Where in the world are Karmen & Michael?

Photos: Amsterdam

rafellarayne — Tue, 3 Nov 2015 22:11:00 GMT

Photos: Brussels

rafellarayne — Tue, 3 Nov 2015 21:56:00 GMT

Brussels & The Netherlands

rafellarayne — Tue, 3 Nov 2015 21:51:00 GMT

Cold weather was waiting for us when we arrived. It was a bit of a shock going from comfortably warm 65° Bologna to a chilly 35-40° Brussels, but after living in Boone for so long it was almost like going home. We were missing the mountains, but gray skies and incessant misty/drizzly weather had us feeling pretty nostalgic. Luckily our travels were accompanied by good foods, including croquettes, bitterballen, Belgian waffles, and STROOPWAFFLE!

We stayed in Brussels for about 3 days before heading to the The Netherlands to spend about 5 days in the Amsterdam area. We're going to make this blog a little less fluid and just throw it all together. We had a great time in both places but they were pretty similar experiences, so deal with it.

With the rainy weather we were a little trepidatious to go wandering around like we usually do, and our host was kind enough to prints us a map with all the typical tourist spots on it. He was explaining some, asking us which plans we had already, and when we told him we really had none other than to get a decent beer, he practically lit up. He grabbed a book off his shelf which was an Encyclopedia of all the beers offered at one of his favorite spots to take friends: Delirium Cafe. With over 1000 beers it has made it into the guiness book of world records. Just our kind of spot.

We spent a little time exploring downtown, taking a stop to get a coffee out of the rain when it picked up a bit and then some food later on (hurray for croquettes) we eventually made our way to Delirium. While we were enjoying our beers we decided to do a little research. On our way to Brussels we had seen that a great band Snarky Puppy was playing a show, but ticket prices were listed at 50€… a little pricey for us, but when we did some more research we found it was now only 25€, but unfortunately sold out! Lamesauce. Feeling a little liquid courage we decided to message the band facebook page to see if they could open any tickets for us, and as some friends already know they put two tickets on the guest list for us! Karma was smiling, and so were we. We hung out for another couple beers and a wheel of cheese before making our way to the venue.

We met some crazy guys outside the venue, had a great time at the show, and even got a ride home after. We spent the next day catching up on a few tourist sites we had skipped (including Mannekin Pis, the pissing boy, a cherub-esque statue of a boy peering in a fountain that is wildly popular), grabbed a couple Belgian waffles, and finally called it a night. It was a little early but we had a big day ahead.

We took a bus into Amsterdam and finally arrived early evening. We were pretty tired so we grabbed a coffee before getting a bite to eat. We weren't exactly close to home so we wanted something quick and easy and found a hummis bar near our coffee shop. We accidently ordered 2 huge plates of hummus, way more hummus than anyone realistically needs to eat but we did our best. Then we hopped on a train south to Utrecht, about 30 mins south of Amsterdam, where we were actually staying. It was a cheaper place than we could find in Amsterdam, but we forgot to account for the price of travelling to and from Amsterdam. In the future, we definitely need to consider this.

Amsterdam was super busy anyway. We went back the next day to really explore and it was crazy the amount of people. This late in the travel season we can only imagine how bad it is when its peak season. Point of note: bikes literally own that city and the people riding them WILL mow you down. And yell at you while they do it. We were still able to catch some of the prettier sights, got to ride a Ferris wheel, and walked the canals along the red light district once it got dark. In the end we decided, especially for the expense, Amsterdam is pretty overrated. We had fun, but we should have spent a little more time in Brussels instead.

Luckily we weren't staying in Amsterdam but in Utrecht. We managed to spend a couple days there it was much better. Less busy, prettier, and with just as much to see. It was almost like a mini-Amsterdam, with its own canal area that was smaller but cleaner than Amsterdam's. We ate bitterballen (fried delicious gravy balls) and stroopwaffle (think thin waffle cookies pressed together with caramel - AMAZING!!!!) Our host was wonderful and very helpful, and we were sad when we finally had to leave but it was time to go to Spain!

Next time we come out this way we'll make sure to do a little more research about the what, where, and how much but we weren't disappointed. Being in a peaceful area goes a long way for us and we found that in Utrecht. The food was good, the crowds tolerable, and the sights memorable. Really what else can you ask for?

Photos: Bologna

rafellarayne — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 02:17:00 GMT

Bologna

rafellarayne — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 02:13:00 GMT

During our travel month of Croatia we made some really good friends. One of the main reasons we decided to go to Bologna is because of a girl we had met at a backpacker bar named Megi. Currently working torwards her masters in Bologna, Italy, Megi talked us into coming to visit her university city promising that we will love the architecture, culture, and all the foods it had to offer. Not needing much more motivation than that, we booked our last stop in Italy to be here!

The day after the San Gemini festival we were not looking forward to our whole day of traveling to get to Bologna. Although it only was about a 5 hour train ride, sometimes that can feel like forever. Upon our arrival we were craving a beer and some food, but needed to find our Airbnb first. Franchesco's directions were perfect for us to easily locate the apartment that we would call home the next few days. After ditching our backpacks we went out for some good ol pizza and beer because we love pizza and beer. Since we had arrived late evening, we decided to call it an earlier night than usual because we wanted to have a good day of exploring the next day.

Technically Day 1: We woke up early enough and caught a bus to the city Centre. Along the way on our busride, Karmen spotted an outdoor antique market and we had to stop there. It was a really neat market that we enjoyed walking around. There were things from chandeliers to metal signs, old and new jewelry, old lighters and new art. Some presents were purchased for some people here and there and soon we were starving for breakfast (even though it was lunch time; we skipped breakfast). We settled on some cafe sandwiches which were alright but a little dry. Having our energy back, we kept perusing the antique market and the rest of the city centre.

What was really neat about Bologna is that it has many humongous covered arch ways connecting almost every street in the city. This makes the city manageable and lively even when it is raining (like it was when we were there). Bologna is also known for creating tortellini, Bolognese sauce (which is AMAZING) and it has the oldest university in the world dating back to ~1060 A.D. Pretty neat huh? And if something is old in the United States, it's only like a hundred years old or so usually.

We spent the rest of the day exploring little shops and gawking at the meat markets with dried salamis in addition to peppers and olives in oil. Mmmm. We ended up splitting two bottles of some cheap red wine before dinner which made dinner even that much more delicious ;). For dinner we went to Il Moro and got some Bolognese pasta which was AWESOME. Really reminded us of pasta back home, because it was very similar to what mama used to make. We were thrilled and very full. We finished a bottle of wine we'd picked up from a nearby store and had to call it a night. With still a city to walk through to get to a bus to get home, we knew we'd need the rest of our energy for the next day.

Our last day in Bologna was another big walking day. Michael was on a mission to sell his guitar, and not finding any pawn shops we decided to just put a sign on it saying it was for sale. We walked around the cloged alleys, the wide tourist promenades, and were having no luck. Oh well, life goes on and we had some hope that one of our friend Megi's friends from school might become interested. We decided to take a trek up one of the two towers in the middle of center, and 95m spiral staircase going UP. What a climb! We had to take a short break at the top, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the city on all sides. It was a little cramped going up those stairs with Michael's guitar, but we made it without too much hassle. After getting back down we found a cool store called Flying Tiger with a bunch of small arts & crafts style items, as well as small knick knacks of many varieties. Karmen was thrilled. Michael stood outside trying to drum up buyers for his guitar but didn't have any luck. By this point it was getting late enough that we could start getting ready to meet our friend.

We grabbed a couple beers and sat down in a square next to the University. Michael was playing his guitar a little and we were watching a few fresh graduates run around acting crazy in their leaf crowns (because thats a tradition here.) We even saw a couple in dresses and throwing food around at people. Soon a friendly guy named Marco came and sat with us, not interested in buying Michael's guitar but interested in making a little music. He and Michael passed the guitar back and forth and we sang a bunch of random songs, it was a good time. Too quickly it was time to go meet our friend, but good news, someone was willing to buy the guitar. Hoorah! We met our friend and the guy Lamuel buying the guitar outside a bar. We grabbed a quick beer there, Michael parted with his guitar (he was sad immediately but we can't fly with it), and Lamuel headed back home. Class, etc, etc.

We spent the next hour or so walking around with Megi, she was showing us around where her friends and other people usually hang out at nights. It wasn't crowded this night due to the weather, but we still found a cool craft beer shop and relaxed with a couple beers before calling it a night. We had a big day ahead of us with the flight and Megi was feeling a little under the weather (Hope she's better now!). We hopped on the bus and made our way back to the apartment, anxious to shower and pack our bags in anticipation of the next day. We woke almost ready to go, and before long we were on the bus heading back into town to get to the airport. One long bus ride later we had made it, a good 2 hours before our flight.

Unfortunately for us, 2 hours before is when Ryanair online check-in ends. Our cheap flights to Brussels just got about 3x more expensive :( Super bummer there, but when you have to get on a plane right then, what can you do? We paid the lady, were able to skip the now giant queue because the guy remembered us, hooked us up with quick and free carry ons (Even though our bags were a little heavy over the limit) and we hopped on the plane. Less than two hours later we were in Brussels going the wrong way on a bus. But that's a story for another time.

Until then!

Photos: Terni!

rafellarayne — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:53:00 GMT

Terni-ng it North

rafellarayne — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:05:00 GMT

We finished out our stint in Rome tired but not really too worse for wear. We'd been pressed by crowds pretty hard, probably the biggest crowds we've been a part of so far while traveling. We enjoyed our stay in any case, and were excited to trade the busy-ness of Rome for a more relaxed mountain country scene. In that respect our roads were pointed north, toward Terni in the Umbrian lands of Italy, and more specfically to a smaller town just south of Terni called Stroncone.

We arrived from our train in Terni on schedule, and without wifi we started looking around to figure out how to contact our host, who was supposed to be picking us up. We didn't wander far, and lucky for us, once a couple buses moved out of our line of sight we saw him right behind waiting for us in his car! Woohoo, it's never that easy! We stowed our bags and michael's guitar and hopped in for the ride. We didn't have to go far, about twenty minutes, before we arrived at his house. It was a beautiful cabin-esque home in the rolling hills of the Umbrian valley. I call them hills only because surrounding us on most sides in the distance were what truly are mountains. While they were too far away too loom over us, we could still sense their size from where we were. We can only imagine how the Alps must look when even this far south there are mountains to rival the Appalachians (which we miss so!)

As soon as we arrived, Ricarrdo (our host) hopped back in his car to head back to (presumably) work. He had pointed out the town of Stroncone in the distance (easily recognizeable by the giant white wall surrounding in against it's mountain backdrop) and so we figured it couldn't be too far, let's huff it! It was a little rough. We had gotten used to not dealing with the ups and downs of mountain walking, but were soon confronted with the fact that what was only about 3.5km felt closer to 5. By the time we arrived we were a little beat, but luckily the sun was just setting so we had a great opportunity for a few sunset pictures and memories. It's lucky too, because it turns out the town is populated by very few people, and essentially felt deserted as we were walking around. Windy streets, narrow alleys peeling off to other abodes, random dead-ends and stairs leading up and down to different levels of crazy old italian maze land; it was pretty cool. Definitely not in Kansas (Boone) anymore.

We began our descent. Lucky for us we had passed a grocery on the way to the town proper and were able to grab a few necessities while we were walking by. Ravioli, cheese, bread, you know, necessities. We got back resolved to actually eat a meal now that we had some food, and doing so settled in for the night to do research for Day 2.

Day2 we woke with big plans to see Cascatta del Marmore: the biggest waterfalls in Italy. We had a little time to kill though, as it was early and they didn't release the water until the afternoon. You see this is a man-made waterfall, first built around 2000 years ago, eventually fashioned into what it is today. It powers the electrical needs of the surrounding cities. With our time, we decided to walk around the centre of Terni, had a coffee, did some more reseasrch on the waterfall and buses and everything. We're feeling a little out of our element finally because not many people speak English, especially not to the degree that we have found most other places so far. This is good though, because we haven't faced this issue enough so far and we expect to face it again in Spain on our way back to USA. Anywho...

We did all the research, knew what buses to take to where, and finally trekked out there. It was about twenty minutes outside of Terni by bus, and we had to take a bus into town to begin with, so about an hour later we finally arrived at the site...to find out during off-season they only release the water on Saturday and Sunday (this was a Friday). We were heartbroken to say the least. Oh well, at least we got to figure out how to get here so we're ready for the next day when we can tackle it for real. In any case, we hopped back on our buses and made our way back to the airbnb. Tonight our hosts were going to cook us dinner so we wanted to get back early enough.

And we got back early enough, because in Italy they eat dinner at like 9. So we were really hungry by the time the meal came along! It began with a chartrucerie plate (meat, cheese, bread with olive oil) and we tried really hard not to just stuff our faces right then. We managed to eat casually instead, until everything was gone. Then we were served a carbonara pasta with some local Umbrian noodles (like spaghetti noodles but really thick) followed by a roast chicken. The whole chicken, from like, the neighbor. Not sure how we managed to fit it all in, but somehow we were able to eat a good serving of both the chicken and the fries, which left basically no room for the dessert that was prepared. But that's okay, we ate it the following morning with some coffee! It was a giant pound-cake like pie with fig marmalade and it was delicious! So many things we have to learn how to cook now. Needless to say that meal pretty much put us into a food coma, ending us for the night.

Day 3 was a big day. We woke up early enough to eat some breakfast and an early lunch before heading out for our day at Maramore falls finally! Woohoo! We were excited. The map of Maramore falls depicted 5 different trails, where 4 of 5 trails were only about 20-25 minute hikes to different lookouts. We decided to go to the Lover's Out look and to go for the 5th trail that brought us to the top of the waterfalls. Getting to the falls with ample time to do some hiking was nice because we wanted to have a relaxing hike before they released the water. Lover's Outlook was a neat lookout about 2/3 of the way down from the bottom of the falls. Before the water was released it was just a pretty view, but when the water was released we went back to check out Lover's Outlook and it was getting pummeled by the falls. Rainjackets AND poncho were necessary for that view.

The big trail that led to the top was well worth the 40 minute hike of it. While the top wasn't too crowded when we arrived, as time counted down to the waterfall release it soon got to be. With loud sirens sounding kind of cartoon ACME like, we crowded to the front to watch the water release. It was so neat to experience a waterfall getting "turned on." After some picture taking for us and some other couples and families we enjoyed some book reading at the top of the waterfalls and decided to head back to town because we had dinner plans with our hosts again!

Around 7 o clock that evening our host Riccardo came by to pick us up and take us to a festival in a nearby town called San Gemini. This town was bigger than Stoncone but much smaller that Terni with no commercialized stores anywhere to be seen. The maze like feel of this town, the archways and lack of fancy shops were very captivating to our modern eyes. Cobblestone streets and festival banners adorned each corner with signs pointing to which way a tavern was located. There were 3 different "teams," each serving food and wine at a different tavern in a competition for the participants to decide who was doing it best. One team for the Castle, one for the Farmers, and one I think for the Merchants. I'm not sure which tavern we ended up at, but I do know the food and wine were both delicious. All served on these clay, earthenware plates with clay jugs to serve the wine; very quaint.

But they seemed to stay just hidden enough to make it a hunt to really find the right taverns. They were always down that random alleyway and up those stairs leading who knows where, before you finally took the corner leading to the crowd waiting to get in. When you see a crowd that big, everyone waiting the 30 minute entry time, you know you are in for a treat. We were finishing our meal just as we heard the first cracks from fireworks outside. We quickly paid and followed the mounting crowd out to the main square in an effort to get the best spots we could to view the show. It would be difficult to overstate how wonderful these fireworks were. Choreographed to background music, there was clearly a story being told; one we especially couldn't understand due to our lack of Italian language skills. In either case, we were enraptured and super grateful to have gotten to be in the area during a time when such a wonderful festival was going on and having gotten to be a part of it.

By the end of the show the rain was beginning to pick up and it was getting late. On our way outside of the city we passed a small shop doing a lottery. Pay 1 euro and pick a number, the number determines your prize. Karmen won a pair of panties, and Michael won a little girl's T-shirt. Wonderful! Our host won a doormat and a pair of earrings, and you could even win a bottle of wine and even more "top-shelf"items. From there we made it back to the home and went to bed, we had another big travel day coming up. Onwards to Bologna!

Photos: Rome

rafellarayne — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 12:07:00 GMT

Rome

rafellarayne — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 12:04:00 GMT

We were in for a serious travel day but we were excited to be getting out of Split to head into Italy. We had a great time, but being still for a month really had us starting to miss home. We're still excited to get back home to friends and family but now that we're on the move again it is easier to distract ourselves. We boarded the ferry on pretty much the first rainy day we saw all month at 7 pm to arrive in Ancona at 7 am. One hell of a ferry ride but we managed to catch a little sleep and were close to the front of the line getting off once morning came. Plus we got a couple bonus pictures of an Italian sunrise, awesome.

We had about an hour from when we got off to make the walk to the train station so we weren't rushing hard, and we got there with plenty of spare time. 12 hours on a ferry quickly followed by 4 hours on a train, Woohoo! Not really tho, it was a little rough. Definitely our biggest travel period so far but we were heading to Rome so whatever. We arrived in good order and managed to figure out the metro system pretty quick. It doesn't go to much of the city center, but it was going where we needed to go.

On a real note though public transport in Rome kinda sucks. There are 2 metro lines that basically run the edges of the city center, and a lot of bus lines that were packed shoulder to shoulder even in early October. I would hate to see the madhouse that must be peak tourist season. In any case we managed over our 3 days well enough.

Anyway, we got to our hostel (first time since travelling that it was cheaper than airbnb) and were told that the cleaning lady was late so it wasn't ready blah blah blah. We ditched our packs for a minute to go get pizza nearby because at this point we are starving and were thinking it can't be much longer. We get back and read for a couple hours and finally just ask to put our packs in our room so we can go see a little of Rome before it gets too late. Good thing too, we decided to check out the Coliseum and found out that it's free the first Sunday of every month. Lucked out there, the girl at the hostel didn't say a word about it.

It was Michael's first time at the Coliseum and he was slightly giddy. It is crazy to imagine just how old the Coliseum actually is, especially when it is amidst the bustling metropolitan areas of Rome. We explored it for awhile in awe of the tunnels beneath the arena area and the beautiful architecture. One thing we both really enjoyed imagining was where the people sat at the Coliseum. It was hard to discern due to the weather erosion but nonetheless we were quite awestruck. (Also so many damn selfie sticks! Very annoying when people would just whip around to take a selfie not being concious of us walking by. Although it was entertaining to watch these narcissistic people taking multiple pictures of their faces :p)

Post Coliseum tour we decided to explore the Roman bathhouse nearby but sadly they were about to close because it was nearing 7 PM. Between our walking around to the bathhouse and back to the Coliseum area we got to see a bride and her groom with an entourage of 3 photographers taking multiple pictures in front if the Coliseum. A little excessive but still really cool to witness. The bride seemed kind of unhappy but we think she was just ready to begin the celebrations.

Feeling a little grody from 15 hours of traveling, we decided to head back to our hostel but not before Karmen got her self some Gelato of course. Cheaply priced we enjoyed some strawberry and tiramisu Gelato on the curb of a very flamboyant section of town. With rainbow flags in bar windows and interesting tshirts we found ourselves amidst a gay pride area. It was fun to explore that side of Rome and that is all that can be said. :)

Tha evening after we recouped and washed ourselves and went hunting for a bar. Although there were some in the vicinity of our hostel we were excited to stumbleupon an entire craft beer store! It felt like home to us with the employee asking us what kind of beers we like and him choosing what we would enjoy. Needless to say we happily enjoyed a tasty Italian I PA. We were so happy! Post craft beer session we found ourselves quite hungry and yes you can judge us... (we ate Mexican! ) ahhhhh! We haven't had Mexican food in 2 1/2 months and this place was delicious! We ordered a chicken burrito with fried plantains in it and some beef nachos. Nothing like the commercial americanized Mexican restaurants back home, no this felt more authentic. In house they made their own tortillas! Giggling and enjoying some tasty food, we found ourselves in bliss that first evening in Rome. The crazy kids who ate Mexican food in Rome.

Day 2 we did some more full scale exploration. We took the metro close to the river and began walking around. We had a general direction but weren't super worried about what we would see along the way, we were just trying to get a little lost. We saw a lot of cool graffiti and some old italian streets and eventually started to get a little tired so we sat down for a beer and to read a bit and regroup with some WiFi. We had gotten a good cheap panini to split walking around and took some pics of their awesome looking pizza too. We were saving our full appetite for some Appertivo dinner at a place a friend recommended to us. $25 for a bottle of wine and unlimited appetizer buffet for 2? Uh, yes please it sounds awesome. After that we finally headed back home because we were super tired. Michael fell asleep early reading but woke up later to go get Karmen some Gelato.

Our final day we did a little more sightseeing. We went to the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain was under construction, the pantheon, a church, then we got lost trying to go one way but accidentally went the opposite direction. We eventually just had to sit down in a square and completely regroup before finding our way back to our hostel. We took some time to relax before showering and grabbing a few beers to do a little drinking with the hostel buddies we made. They were all very nice and we ended up staying up way too late, got yelled at twice by the guy running the night desk (oops) and finally went to bed around 3 am to wake up at 9 am for checkout. Brutal.

Until the next one, be excited because Terni was awesome

Unreal Croatia

rafellarayne — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 07:40:00 GMT

So this blog is mostly for us. Each of every of these blogs is for us honestly. We are happy to have our family and friends following us but this blog was mostly for us to look in the past (future past at this point) but mostly for us to look back on our endeavors and to relish in them....that being said here we go for our personal moment....

We have had a life changing experience here through our travels. Whilst typing this we are listening to a kickass playlist by Pete Rock called Lost & Found Underground Soul. This album resonates within both of us because it really due to the recent viewing of the kickass movie"Straight out of Compton" and our good friend Brandi Karlick's love of a Tribe Called Quest". Anyways...

We have very much enjoyed ourselves traveling and we know that our first endeavor is coming to a near close, sooner than we expected it to..

That being said, some things for ourselves we want to get out there that we want our future selves to be known saying that:

We've been loving our life. People might think that this has been easy for us or whatever but realistically it has been a serious matter for us to complete what we've came in to do. We tried to make things simple for our blogs for people, and ourseles, to know what we want to get out of our travels. Realistically, we have been struggling to get across the point we want to make as we go. We love what we have been doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has been easy for us.

Our blog has been fantastic. We love everyone who has been reading. We started writing for ourselves, first and foremost. Croatia has been great for us because it gave us the opportunity to calm down and reflect on everything that has been going on. We have used this time to reflect on our time spent so far; we expected at this point to know how to appreciate our travels. It isn't necessarily that easy, We want to travel hard, we want to experience everything we can, but our money situation doesn't always call for that. That being said, we have been doing our best to show ourselves the best travel period we can come up with.

We our travelling for us, and we want our travels to reflect that. We are doing our best to live this part of our life as seriously as we know it deserves. Everytime we think about posting this blog, we think about what everyong else might want to hear, but when it comes down to the money it's about what we want to know in the end. And we know that, but at the same time we want anyone reading to understand what we're doing at the same time. Because it isn't all about us. We don't want it to be al about us. This blog, while ultimately about our travels, is mostly about giving the people that love us the knowledge to understand that they can do it as well. It's NOT all about us. It's about everyone that wants to do more than they've done so far.

There is an ENTIRE world out there available to EVERYONE. We want everyone to know that they have the opportunity to reach for it as well. It's a struggle we all face to reach for what we really want. We want to show that while we got a small piece of it, there is an entire world available to everyone else that wants to find something too. Did your mom/dad/grandparents/cousins come from somewhere else? You can get a piece of that experience. The key is to try to reach for it. We wanted to do what we could to grab as much of that experience as we could; we want to show that it is just as easy for other people to grab pieces for themselves as well. There is no reason to doubt, to question, to think that they might not be able to do what we are doing. The biggest thing is that the world is here for you to reach for, all it takes is a little dedication.

All we really want to say about it is: find your dreams. Travel because it's good for you. Travel because it's good for your kids. Travel because it's good for your parents. There is so much more out there than most of us grew up knowing. Be ready for it; be prepared for it because it's coming to match you, and more than anything prepare your kids for it because they will be matching wills with the kids that are growing up knowing all of this already.

Photos: Croatia Part One

rafellarayne — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:45:00 GMT

Beautiful Croatia - Our first 2 Weeks

rafellarayne — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 23:58:00 GMT

This place is a paradise.

It is a gorgeous landscape that consists of the mountain and beach combination that Karmen has always dreamed of residing in. Clear waters, both sand and pebble beaches, and tons of seafood (too bad we don't really like the stuff - we know it's a crime!) Upon our arrival at 8 PM ,we were welcomed at our Air Bnb with smiling faces asking us if we were hungry because the older Croatian lady (Yelena) also living here was making croatian pancakes. Starving we both gladly accepted and the pancakes here are DELICIOUS. Similar to a crepe, the pancakes are thin and rolled up with jam inside. After eating our fill, Yelena and her friend Radmila noticed Michael's guitar and requested him to play some music. He wooed these croatian women off their seats. They were smiling so big and applauded after each song he played. Needless to say, Michaels head is getting bigger about his musical and vocal skills daily thanks to them.

After breakfast for dinner we were eager to go out on the town because it was our friend Kevins last night in Croatia. Kevin is a really cool guy that we met at a bar in Budapest and he is from France. We were happy to find out that he was also going to be in Split, Croatia aroumd the same time we were. So we met up with him and did some exploring and drinking to send him off to Dubrovnik. It was a fun night and we got to make a new friend Matt from Australia!

Having been here in Croatia for 2 weeks or so, we have been thoroughly exploring the beaches almost everyday. It's the month of September and tourist season is basically over here. We are happy about that because it means we get everything to ourselves! The weather has been sunny almost everyday and the temperatures ranging from 75-85 degrees. Needless to say we have been working hard on our tans! On top of that we have been relaxing and doing lots of reading. Karmen is proud to have read almost 5 books since we've been here!

Although this is the 2nd biggest city in Croatia, it's a very small city. Michael has been busking a few times since we have been here and almost each time he has had a great experience with people praising him for his vocal and musical skills and he's made some decent money. There was one instance though where he was busking outside of the shopping mall (a very good place to play because of high traffic) and the mall sent 3 security guards to kick him off the property! It was more funny than anything because the mall sent 3 big burly men to ask Michael to leave haha.

We've been to a couple different beaches. We usually just go to the beach nearby called Bacvice, it's what people generally expect with yellow sand some chairs and a couple fast food eateries. It's also where most of the tourists tend to go because it's close to the old city and has easy access. The water is still very clear though so we have no reason to be scared from random fish or seaweed or anything haha. We've also been to a more private beach called Kasjuni. This was a white pebble beach and much less crowded and the water was beautiful. It takes a couple buses to get there tho which makes it a full day commitment.

We've had the fortune to meet a few very nice people we hope to see again in further travels. There is a popular backpacker bar where we joined in on a group date night to get some deals off a nice restaurant and enjoy some good conversation with other people traveling getting to hear their stories of other places. We have also attended a pub crawl a couple times that was very fun and very popular, over a hundred people easily and they tell us in peak season it can go way higher. They start at a private bar where we get 2 hours to drink all we can playing beer pong, flip cup, dancing and just generally having a good time. Then once everyone is sloshed we parade through the city to a couple other popular club spots to dance and have fun. We even went skinny dipping one night when the crawl ended at a club near the beach! (Not everyone though just me and Karmen, and then a few other people that saw us and joined in haha)

We have even managed to go see a couple movies while we have been here! It's much cheaper than back home so it's been a real treat that we rarely took advantage of back in the states. Needless to say we've been having a wonderful time. We've been relaxing from all the travel travel travel and it makes us miss home more than when we were seeing a new place every week so we will be ready to come home by mid November when our visas our up we think. We're also super excited to get back where we can eat some real food again!

Until the next one!

Budapest

rafellarayne — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 20:11:00 GMT

We arrived in Budapest in decent form excited to explore a new city. Vienna was beautiful but we heard Budapest might be a little more our speed. We had a lucky find on the hostel we booked, and while it wasn't as communal as most hostels we've seen it happened to be almost right in the city.

We showed up at the Sleepy Snail on the earlier side of mid afternoon Sunday, anxious to start exploring. After chatting a bit with our hostel host and getting a map with a decent laydown of the area, we were off to our first stop of the day. On a recommendation we walked over to a nearby street for what we thought was going yo be a food festival of sorts. And it was, but either something was lost in translation or we just didn't know how to participate, in either case no random food for us. Bummer.

We were happy to keep doing some wandering. So we did. And lucky for us our wandering feet found us tacos! We were thrilled. They were decent. By this point it is getting towards early dark so we decided we could use a beer or two and see what the night brings us. We went to a recommended spot with a few bars surrounding a big open courtyard. We were just finishing our second beer and it was getting towards ten o clock. I tried to stifle a yawn but it was obvious we were both tired. Unwilling to just roll over and call it quits we put it in the hands of fate. We flipped a coin. Heads we have one more beer, tails we go home.

It was heads as you probably guessed. And then suddenly it was 5 am, the intervening hours mostly a blur. The late night crowd poured in, everything started picking up the pace a little bit. We ended up chatting with an older man for a while, he was there visiting his daughter who decided she was done with him for the night. We kept him company for a bit before he called it a night. Then we spent a couple hours drinking with a couple nice french guys (one of whom we met back up with in Split). By this point its pretty late, and we're talking to a couple Indian guys that are in from London. They really wanted McDonald's and we decided we could help them get there.

We did our best but it had just closed or something and we ended up sitting at a pizza shop with them determined to meet them again in London (which I don't think we'll have the money for at this point) but they were really nice guys. This is when we noticed it was 5 am and we were way past bedtime. We trudged home and needless to say didn't get a lot done the following day.

The following day was our true recovery day. We still didn't really get a lot done but we managed to go to the north side of the city to hang out/lounge/tan/swim at a pool. We thought we would be able to swim in the Danube like in Vienna bit we couldn't seem to find anything to verify this. But no problem the pool was cheap and cold and the weather was really really hot, so it was welcome.

The day after we recovered we finally got walking around more of the town just checking random sites. Doing your basic tourist walk around town. We intended to catch the sunset but were a little late getting moving as we misunderstood how far it was to the site we wanted to watch it from. We ended up turning around to go find some food to eat and settled on some pasta at an easy enough place on the tourist strip just to keep from having to look too hard.

The next day we planned well for our sunset excursion. After enjoying the biggest part of the day walking around, we stopped by a shop to gather supplies. Feta, wine, some olives, crackers bread and brie oh my. We had a sunset picnic ready to go! We hiked up a trail to The Citadel, one of the highest points in the city near the Old Town and proceeded to find a shady grassy spot to watch the sun go down and read. We had about an hour to kill.

Unfortunately for us, right when the sun was getting close the stupid clouds started moving in. We didn't actually get to see the sunset, which was a Bummer, but we had a good time waiting for it and that was important. This was our last night in Budapest so we didn't want to go home just yet. Instead we went to a craft beer bar we had been hoping to get to all week, and finally did. Nothing too fancy but they had twenty craft beers on tap and that was a rare treat. We missed drinking good beer!

We only had a few and then decided to call it a night. Well we now know how much we don't like to travel hungover. And the next day we were off to Croatia. It was during one of those lazy days that we decided we needed a break from going going going, and since Croatia is out of the Schengen we figured we'd pick a beautiful area and stay for a month. Because ya know, why the hell not!?

Until next time

Photos: Budapest Part 2

rafellarayne — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 19:39:00 GMT

Photos: Budapest Part 1

rafellarayne — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 18:48:00 GMT

A week long adventure in Budapest. Gorgeous city.

Photos: Graffiti in Vienna along the Danube Canal

rafellarayne — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 16:18:00 GMT

They even have graffiti classes offered in Vienna. I suppose if you can't stop the graffiti at least make sure it will look good ;)

Photos: Vienna! (August 23-August 30)

rafellarayne — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 16:16:00 GMT

A small exploration of Vienna

Photos: Festival pictures and Tarnow, Poland

rafellarayne — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 15:50:00 GMT

Beautiful Vienna

rafellarayne — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 14:49:00 GMT

After our long car ride from Tarnow to Vienna, we were exhausted. Our Airbnb hosts phone was off and without her apartment number we couldn't find her place at 1 am. So with the Polish drivers help (no English just saying hotel hotel!) We found one eventually that was still a little pricey but we didn't care at that point because we were frustrated and exhausted.

After waking up, we decided to walk around the city center while we sorted out the mess with our Airbnb. It was a hot day and Karmen was getting a sore throat. We tried to take it easy by exploring a little but when you are both carrying heavy backpacks in the summer heat it can become stressful and exhausting. We still found a really cool area near the imperial palace with a film festival and really good food. We relaxed in a park nearby for a little while with Michael playing his guitar.

We saw a lot of the city center and as we closed in on 5pm we made our way to our airbnb. We arrived just as she finished cleaning and were introduced to a very lovely rooftop flat with a balcony. We were pretty much ready to drop by that point but we made a point to go find some viennese food to eat before we called it a night. We found a wonderful place with very friendly service called Brau Bar, great portion sizes of delicious food.

The next day was raining pretty good when we woke so we waited until it let up a little then did some grocery shopping. We were staying right next to one of the biggest outdoor markets in vienna and we found plenty of stuff to make a few dishes at home over the week. We didn't think we could eat a whole pig, even though there were some for sale. Still a little worn and tired from the ride over we took it easy and just grabbed a pizza for dinner while we were walking around the city.

Wednesday was a fun day. We got up early and made our way to a big island on the Danube running through the city and got to lay in the sun for a while. Trying to get that tan back you know. We were even able to find a secluded spot to tan a little more stripped down which was a new experience haha. On the way back home we found a spot in an area of bars they call the Bermuda Triangle and had a couple happy hour beers before heading home to cook a Viennese take on an old classic of ours Chicano Divan. It was still awesome.

On Thursday we decided to get a little more active in our sight seeing so we went and took a tour of the Schonnbrun Palace off a tip from our airbnb host. It was really cool because they still have the rooms set like they were being used at the end of the monarchy. We had a huge lunch nearby of schnitzel and gulash before heading back to rest our feet for a while. We needed it because we decided that this night we were going out.

A little starved for the English language we found a travelers pub online called the travel shack. It was okay, pretty crowded with a subtle frat-bar feel, but we stayed for a drink and ended up hopping onto a pub crawl after we got talking to a few people participating. The Travel Shack was the first stop so we figured why not? We only crawled to 3 more pubs but the group was a fun crowd and it was a different way to explore a city I guess.

The place we ended at was supposed to be a club, but we were pretty much the only people there. After just a little dancing we noticed it was already pretty late and we were pretty hungry so we did the smart thing and left to go get 2 am noodles from the first Chinese place we found open :) we were just leaving standing on a curb when a friendly guy sat down next to us offering some of his sushi. We were both very full and declined, but he was friendly so we chatted a bit. He was leaving on a plane soon so staying up, we didn't know exactly how to get home, he was living near us so he offered to show us back. Cool. We get to his place, exchange some contact info, and get back to get some much needed sleep.

Needless to say the next day was a mild day. We cooked up the last of our food and did some cursory city walking. I think we had gone out to eat pizza again lol and on the way home we decided to get some ice cream and sit on some tall steps before taking the metro home. Not two minutes later a giant huge long bike/Rollerblade/being on wheels rally came down the road. It took like ten minutes! Crazy timing, but we were exhausted so when it was over we headed back to the flat.

Our last day we found a park on our map to go do some hammock reading in. Turns out when we arrived that this park was also a good sized carnival/fair that must go on all year. They had 2 ferris wheels, giant huge swings that raised you higher than the ferris wheel (it was terrifying) 4 smallish roller coasters, and yea so a pretty good sized place. While we were swinging we saw people dining at a table raised into the air about forty feet by a crane. That was crazy. Once we had our fill of heights we found a tree to eno up and read some more with a beer until we were tired of it.

On the way home we stopped and got burgers, because by that point I needed a good one and for once made a good decision to call an early night so we didn't leave a city hungover, cuz that just sucks :p

The next day we packed up and said our goodbyes to our wonderful host, and headed to catch our bus to Budapest where I am currently writing this. We haven't seen much refugee activity on our end yet, but tomorrow we leave to Croatia from Keleti station so we will see.

Krakow to Tarnow to Vienna

rafellarayne — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 20:00:00 GMT

We woke in Krakow on Friday and went about putting our lives back together in our packs. We knew we were leaving Saturday for Tarnow and since we had big plans for Friday we didn't want to deal with too much come morning. We ate the last of the food we bought for a late breakfast and headed into the city.

Our destination was a park just west of city center: Jordana Park. We arrived just after 3 pm when the gates to the Krakow Live Festival were officially opening. We saw a poster showing TV on the Radio playing and thought that it was a good purchase just for them as we'd been wanting to see them for a while. We were also going to get to see Kendrick Lamar, which is cool I guess.

We walked inside, got our wristbands, and sat down to wait with a beer. We were at a picnic table, trying to look friendly and invite some conversation from people nearby and those looking for seating but I guess we are just too intimidating. A few people even sat at the empty table, the one covered in bees, rather than approach us. The music was starting so we went to check out some shows we didn't know about, Bokka was cool and the Polish rap band we couldn't understand had good rhythm but we were getting hungry.

We found a BBQ stand and couldn't help but indulge in some pulled pork, and when we sat down we overheard some people speaking English, and American English at that. They were very friendly and from the west coast, and we made friends with them pretty quick. We lost some time in conversation and before we knew it, it was time to pile in to see TVotR.

They put on a great show that in true city-festival fashion ended too early. We had a great time jumping around and had enough time for 1 beer before we piled back in to see Kendrick Lamar. We left a bit early to refuel ourselves with pizza from a food truck at the festival. After meeting back up with our friends we prowled around the town in eager exploration. A few drinks later we decided it was time to go home in anticipation of our travels on Saturday that would lead us to Tarnow, Poland to visit Kryzstof's family.

Feeling an awful sort of hungover we trudged our way to the train station. Upon our arrival in Tarnow, Kryzstof and his dad Robert showed us around the station a little bit because it's very modern and ornamental in comparison to the other train stations we've seen thus far. Next we rode to their beautiful home where lunch was waiting on us already! We have never felt more honored as guests than we have in a Polish family's home.

With arched ceilings, beautiful moldings, and curved doorways - we were both in awe. On the way to their home Robert told us that during the week he worked in Warsaw Monday thru Friday and came home on the weekends. We did our best to keep the conversation going as we knew we were encroaching on some of the limited family time they get. It was hard though because after a delicious soup we were presented with grandma's homemade pierogi. They were absolutely delicious and needless to say we readily stuffed ourselves.

Feeling like it was bedtime, the clock showed it was barely into 3 pm and we only had a little time to see the city so we were off. On the way to the city we picked up a friend Bartic who had spent some few years in Ireland and had (according to the family) a better grasp of English (even though the family's was already very good.) We first went to see the foundations of Castle Tarnow and the closest "mountain top" overlooking the picturesque little city. The castle had been destroyed in a war between families over control of the original town.

After leaving there we headed to walk around the city center and old town. We got to see the church the parents married in, the school Krysztof attends and his mother teaches at, a number of monuments including those to the Jewish families who used to populate much of the town, we got ice cream at the store Krysztof's mother went to when she was a baby, and walked through a large park where the children used to play (and where many were currently busy playing.)

By then Karmen and I were well and truly exhausted so we headed back to the house for dinner. I can't remember what they called this wonderful & delicious dish but for them it was something easy to throw together and reminded me of something like gumbo. We had two helpings with some bread and began fervently looking to book our transportation to our next destination with the help of most of the family.

After running through a few hoops and weighing all of our options we decided to head to Vienna and organized a blablacar to leave at 3:30 sunday. For those of you that do not know what blablacar is, it's an app that allows you to see reviewed people that are traveling to the same place you are going by car. Similar to hitchhiking, but verifiable, this was quite an interesting experience...

We were supposed to be the last 2 seats to fill up this Polish mans car to trek the 7 hour ride from Tarnow to Vienna leaving at 3 o clock. Knowing that he doesn't speak any English we had the family we were with speak to and coordinate with him beforehand. As it turns out, he picked us up first and then 4 other ppl on the way turning it into more of a ten hour trip. Blegghhhh pretty much covers it. We arrived in Vienna around midnight, unable to get in touch with our host, and ended up finding a hotel nearby to book for the evening. The night clerk comped us our breakfast (probably out of pity) but Woohoo! Needless to say we don't know if we will blablacar again anytime soon and will take the bus from now on.