The first time in this city, Mandy was sick. The second time she got her first case of bed bugs. We could only hope that the third time in Romania's capital would be a charm. And it was! But, perhaps that was just uh...Christmas? When we went to Bucharest in December 2022, we had spent Christmases in the States, Sri…
From Verona, we hopped in a BlaBla car with three other people for 14€ total to head 1.5 hours to a town most known for its Milan-based airport…Bergamo. It would have cost 20 by bus so this was the best deal, plus ride sharing is always way more interesting. (Side note: We have yet to figure out why this oh-so-obvious…
Somehow we landed in Italia. To be honest, it’s not somewhere either of us had been rushing to return to after our initial separate forays in our 20’s. Neither one of us had extraordinary experiences back then. To be honest, they were both a bit sour, but granted, we had only waded into the most touristed places possible…Rome, Venice and…
Chugging along from Spain, we took a pricy bus ($36/each) three hours northwest to the little principality of Andorra, a country which has remarkably been around for 1000 years and has never been involved in a war. Also yes, that counts as a new country for both of us. Andorra, swallowed by France on one side and Spain on the…
For four centuries, the distinguished and elegant university town of Salamanca (population 150,000) attracted prestigious names such as conquistador Hernán Cortés (Yeah, the guy that wiped out the Aztec Empire) and Christopher Columbus who came here in 1486 on a fruitless attempt to get the university to fund his exploration plans. The town, draped in a seductive sandstone, deteriorated for…
Porto is one of those cities that is dripping with European charm...red roof tops, contrasting sapphire blue waters, port wine flowing like water, and azulejos bedecking every other surface you encounter. It has a long and fascinating history as a port city, endless captivating colors and pedestrian thoroughfares dotting the spaces near the Douro River. It's undoubtedly immensely walkable, and…
For our last two stops in Georgia, we longed to escape the cities and step into something a little more laid back and authentic. We chose Kazbegi, aka Stepantsminda, a deliciously Georgia-eous mountain townlet on the Russian border and Sighnaghi, a charming red-roofed village plopped in the middle of eastern Georgian wine country. The ride to Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) was about…
The Making of an Explorer Gene (His Story) Growing Up Inside A Snow Globe… At the age of 6, my mom moved me to a new home. A magical and otherworldly wonderland home. The welcome sign at the entrance road to this unfamiliar land proclaimed that you were entering Leavenworth, Washington, the “Bavarian Village.” The sign included a new, unfamiliar,…
