Greece to Naples, Italy

Woke up to the most glorious day in Delphi (of course!) and had to get an early start to the Athens airport to catch our flight to Naples, Italy. We arrived safe and sound. We were welcomed by my lovely friend, Janine, who I met in Japan. She has been such a fantastic friend and did all our planning for Naples. I totally trust her planning because she's been living here for two years and I was SUPER GRATEFUL to have someone else do a bit of the planning. I'm pretty exhausted with planning at the moment. So anyways, she picked us up at the airport, took us to our military base hotel, dropped us of at the Naval Exchange (yay for restocking some much needed items) and then we walked to Janine's house for an evening with friends. Kids got to play and the ladies had a wine evening together. What a fantastic welcome to Naples today was. Thank you Janine!
P.S. Greece, you were so lovely. I'll be back one day to explore you some more. Meteora is at the top of my list. 

Another Rainy Day in Delphi

Welp, another rainy and very windy day, darn it. We decided to drive to the cute city of Arachova, which was designed to look like a winter ski village. The bummer thing is that it was so yucky and windy, I think many of the stores were staying closed for a little longer than usual. After walking around for a bit, we got back in the car and decided to explore the city of Distomo. Distomo is a lovely city with a very tragic past. During WWII, the Nazis came into the village and for two hours, they went door to door and massacred the people as part of a "savage reprisal" for the Greek resistance attack on their convoy. Today, there is a beautiful monument on top of a hill that shares the names of the 214 men, women and children who lived in the village and were murdered by the SS troops. After driving around Distomo and visiting the monument, we decided to go back to Delphi. It was a bit of a photography business and travel planning afternoon for me, so the kids hung out in the hotel room, while I worked at a nearby cafe that had great wifi. Our evening closed with dinner at The Telescope Cafe, which had the most passionate and inspiring owner ever -- the perfect way to end our last day in Delphi. I wish we would have had a bit of nice weather in Delphi, but we made the best of our time there.

A Drive to Delphi

Drove to Delphi today, which was supposed to be a two-hour drive, but I didn't realize that I had 'avoid toll roads' set on my google maps, so yep, it took us 3-1/2 hours to get there -- and driving through Piraeus harbour area is so NOT fun. But the drive was beautiful, even in the rain. We arrived in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and then walked to the Delphi Museum. The rain was NOT stopping us from seeing the Delphi ruins, which were spectacular. After walking through the ruins, we stopped for dinner and back home for the evening. 

Athens Day Two

We decided not to leave the house today until 8:30 AM because the parking lot opened at 9 AM an the kids didn't want to risk not finding parking along the street. In the end, I ended up agreeing with them. We arrived shortly after 9:15 AM and the Acropolis was already crowded with people (I'm sure not nearly as crowded as it is later in the day and in the summer months, but crowded enough). Goodness, it was absolutely spectacular. Seeing the Acropolis is probably one of my favorite things we have done during our European travels. I can't even begin to describe the magnificence of it all. Then it was off to the Acropolis Museum, which was also fantastic. It's just all so mind-blowing that these things are THOUSANDS of years old. After the museum, we went to the Plaka area for lunch and then to see the change of the guard at the Parliament. Having been through Army boot camp, I'm always in awe of the ability of the guards to stand perfectly still for so long. Being happy with all that we saw and did, and having walked around for six hours, so we decided to call it a day.

I dropped the kids off at home and wanted to explore what I thought was the 2004 (abandoned) Olympic Stadium. When I got there, the sign said '2001 Olympic' and I realized that it was a terminal area. I'm assuming this was a terminal area for the 2004 Olympics but I'm still puzzled why it said 2001. I also think that the Olympic area was in a building next to the terminal building but when I tried to explore, I saw that there was a police car sitting at the open entryway. Sadly, these buildings are now being used by refugees as a home. I didn't go in because I wanted to respect their privacy but I did take a few random photos from the outside. And goodness, I couldn't stop thinking about these people. Women and men sitting around. Children playing on abandoned Olympic items and throwing dirt at one another. Fragile clothing hanging on the metal fence. I so wish I could have talked to them and I did consider it for a brief moment, but then thought that they probably didn't speak English. And so many questions flooded my mind. Thinking they are Syrian refugees, are they happy to be in this complex, as bad as things are right now, because they are out of Syria and alive. Are they sad to have not made it to their hoped destination? Maybe both? Was the man on the street, who was trying to wash windows, while cars are parked at the stoplight, one of these refugees, trying to earn any money in any way that he can? What about the old woman selling kleenex? And the girl sitting near the Acropolis with her child in her lap? Is it enough to be safe and out of Syria? Fuck, I just can't even begin to imagine. And whose cars were parked in front of this building (there was about 15 nice cars there)? What were the owners of those cars doing there? What are the refugees eating? What do they have inside the building? What was the police doing at the other entranceway? Just so much sadness for these people. I wish there was something I could do to help. I even thought that I hope someone is able to teach these children. I hope they all make it...

Exploring Athens

We started at 9 AM and drove 40 minutes from our apartment into Athens and OH MY GOSH, the drivers are crazy, and the motorbikes are even crazier. Thank you Baby Jesus that we actually found the parking lot and that we arrived safe and sound. We were slightly harassed by some taxi drivers that wanted to show us around for 45 euros. Once that was done, we started walking, until we happened upon the hop-on-and-off sightseeing bus, which we quickly agreed to. It was worth every bit of the 28 euros to do the bus and it gave us a bit of history of the 15 locations we went by. We hopped off at Monasteraki square, ate lunch (I was starving) and then went walking around and street art (aka graffiti) hunting in the Psiri area. A few hours later, we were super hot, thirsty, sunburnt, exhausted and back on the bus, headed to the area where our car was parked. All in all, it was a good day of getting an overview of the Athens sights; we saw the Monasteraki square, the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, The Parliament, a view from the hill of the Acropolis and the Parthenon and walking around Psiri. By 3 PM, we were all tired and decided to call it a day, with the plan to venture back tomorrow, for an early morning visit into the Acropolis. PLEASE let the traffic be better at 7:30 AM. Pretty please?! 

Day of Domestic Travel

Today was a pack-it-up day and move on and forward day. We drove to the port and then took a four-hour ferry ride to Piraeus. We then took an uber ride to the airport where I rented a car. Then it was to our new place, which is 30 minutes outside of Athens. By the time we finally arrived, it was settling in for a bit and then off to dinner. Not a very eventful day but we got the job done -- and I'm so, so, so happy I have a rental car here.
P.S. I thought I would share this picture because this is the shit that I carry with me. Pack on the left is may camera gear and the open pack is all my clothes, etc. Not included in the image is my carry-on bag, which is about the size of a large purse and includes essential items such as our passports, wallet, laptop, etc.

One-Day Boat Tour

There's been A LOT to down (aka Island) time while on Paros Island. I mean it hasn't been bad, but I wanted to do more than exploring the local villages and beaches of Paros. I know, call me crazy. Anyways, I decided to book an all-day boat tour, to explore a couple remote islands that are right off of Paros. Well, that was before the Southern winds made their mark on the plans. We ended up having to leave from a different harbor and had to change the itinerary. Basically we just stayed on the water and pulled in nearby two calm beach areas. All was great except the water is shockingly cold. I got in once but couldn't get in the second time. Kids were braver than I and they jumped in both times. We had a spectacular lunch, cooked by our captain. It was truly an incredible day, changed itinerary and all.

We Saved a Drowning Bird

We decided to explore a couple new beach areas today. Full of unique rock formations, awesome handmade thatched umbrellas, lounge charis and beautiful aqua, calm water, I fell in love with one of them. So we went back home to eat lunch and get our swimsuits on and spent the afternoon at the beach. While we were trying to get ourselves into the VERY COLD water, I noticed something in the distance. I thought it was a squid bobbing up and down or something and then Sky starts, shrieking, "It's a bird. It's a bird," and off she went, for the rescue. Sure enough, she returns with a small bird cupped in her hands. He was shivering. After a few minutes, he hopped out of her hand and onto her arm, and shortly thereafter, he was in the brush and -- off he went. We didn't actually see him hop or fly off, but I'm hopeful that he went on to live a healthy, happy birdie life. We saved a drowning bird today. It was a good day.

Travel Q & A

Okay so this pretty much never happens (a photo of me), but Sky asked to try out my manual focus lens -- and well, she did a pretty darn great job. So this is me, on a very regular travel day -- messy hair, glasses on my head, wearing my leopard hoodie, which I have worn almost every day for the past 45 days. I REALLY need to work on getting in more photos with my family this year. That is definitely one of my goals for 2017 and I need to hurry with working on that. And now, enough of me and onto answering some questions that I have received over the past 45 days. Thank you for asking and please let me know if you have any additional questions. I'm an open book. xox

Q | How are you affording to travel Europe for three months?
Our situation is a bit different than most and I took advantage of a unique opportunity. Steve got a job in Virginia Beach and the Navy was moving our family from Japan to Virginia in March. Ryder was in the public school system and Sky was still home schooling. There was no way that I would put Ryder in the VA school system for just three months, especially when he was home schooled for two of the three years in Japan. Also, the kids and I are moving to Yorktown, VA (close to where Steve will most likely have a civilian follow-on job in April 2018), while Steve lives with a friend in Virginia Beach area. So for a year, we will only see Steve on weekends. This just makes the most sense, so that the kids don't have to move schools after one year (VA Beach to Yorktown). So instead of buying / renting a house and car in Virginia, I had the idea of using that same amount of money to travel Europe for three months -- and THAT is what we are doing. I'm super grateful that I have such a supportive husband that is willing to entertain and support my wild and crazy ideas. 

Q | How did you decide where to travel to?
One of things that I tried to do when looking where to travel was balancing the expensive countries with countries that are lesser expensive. For example, I really wanted to visit Iceland and knew Iceland was going to be expensive. I also really wanted to visit Poland and Czech Republic and knew those countries would be cheaper. My game plan changed a bit over time. There were some countries that were definite and then others that came and went on the itinerary. Hungary was originally on my list and then dropped off. I kind of wish it hadn't, but you can't see them all. Another thing that factored in, when deciding where to go, is airfare. I would search skyscanner, using location we were leaving, the whole month and everywhere, to see what cities and dates were the cheapest to travel next. Another country that came and went was Croatia. And I ended up adding Spain and Portugal, which weren't originally on the itinerary.

Q | How did you plan everything?
Planning our travels takes hours and hours. It's a lot of online researching. Sometimes I have friends, who have either lived in the country or have visited the country, and when that happens, they offer thoughts, suggestions, recommendations or general advice. Basically I start with a date and country and research must do or must see cities in the country. That would help me decide on a city or cities. Then as I shared above, I would start with skyscanner to determine where to visit next.

In all honesty, I don't have a whole lot figured out with each country, other than the place we are staying, which I booked either via airbnb or booking.com. A couple days prior to going to a new country, I will research things to do, usually on tripadvisor or a general web search. I will then make a general game plan. Recently I have started looking at tours and that is how I ended up booking the two-day Romanian biking adventure. I also just booked a one-day boat cruise in Paros.

Not everything has worked out fantastic. For example, I booked 10 days at an airbnb in Bucharest and that was a huge mistake. We only really needed two days there. Lucky for me, it was cheap, but I ended up eating seven days of rent. We ended up visiting Sibiu and Brasov, which I loved way more than Bucharest. Also, we have had some lovely airbnb places and some not-so-lovely, even though I meticulously read through the reviews. 

I have had quite a few questions about planning, so if this doesn't answer your question, please let me know. I am more than happy to help. I currently have to plan both Spain and Portugal in June (have yet to even book flights) -- that's kind of my reality. One day, I will sit down and hammer out the planning, beginning with flights and accommodations. At that point, I only have a very rough idea of what we will do and it's not until we are a few days out that I really plan what we are going to do. 

I think an important piece to remember in all this is -- if we were going to travel to one place (e.g. a summer holiday), my planning would look very different than 10 countries over three months. If a one-time travel gig, I would thoroughly research and have things very planned out. Things have just worked differently traveling over an extended period of time and bouncing around so often.

Q |. What camera equipment did you take while traveling?
I brought the following gear with me:
Fuji X100T
Canon 5D Mark IV
Canon 35 mm lens
Canon 50mm tilt shift lens
Fuji XT1
Fuji 18-55mm lens
Underwater housing

MOST of the time, I photograph with my X100T and basically carry it with me at all times. It fits perfectly in my small kate spade purse, which I love. Pretty much all of my travel photos over the past 3-1/2 years were made with the X100T. I have even hiked the mountains of Vietnam with the X100T stuffed into the front of my sports bra. I seriously love that camera.

I have this Lowenpro hatchback backpack, to carry all my gear, which has worked out pretty great. I put my Osprey backpack on my back and my camera backpack on my front. I also have a carryon-on bag that stores my important documents, laptop, etc.

Q | How do you get your daughter to be your muse?
Basically, when I photograph my kids, it's short and sweet. When they are done, I am done. There are times when I have asked Sky if I could photograph her and she says no. And so no it is. I know not to push. Every now and then, I might say pretty please, but that rarely works. The other day, I really wanted to photograph Sky in our Kostos Village and she said no. An hour later, she said, "okay do you still want to photograph?", and off we went. I'm very respectful to my kids, when it comes to me  photographing them. Not having the camera in their face all the time hugely helps.

Q | How do you stay sane traveling with kids?
Ha, that's a GREAT question. First, I think my kids are a pretty great age for travel. Both manage their own packs and are very helpful. Sky and Ryder get along pretty well most of the time, but every now and then, they do some serious bickering and I seriously fuss at them. That's when they know I'm very serious and they better stop or there will be consequences, which usually involve losing electronics. So here's the deal...we are with one another 24 / 7 for three months. Thats a long damn time for children to be with their Mother in small places. I get that!! Something that has really helped us is that in the evening time, we all have our separate space, thanks to airbnb house or apartment bookings. Ryder is in one room, Sky in another and me in a third -- in our own space, doing or own thing. The tough days are when we are in a small hotel room and we have nowhere to go to have our own space. I think being able to have our own time, in our own space is what keeps all of us sane. So mornings are typically venturing out somewhere and evenings are chill time at home, wherever home is at the time.

Q | What are the absolute highlights of all the places you visited?
ICELAND: The picturesque landscape.
POLAND: Visiting the museums and learning so much about WWII history (including seeing Auschwitz).
GERMANY: Taking my kids to see the Berlin Wall and talking about how my Mom escaped East Germany.
UNITED KINGDOM: Having a castle all to ourselves and watching the kids climb around.
CZECH REPUBLIC: Our Prague airbnb and seeing the Lennon Wall.
ROMANIA: Biking for two days around the Transylvanian countryside. So proud of us.
IN GENERAL: I absolutely love staying in small neighborhoods and seeing how the locals live. 

Q | What have you learned to make traveling easier and smarter?
One of my biggest learning experiences has been with Airbnb. I am meticulous about reading the reviews and only booking places with awesome reviews. With that said, while traveling, I have been opting toward the cheaper Airbnb accommodations. Some have worked out great; others have worked out not-so-great. The biggest factor while traveling has been the various smells in the airbnb spaces. Some have been REALLY bad and that is something that never seems to be mentioned in any reviews. 

Another lesson learned is that you can't do it all, especially with children. My motto is do what you can and be grateful for that. Don't try to do it all because everyone will be exhausted and no one will be happy. And as mentioned above, along (decompression) time is HUGE!! I think having the kids responsible for their own belongings, if they are the age to do so, is also great while traveling.

Less is absolutely more.

 Q | Do you get Travel Insurance for the family?
Do I recommend getting travel insurance...yes. Do I currently have it? No. Do I have a reason why? No. We have pretty great global military health care insurance and after talking to my husband, I decided not to get it while traveling. However, I did get travel insurance when Sky traveled to Bali and good thing because she got Dengue Fever while there and insurance was HUGE, like SUPER HUGE. So honestly, I think it's a great thing and I have no real excuse for not having it now.

Q | Any other safety/security/emergency related things to buy/pack/arrange?
Hmmm, I'm trying to think about anything emergent-wise that we have needed. I guess this depends a bit on where you are traveling to. For example, when traveling around Asia, I made sure to have charcoal tablets with us for belly issues but that isn't really a problem here in Europe. I have a very small first aid kit but thankfully have not had to use it. Toiletries have been huge for me personally, especially face wash. Many places don't even have hand soap. I packed travel-sized toiletries of almost everything and after 1-1/2 months, I am sadly almost out. Adapters. Make sure to have the right adapters and enough for all. I'm on the fence about a travel pillow as I recently had a VERY bad pillow experience and honestly, you just never know about the pillows. I think if I had to do it over again, I would travel with my own (toddler-sized) pillow that I would sleep with each night.

Thus far, safety has not been an issue in any country. Walking around Bucharest and not having a clue where I was going had me a bit weirded out but I think that was my own uncomfortableness; I don't think that was any safety issue. Even having the locals warn us about biking in rural Romania, I felt super safe. I'm pretty laid back i that department though too. I grew up living in the Detroit area and never locking our doors.

Again, packing wise, less is absolutely more. Have the kids carry their own bags if they are at the age to do so. 

Q | Can you share your packing list?
Yep, but keep in mind that we packed for three months, Iceland cold to (June) Portugal hot.
2 jeans
2 long sleeve shirts
4 short sleeve shirts
2 shorts
2 long black leggings
2 workout leggings
2 short dresses
1 skirt
flip-flops
Converse (have been amazing and mostly worn)
saltwater sandals
LOTS of underwear
not enough socks
swimsuit
1 sports bra
2 hoodies
1 thin winter coat (sent home with a friend)
1 thin multi-weather scarf
1 sun hat
3 tank tops (work for wearing out and jammies)
2 scrub pant pajama bottoms
and of course, my camera gear

Q |  Can you share a little bit about your food experience in all the places you have visited?
Let me first say that my kids are not picky eaters and basically willing to try anything. We basically eat our once a day and try to eat in the other two meals. So far this has been working really well. If we are in an airbnb, it's usually cereal or pastries for breakfast. If it's a hotel, I try to book ones that have breakfast included. We often do a large lunch out somewhere. Dinner is typically something simple, from sandwiches to spaghetti. 

We try a traditional meal or two at least once, but have found that we can finder burgers and pasta (spaghetti) almost everywhere. I cannot say that there has been a meal that I didn't enjoy. The kids have gotten used to having lunch meat, cheese and bread for breakfast (very different than in America). 

In Iceland, we just tried to eat cheap because food is so expensive there. Hot dogs and pizza and eating in often. We tried pierogis in Poland and found a couple awesome restaurants there. Ryder fell in love with schnitzel and Germany and we couldn't get enough of the pastries. We learned about clotted cream, welsh cakes and fish and chips in Wales. We also cooked quite a bit a home in Wales, as we were two families. We had an absolutely incredible and unique lunch experience in Romania at a restaurant called the Artist, which we will never forget. We learned that when they have no English menu and you cannot communicate with one another, "burger" is a good bet. We had homemade cabbage rolls, smoked sausages, minced meat rolls and beef meat soup in Romania and loved it all.

I try to make healthy choices but oh my gosh, it is HARD. And the pastries!! Oh, the pastries. Pretty sure I've gained 10 pounds but I also try to get a good dose of walking in every day. I brought my jump rope but it hasn't quite made it's way out of my pack. Getting back to healthy will be one of my huge focuses once we are settled in Virginia.

Airbnb to Hotel

I decided to leave our mountain village Airbnb a day early, so that we could have a day in a hotel, with a "heated" pool. Well I found that "heated" is a very relative term. Ryder and I both think that the pool is colder than the ocean but the view is absolutely spectacular and we did swim for a short bit regardless because well...we just had to swim at least once. The hotel really is so lovely with one exception: mosquitoes feasted on us all night. Not exaggerating, I think Ryder was bit on his face at least 20 times. I remember thinking that I should put my leg out of the sheet so the mosquitoes had prime meat and would stay away from my face and EARS! Another very chill day in Paros for us.

A Wander Around the Village

...and finding giant dandelions.

Evening at the Beach

Looked at tripadvisor for lunch recommendation and of course, the lunch place we drove to was closed. Not only do most places close during "siesta time" (typically 2-5 PM), but also there are quite a few places that just aren't open on Mondays and Tuesdays. So I looked for a backup restaurant and goodness, it was lovely. Situated right on the beach and very attentive, we had awesome burgers and salad, at Republic Espresso and Bar. Highly recommend and I can only imagine it's lovely there at sunset. I dropped the kids back off at home so they could do their math school work and I went to explore a different little village. I just drove through, as it wasn't very big and didn't seem that there was much there. On the way home, I stopped at Lefkes village, to walk around some more. Weaving through the cobble stone paths, I ended up getting lost and had to google map my way out. I learned that the Greeks created paths like this to confuse the enemy. That made me feel a bit better about getting so lost; as soon as I saw something familiar and thought I was on the right path, I would end up lost again. So yea, there's that. In the evening, we decided to go try and find a nearby beach. After a few usual wrong turns, we arrived, and goodness it was beautiful. I have never witnessed a sunset so pink; it almost seemed red. Even the kids were in awe of the sky. So happy that we decided to go find the beach!!

Ferry to Paros

Bright and early start to our day today with a 06:00 breakfast. Ferry left the port at 07:25 and we arrived in Paros at 11:30. Paid for our car rental and we were off to our airbnb, which is the tiny village of Kostos. Basically this area is still untouched by tourism, with the exception of our airbnb. With about 240 permanent residents, there's homes, a few churches and two small restaurants, one which wasn't serving food during lunch (not exactly sure why). So we ventured to our only other option in our area, which thankfully had food because we were all really hungry.

I asked, "do you have an English menu?"
The woman replied, "yes, you ask and I will answer." 
I said, "do you have chicken?"

And she then started sharing some food options with us. We ended up ordering lemon chicken, fresh tomatoes and fried cheese, which were all cooked (heated up) right there in the restaurant. We also had some entertainment during our lunch, with a few old guys playing their crazy instruments. After lunch it was off to the beach to meet our new (world schooling) friends. The water is still cold so we didn't swim. Today was also crazy windy. 

It's interesting being in Greece because the pace is so much slower and rural than we have been used to over the past month. This week will be a lot of relaxing time, catching up on some math and maybe even the littles taking their standardized tests. 

Romania to Greece

Flew from Romania to Athens, Greece today. Arrived at the airport with my phone not roaming in Greece and Sky’s phone almost dead. To tap into wifi, I needed to retrieve a code from my email, which was impossible, so no wifi either. Airport information was very helpful, sharing that we had to take the bus and the stop that is closest to our hotel. So we get on the bus and have no clue how to figure out where our stop is. I can’t read any of the signs and the sign in the bus, which normally announces the stops, is not on. Luckily, a kind lady on the bus recognized my bewilderment and asked if she could help. Even more lucky, she was getting off at the same stop. YAY! Then it was a 15-minute walk tour hotel (not yay). It was recommended that we buy ferry tickets tonight, so off we went. That was a bit comical because we were walking around trying to find somewhere to buy tickets but only finding homeless people sitting around every corner. Finally we asked someone and they directed us to a random travel agency type of place. Bought tickets, back to the hotel for dinner and an early night to bed, with a 05:15 AM wake up. I later discovered that there was an actual Blue Star Ferry place, where I could have bought our tickets. Oh well, we got the job done.

Train Back to Bucharest

Took the train from Brasov back to Bucharest. Checked out of our airbnb and into a hotel near the airport. Only problem…I had the taxi take us to the wrong hotel, so we had a 15-minute walk to the correct hotel. Checked in, changed into our swimsuits and believe it or not, went to a massive and awesome indoor / outdoor water park. We stayed for a few hours and then back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Found the Church

Today was a day FULL of walking. I decided to wander around in the morning, to explore the Old Town area before it got busy. While stopping in a shop for coffee and pastries, I met a man from Cleveland, who used to be in the US Navy and now lives in Romania. He gave me an awesome does of Brasov history, which was hugely appreciated.

I had one main mission today: to find the church in Ghimbav, where my Oma was baptized. We took an uber to the small city of Ghimbav, where we were dropped off at a church. At this point, I wasn’t even sure we were at the correct church. We stopped in an open door, which ended up being a private office, having nothing to do with the church. The lady said that this is the correct church and to just try all the doors along the fortified wall. First two were locked. The third door led to a house, where an older lady was working in her large garden. She hollered for her husband and I thought she was shoo-ing us away. Disappointed to not get in the church, I was grateful that I had found it and had photographs of the outside. As we were trying to figure out how to get back to Brasov, a little old man approaches us and lets us into the church. I could not believe our luck. The church was absolutely incredible and painted there, high up on the inside of the fortified wall, it stated, “THOMAS FOITH 1865”. Foith just happens to be my Oma’s Mother’s maiden name. Absolutely blown away. The caretaker happened to be Hungarian and spoke no English, so we couldn’t communicate with one another. The next big task, how do we get back to Brasov, from this tiny town where no one speaks English. Ubers weren’t there. No taxis. We stopped into a store for water and were able to figure out there was a bus stop, where the mini bus takes you to Brasov bus station. From there, we took a taxi back to Old Town.

After lunch, it was a one-hour hike up Mount Tampa, where the Hollywood-style BRASOV sign is. We opted to take the cable car down (easier on my knees). I then dropped the kids back off at the apartment, as they were completely done walking by that time, and then I headed back into the Old Town area to climb up to the White Tower, which overlooks the other side of the city. We had an incredible dinner at a small Italian restaurant and then all being exhausted, we called it an early night.

Sibiu to Brasov

Took the train from Sibiu to Brasov today. Ended up in a wagon with an American and Englishman, who had been traveling together for four years. Pretty fun to pick their brains. Also, somehow we ended up together in the wrong cart, wagon four, when we both had tickets for wagon two. Once we arrived in Brasov, we dropped off our packs in our airbnb and ventured to lunch. After lunch, it was a bit of wandering around Old Town and then back to the room to chill for the evening.

My Ass Hurts

Woke up today to an inspiring backyard view and a lovely, homemade breakfast buffet (jams, yogurt, butter, dutch pancakes, apple juice, eggs from the farm -- yum!). Then it was off to a 9:30 AM start. I'm not going to lie; I was dreading it and telling myself to take deep breaths. The kids and I talked a lot about what our gears should be while biking and guess what -- we kicked ass. We did so much better today with the hills, but that probably is because the hills were early on (hills were about 9 miles of our 20 mile ride today) The kids really did awesome, but they also had there moments, like "this is stupid", "I hate this", "I am never biking like this again." So I kept encouraging them the best that I could and then...we were done. WE DID IT!! Fifty-five miles in two days (six hours the first day, three hours the second day). Seriously so proud of the littles.

Our pick-up point was the super inspiring Interethnic Museum of the Hartibaciu Valley. Stefan, our museum guide and owner, launched the museum two years ago. Their story goes: he and his brother began collecting things from abandoned houses in the area 20 years ago as a hobby, and today, they own the non-profit museum AND renovate houses in the Southern Transylvania area. I also learned that they are supported / sponsored by Prince Charles, who visits them annually.

The entire trip was truly an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience!

A few fun facts about our biking adventure:
Sky was shocked by an electric fence, while trying to feed some calfs.
A bug flew up Ryder's nose.
We were hit by a ton of bugs and have the bug guts on our clothes, to prove it.
We were flying down a hill and my phone went flying off of my bike and did many flips and flops until it finally came to a stop. Thankfully, it did not crack or break.
The dog at the guest house would hug the kid's legs with one arm to be pet (over and over again) and wouldn't let go.
We were blown kisses by some of the locals -- and everyone was kind.
We were stared at often.
We met a bee-keeping, traditional glass-painting Priest of a local village.
We saw a shepherd and his hundreds of sheep -- luckily, not the dog.
We saw storks and their huge nests, on top of light poles.
We learned so much history.
Sky: "I would rather climb Mt Fuji again than do this."
Ryder: "I will NEVER bike like this again."
Sky: "This is stupid."
Ryder: "And why did you think that we would like this?"

And a bit more about the inspiring Museum and their mission, courtesy of the Transylvania Cycling website:
A central objective for every trip we make in Hârtibaciu Valley area is the The Interethnic Museum from Alțâna.

The local ethnographic collection has in excess of 1000 objects, amassed over the course of 12 years from 25 different settlements, from all over the Hârtibaciu Valley. It brilliantly succeeds at bringing together the most relevant cultural assets of Romanian, Hungarian, Saxons and Roma ethnic groups. This impressive collection grows constantly thanks to donations and acquisitions and it includes everything from traditional costumes and furniture to ceramics, religious objects and folk technique.

The person who owns the museum is also a knowledgeable and dedicated guide, who is fully committed to the traditional village in this region. In addition to the Museum collection, you will have a chance at expanding your knowledge about the traditional houses made exclusively from natural materials. There is no shortage of programs aimed at reopening the manufacturing centers, where traditional bricks and tiles are produced.

The key to succeed in this line of work is reteaching the local people how to maintain and repair the traditional houses. This is the cornerstone of most of the existing projects and many of them are already underway, which explains the unbridled enthusiasm of people who got involved and already get to witness the progress made.

Two-day Bike Tour

I like adventures and like to do things that are different so when I saw that Sibiu offered a two-day, 80-mile bike tour, I thought, "yes, that sounds awesome" and I booked it. So today, we met at 8:30 AM. We loaded our bike bags and were off for a two-hour car drive to our drop off point location. We were all excited and everything was going awesome until it wasn't.

Little did I know that Transylvania was so hilly and THE HILLS SUPER SUCKED. The toughest part was that the last 10 KM was almost all hills and we probably walked about 5 KM of that 10 KM. Walking our bikes UPHILL after already biking for five hours was nothing short of brutal. We biked 57 KM total, which took us us six hours (included our stop at the Priest's house and a stop for lunch). By the time we made it to our AMAZING guesthouse, we were so beyond spent (the ride was quite a bit tougher than I anticipated), but the guesthouse was so incredible and perfect. We were greeted by a lovely woman, who I'm not sure is Romanian, German or Dutch (but who cares), who took very good care of us. We had an authentic Romanian dinner of soup, bread, cabbage rolls, apple juice and plum schnapps -- all home made. The view at the guesthouse is spectacular and exactly what we needed to unwind a bit and let our bodies rest, BUT I am already super dreading our ride tomorrow. We were supposed to ride a total of 80 miles, but the kids said, "NO WAY." The littles agreed to riding 20 miles, the distance to our first sight-seeing point, and so after talking to the bike tour guy, that is the new plan. Twenty more miles tomorrow and we can say we did it! For the moment, I'm already proud and very exhausted.


 

Train from Bucharest to Sibiu

Today was a six-hour, FULL train from Bucharest to Sibiu. Luckily my seat mate was a kind Romanian University student, who was fluent in English, so I was able to ask him lots of questions. The train went well but if I'm being honest, it was a bit of sensory overload. At one point, I was sitting in this area that had stools, but was shooed away when I said that I wasn't ready to purchase any snacks (all this was discussed without ever really communicating). Later, I purchased a couple waters, a beer and a bag of chips -- and a red napkin was placed on the stool in front of me for me to put my feet up. It was quite funny and quite lovely at the same time. Of course, I was super grateful.

So we finally arrived to our Sibiu airbnb, which is absolutely amazing, BUT it's like a rave downstairs. The music is so incredibly loud. I feel like we are a scent and sound magnet, when it comes to staying in airbnbs. Sky even said, "How have they not had noise complaints called?" Seriously, it is so loud that our floors are vibrating. But all is well and tomorrow, we will bike 40 miles through the quiet countryside. In then end, you have to just giggle about it because there's nothing else you can do -- but oh my gosh, it is SO LOUD!!