It's now been about 2.5 years since I quit my job in Denver and resumed a life of vagabonding. What a privilege it has been to visit friends on the East and West coasts and everywhere inbetween, drive cross-Canada, explore Nicaragua, take campervans around Australia, spend a month in NYC, see New Zealand from north to south, hit amazing tropical islands like Bali and Fiji, spend these past couple months in Europe, and--between every adventure--get extended quality time with my family and friends Stateside.
The travel coffers that I filled via my job in Denver are not quite empty, and lucky me, I got to refill them a bit with my stint working at the South Pole last November to February. But that experience in Antarctica only made me want to return and see what it would be like to spend an entire year on the Ice, including the five-month darkness of a winter at South Pole--so different from the eternally sunny summer I spent there last year. And it never hurts to add more money to the future-travel bank.
So I might be crazy, but I've signed on to return to work at the bottom of the planet for an entire year, starting in late October. I'll definitely be posting on the blog while I'm down there, though probably not as often as I usually do while traveling, as I'll be in the exact same place for an entire year! If you're a newer reader and you want to catch up on the basics of life at South Pole (including the process of getting down there), click here and work your way toward newer posts. I'm not planning to repost about any of the same stuff I described last year.
Some of you have sweetly asked me to pass along the address at which I can receive mail at South Pole. Luckily, an Antarctic posting is a government job and the address is an APO address, which means things can be sent in either direction at U.S. domestic mail rates. From mid-February through the long South Pole winter, there will be no planes to the station which means no mail. So any flat letter mail needs to be sent by the end of January at the LATEST. And packages need to be sent no later than early January 2016 to ensure they'll make it to South Pole before station close. If you want to label something for me to save until later in the winter, I promise I will wait to open it per instructions, but it still needs to be mailed by the beginning of January, even if you don't want me to open it till July.
ANYWAY, here is the address:
(my name), Winter-over, ASC
South Pole Station
PSC 768 Box 400
APO AP 96598
That's it! In any case, I'll see you back here come November when there's something new and different to report from WAYYY down under.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
Milano
Final stop on this European Adventure 2015 was the bustling northern Italian metropolis of Milan. Like most of the other stops we've made, this location was chosen because I have a friend living here that we could visit. M has this sweet apartment in a building on Piazzale Loreto with an inner courtyard that I just love and that she says is typical of Milanese apartment buildings. On the ground floor, there was a bakery and a barbershop. What more could you need?
On the final day of validity of the Eurail pass that we've been using for the past month, SR and I decided to milk it for its final worth and we took a daytrip by train out to the town of Como, on the lovely lake by the same name.
The view of the lake and the town from the mountaintop (there's a funicular that runs up from along the waterfront) was even better.
Rail pass finally expired, we spent time exploring Milan itself. I loved this "vertical forest" progressive apartment complex.
We made and ate a bunch of delicious meals with M, who generously took time away from her busy PhD studies to hang out with us.
And M even took her Saturday to show us around the city.
The fun continued when SR got the two of us tickets to a soccer game (when in Italy...). We really lucked out, as we were in town for a match between the two rival Milan-based teams. The stadium was filled to capacity with 80,000 people and the noise was like nothing I've ever heard before in my life.
I don't know much about soccer, but as a cultural experience, this was completely fantastic.
Also, we found out when we were already on this trip and had already scheduled this stay in Milan that the city happens to be hosting the 2015 World's Fair (Expo) right now. So SR and I took the metro out to the outskirts of the city and spent a day exploring the whole world via the fair. The topic was food (of course, since it's being hosted by Italy!). My favorite part of the experience was seeing the interesting architecture of the buildings that were built by the various countries to house their exhibits.
But it was a little disturbing to know it is all going to be ripped down in another month when the fair ends. And to be honest, I was a little disappointed by the quality of most of the exhibits, as far as content goes. World food production is such an important, interesting topic and it's exciting that there was this forum for bringing essential issues to the foreground in a context that reaches a lot of people. But at most, it seemed like just lip-service was being paid to these issues and the real point of the fair was commercial/profit rather than an exchange of innovative ideas, which is what I thought Expo was supposed to be. Also, we were there on a Monday after school is back in session in most of the world, and it was still CROWDED. Not as bad as the 4-hour lines to enter some exhibits that we heard horror stories about before coming here, but still--after one hour-long line, we decided to visit just the exhibits that didn't have lines. Which were maybe some of the less exciting ones. Which was maybe part of my disappointment. Still, I'm so glad to have had the experience and know what a World's Fair is like.
There was much more sightseeing around Milan itself and time with M (and, of course, gelato), but I think this draws my picture-sharing of the Europe trip to a close! It has been such an amazing time here, and I'm planning to revisit all of these experiences in memory during the unusual isolation that the next year is going to bring for me. But that's the topic for the next post...
On the final day of validity of the Eurail pass that we've been using for the past month, SR and I decided to milk it for its final worth and we took a daytrip by train out to the town of Como, on the lovely lake by the same name.
The view of the lake and the town from the mountaintop (there's a funicular that runs up from along the waterfront) was even better.
Rail pass finally expired, we spent time exploring Milan itself. I loved this "vertical forest" progressive apartment complex.
We made and ate a bunch of delicious meals with M, who generously took time away from her busy PhD studies to hang out with us.
And M even took her Saturday to show us around the city.
The fun continued when SR got the two of us tickets to a soccer game (when in Italy...). We really lucked out, as we were in town for a match between the two rival Milan-based teams. The stadium was filled to capacity with 80,000 people and the noise was like nothing I've ever heard before in my life.
I don't know much about soccer, but as a cultural experience, this was completely fantastic.
Also, we found out when we were already on this trip and had already scheduled this stay in Milan that the city happens to be hosting the 2015 World's Fair (Expo) right now. So SR and I took the metro out to the outskirts of the city and spent a day exploring the whole world via the fair. The topic was food (of course, since it's being hosted by Italy!). My favorite part of the experience was seeing the interesting architecture of the buildings that were built by the various countries to house their exhibits.
But it was a little disturbing to know it is all going to be ripped down in another month when the fair ends. And to be honest, I was a little disappointed by the quality of most of the exhibits, as far as content goes. World food production is such an important, interesting topic and it's exciting that there was this forum for bringing essential issues to the foreground in a context that reaches a lot of people. But at most, it seemed like just lip-service was being paid to these issues and the real point of the fair was commercial/profit rather than an exchange of innovative ideas, which is what I thought Expo was supposed to be. Also, we were there on a Monday after school is back in session in most of the world, and it was still CROWDED. Not as bad as the 4-hour lines to enter some exhibits that we heard horror stories about before coming here, but still--after one hour-long line, we decided to visit just the exhibits that didn't have lines. Which were maybe some of the less exciting ones. Which was maybe part of my disappointment. Still, I'm so glad to have had the experience and know what a World's Fair is like.
There was much more sightseeing around Milan itself and time with M (and, of course, gelato), but I think this draws my picture-sharing of the Europe trip to a close! It has been such an amazing time here, and I'm planning to revisit all of these experiences in memory during the unusual isolation that the next year is going to bring for me. But that's the topic for the next post...
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
San Marino
Somehow, during the year that I lived in Padova, I never realized that there is a tiny, independent country called San Marino just west of Rimini, encircled by Central Italy.
Noticing that prior to this trip, I figured we could tick that country off the list while we were in the general neighborhood--why not?
Though no doubt you could stay longer, it was certainly a small enough nation to visit in a single night, and I learned quite a bit about San Marino during that short time. It's the only surviving Italian city-state, it's the oldest Republic in the world, and it has received UNESCO World Heritage Site status for representing an important stage in the evolution of democratic governments. Plus it's just really pretty. The hilltop of Mount Titano has been inhabited since the 300's.
We were up there on the evening we arrived just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset...
We also had enough light to walk around to see the outsides of a couple of the castles up close...
...and we had dinner with a pretty unbeatable view.
The next day, after a comfy night though Air BnB, our hosts sweetly drove us back up to the old city and used their connections to get us into the second castle for free. Such fun to explore.
We're charmed, I tell you!
This was the last new country we're visiting on this trip. From here, we're back to Italy for the final leg of the journey, so stay tuned a bit longer...
Noticing that prior to this trip, I figured we could tick that country off the list while we were in the general neighborhood--why not?
Though no doubt you could stay longer, it was certainly a small enough nation to visit in a single night, and I learned quite a bit about San Marino during that short time. It's the only surviving Italian city-state, it's the oldest Republic in the world, and it has received UNESCO World Heritage Site status for representing an important stage in the evolution of democratic governments. Plus it's just really pretty. The hilltop of Mount Titano has been inhabited since the 300's.
Since than, successive residents have built a series of fortress castles that still stand as part of the old city (though the lower neighborhood from which I took the picture above is also part of the country of San Marino). From the mountaintop, the view is pretty spectacular.
We were up there on the evening we arrived just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset...
We also had enough light to walk around to see the outsides of a couple of the castles up close...
...and we had dinner with a pretty unbeatable view.
The next day, after a comfy night though Air BnB, our hosts sweetly drove us back up to the old city and used their connections to get us into the second castle for free. Such fun to explore.
And as if that weren't enough, they then drove us out to their house in the countryside (only a 15-minute drive from the only city, but already technically back in Italy) for an amazing, homemade lunch.
We're charmed, I tell you!
This was the last new country we're visiting on this trip. From here, we're back to Italy for the final leg of the journey, so stay tuned a bit longer...
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Bassano e Venezia
While we were staying in Padova, we took a couple of beautiful side trips. One was high up into the mountains above Bassano del Grappa, to the home of the couple who my friend S lived with when we studied in Italy. They've moved out of Padova to the country, where they now have a stunning view of the Veneto region from their mountainside village.
After a walk up at altitude, they came with us back down to Bassano for a tour of the town, including the lovely vista from a famous bridge in town...
...the best gelato in Bassano...
...and, for SR, an introduction to grappa, the hard liquor native to Bassano (made from the pulp/dregs of wine grapes). Hats off to him for finishing this shot, which had a relatively mild (for grappa) 40% alcohol content. Just smelling the stuff burns the hairs out of my nose.
We also (no-brainer!) of course had to spend a day in Venice, which is just two train stops away from Padova. After braving the tourist hordes to get a water taxi down the Grand Canal (and really wishing, smashed up against so many other people, that we were those lucky ducks in the private gondola, instead!)...
...out to San Marco, we decided the best thing to do was to try to get as far away from the other tourists as possible. So we started walking away from the canal, and any time we came to an intersection, we'd turn in whatever direction we saw the fewest people. This kept us happily lost wandering around the Castello and Cannaregio neighborhoods for the better part of a day.
Bliss!
After a walk up at altitude, they came with us back down to Bassano for a tour of the town, including the lovely vista from a famous bridge in town...
...the best gelato in Bassano...
...and, for SR, an introduction to grappa, the hard liquor native to Bassano (made from the pulp/dregs of wine grapes). Hats off to him for finishing this shot, which had a relatively mild (for grappa) 40% alcohol content. Just smelling the stuff burns the hairs out of my nose.
We also (no-brainer!) of course had to spend a day in Venice, which is just two train stops away from Padova. After braving the tourist hordes to get a water taxi down the Grand Canal (and really wishing, smashed up against so many other people, that we were those lucky ducks in the private gondola, instead!)...
...out to San Marco, we decided the best thing to do was to try to get as far away from the other tourists as possible. So we started walking away from the canal, and any time we came to an intersection, we'd turn in whatever direction we saw the fewest people. This kept us happily lost wandering around the Castello and Cannaregio neighborhoods for the better part of a day.
Bliss!
Padova!!!
My junior year of college, I studied abroad in Padova, Italy. Somehow (shame on me!) I have never been back in the 18 years since. How did all that time go by? It was a really amazing, emotional return for me. The whole city seems a little bit smaller than I remember, but even more beautiful. I mean, come on...
My friends and I used to joke that the guidebooks, which would bill Padova as a nice daytrip from Venice, had it wrong and it should be the other way around. But I do really think, especially after revisiting, that this city is majorly under-appreciated. (Lots of people in blue were out for a charity run one night as we strolled through town. There's not really a city uniform.)
It was crazy and overwhelming to find my favorite sandwich shop of nearly twenty years ago still there just where I remembered it and still serving the exact same sandwiches. That and dozens of other things jolted my memory or were pretty much as I had imagined/remembered them in the meantime.
And the food! Ahhh...
The second semester of the year that I studied in Padova, I had a language exchange partner, V, who was preparing to move to Boston for two years with her now-husband, P. So in addition to the time I spent with her/them in Padova, I also got to see them a bunch of times in Boston since they were living there when I was back there finishing my final year of college. We've only exchanged a handful of emails in the 15 years since we last saw each other, but V & P immediately invited me to stay with them when I let them know I was visiting, and it was so much fun to see them again...
...and to meet their kids. Their oldest was actually born the second year they lived in Boston, and I met him as a 4-month-old baby. Now he is about to turn 16 and has two younger siblings. (Middle child pictured here with P, as they clean the mushrooms they drove up across the border into Austria to collect that day.)
Even more mind-blowing than seeing V & P again was having dinner with the family that hosted me during my year in Padova. My kind host parents, C & M, are basically the same as I remember them. But their kids were just 3 and 5 years old when I lived in their home, and it was crazy to see them now as college students.
It was a totally overwhelming visit in all the best ways. That year in Italy really started the process of unlocking my imagination about what kind of life I wanted to lead and set the course for my adult existence of vagabonding. To revisit this place and those memories after all of this time...wow. It was worth the wait.
My friends and I used to joke that the guidebooks, which would bill Padova as a nice daytrip from Venice, had it wrong and it should be the other way around. But I do really think, especially after revisiting, that this city is majorly under-appreciated. (Lots of people in blue were out for a charity run one night as we strolled through town. There's not really a city uniform.)
It was crazy and overwhelming to find my favorite sandwich shop of nearly twenty years ago still there just where I remembered it and still serving the exact same sandwiches. That and dozens of other things jolted my memory or were pretty much as I had imagined/remembered them in the meantime.
And the food! Ahhh...
The second semester of the year that I studied in Padova, I had a language exchange partner, V, who was preparing to move to Boston for two years with her now-husband, P. So in addition to the time I spent with her/them in Padova, I also got to see them a bunch of times in Boston since they were living there when I was back there finishing my final year of college. We've only exchanged a handful of emails in the 15 years since we last saw each other, but V & P immediately invited me to stay with them when I let them know I was visiting, and it was so much fun to see them again...
...and to meet their kids. Their oldest was actually born the second year they lived in Boston, and I met him as a 4-month-old baby. Now he is about to turn 16 and has two younger siblings. (Middle child pictured here with P, as they clean the mushrooms they drove up across the border into Austria to collect that day.)
Even more mind-blowing than seeing V & P again was having dinner with the family that hosted me during my year in Padova. My kind host parents, C & M, are basically the same as I remember them. But their kids were just 3 and 5 years old when I lived in their home, and it was crazy to see them now as college students.
It was a totally overwhelming visit in all the best ways. That year in Italy really started the process of unlocking my imagination about what kind of life I wanted to lead and set the course for my adult existence of vagabonding. To revisit this place and those memories after all of this time...wow. It was worth the wait.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Liechtenstein
From Stuttgart we headed south into Switzerland for a night in Zurich and then kept moving east into the tiny principality of Liechtenstein. We couchsurfed with the astoundingly generous D, whose apartment in the village of Triesen had a lovely balcony view into the Alps...
...and who drove us all around the area, including a visit to the capital city of Vaduz and its view of the hilltop castle where Prince Hans lives and reigns.
One of the first things D said to us when we arrived is that that day was the day the cows were coming home to Vaduz from the Alps. That was a coincidence never to be forgotten. About one hundred cows were herded down mainstreet and into a grassy corral, all wearing these enormous bells and floral headpieces. The noise was significant.
But then the cowhands began taking the bells and headpieces off the cows, one by one, the noise slowly subsiding. The final cows standing were the most stubborn and difficult to wrangle, so that the cowhands were putting on quite a show by the end. Great afternoon entertainment, let me tell you!
And the other great joy of the visit was just enjoying the stunning scenery.
D took us WAAAAYYYY up the mountain (where there are still houses clinging to the slopes and a very well engineered road making it all possible) for dinner, and the views from there were just amazing despite the cloudy, drizzly day.
D had picked us up in Sargans, Switzerland, driven us the 15 minutes to her town in Liechtenstein, and upon our departure recommended that we leave out of Feldkirch, Austria, just 20 minutes from her place in the other direction. So crazy to just be hopping from country to country like that. We spent the better part of a day on trains heading to our next destination via Innsbruck.
Italy, here we come!
...and who drove us all around the area, including a visit to the capital city of Vaduz and its view of the hilltop castle where Prince Hans lives and reigns.
One of the first things D said to us when we arrived is that that day was the day the cows were coming home to Vaduz from the Alps. That was a coincidence never to be forgotten. About one hundred cows were herded down mainstreet and into a grassy corral, all wearing these enormous bells and floral headpieces. The noise was significant.
But then the cowhands began taking the bells and headpieces off the cows, one by one, the noise slowly subsiding. The final cows standing were the most stubborn and difficult to wrangle, so that the cowhands were putting on quite a show by the end. Great afternoon entertainment, let me tell you!
And the other great joy of the visit was just enjoying the stunning scenery.
D took us WAAAAYYYY up the mountain (where there are still houses clinging to the slopes and a very well engineered road making it all possible) for dinner, and the views from there were just amazing despite the cloudy, drizzly day.
D had picked us up in Sargans, Switzerland, driven us the 15 minutes to her town in Liechtenstein, and upon our departure recommended that we leave out of Feldkirch, Austria, just 20 minutes from her place in the other direction. So crazy to just be hopping from country to country like that. We spent the better part of a day on trains heading to our next destination via Innsbruck.
Italy, here we come!
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Stuttgart
Our second German destination was Stuttgart, chosen because of another friend I met traveling who graciously offered to host us. (For those who have read my book or just have been following along on the adventures since long before this blog existed, it's M, who was badly injured in the bus accident I was in in Tanzania.)
It's 9 years since I've seen M and we haven't really kept in touch in the meantime, but it felt strangely normal to spend time with her again (and under much better circumstances this time!). On the night we arrived, she made us an amazing dinner of kasspatzle (sorry--there should be two dots over the a's in that word; I can't figure out how to access accent marks on this computer)....
...had a spread, each morning, of gorgeous German baked goods...
...and arranged for her good friend, C (she's changed the spelling of her name...some of you may know her as K...), who was also on the bus with us, to drive over from Munich area for a full reunion over breakfast one morning. As I said, hard to process the three of us in the same room together after so much time and given the circumstances in Tanzania. But also it felt very normal, and I had the clear sense that these are women I would choose as friends regardless. It was so nice to get to spend some time with them, building a non-emergency friendship.
And of course, the visit gave us an opportunity to explore Stuttgart itself. I really enjoyed the enormous main square, Schlossplatz.
Also, there was a wine fest (which seems to be code for: lots of amazing food vendors everywhere and people drinking heartily starting in the late morning) that was nice to wander around.
We even biked out along the river to the Mercedez-Benz museum, which is one of the more interesting museums I've ever been to. You're looking here at the first automobile ever, designed by a German man called--you guessed it--Benz, in 1885.
Happily, M was able to take most of a day off from her busy life as a doctor and take a little fieldtrip with SR and me to the outskirts of the city, where we climbed a hill through beautiful vineyards with bunches of grapes just sagging from the vines (and they were SO SO GOOD).
At the top, we reached Grabkapelle, the beautifully situated grave and chapel dedicated to Katharine, wife of Wilhelm I. I somehow failed to take a picture of the chapel itself, but the views over Stuttgart were equally nice.
Yet another amazingly wonderful visit on this trip that just seems charmed.
It's 9 years since I've seen M and we haven't really kept in touch in the meantime, but it felt strangely normal to spend time with her again (and under much better circumstances this time!). On the night we arrived, she made us an amazing dinner of kasspatzle (sorry--there should be two dots over the a's in that word; I can't figure out how to access accent marks on this computer)....
...had a spread, each morning, of gorgeous German baked goods...
...and arranged for her good friend, C (she's changed the spelling of her name...some of you may know her as K...), who was also on the bus with us, to drive over from Munich area for a full reunion over breakfast one morning. As I said, hard to process the three of us in the same room together after so much time and given the circumstances in Tanzania. But also it felt very normal, and I had the clear sense that these are women I would choose as friends regardless. It was so nice to get to spend some time with them, building a non-emergency friendship.
And of course, the visit gave us an opportunity to explore Stuttgart itself. I really enjoyed the enormous main square, Schlossplatz.
Also, there was a wine fest (which seems to be code for: lots of amazing food vendors everywhere and people drinking heartily starting in the late morning) that was nice to wander around.
We even biked out along the river to the Mercedez-Benz museum, which is one of the more interesting museums I've ever been to. You're looking here at the first automobile ever, designed by a German man called--you guessed it--Benz, in 1885.
Happily, M was able to take most of a day off from her busy life as a doctor and take a little fieldtrip with SR and me to the outskirts of the city, where we climbed a hill through beautiful vineyards with bunches of grapes just sagging from the vines (and they were SO SO GOOD).
At the top, we reached Grabkapelle, the beautifully situated grave and chapel dedicated to Katharine, wife of Wilhelm I. I somehow failed to take a picture of the chapel itself, but the views over Stuttgart were equally nice.
Yet another amazingly wonderful visit on this trip that just seems charmed.
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