Fill the air with confetti thrown from the rooftops, cue the fireworks lighting up the night sky and let the trumpets from the castle towers fill the surrounding countryside with music!
WE’RE HERE ! ! !
We’re finally in Edinburgh. The last leg of our journey was no less exciting or event filled than any other portion of this adventure. We flew from Belfast to Glasgow on Ryan Air (which brings to mind other misfortunes by flying the discount carriers), and from the airport came straight to Edinburgh. This final day of travel, though only a few hours, consisted of a bus, a plane and two trains.
We now have a beautiful flat, in walking distance to the Royal Mile and Princes Street, and are spending our days not only as tourists, but as something we haven’t done in over a year – assimilating into daily life and becoming members of a community.
The last month has been rather eventful that we haven’t been able to keep up to date. We have yet to write about escaping a third strike in Greece, our time in Belgium with good friends, touring Irish countryside by car, our first attempts at couchsurfing and our time spent in Northern Ireland with family.
It has really been an amazing time, and there is a swirl of emotions as we begin our new lives, so stay in touch and we’ll tell you all about it.
While in Athens, we were happy to find there are several things to do that are free. One of the things we found was not only free, but is also an important part of the Hellenic military history. Not far from the Acropolis, just off of one of the main squares, is the Governments Parliament building. In front of the Parliament is the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. A simple and powerful stone wall monument with a relief of a fallen man. Every hour, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year they perform this routine. It has become quite a tourist attraction and tour buses queue up behind each other while hoards of gawking tourists with cameras in their hands and matching tour bus stickers plastered to their chests pour out and fill the open space in front of the tomb – like excited and aggressive ticket holders rushing the stage and elbowing each other for a better view at a free Rolling Stones concert!
Continue reading 'Changing of the Guards, Athens Greece'»
We rose with the sun and quietly snuck out of our hostel room so we didn’t wake the four others that were still sleeping off last nights drinks and good times. Wow, that sounds odd to say. We haven’t been in a hostel for the past six months. Since Australia last December. It’s not that we don’t like hostels – we lived out of them for the first five months of our trip – it’s just that from January through June – we haven’t needed to. Throughout South East Asia, they just don’t exist. The cost of a proper guesthouse/hotel is over half, and sometimes even a quarter of what it costs to stay in the dorm of a hostel. So, now we’re back in Europe, and back in hostels. Yea! Big change!
Continue reading 'Strike Four . . . We’re Out!'»
One of the excursions we did while in Dahab, on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt was to watch the sunrise from the summit of a mountain top. For our sunrise, we booked a trip to Mt. Sinai. Actually, the mountain we hiked up was in fact Mt. St. Catherine, but Mt Sinai has a better ring to it. Sure, that sounds good, after all, at 7500ft, it’s the highest peak in the Middle East, but the adventure didn’t come in enjoying the sun break across the horizon and over the mountains to the east at 6:30am, it was in having our van pick us up at 11pm the night before. That’s right. To watch the sunrise, we’d have to drive and hike all night to get there.
Continue reading 'A Magical Sunrise and Another Crazy Driver'»
From Cairo, we took what turned out to be an eleven hour bus journey east. Eleven hours . . . door to door. Leaving Cairo at 7am, we didn’t get into Dahab until 6pm that night. The journey was long, the roads were brilliant, but it was longer than we expected it to be. See, we were told it would only be eight hours. That might not seem like a lot, but imagine a prison sentence in which, after your eight month incarceration, they suddenly decided to extend it for 30% longer than the time you’d just already served (though neither of us has been to either jail or prison of any sort – we’ve been on over 80 buses on this trip alone in over thirteen countries on five continents in eleven months – I’d like to think we could be considered authorities on the subject at hand). . . Like we said in an earlier post, don’t believe what anyone tells you – it will take longer, cost more, not be anywhere as nice, look nothing like the photos, and not surprisingly – be below any and all of the standards to which you expected and placed upon said journey.
But, we’re not complaining . . .that’s reality – that’s just the way it is.
Continue reading 'Sinai, Security Checkpoints and Snorkeling'»
We’ve been traveling now for over ten months. In that time, we’ve seen many things. Much of what we remember are the various scams that are directed at tourists, backpackers and well, really anyone that doesn’t look like they live in that particular city, state or country.
In Cairo, we’d read about a scam, and also got to experience it first hand. From a sociological viewpoint, we were really fortunate to be a part of this so that we may see, in first person, who these people are, how smooth and savvy they are, and how easily even educated people can be parted from their money. From the viewpoint of a traveler, it was just another well rehearsed scam and a colossal waste of our time . . . . good thing we have a little time to spare.
Continue reading 'Cairo – The Scammers and the Savvy'»
Leaving Cambodia, our next stop was Bangkok, and with that we would say farewell to our South East Asian Adventure. But there was a problem . . . we weren’t ready to say goodbye yet. Luckily, we had put a week aside, and with that week, we made our way back into Thailand and promptly back to an island beach paradise in the Gulf of Thailand. Sunny beach – here we come!
From Battambang Cambodia, we bought a pair of tickets to take us directly to the Cambodian/Thailand border. Our taxi took two hours and whisked us past temples, mountains and small villages to the small border town of Pailon. Once there we vacated our taxi only to pile into a second taxi that was waiting for us, which would take us to the border itself. With the hindrance of a language barrier, we verified and re-verified that we wouldn’t be charged for the second taxi, since we already paid to be taken to the border. Big smiles, head nods and unbridled happiness came from our two separate drivers as our bags were loaded from one taxi to the other while assuring us “no problem . . . you pay already . . . it’s OK”. All right then, we hopped in and off we went.
Continue reading 'Last Fling in Thailand'»
We have now stayed at 19 beaches and all of them have been incredibly impressive in their own right. Who knew we were such beach people but we seem to be drawn to them like magnets. It’s no wonder we got married barefoot on a beach. Each time we have gone to a new beach, I ask myself, “why has it taken so long to come here and how could anyone go to Mexico or Hawaii with such lovely beaches in Asia”. Why don’t people know about these beaches!! Why didn’t we??
Continue reading 'Our Quest for Beaches'»
While in Cambodia, we made a journey that was typical of most travelers in South East Asia, but by all once in Cambodia. From the capitol, Phnom Penh, we took a bus northwest for six hours to the lovely town of Siem Reap. I like to call it “the Luang Prabang of Cambodia”, but that sounds rather snobby. Really – like Luang Prabang in Laos – is rather cute town and has a heavy French influence in both food and architecture. It has pleasant tree lined boulevards, a small river cuts the town east by west, and everyone is friendly and quick with a smile. It is small, quaint, fun, has great restaurants and is really, really, really (did I mention really?) touristy. Too bad though, because it is a really nice place to be.
Continue reading 'Angkor Wat'»
We’d been in Phnom Penh for almost a week now. There is a lot of history in the city – most of the recent history was tragic – and as interesting as the city was, we were ready to move on to somewhere a bit more relaxed and light hearted. But where to go? When you’re Bert & Patty, only one location will do . . .
Let’s get to a beach . . . and fast!
Continue reading 'Beachside in Cambodia'»
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Fill the air with confetti thrown from the rooftops, cue the fireworks lighting up the night sky and let the trumpets from the castle towers fill the surrounding countryside with music!
Themocracy