Reunited at Last- A Tale of Delayed Baggage

July 1, 2014:  Around 2:00am we arrive at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. We wait around in line for about half an hour and then security officials question Melissa and Jim for nearly 30 minutes about their travels and why they had been to Brunei, Malaysia, Jordan, and so on. Finally it is time to check in for the flight! I am weighed and placed on the conveyor belt to head back with the other bags. Before being placed on the plane, security officials empty me and repack me poorly. I worry they left out some items, but luckily everything gets put away. It is 4:11 and my search is complete. Only an hour to go until we take off!

The flight went well. We land safely in Barcelona by 9:00am. Only 3 hours until my next flight to Nador, Morocco!

It seems as though more than three hours had passed and I still haven't been loaded onto a plane. I am very confused. I wonder what Melissa must be thinking. I hope she realizes I'm still in Barcelona. I hear some people discussing flights. Apparently there isn't another flight to Nador until the 5th. That's no good! I have Melissa's brand new contact solution in me! She just bought it yesterday. It looks like I'll be missing out on Chefchaouen.

Chefchaouen

Jul 5, 2014:  Today I am finally picked up and taken out of storage. They are loading me onto a plane! We have landed and instead of going with the other bags, a man is taking me into a separate room. He's making a phone call. He calls Melissa and tells her that I'm here! For some reason she isn't coming to get me, something about a 9 hour bus ride. Apparently she wants me sent to Fes instead. The man tells her that they can't transport me via land and the only option is for her to come to me or to have me go on more planes. Oh no! It sounds like she wants me to fly again.

Donkey in Fes

July 9, 2014:  It turns out there wasn't a flight back to Barcelona until the 9th! I overhear a call between Melissa and the man. It sounds like she will be leaving Fes and wants to meet me in Marrakesh instead. I've just been hanging out in Nador while Melissa is off seeing Morocco without me. It's already been over a week, good thing she has travel insurance which should reimburse some of her expenses for various items that are packed with me. I make it safely back to Barcelona. It definitely has been nice just sitting around for a while, but I'm ready to be back on the road.

Camels in the desert

July 15, 2014: I'm pretty confused. I was under the impression that I would be going to Marrakesh! What happened? It looks like I'm in Casablanca?! Well this is weird. Oh wait! Another plane, yay!

Oh no, I'm back at Nador! Why am I back here? What's going on? The man just called Melissa and told her to come get me. He told her that I'm here at the Marrakesh airport. It definitely looks too much like Nador to be Marrakesh. Maybe I'm just a confused bag.

Nope. It turns out the man is confused. Language barriers can be awful sometimes. Melissa seems pretty frustrated. Apparently she wasted part of her afternoon and a bit of money to go to the airport to get me and I wasn't there.

July 19, 2014:  Over the past couple days I heard various people talking to Melissa as well as another woman. Apparently someone from the travel insurance company is trying to help out. The men said that since I've been hanging out on my own for over two weeks they aren't able to speak with her, only with Melissa. That makes no sense. At least she still has hope that we'll be reunited!

I'm finally loaded back onto another plane today. I hope I'm finally going to Marrakesh. Nope...it looks like Barcelona again. I really dislike this airport. It seems as though the staff here fail to read files and just throw us bags onto whatever flight they want.

July 20, 2014:  After a few dark days in storage I am finally put onto another plane. It looks like I'm in Madrid. That is strange. I don't want to be here. Oh wait...one more flight!

I've landed. A man from lost luggage services just picked me up. He is making a phone call...he is contacting Melissa! He just told her that I'm in Marrakesh and I'm ready to be picked up. It sounds like she will be on her way in a day or two. She just arrived in Zagora last night. I hope this really is Marrakesh.

Zagora

July 22, 2014:  I woke up to the sound of her voice. Could that really be Melissa out there? Keys jingle and light creeps in as the door is opened. I can see Melissa's huge smile as she runs over an picks me up. We are reunited at last! We enter the lost baggage office one last time and she signs a form acknowledging that I have been picked up. We head out past customs and into the main lobby of the airport where Jim takes our picture. It's just after 5am and finally I am back where I should be and will be able to resume my job of holding Melissa's belongings after 3 weeks apart.

This might help explain the confusion with wrong airports. Why didn't they take any off?

Together at last!

One Year and Counting

I'd started this post a month ago on my one year of traveling anniversary. Unfortunately I didn't exactly get around to finishing it for one reason or another. I'm currently in Zagora, Morocco where it is too hot to do anything at all, so I have no excuse not to finish it today :) The internet connection is not very good, so I will not be adding photos at this time.

Written 22/06/14
Exactly one year ago today I departed the United States to travel. The original plan had been to return around January. As January approached it was decided that I'd have to push that back and go home around April. As April approached it was once again determined that I couldn't stop traveling yet. There were still too many places to see and too many things to continue learning! I've had to extend my travel insurance twice, but it has definitely been worth it.

Since it was the official one year anniversary of my departure, I thought it would be fitting to cover some of the highlights so far.

10 Best Memories (in no particular order)

-Watching the metoer shower on the beach with a camp fire, wine, and great friends in Polis, Cyprus
-Trekking along the Great Wall of China on the perfect day with very few people around
-Eternal Flame on Mt. Olympos in Turkey
-Surprise snow storm on the way to the ice cave in Austria
-84 hour Trans-Siberian Railroad journey in 3rd class from Irkutsk to Moscow, Russia
-Meeting up with friends from home, work, and travels along the way (Hong Kong, Moscow, Prague, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus)
-Diving to the Cedar Pride Shipwreck off the coast of Aqaba, Jordan
-Helping prepare Miraculum wine for the Pope's visit to Israel
-Fireworks echoing off of the rocks in Meteora, Greece on New Years
-"Walking" through water in the Dead Sea

5 Worst/Saddest Memories (also in no particular order)

-Awkward squat toilets with no doors in Shanghai Railroad Station bathrooms 
-Attempting to sleep outside of the Memmingen Airport in Germany (First use of emergency blanket!)
-Tea scam in Shanghai, China (Wasted $50, but discovered oolong tea)
-Learning that I do in fact like to eat goat in Athens, Greece
-Lost/Delayed Luggage between Israel and Morocco (21 days late!!)

How Holidays Were Spent

4th of July: Macau Tower Climb! Unfortunately we didn't get fireworks
Halloween: Almafi Coast with ghost cookies and nutella/banana sandwiches followed by dinner in Sorrento as Italian children went Trick or Treating through the town
Thanksgiving: Explored Dubrovnik. Hiked up the hill. When it was time for dinner we went to a restaurant that had turkey on the menu. Turns out turkey was only for lunch. The chef was incredible and went out of his way to prepare some for us and even included sweet potato puree!
Christmas Eve: Invited to a nice German style dinner at a friend's in Athens, Greece
Christmas Day: Lazy day spent relaxing. I read a huge chunk of East of Eden that day.
New Years Eve: Incredible echoes of fireworks off of the rocks in Meteora, Greece
New Years Day: Trekked through Meteora, visited monestaries, explored a cave, fell, had an amazing day
Groundhog Day: Noted that our favorite cat could see his shadow, so Phil probably would too, and went about our day planting lavender near Lake Burdur, Turkey
St. Patrick's Day: Picked up my new passport in Izmir and flew back to Konya which is unfortunately a very conservative, dry city. Nothing exciting that night.
My Birthday: Cappadocia! Entire blog about that place. It was great :)

Blue Lagoon near Polis, Cyprus

New Skills- Part 1: Horses

Traveling for an extended period of time can make you feel like you aren’t being a useful member of society and are just off having fun all the time while everyone you know is working a real job and being productive. One of the easiest ways to combat this feeling is by volunteering along the way. This not only helps the locals, but also keeps your days busy and lets you continue to learn new skills. 

From June 2013-January 2014 we had been going around just traveling. We had stayed mostly in typical hostel/hotel accommodations and filled our days with regular tourist site-seeing activities and with the occasional relaxed, lazy day. I was definitely starting to get tired of this and I really wanted to be using my travel time more productively. I’d attempted to do online courses, but internet is rarely reliable enough to follow any set schedules. Also, constantly being on the go gets pretty tiring. We decided that the best thing to do would be to start volunteering. 

The next few posts will help bring my blog up-to-date and will provide a glimpse into some of our average days over the past months. 

Experience 1

 

Our first host was an English couple living in Turkey. Their home was in a beautiful little area a short drive from Fethiye where they lived with their 5 horses, 2 cats, and dog. We arrived one morning and were welcomed into a nice home where we were presented with our own bedroom/bathroom and given time to relax while they went out to do the morning work with a few other volunteers. We were set to stay at this house and become horse experts over the next 6 or 7 weeks as we helped the couple care for their horses. Unfortunately, this did not happen and we left after only two weeks. I won’t be going into much detail on our actual experience here because those of you who know me have probably already heard the story. I will however, focus on the tasks and skills acquired through the experience.

View of the main horse yard

Our days began by waking up at 6:45. We threw on some junk clothes (typically a couple layers of pants and shirts with the outer layer being the dirty one) and our boots and went out to the horse yard. A few days in we added masks to our attire.

Masks for mucking out the stables

Once we got outside the first step was to take the horses out of their stables and tie them up next to the doors. Their blankets would be taken off and then they would wait for their breakfast.

Most days I would start off by feeding the horses and preparing their next meal. They all had slightly different recipes for their meals, but luckily there was a chart on the wall so I couldn’t forget the exact ratios for each horse. 

Once the food was finished, I’d go help Jim with mucking out the stables. Mucking out stables is not a very fun job. Luckily I grew up in a house with litter boxes, so I’ve found ways over the years to make it seem slightly better than it is. Just imagine you are starting each morning off with a treasure hunt. These stables used wood shavings as bedding. We’d comb through the wood shavings using a broom and try to find the wet spots after picking up the dropping with gloved hands and tossing them in buckets. From there we would push away all the dry bedding and gather up the wet shavings and scoop it in a bag. 

Jim would then go throw all of the droppings and wet shavings onto the big pile while I’d dust the windows and other walls off. We’d then make up the stables again, meaning we would straighten out all the shavings and make sure to leave about 0.5 m of space between the front door and the start of the bedding. This step was  frustrating because right after we finished, it was time to put the horses back inside so they could “digest their food without being tempted to run around.” Once they were put away, we would sweep the patio area outside of the stable door, clearing off the food and dirt. 

At this point it was usually 8 or 8:30 and we would go inside for breakfast. Jim and I would change into lounging clothes so we wouldn’t be sitting on the couches with our dirty work clothes; however, the homeowners did not share this same view. They preferred to wear their work clothes all day long. 

View from our room

Around 10 or so we would head back outside after changing back into dirty clothes. Now it was time to let the horses out of their stables for the day. Prior to releasing them we would hang up a haynet for each. The girls would be placed in a smaller yard area and the boys would get their haynets on the patio in front of their stables. We would once again remove any dropping or wet spots from the stables and toss them in the big pile. This concluded our work until the afternoon.

During this gap we would often watch tv, relax, or explore the area a bit. A lot of our time was also spent hanging out with the cats or playing with the dog. Some days we would help tidy up the house. We would also have lunch.

One of our new best friends

Around 4 it was time to head back outside. We would remove the haynets and they would be refilled. The horses would be fed their afternoon food and I would prepare the horse food for dinner time. As I prepared the food, Jim would go around the yard and pick up droppings. We would also resweep the patios in front of the stables. Some of the horses would also receive one blanket layer.

We then went back in the house. We had time to relax and would eat dinner. During our stay we had a 24 (season 1) marathon so often our evenings were spent watching that. 

9:00pm comes around and while most people would be preparing to go to bed since they have to be up at 6:45 the next morning, we were lucky enough to be preparing to go back outside one last time for the day. We’d get dressed and head on out. First we would turn the lights on and bring the horses to their stables. Jim would pick up droppings once again while I would take care of food preparation. The food would be placed in their stables with a haynet. We would then put the horses’ nighttime blankets on. This consisted of 1-3 layers depending on the horse. Some nights we would help clean out their hoofs since they were barefoot horses. The windows of their stables would be shut and the horses would be put to bed for the night. All lights would then be turned off. 

At this point we would be free to retire to our room for the evening and after a quick shower, we would pass out and sleep as much as we could before the early alarm the next morning. 

This was the basic routine that we followed each day of our stay. We did have one day in which we only worked for the morning shift and we each took off one random shift one other time. 

As I'd mentioned above, we only stayed at this location for two weeks. We definitely both learned a lot during that time. It was a very interesting experience. My only regret is that I did not take more pictures of the horses! Below you will see the only picture with a horse I did manage to take and it was right as we were packing up to leave. 

Bye!

We departed their home and based ourselves in Fethiye for a while so we could figure out our next move. We were very happy to be staying at a hotel where we could be nice and dry as those at the horse ranch worked away in the rain that day. This was our first volunteering experience abroad and luckily it did not stop us from trying more.

Ridiculously rainy day in Fethiye

(January 10-24, 2014) -Near Fethiye, Turkey

What’s been going on… Part 2

So, let’s see…I left off back on October 27, 2013, not including the random post from Cappadocia. I was in Rome with Jim and his dad. We had a great time and then Jim’s dad returned home while Jim and I remained in Italy a while before continuing on our way. I guess I should fill in the gaps. 

This post will cover the rest of 2013 and the very beginning of 2014

Torre Annunziata, Italy: Slept and relaxed, amazing pizza, gross trash-filled streets, Herculaneum 

We were staying in this town as a cheaper alternative to Naples. We needed some days to relax after 3 weeks of excessive sightseeing. It was not the nicest place in the world and honestly, not a town I'd return to. Herculaneum is highly recommended, however!

Jim: "That place was a bit of a shithole, except for the food. Also, the accommodations were quite nice."

Pompeii, Italy:  Pompeii with Meiling and Daphne, Merry-go-round wine evening, day trip and a very rough bus ride to Almafi Coast on Halloween, dinner in Sorrento, foggy day at Mt. Vesuvius, Hung out at a campground and binge watched Breaking Bad

We stayed in a nice bungalow at a campground only minutes from the Pompeii site. It was the perfect location. This part of Italy is beautiful.

Jim: "Lots of wine, Breaking Bad, and amazing ruins."

Naples, Italy: Museo Nazionale where all of the real artifacts are kept, The Secret Room, “themed” hotel

Naples...no reason to ever go back. This is the first city I have not felt safe in.

Jim: "It was ok."

 

Venice, Italy:  stay in Mestre (much cheaper!), Wandered a park, the snailicide - RIP, incredible glass mosquitoes, Meiling and Daphne randomly on a bridge, food, best bookstore ever, exploring

We made a huge mistake by walking along the water in the park. Crunch crunch crunch. Millions of tiny snails everywhere...it was the worst!! Venice is a gorgeous city, but definitely doesn't require more than a day or so. Small back streets are the best.

Jim: "Really cool. Very neat and unique place. I would have liked to stay there, but it was a touch too expensive."

Zagreb, Croatia:  Zvonimir!, ridiculously windy day, Holly!, Museum of Broken Relationships, Walk to the park/zoo, incredible food!, lots of street art, stop at Plitvice on extremely foggy day 

Surprisingly nice city. Plitvice Lakes National Park is absolutely incredible! It was so foggy, we could barely see any waterfalls, but that made it an even better and more unique experience. 

Jim: "Zagreb is an alright place. Plitvice is super cool, but regrettably not as awesome as it would have been during summer.

Split, Croatia: Old town, chestnuts, donut-like balls, day trip to Trogir, mountain w/ view

Definitely needed more time here, perhaps another trip is in order.

Jim: "Beautiful. Beautiful and I wanted to stay longer."

Dubrovnik, Croatia:  Awful walk up hill with bags, old town, walled city walk, arboretum at Tresteno, Ferry to Lopud, dog friend who came into bar, stormy afternoon with HUGE waves, café crawl, bye bye Holly, so many cats!, hike up big hill, Hunger Games 2, closed cave bar, scuba dive!, best gelato, Mexican restaurant

So once Holly departed, we ended up staying in Dubrovnik another couple weeks. I LOVE this place. It is so incredible there and the diving is absolutely amazing. Also, so many cats!! :)

Jim: "Probably my favorite city in Croatia. I felt almost as if I were in Game of Thrones."

 

Budva, Montenegro:  Walk the walls, lots of cats, organize last minute flight to Greece

Stopped here for a couple days. It was very beautiful but similar to all of the other places we'd visited recently. Unfortunately I can't find my pictures at the moment!

Jim: "I keep forgetting we went there, but it was nice."

 

Athens, Greece: Pantheon, Parks, Incredible food!, The Hobbit 2, Christmas, goat, friends, hot wine with honey, lots of down time, wandering

We spent several weeks in Athens. It is an amazing city. Such great food and people.

Jim: "It was very nice. Great ruins, great food, tasty tasty oranges, and it taught us to love olives!" 

Delphi, Greece: Gorgeous ruins and scenery!, picnic overlooking the valley, museum

I highly recommend a visit to Delphi for anyone in Greece. It is a very unique location. 

Jim: "Gorgeous and very picturesque setting. Very cool place."

Meteora, Greece: Amazing hikes, cloudy days, monasteries, New Years!, ridiculous firework echoes, tasty food, goat skull in cave, slip on moss, more hikes

This is easily one of my favorite places we've been so far. It is such a unique location and it is very peaceful.

Jim: "Never before I have enjoyed nearly slipping to my death hundreds and hundreds of times. Would do it again in a second."

Theselonikki, Greece: Walk along the shore, cafes, gyros

This was simply a stop along our way. Nothing special about it for the typical traveler.

Jim: "I can't remember Theselonikki. Don't write that, remind me. Oh yeah, I went to the dentist. I mean it was nothing super special. The boardwalk along the water was really nice. That's about it."

Istanbul, Turkey: Mosques, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Islam talk, Salep!, Basilica Cistern, Grand Bazaar, Turkish Ravioli, Ferry to Asia, failed attempt to walk across the bridge, boots, Turkish ice cream

I need to give Istanbul a second chance one day. It did not impress me, but I absolutely love Turkey, so maybe Istanbul isn't as bad as I think.

Jim: "I didn't like Istanbul, but we were in a heavily touristic area so I feel obliged to give it another chance someday."

So there you go. That sums up what happened between October 27 and early January. More to come soon, and this time I really do mean soon. 

Cappadocia: Land of Hikes, Caves, Balloons and More!

View of the sunrise and Mount Erciyes in the distance from our balloon

For the past week I've been waking up with the main purpose of exploring incredible landscapes, often bringing along bread, olives, cheese, and wine for a picnic along the way. The Goreme National Park in the Cappadocia region of Turkey is absolutely amazing. I was fortunate enough to be here for my birthday, making it one of my best birthdays to date.

"Fairy Chimneys" in Love Valley

Cappadocia is most often associated with the "fairy chimney" shaped formations found throughout the region, as well as the balloon rides, which give you a bird's eye view of the area. The hundreds of cave churches and homes as well as various underground cities are also very popular sites. The region's formation dates back to millions of years ago when the extinct volcanoes in the area were active. There were many eruptions which covered the region in ash, lava, and basalt. Over time, both water and wind erosion have worked to shape the formations seen here today. The basalt is the dark layer still visible on many of the structures and is much stronger than the layers underneath. The ash layers below are very soft and extremely easy to carve, which resulted in the creation of all of the homes, churches and cities that people can visit today.

Flying over Love Valley

Cave bedroom! The bed frame is carved from the rock too!

 The town of Goreme has been our base for this past week. It is a small town surrounded by valleys perfect for hikes. There are many accommodation options to choose from, most of which offer cave rooms. Yes, that means you get to sleep in a cave. Not a natural cave, but a man-made cave, still pretty incredible. The town also has a bunch of restaurants and cafes. Pottery kebabs are one of the delicious meals unique to this region, so they are a must if you ever visit. I really love this town, but I don't think I'd have the same opinion if it were the high season. Being here during the off-season has resulted in a quiet, peaceful environment with plenty of empty rooms (so competitive prices!). There is a hill that everyone goes up to get the best view of the sunsets. It has been perfect up there since there aren't many people, but if you had a full hill, it would definitely not be as relaxing.

Goreme after the sunset

What's been going on each day? Well, here you go!

Day 1:  Short hike. Explored a few caves. Discovered several caves used to store water for agriculture. Pottery kebab dinner!
Day 2:  Hike around. Climb up into a cave and learned bees create hives in some of the rocks, also

Walking through White or Honey Valley. We were a bit confused by the map.

learn that not all caves are stable. Picnic with bread, olives, cheese, sausage, fruit, and wine! Witnessed tortoise sex. Realized picnic was a little too early because the perfect picnic location was discovered shortly after. Enter Love Valley which unfortunately is a very touristic location. Return to town and plan a balloon ride! Enjoy a second pottery kebab later followed by some Efes Malt beer.
Day 3:  Finally made it to the post office! Open Air Museum (not worth visiting, but we did meet a couple pretty great people!). Picnic with incredible views. Turkish ice cream. Turkish ravioli for dinner. Early night since waking early next day!

A church at the Selime Monastery

Day 4:  Picked up at 4:40 for sunrise balloon ride! Really horrible "breakfast" of cookies and junk. Balloon! Return to hotel, eat breakfast and get ready for a 9:30 pick-up for the Green Tour. Guided through the Derinkuyu Underground City. Short walk through the Ihlara Valley and lunch over the stream (river?). Explore the Selime Monastery (my favorite part of the tour). Drive back to Goreme for tasty chocolate covered apricot and milky pumpkin seed samples. Only 6 people on the trip which made it nice. Don't do a tour if you visit the area, go to the sites on your own if you want to actually experience them completely. Enjoyed the sunset up on the hill with wine. Watched random birthday turned proposal and failed lantern attempts.

Salep

Day 5:  Nice hike aimed towards Red and Rose Valley, but we never made it. Got invited for Melissa tea by a woman who moved out to a cave house and her friends. Hung out with them for a while and resumed hike. Encountered juice and resumed hike. Ran into a friend and spent some time climbing up one of the cave structures. Incredible spiral stairs up there. Walked back and had salep and food.  Wine and friends in the evening.
Day 6:  Switched hotels. Met up with friends for breakfast. Hung out at a cafe. Sunset from balcony with a bottle of wine. Nice relaxed day.
Day 7:  Early start and long day of hiking. Explored a lot of cave houses/churches. Got slightly stuck, went down a "slide," got a bit lost, but met up with friends in the valley randomly. Walked back and enjoyed an amazing sunset on the hill with wine and the annoying cat.
Day 8:  Easy, relaxed day. Sore and exhausted from Day 7. Hang out on balcony, cafe, balcony for sunset. Write this up!

Rose Valley

Another cave church.

Cave houses/churches (Top) We managed to climb into it and here is one of the rooms we discovered (Bottom)

Jim coming back down from the 4th floor

Our hikes usually consist of walking through the valleys and getting very distracted by the various caves we encounter. We often go inside them and try to work our way up to the different levels. Some caves have stairs, others require us to just climb up through holes in the ceilings. Some of the stairs are very well preserved while others are nearly ramps due to the erosion. Sometimes there is enough natural light, but other times it is pitch black. Remember to bring a flashlight! We've come across churches, kitchens, rooms purely for pigeons*, and many other rooms. Occasionally we encounter tunnels that lead to nothing, while others lead to a giant hole in the cliff. As we hike, tortoises are EVERYWHERE! Well, maybe not everywhere, but we do encounter them daily. We will often hear rustling sounds, and when we do, it is most often due to a tortoise. Look closely because they are pretty good at blending in. Seeing as it is currently the start of spring, the valleys are full of blossoms. They are really beautiful and smell incredible. There are hundreds of bees buzzing around and birds on the cliffs and in the sky. As for the trails, they are often very slippery from all of the loose rocks. It's often hard to tell which sections are trustworthy to step on. In addition, we encountered one area too steep to walk down so we opted for the slide method. It was pretty fun, but also quite dusty.

Trying not to slip down the stairs

*Pigeons were a huge thing in this area. There's even an entire valley named after them. People used to use their droppings for fertilizer and their eggs for a glue substance. In addition, the pigeons themselves were used as messengers.

View out a window

This region is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Turkey. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Sunset overlooking Goreme

Jim says, "It's effing awesome!"

(Posts for other places and events will be up one day. It is hard to get motivation to write when there are so many things to see and do!)