2014 Travels

Boardwalk, Atlantic City

In January we traveled to Atlantic City to participate in Yelp's Winter Break, a weekend of entertainment co-organized by Yelp New Jersey and Yelp Philadelphia. It was a fun weekend of scavenger hunting and drinking but, mostly, it was a great way to experience Atlantic City for the first time.

Our weather wasn't the best, but we still got to see some of the famous landmarks from Monopoly and the gorgeous beach.

Someday, hopefully, we'll get to see it in all its summertime glory. But, its wintertime glory wasn't too bad at all.

In February we spent a long weekend in Boston. We did the Freedom Trail. We ate Boston creme pie. We drank Sam Adams beer. We pub crawled.

Boston was cold in February but we still had a great time wandering the city and exploring historically significant locations (including Cheers, pictured).

The Freedom Trail is excellent for the really old, historically significant stuff (not just '80's TV shows, though Cheers is near the start of the trail). Plus, the Trail leaves you in a lovely part of Boston called Charlestown. You should go to Sullivan's Pub for some local color. And watch The Town with Ben Affleck before you get there.

Puerto Rico

In March we went to Puerto Rico for a proper holiday. We scored on a Delta glitch and got roundtrip first class / priority tickets for only US$87 from NYC via ATL.

This trip was amazing for many reasons but mostly because we got to reconnect with old friends who now live there. Also, we want to live in Viejo San Juan. Its colonial charm and friendly locals really made it hard to say goodbye. We'll be back, Viejo San Juan. Promesa.

Playa El Cuco, El Salvador

In May we traveled to El Salvador for a long holiday. We stayed over three weeks at La Tortuga Verde in Playa El Cuco. The picture on the right was our view for the entirety of our stay.

Although El Salvador was slightly dodgy at times, we made some great friends on this trip, had some great experiences, and ate some great food. I can totally see us going back someday.

If you go and stay at La Tortuga Verde, don't miss the All Day Open Water Adventure. Magical. ¡Hay pescado!

The end of June and beginning of July were reserved for visiting family and friends in Utah. We spent the bulk of two weeks in the Salt Lake valley visiting family before venturing on a quintessential road trip to Las Vegas for a long weekend with old friends.

Las Vegas

July also saw us officially becoming expats again. After a night in Long Beach, California, we caught a flight to Manila, Philippines where we survived two nights before landing in Taipei, Taiwan.

We spent over two weeks in Taipei before moving south to Kaohsiung, our new home. Besides a few day trips to Maokong, Danshui, and Yangminshan, we didn't really do much sightseeing again until November.

We had a houseguest from Seattle join us for a week in early November. Besides showing her around Kaohsiung, we took her up to Taipei where, in addition to Maokong, we also traveled to Beitou for the hot springs.

Beitou Hot Springs

We finished the year with an ambitious day trip to Sun Moon Lake.

2014 was an amazing travel year for us. We got to see new places, visit old favorites, and share many of them with friends and family. We hope this foretells a new trend in travel for us. Sharing experiences with those you love is truly one of life's joys.

To all the Travel Bunnies out there, may 2015 bring you good health, happiness and many safe travels.

Coney Island

Coney Island boardwalk

Believe it or not, Coney Island is not an amusement park on an island (seriously, I can't be the only person who thought that).  Rather, it's a normal neighborhood in Brooklyn (like Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, etc.).  Situated on the south side of Brooklyn, Coney Island exceeded all my expectations whilst not actually meeting any of them.  Seriously, I had expected an island with rides.  Instead, I got a beach resort (See, expectation not met yet exceeded).  Best July 4th surprise ever.

For $2.50 you can take the subway to Coney Island from anywhere in New York City.  The D, F, N and Q lines all terminate at Coney Island.  The B line will get you pretty close, terminating at Brighton Beach.  The journey takes about an hour from Midtown.

Coney Island Beach on July 4th

First of all, who knew New York City had a huge, lovely beach?  I've lived here now for over 6 months and not one person or article about things to do in the summer has mentioned this beach.  Come on!

So, once you finally discover this beach, if you're anything like me, you run out to the water to soak your feet and then plop down in the sand to just absorb the moment.  Not wanting to leave, can you imagine my joy when a plethora of vendors begin to parade in front of me?  Peddling Italian ices ($2), ice creams ($2), churros ($1), mangoes and cotton candies, these vendors allow one to snack on summer foods without expending too much energy or losing your choice beach spot.  Without being obtrusive at all, just pushing their little carts along the sand, ringing a little bell to alert you to their presence, these vendors were very popular and their presence, especially in that suffocating heat, was very welcome.

Luna Park at Coney Island

If simply basking on the gorgeous, 3-mile long beach and playing in the warm (when compared to the Pacific) waters of the Atlantic is not enough to divert you, Coney Island has many other activities to choose from.  In addition to the restaurants and bars found along the boardwalk, there is also an aquarium, amusement areas and rides (including the famous Cyclone) as well as MCU stadium, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones (minor league Mets).

Having never lived in a city with this type of a beach, I'm really excited to start putting together my 'beach bag' for weekday afternoons and lazy weekends.  For the first time ever, I have the opportunity to get off work and go directly to the beach or waste an entire weekend day sitting on the beach instead of on my couch (figuratively, since I don't have a couch).  Who knew this could happen in NYC?

Cape Cod

Highland Lighthouse, North Truro

Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Cape Cod with a dear friend and his family, including his youngest brother, future sister-in-law, mother, and grandmother.  We stayed in a lovely cottage near the sea in Dennisport and proceeded to have an amazing time, dare I say "Best Weekend 2013".

Getting to The Cape from New York City without a car is pretty straightforward.  One can either take a train or bus to Providence and then take a bus to Hyannis from there.  We opted to take a bus to Providence, purchasing on Greyhound's website because they had the cheapest fare.  (Side note: apparently, Greyhound is no longer Greyhound because our bus was labelled Peter Pan and, though the driver would mention Bonanza in conjunction with Peter Pan ("thanks for choosing Peter Pan / Bonanza"), we never heard anyone say anything about Greyhound.)

The Port Authority (aka bus station) in New York City is very reminiscent of the bus stations we experienced in Europe (actually, there's a lot about New York that reminds us more of Europe than of the US, but I digress); buzzing with activity as though riding the bus is really a thriving transportation alternative (though most people in the US would not consider it an option at all because, if you're going to use the road, why don't you just drive yourself?).  Though our experience was relatively painless, it could have easily gone the other way.

First of all, the Port Authority does not have a departure board telling you where to go for your bus, nor is the information printed on your ticket and, at 7am on a Saturday morning, all information booths are closed.  Luckily, while retrieving our tickets the day before, we had been told what terminal our bus would be leaving from (though the Peter Pan insignia on our bus made us doubt the information for a bit).  Secondly, apparently bus companies will intentionally and regularly oversell their buses.  If you're one of these sad fools who don't get on the bus you bought a ticket for you may be lucky and another bus will be brought in to accommodate your reservation relatively quickly or, and just as probable, you may have to wait for the next scheduled bus.  Without knowing about this custom of overselling, we barely made it onto our bus.  The poor fools behind us were not as lucky.  Whether another bus came for them or they had to wait until the next bus, a whole 2 hours later, we will never know.

The bus ride was 3 hours and 45 minutes from New York City to Providence and another 2 hours to Hyannis.  Leaving New York at 7am, we were in the welcoming embrace of our friend by 1:30pm Saturday afternoon and enjoying our first Cape Cod feast by 2pm.

lobster roll and chowder

One of the things that made me instantly fall in love with Massachusetts, or maybe just The Cape but, as I've never been to other parts of MA before, I'll assume it's the whole state until otherwise disproved, was that beer is served everywhere.  You're in a family friendly diner?  Want a beer?  Yes, please!  You're at a tent party in a random, isolated area?  Want a beer?  Yes, please!  And, not just any beer.  You get variations of Sam Adams.  Know why?  Because Sam Adams is The Boston Beer Company and (another thing that made me fall in love with Massachusetts) the people here have great pride in all things Massachusetts.  (We saw "Go Bruins!" alternating with the destination on city bus display boards.)

Our time on The Cape was relatively short - we were on our way back to New York City by 4:45pm the next day - but we packed a whole lot of good times and memories into what also felt like an incredibly relaxing weekend. In just over 24 hours, we were able to do all the things one does whilst enjoying The Cape during The Season. We lounged on the beach for hours, we sat drinking mimosas on the back porch for an entire morning, we played a leisurely game of mini-golf, we bought salt water taffy and attended drag karaoke in P-Town, and we went to a benefit concert for the local radio station which included seafood gumbo, amazing zydeco and, of course, Sam Adams beer. Seriously, Best Weekend 2013!

After a lifetime of hearing references to The Cape, my first visit did not disappoint.  This area has been in the common American lexicon since at least the Kennedy administration but it doesn't look like an aged seaside retreat at all.  Instead, it is thriving and modern, achieving the latter without having changed much over the past few decades (at least according to our hosts).  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to visit such a great place with such a good friend and his fun family.  Enjoying The Cape with the added benefit of generational knowledge turned a lovely weekend into a memorable one.

Happy New Year, Bunnies! (2011 Highlights)

Here we are at the end of 2011, the year I started this travel blog.  Looking back at this past year, I wish I'd written a bit more about my travels but am happy with most of what I did write and am thrilled with my 2011 travel experiences.  Starting the year on the steps of Sacré Coeur in Paris and ending it somewhere in Rome, 2011 has been an amazing travel year for me and below are some of the highlights.

Best Travel Experience: Sóller to Deià

Outside castle ruins, Baden-Baden

Best Travel Moment: Stumbling upon a beer serving cafe mid-hike in Baden-Baden, and then another one outside the castle ruins, and another one inside them.

Most Disappointing Travel Experience: Brighton, England 

Most Challenging Travel Experience: We've had a few bad experiences with landlords this year.  Both in Paris and London, our experiences were dodgy and trying and our current Dundee landlord is non-responsive. Happily, having learned from our experiences, we're enjoying a lovely relationship with our current landlord here in Rome.

Most Rewarding Travel Experience: Spending 19 glorious days in Mallorca with no money, proving money isn't necessary when surrounded by a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean.

I have a few travel dates set aside for 2012 (April, June, July/August, December) and only one confirmed destination (Baltimore).  I'll be chasing cheap fares for the other dates and am looking forward to sharing those experiences with you.  Until then, happy new year, bunnies!

Mallorca For Less Than €22 A Day (per person)

Mike & I enjoyed a 19-day beach vacation to Port d'Alcudia, Mallorca in Spain earlier this month.  Our budget was non-existent because this trip was a surprise, meaning we had no holiday savings and any money spent would be out of our personal savings, which goes towards essentials like Mike's tuition and rent.  Thus, we tried to do as much as we could with as little as possible while still enjoying ourselves and not allowing our limited funds to hinder our experience.

We found a screaming deal on our hotel, Bellevue Club, at Booking.com.  Bellevue Club is a resort with several pools and several buildings, a bit off the strip in Port d'Alcudia but with balconies and kitchenettes and only €405 for all 18 nights (self-catering).  We had originally wanted to stay in Port de Pollensa, so for this great deal we had to sacrifice on location, but not by much.  Port d'Alcudia was only a short €3 return bus ride away from Port de Pollensa.  Happily, it turned out we liked Port d'Alcudia more than we liked Port de Pollensa, so the sacrifice wound up being well worth it.

We spent €121 on dining out and €158 on groceries.  We ate a lot of chorizo and baguette lunches and alcohol was amazingly cheap at €1.09 for 1.5l sangria and less than €5 for 70cl of vodka and whiskey.  Our dinners were variations of rice, chorizo, anchovies, sardines, and pasta.  Mike is a great cook and had us eating quite well during our stay especially given the simple ingredients.  We did manage to eat out a few times, enjoying tapas for my birthday (€20), doner kebabs twice (€30), and burgers for Mike's birthday (€22).  We also discovered carne empanadas, which we will crave often, and enjoyed them thrice (€9), each time from a different bakery.

We spent €97 on travel, mostly on intercity buses.  The bus ride to Soller was much more than we expected, €19 for two single tickets.  On that day we also spent €20 for two single scenic train tickets to Palma from Soller, €3 for two single bus tickets from Deia to Soller (we hiked to Deia, a lovely three hour walk), and €11 for two single bus tickets from Palma back to Port d'Alcudia.  That was our most expensive day and didn't even include any food since we had packed our meals (chorizo and baguette).

Other costs were €15 for a dos personas kayak rental for an hour, €5 for internet access (our room did not include internet), and €6 for flip flops for Mike (he didn't have any and they are required for a beach vacation).

All told, we spent €807 over our 19 days in Mallorca, which works out to €21.83 per person per day.  We had a great time and didn't really feel hindered by our budget much.  However, we would've enjoyed renting a car for a day to explore the rest of the island and renting bikes at least once during our stay.  We had wanted to SUP on the Med but, surprisingly, there weren't any SUP boards available for hire and we only saw one person even attempting it.  We rented the kayak to at least get out on the water and it proved sufficient but SUP-ing on the Med is still on my wish list.