Travel News
We have linked to a few web sites (below) in English which talk about the tango experience in Buenos Aires, but we've really only seen Tango in a few places. Cafe Tortoni (where they put on a show for tourists), the San Telmo market and street fair (where they dance in the square with the purpose of getting you to come and do tango with them at a club/ballroom), and Confiteria Ideal.
Our favorite place was, by far, Confiteria Ideal. People actually go there to learn, meet new partners, make new friends, and generally have a good time.
We're sure there are other places to tango dance in Buenos Aires. In fact, there are probably hundreds of other places to dance tango, and learn tango, in the city - we just didn't visit those places.
Continue reading "Tango In Buenos Aires: What About The Tango" »
 | | Meat Eaters' Paradise |
I knew before coming to Argentina that the country was known for its beef. The meat in Argentina is supposed to be some of the best in the world. For all you carnivores out there, that's great news; however, for those who eat less meat, it can be a bit daunting.
Now I'm not 100% vegetarian. I still eat meat, just very occasionally. I do eat cheese and eggs on a regular basis though. Because I don't consider myself super strict when it comes to meat consumption, I can generally find a few vegetarian options (3 or more) on every menu, at least in the United States.
Here in Argentina, it's a different story. About 90% of the restaurants here do have an option for vegetarians. The challenge lies in that there is only ONE choice. (Even a majority of the salads here contain some form of meat.) So, if you're not feeling like spaghetti for the 3rd night in a row, then you're out of luck. For example, three of the last four restaurants we ate in offered only one vegetarian option. All of them were a variant of pasta. (Pumpkin ravioli is the most popular option.) I'm not a huge pasta eater. I like it occasionally, and usually for lunch. However, down here, I have eaten more pasta than probably anything else.
Continue reading "Vegetarian vexed while visiting Argentina" »
Okay, so it's not quite as dramatic as the subject line would suggest. But it is VERY smoky in Buenos Aires today. Seems that hundreds of thousands of acres of land are being cleared to the West and North of here (primarily along Route 9 (the route we took to Cordoba) from what we can understand with our limited Spanish) to make room for grazing cattle.
The land that was once used for cattle to graze is apparently now being used for Soybean production, so they need to have more land available for use.
Not really sure how all that works, or who controls what happens in the provinces outside of Buenos Aires. There is a 400 year old history of the provinces not really getting along with the city/province of Buenos Aires, so the provinces may not care that much if their smoke is engulfing Buenos Aires. Difficult to say really.
One thing is for sure. Carrie and I don't smoke, but our apartment smells like someone smokes, and the visibility here is pretty poor at the moment. The smoke got REALLY thick last night, and has done some clearing today, and hopefully the fires will die down so that we can be without smoke once again.
(More interesting news is coming soon from the variety of things we've been doing over the past few days, but just thought we'd update you on the latest in Buenos Aires.)
Continue reading "Buenos Aires Is Burning: Smoke Is Everywhere" »
We had a cockroach in our apartment. It was big. Not huge, but big.
I suppose this comes with living in a big city.
But it was actually rather comical. I was sitting at the table in the main room, and Carrie was in the bedroom with the twin beds.
Suddenly I hear this "Whoa! Whoa! Yuck!"
Followed by a couple of swats with what sounded like a flip flop.
Jonathan: "You okay?"
Carrie: "Yep. Cockroach."
Jonathan: "Yuck. Big one?"
Carrie: "Uh-huh."
So I get up and go into the room where there is a cockroach which has clearly been smacked because it's sort of oozing. (Sorry to be gross.)
Carrie: "I'm just surprised how fast it moved!"
Jonathan: "You're sure it's dead?"
Carrie: "Yep. I heard it pop."
Jonathan: "Want me to throw it away?"
Carrie: "Yes, please."
Jonathan: "Sure it's dead?"
Carrie: "Yep."
So I moved a suitcase to get closer to pick it up. Despite the oozing nature of it, the thing took off and freaked both of us out.
So I asked Carrie for a bigger shoe.
Carrie: "But I heard it pop."
Jonathan: "I know. I saw it oozing."
A few solid heel swats later with a dress shoe, and the cockroach was definitely dead.
Mostly, he just freaked us out with his erratic moving. We didn't know just how crazily or fast a big cockroach moved.
I wrote a poem/limerick (below) in response to this incident.
Continue reading "Crazy Crunched Cockroach Continues to Crawl in Buenos Aires: Plus A Weekend In Cordoba" »
So now that we've had a little time to get adjusted into our home for the rest of the time we'll be in Argentina (although we're still getting acclimated to our new surroundings... just takes a while to settle in), we are getting out to do some of the toursity things. Kevin and Annmarie are down here, and like us, they like to walk.
It's really the best way to see things, and really experience the place where you're at.
(Not to mention the health benefits of walking.)
So, this post will catch you up on what we've been up to over the past few days.
But first, since most of the visitors to our site are American (and Americans are notoriously bad at geography) and because it might help someone wanting to visit Buenos Aires, we'd like to offer a little refresher about where in the world we are, and familiarize you with the neighborhood a little bit.
Continue reading "Buenos Aires: Galleria Jardin, The Botanical Garden Cats, San Telmo Market, and the Casa Rosada" »
We're finally in an apartment in Buenos Aires that we REALLY like.
But up until now, we have been having some big issues with our Buenos Aires Apartments. We went through a real estate agent who is from Buenos Aires and is based out of Florida.
We told her that we wanted a nice place that was quiet (and obviously clean, if we were going to be paying $1400 or $1500/month for the time we were here).
The apartment we originally had reserved, we got talked out of and got talked into this one. We saw that it was on a busy street, so we asked (before confirming our reservation) if it would be noisy. The real estate agent confirmed that it would not be noisy.
When we got to the apartment, it was both noisy and dirty.
Continue reading "Buenos Aires Apartment: Troubles With Our Palermo, Buenos Aires Apartment" »
1. What's your apartment like?
We'll answer that soon...
2. What's the weather like? Is it summer there?
We're in the southern hemisphere, so the weather is the opposite season as the northern hemisphere. This means that it is just the beginning of fall down here. So, just as we were beginning to see the very first buds and even a flower or two right before we left Colorado, we are just beginning to see the leaves change colors and drop from the trees here in Argentina. The weather is still rather warm (high 70s to low 80s), and pleasant. It is definitely more humid here than in CO (but it's hard not to be).
March is the rainiest month here. We've experienced a few rainstorms. The rain here is very different. It comes down in sheets. It downpours for about 20-30 minutes, and then stops. It might do this 2 or 3 times during the night.
3. What's the food like?
Continue reading "10 FAQs about our stay in Buenos Aires (so far)" »
We got and get a lot of questions about our travel to Buenos Aires.
"You're staying at like, a resort, right?"
"How did you get that much time off of work?"
"Do you have friends who are Argentinian?"
"I'm sorry...How many weeks did you say you're going for?"
Most of these questions revolve around the basic question that no one's really asked directly, which is:
"A six-week "vacation" in South America? How Is That Even Possible?
We hope that by our example, we inspire others to do similar things in their lives, but here's the real answer to the question no one's asking directly.
How Is This Possible?
-------------------
In a lot of ways, I don't really know what to tell people about the idea that we're spending a good deal of time here in Buenos Aires.
Most people's lives are based around working a certain number of hours every week or every month at a JOB. That job is usually based in a specific location.
Emily and BoRyan (friends who are down here), are fortunate to have jobs with a company which allows them to work virtually.
But most people have that traditional job which requires that your life be structured around your work.
Continue reading "Buenos Aires: How Is This Possible?" »
 Parmesan has been ruined forever.
That is, American Parmesan has been ruined for me forever. That is because Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy is something entirely different than American Parmesan cheese. I mean, the cheese we get from Sam's Club is pretty good, but it's definitely an imitation of the stuff we've eaten here in the northern part of Italy.
And if you're eating the pre-shredded stuff (or even better, the stuff that comes in the preprocessed can that is marketed as "finely grated Parmesean cheese"), and you don't want it to be spoiled for you, then I recommend staying as far away from this region of the world as you possibly can.
Really, the Parmigiano Reggiano alone is worth traveling here for.
We wrote our experiences of Verona separately (for no particular reason)... so today, you get to experience Verona through both of our eyes in one short post!
Verona: Jonathan's experience
To be honest, before going, I wasn't that excited about going to Verona. I knew it was a fabled city because of the story of Romeo and Juliet, but didn't know that Shakespeare's story actually came from such a cool city. There are a number of things to see and do in Verona, but let's get to the topic everyone would want to know about...
Did we see where Romeo met, courted, and eventually died with Juliet?
Well...
Here's the balcony of Juliet
The balcony of Juliet as it stands today is actually believed to be three sides of an ancient sarcophagus (read - built for a dead person), and the house of Juliet was actually the house of the family Capulletto (or something like that), so it's unclear if Shakespeare was inspired to write his story because there was actually a "Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet" or, if he created Romeo and Juliet after hearing about or seeing the house of Capulletto. Anyway, maybe I'm too practical in wanting the story to be true before buying into the whole story and getting really excited about seeing the lives and times of the lovers, but in my estimation, it was a bit of an overrated attraction. It was fun to go and see nonetheless.
We didn't see the tomb of Juliet (again, due to the fact that we don't know if the story is true, and so there are more interesting things to see).
So what was so cool about Verona? Nothing in particular, AND everything about it really... It's actually a city where people live, and have lives that aren't solely based around tourists coming to the city (which was how we felt in Venice - which is still a nice city though), and has some really great attractions... including the arena (www.arena.it), which is like a smaller version of the Coliseum, but what's really cool is that in summertime, it's still actively used for plays and shows.
How cool would it be to sit in an arena that was used in Roman times and actually see a show today, over 1,500 years later? (Personally, I think it would be cool to see a lion battling a person, like they used to do in Roman times, but maybe I only think that would be cool, and then once I saw it, I would think otherwise: probably a bit violent and gory to watch a lion mauling a person or vice-versa).
Verona is a city which has a beautiful compilation of churches and beautiful sights. There are three major castles, some very nice bridges, and neat little café's and pizza places.
One of these places is called Redemptore pizza.
It's called redemptore pizza because it's built inside of an old church. Redemptore = redemption in English - Redemption Pizza.
While we didn't actually eat at Redemption pizza, I thought that it would be funny if on the other side of town, there was a sinful pizza, so I asked Mara what the Italian word for sinful was.
Italian vocabulary: Picaminosa = (sinful)
The word is pronounced Pick - A - Me - Nosa
Carrie said, maybe that's why it's bad to pick your nose.
Because it's sinful.
Anyway, you probably would have had to have been there, but it was very funny at the time.
Verona was truly an awesome city. One which comes VERY highly recommended.
Continue reading "Verona: Our Wonderful Day In Verona" »
Venice... ah Venice... the city of love, canals, and funny smells.
Venice was nice.
It is definitely a place everyone should see.
We're glad we went, and we enjoyed the time there. But to be honest, it felt a bit hyped and overrated at times.
We're here during a relatively low time of the year for tourism. However, the city is still overrun with people taking pictures of things.
One of the things they're taking pictures of is all the pigeons.
What are the pigeons doing?
Eating the crumbs of items which were dropped by tourists, who are eating stuff (and throwing stuff to the birds) which was made for tourists.
But we did have a great Venice guide in our friend Mara (who has been to Venice more than once before).
Continue reading "Bergamo to Venice: Our Guide and Day in Venice" »
Because of the strike happening with the German train system, we were unable to take the train from Bad Zwischenahn into Bremen to catch our flight this morning. Sabine was nice enough to drive us to the Bremen airport, which was about an hour away. Thanks Sabine!
 
We flew from Bremen into Bergamo (marketed as Milan by Ryan Air) where Mara was kind enough to pick us up. It was my first time meeting her, and she and Jonathan hadn't seen each other for six years (since they studied together in Oldenburg).
Continue reading "From Bremen to Bergamo (Milan)" »
On the 24th, we went into the town of Bad Zwischenahn, which is kind of a quiet little village in the wintertime and a well-visited lake/resort town in the summertime. (For those of you living in Colorado, who have been to Estes Park in both summer and wintertime, you know what we are talking about.)
.
While Bad Zwischenahn is a nice town, we felt we saw the majority of it in under 30 minutes, so we took the train through Oldenburg (since we had been there the day previous), and went into the fabled town of Bremen.
If you haven't read the story of the Bremen Town Musicians (by the Brothers Grimm), you should. It's not the highlight of the Brothers' Grimm's tales, but is a fun and short read.
Continue reading "Bad Zwischenahn, Bremen, and the Twistringen Cemetery" »
Today, Carrie and I left from our wonderful time in Hammoor with Anne Link.
We traveled by train from Hamburg to Bad Zwischenahn, where Carrie's family picked us up.
Many people are surprised when we tell them that Carrie still has family in Germany. But...
Continue reading "Bad Zwischenahn and Oldenburg" »
Today we went into Hamburg. Jonathan and I were fortunate once again to have Anne as our guide. I was still feeling quite tired, and found it sort of hard to focus still from our all-nighter a few nights ago. But I was still excited for the day that would come. On our way there we stopped by this castle in Ahrensburg.
We walked around the garden and took a quick peek inside.
From here we took the subway into Hamburg.
Continue reading "Exploring Hamburg" »
We left the flat and headed to Monument station, and walked across London Bridge. Now I had to have a picture of London bridge, because many people think that Tower Bridge (the unmistakable bridge in London) is actually London Bridge. But it's not. London Bridge is rather boring and unimpressive from a comparative perspective.
We walked across the bridge so that we could get to Borough Market, because we heard that it would be a really cool and authentic market in London.
We are so glad we went. Outside of being a really neat market, they were also having some sort of Spain celebration all weekend long, which meant that I got to have one of my favorite foods... samples!
Continue reading "The Tower of London and Jack The Ripper" »
Carrie and I were both feeling like we were done with Britain and ready to move on to our next destination.
Not that London's not completely incredible... because it is, and we've really enjoyed our time here.
But after visiting the Tate Modern Museum (not that impressive for us), and having a really cool dinner last night (at Dans le Noir - VERY cool!), and meeting some really cool Londoners (thanks for the great time Suzanne and Dai),
and knowing that we're still slated for the Tower of London and the Jack the Ripper tour...
(is that enough prefacing for you?)
we were kind of feeling a bit done with London.
That is...
until we got out of London.
Which is what we did today, and now we just want to have a car here and drive all over the UK finding cool things to see. (Except that driving here is a bit nerve-wracking!)
Today, we went to the most amazing castle either one of us has ever been to... Windsor Castle.
I could bore you with a bunch of stats and figures about the castle, but then you're bound to be bored with this site and leave.
Suffice it to say that if you like history, and you like artchitecture, and you like art, and/or anything about the royal family (or, if you just want to be amazed by how extravagant royalty can be), then you must carve out more than an hour for visiting Windsor castle, because there's just no way it can be covered in such a short visit.
Just plan a whole day. It's worth it.
So, let's throw in a picture or two here, so you can see a bit of what we're talking about.
We rented a car today.
...which meant getting up a little earlier than usual and getting to Heathrow airport on the Underground (Subway).
So we got a little Peugot.
And while some people may think that it's difficult to drive on the other side of the road (coming from the US to England), it's really not that difficult at all.
Here are the driving instructions they don't give you at the car rental place:
1. Forget EVERYTHING you learned about driving in the US;
2. Let go of everything your intuition tells you to do;
3. Don't drive the car on the side of the road you think you should be on.
Do these things and you will do just great driving through the English countryside.
End of manual.
Or, you can attempt to drive like we do in most parts of the world, and end up with a nerve-wracked experience.
(Incidentally, we chose the second option - sort of by default?)
I got the hang of the driving after a bit, although it wasn't without its perils  stories to follow at some later date.
So, the castle just blew our minds, and we really wished for more time here, but here are a couple of pictures.
Here's a shot through the castle moat - pretty cool that they've converted it into a nice garden and fountain
A really cool courtyard in the upper part of the 13 acre grounds of the castle.
So, after leaving ourselves just enough time to really want to come back to Windsor, we decided to drive to one of the world's most visited locations.
Stonehenge
It's really a big pile of rocks. But one of the cool things about visiting Stonehenge is that the place gives off a really cool kind of peaceful feeling and is a really great experience.
Our tip for this location is to get the guided audio tour. It really explains everything and... best of all... it's free! (You don't see anything that's free in England.)
So, this is us
And this is the pile of really neat rocks.
(This is one of our favorite pictures of the trip so far.)
And then, we debated. We knew there was this really cool cathedral in Salisbury, but it meant driving further away, again on the other side of the road... (and driving back in the dark on the London highways)
We decided to go, and we are VERY glad we did.
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury is a neat little town, and the cathedral there is AMAZING! If you get a chance, go see it.
You'll be able to see it from some distance away...
And here's the inside.
The nighttime drive back was easier than the rest of the drive, although it did involve a 2 minor mishaps in two different roundabouts and a wrong turn (which left us on the wrong side of the street), but all's well that ends well, and so hopefully we're leaving you feeling well.
We sure are feeling great!
Thank-you for following our travels and stay tuned for more!
When Jonathan returned from LA, he was really excited to take me to a few things in London. He learned about the cheese market at Borough Market (where we're going tomorrow), and this restaurant he wanted to go to. Almost the first thing that Jonathan did was make reservations for this restaurant.
He wanted it to be a surprise. Was it ever! The ambiance of the restaurant was incredible. Words cannot describe what it was like in there. So, we took a picure of what the inside looks like (we're not supposed to, so don't tell anyone).
Click here to see it.
Seriously, that is exactly what it was like. Click to read more about it... (WARNING: if you want to go to this restaurant, what follows does contain spoilers.)
Both Carrie and Jonathan recommend that if you're ever in Paris or London that you give this a try. It's amazing what you learn about others, and (more importantly) about yourself.
Continue reading "The French are in the dark - literally and conceptually" »
I just got back from Los Angeles yesterday... or the day before, depending what time zone you live in.
In any case, I've been (back) here since Sunday.
I think Carrie is happy to have me back (really happy!), but I also think she enjoyed her time here in London as well.
The Altitude conference I went to in Los Angeles was truly amazing, and is the start of something that I feel will be a big movement for business in America... but I'll post about that on the Strive4impact blog at some point in the nearer future.
We are really...
Continue reading "Exploring London (again)" »
Once again, we want to thank all of you for helping to make our wedding so special, either by your attendance, or by all the things you did to make our wedding just perfect. Thank-you so much!
So... All of our wedding pictures are online. There is a fun slideshow (put together by Tom) at http://www.tomkphoto.com/0709cjk/slideshow/ and the gallery of photos is available at http://www.tomkphoto.com/0709cjk/gallery/.
Our first couple of days in London have been fabulous. We have an awesome flat where we are staying near the South Kensington underground (tube, subway, etc.) station. Thanks so much Dan and Jane! This place rocks.
So far we have seen: Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives; Big Ben and the houses of Parliment; Westminster Abbey; Picadilly Circus (not really a circus, it's the Times Square of London); "The Merchant of Venice" performed in The Globe Theatre (awesome); Trafalgar Square; Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens; Kensington Palace (Princess Diana's favorite home); and St. Paul's Cathedral (amazing - the main church of the Church of England).
That's a "quick" run down of what we've seen so far. We'll post detailed thoughts and feelings on some of these places when we do a more detailed post. Here are a few picture highlights (clicking on the smaller pictures will show you the larger version)
Continue reading "First Few Days of the Honeymoon" »
5 "things" to see and do in Kentucky (that I've done so far)
5 nieces and nephews (Drew, Adam, Alyssa, Zach, & Emma)
4 nights of Yatzee (you win some; you lose some - big time)
3 books read (Scarlett - the sequel to Gone with the Wind, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Handmaid's Tale - currently reading, but will finish before I leave. And, just so you know that adds up to a total of ... 1,879 pages, Scarlett has 896, HP has 672, and The Handmaid's Tale has 311)
2 Library book sales (FUN!)
1 Swimming pool (more fun!)
I thought that since I'd posted how many states I've visited, I should post my countries visited too. Again, in order for me to have visited the country, I had to spend at least one night there (otherwise I could count our layover in Ethiopia). Hopefully I'll be able to add more countries to this soon. (I know it looks like I've been to Alaska, too bad I haven't YET.) How many countries have you visited?
I've been to 8 countries (man, I need to travel more!). How many have you been to? Click here to generate your own map, and please post it in the comments when you do!
Kevin Cherilla, our leader when we climbed Kilimanjaro, is on Everest now. He put together a blog so that we could read about his experiences while trying to summit the tallest mountain in the world. It really is a fun (and funny) read. If you'd like to check it out, here's the link: www.kcsummits.com/Everest_2007_Blog.html
Definitely go check it out if you've ever had even a little curiosity about what it's like to climb the highest mountain.
I decided when I was ten years old, and realized that I had been to ten states, that I would visit all 50 states before I was 50 years old. I have a rule that I have to spend the night in the state or it doesn't count. It seems as if I'm making progress.
That's 33 states visited at age 25. How many states have you visited? Click here to generate your own map, and please post it in the comments!
 I have been trying to get our Kilimanjaro videos edited and live almost since we got home last summer.
At least that's what I've been saying... In truth, video editing just takes a while, and can get tedious... so I've kind of spaced it out to not get burned out on creating the videos.
I've really enjoyed them, and am so glad that I took the time I did to edit them, as well as that we took the time on our trip to record our experiences. If you aren't doing this for yourself, I highly recommend at least once/year sitting down and reflecting over what...
Continue reading "Kilimanjaro Trip videos are live" »
Stratosphere Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
When Jonathan and I decided to travel to Las Vegas, again, we decided that since there are so many different options for places to stay, we would try someplace new. We decided on the Stratosphere. We knew going into it that it was pretty far away from everything else on the strip, but we weren’t afraid of walking. The Stratosphere is also really close to the Sahara Monorail stop, so we knew we could always use that if our feet got tired. Our room was on the third floor, and we overlooked the employee entrance. Right outside our window were some of the lights that illuminate the building at night, and it was kind of hard to shut those out at night. The bed was nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t horrible either. It was pretty middle of the road. The bathroom, however, was super tiny. To close the door, we had to stand between the bathtub and the toilet. Also, the way the toilet flushed was pretty scary. You had to close the lid and step back before flushing for fear of being sucked down with it. While, the room itself was not so great, it was pretty good for the money we spent. We probably won’t stay here again, but that’s because it’s always nice to stay someplace new. We would recommend the hotel to those who are not traveling with young kids, and aren’t afraid of a bit of a walk everyday.
Overall Rating: 68 out of 135
Click here to see pictures of our room at the Stratosphere.
Continue reading "Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. Las Vegas, Nevada" »
There are a plethora of choices when looking for a place to stay in wine country California. Choices range from several bed and breakfast places, traditional hotels, and even condos. When we were traveling there, my sister and I decided to opt for the condo option, after much debate. We decided to give Vino Bello Resort a try. Boy, are we glad we did. We stayed in a studio, because that is what they had available at the time. They also offer one bedroom and two bedroom condos. Each condo included it’s own washer and dryer, fridge, microwave, toaster oven, and stovetop. The room also came with a complementary bottle of wine, and we received daily replenishments of soda and bottled water. The room had a plasma TV offering several channels to choose from, including the Food Network, and several movie channels. But, one of the best parts of all, was the bathroom. It had a giant soaking tub and shower. It was beautiful. The bed had feather pillows (a major plus!), and was super comfortable. To be honest, this is probably my all time favorite hotel I’ve ever stayed in!
Overall Rating: 117 out of 135
click here to see pictures! Vino Bello Resort, Napa, California.
Continue reading "Vino Bello Resort, Napa, California" »
|
|
|
