RTW

Packing Update: Della

globegazers 6 Comments

We were happy to spend some time at home during the holidays in part because it gave us a chance to reevaluate what was in our packs and change some things up.

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This post will focus on Della’s pack. See our previous posts about packing to learn what she brought before.

Della’s bag was significantly heavier than Eric’s which always irked her. She realized that she was carrying more clothing than he was. She ultimately decided to drop several of her long sleeved items with the assumption that it would be warmer in Asia on the second part of the trip. She also dropped one of her underwear (turns out it is easy to wash in the sink as you go), but added a pair of socks (expecting sweaty feet with her new waterproof shoes), dropped one of her tank tops thinking that it was unnecessary even though it will be hot (many places in Asia require covered shoulders anyway). She also had to go on a quest for new shoes, which was not fun… But she ultimately decided on a pair of waterproof New Balance.

Della carries an Osprey Ariel 65 L pack with three sections.

Without further ado, this is what is now in Della’s pack!

In the bottom section:

  1. Our first aid kit which includes: a variety of pills for gas, diarrhea, allergy, stuffy noses, and pain. We also have special antibiotics for really bad food poisoning or diarrhea prescribed from a travel clinic before we left. We have Band-Aids, moleskin, and other bandages. We have a thermometer, and various creams and ointments: antifungal, antibacterial, etc. We also carry several pills for relief of the common cold. This all fits in a bag which we found at the thrift store!
    Pills. We used daily/weekly pill boxes for sorting.
    Bandages and creams
    Mostly cold and pain medication
    All packed up!
  2. Della carries extra batteries and a charger for her camera. In addition, she has an extra memory card and a screen cleaner.
    Battery charger has a little black bag. Box is for storing batteries.
    Packed in a small bag
  3. Campsuds and a drain plug for doing laundry in sinks on the road.
    Camp soap and plug
    Packed up in a nice bag that Ex-Officio underwear came in
  4. Medication for malaria

    Della's portion of Malaria pills - Doxycycline

    Della’s portion of Malaria pills – Doxycycline

  5. Extra spices for any cooking we do on the road. These were mostly purchased while abroad in Africa during the self-drive safari.
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  6. Water sandals
    Water sandals
    packed in a ziplock
  7. Some extra books for pleasure reading (much fewer than were carried on the first half of the trip!)

    Everything that goes in the bottom of the pack!

    Everything that goes in the bottom of the pack!

In the middle section:

  1. 6 pairs of socks (1 smartwool hiking, 2 lightweight, 3 ankle from the dollar store), 5 pairs of underwear (2 special Ex-Officio travel underwear, 1 cotton, 2 polyester blend), 4 bras (only 3 pictured) (1 normal, 1 sports bra that can double as a swim suit top, 2 stretchy comfortable bras that are relatively quick dry). All stored in a medium Eagle Creek packing cube.
    Socks and underwear
    packing in a softsided packing cube
  2. Sarong, towel, turbi-twist – stored in a zipper bag from Target
    Travel towel, Turbi-Twist, Sarong
    Packed away
  3. Swimsuits – one bikini bottom, one athletic top, one swimsuit shorts – stored in a zip lock
    Swimming suits – minus one sports bra
    packed away
  4. Sleeping sheet, extra laundry bags (from dollar store), extra straps/belts – stored in a zip lock
    Sleeping sheet, belts, laundry bag
    Close up of laundry bag
    Packed up
  5. Pajamas – one tank, one shorts, one pair of socks (all lightweight) – stored in a small Eagle Creek packing cube
    Warm weather pjs
    It packs up small!
  6. Cold Weather Gear – one Marmot rain jacket, one Mountain Hardwear jacket, leggings and long sleeve midlayer from target, a lightweight fleece from Sam’s Club. Hat, gloves, heavy socks (in a stuff sack) – stored in a large Eagle Creek packing cube
    Two coats and underlayers as well as a well-worn fleece
    All packed away!
  7. General Clothing – 2 long pants, 1 zip off (Sierra Trading Post), both quick dry. Two shorts, one longer, one shorter (thrift store). 3 merino wool t-shirts (all from online). 3 tank tops, 2 with built in bras, one cotton, one Ex-Officio, one polyester. One Ex-Officio travel dress. All stored in a large Eagle Creek packing cube.
    pants
    dress
    shirts
    packed up!
  8. Zip bag with important documents.
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  9. Plugs: 1 all-purpose plug adaptor, 2 mini power strips (one with 2 USB connections), extra USB charging cable. All stored in a random old zipper bag that was packaging for a set of sheets.
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  10. Toiletry kit for everyday use: Comb, foldable brush, 2 toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss (not pictured), soap bar, shampoo bar, extra conditioner, chapsticks, tweezers, nail clippers, small swiss army knife, nail polish, extra hair tie, deodorant (not pictured) – All stored in a toiletry kit from Sierra Trading Post
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  11. On the outside of the bag – new purple shower shoes/slippers
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    Everything for the middle part of the pack!

    Everything for the middle part of the pack!

In the top section:

  1. Bag covers: 1 for rain, 1 for checking on the airplane
    Bag on the left wraps the pack for flight. The cover on the right is for rain
  2. Extra wet wipes
  3. Extra tea
  4. Extra poncho
  5. Sun hat (until it gets into the day bag)
  6. Extra rubber bands and zip lock bags- always useful on the road!
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  7. 1 of the 2 tupperware containers (until it moves to the day bag)
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    Everything that goes in the top

    Everything that goes in the top

In the day bag:

  1. General Use: Poncho, sun hat, extra toilet paper, sunglasses, extra feminine products, headphones, extra water bottle bag, extra rags, tissues, eye cover, pain medicine, wet wipes, 1 of three bandanas.
  2. Electronic bag: Nexus 7 Tablet, Tablet keyboard, USB connector, extra mini hard drives, power plug, carrying bag for tablet, stylus, and travel sim card for phone – Stored in a wet bag from Target
  3. Notebook and pencil – Stored in a bag found at thrift store
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  4. Water bottles – 1 Nalgene, 1 foldable (dollar store)
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  5. Extra zip lock bags

Purse:

  1. Wallet
  2. Camera/mini tripod
  3. Phone
  4. Chapstick
  5. Extra tissues, wet wipes, pain meds, feminine products
  6. Compass
  7. pen

There you have it! Everything that goes in Della’s pack! In all, the large pack weighs 29 lbs… So, not light, but lighter than it was before and much more manageable! She has the day bag in addition which adds a couple of pounds, though this varies depending on the books she is carrying as well as how many full water bottles she has!

Monthly Recap: Month 6

globegazers 6 Comments

Month 6 brought a lot of changes! We traveled half way around the world to visit home for the holidays. It was wonderful to spend the time with family and friends. Though, we weren’t sure we were ready for all the snow.

Here are our stats for this month.

Countries visited: 2 (Turkey, Ireland, and the USA)

Beds Slept In: 6

UNESCO Heritage Sights Visited: 0  Total on RTW: 34

We traveled by 6 planes this month!

We traveled by 0 trains this month!

We traveled by 0 long distance buses.

Top Moments:

~ We really enjoyed spending time with our families during the holidays. We had assumed we would be figuring out how to get festive on our own somewhere in Asia, but after a change in plans, we had the opportunity to spend some time at home. Lucky us!

Christmas in Dallas
Christmas in Cedar Park
Christmas in Denver

~ During our layover in Dublin on our way home for the holidays, we got a chance to go on a Literary Pub Crawl. It was a great evening filled with laughs, history, and great beer.

Good beer
Literary Pub Crawl

Runners up for Top Moments:

~ We left Turkey very early in the month on our way home. We had a short two hour layover in London on our way to Dublin. It was enough time to grab a quick bite to eat… and a great beer! We were so excited to drink a beer with some flavor!

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Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added and Packing Update:

We were excited to have the opportunity to really re-evaluate the contents of our packs. While we weren’t unhappy with what we had, we hope to adjust some of the clothes, replace things that are worn or stained, and unload some weight. We plan to write a whole blog post about this, so stay tuned!

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Eric has read Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

Eric and Della have BOTH read nothing this month.

Oiy… bad month for reading…

Make sure to catch up on all our monthly recaps: Monthly Recap 1, Monthly Recap 2, Monthly Recap 3,Monthly Recap 4, Monthly Recap 5

We’re Coming Home, Coming Home, Tell the World We’re Coming Home… for a bit

globegazers 7 Comments

Today we fly from Dublin to Dallas…

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed a reference to a big decision on travel plans that was made in our last Monthly Update post. The big decision was that we decided to head back to the US for a few weeks around the holidays in December. There was a medical issue in Eric’s family that led to this decision, but it also seemed to be a natural break between our European and Asian portions of the itinerary.

While back in the US, we will spend some time with Eric’s family in Dallas and with Della’s family in Denver. We also hope to enjoy some craft brews and some Mexican food! After enjoying the holidays with friends and family, we will head for Bangkok and start gazing at the globe again!

Also, we haven’t exactly caught up on blogging about the last part of our time in Europe, so stay tuned for more blogs about some other neat places in Turkey and Ireland as well!

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Monthly Recap: Month 5

globegazers 6 Comments

Month 5 has been our slowest moving month yet, with only 2 countries visited. We finished up with Greece and headed into Turkey, saw friends and family from home, and made some big decisions about our future travel plans.

Here are our stats for this month.

Countries visited: 2 (Greece and Turkey)

Beds Slept In: 11

UNESCO Heritage Sights Visited: 4 (Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, Acropolis Athens, Historic Areas of Istanbul, Hierapolis-Pamukkale) Total on RTW: 34

We traveled by 2 planes this month!

We traveled by 0 trains this month!

We traveled by 7 long distance buses.

We traveled by 3 boats.

We traveled by 1 rental car which took us Izmir to Fethiye.

Top Moments:

~ Our first top moment came at Tlos, an ancient Lycian ruin near Fethiye, Turkey. We had been struggling with generally gloomy weather and experienced a crazy rainstorm just the day before, but the day we visited Tlos was grand. It is low season in Turkey and we were the only people at the entire site. It was a neat hilltop fortress and town that had been inhabited from the 2nd century B.C. by the ancient Lycians, through the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Ottoman Empire up until the 19th century. The ruins are expansive, well preserved, and nestled in a gorgeous mountain paradise. This was made even sweeter as Della’s entire family (sister and parents) were there to share it with us!

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Enjoying the view from the fortress citadel of Tlos

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Lycian rock tombs, Roman walls, and an Ottoman citadel, set on an amazing backdrop – Tlos

 

~ Our second top moment was in Athens. There is something magical about entering the amazing ancient Acropolis through the impressive Propylea, and seeing the Parthenon standing before you in all its (scaffold-ed) glory. We had been spying on the acropolis from different areas of Athens for a week but had stayed away, waiting for Della’s family to join us, so entering it (finally) was pretty awe-inspiring! It is definitely on the beaten path, and it really is disappointing that the Parthenon is so covered with scaffolding (Della’s parents said it had been when they visited 35 years ago as well), but despite that, it was pretty great to see!

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Entering through the Propylea

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Our first glimpse of the famous Parthenon

 

~ We also really enjoyed seeing the glorious Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was our first full day in Istanbul, and the family headed straight to the famous church/mosque/museum. It was such an impressive building that was exquisitely decorated on the inside. It also felt massive, definitely awe-inspiring. It was the type of place where you come back with a huge crick in your neck from having spent hours allowing your eyes to explore the giant domes and impressive ceiling artwork.

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IMG_3125 Inside the Hagia Sophia

 

~ We were so fortunate to have another visit from family! This time Della’s sister joined us and brought their parents along for the ride. It was really special for Della to get to celebrate her 31st birthday in Fethiye, Turkey surrounded by family. What a treat!

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The whole family together!

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One of Della’s bday presents- Peanut Butter!

 

Runners up for Top Moments:

~ We spent several days in Nafplio, Greece before heading back to Athens to meet up with Della’s family. We enjoyed all of our time there, visiting nearby sites such as Mycenae and Epidavros. We also did NOT enjoy being left stranded by the Greek bus system KTEL on two different occasions. But, really, one of our favorite things about Nafplio was climbing the Palamidi Fortress. We got a late start on the climb and ended up having to book it up at top speed because it was closing quite soon. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend as much time IN the fortress as we had hoped. However, even after we were kicked out of the fortress, we were still on the top of this mountain, overlooking the beautiful town of Nafplio, with fortress walls surrounding us, witnessing a gorgeous sunset. We sat and relaxed, read our books, and watched the colors change, feeling on top of the world!

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Feeling on top of the world!

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Beautiful Nafplio

 

~ We both read a book last month called The Greek Treasure which was the story of Sophia Schliemann, a Greek girl married to the famous archaeologist Henry Schliemann, who discovered the ruins of ancient Troy. We actually only semi-enjoyed the book, but it did get our imagination running and give us a good background for some of the archaeological sites we would shortly be visiting. The book described how Henry and Sophia Schliemann built an amazing mansion in Athens where they lived and displayed the gold treasure that they found in Troy. The building was an homage to Homer’s stories and everything related to ancient Greece. We were super excited to discover that their mansion has been preserved as a museum. It has a small exhibition about them and their lives and discoveries, but is really dedicated to Numismatics. We visited! We loved seeing the place in our novel brought to life… and learned a whole lot about ancient coins!

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Exhibit sign about Henry and Sophia Schliemann with us reflected

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The mansion, dedicated to everything related to Ancient Greece. Those are quotes from Homer on the walls

 

~ We had a great experience this month when we semi-randomly ran into a friend from back home in Selcuk, Turkey! It was so much fun to stay at the same location and catch up with her! One evening, the entire group headed up to a small “Greek” town called Sirince in the mountains above Selcuk. The town is know for its sweet berry wines. As we explored the semi-dead town that evening, we ran into a local sitting on a bench drinking a bottle of wine. After striking up a conversation, he brought us back to a wine tasting bar where we enjoyed yummy wine and the great company of family and another familiar face from home!

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Chatting with our new friend

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Family and friends together drinking wine!

 

Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

Discarded/Broken:

1. Swiss Army Knife (we’re not entirely sure where we lost this knife…)

Added:

1. New sandals for Della (a birthday present)

2. New pair of smartwool socks for Eric, brought from the US by Della’s family

Packing Update:

Eric was excited to receive a new protective bag for his backpack. Della’s parents brought this bag from home so that Eric could use it to wrap his backpack in while flying. It helps keep all the straps safe! We have continued to use our cold weather gear so are so pleased we brought it all. We still have not used much of our warm weather gear and are tempted to strip it out of the bags… Though we think we will need it in Asia.

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler, The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire  by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (OK, so these last three are rereads of stuff she has already read, but she was getting ready for the new Mockingjay movie AND Kindle Unlimited is good…), and City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare.

Eric has read The Bookseller of Kabul by Asme Seierstad, Snuff by Terry Pratchett, White Death by Clive Cussler, Animal Farm by George Orwell, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes.

Eric and Della have BOTH read nothing this month.

Make sure to catch up on all our monthly recaps: Monthly Recap 1, Monthly Recap 2, Monthly Recap 3, Monthly Recap 4

Della dances around the world!

globegazers 1 Comment

For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you may remember when Della posted her first video of dancing around the world. She used a song that she used to do with her class and is just a fun line dance called the Sid Shuffle. But, because the first edition wasn’t so much dancing around the world as it was dancing around southern Africa and Czech Republic, she’s created a Sid Shuffle Part 2! This one also isn’t exactly dancing around the world as is more the Balkans and Greece edition, but still! Hope you enjoy!

 

From Sid Shuffle Around the World Part 2

Olympia, Greece

globegazers 5 Comments

After taking care of some business in Athens, we headed into the Peloponnese peninsula. Our first stop was Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games.

Getting There

Olympia is a small town, so it isn’t super easy to get to. But, we thought we had seen that there was a bus from Athens to Olympia at 1:00, so we aimed for that bus.

Getting to the bus station in Athens is actually a huge pain, since it is not located anywhere near a metro station. Google told us that we could take the metro and then a local bus, so we attempted that. We caught the metro as planned but then did not see the bus come. We were about to give up when it finally came. We hopped on, then realized it was headed the wrong direction! We got off and tried to head back to try again… and it started raining. We tried to catch a cab and none would stop. Talk about moments of misery. Eventually we did find a cab which took us to the station. In the end this was probably for the best, because by this time it was pouring, and the station was in the middle of a confusing industrial zone.

The ride itself was long but uneventful. We knew that most people were probably getting off at Pirgos, the biggest town near Olympia, but were pretty confident we could just stay on since neither the ticket agent nor the driver informed us otherwise. Instead, in Pirgos everyone got off and we were told that the bus ended there after all. The next local bus to Olympia didn’t leave for an hour and a half, so we had to kill time in the Pirgos bus station. We didn’t end up making it to Olympia until almost 8:30!

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On a positive note, we did get to see this nice rainbow on the way

Where We Stayed

The “town” of Olympia has a very touristy vibe: it really only exists to provide tourist services for the ancient site nearby, so there isn’t much to speak of in terms of local flavor. We found a cheap hotel on booking.com called Anesi Rooms to Rent. We had a small but servicable room with a nice hot shower and a sizable balcony. The wifi was strong as well, so we spent our downtime drinking wine and watching some shows on the Internet.

Bonus points if you can figure out which show we're watching!!

Bonus points if you can figure out which show we’re watching!!

 

What We Did

Since we weren’t in much of a rush, we planned to spend two full days in town checking out the archaeological site and the various museums. However, for some reason two of the museums are closed on weekends, so our only two activities were checking out the site and the main archaeological museum which luckily were still open.

Olympia Archaeological Site – Olympia was the host site for the ancient Olympic Games from the 8th century BC all the way until the 2nd century AD. These ancient games were not just an athletic competition: they were also a chance for the Greeks to pay tribute to their Gods. Therefore, the site has quite the collection of ruins, both for athletic and sacred events.

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The sacred structures are concentrated in an area called the Altis. The oldest structure is the Temple of Hera, one of the older Doric temples in Greece. They still light the flame for the modern Olympic Games in front of this temple. The biggest temple is the Temple of Zeus. Only one of the giant Doric columns has been reconstructed but it is still quite impressive (you can still see pieces of the other columns that tumbled to the ground during an earthquake in the 6th century AD). Another impressive building is the circular Phillepeon, commissioned by Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great).

The big stadium is still intact. It doesn’t look like a modern stadium in that the only seats are for the judges – the spectators would just sit on the sloping grassy hills on all sides of the track. One cool thing is that you can run on the track today. The old starting lines are still intact, so we took the opportunity to run back and forth between them (in the ancient games, they would run back and forth instead of running laps). Within the site, we also walked through the ruins of various structures built to house visiting dignitaries, and a large colonnaded courtyard within which the athletes would train.

Olympia Archaeological Museum – As was the case at Delphi, Olympia has a separate museum where many of the sculptures and other artifacts found at the site. We were actually disappointed in the route that the Rick Steves guide suggested to take through the museum: the museum itself was laid out chronologically, but his tour took us randomly through the more important artifacts. After we finished his tour, we actually went back and did went through all the rooms again just to get a better sense of the timeline of events at the site.

Here are some of the highlights from the artifacts we saw:

Where We Ate:

Since Olympia is such a tourist town, there aren’t many inspired dining options. We did end up eating out twice. The first time, we just went to the small restaurant next door to the Anesi (where we stayed) that is actually run by the same people that run the hotel – our waiter was the same person who checked us into the room. The second night we just randomly picked one of the tourist restaurants and got a pizza in order to take a break from gyros and souvlaki for a night.

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Final Thoughts

The ancient site of Olympia is very impressive. We especially enjoyed exploring the ruins once the large tour groups had left by mid-afternoon. The town of Olympia itself is not too exciting, so don’t plan on spending much more than a day or two.

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Monthly Recap: Month 4

globegazers 5 Comments

Wow! Month 4! The month was characterized by slower travels and more connections! We are also so pleased to announce that we have become first-time uncle and aunt this month. Congrats to Eric’s sister Suzanne on the birth of her beautiful baby girl, Sofia.

Here are our stats for this month.

Countries visited: 3 (Montenegro, Albania, and Greece)

Beds Slept In: 12

UNESCO Heritage Sights Visited: 7 (Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, Butrint, Meteora, Archaeological Site of Delphi, Archaeological Site of Olympia, Archaeological Site of Mystras, Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns) Total on RTW: 30

We traveled by 0 planes this month!

We traveled by 0 trains this month!

We traveled by 20 long distance buses.

Top Moments:

~ Our first top moment came at the very beginning of the month! We had been looking forward to our visit to Kotor for a long time. We really enjoyed slowing down in Kotor at the end of last month and the beginning of this month. One of the best days we had there was when we climbed the fortress walls. It was an absolutely gorgeous day weather-wise. We waited until the late afternoon to miss the cruise ship crowds. We climbed up the mountain, enjoying amazing views, and even a sunset on the way down. It was lovely!

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~ Our second moment came in Berat, Albania. We knew almost nothing about Albania when we arrived (though learned a lot while we were there) so we didn’t know what to expect. We had heard that it was not really on the tourist track in Europe. We were so impressed with Berat! Our top moment came when we decided to take a tour of the city offered by the worker at our hostel. He was a native of Berat, and knew a ton about his city and the history of Albania. The tour was particularly personalized because there were only 4 of us. The other couple was an amazing pair of bikers from Belgium. The tour started at 10 am and after seeing the beautiful city of Berat, we sat down for Turkish coffee (tea for us) and then dinner with both our guide and the Belgian couple. It was a fantastic way to spend the day, full of everything we love about traveling – new friends from around the world and learning a lot about cultures we didn’t know much about!

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~ We mentioned above that this was a month where we made some really great connections. The first was our Belgian friends in Berat, the next was a couple of Americans from Washington state (and Idaho). There is almost nothing better than seeing another pair of travelers trying to make the same long travel day as you are. It helps with confidence, knowing that someone else is attempting the same trip, as well as company! It is even better when you find out that you have a lot in common and really enjoy chatting with each other. Our top moment was when we were able to visit the ancient site of Delphi with our new friends. Wow, we have to say, it is a wonderful experience to find another couple who enjoy reading Rick Steves (and other informational signs) as much as we do, and who enjoy talking popular culture, TV, and books (even the Wheel of Time series!!!) in the breaks. What luck! We had a great time!

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Runners up for Top Moments:

~ We already mentioned in this recap that we really enjoyed our time in Albania. Another example of this was our time at the archaeological site of Butrint. This was a wonderful place with a lot of history, but the best part was that we got to experience it practically on our own! We didn’t see any other tourists almost the whole day! What was even funnier was that when we got back to our hostel in Saranda, we found out that 4 other people from there had done it as well, separately, but it was big and empty enough that we didn’t even see each other. This is not to say we don’t enjoy company, but there is something special about experiencing an ancient city (and tourist attraction) without having to dodge the crowds.

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~ Our second runner up was in Meteora, Greece. We were pretty excited to finally reach Greece, which we had been looking forward to for a very long time. Della has dreamed of visiting Greece for as long as she can remember. Meteora did not disappoint. We walked among the monasteries taking in the unique, impressive scenery and imaging what it must be like to make your home on the top of vertical pillar, high above the world. It was especially good when we were able to escape from the tourist bus crowds.

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~ We had a wonderful time with our new friends in Delphi, Greece. One of the activities that we did with them was to take a walk from Delphi, down the mountain, through the olive groves, and to the coast. It is actually the reverse of what many pilgrims did in ancient times on their way up to hear their fortune from the Oracle. We had a magnificent day, with perfect weather. The scenery was shockingly beautiful and our company was grand. It was hard to beat!

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~ As some of you may already know, we celebrated 10 years of being together as a couple this last month. We couldn’t have picked a better locale. Delphi, Greece was absolutely beautiful. It is hard to imagine a better way to remember 10 great years with a person you love while overlooking one of the most fantastic sunsets you’ve ever seen!

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Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

Discarded/Broken:

1. Simple Wine Opener

Added:

1. New toothpaste

2. More Complex Wine Opener

3. Butter knives

Packing Update:

We got to use our summer gear a bit this month which made us happy! We also have used our winter and rain gear, so we are glad we have it all. Della hasn’t used her dress since Budapest so is wondering if it is necessary. Eric is happy with all of his contents.

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Eric has read The Persian Boy by Mary Renault, The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters, Black Ice by Lorene Cary, Making Money by Terry Pratchett, Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler.

Eric and Della have BOTH read The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone and Hope of Earth by Piers Anthony.

Make sure to catch up on all our monthly recaps: Monthly Recap 1, Monthly Recap 2, Monthly Recap 3

Zumba Round the World: Athens, Greece

globegazers 4 Comments

We had to take a slightly unscheduled trip to Athens. It was kind of a bummer to give up a little bit of our time in the Peloponnese but it did have its merits! We are bed bug free AND we got to do our 4th Zumba Round the World! We were lucky to find another Zumba class quite near our AirBnB in Athens. We were a little unsure because the Zumba site said that there would be a class at the same location at both 8 and 9 pm! We decided to head to the 8:00 class after we finished up dinner with our new travel friends. This was slightly unfortunate because we were still full from a yummy dinner when we got started dancing. And this class was high energy! Maria from Baila Conmigo Dance and Fitness made sure we got sweaty and sore! She did a lot of incorporated squats in her class which was something we sorely needed (pun intended!)

We found out when we arrived that it was the first day of her 8:00 Thursday class. It was lucky for us because it meant that the class wasn’t too big and Della got to have her space. She craves her space when she’s dancing Zumba! Eric was excited because, even though the class was small, he wasn’t the only man!

Maria explained that she had started the 8 pm class because her 9 pm class had gotten too crowded. It was much busier as more students streamed in after we were finished and Maria started her 2nd upbeat class of the night (wow!)

We area heading back to Athens in a few days to meet up with Della’s family (yay!) and there might even be time for us to head to Maria’s class again! Super excited!

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Moments of Misery: Bed Bugs…?

globegazers 5 Comments

Most of our posts on this blog will be happy recollections of some moments of our trip. But life on the road won’t always be fun. We feel like we’d like to share some of these moments of misery too. (OK, and vent a little about them too…)

Good night, don’t let the bed bugs bite! Normally you think this is just a cute little rhyme. It’s a lot less cute when, suddenly, the bed bugs do bite. During our first stay in Greece, we woke up in the morning with some unexplained bites on our arms and heads. We weren’t really sure what they were. It seemed possible that they were mosquito bites… but they seemed to be a little bit too grouped for that. We didn’t see any evidence of bed bugs, so we didn’t worry too much… yet. We slept a second night at the same location. Eric woke up with bites again, this time it looked like some bug had marched up his back and around his neck… though Della had none. We met another couple who talked about their experience with bed bugs and it had some similarities to what we were experiencing. Again, we found no evidence of actual bugs though.

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We moved to our second place in Greece, feeling incredibly guilty if we were bringing bugs along with us. Though, we took many precautions to keep the place safe. Another night and Eric had a few more bites, though now they seemed random and Della still had none. Bed bugs or not?!? We just couldn’t be sure. All of our research said we had to actually see the bugs! We took our bags apart and scoured everything. Della found nothing, but Eric found 2 things that might have maybe been bugs? Too small to tell. At this point we had a decision to make, continue our plans to head to the Peloponnese, staying in more small towns, or head to Athens where we could find a laundromat and try to kill the maybe bugs once and for all. We used some info from this site and our new travel friends who talked about how they got rid of them. Oh… did I mention that this was happening on our 10 year anniversary???

We decided to head to Athens where we found a laundromat and promptly washed and/or dried every piece of clothing or bags we have. This included all of our packing cubes, our toiletry kits, our day bags, and even our large bags themselves, as well as our clothes of course. This was not super easy as we had to take everything apart and somehow figure out how to get the bags in small dryers.

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Holding the dryer shut… because our bags kept pushing it open…

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Laundromat

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Everything came out of our bags… Can you believe we carry that much stuff around? Most of it is in the washer or dryer even!

A couple hours and almost 15 euro later we were done. We headed to our AirBnB feeling pretty confident that it would be just us for the night.

Connections: Rick Steves, Wheel of Time, and Wine!

globegazers 8 Comments

Traveling is a wonderful way to meet people! Unfortunately, often those connections are strong but only fleeting. Connections is our tag to recognize and remember some of the wonderful people we meet.

We were leaving Meteora, a little unsure what the day would hold. We were hoping to make it all the way to Delphi, not very far by distance, but at least 4 bus rides… we were told. We hadn’t even made a hotel reservation because we were slightly unsure that we would even make it all in one day. The first bus left at 8 AM, which is quite early for us. We were sitting at the bus stop, still trying to wake up, while waiting for the bus when we saw a welcome sight. Two more backpackers, heading our direction! As soon as they sat down, they said hello and we quickly found out that we were both planning this long confusing day of travel.

We found out over the course of our loong travel day that they were a couple also from the USA, who we really enjoyed chatting with. When we arrived in Delphi they graciously shared where they were staying. It had been on our list from when we were looking so we were pleased when we also were able to stay there.

The next day, we all left the hotel together and headed off towards the ancient site of the Oracle of Delphi. Here we were even more impressed with our new travel companions. Not only did they really know a lot about ancient Greece (we learned a lot!) but they were equally interested in hearing from our Rick Steves’ guidebook and even reading informational signs. Let me say that again: they wanted to hear from the guidebook AND take the time to read the signs. We were thrilled! There just aren’t that many people out there who can go as slow through museums and sites as we can (and wish to). We enjoyed a lovely day with them. It was so much fun we decided to hang out again the next day.

This time we decided to take a day long walk down from the mountain all the way to the coast. It was a long, lovely walk and we found that enjoyed them even more! They were into all the same TV shows and book series that we were. I mean, let’s be honest, there are not that many people out there who are super excited about Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series (OK, there probably are… we just haven’t met them!) Another great day.

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We all decided that we were having so much fun in Delphi that we wanted to stay another night. So, we had another fun evening of drinking wine in our hotel.

There was a little wine involved...

There was a little wine involved…

From there, we were all heading to Athens so we took another long journey together. We were fortunate to be able to meet one more time for dinner in amazing Athens, eating dinner practically in the shadow of the Acropolis. Another great connection with some amazing people! We were sorry to have to say goodbye!

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Our last dinner in Athens