Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
For the most part, we try to make the most of our precious days off of work and cram in as much as possible on the weekend. While this is conducive to completing a lot of activities, you might just end up more tired than …
Most travel experience is gained by trial and error and every trip I take is a chance to learn something new. If you take enough trips, pretty soon you have a whole slew of lessons learned. Of course, some lessons have to be learned a …
When B and I were planning a trip to Southeastern Europe, I came across an article highlighting Balkan express train ride between Belgrade, Serbia, and Bar, Montenegro. After reading this article, I decided this was something I needed to do in my life. So when we knew we were going to be in Romania, we figured it would be easy to get to Belgrade. Not so much, it turns out, and instead we had a heck of a time being stuck in Romania. This post will recount our ordeal, show some possible solutions and offer some tips if you find yourself in a predicament such as this.
After visiting Bucharest, Brasov and Bran, we holed up for a few days in western Romania in a town called Sibiu. We had three days to make it from Sibiu to Belgrade in time to catch our train. We had researched and found we could take a bus to the western city of Timisoara. From there, a bus went to the border and a train went to Belgrade. On night one in Sibiu we felt confident in our plan. The next day, however, we learned that the train from Timisoara and Serbia wasn’t running anymore. We were stuck in Romania.
Once we realized we might be in a predicament, we went into hyper search mode. All of our travel know-how rose to the surface!
We first searched the trip on Google Maps, breaking it down by sections. Sometimes border crossing can get complicated, so we looked for transport to the Romania border and then transport to the Serbian border. No dice.
We then looked at different websites. Rome2Rio is a good place to find out about different modes of transportation. From their site, you can get linked to websites that sell tickets. We couldn’t find anything accurate on this site either though.
Our next step was to reach out to a local. In this case, we sent an S.O.S. to our Airbnb host. Fortunately, they got back to us pretty quickly. We confirmed the bus/train combo at the border had been stopped a year or so prior. (Which would have been good to know beforehand!)
The next step was to figure out Plan B. If worse came to worse and we couldn’t go the direction we wanted to go, our plan was to take a train back to Bucharest and fly to Belgrade. Now, things are relatively cheap in this part of the world. A last-minute plane ticket would only cost us a few hundred dollars. The bigger cost with this option is it would take more time. We would see the same country we had already seen and not be able to see new parts.
Knowing that Plan B was a viable option took the panic level down and let us pursue some other options. Back on the internet, we searched “Romania to Belgrade” in whatever word combination we could come up with. We also looked on wikitravel and tripadvisor to see if anyone had experienced the same thing we were going through and what their recommendation was.
One of the websites we found was for kiwitaxi. Neither B nor I had heard of this before, but the reviews seemed good. I sent an email to get a quote for a taxi from Sibiu to Belgrade, but that came back at around 500 Euro. This was way too much for us. We then adjusted the request to be from the border town of Timisoara to Belgrade, which was a more reasonable 90 Euro. This would mean we would take a bus to Timisoara and then meet up with our driver to take us the rest of the way. We made one last attempt for a local recommendation and reached out to our Airbnb host to see if they knew of any local drivers who would be willing to take us, but they did not. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to take our chances with kiwitaxi.
(Side note: I made sure to forward our friend back home the confirmation. It was her job to raise an alarm if she didn’t hear from us within a reasonable time frame after we were supposed to arrive in Belgrade.)
We took the early bus out of Sibiu (very early, very unpleasant) and arrived in Timisoara at the bus station. Everything went according to plan on that leg of the journey. For the next leg, we arranged to have our ride pick us up at the bus station using the bus station’s address that we found on Google. Or so we thought. We had thought it would be easy enough to locate the driver, but we discovered streets and addresses are more fluid in Romania than they are back home.
By fluid, I mean make no sense sequentially. This meant there were a few different locations the driver could pick us up, one being on a bridge. Not really knowing what to do, we opted for B to stand at one corner of a road and me at another and try to find the guy. There were several taxi drivers hanging around the station and in typical defensive tourism mode we ignored them and did our thing.
I should mention that B did have a cell phone plan on her phone for this trip. She received a call from the company and in English she tried to explain the situation. Being as she was speaking English and the person was speaking Romanian, it didn’t go well. I could hear her saying ‘bus station’ over and over (in both English and Romanian) and trying to pronounce the name of the station as it was written. At this point, she had walked back towards me and we were in front of the taxi drivers.
One of the taxi drivers started saying bus station in Romanian along with B. He seemed to grasp the situation so B handed her phone over to him. We had no idea what words were being said. But by the escalated voice and hand gestures, the taxi driver and our driver weren’t going to be buddies. After much yelling, he gave her the phone back with a smile and started talking to his buddies.
About two minutes later, a fancy black Mercedes pulled up and an angry Romanian got out. He and the taxi driver shouted back and forth to each other while he put our bags in his trunk. We didn’t really have much choice so we climbed into the backseat of the car. The driver then spent the next few minutes holding up the confirmation paper and pointing to random places down the road and speaking in rapid Romanian. We meekly starred back at him and wondered if we were about to be driven off to be killed. After our unintelligible lecture, he fired up the Mercedes and sped off. Still muttering angrily.
This lasted for about ten minutes as we drove down the road. He hadn’t said anything in a language other than Romanian but then started listing languages that I inferred meant he spoke. English wasn’t on the list, but Spanish was. In a surreal turn of events I started speaking to him in my very rudimentary Spanish. The next thing we knew, he pulled into a gas station, left the car running and went to get a drink. When he came back out, he was a totally different driver. Apparently he had said his peace, saw we were trying and was appeased.
This guy had become friendly and charming. He told us jokes (I think) and when we got to the border crossing he motioned for our passports and handled the border agents like a boss. The rest of the trip passed by quickly and we soaked in the beauty of the countryside and banter of our now smiling driver. We got dropped off in Belgrade, he helped us out and shook our hands and went on his merry way.
We didn’t start out our trip hoping to get stuck in Romania. But we did and had to use our travel skills to find a solution. Travel is an adventure and even when things don’t go as planned it is still better than being in the office!
Warning: this post is a little on the philosophical side, but it is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. One thing I have noticed as I mature and gain experience is that I am continually evolving as a traveler. There were ways …
Copenhagen, Denmark, is a lovely capital city in Scandinavia. B and I combined a visit here with a trip to the Faroe Islands during the early summer. I read lots of guide books and blog posts in anticipation of visiting Copenhagen and this blog post …
Driving around the Faroe Islands, R asked me this question: what are five words to describe the Faroe Islands? It did not take long for us to agree on the following: Sheep. Waterfalls. Tunnels. Green. Clouds. We also attempted to find five words that do not describe the Faroe Islands. We came up with people and sunshine before we got distracted…probably by a sheep or a waterfall.
The Faroe Islands are not the easiest place to get to. We flew from Boise to Copenhagen, stayed for a night, and then caught a two-hour flight to the Faroes. As we circled the islands and came in for the landing, cliffs of green started peaking through the clouds. By the time we landed, it was obvious: we were in the middle of nowhere.
The airport is small. You will be outside, in your rental car and exploring the Faroes in 15 minutes (give or take). We rented a car from Unicar and it was a great experience. Renting, that is. Driving is a bit of an adventure–we encountered our first sheep within minutes of leaving the airport. The roads are nice and traffic is scarce, but the sheep, fog, tunnels and one-way roads demand extra caution. I was relieved when we returned the rental car without any incidents.
The Faroe Islands are made up of 18 islands connected by tunnels, ferries, causeways and bridges. We made it to seven and everywhere we went, we saw sheep, waterfalls, tunnels, green goodness and clouds.
It is hard to emphasize the number of sheep you will see. Seriously. They are everywhere. We knew there would be a lot of sheep before we arrived, but I had no idea it would be impossible to look out the car window and NOT see sheep grazing. There are some 50,000 people who live on the Faroe Islands, but the sheep population is around 70,000. This makes driving a challenge. But it also means there is always something to see when hiking.
We visited in the spring and that means babies. Baby sheep everywhere! They were so adorable and curious. They did make driving a little more hazardous since I never knew when one might dart across the road looking for its mother. But to watch them folick and play was an absolute delight. I came home with way too many pictures of baby sheep, it is ridiculous.
I was expecting sheep. I was not expecting so many waterfalls. The Faroe Islands are flush with them. Perhaps there are more during the spring because of all the rain, I have no idea. But I was a little blown away. By the end of the trip, we hardly paid attention to them anymore. They were just everywhere. At one point while we were driving, R pointed out that we could see seven different waterfalls. None of them were named in any guidebooks, but there they were.
We did visit some known waterfalls including Fossá and Mulafossur, but there were plenty of unknown waterfalls to enjoy on our various day trips.
Currently, there are two subsea tunnels on (under?) the Faroe Islands. They are long and a little disconcerting if you think about where you are driving too much. But they are big and easy to navigate. There are also tunnels that go through mountains. Some of these are one way and one-way tunnels are scary. In general, driving is pretty chill in the Faroe Islands. I did not find that to be the case for one-way tunnels.
My first time driving through a one-way tunnel was a breeze, probably because I never saw another car and it was short. My first time driving through a one-way tunnel as the car with the right-of-way was also pretty easy, although I was a little uncomfortable seeing headlights coming directly at me with nowhere to pull over. Thankfully, those cars always pulled over with plenty of time to spare.
My first time driving through a one-way tunnel as the car without the right-of-way was not my finest driving moment. I did not hit another car…or a sheep…so I suppose that overall it was a win. But I drove like the total novice I was. As soon as I saw headlights, I pulled into the first pull out. We then had to wait several minutes for the car to pass us. I had pulled into the pull out way too soon. I also ended up getting passed by a car going in the same direction as me! When I pulled into the pull out, the car just flew right past. Needless to say, that car spent a lot less time in the tunnel than I did. It was a unique driving experience and one I am not anxious to repeat anytime soon.
There is not a lot of variety in the landscape. It is dramatic and green. All over. Rocky and volcanic, trees are few and far in between and turf roofs are the norm. Coming from the high desert, the landscape of the Faroe Islands is about as different from my home as one can get. Which makes it a wonderful place to see and explore.
The weather in the Faroe Islands is tempermental at best. We had a couple of blue-sky mornings, but for the most part, we explored the Faroe Islands under clouds and fog. I did not mind the clouds so much. Sometimes they spit out a little rain, but I do not remember any major downpours. What was disappointing was the fog. More than one view was ruined by the pesky stuff. Weather can be one of the disappointing things about travel. Thankfully, none of our activities were ruined by the weather. Our ferry to Mykines was not canceled due to weather (which happens quite often I hear) and the fog was missing during our helicopter ride. Although I would have preferred to see the sky a bit more, at least the clouds did not stop us from exploring.
The Faroe Islands are unique. I can think of no other place that I would describe with the words: sheep, waterfalls, tunnels, green and clouds. If you do not enjoy those things, you may want to find another place to visit. It will be tough to avoid them in Faroe Islands.
A few months ago at work, my office started using a powerful software tool called Trello. Trello allows people to work collaboratively, keep organized and plan events. I have since incorporated all I’ve learned at work about Trello to my personal life and B and …
Have you ever tried traveling with essential oils? Perhaps you have read about them and their many health benefits, but are not sure where to start. Or perhaps you know someone who swears their latest vacation would not have been the same without their essential …
About ten years ago, my folks decided the Idaho winters were a bit too rough for them (lightweights). Their solution was to become snowbirds (people who head south for the winter) and so they purchased a little spot in a retirement community in Brownsville, Texas. As a dutiful daughter, I have made it a point to visit them over the years and have compiled a list of 5 Things to do in Brownsville, Texas. Check them out if you ever find yourself ‘visiting’ your parents over the winter.
Alright, so most people don’t have any idea where Brownsville is. That makes perfect sense; it isn’t exactly a must-see destination in Texas. That being said, picture the big ol’ state of Texas and imagine the pointy end at the bottom. That’s Brownsville. It borders Mexico to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the east.
I should clarify…this post isn’t a ‘go see the unknown treasure of Texas’ kind of thing. This post is for people like my friend, C, who occasionally finds herself in Brownsville for business. These people might think, ugh, Brownsville, and hole up in the hotel watching HBO until they get to go home. To those people I say, give this place a chance. And while you’re there, check out these 5 things to do in Brownsville.
This was perhaps my most pleasant surprise on the trip to Texas I took a few weeks ago. This zoo is huge! It is 31 acres and has all sorts of exotic critters, such as gorillas, giraffes, and lots of African deer-things I’ve never heard of. Lots of times I feel sorry for the animals at zoos because I don’t think they have enough space. That did happen a few times at this zoo, but for the most part, the animal areas were quite large.
I really like that they divided the park up into different regions. For example, in the Africa region we saw savanna animals. It was interesting to see what animals live in what part of the world.
My favorite thing about the Gladys Porter Zoo were all of the different birds. I have no idea if these birds are part of the zoo or if they just land and hang out for a while. It seems like a pretty good place to live; lots less work getting food than in the wild.
If you do visit this zoo, or frankly any zoo when you are visiting another place, make sure to bring your annual membership card to your home zoo. Lots of zoos are on a national exchange program and you’ll get discounted or free entrance if you have your membership card. I got my mom and me into the Gladys Porter zoo for free; a savings of $26.
This flea market is outdoors with people setting up shop at little stands underneath a roof. The lack of walls makes sure air circulates and the roof provides some block against the sun, so it is pleasant to stroll through the two long corridors and look for treasures.
Most people here speak Spanish, but you can get by fine with English. There’s a hodge podge of goods: fruits, plants, toys, clothes, furniture, etc. We mainly went there for the experience so I bought some cut coconut that came with a lime and munched as we walked. My other purchase was for $2.00, but it was awesome! I got a whole box of mangoes–that’s 9 mangoes for $2. In Idaho, one mango usually cost $2.00. Needless to say, I at at least one mango a day on my trip.
The closest border town to Brownsville is Progresso, Mexico. Mom and Dad wanted to make a trip to pick up some stuff so off we went. I’m not really a fan of border towns; they feel a bit inauthentic and everywhere you look you just see the same crap over and over. However, there are certain things that are really nice, such as services. Mom and I visited a nail salon and each got a very nice pedicure for about $10. We then made a stop at a pharmacy and picked up some medicine that would cost way more in the U.S. Speaking of medical services, if you ever need a dentist you should think about visiting Mexico. Mom got a crown put on for a fraction of the cost of one in the U.S. Most people from their community do the same.
The bad thing about the visit (other than the depressing poverty that you’ll see in most Latin American countries) was that it took forever to get home! Due to border patrol shortages (supposedly), the U.S. Border Control only had one gate open. This meant we were stuck in a line that moved a quarter of a mile in two hours. Yuck.
This is Brownsville’s main attraction. The island is long and skinny and runs north for miles and miles along the coast. Its peak visit time is spring break. So unless you want to be surrounded by loads of drunk college kids, stay away in March. There are some outdoor activities you can do here: windsurfing, kite flying and fishing all seem very popular. The beach itself is nice and very shallow.
When we visited, things had calmed down nicely. We drove along the beach and parked our truck perpendicular on the sand to the ocean. I set up a chair and read a book for *maybe* 30 minutes. I had put lotion sunblock on my arms but opted for the spray on my legs. Big mistake. It is hella windy down here and the sunblock must have ended up in Oklahoma. It certainly didn’t make it to my body and I got very splotchy, very sunburnt legs.
During the Civil War, the Confederacy needed to get its cotton supply out of the South to help fund their war effort. Brownsville was an important port city where they could do that and bring in new supplies, since Mexico was a neutral country and conveniently located a stone’s throw away. Battles were fought in this area throughout the war, but perhaps the most well known is the battle of Palmito Ranch. The reason this little skirmish is still remembered is because it happened a month after the South surrendered to the North at Appomattox.
During my trip we stopped at several war markers that explained the battle and the lay of the land. Historians aren’t in agreement about the motivations of the commanders, but I just feel sorry for the people that died here. What a sad way to go–having survived the whole war only to die a month after it ended.
The SpaceX Launch Site for South Texas is right next to my parent’s preferred stretch of beach (Boca Chica). As we drove to the beach there was a security guard in a Ford Explorer parked in front of a barbed wire fence. Within that fence proudly sat Star Hopper, what looked to me like a stubby rocket. Elon Musk seems to think that this is a perfect location to launch astronauts to Mars. I can’t figure out why, as it is so windy here it already knocked over one of the capsules. Go figure.
While Brownsville isn’t ever going to be the most popular city in Texas, it definitely has its charms. If you are part of the older crowd (retirees) or younger crowd (frat kids) or somewhere in between (me), you can have fun in this southernmost city. At the minimum, these five things to do in Texas will keep you busy.
R and I have full-time jobs with limited vacation hours. We are blessed to have more than two weeks of vacation a year, but we are still constrained by the amount of time we have to travel and go on adventures. Therefore, we have become …