A Chronicle of Amy and Sean's World Travels
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Get Out the Map


Get out the map
Get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down
We’ll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town…

– Indigo Girls

Before I left, Sally, one of my favorite lawyers that I worked with at my old firm, told me a story about how one time her and her husband just got into the car and drove without a plan.  There is something romantic about meandering about aimlessly.  I’ve always daydreamed about going to an airport and picking the next flight out of town, no matter what its destination.

As much as we have more flexibility on this trip than most Americans have when they travel, we still typically have some semblance of a plan, even if we end up changing it later.  As romantic as travelling without a plan sounds, I can’t bring myself to do it completely.  To truly travel freely, you need to not care where you go.  You need to not care how long you stay somewhere or what you see.  You also need to not care how much money you spend.  We probably planned less than most; I always dreamed of going somewhere, but never the specifics once we got to somewhere.  We used all of our pre-trip planning time just to have a rough idea of the countries we wanted to visit.  People kept asking me before we left, so, where are you going to visit in Japan?  In South Africa?  In Spain? I never had an answer.  This means we do most of our planning on the fly.  Although we usually procrastinate in making our plans, eventually we always come up with something.  It is too hard otherwise, especially if you want to find efficient, low-cost flights, or go somewhere in certain seasons, or sometimes to even get into a country.  I still have not shed my anxious, perfectionist self enough to truly throw all plans out the window.

But sometimes it is fun to truly not care where you will be for the next few days, to pick your next destination by where your finger lands on the map.  The first time we didn’t really have a concrete plan was when everyone left us in Kilkenny to fly home.  Our friends kept asking us where we were going after they left.  It is a foreign concept to not have a planned itinerary for travel to Americans who are used to making the most out of limited time.  Compared to our friends, and compared to our pre-trip selves, after four months of travel, we were now becoming somewhat used to not knowing where we were sleeping that night (even if there are some days I am not entirely comfortable with that concept).  Sitting in the car in Kilkenny, we kept asking each other, so, where should we go? We had just shy of two weeks before we had to return the rental car in Dublin to travel wherever we wanted in Ireland, with our only goal of wanting to eventually head up to Northern Ireland.  We hadn’t even booked our tickets to South Africa yet (or really decided exactly where we wanted to go in Africa).

We decided to head north straight away through a mountain pass marked as scenic on our map, and then make a detour over to the part of the penninsula past Galway we hadn’t seen.  The sad truth is, going someplace random means that, more often than not, you end up in towns like Birr.  Situated square in the middle of Ireland, Birr, and the surrounding areas, lack the dramatic scenery of the coasts.  Best I can tell, Birr’s claim to fame is that the first automobile fatality occurred there when an early model car collided with a horse and buggy.  Our options for dining on a Saturday night were Indian or miscellaneous Asian food.  Birr would have been a good town to check out local pub life, because surely there were no other tourists there, had we not been detoxing after the ten days with our friends from home.  Birr is a perfectly fine town, but sometimes there is a reason why certain areas are touristy and others are not.


Greetings from South Africa!

Finding Internet in South Africa is a major pain in the butt.  In the States, we are used to all the Internet our hearts desire.  Like an all-you-eat buffet or refillable super-size drinks, Internet plans are all-you-can-surf, and free wi-fi hotspots are plentiful.  In South Africa, places typically pay for Internet by the amount of data they use, meaning a lot of places are reluctant to offer wi-fi, let alone for free.  Based on the experiences of people who traveled here a couple of years ago, like Theresa and Jeff from Lives of Wander, it seems like Internet is more prevalent, but it is not like it is in the United States or Europe.  It is not a given that a place will have it, and if we find it, that we won’t be paying a fortune for the brief limited use of a crappy computer.  Even if a place has wi-fi, on many frustrating occasions my computer will connect to the network but will not allow me to access any websites.  I’m not sure why South Africa hates my netbook (or why my netbook hates South Africa), but this Internet problem is the bane of my existence at the moment.  Although sometimes delays on the blog are the result of me not having time to write, for once, I actually have posts and pictures lined up, just no way to post them.  After staying a slew of budget accommodations for the past week or so, we splurged on a nice guesthouse in Johannesburg with….drumroll, please…free wi-fi that actually works on my computer.  Hopefully I didn’t jinx anything by saying that, so I can plug away on getting the rest of the Ireland posts out for your reading pleasure.  And of course I have lots to share about our wonderful experiences in South Africa.  So, as usual, thanks for sticking with me and please stay tuned.  Happy Friday, everyone!


A Whole Lot of Nothing

I was going to write lots of posts about Valencia, especially since we were there for 10 days, but sitting here in Prague, Valencia seems like a distant memory.

From Valencia, Spain

It is not that we didn’t enjoy our time there. Like all of the Spanish cities we visited, we really liked Valencia. It is just that nothing exciting happened while we were there. I mentioned previously that due to our excitement over staying in an apartment for a change, we spent a lot of time relaxing. There is not much you can say about that. First, we slept in. Second, we made eggs for breakfast. Third, we surfed the internet and read. Fourth, we went for a walk.  Fifth, we looked for a replacement camera…

It was nice to relax in Valencia, because the two months so far have been anything but relaxing. Travel is stressful. Every day involves countless decisions, endless feelings of unfamiliarity, money limitations, getting lost, and figuring things out. Simple tasks often are a two step process, because all too often something goes wrong the first time and you have to set out again, with newly acquired information, to accomplish what you wanted to do the first time. Even something as simple as getting something to eat can be a big production, because first you have to figure out where to go, how to get there, what exactly they are serving, what to order, how much to order, how to express what you want, and how much it is. Even simple sightseeing or wandering is tiring – there is a lot more activity in our days than we ever experienced sitting at our desks back home. Look, travel fatigue is a problem I know many people who are stuck at work would kill to have, but it is a problem nonetheless. And you may not believe me, but there are days where I am hot, tired, and cranky where I have actually muttered the words, I might rather be at work than deal with this.

Of course, we all know that’s not really true.

So if one is in the mood to just hang out for a while, Valencia is the perfect city to do so.   After spending two weeks in Spain in earlier in our trip, and leaving and re-entering on three separate occasions, Spain began to feel familiar and more like home, which is what we needed for a little while.  Compared to other Spanish cities, there seemed to be less tourists, and more Valencians just living their lives. The weather was sunny almost every day. Although it often topped 80, it got decent breezes from the sea. Some years back, the city diverted its river, and put a park in its place. The result is a winding green space in the old riverbed, where at any given time people are lounging, playing soccer, running, riding bikes, or walking.

Valencia is at once both very modern and very historic. There is a dichotomy between its architecture. Many of the buildings seemed to be blah, ugly high rises.

Yet it also has grand historic buildings, such as the site of the former silk market, or its cathedral housing the Holy Grail (the cup from which Jesus reportedly drank at the Last Supper).

It also is home to the very futuristic City of Arts of Sciences, a fantastic complex of geometric lines.

You would think that a city on the Mediterranean would be focused on the sea, but if it wasn’t for the fresh seafood everywhere, you would almost forget that Valencia is seaside. The beach, or at least the portion we visited, is nothing to write home about, but there are fantastic paella restaurants up and down the promenade. Valencia is the birthplace of paella, and actually features chicken and rabbit as the main type of paella. All of the rice based dishes we had were fantastic, owing to the local rice.

From Eating and Drinking in Valencia

It is a good thing our need to cook coincided with our stay in Valencia, which abounds with local, fresh produce. In addition to oranges, we had great local tomatoes and olive oil. Besides the neighborhood bakery where we often made meals out of empanadas, we were frequent customers at the Central Market. As the name implies, it is a large market in the center of town, featuring every type of food you could need to cook a feast. The first day we visited, we literally followed our noses, letting our sniffers lead us to the sweetest smelling strawberries.

We can vouch that Valencia is a good place to go shopping, both of the real and window variety. I spent some time wandering in and out of funky shops in the Barrio de Carmen neighborhood. We surely visited every camera store in Valencia for our search for a replacement camera and accessories. We also surely visited every shoe store in Valencia in my search for a replacement for sandals that were not a good fit. Although shoe shopping in Spain was now old hat, it became increasingly clear with every shoe store that I apparently have the largest feet ever known to mankind. I wear a US size 10. Prepared in advance this time, my research indicated that a 10 converted to a 42. Upon inquiry of whether the store might have a certain shoe in a size 42, the response typically was 42? Commence sharp intake of breath and vehement head shaking. Oooh. Maybe a 41. There is no way we have a 42. Then the salesperson would return with a 40. Maybe this would work?

From Shopping in Valencia

Luckily, I found a stylish, comfortable Spanish brand called Wonders where I took a 41. In case you haven’t noticed my repeating wardrobe, it primarily consists of a green shirt and blue shirt. Combined with my blue purse, I have been sporting a very blue and green centric look. So of course the only Wonders sandals (or really, any sandals) that fit me was a colorful blue and green pair. They are blue leather with green soles. I think I found the only size 41 in the entire city. I should know, as every time I saw a shoe store, I popped in to see if they had size 41 Wonders in a different color so I wouldn’t be so monochromatic. They didn’t, so blue and green it is. I later realized that the walls in our Valencia apartment are painted blue and green. I am surrounded by blue and green.


5 years

Five years ago today, Sean and I got married.  It is hard to believe that five years have gone by since then.  In that timeframe, we bought, renovated, and sold our first house; got new jobs and quit those jobs; and left our lives behind at home to travel the world for a year. Some of our wedding guests are no longer with us, and I miss them all. But just as many have been born in those five years, and our flower girls and ring bearers are all grown up now. Our marriage still obtains strength and support from our relationships with our fantastic friends and family.  And even though we bicker nearly every day on this trip, our relationship is just as strong as it was five years ago.

Every time we celebrate our wedding anniversary, we actually celebrate an even longer relationship. We started dating in June 1998 – 12 whole years ago. I remember sitting on a fishing dock with my friend Scott, who was fond of saying that summer, Look around.  Did you ever picture yourself here, with these people, doing this? They were good times.

You never know where life might take you.  Did I ever think 12 years ago, or even 5 years ago, that we would be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in Prague?  Not a chance.  But here we are, with 10 more months of travel and exploration in front of us.

Happy Anniversary, Sean.  I wouldn’t want to do this trip with anyone other than you.  Here’s to celebrating this and future anniversaries – and ordinary days – in exciting places.


Two months…and we are back in business!

We left Pittsburgh exactly 60 days ago.  On one hand, it feels like we have been travelling forever, but we are only 2/12 of the way through our trip.

The first two weeks in Spain felt like a vacation: new, different, and fun.  Then the second two weeks in Paris were like a more exciting version of home, with friends and homey apartment comforts.  Then there was Morocco, and, well, you know how that was.  Returning to Spain again felt familiar, and we’ve spent a lot of the time ironing out the kinks of our travel style and getting into a groove.

Some things are obvious: we get pretty cranky without constant internet; we are not a fan of shared bathrooms, but will do it if we absolutely have to; and a car is not always the best way to travel.  It is fun bouncing around, but it is tiring and leaves little time for down time.  So we’ve decided for the Eastern/Central Europe portion of our trip that we are going to try to see less and stay at least a week in each location.  One thing that is pretty clear is that the quality of our accommodations directly affects our happiness, but it is also the biggest component of our budget.  We added up how much we spent on everything so far, and if continue at this pace, we’ll be 50% over our yearly budget.  Yikes.  But that figure is misleading, because we are doing the most expensive part of our trip first.  Or at least it better be.

Some homesickness has kicked in, particularly for me, and so to remedy that, we ended up chilling in an apartment for 10 days in Valencia.  I’ll write more about Valencia later, but the reality is we haven’t been doing a whole lot other than enjoying life like this is our home and it is a perpetual weekend.  (Well, what we imagine a weekend to be like, because Sean and I spent most of our weekends back left were either working at work (me) or working on our house (mostly him).  We really like the idea of having a temporary apartment.  It lets you daydream about living in a foreign land for a while.  We actually have had two apartments in Valencia.  We first booked one at 11 Flats for 3 days, and got a great deal (about $54/night) because it was booked last minute and filled the gap for the rental company.  See – just like home:

Then we decided that maybe we weren’t in such a hurry to move on, and booked another apartment through the same company at 5 flats for 7 days (about $76/night).

Both apartments are in the heart of the Barrio de Carmen neighborhood, feel positively enormous compared to the tiny hotel rooms in which we have stayed, have fast internet, and modern decor.  Our current place even has a washing machine, which is really the holy grail for “backpackers.”  I decided to wash my clothes today just because I could.  The apartments, of course, also have kitchens, which has allowed us to shop at the markets and cook real meals.  (So Matt, tell your Aunt Ceci not to worry, we won’t have to eat out for 365 days straight).

We’ve also been filling our days with running errands, a need that does not disappear when you cross borders.  One big errand we accomplished is re-purchasing our camera.  It looks like our renters insurance is going to cover the camera, minus a $500 deductible.  We’ve been scouring Valencia for a replacement since we arrived last week.  There are not many camera stores in Valencia, and our internet searches turned up nothing.  It took days of scouting to find what we needed, accomplished by a combination of asking the reception desk at the apartment company, asking a random photography studio, and keeping our eyes peeled while we walked around in popular shopping areas.  In the off chance anyone is ever in Valencia and in need of a camera or equipment, check out the El Corte Ingles department store on Colon (think Macys, with electronics), a photo store by the bullring (think independent photo store), FNAC on some street I forget (think Best Buy), and FotoPrix in the Nuevo Centro mall (think Ritz Camera).  Sean entertained himself by re-researching camera options.  He dreamed of going smaller and getting something new to play around with, I dreamed of taking pictures with my SLR again.  We pondered lots of alternatives, such as getting a compact micro four thirds camera, or reducing our zoom capabilities by getting a smaller lens.  In the end, when we stumbled across the same camera and lens we had before as a set for a great price, Sean’s dreams of lightening our load were dashed one more time.  We are now the proud owners of a Canon XSi (450D here in Europe) and 18-200 mm lens once again.  Yippee!


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