From Sliven, we decided to take a half day trip up to the “architecturally significant” village of Kotel, (our personally branded “cute” towns), which is folded into yet another of Bulgaria’s mountain ranges…the Eastern Balkans. Kotel is one of the many villages the red hiking trail meanders which offers the opportunity to traverse Bulgaria’s entire length, offering clean mountain air,…
The Extraordinary Village of Melnik To celebrate Greg’s 47th birthday, we chose to have an overnight escape to the seductive teacup-of-a-town called Melnik, which we first visited on a whirlwind hour-long dash and drink in 2019, thanks to the inconvenient buses we had to catch from Blagoevgrad. This time, catching a direct bus from Sandanski, we were thrilled to spend more…
Day One: Kovachevitsa, Leshten, Gotse Delchev & Ognyanovo It didn't take long to realize that Sandanski may be slightly more challenging when it comes to public transportation than other parts of Bulgaria, so in order to get to the other side of the Pirin Mountains and continue to have our freedom, we rented a second car for another overnight SW…
We originally had the intention of ONLY going to New Zealand and bypassing Australia in early 2025 and we feel this would have been a grave mistake because we fell hard for the diversity adventure, and terrain of Australia in a way we didn’t expect, nor can we entirely explain. That said, we still were enchanted by the natural beauty of…
Two cats, Some Rest, and a Helluva View During our time volunteering in Beaumont, a six-day pop-up catsit in Wanaka delightfully showed itself on Trusted Housesitters…and we got it!! Wanaka is a stunning lakeside town one hour north of Queenstown, folded delicately in the Southern Alps. It’s popular with tourists for its activities and dynamic views. And the house we were…
Upon landing a bit spontaneously in Northern Victoria and graciously being provided a loaner Ute by Farmer Joel's father, we were able to see a resplendent, and quite abundantly gifted part of the country. It was a part that felt incredibly familiar to us…a mix of Eastern Oregon and Northern California, exuding some of the same “Old West” and gold rush…
From South to North: Into the Tropics After five days of fervently fanning flies and letting the fragrance of farmland soak into our sniffers, we bid adieu to Farmer Joel at the train station in “The Wang.” It was time to commence our next Ozcapade…to the far north…where we would join forces with Avis relocating a rental car from Cairns to…
Believe it or not, this was our first jaunt Down Under and we knew in this expensive country that we had to be strategic about stretching the budget. Part of that strategy took us a bit out of our comfort zone and definitely forced us to be way more flexible and last minute than we usually prefer. Did we get…
