I spend too much money on coffee and flights.
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Buying an iced coffee is eventful if I’m not in Winnipeg, but instead I'm sipping it along the Amsterdam canals. To come home and have to explain nine weeks of days, of moments to anyone is ridiculous. Chances are you’re not interested in hearing 63 days of me drinking coffee, getting on airplanes, and reinventing my iTunes playlists. Quite frankly, even I couldn’t listen to myself talk about every story and memory I have from Europe. One of the best and worst parts about travel is that memories are almost impossible to describe effectively. Like many people I will die trying to make you understand. I will forever drone on about my young years spent swimming in waterfalls and hiking down sinkholes.
I hope you enjoy these pictures of my 2016 travel highlight reel.
I will have you know we were in Switzerland six days and every day it rained. Trudy and Andrea kept apologizing for the "bad" weather. I just laughed as I'm one of the few people I know who loves the rain. The way I see it is the rain is the perfect excuse to visit all of the best cafes in Switzerland - often eating four desserts a day and drinking four rounds of coffee. I'm not exactly sure what made me fall in love Switzerland. Maybe it was Andrea, or Trudy and Theo. Maybe it was the fact that I ate four desserts a day. Even as I look out the plane window I see snowy mountain tops poking out from the clouds. I could happily live the rest of my life here. Now I'll let Alexa tell you a little bit more about our stay as after all we got to stay with her family.
- Brooke
It was beyond incredible getting to see my mommas hometown - the small little town, with a rather large beautiful home. I'm forever grateful for the wonderful family and friends that took us in. Trudy and Theo were beyond generous and didn't let us pay for anything. They took us out for many rounds of coffee and dessert, they took us to see the mountains, and the small town Lucern. It's always super nice staying with people while travelling because they feed you all too well. We arrived to chocolates on our pillows, followed by two servings of dessert, and yet coffee with more dessert later that day. We had delicious homemade food (zopf, rösti, and bircher muesli). We even had one dinner with Andrea that included about 15 different cheeses and some potatoes, apparently that was a Swiss meal. We will definitely be replicating that supper when we get back home.
Although the weather was beyond crappy, leaving that place we all said we would one day learn German and move there.
- Alexa
What we did:
- Oia
- Fira
- Catamaran: Red beach, White beach, hot springs
- Kamari/ black sand beach
- Rented ATVs
What we ate:
- Gyros
- Chillbox (frozen greek yogurt)
- Tzaki
- Greek Salad
- Chicken souvlaki
What we learned:
- Oia:Very touristy. You can go cliff jumping here
Alright Santorini, not sure I have the words to properly describe you. One thing we can all agree on is that Santorini is a very magical island. We were blessed to have a superb host who organized and set up absolutely everything, making our stay as enjoyable and easy as possible. We arrived late the first night, and in the morning awoke to a view a photograph cannot do justice. We rented ATVs for the first two days which was loads of fun and very handy. We headed to the black beach, and let me tell you black sand is killer hot; especially when we are unprepared and don't bring towels - oops. We finished the day with some unreal food; having gyros that were only two euros, and some frozen greek yogurt for dessert, we truly were in paradise.
The following day we woke up and headed to hike a mountain. I absolutely hate climbing up hills and am not sure what inspires me to always keep climbing. We then headed to the beach one last time and then to Oia for dinner. We heard that they had the best sunsets... apparently all the tourists got the same message as we were all crowded at the edge of the town to catch the best view of the sunset.
To end our time in Santorini we headed for a day at sea on a catamaran. I don't think Brooke really knew what she was signing up for as she gets a little motion sick. Actually, I don't think anyone of us really knew what we were signing up for. I think we pictured something more like being on a yacht for the day, but it was something more like a sailboat. To say the least it was supposedly a calm day on the water and the entire day it felt like the boat could have capsized. We saw a white beach and a red beach, we got to go into the hot springs, and snorkel (there are no sea creatures in Santorini, honestly).
We met some awesome people while we were here between our host Markos who was super helpful, a couple from New York on the catamaran, and our neighbours at the Airbnb from Boston.
Santorini had stellar sunsets, vivid views, fantastic food, pleasant people, wonderful weather, and much much more. Santorini very much so felt like a vacation to the max and it was beyond difficult to say goodbye. It is safe to say that Santorini has been added to all of our future vacation destinations.
Much love,
Alexa
(overlooking Dubrovnik)
And I'm ready for our parents to begin shaking their heads as they read this next post (or more like Anna's mother). I have to take you back a little to explain the full story...
It was our last night in Dubrovnik and we decided to go out for a nice steak dinner, as we were all so tired of eating homemade chicken salads, chicken sandwiches, chicken parmesan and chicken quesadillas. After dinner we headed back to the apartment to pack as we had a flight to Athens the next day at 2:30pm. You see, normally for each flight we check in online; we get an email, follow the link, and our boarding passes are sent straight to our smart phones - fast and convenient. So, we pulled up our emails. Alexa and myself opened the emails with our flight information. As the website was loading very slowly Alexa and I came to the conclusion that we would be better off to check in upon arrival at the airport. Then there was Anna. Anna could find no trace of her flight to Athens. This is when the panic started setting in. So basically here Anna is with no email in her inbox or trash, and no credit card statement proving the purchase of her flight to Athens (did the flight purchase even get processed?). Now to add to the fun we can't make phone calls throughout Europe .
Staying hopeful we headed to the airport early the next morning to sort out the mess. Sure enough Anna was not recorded as a passenger on the flight. So as Alexa and myself had flights we were faced with the dilemmas of 1. Do we get on the flight? 2. How do we get Anna to Athens? and 3. When? 260 euros later Anna purchased a ticket to arrive in Athens three hours later than us. Now it gets better, as I sit in the Dubrovnik airport Anna is currently on her flight to Athens while Alexa and I wait for our flight that has been delayed five and a half hours (thanks Aegean Airlines). Here me and Alexa were planning to have a nice swim and hot tub before Anna's arrival in Athens. Currently, we are living off of Haribo starship mix and peanut m&m's figuring out life (what business we would like to open and when).
People always text me after I post about travel complication stories. The texts roll in saying "how awful, that sounds like the longest day ever". Now don't feel too bad for us, after all did I mention my flight is delayed in Croatia.. And that flight that is delayed is headed to Greece. Haha pretty sure we are doing just fine.
Cheers from the Dubrovnik airport where our 15 minutes of free wifi expired six hours ago (*we clink together our free bottles of water courtesy of the worst airline ever).
Hold on I just boarded the plane and got a free ticket to any Aegean Airline destination - new favourite airline? Europe trip 2k17 here we come? Sorry Anna.
Brooke.
To start off, Croatia wins for having the bluest water in the world (at least out of the parts of the world I have seen). Although Dubrovnik is much smaller than Split, it is the perfect vacation destination. Even I put on sunscreen (which is a rare occurrence) as the sun radiated crazy temperatures everyday. In the wonderful refreshing water you can see everything that is swimming beside and underneath of you. Dubrovnik consisted of joining some Italian boys in some volleyball in the ocean, as well as me and Anna trying to acquire a taste for beer (as Brooke already has a taste for it). We did ocean swimming, lots of climbing of hills, enjoyed the views, and lastly to end Dubrovnik with a bang, me and Anna (both afraid of heights) went in the air, higher than the hills/mountains, parasailing (please enjoy Brooke's photos of the horror in our eyes). Now they wouldn't let me and Anna split the parasailing cost so I just put it on my MasterCard and Anna would pay for my dinner that night. As we are all sitting around the dinner table on the water, forever grateful for the steak dinner we all just ate. Our waiter comes around with the bills and Anna puts her card in and the waiter proceeds to say it says incorrect pin. Brooke then says "how funny would it be if she brought the wrong MasterCard" (Anna and Alexa have the same MasterCard)?. Well, haha (not so funny for Alexa) Anna brought the wrong MasterCard, looks like parasailing and the steak dinner were both on me.
Tata Dubrovnik, we would like to come back.
Xoxo Alexa
Xoxo
Alexa.
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