It’s a lot of work planning out these trips because we don’t do an organized thing. We do the whole thing from scratch, something I think can be compared to building your own house without a contractor. We are on our own…which is quite intimidating. But I’m getting better at it. Experiences like sleeping on the sidewalk in France and getting chased by an elephant in South Africa have helped me realize that things will work out. One way or another, things work out.
This will fulfill the promise I made to my kids several years ago, a one-on-one trip with each of them to wherever in the world they wanted to go. It has turned out to be one of the best ideas I ever had. The times spent with Aubree in Europe and Curtis in Africa are beyond words…and pictures. Two solid weeks alone with each of my kids, experiencing new things, learning new things…it’s an amazing opportunity. I am so grateful to be in a position where I can do this with them and to have a supportive wife.
So for any of you that have been to Greece or Turkey, please pass on your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. We’ll be heading out in September!
If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
When our night sleeping in the brick oven was over and the sun came up, it cooled off a little. What is the science behind that? Today was supposed to be our day to sleep in because our train didn’t leave until noon, but it was just too hot. Taking a nice cool shower sounded too good so we got up earlier than planned and were able to spend more time walking through Venice.
We hit the shops again. I told Aubs I wanted to find a nice mask and we went to the shop we liked most. Their masks were beautiful and they were one of the only shops that didn’t have a “Thou shalt not touch” sign posted. They’d let us try them on and take pictures…so I wanted to give them our business. I found a gorgeous golden one that I think Sandi will like and will look great somewhere on the wall at home. I just needed to get it home in once piece.
If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
I always look for a hotels with a free breakfast. Most of the time they don’t cost more and it saves money on food. Eat a good breakfast, snack throughout the day (jerky and trail mix from Costco works good), and you can get away with only buying one meal a day (or less). Normally it works out pretty good…but not at the Monastery.
We ate our breakfast in the peaceful courtyard but then as we were heading out were informed our room had been charged $24 ($12 each). Apparently the Expedia line that said “all our guests enjoy a free complimentary breakfast” didn’t apply to us. I pleaded my case and lost. We had a “no breakfast room,” although nothing specified that on my reservation. I asked for a full detailed receipt knowing this fight was not over. If you tell me I’m getting a free breakfast, one way or another I’m getting a free breakfast. (After I returned home I took up the fight with Expedia and was first told they would not issue a refund but after requesting to speak to a manager, my request was granted.)
If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
We both woke up at 3am and couldn’t sleep. I told her about a dream I had about a 2,000 year old love tragedy between a slave and the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat that is resolved by flashbacks that result in a modern romance. She said I should write it. Maybe some day…
We got some early morning time on the Internet, Sandi helped me with the lost luggage and made some calls while I sent useless emails. The official word just that “it’s lost.” US Air has no clue, hopefully I don’t have to write a song about it.
The hotel is nice. It only cost about $75 a night and with breakfast, was a great deal. Once we figured out how to use the metro (the station was only about 4 blocks away), we could get anywhere easily. Our room has AC, thank goodness, so that gives us an escape from the heat. The breakfast is really good, plenty of food. We gorged on it to take advantage of the free food. Chocolate croissants, ham, eggs, fruit, yogurt, cereal…it was great.
The staff helped us get oriented and explained how to use the metro. It was easy once we had the quick rundown. You can buy a one or three day pass from the machines inside (they take cash and have an English option) and then ride it all you want. We could have saved a lot of walking yesterday had we understood it better…but better late then never. I filled my daypack with water, jerky, trail mix, guidebooks, the camera, and the camcorder and we we hit the streets early before it was too hot to be miserable.
This is day 1 of my recent two week adventure with Aubree on her trip to Europe. I told each of my kids I’d take them on a trip (Curtis was last year to South Africa) and Aubs picked Europe, primarily Italy and Spain.
Things started out a bit rough. Our flight to Philly was delayed and it was only a sprint from one end of the airport to the other that kept us on schedule. My pounding chest reminded me that I’m a 40 year old man, something that I am in constant denial about. It doesn’t even look right on paper. But at least Aubree is young and full of energy. She ran on ahead and managed to convince them to keep the door open a few more minutes. Everyone was already seated and they sealed the door behind us. We were on our way! But…unknown to us…our luggage wasn’t.
In 4 days Aubree and I are going to be dropped off in Rome. We have 12 days to find our way to Barcelona in order to catch our ride home. Here are the conditions we are traveling by:
We will carry moderate sized backpacks with only the essentials.
Other than the first couple of nights in Rome, we have no reservations for lodging.
We only speak English (well, Aubree does speak bit of Spanish and I speak Afrikaans…but doubt that is going to help much).
We have no itinerary on where we are going.
We have limited funds.
We want to have fun.
Neither of us has ever been to Italy, France, or Spain and…
We don’t know anyone there.
Considering I normally like to have things well planned (I had South Africa planned down almost to the bathroom stops), this is going to be an adventure to say the least. Aubree still isn’t exactly sure what she wants to do, so we are going to wing it I guess. The thought causes my stomach to churn a little…but I suppose one way or another we’ll survive, have fun, and learn a thing or two.
Aubree (my 17 year old daughter) and I are nearly 90 days away from our trip to Europe. Like Curtis last year, this is her trip. Mikayla still isn’t sure where she wants to go (I promised them each a trip one-on-one with dad). It hasn’t been easy to follow through, financially, but it’s working out. And based on my experiences last year with Curtis, it is one of the best investments of time and money I have ever made.
It has been stressful to plan this one. I knew South Africa: what to do, where to go, how to get around…last year took a lot of planning, but at least it was easy in the sense of deciding what to do. All I know about the Italy trip is that we’ll land in Rome and fly out of Barcelona 12 days later. Buying the tickets is the only concrete planning I’ve done so far. We picked up some library books, researched online, and have ideas…but I’m not prepared.
(If you have Piclens, click the bottom left hand corner to jump to the virtual gallery.) It was tough choosing under 100 pictures from nearly 4,000 that Curtis and I took on our trip. Click the photo above to jump to an album with of a few of our favorites shots. In case you missed it….you can read more about the trip starting here.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
We were up and ready to go early, as usual, but then were turned away for breakfast because we were too early. There was a bowl of peaches and yogurt out ready to go, and I suggested that we grab a bowl of that and take it to our room because we were heading right out. But Gordon said no, that would confuse his employees. He likes to run things strictly by the book here, it’s a nice place and he’s very helpful and friendly but there isn’t much variance from standard procedures.
Gordon got our Internet up and running yesterday, but based on my experience last week and this week, he didn’t really understand how important it was to us. It was more like, oh well, it’s not working…no big deal. I still recommend you stay here, just tell him well in advance you want an Internet login, and perhaps even remind him the day before and you should be good. And remember that breakfast starts at 8:00 on weekends instead of 7:00.
Mikayla has spoken: Greece and Turkey.
