While Las Vegas is the self proclaimed Sin City, Amsterdam is the real deal. However, a couple factors set it apart from the self indulgent attractions of Vegas. 1) everything is legal here, hence no “sins” have been committed (except as determined by your own conscience or moral beliefs), and 2) Amsterdam has so much more to offer that such a title would be a disservice to the beauty of the city.

The Amstel River runs through the city, as do 100+ other canals, and over 1,000 bridges. In the 1960’s, the city went to great efforts & expense to install safety railings around the canals. However, their hard work and money might have been more worthwhile if those railings were more than 4 inches tall. According to the tour guide on the canal cruise, an average of 1 car per week falls into the waterways… and certainly countless drunks or bicyclists over taken by the gusty winds that are typical of this area. Houseboats are also commonplace in these canals. As the city started to grow there was a shortage of housing, so many people took to life on the canal. Most of these homes are legal, and are supplied with water, gas & electricity. However, there are some boats docked illegally, and have no access to utilities.

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A while back we watched a Travel Channel special on Brussels that really peaked my interest. Brussels is referred to as the Capital of Europe, being home to the European Union headquarters. Its country also stakes claim to the best waffles, chocolate, and beer, and swears that they invented the french fry. Some might argue that this tiny country has made more significant contributions to modern society than any other. Seriously, we could all live without the space program, but without waffles there would be no holes to keep the whip cream, juicy strawberries or softened peanut butter from sliding off your fried batter. The world would be flat – pancake flat… and my mom made terrible pancakes. (it’s ok, she’s a great cook otherwise, and she even laughs at herself once a decade when she tries them again.)

The most common scent in Brussels was sugar. I guess with that much goodness going around, it’s hard to be uptight. We found the locals to be very friendly, and never taking themselves too seriously. As one local put it, “Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State Building, and we have Manneken Pis” – a famous statue of a small boy relieving himself. We later found a less famous female version along the same lines, the Jeanneke Pis.

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You just never know what you’re going to find in Barcelona. I’m pretty sure that every night we stay in, we miss something. For example, we spent most of the day today inside, preparing for our upcoming trip, doing chores, etc. So about 6:00pm we were ready to get out. We had nowhere to go, so we just started wandering.

Walking down one of the main streets that we take pretty regularly, we heard some music, so we followed our ears. We wound up in the Plaza de la Constitución, where a band was playing and people were dancing the Sardana. Sardana is a traditional Catalan dance that represents unity. People gather in circles, holding hands up high, and step in unison. Coats and bags are usually placed in the center of the circle for safe keeping.

We’ve witnessed this before, usually with groups of senior citizens outside of the Barcelona Cathedral on a Sunday afternoon. We still don’t know the reason for this particular celebration, but we enjoyed watching it for a while.

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Our time in Istanbul was split into two parts. We spent a full day there on our way to Cappadocia, and a few more days on the back end. They say that Istanbul is “where the east meets the west” – both literally & figuratively, and that couldn’t be more true.

We found that most people spoke English in the city, and in many ways it was not too different from other major cities we’ve visited. Turkey is currently working very hard to join the European Union, so it makes me curious if the larger cities are embracing the “ways of the west” more than they might have several years ago? Maybe, maybe not. At any rate, there was still a feeling unlike anything else we had experienced in Europe. We definitely observed some cultural differences, despite the western influence.

Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country, and while probably not as “extreme” as many other eastern countries, you do notice some differences, such as there being fewer women and children out and about. It is also customary to hear the “call to prayer” 5 times per day. The call is broadcast from speakers on the minarets of the many mosques, and can be heard everywhere, including in our hotel room at 5:00am. Some shops briefly close while the owners head to the nearest mosque or prayer room, while others go about their business but respectfully turn down music or anything else to distract from the time of prayer.

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Just wanted to share something kind of fun…

Eagle Creek (the makers of the backpacks and some other travel gear that we use), asked us to submit a story about “Love on the Road”, and they selected our story to be featured in their Valentine’s Day enewsletter!

Here’s a picture of the email that went out to their subscribers, and you can Click Here to read our story on Eagle Creek’s website.

Cappadocia was one of the most interesting, actually surreal, places we have ever been. The story begins with the tale of our first overnight bus. We have done overnight planes and trains before, so we pretty much knew what we were in for. However, what we didn’t count on was being smushed into the very last row of a bus that was 100% full, and felt about 100 degrees.

Scott had the very center seat, meaning there was nothing in front of him except the aisle way (at least until 2am, when more people got on the bus than off, so a little boy had to sit on the floor in front of Scott’s feet). Then there was one couple on Scott’s right, me to his left, and another lucky person shoved into the corner on the other side of me. We were all feeling a little cramped, and to make matters worse, Scott’s seat would not recline, so we were in for a long night.

I got a little sleep in-between the frequent stops, in which I always got out to use the bathroom because I never knew when my next chance would be. (ok, a quick note about that… we were now on the Asian side of Turkey, and the bathrooms were a clear reflection that this was more “foreign” than any place we had yet visited. A hole in the ground, a bucket, a water spout, no toilet paper, no paper towels. Yet they charged you .50 YTL (about .40 cents) to use it.)

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It was another early day heading from Santorini to Heraklion, Crete. In the summer it would be nice to take a ferry, but they are unreliable (or nonexistent) at this time of year, so we took a short flight. We only had one day in Heraklion before heading across the island it Chania, so we hit the ground running… straight to the gyro stand, through the open air market, around several churches, to the end of the harbor and back.

The main attraction of the area is the Palace of Knossos, or what’s left of it. The palace belonged to the Minoans who once inhabited the island, but were wiped out by earthquakes caused by the eruption of the volcano on Santorini. We weren’t able to visit the site of the palace, as it’s a bit too far away considering our time limitations; however, we did visit the archaeological museum which houses some of the artifacts recovered from the ruins.

Today’s Heraklion, as Scott put it, seems to be struggling to find its identity. It’s a large city, so there’s a mix of old, new, charming, and ugly. It’s the capitol of the best known island in Greece, yet it lacks that island charm that exists in the most of the other villages. However, I do have to give them credit for the fact that they put fries in their gyros, and for their fabulous cafés.

The Greek’s seem to think that Nescafé is coffee. In fact they advertise on menus like they expect the foreigners to be excited about it. Luckily, the cafés in Heraklion aren’t really as much about coffee as they are about sitting in plush chairs lining the sidewalks, basking in the sunshine, chatting with friends, or people watching… all of which happen to be among my favorite activities.

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Thanks to that 5:55am flight from Athens, we made it to Santorini before the sun.  Luckily our hotel let us check in early, so we were able to take a morning nap before heading out for the day.

We knew that February was not the best time of year to visit Santorini, and we were expecting some things to be closed.  March or April certainly would’ve been the ideal time for this trip, as it still beats the high season, but you’re likely to have a little more life on the island.  However, with the amount of traveling we want to do in the next 8 months, something had to come first, and we figured Greek Islands in February would be better than Poland in February!

So there we were.  I know there were other people in our hotel, but I don’t know who they are or where they went during the day, because we underestimated how much would be closed.  I had actually asked a few questions of the hotel before we booked this trip, but certainly not wanting to discourage any amount of tourism in their low season, I think some details were not fully disclosed.

Apparently a lot of Santorini’s business owners don’t actually live on the island, so they go home for the winters & return during peak season.  And while it’s true that there is a bus stop just a few meters from the hotel, upon arrival we learned that those buses are few and far between at this time of year.

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