AirBnB Reviews Archives

Starting Three Weeks in South America in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Basílica Nuestra Señora del Pilar and the weekend craft market

We kicked off three weeks in South America (mostly Argentina and Chile) in Buenos Aires. With my Spanish minor and years working with Spanish-speaking clients near the Mexican border decades in the past, my Spanish was beyond rusty. Years of living in France and focusing on French doesn’t help, so David and I spent the weeks before this trip watching Argentinian and Chilean movies and shows to try to revive our Spanish. (He’d studied Spanish some years ago, too.) I love the language and listening and reading was a big help, but wow are those accents different from the Mexican Spanish I learned! Still, it had been awhile since I was in a Spanish-speaking country and I was looking forward to the challenge. And I was really excited about Iguazu Falls and the farthest-flung reaches of this trip, Rapa Nui/ Easter Island(!!).

But back to Buenos Aires, a city I’d wanted to visit for ages: We arrived on a comfortable American Airlines business class flight from JFK at Buenos Aires’ big Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EXE) at 2:30pm. After reading lots of warnings about Buenos Aires taxis, I’d arranged for pick-up with Manuel, a driver recommended by our AirBnB hosts. I figured we’d be tired from the 11-hour flight and it would be nice to not worry about either scams or any potential problems with finding the apartment. (Note: I read too many warnings about Buenos Aires taxis to ignore.) There’s free wifi in the airport, but my T-Mobile international service was good as always and I was able to coordinate with Manuel on WhatsApp without problem. He was reliable and the price was right, so I used him 3 more times for airport transfers.

Settling In
I knew I wanted to stay in Buenos Aires’ swank Recoleta neighborhood and jumped to book when I found an AirBnB with a balcony overlooking the famous Recoleta Cemetery across the street. If unfamiliar with Buenos Aires, it may sound odd to want a view of a cemetery, but this cemetery is a top site, really beautiful and located in the center of many of the Recoleta attractions. The one-bedroom apartment turned out to be easy to find, modern, in a nice building, and at a really great location. The only downside was the noise from restaurants/bars downstairs that blared music to the wee hours. Fortunately, I’d read reviews about the noise that all said the music couldn’t be heard in the bedroom. Happily, that was true and we slept well the five nights we spent there. Anyone trying to sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room would have a different experience!

Recoleta Cemetery viewed from our balcony

As soon as we’d gotten the keys from our host and settled in, we headed out to browse the nearby restaurants which lined the street in both directions from our building’s front door. We had lots of options and were charmed by one that perpetually had a couple dancing the tango on the wide sidewalk although we ultimately chose another whose friendly waitress beckoned us in.

With chores taking up our first day (see “Practical Info” below), we didn’t have time for much that afternoon, so I opted for a walk to El Ateneo Grand Splendid an amazing bookstore in a former theater. El Ateneo exceeded expectations and we loved browsing the books and just taking in the spectacular building. There’s a charming café on the old stage and multiple stories of books and music. I couldn’t resist a bilingual book of short stories. Passing a local brewpub on the way back to the apartment, David was intrigued so we stopped in to try our first Patagonia beers.

We spent a full day exploring Recoleta starting with the Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar then strolling the nearby parks to marvel at the immense ficus trees near the end of Avenue Alvear. The huge trees, some with trunks wider than the average car is long, are a big part of the lasting image I have of Buenos Aires. I posed for David as if holding up a branch larger than most normal tree trunks before coming across the iconic statue doing the same thing.

Beyond the green plaza parks, we crossed the wide painted footbridge to the steps of the classical law school and on to the giant steel flower known as the Floralis Genérica. Normally, the flower opens and closes with the sun, but it was undergoing repairs when we were there. It was actually kind of fascinating to see it open with workmen bustling over it like ants.

The September weather was gorgeous if a bit chilly. After months of Texas heat, we relished the coolness so put off indoor things like museums and decided to reserve the walled-in cemetery for our last full day, too. Instead, we walked the length of Avenue Alvear to the French Embassy admiring the familiar French architecture of the neighborhood.

Buenos Aires is a nice walking city and we definitely kept our Fitbits busy logging steps. A sprawling crafts market opens on the weekends in the parks and plazas around the Basilíca de Nuestra Señora del Pilar next to the Recoleta Cemetery. Art, clothing, jewelry, knives, lots and lots of mate cups and bombillas, and more fills booth after booth. Homemade baked goods and more tempt visitors.

Speaking of mate (mah-tay) cups, we knew going in that yerba mate is the national drink of Argentina and very popular, but that still didn’t prepare us for just how popular it is. We saw people with mate cups and metal bombilla straws everywhere, usually with a thermos of hot water tucked under their arm. The cups themselves can be really beautiful, made of tooled leather, gourds, ceramic and more sometimes with special stands. Looking like a cup full of dried lawn clippings, it’s a bitter drink and definitely an acquired taste.

Knives, mate cups and bombillas, leather goods and more

You could spend hours in the Recoleta Cemetery, admiring the architecture of the elaborate tombs and drawn in by the details of lives lived and gone. I was particularly curious about the large tomb visible from our apartment window. It was a bit of a let-down to realize it was the final resting place of a banker, not some famous personality. The tombs themselves can be fascinating if sometimes macabre with coffins visible through often dirty and cracked glass or the rusting filigree of an old iron door. I’ve always been a fan of historic cemeteries and this one reminded me of those beautiful Paris cemeteries I know so well.

En route to the impressive Teatro Colón opera house in the San Nicolás area, we checked out a small food market drawing lines of locals. The opera house itself was lacking lights when we arrive due to an electrical problem so we continued on the Plaza Lavalle park behind it to admire yet another enormous tree and the beautiful Templo Libertad synagogue. We got our worst meal in Buenos Aires at nearby Le Petit Colón. At least the friendly and apologetic waitress made no excuses for the inedible chicken, comped our lunch and offered espressos on the house. Hopefully, our experience was a fluke because it really is a pretty location.

We spent our last afternoon in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Fine Arts Museum) across from the law school. It’s a lovely building with a nice collection of art and is free on Sundays.

We broke up our first five nights in Buenos Aires with a daytrip to Colonia, Uruguay, which I’ll write about in another post. Walking back from the port gave us a chance to explore the high-rise business side of Buenos Aires around Puerto Madero and then more far-flung reaches of Recoleta.

We also spent three nights in a gorgeous jungle lodge in Puerto Iguazú in order to visit both the Brazilian and Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls. That will be the subject of future post, too. I scheduled a one-night stay when we returned to Buenos Aires from Puerto Iguazú to hedge against any delay causing us to miss our onward flight to Santiago, Chile. Wanting to experience another part of Buenos Aires, I booked us into a boutique hotel in the lively Palermo Hollywood neighborhood. Arriving before lunch, we had an afternoon to wander on foot, try a local craft beer bar and stroll the lush Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays. Rendez-Vous Hotel Buenos Aires turned out to be just what I had in mind. Our corner room with arched windows on two sides felt both quaint and elegant and was quiet despite the road outside. It was an easy ride to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), the smaller regional airport, for our flight to Santiago.

Practical Info
ATM Hassles: After a tasty “promo” meal of chicken and mushrooms and a craft beer at Bartola on our first afternoon, we spent some frustrating time with the local ATM’s. Our attempts to get several hundred dollars worth of pesos were rejected repeatedly (and not by our bank), with instructions to choose a lower and lower amount. And the fees are outrageous. At one point, a machine wanted to limit our withdrawal to approximately $50 with a $13 banking fee and a poor exchange rate! We soon learned this is common throughout Argentina and Chile. Happily, our bank refunds the ATM fees, but we were stuck with the exchange rate. Credit cards are accepted most places, but we needed cash for some things I’d planned and I’d read not to count on ATM’s in Puerto Iguazú to have cash. Eventually, we made the best deal possible and headed to a grocery store.

Groceries: I’ll give a quick shout-out to the nice Disco grocery store on Ave. Pres. Manuel Quintana. It’s fairly large and very modern with a great selection of wine and a bakery area with a selection of empanadas among the usual grocery store fare. A particularly kind and helpful lady at self-checkout, in particular, had us coming back to this store.

Recoleta Cemetery is open daily, 8am to 6pm. Free guided tours in Spanish take place at 11am and 2pm Tuesday to Friday, and at 11am and 3pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Entrance costs and you can pick up a map to do a self-guided tour. Entrance for foreigners is 16,100 Argentine pesos (about $11.36 USD).

Restaurants: We enjoyed some good restaurants in Buenos Aires, but our favorite was the classically traditional Fervor for steaks and Argentinian wine. With its aproned waiters, black-and-white tiled floor, dark paneling and red leather banquettes, it felt much like being back in Paris. Its two-story, open-at-the-center layout even echoed my old neighborhood favorite Café du Commerce. And those steaks! The food was delicious and perfectly cooked, the service excellent.

Other Buenos Aires restaurants that stick in my mind are José Luis for a seafood break from ubiquitous Argentinian beef and La Querencia for casual, home-style local cuisine.

Safety: All in all, we enjoyed our time in Buenos Aires and felt safe in both neighborhoods we stayed in. I’ve read plenty of warnings about crime and places to avoid in most South American cities, including Buenos Aires. I have no doubt the warnings should be taken seriously, and we did. We also drove past some really wretched slums just minutes away from luxurious hotels and shops. The city is a mixed bag, but we had no concerns while sticking to nicer areas during populated hours.

September 2025

A month in the Dominican Republic in the time of Covid-19… and seaweed

Gorgeous Bávaro Beach, Dominican Republic, in front of our condo home-for-a-month

We spent 2020 and then some sheltering in place with my high-risk parents. It was a beautiful place to stay and a privilege to be useful until we could all be vaccinated. But, after a year+ of being in one place with a lot of togetherness (plus doing all the shopping and 98% of the cooking), we were getting restless and everyone needed some space. First up were a number of visits to family and friends, then it was time to find somewhere new to light for a while. A search of places we could just live for a month (May 2021) with minimal hassles and no quarantine led me to the Dominican Republic. I’d only been once before to Samaná and that was ages ago. I found a beautiful 2-bedroom/2-bath condo at a great price on Bávaro Beach near Punta Cana. We were a go!

Covid issues top my usual travel research these days, and I knew the DR has mask requirements, social distancing and curfews in place because of the pandemic. In practice, this means very little to us. We wear masks when shopping and in restaurants until we’re seated and eating or drinking. Otherwise, we never wear masks since the majority of our time is spent outside or in our condo. The curfew is not at all unreasonable (M-F 10pm-5am, Sa and Su 9pm-5am) and a grace period for travel from work to home makes it even more so. Since daylight arrives here at 5:30am and it gets dark around 7pm, we’re finding ourselves leading a pretty early-to-bed/ early-to-rise lifestyle regardless of the curfew. For safety reasons, we’d planned not to be walking around the beach after dark or staying “in town” too late anyway.

I read about crime issues in the DR before coming here. Because of warnings about violent crime in certain cities and on the roads, we knew we wouldn’t be renting a car and driving around the island like we would elsewhere. This area of Punta Cana, though, feels very safe, and we are totally comfortable walking into the nearby commercial area where there lots of restaurants and shops and both local and tourist pedestrians out and about. We have walked back from restaurants after dark without concern, although never very late at night. Our condo complex is gated with guards walking the grounds 24/7. [Our two favorite restaurants–both less than a 5-minute walk away–are Dolce Italia with its authentic pizza oven and great piña coladas and Citrus with its eclectic menu and stylish interior.]

Just because this collage makes me happy. All but one of these pics is on the grounds of Stanza Mare. The yellow-and-red hedge is on our walk into our favorite restaurant area.

Another point to be aware of in the DR is that there isn’t potable tap water. This is a common situation on Caribbean islands (places like our beloved Barbados being rare exceptions). Our condo came with a 5-gallon water bottle in an office style “bubbler” that chills it before dispensing. A new bottle is delivered promptly upon request for $2.

We’ve been here 26 days now and agree this has been a great stay. Bávaro Beach is gorgeous with powdery white sand that stays surprisingly cool even in the heat of the day. It’s also very wide in places, wonderfully so in the area just in front of our condo complex where chairs are set up every day and watched over by an ever-present guard. We’ve spent the majority of our days sunbathing or just sitting in the shade of a palm leaf palapa-style umbrella, watching the water and scattered passers-by, reading and chatting. We’ve made friends with a fruit vendor, Daniel, who walks the beach daily and supplies us with fresh fruit and vegetables. We’ve enjoyed blending fruity concoctions and cooking just for us. It’s a long stretch of beach in either direction and despite walking for an hour or more, we’ve never run out of beach in either direction. We usually wrap up all that activity with a dip in the immaculate pool. Like I said, we planned this trip from the start as a low-key, just-live-somewhere-else month.

These are the joys of Bávaro Beach and the reason it’s a tourist favorite. There are downsides, though, and anyone thinking of coming here should be aware. First off, I guess the beach vendors are worth a brief nod as I’ve read complaints about them. Sure, you’ll be approached regularly by men offering tours or inviting you to “visit my shop” and women offering on-the-spot massages and hair braiding. This happens on the beach, in town, and pretty much everywhere. Such vendors are a staple of much of the world and we’ve found the Dominicans to be friendly and polite, and they do generally take no for an answer if you just say, “No, gracias,” and treat them like fellow human beings trying to earn a living. If they persist, David has taken to fibbing that we’ve already shopped and bought a lot or I just explain that we’re too lazy (“perezosos”) for an excursion which usually gets a smile. In short, they’re really not a problem, and we understand that times are very hard here now with tourism at a fraction of normal due to the pandemic.

There are a lot of empty beach chairs and some entirely closed resorts (like Paradisus Palma Real) on Bávaro Beach now because of the pandemic. It’s a good time to visit if you want a peaceful experience, an uncrowded beach and an appreciation for your presence. (The tire tracks are from police four-wheelers that patrol the beach.)

More of an issue than the beach vendors is the invasion of the beach by mats of floating sargassum seaweed. We’ve seen it get progressively worse over our month here and we sadly think our upcoming departure is well-timed because of it. I’ve done some research and found staggering numbers about the proliferation of sargassum (“sargazo” in Spanish). According to the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory, since 2011 the scratchy, floating Atlantic seaweed has exploded 20x from the historical mean. [“…the amount of Sargassum increased during the month of April 2021, showing a total Sargassum coverage of 1036 km2 as compared with a historical mean of 50 km2 between 2011 and 2017…”] It’s a problem in Florida, Mexico and across the Caribbean, varying from beach to beach with location, currents and winds. I’ve read that peak season is from April to October or from May to August. Whatever it is, it seems the warmer months are worse. A Dominican newspaper wrote of a $15.6 million public/private fund to clean the stinking stuff off the beaches. Recently, we’ve seen bulldozers and dump trucks hauling large loads of sargassum away only to have it begin to accumulate again the next day. I’m told it’s not compostable, so can only imagine a fetid mountain of the stuff somewhere inland. It would be hard to burn until it dries and then there’d be the smoke. It’s a huge problem and another blow to the already suffering economy here and elsewhere in this part of the world.

Three consecutive days (May 17, 18, 19, top to bottom) showing the biggest influx of sargassum seaweed during our stay and then the clearing by a combination of nature and human effort

For us, sargassum is not a huge issue as the slope of the beach means we don’t usually even see the seaweed across our pristine expanse of white sand. But, it does make swimming in the ocean unappealing despite the warm water. On other, narrower stretches of the beach, though, it is a real problem with beach chairs right up against piles of the smelly brown weed. It’s worth some serious research before choosing a resort or condo here now, especially if you’re envisioning perfect wedding photos, etc. We’ve seen two weddings on the beach and imagine the couples never even thought about seaweed.

Big mounds of seaweed almost blocking the beach during clean-up near the Playa Turquesas resort and Zoho restaurant

The only activity we wanted to do while here was scuba diving and we did spend a day diving off of Isla Catalina in the Caribbean near La Romana. The diving itself was fun. We dove both the Wall and the Aquarium and found them to be pretty, typical Caribbean sites. Visibility ranged from good to fair and we saw lots of the usual marine life. The biggest issue with diving the Caribbean from Punta Cana, which is on the Atlantic coast, is the transportation.

Vendors on the beach and in town are all selling the same line-up of excursions, including diving. There are dive sites just off of Punta Cana, but I wouldn’t recommend them. By all accounts, visibility is poor and sea life minimal; it is the Atlantic after all. I wanted to dive the Caribbean where we were sure to find clearer water and the kind of colorful coral and varied animals we expect in the Caribbean. We bought our dive trip from Amaury, a friendly guy operating from a “Mega Caribbean and Sweet Land” office by the Huracán Café near us. We booked a 2-tank dive day with transportation to and from La Romana, a dive boat out to Isla Catalina, all equipment, and lunch with beer and rum on the island. We got the transportation, dives and lunch, but much was not as billed by Amaury with regards to transportation and the island lunch. We changed minibuses twice and ended up with 12 people crammed in a “12-seater” minibus each time despite being assured we be in a 15-person bus with only 8 passengers total. The transportation process is chaotic with minibuses from all over Punta Cana arriving at a large souvenir shop on the highway where we milled about as men with clipboards sent people to various buses and minibuses according to their destinations. Quite a few people’s names seemed to be missing from the clipboards, but those people (us included) were sent to minibuses anyway. It was kind of crazy, but apparently the way they do things in the DR and we did eventually make it to La Romana.

At La Romana, we were sent to a dive/snorkel boat where we found we were diving with a dive company (Passion Paradise) we’d never heard of. We’d been assured we would be with Happy Diving, whose owner, Debbie, we did see between the first two minibuses and who indicated what size wetsuits she’d have for us. We waited about 45 minutes before the boat left while they waited on other expected passengers. No one had our names, but they were expecting someone named “Chris Henderson” with three divers and two snorkelers. We were three divers (my cousin joined us in the DR for 5 nights), and they seemed to just decide that we would do. I have to wonder what happened to the Henderson party. Did they get those wetsuits Debbie supposedly had waiting for us? I also wonder how money gets distributed down the chaotic chain from Amaury to the diving company. Oh well, some things must remain mysteries.

We got a briefing on the dive sites, then learned that wasn’t our dive master. Hmm. No one ever checked our PADI and NAUI cards or asked about our experience. On the bright side, our dive master, Joel, took just the three of us and one other diver while the dive master who did our briefing took a larger group. On the not-so-bright side, the fourth diver with us was very inexperienced, flailing around as he swam and burning through his oxygen quickly. Fortunately, the dive master took him up then returned to let us continue diving. The dive master was also very attentive to my cousin who hadn’t dived in 20 years. Finally, we had only 45 min. on Isla Catalina, a made-for-tourists island stop where we had a lackluster buffet lunch and no beer or rum. The DR had passed a law a few weeks ago banning alcohol on such trips, something Amaury should have known and probably did. Not a big deal, but not what he sold us. Finally, the boat ride back to La Romana from Isla Catalina was really rough, a condition I gather is pretty common. I enjoyed it, but two young women were clearly seasick and rushed often to the two heads. We paid $150pp cash, less than several other operators we saw and on-par with others. We met at 7:30am and were dropped off at our condo around 5pm.

The dual-hulled dive boat was very nice, but small boats are required to serve as tenders from the dive boat to Isla Catalina.

I highly recommend this condo complex, Stanza Mare (see the top link above with pics on AirBnB); it’s immaculate, extremely well-tended and secured. It’s blessedly quiet, too, with no poolside “entertainment” blaring as in some resorts. Loud music is actually banned at the pool. My idea of heaven! (If you’re looking for a party scene, go elsewhere.) The management company servicing our condo, Volalto, has been exceptionally responsive to any requests. The U.S. requires a negative Covid test prior to our return flight. Volalto arranges Covid-19 antigen tests to be done in our condo for $40pp plus $10 for the house call. When my cousin had hers done, she was told the negative result within minutes then received the document result by text and WhatsApp some hours later. Our awesome Volalto agent, Kerstin, printed it and brought it prior to the ride she’d arranged for my cousin to the airport. So easy!

TASMANIA: Local friends plan a great 6-day itinerary

Dove Lake boatshed in Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania

I’ve been offline for some months, enjoying down-time with family and friends between travels. We wandered so much in 2019 (7.5+ months in total, including 12 countries and a couple of extended U.S. roadtrips) that I got behind on blogging. Also, I wasn’t sure I had much to add to the sea of info out there, and if I don’t think I can add something meaningful, I don’t feel compelled to blog just for the sake of it. That said, I do feel remiss about not sharing the awesome Tasmanian itinerary laid out for us by native-Tassie friends, Gail and Lyndon.

We met Gail and Lyndon on our around-the-world odyssey celebrating a big birthday for David. When we told them we planned to visit Australia the following spring (2019), they convinced us to add Tasmania to our itinerary. When I emailed them later to ask for some practical pointers, they immediately wrote back, inviting us to stay a night on either end of our Tassie stay and laying out a 6-night itinerary for us. We were blown away, and ended up following nearly all of their suggestions, constrained only by time and weather. We had a wonderful time and I wish the same for anyone else considering a visit to Tasmania. It’s a unique place, and we were surprised to find that the vast majority of Australians we met had never made the journey. So without further ado, here you go, Gail and Lyndon’s Taste of Tasmania itinerary in their words:

“…As you can imagine there are many and varied things to see and do in this wonderful island state of Tasmania. Local produce, beers, wines, whiskeys and gin are also a must try. So we have focussed on some highlights for your visit.

We have put our thinking caps on and come up with the following suggestion for a “Taste of Tasmania” visit.

Day 1: Arrive in Launceston, travel via Sheffield to Cradle Mountain, Dove and Crater Lakes. Distance 122 kilometres, travelling time 1 hour and 40 minutes. Sheffield is known as the Town of Murals. The first town mural was painted in Sheffield in December 1986. Since then over 60 murals depicting the area’s rich history and beautiful natural scenery have been painted on walls throughout the town and buildings along the roadside. Cradle Mountain is 1545metres high and is surrounded by stands of native deciduous beech, rainforest, alpine heath lands and button grass and is rich in wildlife and is one of the principal tourist sites in the state. The area around the mountain has a large number of day walks. Cradle Mountain offers a variety of accommodation styles available for an overnight stay.

Day 2: Depart Cradle Mountain via Waratah to Strahan. Distance 207.4 kilometres, travelling time 2 hours and 33 minutes. Waratah is a small, scenic town on the edge of the Tarkine wilderness with a rich mining past, a magnificent town-side waterfall and a unique lakeside setting. Call into the Tarkine Interpretation Centre, entry is free. Strahan is nestled on the shores of massive Macquarie Harbour, Strahan is the gateway to the World Heritage listed Franklin–Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and is full of stories from the days of convicts and pioneers toughing it out in Tassie’s wild west. Visit Ocean Beach and smell the freshest air in the world, take a Gordon River Cruise or a ride on the West Coast Wilderness Railway. Stay overnight in the accommodation style that suits you.

Day 3: Depart Strahan via Derwent Bridge to Hobart. Distance 301 kilometres, travelling time 4hours 25 minutes. At Derwent Bridge you will find the Wall in the Wilderness, a carving of 100 metres in timber which depicts the history of the highlands, most of the timber is our rare Huon Pine. Hobart is a beautiful city on the banks of the Derwent River nestled under the imposing Mount Wellington. Points of interest in Hobart would be the Museum of Modern Art (MONA) and Salamanca home to converted colonial warehouses and waterfront buildings which house some wonderful artisan shops and restaurants. Stay in Hobart city or any of her suburbs.

Day 4: Travel from Hobart via Freycinet National Park to Bicheno. Distance 219.8 kilometres, travelling time of 3 hours. Freycinet National Park is loaded with natural assets, including the pink granite peaks of the Hazards Range that dominate the Peninsula and the iconic Wineglass Bay. The short trek to Wineglass Bay lookout is a bit of a scramble, but it’s well worth it for one of Tasmania’s most photographed views. There are many more short walks across the park that are suitable for all abilities and that lead to secluded bays, clean beaches and bird-filled lagoons. Located north of the Freycinet Peninsula, Bicheno sits on Tasmania’s beautiful East Coast. Offshore, the Governor Island Marine Reserve has some of the best diving spots in Australia, with kelp-covered reefs and spectacular sponge gardens. This water wonderland can also be experienced by glass-bottomed boat. There’s plenty to do on dry land as well, with popular penguin tours that let you get up close – really close – to fairy penguins at dusk and scenic walks to Rocking Rock, the Blowhole and along the sandbar to Diamond Island Nature Reserve. At Bicheno you will also find good accommodation.

Day 5: Leave the lovely East Coast via St Marys and the Fingal Valley to Launceston. Distance 170.9 kilometres, travelling time 2 hours and 20 minutes. St Marys is 600 metres above sea level, the township is surrounded by mountains, forests and valleys. It’s also full of colour, creativity and stories of its former days as a convict working station. There are some lovely old buildings along the main street including the original railway station, now a quirky museum of local relics and oddities. The Fingal Valley stretches from Conara through to St Marys, linking Tasmania’s Heritage Highway with its sunny East Coast, and is bounded by Ben Lomond National Park to the north and the St Pauls Valley to the south. The Fingal Valley includes the towns of Avoca, Fingal and St Marys and the smaller villages of Rossarden, Royal George, Mangana, Fingal, Mathinna, Upper Esk and Cornwall. Lovely city of Launceston feels more like a big town and is a vibrant hub for food, wine culture and nature. One of Australia’s oldest cities, Launceston has one of the best-preserved early cityscapes in Australia with its elegant Colonial and Victorian architecture and century-old parks. Just a short walk from the city centre, Cataract Gorge is a slice of wilderness right in the heart of town and Launceston’s star natural attraction.

A good website for exploring Tasmania is www.discovertasmania.com.au

There are of course places of historical significance such as Port Arthur and Maria Island that you may prefer to see. Tasmania is only a small island but has so much to see and do depending on your interests and the time you wish to travel or relax. I hope what we have suggested helps in some way to you planning your visit….”

So, there you have it: A great Tasmanian itinerary laid out by a couple of locals. We had fun following their suggestions, and found that other locals along the way were super enthusiastic when we told them what we were doing. Tassies are a friendly bunch and proud of their island. They really made us feel welcome.

On our first day in Tasmania, Gail and Lyndon picked us up at the Launceston airport after our short flight from Melbourne, then took us on a driving tour of the surrounding countryside, including a glimpse at the ranch where they’d lived and raised harness racing horses and cattle up until their recent retirement. In the evening, we visited Cataract Gorge in Launceston where we saw our first wallaby before we’d walked ten yards from the car. After walking the trails of Cataract Gorge, we had a first class dinner at The Gorge Restaurant. When we returned from our roadtrip, they again took us touring. This time we headed north to the coastline where we had tea at the Lost Farm Restaurant perched atop a large dune with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sea and the highly-ranked golf courses of Barnbougle, a drive through a region of Tassie known for its red earth, and a final “champagne” tasting at Clover Hill Winery before dropping us off at the Launceston airport for our flight to Melbourne and on to Uluru and Ayers Rock. (I was nervous about all this touring on a flight day, but Gail and Lyndon assured us that we’d have no problem with a late arrival and breezing through the small Launceston airport. Thankfully, they were right.)

We booked lodging online on my phone from the car each day of our self-drive through Tasmania and were very happy with where we ended up each night:
• Cradle Mountain Hotel (We booked a standard room and were given a handicapped room overlooking the parking lot. Disappointing. Asking to be moved to a non-handicapped room and explaining it was David’s birthday found us upgraded to a chic 2-story suite overlooking wilderness. So worth it, even if you have to pay.)

Pademelons on a Cradle Mountain National Park path

• Strahan Stables Rough-Luxe #1, an AirBnB find in Strahan (This 2-story place, across the road from the harbor, and a block down from a park, was totally charming and we’d have loved another night there.)

Strahan, just across the road from our AirBnB stay

• La Riviera B&B on the River Derwent in Granton, a suburb of Hobart, ranks at the top of all the B&B’s I’ve stayed at. Lovely rooms, a warm hostess, an incredible breakfast feast and a water view. She’s thinking of selling, so if it’s still available, go!

Just the beginning of the breakfast feast at La Riviera B&B. So much more to come!

Inside Hobart’s unique underground MONA, Museum of Old and New Art [And it’s free from 5pm to closing at 6!]

• Bicheno’s Ocean View Retreat (We had a huge two-bedroom apartment with an enormous balcony overlooking the sea across the road. It’s a tad dated, but clean, comfortable and really spacious. At night, we came home to several kangaroos hopping about in the front yard.)

Endangered Tasmanian Devils at Natureworld in Bicheno

Fun with kangaroos at Natureworld in Bicheno

Wineglass Bay: Hiking on Freycinet Peninsula yields some amazing views

Melbourne is the nearest mainland airport to Tasmania. That worked perfectly for us since we arrived in Melbourne from Delhi, a non-stop route on Air India. There are daily flights from Melbourne to both Launceston and Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. Launceston is closer. Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Qantas all fly non-stop Melbourne to Launceston and Hobart. Google Flights is now showing Tigerair flying non-stop Melbourne to Hobart. We flew non-stop (1h5m) between Melbourne and Launceston on Virgin Australia. There are flights from other Australian cities as well to Tassie. Look for those flights on Google Flights or using the FlightConnections interactive map, one of my favorite travel-planning tools.

Sofia, Bulgaria

Viewed from Vitosha pedestrian street: A streetcar passes in front of the Sofia Courthouse. Sofia has one of the longest tram systems in Europe, some of the cars dating back 50 years.

I added Sofia, Bulgaria, on whim to the 8-night side trip I’d planned for us before our latest house- and cat-sit in Antwerp, Belgium. It was really a matter of “as long as we’re in the area (Bucharest, Romania), why not?” I didn’t know much about either Sofia or Bulgaria before then. Pre-travel research confirmed my general impression of a less-than-wealthy Eastern European capital, still recovering from Communism and still relatively new to the EU. As of the latest census I could find, Sofia has a population of 1.2 million people as compared to Bucharest’s 1.8 million. Bulgaria is both the poorest country in the EU and the fastest shrinking population in the world.

We flew Romanian Tarom Air from Bucharest to Sofia. Arriving at 5:30am at the Bucharest airport, we found a long (albeit fast-moving) check-in line and a bustlingly busy airport. When we arrived in Sofia at around 9:40am, passengers on our flight were the only people in the baggage claim. Following online advice, we used an airport-sanctioned OK Supertrans taxi from the queue and had a friendly (non-English-speaking) driver with a working meter. It was a bargain 10 lev + 2 lev tip ($6.80 total) for the ride along a wide, straight boulevard into the center of Sofia and our AirBnB apartment.

First impressions were generally good. The wide, smooth boulevard turned to yellow glazed brick roads (Yes, the yellow brick road is real! :D) as we entered the older center of town. Boring residential architecture further out gave way to elegant and imposing public buildings with grand columns, arches, fountains and statuary. Less than a block from our apartment, a wide pedestrian street, named Vitosha after the mountain that rises above the city, bustled with people enjoying the many cafes and shops that lined it.

Facing the pretty open courtyard of a Spanish restaurant, our apartment boasted a much more appealing entrance than our lodging in Bucharest. Self check-in was a breeze using an electronic fob and keys left for us in a small safe locked to an adjacent shop gate. The one-bedroom apartment itself was spacious and modern with a remote that opened electric privacy shutters on windows and doors on two walls that opened to a patio and narrow side path. Nice!

We settled in and were back out the door by 10am our first day. Early flights have their benefits. After a quick run by the local grocery store to stock breakfast supplies, we headed back out to explore. Turning left at Vitosha, away from the pedestrian street, and putting the imposing Sofia Courthouse on our left, we walked toward the large Sofia statue, a personification of the city. Using the metro entrance to cross under the big intersection there, we popped up at the Serdika ruins which date back to ancient Roman settlers. The ruins are open-air and free and worth a look. David, more hungry than impressed with history, pushed for a lunch break so we left the ruins to settle into shady seats at upscale Largo Bar and Dinner under the high-arched portico of the adjacent Constitutional Court of Bulgaria building. An elegant lunch of grilled shrimp appetizer and a chicken pasta main course for David and seared sesame-crusted tuna salad for me along with local beers was tasty and reasonably-priced at 52.10 lev ($29.45 US).

The awnings of Largo on the left on the Constitutional Court building, plaza Nezavisimost on the right and the Sofia Concert Hall in the distance.

Happily fed, we continued on to the number one site in Sofia, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The cathedral, in classic Eastern Orthodox style, was a tribute/thank-you from Bulgaria to Russia and is named after a Russian national hero. The elaborate painted interior of the cathedral with its huge dome is impressive. Entrance to the cathedral is free, but there’s a charge for photography. Two smock-clad guardians busily tut-tutted anyone snapping photos (even those waving their receipts) and scolded anyone who looked like they might even be considering wrong-doing of any sort. Since kissing and touching icons is a big part of religion in this part of the world, I had to wonder what was going on when these guards seemed to complain about people getting too close to certain items.

Interior of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

After the cathedral, we meandered our way down boulevards and through parks on our way back to the apartment. I wanted to scope out the park meeting place for the free food tour I’d booked for the following day.

The free food tour turned out to be big fun and way more than I expected from a free tour. We ate lunch (at another health food stop for a salad to counter all that hearty Balkan food) beforehand, and I really should have skipped it. The two-hour food tour stopped at five locally-owned restaurants and shops, each of which offered us hearty tastings. The tour was so well attended that we were split into two groups. The guide for our 16-person tour was an eloquent 23-year old student named Ioan. At Supa Star, an all-soup diner, we were given cups of tarator, a traditional cold yogurt soup made with cucumbers, dill and garlic. Bulgarians are very proud of their unique and healthful yogurt and eat it and cheese in a myriad of dishes. We were surprised to descend into a pedestrian underpass on blvd Vasil Nevsky in front of the Ministry of Youth and Sports for our next stop at a shop selling national-favorite banitsa, a coiled savory pastry. The lady baker cut us generous portions of the fresh-from-the-oven pastry, filled with fresh farm cheese.

The least picturesque of our stops, but we had really tasty cheese-filled banitsa at this little shop.

We had a non-traditional bonus stop at Skaptoburger, a hamburger joint (one of a small locally-owned chain and very popular) where we each got a quarter of a hamburger. After that, it was off to Sun Moon, a well-known vegetarian restaurant and bakery where we sampled toasts spread with two classic toppings, one predominantly tomato and one eggplant. Sun Moon grows and grinds their own grains for their breads. Our final stop was at the impossibly-named Hadjidraganovite izbi, a Bulgarian tavern restaurant set in a wine cellar with traditional decor. There we were treated to a shot of a pelin, a celebratory wine-based absinthe drink, along with three types of bread-with-topping appetizers. As a final send-off, we joined hands to form a cramped ring as Ioan taught us a traditional dance.

As we walked from restaurant to restaurant, Ioan explained life in Sofia. When we came across this post-wedding gathering, he explained that the crowd was shouting “Bitter! Bitter! Bitter!” until the couple kissed to make things sweet.

I’ll save the rest of our Sofia stay, including a day trip to Rila Monastery and a cooking class in the apartment of a charming local hostess, for separate posts.

Practical info:

Find the free food tour (and other for-pay tours) on the Balkan Bites web site. Reservations aren’t necessary, but they will guarantee you a spot. This is a popular tour, so book if you know you want to go. Two late-comers were almost sent away the day we took the tour. Meet for the tour every day at 2pm by the large head statue in Crystal Garden (a/k/a Crystal Park). Although the tour is free, do tip. These guides put a lot into a full 2-hour tour.

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is open 7 days/week, from 7am-7pm. Entry is free. There’s a10 lev ($5.66 US) charge for photos. Find photos and a virtual tour on the cathedral web site.

For fresh salads in a casual small lunch spot, we liked Greens near Vitosha Boulevard.

Bucharest and Transylvania, Romania

Bucharest viewed from Closer to the Moon rooftop bar

I admit I had low expectations of Bucharest. I’ve been to many former Soviet bloc countries and there are certain less-than-positive aspects to them all: the ugly over-sized Brutalist architecture (so often built on the site of historic buildings that would be a treasure now), abundant graffiti (which my dad plausibly chalks up to unleashed freedom of expression), and infrastructure and common areas suffering from the financial costs of Communism. Bucharest definitely has those aspects, but it still boasts a wealth of gorgeous French-style architecture, a picturesque old town, and lots of restaurants, cafés and bars (beyond the “drink till you puke” bars and strip clubs that some Eastern European cities use to entice westerners looking for cheap thrills). Despite some streets still holding onto that grubby party vibe and derelict buildings scattered amongst the pristinely restored, Bucharest has the feel of a city moving up and offers many charming streets, elegant boulevards, and cosmopolitan shopping and dining options at great prices.

Stavropoleos Monastery Church in Old Town

Our AirBnB apartment was Bucharest in a nutshell: Located steps from the picturesque old town with a view across the river that included the enormous Palace of Parliament, the apartment was spacious and totally modern. To get there, though, we entered through a graffiti-covered front door near a corner where residents had piled trash that was not collected during our 4-night stay. Still, the rest of the sidewalk as well as vast majority of those in the city were very clean, more so, in fact, than many Western European cities. There were grocery stores, shops and cafes in easy walking distance and we never felt unsafe wandering the city. We wanted to spend most of our time in Bucharest just rambling and exploring. Warm, sunny September weather made this a winning plan.

David by the not-so-charming front door to our AirBnB building. Fortunately, all was lovely and modern inside and the neighborhood was great for exploring.

I really didn’t have many must-sees in Bucharest itself other than the Palace of the Parliament (formerly “the People’s House”), the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. The palace was built on the orders of Nicolae Ceaușescu at a staggering cost, a cruel expense considering the deprivations endured by the populace in that era. Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were executed before the palace was finished so never got to enjoy the lavish apartments they planned for themselves there. Today, the the building houses the Romanian parliament as well as conventions and diplomatic events, but 70% remains vacant decades after its construction. English language tours are available daily by calling the day before. I tried calling two days before, since we had a day trip planned the following day, and was told it was impossible to book then. The day before means the day before. I guess a little of that strict Communist attitude remains. The tour of the Palace of the Parliament took 2 hours and we only saw a small fraction of the building. Yes, it was a criminal waste of money, but it is a beautiful neo-Classical building nonetheless and showcases materials and craftsmanship from around Romania. Enormous chandeliers, lush carpets, parquet floors and marble cover the vast rooms, hallways and sweeping staircases.

Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the second largest building in the world. It takes about an hour to walk the circumference.

My one big must-see while in Romania was Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle. Yes, I knew the connection between Bran Castle and Vlad the Impaler was tenuous. Yes, I knew the interior retained little of Vlad’s time and that its exterior gets all the praise. But, still. It’s “Dracula’s Castle”! And, the Romanian’s are proud of it and the exterior is everything it should be. There are lots of tour companies offering tours of varying sizes to Bran Castle. I did my research and settled on a small mini-van tour with a maximum of 8 guests and an itinerary that included Peleș Castle and the medieval town of Brașov. This itinerary makes for a long day, but all three of these destinations are worth a visit.

Our tour started out fine with our guide, Bogdan, picking us up at 7am as promised in a nice, modern mini-van. He then picked up a Spanish woman and her two adult sons, then headed to pick up the final couple whom he’d tried to pick up before us but couldn’t find. Thus, began a nearly 1h 30 min. frustrating bit of chaos as he tried to find the missing couple. Clearly, there was confusion about the meeting place, but the problem was magnified by the tour company owner’s insistance on acting the middle man between Bogdan and the missing couple. Apparently, the owner refused to give the missing couple’s phone numbers to Bogdan either to safeguard his business from poaching (a ludicrous precaution if so since Bogdan would spend the day with these people) or as some form of protecting the privacy of the clients (again, silly given the situation). After circling through clogged Bucharest traffic, leaving, getting a call from the boss to return, and repeating the same three times, we finally located the pair of equally frustrated Italians and headed out of town. We could have slept another hour and had the same departure time! Oh well, we were on the road at last.

The road turned out to be a wide, modern highway…at least for a portion of the drive. It narrowed to two lanes later, but remained in excellent condition. –EU money at work in Eastern Europe and far cry from the potholes and ox carts that greeted travelers not so long ago. Despite the decent roads, it was still nearly two hours to our first stop, Peleș Castle.

Peleș Castle was built by King Carol I and his wife, queen Elizabeth, in the 1870’s. It was a miracle of modern technology in its time, boasting the first central heating in Romania along with such wonders as electric lighting and an enormous skylight that opened with the push of a button. The palace is gorgeous inside with elaborate carved wood paneling in the German style and beautiful Romanian marble throughout. Peleș (“pelesh”) is beautifully preserved and not to be missed when exploring Romania.

Peleș Castle music room. Peleș is more a palace than a castle.

We enjoyed a cheap and tasty pizza and local beer lunch in the palace café before heading on to Bran Castle some 40 minutes away across the Southern Carpathian Mountains and into the Transylvania region of Romania. (Romania consists of three regions: southern Walachia including Bucharest and Sinaia, central Transylvania and northern Moldova.) As promised, the view of Bran Castle from below the rocky promontory on which it sits is imposing and impressive. It’s easy to imagine it as the foreboding abode of Vlad or Dracula. Inside, however, things are a bit different. Dowager Queen Marie remodeled the old castle in the twenties. Later her daughter Princess Ileana ran a hospital there during WWII (and later moved to the U.S. where she became a nun). Nowadays the interior is more homey than spooky; two overstuffed couches and a fireplace warm one large stone room.

Iconic Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle

For an extra price, Bran Castle offers an exhibit of medieval torture devices, something I’ve seen plenty of and would have skipped if David hadn’t been interested. I have no desire to spend time with memorabilia of man’s inhumanity to man. The exhibit turned out to be uncomfortably warm as well, although less crowded than the narrow and packed castle corridors and roofed battlement walks in the rest of the castle. I ended up feeling nauseous and headed back out only to be blocked by throngs of large, slow-moving tour groups. I finally threaded my way through the crowds and threatened to faint until a stubborn old guard let me exit through the entrance into the blessedly cool mountain air. A few minutes outside and all was well. Oh well, we’d been warned that the interior of Bran was nothing remarkable in the way of castles and I have to agree. Still, I’m glad we made the stop at Bran and enjoyed seeing the imposing castle looming above us like something straight out of Stoker’s book.

Our last stop on this long day was Brașov, a picturesque Transylvanian village which is home to one of the largest churches in Romania, the Black Church, so named after a fire blackened its walls. We wandered the streets admiring the embroidery wares of a peasant woman and stopping for a light meal in one of the many cafes circling the expansive main square. We bought a piping hot kürtős kalács (“chimney cake” or “stovepipe cake”) from a food cart to eat as we walked. The big, hollow croissant-like pastry is similar to trdlo we’ve had in Czechia, but the caramelized exterior of this Romanian version, fragrant with orange peel, was something different and delicious. A stroll through a park past a medieval city gate wrapped up our visit to Brașov.

As the only English speakers, the others invited us to sit up front with Bogdan as we had the easiest time visiting with him. I enjoyed talking about Romania and life philosophies on the two hour ride back to Bucharest as David nodded asleep against the window. Bogdan is twenty-six and has some of that familiar Eastern European mixture of frustration, self-deprecation, and hope that I so often hear there. He was well-spoken, thoughtful, and curious about many things including Protestant Christianity and how it differed from his own Catholicism. It was an interesting conversation as we drove on in the dark, finally arriving back in Bucharest around 9:30pm.

Caru’ cu Bere outdoor seating in *Old Town Bucharest*

We spent the rest of our Romania time in Bucharest. Visiting the Palace of the Parliament, exploring the streets and parks, churches and restaurants. We had a well-prepared lunch in the large courtyard of the oldest operating inn in Bucharest, Hanu’ lui Manuc (Manduc’s Inn). We put off eating at the well-known but super touristy old beer hall, Caru’ cu Bere, until our last day, then caved after hearing that they really did offer authentic versions of traditional dishes. True to the billing, we enjoyed skinless sausages, cabbage rolls, hunter’s stew, and the local polenta-like corn mash with the house-brewed beer. The beer hall itself is beautiful and the outdoor seating on a cobbled street in Old Town is delightful in good weather. On our last evening, we headed to the charmingly-named Closer to the Moon rooftop bar for a sparkling water before a return visit to Energeia, a restaurant focused on healthy food (and awesome gin-and-tonic craft cocktails) where I could indulge a craving for greens with round two of a huge kale salad. Balkan food is tasty and hearty, but really short on green vegetables!

_________________

Practical info:

Find information for booking English-language (and other) tours of the Palace of the Parliament on their website. To guarantee a place, call the day before.

We used One Excellence Tours for our “Transylvania Castles Day Trip” from Bucharest to Peles Castle, Bran Castle and Brasov. The tour is in a minivan with a maximum of 8 persons. The cost was $128.80 US for the two of us not including admission fees which are normally 70 RON pp for both Peleș and Bran, and I booked online with Viator. I used Viator, a Tripadvisor company, both because I trust them and the price was good, and because I could book through Topcashback for a rebate. (I’ve gotten over $800 in rebates from Topcashback on things I’d buy or book anyway just for using their links.) Entry to Peleș Castle is normally 30 RON (lei) ($7 US) per adult, but One Excellence Tours comped our entry as an apology for the confusion and late start. Entrance to Bran Castle is 40 RON (lei) ($9.31 US) per adult. Both castles offer reductions for students and seniors.

We paid a total of $217.28 for four nights in our AirBnB apartment, on the corner of Calea Vitoriei (a main road and a great place to be) and Splaiul Independentei. The apartment was a spacious and modern one-bedroom in an excellent location and run by a responsive host. I’d happily stay there again.

Uber works great in Bucharest, but we did have some issues connecting with our driver when we arrived at the airport. He only spoke a few words of English and while Uber directed us to wait upstairs by Arrivals at the big airport parking lot, he waited downstairs by Departures. We did finally sort things out, but it wasted some time. I read lots of warnings about Bucharest taxis, so was hesitant to use them. We had an early flight when we left and I worried about using Uber since I’ve had them cancel before in the States and couldn’t risk that at such an early hour in a place where we didn’t speak the language. I ended up booking a private ride with Transport Air Bucharest a top-rated company on Tripadvisor. I paid 85.09 RON ($19.81 US) in advance on the Internet and communication with them was excellent. Our driver was waiting with a new, immaculate sedan when we exited our building pre-dawn. The cost was not all that much more (maybe $5) than we would have paid for pre-booking Uber or a taxi.

Vilnius, Lithuania

Gedimino prospekt, the Champs Elysées of Vilnius

I wrote this live-time in Vilnius, but wanting to focus on our current travels and a shortage of Internet time have me posting later:

We launched our Baltic adventure with a Belgium Airlines flight from Brussels to Vilnius. We cruised through the classic train-station-like Vilnius Airport, picked up our Addcar rental (far and away the best rent car deal I found in the Baltics) and–with only a short walk with luggage in the rain to our car–we were off. Things got a little snarled after that when none of my email servers would let me send or receive the emails I needed to make contact with our AirBnB hostess’ mother. We parked behind the pharmacy she’d used as a landmark in a typical Eastern European graffiti-covered alley/parking area while I messaged our hostess, Ruta, who was vacationing in Paris to let her know I couldn’t reach her mother. Meanwhile, David wandered around asking random strangers until he actually found a co-worker of Ruta’s mom and we finally got things moving. (If only Ruta had said her mother worked in the pharmacy, there’d have been no problem at all!) In minutes, we were settled into our lovely apartment. From that moment on, things flowed smoothly. We love Vilnius!

Maneuvering into parallel parking. Typical back side of an Eastern European apartment: crowded, graffiti-covered and a touch run-down. But it’s an awesome perk to have free parking in the heart of old town! (Graffiti tends to make Americans think “crime,” but I’ve not found that to be the case in former Soviet bloc countries and think of it more as pent-up freedom of speech coming out. I always felt perfectly safe in Vilnius.)

Our apartment is just off Gedimino prospekt, a wide, elegant avenue lined with baroque buildings filled with high-end shops, cafes, restaurants and more, it’s the Champs Elysees of Vilnius. A few blocks down, Gedimino ends at the spectacular Vilnius Cathedral.

The newly-restored Grand Dukes’ Palace Museum nestles right behind the cathedral. The museum preserves archaeological ruins of the palace under glass walkways at its lowest levels.

The archeological portion of the Grand Dukes’ Palace Museum

Higher floors house collections of armor and artifacts and recreate period state rooms.

Throne room in the Grand Dukes’ Palace Museum

The palace tower offers views of Vilnius and the castle tower and three crosses on the hill above the city.

Old Vilnius stretches its cobblestoned streets north of the cathedral. We loved just wandering the surprisingly large Old Town. Crazily capricious spring weather had us ducking in and out of cafes and churches as sudden rain or snow descended in the midst of a sunny day!

The most grim museum of Vilnius is the Museum of Genocide Victims, more commonly known as “The KGB Museum.” The museum occupies the former KGB headquarters just off Gedimino prospekt.

In addition to exhibits and photographs memorializing victims and resistance, restored cells and an execution chamber offer a glimpse into the terrifying world of a KGB prisoner.

Two cells with sloped floors designed to be filled with freezing water and a single stool-sized raised disk in the center. Prisoners in nothing but underwear were forced to stand on the stool or in ankle-deep icy water for up to 5 days. They could not sleep or they would fall into the water.

Cell designed to be filled with freezing water

I found a chilling video in the execution chamber hard to watch as prisoner after prisoner was sentenced then dragged into the room, shot in the head, and their body shoved out an opening in one wall into a waiting truck.

Vilnius has overtaken Budapest as Europe’s most affordable capital and we found prices to be very reasonable everywhere we went. We tried classic Lithuanian food at the schmaltzy but fun Bernelių Užeiga very near our apartment on our first night, enjoying hearty food, beer and a local music duo.

Bernelių Užeiga is a popular place with locals as well as tourists

Home-style Lithuanian cooking at Bernelių Užeiga

On other evenings, we ventured out for higher-end fare at Bistro 18 and stylish The Town on Gedimino prospekt.

The Town promotes meats, but we found their fish to be very good as well

David, of course, had to check out a local beer bar and we enjoyed our visit to Alaus Biblioteka a/k/a “the Beer Library.” It’s a unique venue with a good selection of beers from all over the world although we were disappointed to find they did not know much about the Lithuanian “kaimiskas” farm beer that we were particularly interested in trying. They had one beer on tap we were told was a kaimiskas, but we found it to be unremarkable and nothing like the beer we finally got to try a week later when we drove back into northern Lithuania from Latvia.

Alaus Biblioteka uses old library tables and chairs is a cosy place to drink beer, but we found veggie potato chips (cold and like chips straight from a Terra bag back home; fine from a bag, but not restaurant-level) and a shepherd’s pie to be underwhelming.

All in all, we loved Vilnius itself and it offers some really worthwhile and easy daytrips as well. More on those later.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20161019_145046 — Kuala Lumpur: Best AirBnB pool yet!

I’d really just planned a peek at Kuala Lumpur en route to Cambodia, but we ended up loving this city and packing in more than I’d dreamed. I can’t start this travelogue without a nod to our spectacular AirBnB apartment. Located in central Kuala Lumpur, near 2 light rail stations and a monorail station, this brand new building is ultramodern, staffed with lots of helpful people, sporting a great view from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the 2-bedroom/2-bath apartment, a spectacular rooftop pool and more. All this for $65, all-in. We loved it!

20161019_190854 — The Petronas Towers from our building’s rooftop pool

We found the city to be super-cheap and public transportation easy to navigate. We opted for a street food dinner the first night, and were blown away by our 16 ringgit ($3.84) dinner-for-two. David “splurged” on an additional 24 cent pound cake dessert. Choosing our spot by the size of the crowd and the friendliness of the owner, we pointed to the dishes we wanted, then sat outside at communal tables. It was hot and humid (and we did spot a rat at an adjacent patch of dirt and weeds), but the food was good, very plentiful and we felt like we’d dined like locals.

20161019_183752 — 16 ringgit dinner-for-two

The next morning, we hopped the subway for Central Market, browsing the stalls and pausing for a quick Malaysian lunch in the market, before wandering the market streets of Chinatown and a Chinese Buddhist temple

20161020_115551 — Buddhist temple in Chinatown

We realized early on that there’s some sort of glitch in Google Maps when it comes to KL local trains. Google claims that every ride, no matter how short or how few stops will take “55 minutes.” We learned to ignore the travel estimates. For example, the ride from the Central Market stop to KL Sentral station for our 1:15pm appointment to go up the Petronas towers took less than 10 minutes.

20161019_190027 — City of contrasts: the monorail at twilight

The change from grubby, bustling China Town to the ultra-modern downtown area and the swank Petronas Towers was startling. The difference in pricing was also jarring. It cost 80myr ($19.17) to visit the skybridge and top observation floor, not horrible by home standards, but a fortune in light of the cost of our local meal, transport, the markets, etc. KL is a city of huge contrasts. It was fun to visit the beautiful towers and something not to miss in KL. [If you don’t buy tickets online, you can be stuck in a long line. Although the online website claims you can’t buy tickets online less than 24 hours before, we found that not to be the case. Just create an account and proceed, and you can buy a ticket if there’s an open time slot.]

20161020_131803 — Skybridge between the Petronas Towers

20161020_133517 — View of the 2nd tower from the observation floor

Discounting Google Map’s grossly exaggerated travel time estimate, we set out for the sleeper hit of Kuala Lumpur: Batu Caves, a 25 minute, 2.60 ringgit ($.64), air-conditioned commuter train ride out of the city. [Note: the trains for Batu Caves only leave every 45 minutes during the middle of the day (every 15 minutes later on, and maybe earlier). Check the schedule before you pass the styles or you’re in for a hot wait by the tracks.] The caves are the site of numerous Hindu shrines and are a unique and exotic locale, offering free admittance. The main two caves lie at the top of a steep flight of stairs over which a huge golden statue of the Hindu god Murugan stands. Unfortunately, restoration is going on, so some of the beauty (and silence) was marred by construction work. It was still fascinating, with ongoing services, open to the public.

20161020_162353

20161020_170936 — This guy made anyone complaining about the stairs look like a weenie!

Loud drums and clanging cymbals in the upper cave signaled the beginning of a ceremony. A curtain was pulled back to reveal monks, tossing flowers and waving oil-fed candelabra. David joined a blessing ceremony, receiving a white mark on his forehead with the blessing (after making a small donation).

20161020_1651110

20161020_165205

Macaques roam the caves and surrounding areas, on the lookout for treats. Tiny babies clung to their mothers as they darted across the floor, snatching food offerings from the shrines and following visitors. They’ll steal, if you don’t keep belongings close. We found them pushy, but not particularly aggressive.

20161020_165717 — The main cave at the top of the outer flight of stairs

20161020_163355 — Looking up toward the smaller of the two main caves from the larger cave

20161020_170523 — Macaque at Batu Caves with KL in the distance

Batu Caves was a highlight of our stay in Kuala Lumpur. It’s an easy trip and fun to see the contrast with the city. The commuter train lets you off very near the entrance to the sight. Go!

An AirBnB Cautionary Tale

20161003_093022 — View of Seoul Station and beyond from our well-located, but unauthorized AirBnB apartment

We had our first unpleasant AirBnB experience in Seoul and it had very little to do with the apartment itself. Two days before we were to arrive in Seoul (and just as we were about to begin our much-anticipated, Internet-free stay at Beomeosa Monastery, ie., with no time to make other plans), I received an email from the owner of the apartment we’d booked in Seoul, “Mr. S.” Mr. S wrote to touch base regarding handing off the keys, etc…and to tell me that “if any persons (police man) ask you regarding the you come to here through the airbnb, then pls DON’T SPEAK for airbnb will be appreciated…so you can say that this room is your friend’s room for you.”

Hmm. This was a first. I was, in essence, being asked to lie to foreign police to cover for an unauthorized rental apartment. No way was I comfortable with this and I would not have booked the apartment if I’d known. I really resented being put in this position, especially when I didn’t really have time to look for an alternative.

I researched AirBnB en route to Seoul via the KTX train’s wi-fi and discovered that a 2015 lawsuit had ruled that AirBnB rentals must be registered with the government. I now suspected that Mr. S might have avoided that registration.

When we arrived in Seoul, Mr. S met us as promised in the underground subway walkway which connects Seoul (train) Station to the building where the apartment is located. He handed off the keys, but when I expressed concern about his email regarding police and asked him to accompany us the short distance on to the building, he refused, leaving us to deal with any problems on our own. He apparently thought our odds of getting past “tourist police” better without him, but we had nothing to do with the situation and I thought it was pretty chicken of him to leave us to our own devices. Mr. S told us the riskiest part of this whole venture was when we went through the building with luggage (so he didn’t want any part of that). He dropped by the apartment 10 minutes after we were in to deliver the wi-fi hotspot he’d promised and extra blankets, so it wasn’t as if he had some pressing appointment that prohibited him from walking in with us.

On our 2nd night there, we went to explore the top floor gym and discovered a sign saying that all AirBnB rentals were banned in the building (apparently a building-specific internal rule) and could be subject to being reported to the police. “Great.” Even if Mr. S had registered his apartment with the government, it looked pretty clear that he was in violation of the building’s own rules. The next morning, we saw a similar sign on the front door. Unfortunately, we were past AirBnB’s 24-hour after check-in deadline for reporting problems that might void the whole deal and stop payment to Mr. S. From what I read, I believe it was he who was potentially in violation of laws and/or building rules, not us, but it was very awkward and uncomfortable nonetheless.

seoulsignblogedit

In the end, we decided to live with the situation and hope for the best, since we were already moved in and only had 2 nights to go after seeing the posted signs. Happily, we were not confronted by police or building staff. I did report the situation to AirBnB and explain the facts on the ground in my review of the apartment and Mr. S so that others would be advised. (I was surprised that no one else had mentioned the authorization problems in the many positive reviews for this apartment. Either people ignored the situation, or the signs–and Mr. S’s proposed dealing with police–were a new development.) There are other AirBnB hosts offering apartments in this same building, though, so I hope AirBnB takes some initiative here.

I intend to keep using AirBnB as apartments are often better suited to my travel needs than hotels, but I will more closely scrutinize local laws. I’d like to see AirBnB alert its users when there are potential legal problems in a city or country so that users can ask the right questions of owners. AirBnB must be aware of the legal challenges its faces in different cities and countries (as covered in numerous newspaper articles), and I’d appreciate a heads-up for those of us who use the service. A simple alert from AirBnB when I search a potentially-problematic location would be greatly appreciated.

The apartment itself was pretty much as shown in the AirBnB photos. I had some quibbles with supplies, but the location was excellent. (It shares a brand new high-rise building with a Sheraton Hotel, and is connected to covered shopping, subway and the huge, modern Seoul Station.) Had it been an authorized rental, I’d have given it and Mr. S fine marks.

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. Wish granted!

20160420_100749

I spent nearly two weeks in Croatia with my sons years ago and the place I’d always regretted missing was Plitvice National Park. As far as I was concerned, Plitvice was #1 on my list for this Croatian vacation with David and now, as our trip neared an end, we were finally going to be there…and it was storming. Not just light rain, but a downpour. Aaargh!

The weather in Zadar had been overcast with occasional drizzle, but cleared to sunny the morning we set out on the drive to Plitvice. It’s an easy 2-hour drive from Zadar to Plitvice and the scenery is beautiful as you head into the mountains and cross over impressive bridges spanning wide inlets of water.

20160419_114306

As we climbed higher into seriously rugged mountains, the weather began to deteriorate.

20160419_115415

When we exited the truly impressive Sveti Rok tunnel (over 3.5 miles long!), wind buffeted our car to the point I was getting a little nervous despite the excellent, wide highway. Thankfully traffic was light. By the time we neared Plitvice Jezera, the skies had opened up and we pulled into the parking lot of our AirBnB apartment in the driving rain. Our lovely hostess awaited us in raincoat and hood and we left our luggage to dash inside, umbrellas held high.

Despite that inauspicious beginning, the next day dawned bright and clear and all we could have hoped for for our day at Plitvice. I was as excited as a child!

We got an early start, planning to park at the Hotel Bellevue near Entrance 2 to the park and avoid the less-convenient, paid parking designated for the park. As we turned in a guard stopped our car, asking where we were going. I just looked bemused and answered we were going to the Hotel Bellevue, of course, and he waved us in. Instead of turning left into the main hotel parking, we drove to the end of the short street and parked, near the pedestrian path into the park. This put us not far from a ticket office and park bus stop #2 (“ST2” on the map below). Perfect!

Our AirBnB hostess, Jelena, was a font of knowledge and she’d given us a park map and laid out an optimum walk for us. We followed all her suggestions and could not have been happier. Day tickets to the park were 110 kuna apiece (about $17 each). We caught the park bus (included in our tickets) heading toward Entrance 1 and got off at the bus stop #1 (“ST1” on the map below) to walk along the water (on our left) to view the largest waterfall Veliki Slap (literally “Big Waterfall”) on the far bank.

20160420_091718 — Park map posted near Entrance 2 ticket building/bus stop

The path to the waterfall itself was closed, for which I was just as glad. I was happy with the view from the opposite bank and, once I saw the scattered nature of Veliki Slap and a building at the summit of the waterfall, I was even less interested in going. I’m a waterfall junkie of sorts and have been to the top of lots of waterfalls, but I was fine with missing the top of this one. Maybe it was just me. Anyway, there was so much I wanted to see in the lower lakes and we headed back to continue the route Jelena had recommended.

20160420_095921 — An early view of Veliki Slap

We hiked down to the water, making our way along the water (now on our right) and past another four wide waterfalls before crossing over to the far bank where Jelena had told us to catch a boat at P3 (also included in our tickets).

20160420_095439 — View of wide waterfall from above

20160420_101305

20160420_104427 — Boat approaching the dock

20160420_105937 — Off the bow of the boat

We got off the boat at P2 (see map above) and began an amazing wander through seemingly-endless waterfalls.

20160420_111217

20160420_112835

20160420_113039

20160420_120404

DSCF2980

We spent several hours hiking the park. We found it to be a moderate hike, with occasional steep stretches and some dirt paths getting narrow and muddy from the previous day’s rain. Plitvice Lakes National Park is so large that we never felt crowded and while we did see other people (and there was a fair-sized Asian tour group at the boat stop) we also had plenty of space to take in the incredible, tranquil beauty of the park.

We ended our hike at bus stop 3 (“ST3” on the map above) where we caught the bus back to ST2 where we began our day. From there, we walked the short distance back to the national restaurant “Poljana” for lunch. It’s located just by the Hotel Bellevue with lovely views of the park. Unfortunately, we found both the food and service to be inferior to its sister national restaurant, Licka Kuca, near Entrance 1.

For more information, see: http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/en/

You can check out our 2-bedroom/1-bath AirBnB apartment at: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4699728?sug=50 At $75/night and a 10-minute walk to the park (in good weather), it’s a deal worth considering, especially so if you need two bedrooms.

If you’re new to AirBnB and want to give it a try on this or any other apartment, you can use my referral link which should get both of us $30 in AirBnB travel credit: http://www.airbnb.com/c/tcuthrell Let me know if you have any questions.

AirBnB: Zadar, Croatia; “Fifi Apartment”

20160417_161700

The listing for our AirBnB apartment in Zadar billed the place as “Fifi apartment.” The name conjured images of a French poodle or maybe even a can-can dancer; definitely female, in any event. When I emailed and WhatsApp’ed with contact Andrej, however, he let me know, in passing, that Fifi was male. Oh. Andrej said “Fifi” spoke little English, hence Andrej’s role as spokesman, but that Fifi himself would meet us. The apartment included secure on-site parking, a big plus for an apartment inside the old town. Andrej told me that Fifi would be waiting for us by the city gate and lead us to the parking since. Despite the advance info, we were a still a little surprised the first time we saw “Fifi:” a big man of late middle age in a black leather jacket. As promised, he was waiting for us, on foot. When we offered to drive him with us, he declined and proceeded to walk ahead of our car, leading us into the old city, past the open-air market and to the electronic gate to our apartment.

The first glimpse of the parking area was a tad grim: an enclosed courtyard with worn, grafittied walls, scattered trash, weeds, and laundry hanging from various windows. Oh well, I’d seen similar in Russia and elsewhere and the photos of the apartment were pretty, the reviews solid.

20160417_162127

Sure enough, we found the apartment to be immaculate and fresh-smelling, a cleaning lady just finishing up as we arrived. The decor was funky-fun with all the amenities as expected.

20160417_161655 — Funky high-heeled chairs in the bedroom

20160417_161646

Fifi gave us a quick recommendation of nearby restaurants in limited English, then showed us the front door to our building, opposite the courtyard. The location was fabulous, an easy walk to all Zadar had to offer, with restaurants, shops and the market square mere steps away. The apartment was quiet and comfortable at night with all the amenities we required: washing machine, full kitchen, a/c, flat screen tv, etc.

At $68/night, all fees and taxes included, we were very happy with this deal.

You can check it out at: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1964470?sug=50