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Tokyo 2015

Tokyo, holy crap, Tokyo. Whatever expectations we had of Tokyo and Japan before we arrive were completely shattered. No guide had prepared us for our experiences so far, let alone the first half hour in the country. We’ve been in Tokyo for about five days and will be traveling around the country for the next 15 to see the cherry blossoms bloom. Yes, we did travel a quarter of the way around the world to see cherry blossoms. Last year, we were lucky enough to see the cherry blossoms in Washington DC and we wanted to see the grandest cherry blossom bloom in the world ever since.

We noticed immediately that Japan is completely different than anything we’ve experienced before. It started with the eerie quiet soon after we left the airplane. Japan is an incredibly quiet place; Jacquelyn and I find ourselves whispering most of the time simply because it is so quiet everywhere – subways, streets, stores, our apartment, everywhere. The places that are normally loud elsewhere in the world are stunningly quiet. The place we are renting has neighbors surrounding us on all sides but one yet I haven’t heard a peep. It’s so quiet I’m not sure anyone lives next to our apartment.

The next thing we noticed was that Japanese people are incredible helpful in a surprisingly assertive way. About 30seconds after looking at a subway map a woman assertively asked us where we were going. Luckily, we were going the same way so she helped us along. Then, shortly after getting off the subway we realized we were lost so we took out the map and looked around. Another 30seconds later a random person assertively asked us where we were going and if she could help. It was shocking, it was super helpful, and it was awesome. We’ve never had this type of experience anywhere in the world.

The next thing we noticed is the Japanese people are incredibly considerate and kind. I actually pay attention to where I walk because people will stop to let me pass even if I am the one crossing their path and disrupting their walk. This is very different than pretty much everywhere in Asia where I used my size to plow through crowds of people because no one gets out of the way. Japan is very photography friendly – put a camera up and people will find a way to walk behind the camera, duck, or just wait. It’s crazy.

There’s formalities for everything. For example, money isn’t handed to a cashier but the customer puts the money on a tray for the cashier to pick up. There’s also a process for saying thanks, bowing, accepting thanks, and I have no clue how it works. We were walking around a park and I saw an elderly man fall (his shoe broke and he took a tumble) so I spent some time helping him up and getting him back to his handlers so he could be wheeled out of the park. Later, his wife found me and said a whole lot of Japanese to me ending in “arigato”, which is thanks, and bowed. Not knowing what to do, I said “arigato” and bowed back. She then repeated what she said and bowed again. Once again, not knowing what to do, I said “arigato” and bowed. This repeated FIVE TIMES before I figured out that this poor lady was trapped so long as I kept saying arigato and bowing back. I’m not a fast learner.

The cherry blossoms are stellar. They are all over the city and we’ve been to quite a few parks and even visited a park which lights them up at night. It’s beautiful. We’re very fortunate we arrived in time to see the cherry blossoms. We are really looking forward to seeing the cherry blossoms bloom as we travel across the country!

We are about 1/3rd of the way through our visit in Japan. We’re hoping the rest of the trip is going to be just as amazing as the first part.

I put photos into two albums: one that’s a short 12 photo summary of Tokyo. The other is all the photos from Tokyo which includes a TON of cherry blossom photos. Unless you really like cherry blossom photos, I’d skip it.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

Small album below:

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Large album below:

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New Zealand 2015

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New Zealand was OK. We ended up spending two weeks on the rainy southern island and a week on the north island where were introduced to Cyclone Pam. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the weather wasn’t great during the three weeks we were there and the good luck we’ve had with weather for the last six months ran out. We had planned on spending a great deal of time outdoors and hiking but were typically relegated to the indoors due to crap weather. The parts of New Zealand we did see were fairly pretty and we did manage to find some neat things to do.

New Zealand is an odd place: incomes aren’t all that high yet things are extremely expensive or exceptionally poor values, nothing is really that close together (we put 2,000mi on our rental) yet driving is pretty much the best way to get around, kiwi’s speak English yet they have really funny accents, everyone we met is OK with living in a very geologically active country where they could easily be wiped off the face of the earth, and there are tourists everywhere – about 3million people visit New Zealand, a country with a population of 4.4million. Tourist fatigue was very pervasive.

I think the word indifferent best describes our interactions with most New Zealanders. We haven’t run into this too often on our travels but it was surprising. If I were to guess it’s simply because of the sheer number of tourists that inundate their little islands – tourists are everywhere at all times. We had a pretty hilarious interaction with a New Zealand couple we met through Airbnb: they stated that they “really liked America and Americans” and when I asked why I found out it’s because “Americans are stuffy and so full of themselves”. I wasn’t sure how to take that.

Things, in general, were a pretty poor value. We can handle expensive, that’s not a problem. Poor value is different. Fuel was about $6/gal, food was insanely expensive and lodging, in most places, was the most we’ve ever paid. It was mind blowing to me that we stayed in a place that was $135/night and they didn’t provide WiFi or even change our sheets! We had arranged other tours and activities, like flightseeing, but ended up cancelling them because we were so underwhelmed with what we saw and experienced in New Zealand; we were done giving the country money.

There were three great experiences that really stood out. First was when we were in a lake and the bottom of the lake was heated by the thermal activity in the area. We sunk our feet into the sand and had a free spa day. I felt fabulous. Second was when we met an super cool family through Airbnb. They happily showed us around, brought us to their favorite fish and chips place and gave us some great advice on where to visit. The last awesome experience occurred on our last night in New Zealand when we met Jacquelyn’s relatives who moved to New Zealand from the US back in the early 80s; we had an awesome chat and learned about their unique perspective of New Zealand. It was great to end our time in New Zealand on a high note.

So, overall, I don’t think we’d rush back to New Zealand. We didn’t find any reason to travel half way around the world to see New Zealand; we’ve been other places that have similar landscapes that have better weather and better value for the money.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Cambodia 2015

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Cambodia, specifically Siem Reap, was amazing. Truly, one of the greatest visits for us on this trip. We were only in Cambodia for four days which ended up being far too short.

Siem Reap is the home of Angkor Wat and a bunch of other temple complexes; it’s the ancient capitol of Cambodia. We aren’t really ‘ruins’ people and don’t much care to see historical buildings so we had pretty low expectations going in to the visit. To help us along, we hired a tuk-tuk driver / guide, Sopheap, to bring us around to the sites because everything is spread pretty far apart. The places we visited were spectacular. So much so, we took about 2,800 photos – a new personal record in photos / day for me.

First thing off the plane we realized most everything is priced in US Dollars. That, in itself, isn’t all that weird and we’ve seen it a lot. The difference was that we could use USD to buy everything and ATMs even dispensed USD! We haven’t seen $5s, $10s, $20s or many $100s since leaving the US so it was pretty weird to see everyone, including Europeans and Cambodians, using USD all over the place. When we used USD to make a purchase we would get Cambodian Riel for anything less than $1 in change. Very quickly I had a huge wad of dollars and Riel. I felt like a high roller with the wad but it really amounted to about $8.77. Not high roller status, not even in a country like Cambodia.

The next really odd thing happened when we went to find dinner the first night. We wandered around the super touristy area called Pub Street and quickly stumbled across multiple, yes multiple, Mexican restaurants and bars. We love Mexican food, we haven’t had Mexican food since we left the US, why not have some food we love? We find a decent table, get some margaritas to wash down our chips & salsa, and ask each other – are we in bizzaro world? Like, is this real life? The food and drinks weren’t exact but they were close enough given Mexico and Cambodia are 9,677 miles apart . We ended up having quite a bit of local, Khmer, food and really loved it. Khmer food was like the food we had in Thailand but deliciously different.

Cambodia had a terrible tragedy with the rise of the Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and the subsequent genocide of its populace. I didn’t learn a whole lot about South East Asia in school, especially the history of the area. I knew that the US bombed Cambodia during the Vietnam War but I didn’t know that the carpet bombing of Cambodia by the US during the Vietnam War was the catalyst for Pol Pot and his regime. It was quite surreal to tour the landmine museum and see massive amounts of ordinance from the US that never exploded or was dug up. Even today, many Cambodians are killed or injured from landmines left over during the Vietnam War. Very sad.

Sopheap did a lot for us and we are very thankful. On top of driving us around everywhere, he took us to his friend’s wedding, he brought us out to dinner on our last night, and he shared his stories of growing up and what life is like for the people living in Cambodia. Without him, the experience would not have been nearly as rich. He helped make our visit around Siem Reap the best on our entire trip.

Overall, this visit was a 10/10. We would absolutely go back.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Thailand 2015

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We spent a little over a week in Bangkok and we thoroughly enjoyed our time! We did a lot of cool things like: three days of cooking classes, a day trip up to the old Thai capitol Ayutthaya, toured around Bangkok and even went to two movies! The people were so friendly & helpful, Bangkok was very modern and had all the amenities we could ever need, most things were very cheap, the food and sights were great! We didn’t really see a whole lot of Thailand, just Bangkok and Ayutthaya, and it’d be great to go back and see the rest someday. There were a ton of tourists and expats there, just a massive amount. Jacquelyn and I had been lamenting the fact Americans have been far and few in-between in our travel but there were many Americans in Bangkok and we’re good for awhile.

Thailand is the only country in the area that was not colonized by Europeans. The British were on one side (India, Myanmar) and the French were on the other (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam). The British and the French decided that Thailand would be a good buffer zone to prevent conflict between their colonies. Despite never being colonized, they definitely picked up some British habits like driving on the left side of the road. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and there are pictures and paintings of the King doing different thing like: pointing at stuff, holding swords, playing with his dogs, looking serious and taking photographs, all over Bangkok. Thailand is set up for tourism. All sorts of US brands are available, there’s many places that are a short flight from Bangkok and there’s a ton of guides available for anything a tourist could want to do.

We took three days of cooking class because Thai food is very yummy. We also like spicy food and have a fondness for Thai chilies. It’ a different type of spicy than other chilies. During our cooking classes, I added a lot of chilies to my Tom Yum soup and everyone was coughing once I started cooking my soup, even our Thai instructor. I was happy that I had a stuffy nose that day because I didn’t mind the noxious chili fumes. In another instance, Jacquelyn ordered Tom Yum soup from a street vendor; that soup is best described as “pure burning” and was more chemical weapon than food. Instant eyes watering, instant nose running, not delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that spicy. It hurt going in and out. That said, Jacquelyn finished it while I was running some errands. On my return, I found her staring at the wall. She didn’t say much other than, “I finished the soup”.

Our day trip up to Ayutthaya, the old Thai capitol, was very neat. It started by taking a $0.40 train ride two hours to Ayutthaya. We had read tourists could easily hire tuk-tuks in Ayutthaya to tour all the important sites so we didn’t do a whole lot of research on what we wanted to see. We found a driver who seemed nice; I asked him to “bring us around” while making a circle gesture with my hands. He nodded and we were off. It turned out to be a great tour and the driver was a really cool guy. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish the tour with him because his tuk-tuk died so he recruited his friend to bring us back to the train station. His friend had a pimped out tuk-tuk with a huge stereo system, very funny.

Overall, our time in Thailand went very quickly. It was too bad because it was such a great place to visit, everyone was so friendly and helpful. I can understand why Europeans and Americans flock to Thailand and why some even settle in the country. I don’t blame them, there’s a lot to love about the country, the people, and their culture.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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China 2014 & 2015

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So, where to begin with China? To start, China is a huge country with huge everything. China is the ‘Texas’ of the world. China: has the world’s largest population, has five of the top 10 tallest buildings, used more concrete in 2011-2013 than the US did in all of the 20^th century, uses the second largest rail network, contains seven of the top 10 busiest shipping ports, and, every year, has the world’s largest human migration, about 200million, for Lunar New Year. A national park we visited has 30million visitors a year which is about the same as the top seven national parks in the US. Prior to the Great Recession, about a quarter of all construction cranes in the world were in Shanghai. I think it’s one of the few places in the world where a person can see new infrastructure and buildings every visit. With each of my four trips to Shanghai over the last four years, the skyline looked appreciably different each time!

Unlike my last visits, which were always for work and about work, we wandered around the country and saw quite a bit. We visited big cities like Beijing and Shanghai while also spending a good deal of time out in the mountains away from the terrible air pollution. We had the chance to do “homestays” where we lived with local Chinese and even celebrated New Years with our hosts’s friends and family. They were amazing experiences. We had very open discussions with many different individuals about far ranging subjects from: voting, shooting guns, the Cultural Revolution, economic outlook, cultural norms, one child policy and political corruption. I’m not sure why guns came up so often but pretty much everyone wanted to talk about guns. Some would ask if I had used a gun and then their eyes would grow large when I told them I had shot many guns at many different things. One gentleman kindly taught Jacquelyn and I Chinese calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. Jacquelyn’s a good artist but my creations would embarrass any parents if put on their refrigerator.

China was incredibly easy to travel through. We had next to no language issues even though it’s the least English speaking country we’ve visited and found many ‘allies’ for help along the way. Here’s a great example: we were in a rather touristy area that was off season so there were no other foreigners, let alone English signs, around. We needed to get from X to Y and took a bus. Someone showed us the correct bus to take but we soon realized we had no idea where to get off. Luckily, the bus driver remembered where most foreigners go, stopped the bus, opened the doors and muttered some Chinese while pointing back and forth to us and the bus door. Turns out, that’s where we needed to get off! Overwhelming, our experiences were like this in China. We were met with kindness, gratitude, and openness all along the way. Only a few times did people try to scam us. One that stands out as being particularly funny was when we took a tuk-tuk in Beijing and the driver refused to give me about $2 in change I was due. At this point in our travels, Jacquelyn and I work really well as a team; I stood in front of the tuk-tuk, so he couldn’t drive away, and started to yell at him. Right away, Jacquelyn joined the fray and was in his face yelling too. I’m pretty sure the guy was used to rolling westerners and westerners not getting upset about losing $2 because he was extremely surprised and quickly acquiesced. Many people have tried to scam us in our journey but we’ve become pretty good at dealing with scammers.

The Cultural Revolution destroyed most cool things in China so pretty much everything, including huge portions of the Forbidden City, are rebuilds or replacements. Other than some of the really big cities in China like Shanghai and Beijing, the cities are pretty void of a cultural heart like would be found in most western cities. We stayed overnight in Guilin while transiting across China, which had a population of about six million people, and is not a lot different in population than Chicago & suburbs. Most of the buildings were done up in the Soviet Style awesomeness; there was a nice lake to walk around and that was about it. To fix this issue, China is rapidly building old looking new buildings to attract tourists. It’s cheesy but also pretty hilarious in a sad sort of way.

So now the two bad things about China. First: the air pollution is really, really, really bad. Like, taste-it-in-your-mouth and feel-it-on-the-back-of-your-throat bad. Interestingly, each major city has different smelling / tasting air pollution. Shanghai (burning brakes), Beijing (plastic-ish + burning brakes), Xi’An (dryness+mining+dust+metals), and Shenzhen (metal working + sweet ocean breeze). Some of the cities in China are very beautiful, I look forward to the time where we don’t have to wait for a specific wind direction to get good, pollution free, views. Second: the Chinese people can be incredibly rude and gross. Cutting, shouting, bubble-invading is all very common along with spitting, blowing their nose on inanimate objects, coughing on people, and sneezing on people. I became pretty good at pushing people out of my way, it helps I’m a lot larger than most Chinese and I would generally just plow my way through willy-nilly. I’m sure those folks didn’t mind being pushed out of the way but I can’t be sure because I never looked back. Amazingly, the Manners Police are out in full force. I first saw the Manners Police in my last visit to Shanghai back in early 2013. They ran around and yelled at people doing gross things. Spitting openly is down significantly, tissues are used by most for blowing a nose, I only saw a couple people urinating in public, every person I saw was dressed, and I didn’t see anyone defecating in public anywhere. That’s progress!

We loved our time in China. We were lucky enough to celebrate 10yrs of being together, Christmas and New Years there. We very much look forward to going back!

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Rajasthan, India 2014

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We had one of the best experiences on our trip so far – a 12 day tour through the Indian state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is slightly south west of New Delhi, borders Pakistan, and is mostly desert. It’s a not a big state, it’s about the size of Montana. Despite this, at different points in history, very large forts and palaces were built; forts and palaces that are indescribably huge and opulent. It’s like having a huge fort and palace built in Helena, Bozeman, Missoula, Billings and minor forts built in lots of other cities across Montana. Kind of hard for my American mind to comprehend.

We hired a car and driver to shuttle us about, it was surprisingly cheap. Our driver, Bhupendra (boopy), was a stand up guy. He was from Rajasthan and was able to share a lot of his culture and history with us, we were very fortunate to have met him.

We only traveled a few hours a day so we had quite a bit of time to talk to the locals. We learned a lot about Rajasthan and its people:
* By and large, we were treated very well. Much more friendly and laid back compared to Delhi / Agra.
* Super hard working people. It seems like life is easier for a select few but for everyone else it’s extremely difficult with really long hours. At our hotels, it was really common to see the same staff every day no matter what time it was
* We met some incredibly good business people. We took a cooking class with a woman who had never worked until her husband died. She had zero schooling because she lived out in the desert. She moved into a city to find work and, over time, she found she had a penchant for cooking and started a cooking class for tourists. She learned English, French, and Spanish from tourists. Her class is the #1 activity in her city on Tripadvisor and she now has enough money to build her own cooking studio. She’s grateful Tripadvisor helped her move from a life of squalor to something much better.
* Tripadvisor seems to be very important. Like usual, we found lots of activities through Tripadvisor and thought nothing of it. Talking to business owners, they remember who helped them set up a Tripadvisor account and a lot talked about how their business and lives changed for the better.
* People spoke a lot about their caste. In the US I had learned that the caste system no longer existed and was surprised to hear people talk openly about it. It was very interesting and educational!
* The wages are not high, we found out that our driver’s salary is about $100/mo or about $3/day. He said his wage is OK compared to other jobs.
* We hadn’t seen other Americans for about a month until we ran into a couple who ‘outsourced’ their retirement to India. They left the US shortly after the Affordable Care Act was passed because ‘the US is no longer the land of opportunity’. Both were still pretty riled up about US politics even though they’ve been gone for awhile. Until that point, Jacquelyn and I hadn’t thought much of politics and after the conversation we realized how little we missed the political scene.

Sadly, our time in India is ending. We are in Goa (a hippy’s paradise!) and will be leaving India from here. We missed a lot of the things we wanted to see (Darjeeling, Varanessi, Kerela, Chennai, Amristar, just to name a few) but we’ve decided that after nearly a month here it’s good to move on.

Enjoy the photos :).

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Chris W.

Trekking in Nepal 2014

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We spent about two weeks walking in the Himalaya before heading back to Kathmandu. We went to a region not too far from Kathmandu called Langtang / Gosiankunda so we fortunately missed the deadly avalanche.

The trek was pretty incredible: stunning scenery, great company, good weather, and delicious food. For the most part, the weather was incredibly good – good temperatures and clear skies. We hired a porter-guide, Sandesh, to help us along the way. We really lucked out, he was a great guy and we enjoyed spending a little over two weeks with him.

The scenery speaks for itself. Never have been around such incredible beauty; I hope to come back again in the future. There’s an immense tranquility at the higher elevations – no planes, no car noises, no Harley Davidson noises, no pollution, no/very few people, no cell phones, no radios, etc. It was so wonderfully awesome to completely avoid all the annoying sounds of humanity, I was quickly brought back to the numerous times I took off into the Black Hill and found my little corner of clarity in nature. The experience was a great reminder that I greatly enjoy being disconnected and having my own tranquil space free from the pollution of others. It was also great that I was able to share this experience with Jacquelyn; she has never hiked in this high of elevation, which is an experience in itself. It’s really hard to describe hiking / walking / trekking above 14,000ft: the sun is brighter, sounds carry further, there’s less pollution, and things just seem so much better!

We met all sorts of people on the trail from many different countries. tree huggers (literally came across a group of Brits hugging a huge tree, they asked me to take a photo of them), individuals trekking by themselves, huge groups of trekkers and porters, older individuals (70s-ish), people with very little gear / preparation (no sleeping bags, no coats, but just jeans and a sweater), and people with every last accessory (including matching bandanna). We did not meet many people around our age (early 30s) and those we did meet were all in Nepal for a short time because they had to get back to their jobs. We met a new group of people we didn’t quite enjoy being around and those are Israeli tourists. Quite a loud and obnoxious bunch seemingly oblivious to those they are around.

In order to pass the time, Jacquelyn and I read books and played cribbage. Before we left, we decided to have a cribbage contest which we aptly called “the Great Himalayan Cribbage Championship”. We decided the winner of the tournament would get to spend $40 or more at a restaurant of their choosing at a date of their choosing. Here in Kathmandu, a $40 dinner for two is quite luxurious. We played during the course of the trek and I was completely victories, utterly defeating Jacquelyn with exactly one victory to her zero. It was a great victory and I will reminder her for years to come.

The biggest surprise was the Nepali people. Talk about a bunch of very strong, very tough, very friendly people. For example, Sandesh, our porter-guide, is probably 5’3″ and I think I have somewhere around a 120lbs on him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he could bench press me. No matter what, he always had a smile on his face and was ready to go, even after eight hours of hiking misery and two family tragedies (uncle and cousin killed in Annapurna avalanche, child in ICU) during our trek.

We, at least me, didn’t have the huge, life altering, experience that many other people claim to have while trekking in the Himalaya. In fact, I feel pretty much the same as when I arrived. Sure, it was pretty, sure it was great to experience all the cultural difference, and yes it was very rewarding hard work, but it was just another awesome experience we’ve had on our trip – not a life altering experience which completely changes the way I think about life. I am OK with this, I didn’t think anything was wrong with me to begin with so there’s no reason why I needed the life altering experience :).

I broke up the photos into two groups. One group of 83 photos shows the various experiences on the trail. The next group of photos are artistic (if you can call it that) photos of the things we saw on the trail, pretty much mountain views. The second album of full of pretty stuff but no real content.

After the trek we went back to Kathmandu and hung out for almost two weeks. I’ll write about that later.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

Trekking photos:

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Mountain photos:

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St. Goar and Rothenburg ob der Tauber 2014

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I decided to break up our Germany trip into two posts because St. Goar on the Rhine River and Rothenburg ob der Tauber are pretty different than the rest of our travel through Bavaria.

We really liked St. Goar. It’s a tiny little town on the Rhine River. We rented bicycles and biked up and down the river finding all sorts of plants (hops, pear trees, apple trees, raspberries, and so on). The Rhine region is known as a Riesling region so we took advantage of the delicious wines with typical German meats and cheese! We rode a riverboat up the Rhine and saw all sorts of castles along the way. We hopped off at Bakarack and hiked up to the castle above the town. Whether by boat, car, bike or train, the Rhine River region between St. Goar and Bakarack is astoundingly beautiful.

We then went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and was blown away by this medieval city. The original city walls from long ago are still intact and most of the inner city is as well. It was quite an experience and everything was done up in the traditional medieval way. It was very touristy but still fun to visit: we had a chance to walk the city walls, see a neat night tour, enjoy meat & cheese & bread and just had a very fun time!

On the way to Dachau were saw more of the Bavarian countryside and saw a lot of hops growing :). Germany isn’t a whole lot different than the Netherlands. There’s a lot more room, the trains are super easy to navigate, and the trains are very comfortable. The only downer is probably due to the internet. A lot of places that have advertised internet with their lodging have super crappy internet or have internet that only works in the common area. Otherwise, the food here in Bavaria is delicious and the people are great too!

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Enjoy the pictures!

Chris W.

Amsterdam 2014

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We had an absolute blast in Amsterdam! We spent four nights in the same location, pretty different from our trip so far! We didn’t actually do that much in Amsterdam, we spent the time recouping and then spent the rest of the time aimlessly walking around. Jacquelyn had her 30th birthday in Amsterdam and we did it up in style with a very nice dinner, drinks, and a romantic stroll :). We loved the city, it was great weather and very friendly people. Four days was not enough, we look forward to visiting again some day!!!

Amsterdam was different compared to anywhere else we’ve visited. Here’s what we learned:

So many people. The pedestrians really lose out. Traveling by bike is the best way to go about visiting Amsterdam!
So compact. Everything is made to be small. Stairs, houses, roads, and so on.
The alcohol was so cheap! It sure beat the expensive alcohol in Iceland, Scotland, and Ireland.
The sweets, oh, man, the sweets were so good. So many things are sugar-ery delicious there!
The people were so friendly to us!
The vices. Almost everything is legal in Amsterdam. Pretty crazy! I think that is what leads to the laid back and very open attitude of the locals.
Food was cheap, way cheaper than what we have been accustomed to paying.

It’s hard to describe how great the visit was, we really want to go back as soon as possible!

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Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

Ireland 2014

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We spent about a week in Ireland; we made a clockwise circle from Dublin -> Cork -> Killarney National Park -> Dingle -> Limerick -> Galway -> Dublin. The sun was out almost the entire time and we were even were sunburned from hiking for a few hours around the Cliffs of Moher! The scenery was fantastic, so green and lush. The people were very warm and welcoming, a very chatty bunch. Ireland was a lot of fun!

My most enjoyable experience in Ireland probably had to be the Cliffs of Moher. The pictures don’t really do it justice and it’s hard to explain. It was a gorgeous day and there weren’t many other people. We walked a few miles on the path along the cliffs. It was quiet, serene, and beautiful. It wasn’t an experience that happens often and I’m very happy that we were there to enjoy the cliffs :). The second best experience was in Galway. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed it to the max with the locals while drinking “cans” in the park.

Here’s what we learned:

Things were generally cheaper in Ireland with the Euro compared to the pound in Scotland. Gas is about $7/gal versus almost $10/gal in Scotland. Food is cheaper and lodging is cheaper, in some cases, by a large margin (25 – 50%).
The population density is higher in Ireland so there’s a lot more people clogging up the roads. It’s common to go about 1/2 the speed limit on single lane roads because of tractors, tourists and other cars.
People walk / run on the roads. These are very narrow roads that have no shoulders! When I asked one of our host about it, he merely said, “don’t walk in the middle of the road if you don’t want to get hit”. Great advice.
There are multiple Irish stouts, not just Guinness! Well, duh, most would think. However, they are just as good as Guinness! We spent time in Cork, where Beamish is made, and enjoyed a few pints. Our Cork host said that people in Cork don’t drink that Dubliner drink (Guiness) but drink a good beer, Beamish.
Ireland is super small. After driving across the width of the country we ended up forgetting something and we had to drive back only to turn around and go back to our original destination. It’s not often I can say I drove across a country four times in one day.
A full Irish breakfast comes with breakfast sausage and that sausage tastes terrible. It’s just like Scottish sausage. So gross. Breakfast beans are delicious.
The car rental was crazy cheap compared to Iceland and Scotland, about 30% of the rental costs we had in Iceland and Scotland.
It took less than two tanks of gas to make our entire drive around Ireland.
The Renault Clio is the biggest piece of crap car I’ve ever driven.
People still chat about the financial crisis like it was yesterday. From what I’ve gathered, Ireland’s still hurting. Some of the IMF “reforms” require Ireland residents to pay for their trash pickup and water usage (!?!?!?). It amazes me that an industrialized nation has citizen who do not pay for those items.
Raspberries grow wild all over the place in Ireland.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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