Road Trip from Marseilles to Paris: Part 1

In late June my parents came to join us on a two-week road trip from Marseilles to Paris. We rented a car and had a great time stopping in towns and cities along the route, mostly staying two nights in each place except for Paris where we stayed for four. In many of the towns we rented apartments where we'd make at least one meal a day--which of course always consisted of at least two French baguettes, a variety of local cheeses, and wine. We hopped from towns in the Riviera to the Western edge of Switzerland, through a small portion of Germany for one afternoon, and then to Paris. It was good to make the trip with family after being away from home for so long.

We penciled in a rough map of our route. Here it is.

Krakow, Poland: Photo Tour

In our nearly six months of travels this year, we've visited about 16 countries, and about 40 or so different towns and cities. Some had great food, or amazing history, friendly people, or breathtaking landscapes. But out of all of these places, Krakow is the one I could most imagine myself living.

Don't worry, Mom, there's no move to Poland in my future (so far as I can see, anyway). But Krakow is just so appealing. It has that elusive "thing" that makes people (or us, anyway) want to stick around for awhile and enjoy. It's the perfect size: big enough to have plenty of neat neighborhoods and great food options, but small enough to get around on foot or public transit pretty easily. The gorgeous spring weather probably had an impact on how much we loved the city.

Yes, Krakow is a place I could call home... except for one major factor. Pigeons.

Pigeons!!!

I know, there are pigeons everywhere. But there are flocks and flocks all over Krakow, each bird seemingly trying to get tangled in my hair or eat one of my toes for lunch. If only they were well-behaved, then maybe me and Krakow could get it together. But alas, back to the U.S. I will go. (Please forgive me my anti-pigeon rant. Tom has already heard it about 40 times. One of the joys of spending each and every day with only one other person is that we hear each other's stories and ideas again and again. But, hey! That's why we have a blog!)

While we were visiting Krakow in early June, we spent much of our time wandering around the old city. It's large, but very walk-able, with lots of little shops and restaurants begging for our zloty. The entire old city is encircled by a green park, which was fairly bustling each time we visited. We passed several hours people-watching as joggers, bikers, dog-walkers and lazy strollers wandered by. Even outside of the historic center, the city is vibrant and fun.

Tom and I also took a day trip to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. We highly recommend that anyone visiting Krakow take the short trip over. It's one thing to learn what happened during the Holocaust, but it's another thing to be there. Suffice it to say, it was an incredibly moving day.

Now onto the photos.

Wawel Castle grounds

Tom outside of Wawel Castle

Bike paths along the river.

This park runs all around the old city (Stare Miasto)

Sunset in the Main Market Square

Vendors in the Main Market Square

Free lemon vodka at Trezo

Yes, I know it's weird to eat lasagna in Poland. But it was amazing.

This amazing.

Musicians playing for us while we ate

Somehow Tribeca, a small coffee shop and restaurant, ended up being our hangout for the 5 or so days we were in Krakow

Probably because of these: delicious lattes, and croissants filled with either chocolate or raspberry

Zapiekanka, which is sort of like a Polish version of pizza. It's tasty.

Beers in a garden

Getting rained on. 

Climbing the tower in the Main Market Square

Tom climbed too

View from the top

Us. (Please note the new green scarf. Thank you, Krakow. And Tom, who got sick of looking at my other one and so purchased this one.)

At Auschwitz-Birkenau

This inscription is written in many different languages at Birkenau.

-R

Meandering through the Czech Republic

There is a lot of catching up to do, and I think the best way to do it is with photo tours. As Rachel said, we've had friends and family visiting for the past month, and we've had a great time. We'll definitely post pictures of that soon, but for now let's do a little recap. We were in Croatia about two months ago. From there we went to Vienna and then in mid- to late-May we traveled through the Czech Republic. It was beautiful. We saw many small towns, walked dirt roads in the country, met a local while canoeing who insisted we take a swig of rum with him, toured castles, drank mead, and ate an entire "rabbit feast". We were there for a little over a week.

This was our general path:

Here is a list of our major stops:

- Brno: We only stayed for an afternoon, as the city was a little large, and after Vienna we were looking for something smaller. Still, the people were friendly and it was a nice place.

- Telč: Stayed for three days in this small town. There was a festival going on where we feasted on Czech festival food like brats and piping hot, doughy treats. The dirt roads through the fields of canola outside town were beautiful.

- Slavonice: A village on the border of Austria, Slavonice was one of our favorite places. Again, the trails are picturesque and the Vienna-Prague Greenways (a long bike path) runs through here.

- Český Krumlov: This is where we went canoeing and enjoyed our mead and rabbit feast. Český Krumlov has a castle on a hill overlooking the river... and the area is a great spot to canoe.

- Prague: We spent three days here. It was rainy and overcast, but still a fun city with crowds of people visiting. We also got a chance to meet up with a friend of Rachel's for breakfast.

- Olomouc: Our last stop before heading to Poland. Another small town in the country with some good restaurants and tons of churches to tour.

We took a lot of photos, but here are the highlights. Enjoy!

The main square of Telč

Sunset in Telč

Sensory Overload in Bangkok, Thailand

Note: We'll be bouncing back and forth between Europe and Southeast Asia posts for the next few weeks while we get caught up. Don't be confused: we've left Europe, and are planning to stay put on the other side of the world for awhile!

We arrived in Bangkok a few days ago, and I'm still overwhelmed by all of the sights, smells and sounds of the city.

Market of dried fish.

Food stalls

 

Walking around town

Shopping!

In some ways, it's exciting to constantly see, hear, or eat things you've never experienced before. But on the other hand, my brain has been in a state of constant stimulation for the past few days... and that can be tiring, to say the least. It seems that I go from exhilarated to exhausted and back again every hour or two. Travel writers often like to describe cities or countries as having contrasting elements. Bangkok is the first city I've been to where I've thought the description to be fully accurate.

Take, for example, the city streets. They're chaotic and messy, and crossing one as a pedestrian is like playing a game of Frogger, except with motorcycles and tuk-tuks that weave in and out of lanes at random, all seemingly aiming for anything on two legs. Even the sidewalks aren't safe; you must constantly watch all around to make sure some vehicle isn't headed straight towards you.

Tuk-tuiks and motorcycles. This is very calm!

But, if you head to any one of the three train systems, you'll find a completely different world. The chaos is gone. Instead, there's serene music playing and everything is scrubbed clean. The citizens and tourists of Bangkok line up in straight rows to enter and exit trains, and while traveling, they sit quietly or talk in hushed voices. It's so different from the honking cars lining the streets.

This is a great system. People queue up along the sides and enter on a diagonal. People exit the train down the middle. 

Even more shocking, people seem to follow the arrows!

Tom riding the skytrain. Take note of the calm behind him.

On a more serious note, you can see vast differences in income and lifestyle from one block to the next. In many areas of the city, people live in crumbling homes and wash their pots and pans on the sidewalk. But right around the corner, there are brand new skyscrapers and gleaming malls filled with stores like Cartier, Valentino and more.

No matter what area of the city we were in, we felt completely safe, and we found friendly and helpful people in all parts of Bangkok. A nice young woman helped us order some delicious minced pork with basil from a street vendor. Three men who worked on the river ferries helped me reunite with Tom after I got stranded on a ferry while Tom was onshore. (Yeah, that was a fun half hour of worrying.) And many, many more people helped us navigate our way through public transportation, crazy intersections, and more.

The temples all around Bangkok are nothing I've ever seen before -- at least not in person! It seemed like every surface was covered in glittering gold or intricate tile-work. It was absolutely beautiful. While we saw some of the major "must-see" tourist stops, I preferred our time wandering around the streets of Bangkok, just taking in all parts of city life. Enjoy the rest of our photo tour after the break, and check back tomorrow for a few tips we've picked up for those traveling to Bangkok!