Day 1- Oslo

I never really intended to go to Oslo. I had nothing against the idea of it per say, but it never captured my imagination like most of Europe had. Sure, I liked the Norwegian pavilion at Epcot, and the travel shows make Bergen and the fjords look beautiful, but Oslo looked to me like a modern tangle minus the charm of say, New York City or London. But, cheap air fare often dictates travel plans, and round trip air to Europe for 600 meant that it was worth it to go to Oslo for a couple of days.

Its fair to say that Oslo gave me much more than I bargained for. I couldn't have imagined that modern architecture and old harbor could blend so perfectly. I've never seen such expensive food before, or people so tall. (If James were blonde, he'd fit right in.) I've never seen a city spend so much money on itself from the exquisite tulips in a public square to the stunning "iceberg" opera house on the water. James described the Aker Brygge waterfront district as displaying wealth that he'd only previously seen in Doha. (wealthy middle eastern city) Norwegians have an amazing sense of design, though, so this display of wealth is so tasteful, it hardly seems real. Oslo has an unexplainable charm all it's own that is different from any European city I've visited. I can't wait to see more.

Day 4

For our first full day in Paris, we had a lot planned. First on our list was the Eiffel Tower. Now, remember from yesterday that I had maybe 5 hours of sleep, plus we had the World Cup neighbors keeping us up until after midnight. Bottom line? We slept in until 8:30, and the tower opened at 9. One thing we've learned is that Paris is like Disneyworld. You need to be at the attraction before opening or use extra magic hours (in Paris when the museums stay open late on different nights of the week.) Needless to say, we were not at the Eiffel Tower at opening, and the line was already hours long. Thankfully, we had spent time by it the night before and had excellent pictures. Our great views of Paris would have to come for another source in a couple days.

Trekking on, we saw the Arc de Triomphe, which was more stairs than I was prepared to climb at 284, but I made it like a trooper. We wandered the Tuileries Gardens (and by wandered, I mean laid back in comfy chairs under shade trees, looking at statues) and saw Monet's water lilies and other Impressionist paintings in the Orangerie. Side note: Renoir's paintings are pure confection, and I liked Cezanne more than I expected to. Lunch was a much needed long affair after so much walking which featured creme brûlée, French onion soup, steak au poive, and goat cheese salad. (Not in that order)

As we kept on through Sainte Chappelle, a jewel box chapel of stained glass, and the Conciegerie where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were kept before the guillotine, James developed a heat rash which meant he could barely walk. He suffered through Notre Dame, and I knew we were done for the day, despite "extra magic hours" at the Louvre.

We returned to our apartment with microwaveable meals and chocolate from the grocery store down the road and watched sports documentaries on wifi for the rest of the evening. And it was fine. Sometimes you have to give yourself a break in order to keep going later. Maybe we won't see Mona Lisa on this trip, but I guess it gives me a reason to come back.

Day 3

Apparently, still not over jet lag, I tossed and turned at 11:00 last night, wishing myself back to sleep. We had to catch a flight at 6:15, which meant that we had to be up at 3:45 to catch the airport bus at 4:40. End result? I got maybe 4 hours of sleep. (Maybe, I don't think so though) We had no issues getting our bus, Aircoach in Dublin, or getting on our flight. (Although it does seem like European security lines at the airport are always longer than in America.) Soon, we were in Beauvais and off to Paris.

A side note: Beauvais is an hour from Paris, and the traffic in Paris can take over 30 minutes. This is not a time saving option. I didn't mind flying in, but would never fly out if Beauvais.

After learning that automated teller machines at the Parisian metro don't take credit cards, we were zipping along on the fastest and best subway system I've ever seen. When we came out of the tunnel, our breath was taken by the gorgeous views. Paris is beautiful. Yes, I've heard that before, but photos and videos can't do justice to how grand it is and how beautiful it is everywhere. Most places have pockets of beauty here and there: New Iberia's trees along the Teche, Royal Street and Jackson Square in New Orleans, the arch in St Louis, even the sunflower fields in North Dakota. But I have never been surrounded by such consistent and awe-inspiring beauty as in Paris. Now, I love Florence, and the Duomo is still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and the city will not be surpassed in my mind, due to its easy size, historic architecture and art treasures, but I finally understand the fuss about Paris. For someone like me who tends to appreciate architecture over nature, this city astounds.

Not only that, but there's so much to do! But, it is so far apart. That is the biggest misconception I had when coming to Paris: that I would be able to walk between sites. This place is "east side of New York City" big. (Huge blocks!) We accidentally left our map at the room and walked 30 minutes out of our way circling one block to get to the Rodin museum from Napoleon's tomb. We walked for hours in the evening, only to barely get anywhere on the map. My optimistic touring plans are out the window, and I am thankful we have 4 days here.

Our Airbnb apartment is even better than last time. It is excellently located, and we are so ready to have a place to ourselves. The only drawback? No air conditioner ( which I really thought I had checked off as a requirement.) It is cool enough outside to leave the window open, but we are one the ground floor. Now, our window only opens to a courtyard which is shared by the back door of a hair stylist and small shop that are both closed in the evening and seemingly one other apartment. But the guys in the other apartment are watching the World Cup. Loudly. And there is no screen on our window, so I am somewhat frightened of someone just crawling in our window. There is a motion sensor light outside our door which comes on at the drop of a hat and makes me paranoid. End result? I shut the window. I think we got the temp down to the mid- 60's in here before I did, but still more drama over cool air than I wanted. The French people can definitely withstand more heat than I can (as proven by me sweltering through the army museum today, but that is another story.)

All in all, I am really excited to see more of Paris, but am a little daunted. The view of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night while we sit out on the grass in front of it makes it all worthwhile.

The first day of this trip was one of the most stressful travel days I've ever endured. Why, you ask? I have no clue. There was no big storm, no hurricane, just a random flight delay into Chicago that caused all the stress. Apparently, Chicago, or maybe United, overbooks their flights and/or runway space because a 10 minute delay on our end for a safety check incurred an hour delay into Chicago. Which was the exact amount of time we had between that flight and the one into Newark. When we landed, we had 16 minutes to book it to our gate, across the entire Chicago airport from F to C (the very last gate in C) and we made it in time. Well, James made it 2 minutes early. I made it on the dot, but they had already closed the door and changed our flight til the next day. Meaning we would lose an entire day in Dublin. I cried, panicked, and stood in line at customer service while I sent James to the gate of another flight to Newark that was supposed to leave in 30 minutes. Miracle of miracles, we got on the waiting list, and then the flight. But guess what?! Yep, it was delayed. It reached Newark at the exact moment our Dublin flight was to close. As we raced off the plane, I accosted the first person I saw in uniform and asked him to call and hold our flight. To my surprise, he did, and a airport golf cart whizzed James and I there in time to take off. I still can't believe we made that flight and got here in time.

Our first view of Ireland was very green, as expected. While here these few days, I've learned why it is so green. It rains constantly. Well, constantly may not be fair, but there is always the possibility of rain looming. Our first experience with AirBnb went well as we checked into our room that we were renting from a great guy who happens to work for the Spanish tourism office in Dublin. It was clean, well-located and exactly as advertised. I'll admit, it was a little weird staying in someone's house, but it was much cheaper than hotels in Dublin. Another plus? The WiFi worked great. ;)

My first impressions of Dublin are that it is a very easy city to be in. It is probably the most American of any European city we've visited. Water is free, people speak English, toilets are what you'd expect. (Aka, they have seats, toilet paper, and don't charge you) And the people are so gracious. Seriously, I've never seen people who were so kind to tourists, who seemed to genuinely pleased to have you there. And you gotta love the accents. Downsides? Well, Dublin itself doesn't have the most historic sites in Ireland. It's best church pales in comparison to most churches in Europe, and most of the city is relatively new. Think Boston with no skyscrapers and more Irish pubs. (If that was possible.) Although it rained on us off and on all day, I still thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the city, seeing Christschurch, which looks an awful lot like Hogwarts, and having my first meal in an Irish pub (not counting Raglan Road at Disney World). Stay tuned for much more tomorrow!

Day 2

The second day began early as we both awoke at 3:00 am from jetlag. I was happy to have at least slept 7 hours since we had gone to bed the previous night at 8:00, but was wishing I could get a little more sleep. Well, I got my wish. About an hour later, I conked out and slept like the dead until 10:00 am. Unfortunately, this will probably hurt my chances of getting over jetlag since that second round of sleep was when I would have normally been sleeping at home.

Today was museum day, and we were both feeling the pain of hard walking and running yesterday combined with jetlag and cobblestone streets beneath our feet. Museums may not seem like hard work, but you do a lot of walking and standing. But, after an early lunch of Burger King (we had to), we were ready to hit up Dublin's museums. Let's hit the highlights!

1. A 5000 year old boat carved out of a log that is still in remarkably good shape at the National Museum of Archaeology and History. It was crazy to think that someone was using that boat before Abraham.

2. The oldest page of a Bible anywhere. It is from Numbers and is written on papyrus. There were also the oldest copies of the letters from Paul which were written in the second century. This guy Chester Beatty had probably the best private collection of rare and old books in the world. He had upwards of 20 incunables (books from before the printing press) which I know from Pawn Stars are worth like $10,000 on the low end. He donated the collection to be opened as a free museum, which is now one of the best sites in Dublin. (Actually saw this yesterday, but my foggy mind prevented me from writing about it then)

3. An excellent Caravaggio painting. If you've read my past travel blogs, you know that Caravaggio was my first experience with European art, and he is still my favorite artist. Each time we come back to Europe, I search out his paintings, so I was excited to visit the National Gallery in Dublin, which I knew had his "Betrayal of Christ in the Garden". It was everything I love about Caravaggio: his use of light, action and movement, detailed faces with emotion. (Google it now, but I probably got the title wrong)There was also a Picasso in the museum, and I must say that I didn't get it. I tried hard. Really I did, but it was a still life of a ukulele, a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine, and I could only make out the ukulele. I promise to try Picasso again in Paris, but for now, I am not a fan.

4. The excellent tour guide at Dublin Castle, Siobhan. Even though most of what is still standing at Dublin Castle is from Georgian times, she brought all of Dublin history to life. We went down below the castle to the old city walls, and I learned what they mean by the Irish "gift of gab". We were hanging on her every word. She made a mediocre site really great and worth it!

5. One more thing from yesterday: costumes from The Tudors in the crypt of Christchurch! I really love historical drama, and the show, The Tudors, is one of my faves in this genre. Apparently since many of the actors are Irish and they filmed often in Dublin, they gave some costumes to the church. Not historic at all, and a little silly, but I loved it. The detail on the fabric was amazing, and I felt like a total fan girl.

After the museums, we strolled the Temple Bar area which is like a really super nice, clean, Bourbon Street. There were street musicians and music pouring out of the bars. Picturesque facades line the street with brightly colored pubs, and beautiful dark wood bars inside. Unfortunately, the pints and food were too rich for our blood, so we retired back to our neighborhood pub for bangers and mash and steak and Guinness pie. (Very Irish, I know.) it was a perfect end to a perfect day in Ireland. I am glad we will be back in a few weeks.

Stay tuned for our first day in Paris tomorrow!

As my husband and I embark on our fourth European trip, I can't help notice that we get lots of comments like these: "Oh my gosh, you're so lucky!" "I wish I could travel like that!" and so on.  I know some people are secretly wondering if we are rich, while others probably assume we are running up credit card bills like crazy.  The truth is we aren't rich at all; we have regular teaching jobs.  Before we taught, James was a lower-level officer in the military, which doesn't pay amazingly either. So how do we do it? The answer is way less sexy than you think.

Yup. Really unsexy, huh? Not fun AT ALL. It involved me working at Burger King for a year, then Applebee's. It required us to eat at home almost entirely for a year, cut James' hair at home with cheap clippers, along with hundreds of other little penny pinching strategies. We were lucky enough to have parents who encouraged us to go ahead and get out of debt while we were in our 20's, but other than that, it was pure, hard work. That year (or more) of penny pinching had other unintended consequences as well. It taught us to talk about money with each other.  There is hardly a singly monetary decision at this point over $20 that we don't discuss. In fact, just the other day there was an album I wanted that was $14.99 instead of $9.99, and I talked to James about it before I bought it. (And was thrilled when Amazon gave me a $4 credit for it out of the blue!)  
We are very conscious that every dollar we spend is a dollar we had to work for. As you will see in upcoming points, that doesn't mean we hoard our money or are super frugal, but we do think about where the money goes, and we certainly don't want money we worked hard for going to random creditors as interest.  For our house note, we have to swallow it for a bit, but intend to pay it off early to keep more of that interest money for ourselves. I acknowledge that the older you get, the harder this becomes, and some people have WAYY more debt than we did, but if anyone were to ask me how to have extra money for anything they wanted to do, this would be the first thing I would tell them to do.

Because we don't owe money on our vehicles, they end up being two of the worst cars in the teacher's parking lot (and that is saying something). Imagine how weird it would be for one of us to go up to a fellow teacher and say "oh my gosh, how did you get that Yukon? I wish I could have a Yukon like that one day. It's on my bucket list." The person would probably just look at me oddly and tell me where they got it and what they paid.  They would assume that I could get a loan for a Yukon, just like they did. But when people say those things to me, I feel the need to justify my expenditure on travel to them.  First, I make sure they understand that we are not putting the trip on credit.  Then, I try to reassure them that we are not rich; we just don't owe anything.  Maybe I don't need to justify myself as much as I think, but I have to acknowledge that we aren't the norm. In our society, travel is seen as an unneeded luxury. A Yukon is transportation, no matter how expensive. And yet, we decided early on that we would drive the crappier cars, buy the cheaper furniture, put up with the older computer for a little longer, in order to have money to travel. 
After getting out of debt, we made a conscious decision to spend money on what we wanted and what we  needed and nothing more. I truly believe more people should do that instead of trying to have what everyone else does just because it seems like they should have it too.  If it makes you happy and you can afford it, go for it, whether it is a $3000 sofa or that Yukon or, in our case, a $7000 trip to Europe.  My husband and I have always loved to travel, even when it meant a day trip to the state park down the road.  We still do things like that on a regular basis; now we just have the resources to do it on a bigger scale. To some, it may seem like flushing money down the toilet, but we come back with knowledge, a passion for new things, memories and more. (Enough to fill up another post, which I have done here.) The bottom line is that, for us, it is worth it.

Some people that choose to travel big assume that they will never have the chance to do anything like that trip again.  The unintended consequence? They spend money out the wahoo. They pay tour guides lots of money to bring them around on autobus tours; they pay for American-style hotels at $200 + dollars a night; they drop bank on meals etc.  After all, if this is it, you might as well do it "right", right? I must give credit to and thank Rick Steves for my mindset on this point.  His "Europe Through the Backdoor" book and series of guidebooks inspired within me a need to experience new destinations for myself, not through the eyes of a guide.  He also stresses the importance of paying less so that you can do more and treat every place like somewhere you will return to.  How does this help? What if you really only ever get to go that one time? Well, that would suck, but wouldn't it be better to have seen a few things thoroughly and with less stress? I'll admit that when it comes to this point of seeing less, we still do push harder than Steves recommends. We just can't help ourselves. But, we do it on our own, in cheaper, more local accommodations, on public transportation, in restaurants which are sometimes dives, and pinching pennies as we go. (I just booked a Guinness Storehouse tour online last night rather than at the site to save about $5.00)  Again, this stuff isn't easy. It requires hours and hours of planning to find the right hotels, restaurants, and to learn about the history and art so that we actually understand what we are seeing. 
We firmly feel that being as frugal as possible each time we go, allows us to go back, hopefully again and again.

I told you it wouldn't be sexy. But, no matter. The travel itself is what is sexy, exciting, amazing, scary, and mind-blowing. It makes all of the days I spent at Burger King, all of the driving with an unreliable air conditioner, all of the late night documentaries on Michelangelo totally worth it. 

Stay tuned to this blog for the next couple of weeks. Kaleigh will be live blogging from Dublin, Paris, Italy and Edinburgh.

We recently had the chance to tour the brand new Celebrity Reflection and thought you might like to see a few pics of this beautiful ship. 

What do you think? Do you these photos make you want to cruise on the Reflection?

I have a love/hate relationship with Venice.  On one hand, it is so beautiful and amazing, chock full of art, architecture and romance.  On the other hand, it involves a lot of walking in a crowd...behind slow people...like Disney World with much smaller pathways.  There are few places to sit, the marble or pavement that you walk on is unmerciful on tired feet, and restaurants are either cheap windows with no seating or crazy expensive mediocre food.  The sites in Venice are some of my favorite in the world, but I have been more discouraged by this city than any other.  It feels like if only you could happen upon the city when no tourists were present, it could be the perfect destination. But Venice exists largely because of tourists, so that dream is not realistic.  And so, for me, Venice will remain this elusive, beautiful city that I dream of when I am back home, but silently curse while there.  Maybe one day I'll experience the Venice of my dreams. I'll certainly never give up; this gives me the perfect reason to return...

It has been over a week since we returned from our trip, but I am just beginning to feel settled since we are also in the process of James attending a military training class and moving the family.  But, we are in a makeshift apartment for the next week at least, so I feel like I can finally reflect.  Here are the things that stick out in my mind most from our recent trip:

1. Waiting in the rain for a restaurant to open in Bologna because we were starving and in Italy, restaurants don't open until at least 7 for dinner.  We crouched under awnings, raced across streets with ankle-deep puddles and were soaked to the bone by the time we reached the restaurant, which had barely opened.  Good thing meals in Italy take so long, so we had plenty of time to dry off!  We were rewarded with fresh tortellini and other delicacies that were definitely worth waiting for.

2. Wandering around Piazza del Duomo in Florence by myself while James climbed the dome early one morning.  I studied the art on the church, the Baptistry doors, and even gave some tourists directions.  Someone asked me if I was local, and I almost felt like I was. I attended church in the Duomo and just soaked up the city.

3. My beautiful evening in Ferrara, where we finally took it easy and strolled the streets like the locals.  We admired the pink confection of the Duomo, bought candied nuts and listened to street musicians.  

4. Touring ports with Joann and Calvin, our tablemates.  They were the perfect companions for us: Joann, always armed with optimism, her camera and the willingness to ask anyone anything and Calvin, a man of few words, but who could actually put James in his place.  

5. Our amazing Greek lunches by the water which lasted for hours and featured excellent conversation with wonderful people. The first, with Maria from Katakolon Express, and the second with our other tablemates, Mike and Debbie.  I've never enjoyed al fresco dining as much as I did eating fresh feta by the sea.

6. Winning trivia with Jeannie and Paul, our brilliant teammates who made us the winningest trivia team I've ever been a part of.  They became great friends, and we learned so much from them. We aspire to travel like they do one day.

It's funny. As I look at this list and think back, it occurs to me that none of them revolved around a single monument or piece of art.  Of course we saw amazing things that I will never forget, but the more we travel, the more it becomes about the people and the authentic experiences.  I would never have believed it before we first visited Europe, and I know that I will always be filling our days with museums and churches in the future, but now I understand how important it is to leave room for those impromptu experiences.  They are what travel is all about!

Kusadasi, Turkey is hands down, one of the best stops in the Mediterranean. You don't like to see sites, just shop? Well, you won't find it cheaper or more fun than here. You like Biblical sites? Got those too: Paul likely wrote 1 Corinthians here, Ephesians was written about here, John was buried here and Mary lived here. How about ancient sites and one of the original 7 wonders of the world? Yep. Good food? Check! Nice people? Absolutely! Seriously, there was nothing about today that I didn't enjoy.

We had hired a private tour which, after doing I never want to go back. Our guide was Orcun, co-owner of Barel Travel, a travel agency and tour company. He picked us up at the port with our names on a sign and a Mercedes minivan, and we were off to Ephesus. He provided information about his country, people, history, and details of everything we saw along the way. Ephesus is only about 13 percent excavated, and while it does have some signs, a guide really helps this place come alive. One section of the site which costs a little extra, but was absolutely great was the Terrace Houses which are pretty well preserved Roman houses of the rich. You walk on plexiglass walkways above mosaics, by ancient bedrooms, kitchens and courtyards. Having recently watched the HBO show, Rome, it was easy to imagine real Romans lounging around these houses.

The library of Celcius is the top attraction at Ephesus, and for good reason. It is stunning. We were also quite impressed with the Grand Theatre, where Paul preached and a riot broke out. City officials contained the riot and hid Paul on a nearby hill, where he probably wrote 1 Corinthians while in hiding. What were the people all stirred up about? Well, Paul was preaching against idols and false gods and Ephesus is right next to one of the most important pagan pilgrimage sites which made them a lot of money in idol replicas: The Temple of Artemis. 

The Basilica of St John was ordered to be built by Justinian and Theodora of the Byzantine Empire because of a long standing tradition that the apostle John was buried there. It was enormous and, if standing today, would be the 7th largest church in Christendom. But, an earthquake took it down and only ruins remain. We did see the altar which is above the tomb, the Baptistry, and columns which gave us an idea of the layout. 

If you think that is all we had time to see, you would be wrong. Orcun also wanted us to get a feel for some of the handicrafts of his people, so we visited a pottery shop and a Turkish rug guild. We weren't pressured to buy, but did get considerable information about the crafts, and I even got to try my hand at rug making. Oh, and we got Turkish coffee and tea as well. (Very strong!) A great lunch at a local place was squeezed somewhere in the middle: fried zucchini, dolma, green beans and broccoli, with lamb kebabs and spicy meatballs. 

Our other stop was a little village in the mountains which had locally made products, cheap knockoffs, and amazing prices. Looking back, I wish I had shopped more, even though we did buy a few things. We won't see prices like that again. And, we won't likely see a place like Kusadasi again. (Until we come back!)