On the trail of WW2

As we put the itinerary together for our most recent trip, I didn't realize how much WW2 history we were going to be covering. So many of our other travels have been more focused on the history of centuries ago, which somehow seems more romantic and less horrific. Perhaps the benefit of time has just smoothed the edges of those long-ago atrocities. With the recency of WW2 and the efforts that have been made to document and share the events of those years, the emotional impact felt much more intense than learning about battles of the medieval times. Well, that being said, I'll try to keep the rest of this post a bit lighter :)

First stop, Warsaw. We were greeted right off the bat with some cooler weather, which I think we'd kind of forgotten could exist. We had a lovely spacious apartment, but it was a bit of a walk to many of the sights. For some reason, I was anticipating Warsaw would be a quaint little town, but it's large and spread out and there's a section of it filled with tall, glass skyscrapers. Almost more like Chicago than Europe there. So much of Warsaw was destroyed in the war, between the Soviet bombings early on and the uprisings that occurred later on, finished off by the Nazi's razing what remained at the end of the war. In 1945, upwards of 80% of the buildings in the urban areas of Warsaw were wrecked. So it's amazing that, under the communist regime that followed, the city was totally rebuilt. Even more incredible is the re-creation of the quaint old areas as a replica to identically match what things looked like pre-war, even down to the tilt of the old buildings! We enjoyed walking around the Old Town with its Market Square and Castle Square, the Royal Route, the park surrounding the Lazienki Palace, and numerous times past the Palace of Culture and Science (aka Stalin's Penis, that's seriously what they call it!) since it was right behind our apartment. Also checked out a few churches, a synagogue, the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Fighters and the Barbican. There were several museums that I'm sure would've been worthwhile, but we've learned that limiting museum time while traveling with a 3-year old is a trade-off we usually want to make. If we wear her out enough throughout the day, we usually get a nice little break for afternoon drinks on a square somewhere while she naps in the stroller. It's a win-win!

From Warsaw, it was a quick train ride down to Krakow for the next few days. Krakow survived the war with pretty minimal damage, so the Old Town there and the giant Main Market Square (maybe the biggest in Europe, but don't quote me?) show their true age, but in a lovely quaint way. Krakow is a major tourist draw nowadays, but for centuries it was a trading capital for the region, and was the capital of Poland for almost 600 years in medieval times. For the first time, we hired a private guide to take us around town and give us some of those local insights that we love, and I would highly recommend doing that in a city like this. We got to see the university, the Wawel Cathedral and Castle, the Jewish district of Kazimierz, Oscar Schindler's factory-turned-museum, the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, a synagogue and Jewish cemetery. In addition to seeing the town, Krakow is near Auschwitz so we took a day-trip tour out there, and a half-day trip to the salt mine nearby. Now, I have to admit, when Eric suggested going to a salt mine (first in Brasov Romania), I was not enthused in the least. I couldn't imagine there would be anything interesting to check out in a salt mine. We didn't go. But the opportunity came up again, and this time it was pretty close by, so I swallowed my objections. It was actually pretty cool! I had no idea salt was such a valuable commodity in the olden days, and I still hardly believe you can just dig down into the ground, chisel out a hunk of rock salt, and grind it up to sprinkle on your pasta. But apparently that's how it works! They don't extract salt from Wieliczka anymore, and thankfully they've put in A/C to combat the intense heat and humidity that miners had to deal with throughout the centuries. The craziest part about the place, and the reason it's such a tourist draw, is that generations of miners (who apparently had some extra time on their hands) have carved all kinds of statues into the rock down there. Not just statues, but created a cathedral and a ballroom and a bunch of other things that really don't seem to belong hundreds of feet underground. Coco was a pretty good sport on the long tour, and got herself a crystal of rock salt from our guide, in addition to several licks along the wall of the mine to confirm that it was actually made out of salt. Gross.

The salt mine wasn't the only place I was less-than-eager to visit on this trip, but my apprehensions about going to Auschwitz were more about whether we could expect Coco to spend the day there with us, and how distracting her presence would be to all the other people around us who were there to experience something so somber and sobering. Eric convinced me to give it a shot, and we hopped on the tour bus with the rest of the oldies. The first stop was the main Auschwitz camp itself, and our guide gave us some insights about the beginnings of the camp and how it was a sort of exile for people who were politically opposed to the Nazi's. Over time, it grew into an extermination camp that was expanded to the much-larger Auschwitz-Birkenau camp nearby. Throughout the course of the war, over a million people (mainly Jews) were gassed and cremated after living and working in some terrible conditions. Seeing the barracks where they lived and the single toilet area thousands of people shared and the 'showers' into which they were herded before their bodies were hauled (by their fellow inmates!) into the ovens... These places defy comprehension. In the end, I'm glad we were able to visit (although I do not plan to go back), and I think it was OK to bring Coco. She had absolutely no idea what any of it was about, and when she got antsy, one of us would just slip away from the tour and head outside with her and let her run and play with rocks and sticks. We didn't get any scornful looks (that I noticed, at least) for allowing her to run and play in a place that is meant to commemorate some of the worst things that one group of people can do to another group. Well, so much for my attempt to keep the blog post light!

From Krakow, we hopped a very early morning train back to Warsaw, then a longer ride across northern Germany to Berlin. Like with Warsaw, I was a bit taken aback at how big and spread out the city was. Maybe Granada is turning me into a small-town girl? As we like to do in the bigger cities, we found a hop-on/hop-off tour bus and rode all over to hear a bit of insight, before heading off on our own to explore the areas that caught our interest. In addition to seeing sights like the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag Building, the Holocaust Memorial, the Berlin Cathedral and remnant sections of the wall, there were a couple museums Eric wanted to explore. Since we knew Coco wasn't going to be up for that, she and I headed to the park while Eric got his art fix :) I think one of the favorite little memories I have of Berlin is enjoying the sun on a grassed-over mound of post-war debris, while Coco learned the joy of rolling down a hill and getting head-to-toe grass stains. As the reconstruction efforts occurred after the war and after the wall came down, the city chose to turn some of the rubble mounds into grassy park areas, which are now a lovely smattering of green hills around the city center. Usually pretty peaceful spots, I'm sure, except when an energetic 3-year old is traversing them with screams of delight!

From Berlin, it was one more long train ride into the Netherlands and we were all pleased to arrive in our final destination of Amsterdam. Well, for me, that lasted about 2 minutes. We walked out of the central train station at 5pm on a Friday afternoon, and it was C-H-A-O-S. Again, maybe my expectations were just wrong (they clearly were!), but I was envisioning quiet canals with romantic boats silently gliding along, a couple of cyclists leisurely pedaling their way along a broad sidewalk with tulips in their front baskets, maybe a waft of mellow smoke lazily drifting out of a nearby coffee shop. FYI, that's not Amsterdam! It seemed like all 800,000+ of the bikes in the city were being ridden by blind speed-crazed robots along the one narrow cobblestone street that led to our apartment in the Jordaan, while we struggled to manage with our stroller, giant suitcase, 3 backpacks and cranky kiddo. Ugh. We managed to get settled in the apartment, Coco napped, Eric had some work calls, I found the grocery store nearby (I love checking out foreign grocery stores!) and got the essentials...milk, yogurt, cheese, bread, alcohol. From there, things improved, though I never got fully comfortable walking around the city with Coco - just too many bikes whizzing past at high speeds, and she struggles even to avoid stationary objects like the lamp post. We did rent bikes for a day and blend in a bit with the locals, we took a boat tour of the canals and harbor, and a day trip out to some nearby towns (Rotterdam, Haarlem, Delfshaven). Back in Amsterdam, Eric visited the Moco Museum and I visited the Anne Frank House, we strolled through a few outdoor markets, took the ferry to the north side for dinner and did a few Rick Steves' walking tours (including one of the Red Light District). Seems safe to say we're not Rick's target demographic, but we love him anyway. In the end, Amsterdam was much more of a hustle-and-bustle city than I expected, still quaint, but far from quiet. I'm guessing we'll go back at some point, but that will likely be driven by Eric's desire rather than mine :)

After two weeks on the road, we returned to Granada and it's summer again. As usual, Coco had a tough re-adjustment to school here. I think she's used to it now, but that doesn't mean she really likes it. I've started talking to her a bit more about the fact that she'll be done with this school soon, and after Christmas she'll have a new school in Arizona with friends who speak English. I think she understands, but can't quite figure out how far in the future that really is... Eric is spending this week with his BFF Nate who flew over from the US, they're working their way back down the coast from Barcelona and climbing everything they can. On Saturday, the four of us will head to Morocco for a week, and Coco is beyond excited that Uncle Nate has come to see her. Eric is getting a little taste of what it feels like to be the non-preferred parent now - when Coco FaceTime's with them, she keeps telling him to give the phone back to Nate. She has also informed us that when she's a little older, she's going to leave us and get an apartment with Uncle Nate...probably some further discussions about that yet to come...

Southeastern Europe

We are back in Granada for about a week after wrapping up a nice long train trip to southeastern Europe. It’s kind of funny how a place can feel like home, despite never really feeling like you belong, but I think that’s where we are with Spain these days. It’s less foreign than Romania or Slovenia, so it hardly feels foreign at all anymore!

We started our trip with a few days in Bucharest, Romania, where we got to see one of the world’s largest buildings (their Parliament Palace) as well as an interesting mix of residually communist-feeling areas and lively sidewalk café/restaurants. The past few months have taken us to lots of European places with revolutions in their history, but probably none quite so recent. There is no shortage of graffiti, and people park their cars literally everywhere (street, sidewalk, you name it)…just a little rougher around the edges overall. I’m sure the city has changed a lot over the past few decades, and who knows what it will be like a few decades from now. Probably a little more expensive than it is now, but it was an incredibly refreshing change to spend $25 for lunch that would’ve cost $100 in Switzerland!

From big-city Bucharest the next stop was small-town Brasov (still in Romania), a lovely little spot with Transylvanian castles and a very quaint central plaza, where Coco could feed pigeons and practice her driving skills in the rent-a-PowerWheel cars. We managed to visit while they had their Oktoberfest going on (lots of German heritage) at the town fairground/high school track, so that was an interesting comparison with the giant beer halls of Munich. They have a mini-mountain in the middle of town, and spelled the name of the town at the top in giant white letters (a la Hollywood) so of course we had to go up there and check that out. Wrapped up the stay here with a local guy threatening to call the cops on Eric, who he thought was trying to abduct a *seriously* tantruming Colette. I guess it’s nice to think that people are looking out for the kids, and it probably did look a little sketchy that this grown man was chasing a screaming, crying 3-yr old up and down the streets, but at the time it was hard to see the humor!

From Brasov, we hopped on the overnight train to Budapest, Hungary – amongst the three of us, we may have gotten a combined six hours of sleep. Ugh! Managed to survive without either Coco or I falling out of the upper bunk, so I guess we can say it was a success, but it made for a LONG first day in Budapest. Luckily, the beautiful weather we’d been getting had continued, so seeing a wonderfully historic city on a sunny summer day helped. We spent most of our time on the Pest side of the Danube, which is the flatter side and the more hustle-and-bustle modern side. ‘Modern’ in this case meaning built in the early 1800’s, of course! Another giant Parliament building (although this one felt a bit more warranted since Budapest had sort of been the eastern capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire) as well as cathedrals and busy little pedestrian-only shopping and dining streets made Budapest feel quite European. Besides the intensely difficult Hungarian language all over, you could’ve easily mistaken it for a big city in Germany or France. They even had a cat café that we had to check out – I think the cats are slightly less enthralled with the arrangement than all the patrons, but they’re cats, so that’s par for the course. Luck with the weather had to finally run out, but we took advantage of the cool rainy day by going to one of the huge outdoor thermal baths in town…which was perfect! Not as crowded as it would’ve been on a nice day, and there was something really neat about the mist created by the hot water and cool air. Our only minor catastrophe was one shattered iPad when Coco dropped it, but that was a mixed blessing since we didn’t have to hear quite as much Caillou after that – oh, how I miss the Peppa Pig obsession!

A full-day train trip brought us from Hungary to Slovenia, which is now high on my list of favorite European countries. The centrally-located capital city of Ljubljana was our ‘home base’ and we took day trips to Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, the Postojna caves, the Vintgar gorge, Predjama castle, the Vrsic nature area, and Triglav national park (highest point in Slovenia!). The country is about the size of New Jersey, so things are relatively compact, and the Julian Alps were gorgeous. Big thanks to Tomaz Vrabec for all the suggestions about what to see and where to eat – I really hope we can get back there again someday and check out some areas we didn’t have time for, and re-visit places we really enjoyed the first time around. Plus it was nice that they were on the Euro so we didn’t have to use any brain power for currency conversion like every other place on this trip!

The final days of the trip brought us back to Croatia, a day in the capital (Zagreb) and a few days on the coast (Split). It was nice to end the journey in a smaller city with a great beach, since by this point we were ready to take it easy! No waves, soft sand, plenty of cheap chairs/umbrellas, bars/restaurants, and a bay the size of 4 football-fields full of perfectly clear thigh-deep water...really can't ask for more when you're trying to enjoy the end-of-summer sun. Well, Coco could also ask for the floaty toy from the family next to us, who was kind enough to share :) The town of Split has grown up around an ancient Roman ‘retirement’ palace that was built by a guy named Diocletian ~1700 years ago, but control of the city has changed hands a lot since then, and people basically just moved into the palace for protection over time, and now it’s full of shops and restaurants and people’s houses – very interesting! Along with Slovenia, Croatia is definitely a country I hope we get to spend more time in someday.

While getting back to Granada has been nice, it’s been a LONG time since Coco was in school (early August!) so it hasn’t been easy for her to transition back into it. More tears in the morning, so thankfully Eric is doing drop-off and I get pick-up. The weather here has finally cooled off a bit, so we can get out and enjoy the city again – plus with August over, it’s not a ghost town anymore. We got to see some NFL in the local Irish bar tonight, unfortunately the Packers/Vikings game isn’t on until 230am our time, so I’m just going to have to trust that the good guys will win, and catch the highlights in the morning :)

The beginning of the end

Wow, two blog posts in one day - this is not the new normal, don't worry!

While we had planned to continue vagabonding into the winter, and then perhaps find work elsewhere in Europe next year, the plans have changed and I think it's making us savor each of our adventures here even more. Eric has a great opportunity to take a role with a company in Arizona starting in January, so we will be wrapping up our European travels mid-November when we head home for Thanksgiving.

Lots to do between now and then, of course...finding a house and some cars and a job for me are all near the top of the list. Probably not surprising, but getting a mortgage and car loans when you're technically unemployed is a bit more challenging :)

While we're super excited about how much good Mexican food we'll get to eat, it will be tough to continue being far away from family and friends. But we'll have a guest room (and a pool, of course) so visitors will be welcome any time. We understand we'll have to come 'up north' to see any of you during the summer, though - somehow managed to find a place even hotter than southern Spain!

The Alps and Bavaria

We just wrapped up our first train trip and are getting ready to embark on our second, and very much looking forward to it! We spent the past couple weeks traveling through Switzerland, Austria, southern Germany, and even tiny Liechtenstein. Besides going broke in Switzerland, everything was excellent :)

Eric went up to climb for about a week before Coco and I flew up to Geneva to join him. Traveling alone with her has become much less intimidating as she's gotten older and we've gotten more experienced at it. She was very excited to see Daddy (as always!) and it was nice for us all to be together again. The first few days in Geneva included beautiful weather, riding bikes around town and the lake, checking out the local parks, and me having a little stroke every time we got the bill after a meal. Eric warned me that he'd spent $24 for a plate of basic pasta at a truck stop, we tried hard to be frugal but it was nearly impossible. Took advantage of breakfast at the hotel that was included with our room, although that was counter-productive when I got so full I didn't want to move :) We checked out Cathedrale de St Pierre, the botanical garden, a museum and the old city, and ogled the hundreds of watch shops. Overall our verdict was a beautiful city in a beautiful setting. 

A short train ride away was Bern, and while we just spent 1 day there, it was awesome that we got to see the Saturday farmers market that took over several squares near the train station. Coco ate a couple pints of blackberries within the first 10 minutes :) We walked down to the river after the obligatory cathedral visit, and saw the bears along the banks (in enclosures, not wild!). Then it was on to Zurich. 

More beautiful weather, more watch shops, more expensive living, and more gorgeous scenery. We got bikes again, which is such a great way to explore a new place - especially one that's relatively flat. Through sheer coincidence and no planning whatsoever, we happened to arrive the evening of their annual Street Parade, so the town was literally mobbed with a couple hundred thousands partiers that had been enjoying the day with drinks and music along the lakeshore and riverbanks. Many had managed to lose their clothes in the process, and Coco was insistent that she join them, running amongst the revelers in her Minnie Mouse undies and Crocs. #greatparenting

From Zurich, the next train took us through Liechtenstein to Innsbruck, where Coco and I finally got up into the mountains. Hiked around a bit and was reminded how terrifying a fearless 3-yr old and her encouraging father can be. We all survived, however, and made it back down in one piece. Decided this would be a good place to do the tourist hop-on/hop-off bus, so we got to see an old palace on the outskirts of town that contained one of the world's first museums (just a very large personal collection back in the day). We explored the lovely little Old Town, got to hear an impromptu concert in one of the squares since Austrians (and tourists) apparently love classical music, and I'm sure we must've seen a church in there somewhere. 

The final destination was Munich, and amazingly the good weather was continuing. First stop was a ginormous beer garden, of course, where we paid homage to my roots via sausages and pretzels and lagers. We did that several more times before leaving, and sprinkled in some church visits, park strolling, and museum exploration. Another highlight was the day trip out to the countryside where we got to tour the fairytale castle of 'Mad' King Ludwig II. After having seen so many castles that were built 500+ years ago and have survived wars and sieges and attacks, it was surreal to see a comparatively new one (built in the late 1800's) that hasn't seen any struggles whatsoever. Highly recommended putting that one on your bucket list!

Fingers crossed that the next trip goes as smoothly, and that the weather continues to cooperate. It really makes exploring the cities so much more enjoyable. Will be interesting to see how different it feels in some Eastern European spots that are likely less cosmopolitan than the last trip...stay tuned :)

6 countries in 2 weeks

How did August get here already?! It doesn't seem possible, but since half the businesses in Granada are closed for the next several weeks, it must be true. It will be interesting to see if this is also the case further north in Europe (Coco and I join Eric in Switzerland next week). Here, ~60% of the shops and cafes are either shuttered for weeks or operating on very limited hours for the whole month. I'm not exactly sure where everyone is, but they've gone. Hard to imagine that happening in the US besides a few days here and there around a specific holiday. Even Coco's school is operating on reduced hours before closing altogether in mid-August. Hopefully the Science Museum is open then, we'll be spending every day in their kids area that has great A/C :)

Over the past couple weeks, we got to spend time with my sister and her husband when they came over to vacation. Coco was BEYOND excited to have Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ryan as her constant companions, and I think this may have been one vacation where they needed another vacation to recover. Sorry!! :)

We started in Barcelona, checking out Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the 1992 Olympic grounds, and Camp Nou. We also did the hop-on/hop-off tourist bus, which seemed really necessary there, since the town is pretty spread out. The little audio-guide they offer is kinda cheesy, but I do love to hear the details about the places we're seeing. Splurged on a nice hotel there using our Marriott points, so it was also pretty tempting to just hang out around the pool and let Coco 'swim' a bit.

From there, we flew over to Dubrovnik, Croatia and got to see one of the best preserved old towns in Europe. These guys built some excellent city walls a handful of centuries ago, and they haven't been breached to this day. Truly feels like you have gone back in time...except for the Game of Thrones tours happening everywhere. Coco and I tagged along behind one guide and eavesdropped for a few minutes while the rest of the gang was out kayaking. Eric and Ryan also took a mini-road trip to nearby Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina and learned that the whole area is blessed with dramatic and breath-taking views of the hills and Adriatic Sea.

Next, a quick flight to Milan and then a drive down to the sea to explore the "Five Lands" or Cinque Terre. These are pretty tiny villages set along the rugged Ligurian coast, and connected by hiking paths up over the super-hilly terrain. Coco and I stuck to trains and the ferry, but the others made the trek from Riomaggiore back to Manarola (where we stayed). We didn't make it up to Corniglia, which is a hilltop village, but we did explore Vernazza and Monterosso Al Mare...and drink wine and eat pasta/pizza everywhere we could! 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

Then it was back up to Milan (with poor Coco car-sick again), and Ryan headed for home while we checked out the Duomo and some art, and had more wine/pasta/pizza. The next day was a flight back to Barcelona and then a quick drive to Montserrat. Maybe the pix on the Photo Album page will give you a better feel than I can, but that place has some incredibly unique rock formations, and I'm not even the one who's usually into that :) We managed to be there on the day that the train was on strike, but we drove up to the monastery set in the cliffs and got to explore a bit, and then hit up the community pool to cool off.

After getting back to Granada with Lauren, we figured it would be good to squeeze a bit more in, so took a beach day down in Nerja and then went through Ronda and over to Gibraltar for a night. Crazy how this tiny strip of land can feel and look so different from Spain. We came around a curve on the drive from Ronda (one of about 4,723 curves!) and realized that the weird shape in the distance was the Rock of Gibraltar, and in the haze beyond that were mountains in northern Morocco. Very cool. Went through passport control into British territory and then drove across the airport runway, which confused Coco a lot, then did a tour of the rock to see the monkeys and some caves. Finished the trip off with a couple of pints and some 'normal' food...cheesy garlic bread, yum!

Was sad to see Lauren off, especially knowing that we won't see her for 3.5 months, but the past 3 months have gone SO fast and I think it will feel like this adventure has gone by in the blink of an eye once we're back in the States living like 'normal' people again :) Today, Eric spent his birthday climbing around the Alps near the Swiss/French border, which is gonna be hard to top next year! After Coco and I join him in Geneva next week, we'll start the first of our 3 train trips, which I'm really looking forward to. Fingers crossed that the car-sickness Coco's been struggling with doesn't also exist as train-sickness, but the Dramamine will be packed just in case!

It's all Greek to me

I would say our first travels outside Spain were a big success - whew! It was 10 full days of travel, and Eric and I were both a little apprehensive about how it would go with Coco...in the end, we all had a lot of fun, and Eric took some beautiful pictures (as usual!) and we added a few to the Photo Album page.

We started with a drive to Málaga airport (perfectly timed to coincide with taking Eric's buddy Joey to catch a flight after his visit to Granada) and 2 flights to get to Crete, with a 2 hr layover in Germany. Of course, trying to save some money, I had booked the legs on 2 different low-cost carriers, and they don't transfer bags for you. So we needed every minute of that layover to get the suitcase and stroller collected from baggage claim, get back to check-in and drop them off, get through security again, take a potty break, and get to our gate. Between the hassle of that and the cost to check bags on each leg of a journey, I think I'll try to be a little more choosy about flights in the future...even if it means spending some extra money up front. Anyway, we made it to Crete, figured out how to ride the bus from the airport into town, and made our way to our hotel. It felt great to get settled in, and we had a lovely dinner right across the street on the water where we could admire all the lights on the hills up and down the coast. Maybe we should've been spending a little less time staring at the scenery and paid a bit more attention to what Coco was doing, because she decided to take a shot of ouzo...thinking it was water in a cup that was just the right size for her! Needless to say, she wasn't a fan and it ended up sprayed all over me and my plate :(

The next couple days were for exploring Crete - Palace of Knossos was a huge site that you could walk around and get a feel for the Minoan civilization that was there 4000 years ago, Heraklion Archaeological Museum gave more insights to what life would've been like there, and a drive from the north side of the island down to the southwest side to enjoy Matala beach. The beach was lovely, but the drive was a little hilly and curvy and unfortunately Coco's carsickness surfaced. Either that, or maybe she was still feeling the effects of the ouzo from 2 nights before?!

From Crete we took a ferry up to Santorini, about 1.5 hr ride that was thankfully pretty smooth. Colette and I did spend most of the trip right next to the window trying to keep our eyes on the horizon...decided that we'd need to find some motion-sickness meds for future travels :) Santorini was gorgeous, as you would expect, and we spent every dinner in a picturesque spot staring at the setting sun. But I really was not a fan of how touristy and crowded the main town (Fira) was during the day when cruise ships were inundating the island with people. Tried to avoid that by doing a boat trip out to the volcano/hot springs and renting an ATV and driving around the island, which was an excellent experience since we could get off the beaten path a bit. Felt a little like Hawaii and a little like Spain on the rest of the island.

Next was a quick flight up to Athens followed by a long bus ride into town...I think we actually may have spent longer on the bus than on the plane. Our hotel was right next to the Cathedral of Athens and beyond that it wasn't too far to the Acropolis. By this point, I think we were starting to take the amazing vistas for granted. Besides all the beautiful landscapes/seascapes, one of the most memorable things about our time in Greece will be how everyone was gaga over Coco (and I'm assuming other little kids in general, but especially Coco!). At our hotels, at restaurants, at random shops along the road, at ancient ruins, everywhere! It usually takes her a little while to warm up to new people, so most folks didn't get too much response from her, but they sure tried :) Saw a "train-bus" in Athens that was similar to ours in Granada, so of course Coco insisted that we ride that. We were also able to hit the Acropolis and museum, Nat'l Archaeological Museum, Ancient and Roman Agoras, Mt Lycabettus, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Central Market, as well as stroll through the Plaka, Monastiraki and Anafiotika districts of Athens. The gyro in the pita was by far the most-consumed item of the trip, over a dozen in Athens alone, I'm sure! Also got to sample lots of the local beer - Mythos, Alfa and FIX, along with some micro-breweries like Volkan.

Looking back, it would've been a very different trip without a small child along...I'm sure we would've gotten to see more of the museums and nightlife, and less of Peppa Pig, but I don't think we would've gotten the same level of interaction with local people if we were just another middle-aged tourist couple. It also forces a bit more downtime and makes you get more selective about which things you really want to see. At first that made me feel limited, but it sort of drove the need to research places ahead of time, which really helped us get the most out of our time there and experience each site a bit more deeply I think.

The next trip is just a few days away, and hopefully it will go just as smoothly. This will be the only time that we're traveling with other people (my sister Lauren and her hubby Ryan, yay!!) so that will be extra fun. There will be many hours in the car (where's that Dramamine?) but this time our 3 flights are all direct so hopefully the airports will be less stressful. We'll also be staying in a few AirBnB apartments for the first time, as opposed to just mid-budget hotels. Looking forward to the extra space that will afford, and not needing to sit in the dark hotel room quietly in the evenings after Coco falls asleep :)

Things I miss, and don't

Now that we've been living outside the US for awhile, I thought it would be interesting to put together a list of things I miss from home, things I thought I would miss but don't, and things I don't miss at all! Of course, friends and family are on the top of the list, that kinda goes without saying :)

HOW I MISS YOU
- Land O'Lakes Spreadable Butter with Olive Oil and Sea Salt...standard toast toppings here include olive oil and tomatoes, which are fine, but I really grew to love yummy butter over the past year at LOL
- Giant washing machine, and a dryer...I'm not a fan of doing laundry in general, so spending 3x as long doing it is pretty lame
- Dishwasher...basically the same deal as laundry, except worse since you get ants if you let the dishes sit in the sink
- Primrose School of West Plymouth...we knew this was gonna be on the list, Coco loved it there and had such great friends and teachers, school here just isn't the same
- My purple Kate Spade bag...so adorable, but just not practical for traveling :(
- Peanut butter...had no idea this would make the list, but it's a staple in our world and grocery stores here don't know what it is
- Functional door knobs...they're just decorative on front doors here, you can't get into the flat without a key even when the door isn't locked (luckily we haven't gotten 'locked' out yet, but odds are that blog post is coming)

HMM, I DON'T ACTUALLY MISS YOU
- Our 2 big automatic-transmission cars...you just kinda get used to having 1, it being smaller, and driving stick shift (during the first couple weeks, these would've definitely been in the "miss" category!)
- TV...besides GoT (which we watch on the laptop weekly) there was really nothing that good on anyway, and not paying $181 to Comcast every month is an extra special bonus
- Separate bathrooms...for the first time in our marriage, Eric and I are sharing, and it hasn't been as dreadful as I feared it would be
- Yard...let's be honest, I never really went in the yard, I just liked having the space
- Target...it feels blasphemous to even be typing this, and I never thought I could enjoy life without Target, but these days I have time to go to 3 different stores to buy lotion and a book shelf and cookies (plus I can only carry one bag home at a time without sweating all over myself)

THANK GOD YOU'RE GONE
- Commute to work...construction pushed me over the edge
- Mediocre bread...I didn't even realize what joy was absent from my life until I had the pan de pueblo from the store down the hill
- Mosquitos...window screens don't even exist here (and good thing, since laundry hanging would be tougher with a screen in the way)
- Political/election stuff...when we come back in November, just let me know who won (as long as you don't say Trump)