I’m Still Traveling – Paris Continued

So friends and family, many of you have discovered that I did NOT return with Daniel and have stayed on with my friend Jeannette in Paris.  My stay in Paris has been amazing because not only have I seen the city’s tourist sites, but I’ve also gotten a great view of real life here.  Local Adventure # 1: The Locksmith - one lost key meant meeting with 3 different locksmiths and learning all the french words associated with a door (lock, cylinder, tumblers).  I also learned “scam” and think that these “artisans” have quite a racket going!  One lost key has equaled $1500 in costs!!  Local Adventure #2: The Hardware Store – fixing the damage to the door done by the first locksmith, as well as replacing other household items.  New words include: Sandpaper, Cut to Size, Estimate, Suction Cups, and Curtains.  Local Adventure #3: The Apartment Search: Jeannette was also in the process of apartment hunting when I arrived and she found the most wonderful apartment literally around the corner from Sacre Coeur in the heart of Montmartre.  I love “living there” with her.  This past weekend we moved the rest of her stuff and also went to Ikea.  True to French style, we were able to take public transportation there – but once we were inside it was the same free-for-all it is in the US.

Other notables in Paris, and the photos here, are of my first weekend “alone” in Paris.  Jeannette went to Austria for a weekend and I had a full “French Only” weekend with Jeannette’s friend, Zoraida.  Zoraida is already featured on Daniel’s last blog – we all went dancing together at the Grand Palais.  Zoraida invited me over for dinner and dancing with some of her friends and that started the weekend of fun!  With her, I learned about planning a french bachelorette party, went dancing (as advertised), took the Velo Libre (the rentable bikes all over Paris) and saw the city from an entirely different vantage point, saw Paris Plage (for all the poor Parisians who don’t get to take a vacation, they recreate a beach right there on the Seine in August), finally ended the weekend with a 30 kilometre bike ride to a park outside Paris.  All of Zoriada’s friends were very nice and funny – and also very encouraging and patient with my French – much appreciated!

The Best of Blog

So, it’s the end of our trip together. We spent some time thinking about what we liked the best about our trip and from time to time jotted down some highlights.

Before we get into it, I (Tamara) am going to do a special one first…

Best Travel Partner – Daniel. Benny. BigG. DBG. Ben. Travel Partner Extraordinaire. Yep, my travel partner was simply excellent. He is energetic and organized, but also has a wicked sense of humor, and is full of interesting and insightful conversation (you REALLY appreciate that after 90 days with one person). I enjoyed his company very much on this trip.

Ok, now for the rest of the best!

Best City: Paris (yes, we both say so! Stay tuned for Daniel’s blog on it)

Best Airline: Korean Air (They clean the lavatories throughout the flight. Nuff said.)

Best luggage story: We took 21 flights, checked our luggage each time, and never had a single bag lost. And nope, we never missed a flight either.

Best Vineyard: Vynfields in Martinborough, New Zealand

Best Wine: First Place – Vynfields Pinot Noir 2005; Second Place – the cheap white wine we toted into the Serengeti in the back of our Jeep, maybe it was the incredible location, but that was an awesome glass of wine.

Best Brewery Tour: Pilsner Urquell Plant – they had everything short of a roller coaster ride on this 90 min tour.

Best Library: Amsterdam. The internet was frequently free in libraries, so we saw our fair share. Plus, Tamara is a bit of geek, so while Daniel discovered the other delights of the city she enjoyed the cool 7 stories of the Amsterdam library. With new Macs on each floor surrounding an open air atrium, an automated book checkout and renewal (complete with conveyor belts!), an open air cafe on the 7th floor with some of the freshest food ever, and plenty of english language books … well, Tamara almost missed her flight.

Best Shower EVER: After two days on safari – who knew you could get SO dirty?

Best Meal: Alanna Vineyard (Salmon, beef filet, potato fingers, and 2005 Chardonnay and 2006 Pinot Noir) AND Tamara’s Birthday Dinner (Spaghetti Bolognese courtesy Chef Daniel). Runners up: Ali Baba’s Clay Oven in Bombay AND Mango in Hoi An, Vietnam AND Stiggybuck’s in Tanzania

Funniest Sign: Slippery When Frosty

Best Coffee: Kaffe Eis, Wellington, New Zealand

Best Tea: Indian Masala Chai, Dunkin Donuts Green Tea Vanilla Latte, Korea (not sure if that Dunkin Donuts drink was coffee, tea, or straight sugar – but it was delicious!)

Best Maps: Intercontinental Hotel Maps. We found hotels an invaluable source of free information and when looking our best we would go into the most swank places and ask for room rates (always good for a laugh!), restaurant recommendations, and maps. Intercontinental maps not only have the best actual map, but suggest one hour, half day, and full day sight seeing itineraries!

Best Castle: Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. This was the most detailed and maintained castle, from their frescoes right down to their tablewares. We’re not sure about their tradition of keeping live bears in the moat though…

Most Potent Cocktail: Long Island Ice Tea at DMZ Bar in Hue, Vietnam AND Absinthe cocktails at La Bohemia, Carovy Vary, Czech Rep. Sorry Car-Jack, that’s all we’re saying on a public site.

Best Architecture: Prague

Funniest Moment: Kung Foo Sleep Attack (aka when Daniel thought an intruder was in the hotel room one night and almost beaned Tamara with a lamp as she got a glass of water from the mini-fridge in the dark. Mama Conway you almost lost one!)

Ooh La La- Wrapping up in Paris

It’s done. Our 3 month trip has officially ended! While Tamara continues to enjoy herself in la la land (aka Paris), Daniel has come to the realization that this “vacation” is over and the “real world” is calling. Sitting back in Ann Arbor, I’m:

• happy to not be considered a tourist anymore.
• laughing and smiling at happy hour food/ drink prices
• trying to comprehend how Tamara and I spent less than we had budgeted for
• already craving Vietnamese and Indian food
• etc..

No better way could we have ended our world stone throw than to settle in Paris for a week. I know, most of you are gasping at the idiocy of finishing in one of the most expensive cities in the world. But…it pays to know people. And know people we did, including Tamara’s friend Jeannette, who let us crash at her small (but stylish) apartment in the heart of Paris. This, for the first time all trip, allowed us to call a place home and I can see why Jeannette loves living in the city. Paris has, in my opinion, the best subway system in the world. Tons of stops inside and outside the city, trains come frequently and on-time, the cars are never crowded-even in rush hour, and all types of people use it. And yes, much to Tamara’s chagrin, I do love french food. I mean honestly, who would scoff at crepes filled with Nutella, or some of the world’s best espressos and wine.

Knowing full and well that we had to cut as many corners as possible to recover from the 18 dollar museum entrance fees, we learned how to live like a broke Parisian artist. Walk, walk, and buy tons of food at the local markets. Fresh bread, salami, tomatoes, Dijon mustard, and Bordeaux wine never tasted so good.

We didn’t just see Paris, we experienced it. Yes, we saw the famous sites (climbed up the Eiffel tower, walked the Champs-Elysees, Louvre, etc.) but we also had our share of non-touristy stuff as well. Along with Jeannette, we met other locals including Zoraida R. (Colombian what what!), who showed us the Latin Quarter, met the Croatian mafia, who knocked down a locked door for us and accepted payment in vodka, and went dancing with the Frenchies in a glass palace! Oh and by the way, we spent our last night in style: at the Renaissance Hotel Vendome (compliments of Tamara’s bro Peter!) and ate a wonderful (and expensive) 3 course meal. I left at 3:45am to catch the bus to the airport and proceeded to have a miserably long travel day.

I had such a great time over the last 3 months. Traveling with Tamara has been an absolute joy! She’s adventurous, smart as all hell, full of energy, and a great travel companion (Grandma…she’s just a friend!). I can’t wait to hear of Tamara’s continuing adventures and show each one of you the awesome pics I’ve taken.

This is DBG signing out…

Opa!!!! Santorini and Crete

And we’re back! So, we returned to the wonderful islands of Greece for another week of water and sun. Masters of Overnight Layovers, we first (of course) had to layover in Athens from 1am to 6:30 am. Strangely, the Athens airport seem to be suffering from a great overabunance of overnight travelers. Neither of us has EVER seen so many people sleeping on the floor as we did there (and please remember we were in India for 3 weeks), on couches, under tables, and along every bit of wall space. Happily we found a little hallway to crash in for a few hours. And when a security guard woke us up at 4:20am to kick us out of our hidey hole, we found the check-in counter was already open, so we checked in and promptly passed out again in the gate waiting area. Daniel is now an expert at sleeping everywhere and at anytime, needing no more than 7 seconds to fall asleep. Snoring included.

In Santorini, we were joined by Jack and Jayne, two friends of Tamara’s who were also ready to soak in the Greek sun and extra virgin olive oil. Santorini was WINDY, so the four of us opted to rent a car and we were soon exploring the windy roads of the island while DJ Jayne played an awesome driving mix off her iPod.

Santorini is known for its olive oil, wine, and volcano. Highlights of our time there included a winery tour (wine tasting included), dinner right on the waterfront of a small fishing, and a tour of the volcano.

Next we jetted over to Crete. We spent our first day exploring Iraklion (the major port city) and enjoyed soaking in their rich history at the Archeological Museum, as well as at the Minoan site at Knossos. We chose to stay in the middle of Crete and we criss-crossed most of the island in our car during our 3 days there – DJ Jack took a turn with his iPod and we rocked out while we navigated across gorges and mountains (beautiful views everywhere). We only almost ran out of gas once – not bad considering the lack of gas stations and our lack of attention to the gas meter! The next day we trekked to “Palm Beach” – a wildly overcrowded beach that became so claustrophobic that Tamara and Jayne eventually escaped to a less picturesque but almost empty beach, where they enjoyed jumping off small boulders into the water. Meanwhile, Jack and Daniel were left on their own to fend off the Greek ladies who now felt free to impinge upon their space right up to the edge of the towels. “Umm… excuse me sir, could you help me put lotion on my back? Oh! You’re American! How cool!” Yes….

Our last day together was in Hania, where we explored the beautiful old town by day. In the evening we settled into the Venetian Harbor, to have dinner and drinks while enjoying some serious people watching as they strolled along the waterfront. A lovely end to our time in the Greek Isles!

It was great travelin with another crew; they were fun and adventurous and just overall great travel partners. Thanks to Jack and Jayne!! We were sad to leave them and Greece, which remains high on our list of places to return!

Next stop: Paris!! We look forward to seeing how Daniel reacts to the food, the language, and the people – all of which he has been making fun of for the past 78 days. Oh boy.

Prague – Mozart, Mucha, and McDonalds

Why don’t people talk about Prague more? Has it been the Paris of Eastern Europe for very long? Seriously, Prague has it all – architecture, music, art, personality … all we could have asked for was a weaker Kron.

We started our time there are as we usually do, wandering the streets getting to know our neighborhood and seeing the sites within walking distance (really, we consider EVERYTHING within walking distance). Prague is, everywhere you look, beautiful. Each building is different, yet beautifully done and has either grillwork, paintings, sculptures, balconies and so on. While wandering the streets we stumbled upon an Alphonse Mucha and Salvadore Dali exhibit. As Mucha is one of Tamara’s favorite artists, we decided we HAD to go in and once again thanked the generous student discounts in Europe and their acceptance of our U of M ID cards. Great exhibit. Exhausted after walking all over town, we finished the day with cool glasses of Pilsner Urquell – the original Pilsner beer – and began our Czech beer tasting extravagenza! (G&G Yaffe, that vending machine in the other blog requires a passport – but after verifying a person’s age will dispense beer!) We sampled a varied of beers including the original Budvar beer, but decided Pilsner Urquell was the best.

We rounded out our second day ‘o culture in Prague with an evening at a classical concert in St. George’s Basilica. It was an group of string instruments playing Pachbelle’s Canon, Mozart, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (which is much longer than one suspects). It was an amazing and strange experience to hear a concert in a Basilica that was hundreds of years old – built in 921. So different that their monuments are part of their daily lives and not roped off.

Our last day in Prague we hit a wall. After 75 days abroad we needed a break and decided to take an official “American Day.” First, we went to McDonald’s. Yes, yes we did. No, neither of us even eat McD’s in the States, but it did the trick. Next, we went to the movies and saw Hancock. Can’t get more American than french fries and Will Smith. Perfect. We ended the day in the airport at … McDonald’s again! (It was the only thing open there and we were starving.) After forking over $28(!!!) for a a “healthy dinner” of salads and chicken strips, we were on our way to Santorini and Crete!

Beer, Meat, Potatos

Most people never get the chance to visit anything but Prague during their trips to Czech Republic. In reality, while only the size of about Wisconsin, it’s an amazing country with tons of history behind it. We rented a car in Prague and set off for our Czech adventure.

“Not so fast my friend,” says the Czech SWAT team member who promptly pulls over Daniel within 2 minutes of renting the car. The charge: “…driving where you’re not supposed to drive.” Daniel was livid after explaining to the cop that he was following 3 local cars onto the street, there were no signs indicating the violation, and the rental car agency had given him these exact directions. Ahh… “but you tourist.” 5 minutes and a 400 Kron bribe later, we were finally out of the city.

During next 4 days, we visited Cesky Krumlov (beautiful castle with over 800 years of history- Tamara’s favorite because of its amazing preservation of original furniture, stemware, tapestries, etc.), Plzen (home of Pilsner Urquell and the first modern brewery in the world) where our beer tasting left us for a new appreciation for “good” beer, Karlovy Vary (Czech resort town famous for its natural hot springs which by drinking the water, provides a natural mineral healing of your body), a town overrun with the Russian mafia, and Kutna Hora (home to the bone church- yes, a church built entirely out of human bones), and back to Prague.

The sheer number of jaw-dropping cathedrals, castles, and remote villages that haven’t changed since their Bavarian/Bohemian empire days really impressed us. We loved the simple life of the Czech people, who enjoy their meat, potatos, beer, and soccer (Daniel is convinced he has some Czech blood in his family). There were a few eye raisers:

1) Why doesn’t anyone smile. I mean honestly, did the Soviets train them that well that smiling was punishable by death?

2) Why are Czech women not put in the same category of beautiful women as the Brazilians or Italians. Daniel personally gives them a 9.1/ 10

3) Ok…I know the dollar is dropping like Bush’s approval rating, but never did I imagine an Eastern European Big Mac would be twice as expensive as in the States.

Czech Republic was a great intermission from our 2 weeks in Greece. But for those who know me (D), I’m craving to get back into the blistering sun. Off to Santorini and Crete!

Athens…2 Idiots Ämong The Gods

The ferry from Naxos to Athens was delivering us back to civilization. The small, sleepy, beach towns of Naxos and Mykanos were no more. Athens, major metropolitan city, lay ahead of us. To be honest, we were a little apprehensive of how we would adjust (ok…so we were really just wondering if we could still snack on gyros and drink Retsina as easily as we did on the islands). We kicked off the day with what else, a trip to the Acropolis. Yes, its big. Yes, its old. Yes, its impressive….but damn the crowds! There must have been a good 4.5 million people at the Acropolis at the same time we went, which happened to be at 10am with the temperature already a sizzlin 93 degrees. P.S. I still remains skeptical of the security at these historic monuments and even more skeptical of chinese tourists (no comment).

After snappin a couple of pics, we continued through the streets of Athens, popping in some of the markets as¨we made our way to the famous Athens Archealogical Museum (perfect timing to get out of the afternoon sun). As we paroused in the meat market (not Ricks American Cafe…a real meat market), Tamara had a few convulsions in the general abdomen area and must have felt the lingering effects of her Tick Fever (or at least the previous night’s Souvlaki) and called it a day to rest up before that nights shenanigans. I continued to the museum and was lucky enough to be first in line to enter the museum right at the opening hour. I had the entire museum to myself, which was awesome, given the amazing sculptures and the fact that I would be the only person in the galleries! Another P.S.= Thank goodness for our student I.D.s which are saving us tons of money and are totally worth using even after the skeptical stares we receive from people wondering how 29 year olds can still be studying.

After walking through what seemed to be the rest of Athens, I returned back to the hostel to find Tamara ready to hit the streets for a night on the town. We found a nice outdoor cafe and were lucky enough to have views and sounds of that night§s concert at the Roman Forum. Combined with the traditional greek music and the fab mousaka…we stopped taking about the islands and appreciated the Athens atmosphere. We then moved over to the main square, bought a couple of brews, and watched a Battle of the Bands concert, which was pretty sweet.

On to Prague and the Czech Repulic.

The Greek Isles – aka My New Permanent Residence

   

We’re not sure whose idea it was to go to Greece, but it was one of our best decisions yet.  Papa Garcia, although there are not many places we never want to return to, some places have definitely moved to the top of our ‘must return’ list – this is one of them. 

Our plane touched down at the Athens airport at 1am and after sleeping for 4 hours in the wonderfully clean airport, we caught our 7am ferry to Mykonos.  We lucked out in hotels – ours was just a few hundred yards from both the heart of the city and the water.  We immediately wandered off and began exploring the maze of narrow winding streets - there was tons of great shops, delicious smelling food, and beautiful white washed buildings.  It was clean without being sterile. 

Our first night we were a bit tired, so we grabbed our bottle of Jamisons and soda water - quick props to our dads here as we’re both scotch drinkers thanks to you – sat on the hotel wall overlooking the ocean, and had a drink while watching the sun set.  Nice.  The next day, we baked in the sun on a beautiful beach and then checked out the bars on the waterfront and the nightlife in general. 

After two days, we ferried over to Naxos.  Naxos is a bigger island and has a bit more of everything.  Wider streets, a longer harborfront, mountains, and beaches.  Our first day we took a short boat ride over to the neighboring island of Delos.  There we toured the islands ruins and tried to envision it as it once was – a religious center for Greece.   Pretty impressive.  The rest of the day we spent touring the harbor town of Naxos on foot.  The next day we rented a scooter to explore the rest of the island.  A word of advice here about scooters, if putting two people on the scooter, get one with more than 90ccs!  Neither of us is particularly large and we saw plenty of people riding these scooters around town.  However, when we took that thing into the mountains the 90cc engine was STRUGGLING – and actually died once!  Happily, after taking a rest break while we hiked Mt. Zeus, the scooter came back to life.  We also toured the island’s citron distillery, saw a traditional olive press, and discovered our own private beach where we spent the afternoon. 

Overall they were five great days on these two islands.  Mykonos, with it’s small town feeling, was Tamara’s favorite, while Daniel prefered the open spaces of Naxos.  We’re looking forward to seeing Santorini and Crete next!  Thanks to Thomas C for such good island recommendations!

Dude…Where’s My Blog

Our 13 hours in Amsterdam were just enough to grab a glimpse of the city and stay away from too much trouble in order to make our flight to Athens. We decided that as much as we love spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with each other, Amsterdam was probably the perfect place to split ways for the day. Tamara had some errands to run, and had already seen much of the sites of the city in her previous visit. Daniel, being a newbie, was up for “everything”

We’ve been soooo lucky with the weather! It was another beautiful day (high 70s without a cloud in sight) and I decided to rent a bike to see as much of the town as possible. After surviving some early jitters and crazy Dutch cab drivers (first time in over 60 days that people we’re driving on the right side again- the “right side”), I sped off to the Vongoord park, which had tons of people excercising (which we also hadn’t seen for a few months) to start their day.

The weird flight times (and my hyper metabolism) meant that I was ready for lunch at 9:30am. And what better place to grab a bite to eat than in the Red Light District! I found a nice cafe under a 5 story sex toy shop, chatted with a bunch of british dudes on their way to a Radiohead concert, and killed a 500ml Amstel in honor of the Dutch. What to do in Amsterdam…hmmm…well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So, I’ll leave it up to everyone’s imagination on how I spent the next 3 hours. Emerging from the shadows of the Dutch underworld (at 1pm), and with a newfound buzz, I sped around town on my bike, passing the Jewish Quarter, the Van Gough museum, the Maritime Museum, Nemo’s museum, and the Amsterdam Zoo.

I was stunned at how quaint, clean, and small of a city Amsterdam is. Not a cigarette butt in site with all the streets really well laid out and people walking absolutely everywhere.  It reminds me of Georgetown in D.C. , and not what I expected at all. It was great being back in the developed world. For all of my criticisms and complaints about how the “west” manages itself, I found it mindblowing that I could drink out of a water fountain again! You learn to appreciate certain life essentals that are available to you at all times back home (drinking water, electricity , working TVs, Big Macs, etc.) that are a premium in the developing world.

Amsterdam was awesome! The women…beautiful! The dollar sucks! On to Greece…

Do It Yourself Safari

   

So, after Daniel came down the mountain successfully and Tamara was mainly recovered from the Bubonic Plaugue, we continued our crazy tourist record by deciding to go on a “Self Guided Safari.”  That sounds like we got a kit from some tourism office that had maps, route suggestons, and checklists.  Not so much.  What we did was rent a car, rent camping equipment, and pick up a really basic map from the tourism office.  Because guided tours are such big revenue generators for Tanzania they really don’t encourage tourists to do this – in fact, it seemed like they worked hard not to provide detailed maps and so forth.  Nonetheless, we were determined to that we could do it ourselves!  And really, a DYI Safari was the only type of safari we could afford.

After picking up our tank, I mean Jeep, and camping equipment, we stocked up on food (Nutella!) and water (Wine!), and we set off for the Serengeti!  Daniel took to driving the Jeep like he was born for the rodeo, which was good since Tamara was still recovering.  The first day we drove six hours and finally came over the the Norongoro Ridge which opened onto wide open plains of the Serengeti!!  It was one of the most amazing views we’ve had on this trip.

As soon as we entered the Serengeti National Park we were on the lookout for animals.  Tamara was particularly excited (first Safari) and spotted several animal-like rock clusters right away.  Happily, real animals were spotted soon after.  Our first animal sighting was a lioness with six cubs!  They babysit for each other while out hunting – wow.

The Serengeti turned out to be rich in wildlife and we had some terrific moments: seeing a lone Hyeenah, which stalked OUR CAR – doing a 360 around our stopped vehicle, gazelles, a lazy cheetah, an elephant family separated from the herd and not more than 30 feet from us, gazelles, 3 lionesses hunting (no kill to Daniel’s disappointment), flamingos, water buffalo, gazelles, zebras, gazelles, tze-tze flies, gazelles, baboons, gazelles…

The nights were just as amazing as the days.  Pulling up to our reserved campsites, we would hop out of the car and be greeted by camp attendants who wondered where our guide was.  After hovering around us, sure that we would not be able to set up our own tent or cook for ourselves, they would eventually wander off shaking their heads.  After the tent was up and the propane gas cooking our spagetti and sauce, we would usually be approached by other campers who … wondered where our guide was.  No guide!  How were we finding our way around?  Admittedly, it was REALLY HARD to find the campsight and it does get a little nerve racking as you’re driving on dirt tracks with no signage through a vast plain and you’re thinking, crap, if the sun sets and we’re not at the campsight we’re going to be sleeping in this really uncomfortable Jeep – and it’s cold here at night!  Anyway, we always found the campsight – it just took awhile.  After eating the most delicious sapagetti ever, we pulled out the bottles of wine that we had toted into the park, wrapped ourselves in blankets, and enjoyed the night sky with the most amazing stars.  They were so bright and there were so many it really did make the night sky seem like a glowing dome.

After two days in the Serengeti, we headed to Lake Manyara to see if we could spot some leopards and rhinos.  On the way there, we ran into our first DIY problem – a blown out tire.  After pulling over and posting Tamara on wild animal lookout (seriously), Daniel tried to change the tire.  Unfortunately, the jack was broken.  After 15 minutes of fruitless work, Tamara decided to flag down a passing car.  Luckily in the Serengeti, everybody is fairly friendly and the first car flagged pulled over.  First question, from their guide – where was our guide??  Sigh.  Daniel, American Guy, and Guide guy all changed the Jeep tire (where Daniel sustained his first injury – a small gash on his thumb), while Tamara chatted with chainsmoking American Gal who wondered, where was our guide?  After 45 minutes, the tire was changed and we were off!

Lake Manyara was beautiful and we also met some amazing kids and their teachers at our campsight.  We shared some cashews with some local children who were camping on a school trip – and the teachers came over to see who was handing out free cashews (the kids actually thought we normally sold them and were sure they had hit the jackpot with their free treat).