We have tried to do as much as possible to get into the Christmas spirit. Since we are not home decorating a tree, baking Christmas cookies, or drinking eggnog lattes to get us in the spirit we thought that visiting all these Christmas markets would be just the thing. For the most part, it has worked perfectly, there is just something so quintessentially Christmas about all the Christmas Markets in the old towns we have seen, everything decorated and lit up, Christmas songs playing overhead as the smell of mulled wine, roasting chestnuts and grilled meat wafts through the air. I just have one teeny, tiny complaint [...] Continue Reading

We have been traveling a lot lately. So far in December we have been to six different countries. Its been pretty exhausting- too be honest, I think between 3-5 nights in one place is about ideal. We have been jumping from hostel to hotel and even switching rooms daily when we do stay at hotels. We seem to always be running around and it feels like we have not even had enough time to breathe, let along catch up on blog posts. However, it has been an educational and scenic few weeks. I knew absolutely nothing about the Baltic [...] Continue Reading

Our first night in Tallinn was largely uneventful, but we fell in love with the city anyway. We walked the 15 minutes from the ferry terminal to our hotel (an old office building currently being converted to a hotel/hostel. Our room definitely felt like an old office- it would have been a nice office, but was an odd hotel room), dropped our stuff off and went to find food. Really, it is the finding of food that drives us to explore cities more than just about anything. It was cold and rainy and I was quite content to stay in the room for the night, after all we had three nights in Tallinn, we could explore it another night. However, as usual, Nick was hungry so we bundled up and set out [...] Continue Reading

Our next stop on our impromptu abbreviated Scandinavian tour was Helsinki, Finland. We flew out of the Oslo airport and landed in Helsinki around 3pm- once again, in complete darkness. We never got used to the dark while we were in Scandinavia. It was hard to wake up in the morning, because it didn't get light until about 9:30-10am. Then, the sun set around 3pm. It messes with your head. Well, it messed with mine. There were several days up in Scandinavia that we felt as though it was [...] Continue Reading

Oslo is amazing- absolutely beautiful and we picked a great time to get there. The Christmas Market was in full swing and the country side was covered in a fresh dusting of snow. In fact, it snowed most of the time we were there. It was also dark almost the entire time we were there. Our plane landed around 2:30pm and the sun was already setting. By the time we got our bags and on the train to the city, it was dark- and it was only about 3pm. [...] Continue Reading

Country count: 16! Thats right, we made it to Berlin Germany- Our 16th country! We took a 3 hour bus ride from Bansko to Sofia Bulgaria. A side note on the bathrooms we stopped at on the bus ride- it is my personal belief that if you have to pay to use the restroom, it should not be a pit toilet. Yuck. Anyway, we got to Sofia, where we met our old friend, Eren Can, who graciously allowed us to crash on his couch for the night before we flew out of the Sofia airport. We went and grabbed some dinner with him and talked about [...] Continue Reading

Bansko has been a wonderful place to spend the month. Not particularly productive, as far as writing blog entries goes, but still tons of fun. It is the exact opposite of Santorini, where Santorini was winding down for the season, Bansko is very much coming to life. In Santorini, every day brought new closures and a few less people, but in Bansko every day that we have been here we have seen another store or restaurant open, another sidewalks reparations finished, a few more tourists. I guess that is the difference between a beach town and a ski town at the end of fall. Unfortunately, what we have not seen much of is snow. We did wake up on Thanksgiving morning with a slight dusting- a Thanksgiving miracle!- but it was [...] Continue Reading

Our next stop in Santorini was Kamari. The towns of Oia and Fira are built into spectacular cliffs, which makes for stunning views but terrible/non existent beaches (although we did hike down to one in Oia, but it was a long downhill hike... and then a long, uphill hike in the hot sun) but Kamari is a cute little beach town that follows right along a black sand beach. It is, also, very seasonal. As we arrived, many of the stores and restaurants were closed or closing up for the winter. This was both good and bad- good, because we got a sweet deal at the place we stayed. Bad, because it meant [...] Continue Reading

Ok, Santorini. I try to have enough discipline to write a post in a timely manner- like within a few hours of doing an activity or when something of note happens. At the very latest, I try to have it done within a few days. I have totally dropped the ball on this one as we are now at almost 2 weeks since we left Greece. And you don't know anything about where we currently are (Bansko, Bulgaria) or the great hiking or the sheep herders [...] Continue Reading