the signs were referring to the location of ATMs.)

It was at that moment that I realized I didn’t want to come back to Europe without truly being fluent in another language; and what language would it be? – Pig-Latin, of course. Since most Europeans know multiple languages including English, I bet this would be the only language that they would have no idea what you are saying!

After leaving Monterosso we headed to Rome, the capital of Italy rich in history and culture. I can’t wait!
Ciao'
Athysay and Damah

Varenna, Italy

 

Tuesday, August 3 – 5

Adam and I woke up on Tuesday morning, packed our backpacks and headed for the ferry to catch an 8:45 am boat to Bellagio, another villa on Lake Como. Bellagio, also called “the Pearl of the Lake” is beautiful with old-world charm and located across the lake from Varenna, our final destination. Once arriving at the Town Center, we toured through the small town enjoying hidden cobblestone staircases, windows filled with colorful flower boxes, the sun shining on our faces and wine shops featuring tastings of some of Italy’s most famous wine varietals.

Stopping at a small wine shop, Enoteca Principessa, Adam’s eyes grew big as he saw tastings for many of his favorite wines and in particular, the Gaja, an exclusive Italian wine producer located in Piemonte and considered the “undisputed king of Barbaresco”. As we experienced a few 1 oz pours of wines, we savored the delicate and smooth taste of our final taste, a 2006 Gaja Sperss.

After lunch, we hopped on the ferry destined for Varenna. Once we arrived, we searched for our bed and breakfast, 'Casa Cristina' located in an area of Varenna called Vezio. Stopping to ask a local for directions, he explained, “Go by Farmacia, take shortcut down the road, head up to brief town intersection and it will be located right there” while gesturing with his hand that it would be a bit of climb to our final destination.

We climbed the relentless rocky cobblestone path to the bed and breakfast passing a few groups of people on their way down. They smiled at our effort and reminded us that a cold beer was waiting up ahead; good motivation while you are drenched in sweat and wondering “how much freakin’ farther is this place!” To further explain this climb, picture getting on a Stairmaster, setting the level at 11 with a max of 15 and climbing the stairs without any points of recovery for the next 15 minutes with a 20+ pound backpack on your back.

Once arriving, we collapsed into chairs at the small, charming restaurant located at the top of the hill called 'Il Portichetto', located next door to her bed and breakfast (both the bed and breakfast and restaurant were owned by Rita, a wonderfully warm, friendly and helpful Italian woman).  For our efforts we enjoyed a few beers, a small plate of “salumi”, a couple cappuccinos and then booked our 2-floor spacious and homey apartment for 2 nights. We decided the hike to and from town would be much easier without our 20+ pound packs and we reminded ourselves that this hike would also help keep us in shape.

Next, we headed out to explore the beautiful and quiet town of Varenna. We walked along the lakeside promenade, explored the “beach” (more like a sandy basketball court with a few umbrellas and lounge chairs), local shops and then headed to the local grocery store to buy our Italian feast for the evening. We picked up pasta with mushrooms, fresh pesto, fruits, cheese, crackers, prosciutto and a bottle of Valpolicella Repasso before heading back up to our “home”.

Once we arrived, we showed Rita what we were making for dinner. In broken English and shaking her head she explained “No, no pesto with pasta with funghi (mushroom). It’s no good”. She paused and said, “Un momento” and returned with a stick of butter, a few dried sage leaves and explained how to create our feast. Grind up the sage, heat the butter, add the sage, add the cooked pasta and “Viola”—a simple and delicious Italian dinner!

This morning, we woke up to a blue sky and our neighbors greeting us with “Bueongiorno” (good morning), as they hung their clothes out to dry and soft Italian music played in the background; the local church bell ringing on the hour and every half hour; Italians greeting each other with “giorno” and “ciao” while enjoying their breakfast of a cappuccino and cigarette. We are in the heart of a true Italian villa experience and enjoying every minute.

Enjoy your day – Ciao!

Germany: Berlin & Munich; Arrival at Lake Como

July 29-31 -- Berlin, Germany

We made it to our fifth country, Germany, arriving in Berlin last Thursday night. Thus far, we’ve had to learn how to say “thank you”, “please” and “where are the toilettes” in 5 different languages as the locals giggle at our fluency attempts. Yet, I think they appreciate the fact that we are “attempting” and help us along.

Our first evening in Berlin, we arrived at our hotel, dropped our stuff and headed out for some good ole German food. We walked for 4 blocks passing a restaurant offering Indian, then Moroccan, American (or as some say, Americain) – yet no German food was to be found so we settled on Greek. Our waiter, which we think was the owner, sold us (basically somewhat took advantage of two non-German speaking Americans) on lamb kabobs with two servings of tziki, grilled trout and side of vegetables, a tasty dinner we truly enjoyed yet we were still craving German.

The next day we headed out to explore Berlin. Berlin is the capital and the largest city in Germany. We explored this large and cultured city by both walking and by train. As it relates to the train, it was explained to us by the man who booked us into the gay district in the local tourist office that the “U Bahn” refers an underground train while the “S Bahn” refers to an above ground train. With map in hand, Adam and I slowly figured out the train system, or so we thought. What was not explained were the exceptions to the rule. Some “S Bahn” trains you would catch underground which seemed confusing and contradictive to the explanation we received.

As we explored Berlin, we both felt that it didn’t feel like Germany; it felt like a new city, rebuilt from the devastation of its past. As we toured the many historic sites, we were challenged trying to understand the relevance of sites. Many of them were not well marked either on the map or in the local tour guide until we reached Checkpoint Charlie. In my opinion, this historic site told the story about the infamous Berlin Wall, the physical division of East Germany versus West Germany post WWII and it’s reunification in 1990. As we stood in front the last 150 meters of what’s left of the Berlin Wall, we were both in awe of not only what took place at this site yet it was only 20 years ago that this wall came down.

July 31-August 2 -- Munich, Germany

Saturday we arrived in Munich hoping for a real German experience – big bratwursts and big beers; to that, we did find. After touring the city for 1.5 hours looking for a place to stay, we ended up at a place right across the street from where we arrived, the main train station; it was a stretch to call it a 2-star hotel (as it was labeled). Regardless, it was a moderately priced and served a decent breakfast, even if our feet stuck to the floor in random locations around the hotel.

We dropped our bags and headed to the ‘Biergarten’ recommended by the German working at the front desk “It just up za street 5 minute, can’t miss”. After the true 5 minute walk we found it; an open-air beer garden with rows of wooden tables and chairs, under green trees with men and women in traditional lederhosen and all the other German garb. It seemed like they didn’t really want to wear it, but were obligated because of the job. Most had the typical stoic expression pasted onto their faces, but we didn’t really care we just wanted big beers, or in German “Mas beir”- the 1 liter brah! We enjoyed our beer(s) (Cathy had one and I had four) with bratwurst, kraut and a giant pretzel. The next morning I experienced a ‘Mas bier’ hangover and wasn’t feeling so well.

Despite the hangover we headed to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany. This was eye opening for both of us as well as very heartbreaking. The camp was built to house up to 6,000 prisoners , when in actuality, over 50,000 were sentenced to Dachau. The size of the camp was enormous and took us over 4 hours to experience (which I am sure we could have spent all day), but it was emotionally draining and sad. I will never be able to fathom how something this horrific and appalling could happen; it makes me sick to my stomach to think about.

After the emotional tour of Dachau we tried to lift our spirits by going to the famous Hofbrahaus for a beer; we only had one each this time. I don’t think we were too into it after our day. We returned to our hotel to get our things ready for an early train and our next adventure-Lake Como, Italy.

August 2 – Como Villa, Lake Como, Italy

On Monday, Adam and I arrived early afternoon by a 9-hour train ride to Como, Italy, a small lakeside villa located on Lake Como. Lake Como, or Lago di Como, is a glacial lake located less than an hour from Milan and surrounded by beautiful villas. Located at the base of the Italian Alps, it is regarded as one of the most beautiful lakes in Italy and a popular resort destination for famous celebrities such as George Clooney.

Once off the train, I headed for the first Italian I could find to ask for directions to our hotel. I showed him the address and he quickly responded, “oh, its-a 2 hour train ride or a 1.5 hour ride by ferry”. What?! I convinced this wasn’t true; I was told that it was close to the ferry and train station – how could this be? He explained that a different train takes you to Varenna: “take-a the train an hour south to Milano, ah then head north to Varenna”. Well that’s not going to work – onto plan B- the ferry.

With backpacks on and feeling a bit deflated, we headed towards the Town Center to see about taking a ferry to Varenna. Passing all the anxious taxi drivers lined up outside the bus station, I felt their stares as they were hoping we would be their next victim for Euro drag racing with their taxi.

After a 10-15 minute walk, we found the office to buy tickets for the ferry. “Sorry, all the boats are gone for today.” Arrh! All I wanted was to be in the middle of a quiet little Italian villa, pop open my book (by the way, thanks Agatha, I love J Maarten Troost) and feel a cool breeze from the Italian lake.

Next, we needed to find a hotel for the night. We visited two hotels before finally finding the one that fit into our budget, Hotel Fontana. This mere 2-star hotel smelled of a dead fish as you walked up the stairwell to our room located on the second floor. Once arriving gasping for fresh air, we were greeted with an intricate door-locking system that required turning the key an unassuming 5-times before the door would open and then once open, spending another ten minutes figuring out how to delicately remove the key from the keyhole.

Exhausted, hungry and content with a bed and clean sheets, we headed out for some fresh Italian food. After walking around a bit, we realized not many restaurants were open. In Italy, like other European countries, businesses will shut down for 2-3 hours in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, we hit this time period yet headed to the nearest open restaurant which conveniently displayed a sign “we speak English” which truly means, “we do not serve good food”.

After a glass of wine and some very mediocre bar food, we headed to a pizzeria recommended to us by the hotel receptionist. Excited for a real Italian pizza, we ordered one pizza, two glasses of wine and the only available water option, bottled water. The waiter with his Italian accent asks, “ziss is it???” Adam and I looked at each other somewhat stunned and uncomfortable and said, “ah, yeh”.

After dinner, we ended the evening with some delicious gelato and then set off for a good night’s sleep. Or, so we thought. We headed up the stinky fish-smelling stairwell to our room and realized that we were conveniently located right above a bar and somewhat of a busy and noisy road. For this, Adam and I didn’t enjoy much of a restful night’s sleep.

Off to enjoy a much needed restful evening….Ciao!

Amsterdam: Heaven and Hell

Wednesday, July 28--
I named this blog entry as “Heaven and Hell” because it truly was the experience Adam and I had while visiting Amsterdam, a counter-culture city in the heart of Holland. 

We arrived in Amsterdam, exited the train station and headed to look for Bob’s Youth Hostel, a place Adam stayed on his previous Europe trip almost 20 years ago. Located a few blocks from the train station, Ad reminisced about his time at Bob’s, his trips to the “coffee shops” and some of liberties this unique city offeres; however, Bob's was completely booked, so we moved on to find other accomodations.

As we walked through busy streets filled with tourists, 20-somethings, street vendors and musicians, we stopped at Hotel Ben to check the rate and availability. With space available and only $40 Euros night, we were excited to have found a place to stay with a reasonable nightly rate. Smelling of smoke, dirty pillow cases and a bathroom almost too small to for the toilet we decide to find a more suitable hotel for our sleepy heads.

Next we found a place called Hostelrunners, a local service providing the availability and rates of hotels and hostels. Conveniently located down the narrow, congested cobblestone street next to the Gay Cinema, we were helped by an Asian man with a Dutch accent and a few front teeth who sold us on a “great and quiet” apartment above the local laundromat called Happy Hotel. His next request, we pay in cash; this was a little sketchy, but we paid and ventured off to find our 'Happy' place.

We walked down more sketchy alleys to find our home for the next 2 nights and were greeted by 6 police officers on huge horses, in combat gear and patrolling the streets. Once they moved on, we found our apartment and a very steep staircase leading up to our room. The stairs were so steep that you had to climb them like a ladder (there should have been a sign saying, “Do not attempt if (when) impaired”).

The room was decent and pretty clean considering outside the hotel (and everything around us) was a dirt hole (we didn’t realize until later that we were in the heart of the Red Light District). Once we dropped off our packs (and locked them to the furnace in our room) we headed out to check out the ‘shops’.

We went to a shop called, ‘Homegrown;’ I (Adam) was there 17 years ago. Within a couple of minutes (and $5 Euro later) we were sitting outside ‘enjoying’ some people watching. We decided to venture around the town, but as darkness began to fall the freaks came out. I really felt like I was going to be jacked at any moment (I’m sure being slightly impaired and being in the Red Light District had something to do with this, but not much). We decided to cut down an alley and came upon a couple performing; the guy was playing the didgeridoo (techno style) while his girlfriend put on a puppet show accompanying his sweet riffs which sounded like the same song over and over and over again.

Next on the freak show tour was the cross-eyed accordion player shelling out a few sweet Coldplay songs. He was good yet I was still a little 'weirded' out by the previous woman performing her puppet show.  For our final tour performance, a man in a long white-hooded robe, wearing a white mask and standing on a stool, raising his right hand and constantly nodding at people as they walked by him; WEIRDO! But, if you are into this type of creepy performance you could always drop a tip into his box located right in front of him.

After the sketchy freak show tour we decided the Red Light District was not the place for us. As we made our way through the maze of streets we found Hostelrunners and asked for our money back. Thankfully, the Asian Dutchman agreed without a problem.

With our backpacks on we headed to the train station to get out of Dodge. We were hoping to catch an overnight train to Munich, Germany yet were informed that there were no more international trains leaving until the next morning. What!? Another night in this sketchy dirt hole!? Nooooo!

We decided to venture out to the other side of town and see if we were actually experiencing all of Amsterdam. As we walked through the streets, several blocks from the Red Light District, we found more of what I would call “Heaven”. The streets were lined with beautiful Dutch townhomes polished, pretty and filled with people’s worldly possessions. Houseboats were on the canals and filled with couples enjoying a glass of wine, picnic or a casual party on the slow cruising boat.  Locals were out riding their vintage Dutch bikes on dedicated bike paths that outnumber the cars. Cozy cafes and bars were filled with beautiful, fashion-forward and tan people sitting enjoying a glass of wine or sipping on a cold beer.

As we walked, we finally stumbled onto a cute little inn called the Times Hotel. We inquired about a room and the hip Norwegian reception guy offered us a reasonable rate on his last (and a Deluxe) hotel room. Thanks to him we enjoyed a more luxurious and safe night’s sleep in a more trendy part of town (coffee shop 'Amnesia' was right next door too, so that was nice).

And now, onto Berlin, Germany!

Thursday, July 29 – Berlin, Germany: Gay (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

We arrived by a 6-hour train from Amsterdam yesterday to Berlin, Germany. Berlin was not on our planned itinerary yet just for fun, we decided jump on a train and head to the former Communist country and home to the infamous Berlin Wall located in northeast Germany.

Arriving at the train station, we headed to the Tourist Information office to book a room for a few nights. The nice, impatient, older German found us a reasonable rate of $50 Euros per night at a 3 star hotel located between the new and old parts of downtown Berlin. We jumped on a few trains and found our hotel for the next two nights.

After dropping our bags we head out for dinner. Walking down the street, we came up on a few bars filled with only men – our first thought, “not again, this happened to us in Amsterdam!” We continued walking for a few more blocks only to find shops, bars, and restaurants filled with men until we found Triologie Taverna, a delicious restaurant offering Greek style food.

After dinner, we walked back to room and noticed a few of the local businesses in our area. Our first; Caligula followed by Big Sexyland and then Deluxxe with a sign explaining “shop, rent, cruise”. Getting closer to our hotel, we passed a bar full of men singing Tina Turner’s 'What’s Love Got to do with It' and finally, a shop located kitty corner to us, 'Man’s Pleasurechest'. This business had the convenience of offering their customers a drive by window – order what you want ahead of time and then slip inside when ready!