On The Road Again

After an amazing time at Up Helly Aa — from the parades and bar singalongs to the festival of fire to the epic all-night party, it was time to head back to mainland Scotland with our Haggis Adventures crew. We finished our Up Helly Aa experience with a final hazy day in Shetland, exploring the northern part of the islands, images of which you can see here.  I actually made it through all day following the all-night party without so much as a nap — I passed out on the ferry at around 9:00 PM and slept like a log until we docked at 7:00 AM. With a full day left on our tour, we had time to check out the sites of Scotland’s east coast, from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Stop #1: Stonehaven Stonehaven, at first glance, was a pretty but ordinary seaside town.  It was nice.  Nice is good. And then we came to Dunnottar Castle. Dunnottar Castle will take your breath away.  It’s that spectacular.  Even captioning it is an insult, as I can’t possibly bring words tha...

Since my Germany-Austria-Liechtenstein adventure, I’ve returned to the closest thing I have to a home in Europe: my pretty little northern city of Chester, England. It’s been a welcome break.  I learned the hard way that I planned WAY too much into too short a time period.  I had no idea I would be going out until 3:00 AM and getting up at 7:00 AM every day at TBU, and I needed a break after that conference alone! Instead, I ran from Liechtenstein to Seefeld to Salzburg to Vienna to Salzburg to Munich — activity-filled days with never more than two nights in one place, and being so busy for so long really took its toll on me. So it’s been nice to sink back into life in the UK.  Take yesterday.  I made my new breakfast specialty, Jim Beam French Toast, and Dave and I found a Modern Family marathon on TV (which he had never seen, but quickly grew to LOVE!).  That’s as close to a perfect Sunday as I can imagine. But still, I’m a traveler at hear...

If you’ve decided to take the plunge and start a blog — whether travel-oriented or not — one of the most important decisions you can make is what to name it.  A great blog name could propel you to the top; a bad blog name could destroy you. There’s much to consider when choosing a name for your travel blog. Here are the most popular options for choosing a name: Option 1: Your Real (or Professional) Name Examples: Suzy Guese, Katie Aune,  Lee Abbamonte Pros: You own your name on the web and nobody can take it away from you. It gives you professional credibility, especially if you do freelance creative work in addition to your blog. Cons: You may end up miserably editing everything you write because you don’t want to say anything remotely offensive to prospective employers that may Google you. You may get tired of travel blogging, or may not want to represent yourself foremost as a travel blogger. Option 2: A Variation of Your First (or Last) Name ...

Helsinki to Krakow – The scenic Route So funny thing happened on my way to Poland. I ended up in Scotland! Cheapest flight out of Helsinki was to Edinburgh so I booked it and then got a cheap flight from Glasgow to Krakow on the 1st. Helsinki to Krakow the long way. So I am enjoying bagpipes and blood pudding for a few days and its great. I will post more soon, have to catch a train north, off to hunt the Lock ness monster for a day! Shaun

Florence, Italy, is the capital of Tuscany — and one of the best places to experience traditional Tuscan cuisine.  These five dishes bring together the best of the region: rich stews, thick steaks, and some sweet surprises. Ribollita Image: dennis.tang Many Florentine dishes have origins from the countryside, and no dish better exemplifies that than ribollita : a hearty stew of bread, white beans and any variety of vegetables. Ribollita was originally a peasant dish made from day-old bread and leftover vegetables.  In fact, the word ribollita means reheated!  But this century, you’ll find ribollita in haute restaurants throughout Florence.  Some chefs make it with very little broth, only soaked bread.  Some stick to just black kale or cabbage for the vegetables.   All include delicious cannellini beans. Similarly, try pappa al pomodoro – another bread and white bean stew, this one made with tomatoes. Bistecca Fiorentina Image: mastro.biggo Only one dish symbolizes Fl...

Sagres – The Edge of the World So after a couple days of…”recovering”, Jon and I decided to get up early (crack of noon) and rent some scooters. My brother suggested we check out Sagres which is 33 km out of Lagos. For some reason Jon’s bike went twice as fast as mine (I had her up to 45 km/h…downhill!) so it was a long and slow ride out but was well worth it. The view and weather was amazing. We drove our hogs up to the edge and took it all in. Made me think about Columbus when he rode his scooter to the edge of the world and wondered if it was indeed flat. Here are some pics from the day: Play safe kids Were celebrating Jon’s birthday tomorrow. Humiliating pictures to follow.

Thinking of traveling to Sri Lanka soon? Make sure you get the right tourist visa before you get there. In this post, I’m showing you how easy and quick is the visa application process for Sri Lanka. I applied for my Sri Lanka visa online with iVisa and I received the approved visa within one hour. This is what I call fast visa services. Before we start, let’s discuss if you need a visa, the costs and the steps to apply on your Sri Lanka visa using iVisa.   Do you need a visa for Sri Lanka?   Before starting the visa process, you will need to find out if you need a visa to visit Sri Lanka. Since 2012, Sri Lanka requires more nationalities to have an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization), but you can double-check using the tool below.     How much is a visa for Sri Lanka?   Fun fact: there’s no visa cost but there’s a processing fee. It’s quite cheap – it only costs USD 20 to process your visa. The average processing time is 30 minutes. The tou...

That moment when you walk along the wet street.  It could be a flood.  Or it could simply be muddy and wet.  But, that day you are wearing flip-flops.  There’s no point in wearing proper shoes when it’s the rain season (unless you are craving your private-walking-lakes).  When wet, your flip-flops get nasty and tickle your legs with endless splashes.  This is how it all started. Disgusting face quickly became whatever face.  It’s just mud.  Whatever.  I wear backpacker’s clothes (and I am so ready for a new wardrobe), so whatever.  Backpacker’s clothes can also become handy tissues?  Right?  When did I adopt the Hippie Asian Worry-Free Style?  It happened.  I don’t exactly know how and when.  Sure thing; it happened.   Bagan, Myanmar   Backpacking in Southeast Asia was one of the best experiences of my life.     It was not always easy, but also not that hard.  It was cheap, it w...