Amsterdam, Netherlands

July 23 – July 26, 2018 Looking back on Amsterdam, I’m shocked that we spent such a short time in this remarkable city. It stands out so strongly in my mind and in my phone memory thanks to the 250-some pictures I took while there. We stayed in an Airbnb that was a guesthouse of…

Hamburg, Germany

July 14 – July 23, 2018 While in Hamburg, we watched three dogs for an American couple who moved to Hamburg for work. And let me tell you, after traveling to six countries in the last month, a housesitting break was exactly what we needed. The homeowners picked us up from the bus station and…

Copenhagen, Denmark

July 11 – July 14, 2018 Copenhagen is a lively, colorful, and friendly city. We stayed in a room in someone’s apartment outside the city center again, much like we did in Oslo. As stated in my last post, these Nordic countries aren’t cheap but absolutely worth visiting. We did another “free tour” here, and…

Oslo, Norway

July 7 – July 11, 2018 We took a bus from Sweden to Norway and I recall it being an oddly emotional journey. Jake has Norwegian ancestry, and our bus ride felt somewhat like a homecoming. Perhaps I was just homesick at this point and hadn’t felt particularly attached to Stockholm. Or perhaps it was…

Riga, Latvia

Latvia, like Estonia, is a Baltic State. The countries, however, have very distinct cultures and backgrounds that make for very different experiences for visitors. We had a tour guide in Tallinn who was a native Estonian. He told us that Estonians tend to be very private and antisocial people, even joking that that is why…

Tallinn, Estonia

Estonia is a country of less than one and a half million people, but with a long and rich history. The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) have been much sought after throughout the centuries by powerful countries such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. Although the area has been occupied since the Neolithic period,…

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Many of you have probably read or heard the quote, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” Saint Augustine I’ve never much cared for this saying. As a traveler, I would never presume to be more worldly or knowledgeable than someone who has never left their hometown….

Moscow, Russia

Kindness We all have preconceived notions about countries we have never been to. It’s human nature to take whatever information we have and attempt to fill in the blanks. The problem is, these images sketched out by our minds often differ greatly from reality. This usually isn’t due to willful ignorance, no matter how much…

Kotor, Montenegro

This is the third time on our trip that we have spent a whole month in one location. The first was Mykonos, Greece, the second was Durrёs, Albania, and now we’ve been in Stoliv, Montenegro near Kotor for a month. In August we will spend a month in Switzerland, but in two different cities, Zürich…

Croatia

Our last two and a half weeks were spent exploring the scenic coastal country of Croatia. After a month of relative stability in Albania, it was exciting to be back on the “road” again. We don’t necessarily consider ourselves backpackers, although all of our possessions fit in our carry-on-sized backpacks. When we’re moving from place…

Tirana & Saying Goodbye to Albania

Tirana, Albania We spent one glorious day exploring Tirana – Albania’s capital city. This was a whole-day affair. We walked to the Durrës bus station in the morning and caught the bus to Tirana just as it was pulling out of the station (we literally hopped on as it was moving). For just 130 LEK…

Life in the Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula is a section of southeastern Europe, bordered by the Mediterranean (Aegean and Ionian), Adriatic, and Black Seas. Albania, where we will be for the month of April, and Montenegro, where we will be for a month in May and June, are both fully within the Balkans. The rest of our time in…