Tag Archives: Travel

Apr5

Christmas in Italy – Overarching summary post

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Christmas in Italy – Overarching summary post

In keeping with the tradition of adventure, Sarah and I went on a big trip for Christmas and New Years!

This year, we met up with Sarah’s family in Italy, traveling to Rome and Florence; not quite a perfect midpoint for everyone, but it was close enough. And, also, you know. Rome. Florence. Amazing!

 

The main idea was that we’d spend about a week in each, exploring and visiting all the sights. There were a few overarching goals that we’d all put together, but honestly it was primarily a “we’ll all meet up, and plan as we go” sort of situation – especially since Bill (Sarah’s Dad) had actually lived in Italy before, and he had a pretty good idea of where we should go and what we should do.

Sarah and I would be the first in country, landing in Rome and taking a taxi to meet up with the representative for the AirBnB that Henry and Leah had booked. We’d spend just under a week exploring Rome and spending Christmas there – making sure to enjoy the culture, shopping, and of course the food, as much as possible.

 

We’d then all jump on a train, and zip Northward through Italy, until we got to Florence. The whole group would stick together on that trip, since the train would only be a few hours… making it a bit simpler and easier to check into the Florence AirBnB.

Florence was about the same as Rome, in that we had a list of various places we all wanted to see, but didn’t have an hour-by-hour plan set out. We’d play it by ear, and explore the land of the Medici’s as it came… continuing to eat as much delicious food and gelato as we could get our hands on.

Not the most detailed, as plans go. That was fine by us, though – Life had been busy for everyone, and the thought of being able to relax, eat, explore, and take in the culture was exactly what we all needed.

To give a summary of the specifics:

  • Thursday, 21-Dec: Arrival, and initial exploration of Rome. Bill and Greta arrive later in the evening.
  • Friday, 22-Dec: Wander around a bit, meet Henry and Leah after their flight lands, and see the Pantheon while exploring and tasting some deliciousness.
  • Saturday, 23-Dec: Visit the Vatican!
  • Sunday, 24-Dec: Sunrise yoga, followed by some cycling and trips to the Trevi Fountain, the Altar of the Fatherland, and the Great Synagogue of Rome.
  • Monday, 25-Dec: Christmas Day! Exploring some of the basilicas of Rome, and I take a short walk to see the Arch of Drusus.
  • Tuesday, 26-Dec: Colosseum and Forum day, followed by heading out to a rather fancy dinner on the town.
  • Wednesday, 27-Dec: A train ride, and a rain ride through Ostia Antica, an amazing open-air ruin. Then, once we’re home, Sarah and I cook up a glorious Roman-style dinner!
  • Thursday, 28-Dec: Our last day in Rome; we do some shopping, then take the train up to Florence! Once there, we settle into the AirBnB, and go out on the town to an amazing trattoria. Possibly the best food of the trip to-date.
  • Friday, 29-Dec: Our first full day in Florence, so we explore the Uffizi, a huge and famous art museum. Afterward, we enjoy another dinner on the town at a small place that Sarah’s Aunt recommended.
  • Saturday, 30-Dec: Explore Florence; we see the DaVinci museum (one of them, at least), have amazingly gloriously decadent paninis, and see the Accademia art gallery (the home of David).
  • Sunday, 31-Dec: A rest day, which is a bit bittersweet, but completely needed. We do explore a fair bit, but the main adventures of the day are an amazing lunch out, and a glorious home-cooked dinner. And, of course, New Years Eve!
  • Monday, 01-Jan: Second rest day, spent wandering and exploring little squares and shops near the house.
  • Tuesday, 02-Jan: We explore La Duomo, do some shopping, and have the famous Florentine meal – Steak Florentine!
  • Wednesday, 03-Jan: A sad day, our last day. We make it count, though, by visiting churches, an abbey, and the Gallileo museum. Sarah and I take a bit of time to walk around on our own as well, to enjoy the last few sights of the city.
  • Thursday, 04-Jan: VERY early morning, followed by a rather intense (but pleasant) amount of travel.
Mar10

Christmas and New Years break, 2016 into 2017.

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Christmas and New Years break, 2016 into 2017.

Christmas and New Years break, 2016 into 2017.

Overarching plot – where, when, why, and how

Sarah and I like to take big trips. We also like to take small trips… but these posts are about a big trip.

Specifically, these posts are about our trip to the United Kingdom, over Christmas and New Years of 2016 into 2017. Our main plan was to visit London on our own, then trend up into Scotland for a bit of a Scottish Christmas and New Years.

 

Overarchingly, our plan was broken up into four segments:

  1. Explore London – we’d fly directly into Heathrow, and spend two days exploring London before taking an overnight train North, into the Scottish Highlands and the city of Aberdeen
  2. Visit with Family in Aberdeen, spending Christmas at Sarah’s parents house
  3. Travel down to Edinburgh with the family, explore a bit, and see what sights there are to be seen
  4. Travel back up to Aberdeen, and spend the rest of the trip exploring and ticking off all the boxes for adventures that we’d aimed for
  5. Fly out of Aberdeen, and enjoy the flight back as best we can!

But the biggest goals of the trip were to relax, be happy, not try to force ourselves to do anything excessive or intense, and generally enjoy the opportunity to check out a country as steeped in history as Scotland!

Oct7

Arrival in Caracas

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Immigration isn’t really that bad, honestly. I always imagined that there would be guards interrogating you about every aspect of your trip and tearing through your bags making sure you don’t have a secret mini-cow hidden in there. When I landed in Venezuela… it was honestly just what I would expect in the United States: a bored customs official making sure that the forms look somewhat correct, and then another bored-looking official making sure that you put your bag into an x-ray machine. Not sure what they were looking for, but I didn’t have any thankfully, and so I was through the entire gauntlet in less than 20minutes.

Outside the terminal I met up with a CouchSurfing friend named Ana, after many hilariously-sitcom-ish moments of confusion about where each of us was, and who we were looking for. Once we did actually find each other we comandeered a taxi and headed into the main city to meet up with two of her friends for some late-night cookies and Ice cream. Seriously, cookies and ice cream… like the little chips-ahoy cookies, and you use them like spoons to eat vanilla ice cream… it was awesome! But before heading out to get said snacks, Ana and I hung out with her friends neighbors for an hour or so, drinking and chatting (mostly through her as a translator, thankfully). I guess her friend was getting her hair straightened, and so it was taking her a bit longer than the usual “forever” that Venezuelan women take (Ana said it, not me), but after a bit Ana’s friend Savas showed up, and we all crammed into his car and went looking for a piece of beach to hang out at.

Savas is a pretty cool dude… reminds me a lot of a friend of mine back home actually. Really laid back, amazing guitar player, and general ladies man; he spent the night alternating between rocking out and bemoaning the fact that he hadn’t hooked up with this one Colombian woman, hehe. He also has some awesome connections it seems, since he was able to hook me up with a black-market money exchange: the official rate is just about 4 BsF per dollar, but he was able to get me 8 BsF. Not bad at all, and now I feel rich (even though Venezuelan money has the same “monopoly feel” that Euros do, its kinda nice rocking nearly a grand). After changing the cash we headed to the beach for a few hours, hanging out until nearly 01:00. I even learned the basics of fishing without a rod!

How do I know it was nearly 01:00 when we left? Well, turns out that the beach is only open until 12:00, and the Policia patrol the area regularly after it closes. But remember what everyone always tells you about the cops? That you should stay away from them, don’t trust them, etc? Yeah, I’d definitely stick with that when on my own, but with Ana and Co around, the cops were actually really cool. We all hung out, chatted for a while, and finally the Policia got a call to head out somewhere else, and we had to break up the impromptu beach-party.

I finally got to sleep around 02:00 that morning, when Sava, Ana and I all crashed in his living room; a rather comfy place, I have to admit, though I’m jealous of the set-up he has: two couches, and a pair of hooks on the wall to set up a hammock from! Seriously, when I get back to a static life, I am 120% setting up hammock-anchors in my apartment!