Road trip – theplaceswe

August 23, 2017August 21, 2017

You ain’t nothing but a hound dog

Moab was pretty dull but extremely hot so it was a huge contrast once we got to the Rocky Mountains National Park. It was cloudy and the air had a chill to it, so much so that we had to get our trackies and hoodies out! We only stayed there for a night but we set up camp and sat around our first fire of our trip – it’s been too hot to sit by a fire every other night! It was a really relaxing night and in the morning we drove to check out a lake in the park. We had our camera and bear spray on hand whilst we waiting for the sun to rise. And as the sun was rising all of the animals were beginning to wake. The edges of the lake were covered in mist and behind the mist we could see small deer edging towards the water. We walked around the lake back towards our car and out of the corner of our eye we both saw movement so we stopped and turned to see a huge elk, and then there was another, and another. One smaller one stared at us and didn’t move while we stood there watching it. Slowly Mark crept away and jumped the fence so he could try to get a better photo but by this stage the elk were bored of us and so they began to leave. The elk themselves were more impressive to us compared to the lake itself which wasn’t such a huge issue because we had decided to leave at this point anyway.

On the drive from Cleveland to Memphis we booked a site at the Graceland RV Park and made our way there. We set up our van for our stay and then headed out to see Memphis. We first walked next door to Graceland, the home of Elvis and bought tickets for the following day. Then we thought “what do we do while in Memphis?”. The list seemed quite long so we decided to get a start on it. First stop, Gus’ Fried Chicken. We put our names down on the waiting list and then went for a walk before heading back to eat the most amazing fried chicken we’ve ever eaten. The chicken came with a heap of sides – coleslaw, mac and cheese, fried pickles and slices of plain white sandwich slices of bread which we found to be quite comical. Although the sides had nothing on the chicken we ate them all except the bread, we left that because if we were hungry for plain white bread we could always just go to the supermarket. Our next stop was a cool part of town away from most of the tourist hot spots. We walked around and then found a bar to chill out at. After staying for a while we met a guy who used to live in Memphis and was in town for the weekend. He offered to show us around so we spent the next few hours checking out Beale St, the main street in Memphis filled with blues bars. We spent most of our time at BB King’s, listening to some old school blues music before calling it a night. The next day we were up early, ready to check out Graceland, the home of Elvis. Well, wasn’t that a huge disappointment. We had bought the basic tickets which were meant to be self guided. There was nothing self guided about being there. We stood in line to get our photo taken in front of the Graceland sign, then we stood in line to get on a bus which took us across the road (it would have been quicker to walk), and then once we arrived at his house we stood in another line to wait to get in. Once we got to the front door we were told about the entrance and told to “enjoy our time”. Inside everyone put on their headphones and had their iPads ready to go to listen to all of the information, this caused everyone to stand in line once more, but just around the house. Each room was filled with a single file line of people waiting to get to the next ‘feature’ to then click on that feature on their iPad so they could listen to the information about the said feature. Mark and I didn’t use ours. Neither of us were that interested and so we looked like 2 rude people trying to cut in line constantly because all we did was follow the flow of the people of the house but moved 10x as fast. We finally finished the tour and were so underwhelmed with the whole experience we didn’t know what to do. In the end we just left. Our ‘self guided tour’ ticket only allowed us access to his house and his plane collection, the rest of the museum was off limits to us. Memphis itself was a really cool city in regards to music and history so we figured that our next stop Nashville would be just as cool.

Nashville was so busy once we arrived because it was the 3rd of July, the day before America’s Independence Day. The whole city was getting ready for the huge celebrations and the biggest fireworks in the country. The difference between Memphis and Nashville could simply be described with the type of music being performed at bars. Where Memphis was mainly blues, Nashville was filled with country music. What we loved about Nashville was that while walking along the street you could stop and listen to bands play at different bars because they played at the front of the bar and often had huge windows opened so that passersby could stop to listen. We did this a couple of times before we started to get really tired and went back to our hotel. The next day we were overwhelmed with the amount of people out on the street celebrating the 4th of July. The entire city was out and we enjoyed walking around, drinking Jack Daniels and listening to all of the bands playing. Towards sunset we headed up towards the bridge over looking the Cumberland River. We set up there waiting for darkness to descend over Nashville. We had about an hour before the fireworks were due to start so we began chatting to the people around us who were completely shocked we were from Australia. They couldn’t get over how far away we were from home and they wanted to ask all of the usual questions.
“Do you see Kangaroos on the street?” – “Well it depends where you live, but generally not close to the cities”
“Does it get hot in Australia?” – “Yes really hot, but it does also snow in some parts of the country”
“Is it weird driving on the other side of the road?” – “We are used to driving on the right side of the road now, but we learn to drive on the left so the left is normal for us”
We were also asked some unusual questions.
“Do you celebrate Christmas?” – “Yes we celebrate Christmas on the 25th December and we also celebrate Easter”
“What cell phone companies do you have in Australia?” – “We have different companies to you here in the US”
We had begun to find that while we were in the southern states, people knew of Australia as a country far away but didn’t know many other things about it, and while most people were too embarrassed to ask some questions, some people just went straight for it and asked whatever came to their mind. Which seemed to please the other people around them because they would nod in agreement and repeat the question. We also found that people seemed too polite to ask where we were from. They could tell straight away we weren’t from there but they always stopped themselves from asking so we would always volunteer the information early into a conversation.

THEPLACESWE_2017_USA-2-4 — Nashville on the 4th of July

The fireworks eventually began and went for just over half an hour! They were quite spectacular but by the end we were checking our watches to see how much longer. Once they did finish though we made our way to our hotel to drop our camera off and grab some food. It was getting late but we figured there would still be people out and about so we went back out only to find that the streets had emptied almost completely save for the cleaning crews and the groups of late night stragglers. We assumed everyone had either left or gone into bars or clubs so we walked around to see if anything in particular caught our eye which was when we noticed a huge group of people yelling and crowing around, with police standing by trying to get them to move along. Not sure what was happening we stood for a bit and watched until we realised the crowd was moving towards us. Not wanting to get caught up in what we thought could become violent we began walking away quickly. We found that there were a few other people in the same situation as us – they had been walking around, noticed the crowd, stopped, and then found the crowd heading towards them. We made it back to the street our hotel was on and just as we turned onto the street the crowd continued walking past, heading in the direction of the park. We figured that was the sign that the night was over.

August 22, 2017August 21, 2017

It’s just too hot!

We’ve been feeling like we aren’t really able to use our van for it’s intended purpose because it’s been too hot here. It’s been an average of 45 degrees each day and it barely drops below 35 degrees at night so we’ve had to stay in a lot of hotels. It’s been like that since we left Vegas. After being amazed by the Grand Canyon we drove to a town called Page and once we got there found that nothing was open apart from McDonalds so we ate McDonalds for dinner and went straight to sleep, waking up bright and early the next morning so that we could watch the sunrise at Horseshoe Bend. The colours in this part of America have been amazing, intensified by sunrises and sunsets so we stayed at the bend for a while before heading back to the hotel to chill out for a couple of hours before going out to Antelope Canyon – a place we had both been dying to see!

The Antelope Canyon didn’t disappoint, although the compulsory tour did. Our tour guy smelt like he had had a big night and he looked almost as bad as he smelt. We made sure to hang out at the end of the tour so that our nostrils weren’t assaulted by the smell. Even though it was probably one of the worst tours we had been on we didn’t care. The canyon itself was amazing and we enjoyed hanging at the back of the tour, taking it all in on our own. I had never seen anything naturally shaped the way this was and with such vibrant colours. It was well worth the compulsory tour!

AADSC01426 — The amazing colours at Antelope Canyon

We left Antelope Canyon excited for what the next few days would hold. Mark had planned out the next week with hotels booked so all we had to do was drive and take in the sites. Our next major stop was a visit to Zion National Park. Mark really wanted to do the Angels Landing Hike and he had shown me photos of it. It looked really difficult so we packed backpacks each and prepared ourselves for an intense hike. The group of 21 continuous switchbacks was meant to be the hardest part before reaching the main landing and it was intense but after a few of the hikes we had done recently it actually wasn’t that bad. What was full on was the part after the main landing. Mark had told me that there was a part of the hike that went up the spine of the mountain so they had a chain that you could use to hold on. In my mind this didn’t bother me but once we got to the landing and I looked up at the next part I realised the landing was only half way up and the small chain section we had just walked through was nothing compared to what we had to do. A fear of heights I never knew I had suddenly came up and I couldn’t seem to bring myself to move my legs to get going. We sat down for a while and Mark tried to convince me I would be okay. After probably 10 minutes I stood up and said “lets go”. I didn’t want to psych myself out of it so we began the climb up and during the climb I found myself unable to look out over the edge of the mountain. Once we finally made it to the top I was relieved to be on flat ground but also still nervous about the sheer drops on either side of me. We stayed up there for a little bit until a huge gust of wind came and I said it was time to go. The climb down was much easier and we were able to take our time, stopping on any flat parts to take in the view and we both agreed that Zion was so far our favourite National Park in the US.

Zion – our favourite National Park so far!

Bryce Canyon was our next adventure for the following day and we thought we would take it easy so we didn’t get up early like we normally do. That turned out to be a mistake because once we got there it was already full of people. We only walked along the shorter trails here but after a few hours we were back at our van, starving and tired. That didn’t matter though because we had more driving to do so we got back to the car and took off for Moab. Moab itself was not a very interesting town but we found a mechanic who could look over our van to check everything was still okay so we stayed for a couple of days. The mechanic looked over everything, changed the oil in the van and then confirmed that our “battery probably wouldn’t last much longer.” So a new battery it was. On our last day in Moab we packed our backpacks and were at Arches National Park as soon as the road in was opened. We drove straight to a hiking trail we wanted to do and set off. It was a short hike but pretty much on a constant incline so I was so glad to get to the top. Once there, we sat around for a while and ate the breakfast we had packed ourselves and watched people continually drop things and race after them as the began rolling down the ledge. We left before anything of importance or someone began rolling down the ledge – you would be surprised how many people don’t think when it comes to places like that.

June 19, 2017July 4, 2017

Let’s do this!

We got back to Calgary on Sunday afternoon and hung out with our friends for the last time in what would be a few months. Monday morning we woke up and went to pick up the last thing we were waiting on – roof awning mounts. We picked them up and then drove back to the house to sort everything out. We packed almost all of our things into the van and then chilled out in the afternoon. Tuesday morning we were up (much later than we wanted) and drove out to our friends’ parents’ house to say goodbye. We ate lunch there and had a cup of tea before calling the border crossing to check two things. First, what time they were open until, and second if we were able to keep our vertical garden herbs or if we had to get rid of them. We weren’t able to keep them so we emptied the pots into some buckets and waved goodbye. The drive to the border was uneventful and when we arrived the crossing was empty, we were the only car there. We drove up to the window where we were asked a few questions and then told to park as we had to go inside. We thought we were inside because they wanted to ask us more questions but they just wanted us to pay the $12 fee and scan our passports. After a couple of minutes we were officially in the USA and were quite relieved at how quick the process was, it meant we could drive even longer. We drove into Montana and continued south, aiming for the town of Bozeman. We made it and were so tired we thought we would just check into a hotel as it would be easier for us to wake up and go. As it turns out, Bozeman was all the rage that night and every hotel was booked out so we pulled into the car park at Walmart and spent our first night of our US road trip there. Waking up the next morning we looked haggard but had no time to dawdle, we had a roof awning to pick up and install. So we drove to a mechanics shop, picked up the awning we had ordered online through them (shipping to Canada was going to take too long) and drove to yet another car park, this time one for a hardware store. Once there Mark pulled out his toolbox and got to work whilst I sat in the car and relaxed, only getting up when I was called to “hold this here for me”. After a couple of return trips into the store, Mark had the awning secured to the roof racks and we were off to Nevada. We made it to Nevada that night and were lucky enough to get one of the last hotel rooms in the town – we couldn’t spend two consecutive nights at Walmart, we needed showers. Our original plan the next morning was to drive all the way to Yosemite National Park but one of the main roads was closed which meant hours were added to our driving. We made it as far as Lake Tahoe and pulled into a camp ground and set up camp that night. The next morning I awoke on my 25^th Birthday to our usual routine of cooking, cleaning and packing up, before more driving. Mark drove most of the day and we arrived in the late afternoon in a town just outside of Yosemite. We got the last fully powered site and began setting up our little home. It was so hot there that it felt like the heat sucked the air out of you but it was nice to sit down under our new awning with some snacks, drinks and play a game of Italian cards. It was here that Mark handed me his phone and said Happy Birthday. I looked down and there was a video on there, so I pressed play and began watching my cousin unwrap my birthday present for me – a new handbag. I smiled and said thank you and when Mark asked if I was surprised my reply was “Do you want me to be honest or lie?” “You knew?” he asked me. “Well, last night when you asked me to check your phone to see who had messaged you I saw you had a message from Shan telling you it was all wrapped, so I put two and two together but I didn’t want to tell you because you tried so hard to surprise me.” His reply was simply “fuck, I knew it.” So we sat around and laughed about this for a while before getting an early night sleep for Yosemite the next day.

We had a bag packed with lunch and water as well as some sunscreen and the camera. We began the hike up and straight away we were glad we started early in the morning because the sun was already so hot. The hike itself was difficult but made more so with the sun burning into you for most of the way up. I had to constantly stop just to walk off the path and into some shade. We eventually made it to the top (not without some tears from me) and were immediately thankful for the trees up there giving much needed shade. I wanted to take a photo of Mark sitting on the edge of the cliff because he seemed to be able to get so close to the edge but when I moved closer to the edge I discovered that a cliff top with a sheer drop below is not really for me so I quickly took the photo of Mark and left to make lunch. On our decent down from the top we run out of water half way down and were so glad it was on the way down, not the way up because we watched so many people, only half way up, already out of water and in the peak of the afternoon sun and we began to worry for these strangers. Did they realise the path was in the sun most of the way up? Did they realise there was no water taps along the way? We didn’t think they did, and shortly after half way down a lady stopped me to ask if I could take a photo of her and her family. After I did she asked me how much longer to the top and my reply of 2 hours shocked her. I looked around at her and her family and saw that only a couple of them had water bottles and all of them were empty. When I asked her if they had water she told me that they had already run out. This shocked me because even though Mark and I had run out of water, that was on the way down and once we got to the shaded part. These people hadn’t even began the hardest part of the hike and they had no water. I advised them to get more water and then continued walking to catch up to Mark. I wonder if they listened to me or if they kept going. Right near the bottom a man stopped us and asked how much further to the top. Mark told him and then his reply was “Can I have some of your water?” we both looked at him in shock because surely he didn’t plan on hiking the entire thing without any water, but we told him we were out of water ourselves. Once at the bottom of the trail we walked another 2kms back to the visitor centre and filled up our water bottles. After that we slowly made our way back to the van to sit down, eat and take off our shoes. My feet were so swollen it hurt to walk in thongs but while Mark got the van ready I went and bought a bag of ice and emptied it into a bucket where we cooled our feet and I waited for mine to return to a normal size. Once they finally did, we ate lunch, for the second time that day, and then began yet more driving towards Sequoia National Park. On the drive we spoke about how much more difficult the hike was than we expected and how unprepared we were, even though we were so much more prepared than other people. We decided to stop at the first Walmart we saw and bought hats, additional water resoviours, a small backpack for me and some small water bottles. All up we would have about 8 litres of water for future hikes, which should be plenty.

AADSC00977 — The amazing view from the top of our hike

We made it to a town called Three Rivers just before dark and booked into a hotel because it is so hot outside there is no way we could sleep in the van. Once we checked in we thought it would be a good idea to go get petrol now so we didn’t have to in the morning. When we were about to leave the petrol station a lady asked us if we could give her a lift back in as it was too hot for her to walk all the way back. She jumped in the passenger seat whilst I sat on the floor between the two seats and she told us about her job – she drove Mennonite and Amish girls around for their summer break before they went back to their communities to begin the process of finding a husband. The drive was only about 5 minutes long so we didn’t get to learn more. As I sit here I’m thinking that I should do some research on the small bit of information she gave us but in the end I’m so hot and tired, I just want to go to sleep.

Love, a very tired B xxx

December 6, 2016December 6, 2016

Canada ey

For our past week in Canada we have spent the majority of our time with an old friend of Mark’s (back from his Canada days) and his girlfriend. What still amazes me along this trip is the hospitality of friends and family but especially those we don’t expect it from. Steve and Danelle have been amazing from the moment we saw them. They came out on a Thursday night to have drinks with us, stayed out until late, went to work the next day and then met up with us again the next night for dinner. This was all before they picked us up at 5:00am on Saturday morning in their RV full of beer, wine, food & snow gear. They had planned out our weekend for us and for the first time in a long time we didn’t have to organise a thing. We arrived at Sunshine, hired snowboards and jumped on to the gondola. It has been maybe 3 years since I’ve been to the snow to attempt to learn to snowboard and so this time around it was just starting from scratch although in much better snow than we find back home. After Mark spent an hour or so with me we met up with Steve & Danelle to sit in the snow and have a drink and chat before the 3 of them went off to go down a few runs together. After they were done we ate some lunch and then all went for a ride together, I again spent more time on my ass than I would like to admit but hey, gotta start somewhere. We spent the night in a campground in Banff and made a trip out to the town for dinner where we encountered more Aussies & Kiwis than we did at ANZAC Day in Gallipoli. They were everywhere and we learnt that most people would just assume we lived and worked there when they heard us speak.

Waking up in the RV after such a deep sleep and stepping outside in the cold was surprisingly refreshing. I am glad though that we parked as close as we could to the bathrooms because it quickly stopped being refreshing and quickly became cold. The only shower in the bathroom was occupied and I felt like a bit of a creep waiting in the bathroom for the lady to finish but I didn’t want to lose my place in the imaginary line I had conjured up in my mind and therefore keep everyone waiting. It didn’t take too long though and when I made it back to the RV everything was packed up ready to go. We drove back to the town and bought breakfast before stopping by Lake Louise to have a drink, enjoy the scenery and just relax before we were dropped off at our hotel and Steve and Danelle made their way back home.

The next two days we spent at Lake Louise. The first day Mark spent up on the hill snowboarding and I spent the day doing nothing that was particularly interesting but all the same needed to be done – I worked on our trip. When Mark got back I asked him how his day was and all I got back was “I was sick”. I thought at first it was something he ate so started asking him about everything he ate during the day to which he just shook his head and said “No, I was sick because I was so exhausted.” And at this I just laughed and knew he would be sore the next day but he unfortunately had to drive us into town so we could eat.

screen-shot-2016-11-21-at-8-49-29-pm — Mark out and about

On the second day we packed our things into the hire car and spent one last day together on the hill. We left Lake Louise that day and drove to Radium Springs to enjoy a bit of quiet and also enjoy the hot pool. We spent the night there and the next day after a quick last stop at Banff Mark put an address into Google Maps and told me to direct. When I looked at it I saw it was a Cinema. Not sure if that was correct I asked him where we were going and his reply was “I thought we would kill some time and go see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. I love Harry Potter so going to see the movie at an actual cinema was so exciting I sat with a smile on my face the entire drive but then wasn’t focussing and nearly caused us to take a wrong turn which would have meant delays and we were already running down to the minute. We got there though and the act of walking into the cinema reminded me so much of home it was strange. When we got to the counter though we had just missed the screening by about 2 minutes. After 30 seconds of slight panic on my behalf Mark bought tickets to the next one which was in 15 minutes. One movie, one large popcorn, two large drinks and a bag of Twix later I actually skipped to the car. I was so happy and excited – I can’t wait for the next movies to come out! We drove to Steve and Danelle’s straight from the cinema and met them there for a drink before we went out for one last dinner at a BBQ House. We ate, drank and laughed for hours before it was time to go home because although we haven’t worked for close to a year, they still had their normal lives to attend to the next day.

And so that next day brings us to today. After saying thank you and goodbye we drove to the airport (stopped by McDonald’s for breakfast on the way), flew to Toronto and then got the shuttle bus to our hotel where we have had dinner, packed our bags and I finally managed to book a house to stay at in Havana, Cuba, where we flew to tomorrow. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. We don’t expect to have much internet (if any) in Cuba so you might not hear from us for a while.

Until we are back, our love, B & Mark xxx

November 25, 2016

New York, New York

After an easy flight from Iceland we arrived at JFK Airport in New York and I was pretty excited but also trying to act cool… Customs officers always make me nervous; I never know if I should smile or frown, look at them or look away but while I was being pre-occupied with my internal struggle of if I was smiling too much the officer handed us our passports and through we walked into America. We grabbed a cab and waited patiently for the drive to end so we could get to our apartment and start exploring. If you were to look up the definition for rush hour traffic you would find New York City there which meant by the time we got to our apartment the time difference from Iceland had started to hit us and we were getting hungry. All we did for our first night in NYC is eat and then sleep, which was probably a good thing considering the mood New Yorkers were in after the election results. The next day however we were up early and our first stop was Washington Square Park to check out the archway and fountain. The archway was there as was the waterless fountain. Not to worry though because we were in NYC and nothing could ruin our mood. That first day we quickly became familiar with the NY Subway system and also become very familiar with all of the interesting people, smells and sounds that can be found below the surface of NYC.

We’ve learnt to get up as soon as the sun rises, if not before to start our days when we are in heavy tourist areas so we got up early and made our way out to Brooklyn for our morning walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We were lucky enough to experience Brooklyn Bridge with the locals while they all started their days with their morning routines; walking, running, or riding. We decided to spend the morning doing our laundry because we knew if we left it any longer we would be exploring NYC in our summer clothes so we picked up our bags of dirty clothes, grabbed a coffee (hot chocolate for me) from our new ‘local’ cafe and made our way to the laundromat. 2 hours later we had bags full of clean clothes and were ready to start our real exploration of the city that never sleeps.

We are lucky enough to have a couple of friends from Melbourne living in NY so we caught up with them to get their recommendations on what we should do while there. Because of them we were able to eat some amazing food and visit some amazing sites free of charge thanks to their memberships. Thanks also to the US Election we were also cut off from many roads and access paths due to protests. I found the protests themselves quite uneventful to be honest except for one where a lady started yelling at us to join in. At this point I thought about trying to tell her that we weren’t American but didn’t think she would actually care and sure enough after about 30 seconds of yelling she was back walking with the crowd. These posts I write are never meant to be about politics, they are only meant to be about our trip but I’ve learnt a lot throughout our travels so far and I believe I am quite well versed on the world these days. One of the main things that has stood out from our travels for me, and I know Mark feels the same, is that a lot of people never see how deep a scar runs. People living in cities all over the world who have jobs and can support themselves rarely think about the indirect affect a government’s policy can have on their own population and on those who were already doing it tough. I don’t think any country is perfect in the way they do things but I strongly associate myself with the government and social systems of Scandinavian countries. The sense of pride and gratefulness shown by so many Scandinavians about politics is truly unbelievable and I hope that in the future Australia heads more towards the Scandinavian way of life instead of the American. There are simply too many people hurting in America that are being left behind and forgotten about thanks to the media. There are many places I would like to live in this world, American is not one of them. I find this feeling of mine hard to handle when I absolutely loved New York.

After 3 full days of exploring it was Sunday so we slept in and then went and treated ourselves to brunch. After brunch we went back to our apartment to pick up our bag and while Mark sat down to do a bit of research on where we should go, I did some research on tattoo shops that take walk ins. I easily found heaps but after a bit more research I found one I liked and showed Mark. We had already agreed on what tattoos we were going to get but once we looked at them again there was something that just didn’t feel right so I began researching new ones and quickly found ones that we felt worked better – bind runes symbolising love. We sent photos of them to our phone and off we went to see if the tattoo shop could fit us in and within minutes they were leading us through to meet our tattooist and get everything set up. I went first and it was over so quickly with minimal pain. I don’t understand though how people could sit there for hours. Mark went after me and after an hour the entire process was done and we were walking out of the shop with our new tattoos – Mark’s second and my first. Now we’ll never forget NY. We spent the rest of the day with one of our friends as she showed us around the Chelsea Markets. We ate the most amazing lobster and tacos that we vowed to be back there before we left for Canada.

Monday was the start of another week and thankfully talk of the election was slowly (and I mean at a snail’s pace) starting to die down. The weather was starting to go downhill on Monday so we tried to fit in a few of the last things on our list and before we knew it the day was over. Our days in NY just went by and before we knew it we only had 2 days left. Our second last day was met with pouring rain so we hung out inside and began organising ourselves for our trip to Canada. We applied for our ESA’s and mine came through straight away that it had been approved, Mark’s however came back ‘pending’. This caused Mark to go into slight panic mode but within an hour he was all smiles after getting his ‘approved’ email. To further lift his spirits we went to Chelsea Pier Driving Range where I agreed to let Mark try to teach me how to hit a golf ball. It wasn’t quite as boring as I always imagined it to be but I can’t say I could stand there and hit over 100 golf balls. Leaving the driving range we walked past a sign for the bowling alley so we turned and went and played 2 games of ten pin bowling. Mark won the first game but I won the second so I was happy to leave it at that… I hate losing. Before we knew it we were back at our apartment packing our bags getting ready for our last day in New York.

For our last day we decided to head out of the city and drive up state to Storm King Art Centre. The drive up there was really nice and we were able to see so much of New York. The first thing we noticed when we arrived at Storm King was the fresh air thanks to the large open space. To make the most of our day and to see as much as we could we rented bikes and rode around. It was so peaceful compared to NYC that at some of the art installations we stopped and sat down on the grass just to take in the tranquility. Of course driving back into NYC took some much longer than it did to get out so by the time we dropped the car off we were happy to be done with it and jumped back onboard the subway to head to Soho and then Times Square just one last time.

325cc975-0fe3-4f92-90b8-77bb8bfda94d — Getting that pout on at Storm King.

I loved New York and although I’m looking forward to the several weeks, I can’t wait to get back to the city and next time it will be for New Years Eve.

And now, off to Canada we go!

November 10, 2016November 10, 2016

Ummm it’s cold here.

We woke up early in Rome to say goodbye to my family and then walked around Rome and ate breakfast at the Colosseum while the sun rose. It was the perfect end to our time in ‘mainland’ Europe. When we got back to our hotel we packed our bags, checked out and walked to Roma Termini station to head to the airport. Once at the airport it was anarchy. An airport staff member yelled at us to move our bags, we weren’t able to find the start of the priority check in line, and once we got to a check in counter our booking didn’t show up on their system so we were pushed aside while someone tried to sort it out for us. The plus side to all of that was that the lady who checked us in was the most hilarious ‘check-in lady’ we’ve ever had. She was not shy to express her frustration and utter disappointment at how her day was turning out. We eventually got through all formalities and were on our flight to Berlin. I will say that neither of us were happy to be at Berlin airport. It is probably one of the worst airports we have been to, and we’ve been there multiple times. And so after walking around for a while, sitting in the lounge for a while, and sitting on the plane for a while, we finally took off and flew to Reykjavik.

We arrived at Keflavik airport and we so amazed at the airport that we knew it was going to be a good 10 days. I don’t care what people say – first impressions do matter. We walked out, got on the bus and 45 minutes later were standing outside a hotel that wasn’t ours, looking for the apartment that was ours. We found it pretty easily, or so we thought. We walked into the apartment block just as some people were walking out and then were stuck inside trying to find our apartment for half an hour. At this stage it’s 3.00am and I’m wondering about the people who left the building and what they were doing leaving so late and wondering if Mark had managed to find our actual apartment while searching outside. Mark eventually showed up again and we left to go to our apartment. Once we got inside we were both so tired but also so hungry. It was while we were organising our phone chargers that Mark asked me where his Kindle was. I froze and my heart skipped a bit. “Fuck!” I thought. I knew exactly where it was, it was in the seat pocket of seat F23 on our plane. I put it there where Mark was falling asleep but in my daze I forgot to get it out or tell him where I put it. I was so annoyed at myself, 1. for forgetting and 2. because it was going to cost us money to replace it, and these days that money just adds more days to our trip. Let’s just say I had a very fitful 3 hour sleep before my alarm went off and we were up, dressed and out the door. Reykjavik at dawn is a beautiful city but my god it was cold. After walking the city we went back to our apartment to have breakfast and so I could sit on the phone and hope that Mark’s Kindle was turned in by flight attendants, assuming that found it. I felt such relief when the rather grumpy lady on the phone told me that she had his Kindle. Yep, it was going to be a good day. We picked up our car that afternoon and had an early night so we could try to catch up on sleep we had missed.

The next few days we were up early each morning to make it out to different sites before the sun rose and before the crowds moved in. At some points along our drive we would drive out onto a gravel road and within 5 minutes were completely isolated, it was something truly amazing and after 2 days it was odd if we encountered other people. We stopped to visit so many waterfalls along our journey and the raw power of some were breathtaking. My favourite however was the Seljanfoss waterfall. We were there early in the morning by ourselves and were able to walk around behind the waterfall to watch the water cascading down in front of us. Even though the water spraying on my face was so cold it went numb I loved it there. It was simply beautiful.

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After a few days we began to slow down and relax a little bit, after all, there are only so many waterfalls you can see before they all begin to blur. Toning down our chase for waterfalls worked well because we began our chase of the northern lights. On our first night we stopped in an open area and were looking for any hint of them in the sky. At the beginning we could see a silver glow in the sky but weren’t sure if we were in a good spot. While we waited Mark got out of the car and started taking photos to practise and get the camera settings right. After a couple of shots and getting the settings where he wanted we looked at the last photo and part of the sky was green. Turns out we were in a great spot to see the lights except clouds had moved in so without the camera we were only able to see a glow. We were happy with our find and the next night were out again, only this time to an even better spot and within a few minutes of arriving we could see them. It was so strange to see them with our own eyes and not through pictures. Ever since I watched Balto as a kid I always wanted to see the lights so I’m so glad I was able to see them in my life and with Mark beside me.

Have you ever seen anything so ‘out of this world’?

Our last few days were spent further out in eastern Iceland where we were able to see huge glaciers just off the side of the road. From the road they look huge but once you drive down the gravel roads and walk to the edges of the glaciers you appreciate the enormity of them. It’s not just the size that gets you though, it’s the look. The whiteness of the glaciers with the bright blue glow against the black mountainous backdrop is stunning.

We left eastern Iceland and drove 4 and a half hours back to Reykjavik and checked into a beautiful hotel. The first thing we did after checking in was venture up to the bar for the free tastings. Free chocolate and drinks? Yes please. The next day we took it easy before heading out to the Blue Lagoon in the afternoon where we could relax in the thermal pools which was the perfect end to our Iceland experience. To top it all off though Mark bought last minute tickets to see Björk at the Harpa in Reykjavik and afterwards we ate hot dogs for dinner – So Icelandic of us!

We both loved our time in Iceland but are looking forward to heading to New York especially now that they have voted for a new President. Let’s see what’s changed in 24 hours.

Love, an intrigued B x

November 4, 2016November 4, 2016

Here come the Griswolds

Leaving Denmark for Rome was a bit of a shock to the system but oddly enough we felt at home. We have after all spent months of our trip in Italy. We got a taxi out to our apartment to meet my family there to find that they were all out and about exploring so Mark and I walked up to a restaurant, ordered a pizza and ate. After finishing our food we went to wait outside the apartment as we didn’t have a key. I sat down to read while Mark played his guitar and after an hour and a half my family showed up. Months ago I would have said it was going to be emotional but before I saw there I knew it wasn’t going to be. I speak to them quite often and if it’s not on FaceTime then it’s via emails or messages – they also keep track of what we are doing via our blog and Instagram. It was nice seeing them all and it’s funny how even after being away for 8 months, our relationships just didn’t change.

The next morning Mark and I woke up early to go to the Trevi Fountain and before we knew it almost everyone was up and walking out the door with us.

It was funny watching them over the next few days grapple with their jet lag. I always find that you think you’re doing fine and then it just hits you like a tonne of bricks, and slowly, one by one, without them really noticing that it was happening they all experienced their jet lag. The next 2 days in Rome Mark and I were getting used to the idea of travelling with 9 other people and then once we thought we had the hang of it we got a flight to Bratislava. One of the main reasons for my family’s trip was to meet relatives and Bratislava was where my mum and two aunties were to meet their father’s family. My grandfather had one younger brother who married and had a daughter. My grandfather died many years ago and as a result my mum and aunties have minimal memories of him so meeting direct relatives of his was a huge thing for them all. It was an emotional 3 days for them all and I know memories were created that will last a lifetime. It was an teary goodbye for everyone but everyone was so happy to have had the opportunity to meet.

We left on the train for Prague early afternoon and it was just like a circus rolling into town. We got to Bratislava station early just so we could take our time and I’m so glad we did. Once everyone was settled the 4 hour train trip went pretty quickly and with 30 minutes to go the Griswolds aka my family, starting bringing all of their luggage down and preparing themselves to disembark. We arrived to a rainy and cold Prague and once we got to their apartment everyone was happy. The apartment was beautiful but didn’t have room for Mark and I so while everyone went out to explore Mark and I jumped online to find somewhere to stay. A couple of hours later we had checked into our own place and met up back at their apartment. This was pretty much the pattern for the next 2 days. Mark and I would meet up with everyone at some point in the day and we would hang out for a while. We didn’t have a great experience when we were in Prague earlier in the year and our visit there this time was a bit non eventful except for the fact I got my hair cut again. This time it’s actually all gone!

We left Prague late in the afternoon and caught 2 flights to Ancona, Italy where we were to meet my dad’s relatives. Mark and I had spent 3 weeks with them so seeing them again was quite easy for us but it was emotional for my Dad to see his aunty and uncle who he hadn’t seen for 30 years. We spent 5 days in Ancona, visiting relatives and seeing some sites when we could. The main event the family put on for us was a huge family reunion where more that 70 people came to see ‘the family from Australia’. It was an amazing night and we were so grateful to be able to meet so many people who we were related to in some way. I think it was more amazing for my Dad as he was able to speak to everyone with the need of a translator like the rest of us. Towards the end of the night Mark managed to get a group photo of everyone which was absolutely amazing.

We left Ancona with bags full of food curtesy of my Dad’s family. The quick train ride to Venice was really easy and when we arrived Mark and I pointed my family in the direction of their water bus while we walked in the opposite direction towards ours. After google maps sent us to a completely different address we eventually found our way to our apartment and settled in. I had always wanted to go to Venice but being there in the windy, cold weather didn’t really match what I had imagined so I promised myself I would be back one day in summer and then was able to continue on enjoying our short time there. We spent a day checking out the Burano and Murano islands. While we were all standing around waiting for Mark and James to relax after their ‘friendly’ wrestling match I noticed something fall on Mark’s head and then when I looked up I saw a huge seagull had just flown over us, and then quickly putting 2 and 2 together I realised that Mark had been shat on. The laughter and commotion that followed was hilarious and once I had cleaned all of the bird shit from Mark’s hair we were ready to go get some drinks! On our last day we took a gondola ride because you can’t go to Venice without getting one and it was the perfect end to our trip to Venice.

We were staying in a beautiful Tuscan Villa that took hours to get to by the time we left Venice, got the train and then drove to the countryside. It was such an amazing house and we spent the week there cooking, drinking and simply relaxing. We woke up early one day during our stay there and drove out to Pisa. It was a long drive for a relatively short visit but it was a great experience, especially once we got everyone involved in taking the classic tourist shot. We found that, at the right angle, the photos looked great!

After our short visit to Pisa we drove back to our Villa, stopping off to have lunch at the amazing Antinori Winery. The architecture, gardens and vineyards there were so spectacular that after lunch we spent an hour walking around admiring everything.

We left Tuscany for Sorrento, just south of Naples. Arriving at Napoli Centrale station was a stark contrast to where we had been further north. There is a local train that can take you straight from Napoli Centrale to Sorrento station and when I asked everyone they were all happy to get the local train. So as soon as we arrived we headed for the local train and were engulfed by a sea of people. It was quite an adventure just getting through the crowds and down to the platform but we had just missed the train so had a 20 minute wait before the next one. While everyone was slightly anxious (I had told them all to be vigilant with their belongings as Naples was famous for it’s pickpockets) and waiting for the train, the crowds around us started to grow and before we knew it the platform was packed. Our train was approaching so we all pushed forward and my aunty had told Chris to go first because she didn’t want to hold him up. As soon as the train arrived though she panicked, ran, tripped and fell, blocking the pathway onto the train. Once somebody (maybe my uncle?) helped her up and we were all on board the train like sardines we were in tears of laughter. (Disclaimer:We checked she was ok and once we knew she was we were free to laugh.) And so began our last week together we spent it in Sorrento which is such a picturesque holiday town that it was the perfect way to end my family’s holiday. On the sunniest day there we got the ferry across to Capri where we hired a private boat to take us on a tour around the island and just like so many other parts of Italy it was amazing. It was also my mum’s birthday while there so we hired Fiat 500s and drove the Amalfi Coast for the day. Mark booked us lunch at a restaurant high above Positano and the view and food there was unsurpassable. I don’t think it’s a birthday my mum is likely to forget any time soon! The last 2 days in Sorrento Mark and I had some planning to do for the next part of our trip so everyone else went off to Naples and Pompeii and on our last night in Sorrento we ended it with a family dinner with possibly one too many bottles of wine.

We took yet another train back to Rome and once there we packed our bags and sorted everything out. I had done quite a lot of shopping in the past month so bought another suitcase to send home with them all. At one point it looked like everyone was carrying some of my shopping! The next day we were up super early to say goodbye to them all. It was an emotional goodbye for me because every other time I’ve said goodbye it was always goodbye until a certain date, this time the date is unknown so it’s goodbye until we see each other again. Once we saw them off Mark and I walked to the Colosseum, bought ourselves some breakfast and sat and ate while the sun rose. It was the perfect end to our time in Europe. We arrived in Rome for the first time in the middle of April and now here we are, end of October finally saying goodbye to Europe.

Our time spent in Europe was a dream come true and when I look back I’m constantly trying to remember things that have already begun to slip my mind. I think it will be time soon to go back and start reading my blog posts. Europe is such an amazing place and Italy truly began to feel like a second home to us. I can’t wait to come back here again but for now it’s time to move on to new places and it feels like another adventure is just about to start. First stop – Iceland!

Love, a soon to be very cold, B

October 1, 2016

I Am Pilgrim

Lisbon is such a cool city. Both Mark and I liked it as soon as we arrived and over the 2 days we were there we spent them walking around the city, enjoying the sun and enjoying the city. Towards the afternoon on our second day there we stopped by a market place set up with small restaurants selling food. We sat down straight away, ordered a starter of tuna in passion fruit and a glass of rosé each. We finished our food quite quickly and our wine even quicker and moved onto the oyster bar where we down 6 oysters between us and moved on again but this time to a deli where we bought fresh figs stuffed with prosciutto. I didn’t even sit down to eat mine, just took the plate from the lady, picked the fig up and ate it while standing. By this stage we were in a great mood but were literally eating through our money so we decided to have a quick walk around before heading to our apartment. This then turned into us finding the Gin Bar and ordering 2 gin and tonics, after which Mark thought another glass of rosè would be lovely. I was struggling to get through the G&T so gave Mark my wine glass. Back at our apartment we sat down and looked for a cheap place to eat dinner after blowing most of our money at the market. It was while we were looking for dinner that I started to feel sick. I laid down and an hour later was experiencing probably the most violent case of food poisoning I’ve had since I was in Mongolia a couple of years ago (that’s a whole other story). Mark later told me that he had been feeling sick too but after seeing what I was going through forced his body to get over it. I went to bed hungry and so exhausted that Mark woke up early the next morning to pack my bag for me so I could sleep a bit longer. He also left me at the apartment to go pick up our rental car, again giving me more time to sleep.

I can’t say I remember much of the drive as I slept as much as I could but as we got closer to Peniche we started to notice this thick fog everywhere and as we pulled into town we could barely see a thing. It was like this for the whole day so we just drove around checking out places close by and planning our few days there. The whole reason we went to Peniche was so that Mark could surf and I could learn to surf. Thanks to the fog and cold weather I sat on the beach each day in a jumper and read while Mark braved the cold water to surf. Had the weather been warmer in Peniche our time there would have been even better but despite the cold we still had a great time. I was looking forward to heading down south though because the weather forecast was much warmer there. We left Peniche early one morning and drove south to a place called Salema on the Algarve coast. Salema is a really small town so there isn’t a whole lot to do there. Our days there were spent driving to some sites and towns nearby. We hired a kayak one day and paddled for awhile around the caves and rock formations along the coast. After nearly being run over by 2 boats we decided it was maybe best we turn around and head back in. By this stage my arms were killing me and because we swapped and I sat behind Mark on the way back I found it was easy to just relax and let him paddle. Once he realised what I was doing he was constantly looking over his shoulder trying to get me to participate. The Algarve coastline is so beautiful and I loved our time there so I was a bit sad to be leaving.

algarve — Beautiful spot along the Algarve coast

On the morning we had to leave we were up early and out the door by 8am so we could drive 2 hours and get to Monte Rei by 10am. Now before you go googling Monte Rei to see what kind of town it is I will stop you there. It isn’t a town as such but a County Club and Golf Course. Yes, that’t right, we were there to play golf. I don’t play golf but I am an excellent golf cart driver so I drove while Mark played 18 holes. To occupy myself I had downloaded a new book and after 2 holes I decided the book was more important than driving so Mark drove both of us around the golf course.

golf_fotor — This is what a backpackers golfing attire looks like – a mix of old, borrowed and new.

My day went super quick thanks to my book and by the time we were at our new accommodation it was late afternoon but not so late that the sun was hidden so I quickly changed and sat by the pool to continue reading. To be honest I can’t really tell you what Mark did that afternoon because I wasn’t really paying attention. And so the next day when he asked me what I wanted to do my first answer was to continue reading which is exactly what I did. I spent the entire day moving around the accommodation grounds reading either in the sun or in the shade. It was after I had moved a third time that I noticed Mark had been following me and he now had quite a large collection of photos of me reading. Again, I can’t really tell you what else he did that day apart from follow me around with his camera for a bit and drive us to go get lunch. By the time I was in bed I only had a few chapters to go and of course there was no way I was going to sleep until I had finished the book.

file-oct-01-10-19-02-pm — One of the photos Mark took while he was following me around

I finished the book and had a very restless sleep thinking all about it. I love books in general but I especially love books that play on your mind days after you’ve finished reading them. That book was one of them – it’s called I Am Pilgrim and even as I write this post I can’t clear my mind entirely of it so I will quickly tell you that we are at Rome Airport waiting for our flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. First stop will be the Royal Palace to say hello to our fellow Aussie, Princess Mary.

Love, I Am Pilgrim

July 8, 2016July 8, 2016

The land of a thousand smiles

Hello Ireland. Looks like there’s a bit of rain here. Any chance of it stopping over the next few days?

Just like our day in London, Ireland wanted to show us what it was like for locals for a large part of the year, so it rained and then barely stopped for our 4 days there.

We spent our first day in Dublin and our first stop was a pub where we had fish & chips and a pint. Well, Mark had a pint, I had a coke and to be honest we didn’t do much after that.

The next day we walked to the car hire office and picked up our car so that we could start our short road trip. We drove from Dublin to Middleton so that we could stop off at the Jameson Distillery and check out where all of the whiskey that Mark loves is made. We arrived just as a tour was starting so we caught up to the group and wandered around listening to how all of the different types of whiskey were made. Mark seemed to be off in his own little world and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what was happening until I called him over and he was picked to be a part of a whiskey tasting lesson and I thought he would be excited after that but he still seemed odd right up until the tour finished and we got our free drink. He seemed all fidgety and he was finally annoying me enough that I asked him what was wrong, to be which he replied “nothing’s wrong I just really want to go into the shop”. So I finished as much of my drink as I could (I don’t drink whiskey) and we went to the Jameson Distillery Shop. Mark was like a kid at Disneyland. He ran around looking at all of different types of whiskey he could buy and within 10 minutes we had walked away having bought 5 bottles to be sent back home. This resulted in a very happy Mark driving further onto Cork where he spent the whole night talking about the different types of whiskey he had bought and when he thought he would open each bottle.

Driving the next day from Cork to Galway was pretty easy except it just continued to rain with some occasion pauses for the sun to shine through. Did you know that the weather forecasts on the radio in Ireland don’t tell you when it’s going to rain, they tell you when it’s going to be sunny, or at least if they think the rain will stop. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher on our way and when we pulled into the carpark to buy tickets the lady asked us if we still wanted to go in even though there was “zero visibility”. And so I replied “ok but what does that mean?” To which she replied that we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We decided to go anyway considering we had driven so far. When we parked and walked into the national park we could see the cliffs and although there was a bit of fog it wasn’t as bad as the lady made it out to be. After getting a couple of photos we thought it would be better to walk up the hill to see them better. After walking about 100m we turned around to see if this was a better spot and they were gone! It was just like the lady said – zero visibility. Luckily we had seen them for that brief moment! We were pretty tired once we left and continued into Galway and the mood in the car dropped significantly when we made it into town only to find most of the roads closed because of a marathon. Safe to say Mark was not a happy driver when a 7 minute drive turned into an hour of being stuck. Dinner that night consisted of a bottle of wine.

DSC07367_Fotor — Before zero visibility became a reality

Our time in Ireland flew and when we left Galway to drive back to Dublin for our flight to London we managed to fit a couple more sites in along the way. We kissed the Blarbey Rock which is said to give you the ability to tell great stories and we went to the Guinness Storehouse because you can’t go to Dublin without drinking a Guinness.

The main thing we realised during our time in Ireland was just our friendly everyone was. People who had no real reason to be extra nice to us just were. It was just so nice to meet people who were happy to help us.