Tips for traveling

 Here are just a few tips for traveling. I am a big planner so I had everything set up like 3 months before we left. I planned our trip threw Workaway mainly just started saving my favorite profiles that interested me and then connected the dots to line them up. We stayed 2 weeks normally at each sometimes more or less depending on what the host could do. Every time we wished we could stay longer. I filled the in betweens with little weekend get aways so we could be tourists. I used Airbnb or homeaway and they were easy to find last minute or I had some already booked and paid for. Just make sure they are verified and a lot of them you paid half before hand and the other half when you met them to get the key. And then couchsurf is good too it was hard for us to find because we were two people but we did a few and it was great. Hostels also were a nice cheap route and you meet a lot of cool people that are also traveling. Some were hard to find we always googled directions when we could but usually had to ask for directions. But definitely recommend Workaway that was an awesome experience. If you want my contacts from the ones we did I can send them to you. 

 Workaway.info

Homeaway.com

Flipkey.com

Airbnb.com

As far as traveling and getting around we used a lot of trains and even did night trains so you get a recline seat and one night of sleep. We did buses a lot too they were always nice. Ride share is very popular and we saved a lot of money doing that. Flying is an option too once you are over there it's easy and cheap to jump around just be careful some airlines that are super cheap have other fees. Do not recommend Ryanair no matter how cheap they are. Just watch if they ask you to check in do online while you can if not and you miss the window they charge you a 50 Euro fee! One website I used the most is rome2rio.com it compares all ways of travel and shows cheapest fastest and has links to buy a ticket. 

When you are in a city use the metro and always look at the map at where you might be staying and make sure you are close to a metro. You can save if you buy the day tickets or you can get multi day tickets and a lot of them work for city buses too. You can buy the multi day tickets at any store that sells lottery tickets. Or at the touch screen machine in the metro. Do not buy them from a guy in the metro station. 

Rome2rio.com

Goeuro.com

Raileurope.com

Filxbus

Megabus

National express bus

Bla bla car get the app( have to change location in Apple Store settings) 

Skyscanner

I got an international SIM card and it worked great. Was nice to have when we needed to call our host to pick us up or got lost and didn't have wifi. 

Do you understand everything about the schengen zone? If you have any questions let me know and I am happy to share personal contacts from the people I met along the way. 

 

Rome adventures with Mom

The moment I've been waiting for, This whole trip was mainly about going to Italy and we finally arrived in Rome on October 18. We checked into our hotel and freshened up on our Italian phrases before we ventured out into the world of Italy. 

Before I left for this trip. Dad and I discussed surprising mom for her birthday with a trip to Rome. We planned it to be at the same time I would be there. He told her on her birthday about the plan and since August we have both been eagerly waiting for this day to come! So mom's flight arrived 4 days after we arrived in Rome. While we waited for her to arrive we explored around the outside of Rome. We went to the beach and discovered it had black sand. We walked through a really nice nature reserve park and noticed all the Cyprus trees. We spent way too much time in the grocery store just admiring the selection of cheese and prosciutto and pasta! We tasted the local pizza that was only great dough, cheese and toppings. No sauce. We went to our first Italian restaurant and ordered in Italian. It's a good thing we are not picky cause we didn't exactly know what we ordered. They brought out a pasta dish as the first course and then the main dish we ordered. I had chicken and justin had pork sausage. Then they bring a salad with olive oil and balsamic from the local region, that was delicious. So now we knew pasta was a first course, which made it a little cheaper and that's good news for me. We also noticed when we ate dinner the next night we caught some kind of early bird special but it was like 7 pm.  Italians eat very late most restaurants were either closed or completely empty at 7. They come out around 8:30or 9 in big groups and would start filling up the restaurants. Lucky for us the night we had the early bird special we had the whole restaurant to ourselves and we had one of our favorite dishes. A classic, cacio e pepe it's basically egg pasta with a Parmesan sauce and lots of freshly cracked pepper. 

Finally the time had come for mom to arrive. After a 23 hour flight she landed at midnight and took a taxi to our hotel where we were waiting outside. I was so excited to see mom, it's only been 3 months but it felt much longer being so far away. 

We got up the next morning and started our adventure. We had to journey into Rome with all of our luggage to the next hotel that was closer to the metro and the city. We took two crowded buses and got some looks because we had the luggage in the seats and everybody had to stand. We finally arrived had to work out some issues with the hotel but after it was all settled we walked to Trastevere area. It's a picturesque old part of town with cobble stone narrow roads and the inhabitants consider themselves the only true Romans left. We went to see the Santa Maria in Trastevere which was probably the first Christian church in Rome inside were beautiful mosaics of the virgin dating back to 1291. We continued to wonder through the narrow streets looking at all the shops and restaurants and watched as the night life came out. We found a small restaurant and ordered pasta of course! We ordered bruschetta to start with but the waiter brought out brusketta instead a variety of meat and prosciutto. Then our pasta: mom had spaghetti carbonara made with pancetta, I had truffle tortellini stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta cheese, and justin had his favorite cacio e pepe. 

Day two with mom we started at the Pantheon one of rome's oldest buildings and best preserved, built in the 1st century AD. Then we saw a few churches. First was Santa Maria sopra Minerva built in the 13th century and is famous for the beautiful blue ceilings and the risen Christ sculpture by Michelangelo. Second was Sant'lgnazio di Loyola built in 1626 in honor of the Jesuits (society of Jesus) founder. It's famous for its illusionistic ceiling showing 4 women representing Asia, Europe, America and Africa being sucked into heaven. It also had a beautiful wooden sculpture of all churches around the world under one big church in hopes that one day we will all be together as one religion. Next we stopped to see the ruins at Largo Argentina these are some of the oldest found in Rome dating from the era of the Republic. One has been identified as the buildings where Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and Cassius in 44BC. Then we walked to the lively market at Campo de Fiori where we saw lots of cheese and truffles, olive oil, balsamic, huge porcini mushrooms, artichokes, cashmere scarf, and leather. We ate pizza on our way to the Trevi Fountain  Rome's most famous fountain, but we didn't get to throw our coin in because they were renovating and had drained the water out. The Spanish Steps were also being renovated but we got to see them and the Piazza around the steps was a busy and interesting place. We got on the metro from there and headed to the hotel to rest before it was dinner time. We found a small local restaurant that turned out to be wonderful. We even met some people from Seattle sitting at the table next to us. We finally got the right bruschetta and the waitress brought out a special zucchini flower stuffed with mozzarella and deep fried. It was delicious. Mom ordered spinach risotto and I fresh fettuccini in a saffron zucchini sauce and justin had spinach ravioli in a pesto sauce. It was a great end to our busy day. 

Day three with mom! We got up early to wait in line for the Vatican City. Everyone knows about the Vatican but it's even better in person. It's a separate state ruled by the pope about 500 people live there the city has its own post office, bank, currency, radio station and daily newspaper. We entered at the Vatican museum but sprinted straight for the Sistine Chapel to have time to see it and then not be rushed to see all of the museum. The Chapel is beautiful Michelangelo's ceiling is amazing he painted it between 1508 and 1512 it has so many details and colors I can't imagine having to paint that on your back. A wall at the end of the chapel The Last Judgment by Michelangelo is said to be his masterpiece of his mature years. He worked on it alone for 7 years completing it in 1541. This was really cool to see. Then we went through the museum which holds several Greek and Roman antiquities and artifacts from Egyptian tombs. Most of Italy's greatest artists, such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci are represented in the art gallery. There is so much to see we spent the rest of the day at the museum until they closed. We were there on Sunday when the pope comes out to bless the crowd but we didn't go see him. Since the museum was closed we walked to Castel Sant Angelo which has a huge corridor linked with the Vatican Palace, providing an escape route for the pope. 

The next day was Monday and most things are closed so we had a relaxing morning and went out in the afternoon. We walked past the pyramid of Caius Cestius and went to Church of Domine Quo Vadis were Jesus' footprints are. Then we took a metro over to Eataly a 4 story heaven for me, full of gourmet food you could buy and sample and there was a culinary school on the top floor. We bought balsamic, wine and several other things that later filled mom's suitcase so we could have them when we get home. Since we spent most of the day at Eataly and had a late lunch, on our way to the hotel we stopped at a pastry shop and got mini tiramisu and pistachio cream puffs and some cannoli for "dinner". It was a good day and a perfect ending. 

Next day was the Colosseum! We got there early but didn't have to wait in line long. We got inside and it's amazing what grand scale it is. It's bigger than you imagine. And is amazing to think they built this in AD 72. It could hold over 55,000 people and had a retractable awning to shelter the spectators. The arena floor was originally wooden and covered with sand but underneath was a network of elevators to lift the animals up to the gladiator. You can see the setup of the elevators today. We noticed our ticket for the Colosseum included the Palatine and the Arch of Constantine. So we went to the arch next and then started walking the Palatine, we didn't realize how big it was. It's one of the best kept ancient sites in Rome it was once the residence of emperors and aristocrats. You can see from the ruins a range of simple houses where Augustus was born to luxurious palace for later emperors. There is also a huge courtyard and stadium where they did horse races. From the courtyard you can see the remains of the Roman Forum below. It was the city center during the early republic at the 2nd century BC Julius Caesar built up the city to be nicer he built business centers and law courts. It was cool to walk the streets and imagine how it was back then. We were close to a big monument that was fairly new it was built in honor of the first king of unified Italy The Victor Emmanuel Monument. We walked up to the top of it and then over to the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli that dates back to the 6th century. The church is famous for its detailed gilded ceiling and it's paintings by Pinturicchio also the miracle-working wooden baby Jesus is there. We walked down the marble Aracoeli Steps and into the Piazza del Campidoglio where a statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius is in the center. Next we went to San Giovanni in Laterano a huge cathedral built in the early 4th century but has been rebuilt several times. Beside it is Sancta Sanctorium where the Jesus steps are. It is said the mother of Constantine had the holy stairs moved from Jerusalem in 326. They consist of 28 marble steps from Pontius Pilate's palace and it's believed that Jesus walked up and down these during His Passion. The steps are covered in walnut woodwork out of devotion and are ascended on ones knees. We prayed as we went up the holy stairs on our knees it was very humbling and faith encouraging. We all felt closer to God after this experience. 

After our fun filled day we ate dinner at a small bistro. Justin had spaghetti alle vongole a classic pasta dish served with tomatoes and baby clams. Mom had 4 cheese gnocchi and I had fresh ravioli with sage and butter sauce. 

The next day of our adventure we took a train to Florence! In the 15th century Florence was the hub of the artistic and culture reawakening. Writers such as Dante, Petrarch, and Machiavelli created a proud literary heritage and paintings and sculptures of artists such as Botticelli, Michelangelo and Donatello make this one of the world's greatest artistic capitals. We started at the Galleria dell' Accademia where the famous David statue by Michelangelo is. It stands 17ft tall and was sculpted when he was only 29 making him the foremost sculptor of his time. We saw so many other amazing works of art too. Then we walked the winding streets toward the Duomo and Baptistry. The cathedral is Europe's fourth-largest church it's beautiful. The inside of the dome was painted by Brunelleschi and the Baptistry has a beautiful 13th century mosaic illustrating the last judgement and this is where many famous Florentines including Dante were baptized. The famous bronze doors were made by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1424 each panel shows scriptural subjects and events like Abraham and the Sacrifice of Isaac. We walked past the birth place of Dante on our way to get something to eat. We found some delicious pizza and then went to Palazzo Vecchio where the town hall still stands and many famous sculptures scatter the square.  We walked down by the Arno the river that cuts through the city and saw the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge(1345) lined with shops with an elevated corridor called Corridoio Vasariano, it was designed for the Medici family to move about their residences without having to mix with the public. And then we crossed another bridge called Ponte Santa Trinita. On our way back to the train station we passed the church of Santa Maria Novella. Then we jumped on a train that went through Tuscany to Pisa. We quickly got to the leaning tower of Pisa before it got dark. And the church it is beside the Campo del Miracoli. Then we walked down the streets and found antique market and shopped around a little. We had to grab dinner to go and catch the train back to Rome. We got back pretty late and we were all tired from our long adventurous day. 

We saved the best for last. On mom's last day we went to St. Peter's Cathedral. It's a huge cathedral inside the Vatican, it holds hundreds of precious works of art some even from the original church built by Constantine in the 4th century. A lot of the inside was designed by Bernini, including the extravagant Baroque canopy that stands over St Peter's tomb with twisting marble columns going up below Michelangelo's huge dome. That is 448 ft high and is said that the Statue of Liberty could fit under the dome. There is also Michelangelo's Pieta created when he was 25 in 1499 and is the only sculptor he signed. We took our time admiring this beautiful church and we climbed to the top of the dome. That was a wonderful view of Rome. Once we were done we did a little souvenir shopping and then got gelato! Mom's first time trying it. We went back to the hotel and packed and then went to eat dinner at our new favorite restaurant. This time mom got a pizza with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and sweet corn. Justin had fresh linguini with an eggplant Parmesan tomatoe sauce and I had truffle pasta with porcini mushrooms. It was a delicious Italian farewell dinner before mom had to go back to the real world and we had to journey to our next workaway. 

Special thanks to daddy for having this great idea and getting everything ready for mom's surprise trip and for funding our roman adventure. Wish you could have been here with us! 

Michelangelo's 

Trevi fountain and Spanish steps

Jesus' feet 

Truffles at Eataly 

Roman forum

David in Florence 

Pisa

St. Peter's 

From top of the dome

Castlelyons estate with Mr. & Mrs. Greene

 

We took a short bus ride from Cork to Fermoy, Ireland. It was raining as we waited for our new host family to pick us up. Colette took us to the next town over and we pulled up to a giant blue gate, she hopped out of the car, unlocked the gate and we drove through. It looked like a whole different world, like we were in a fairytale. The estate is called Castelyons it’s a huge house with a rose garden, vegetable garden, apple orchard, wild flower garden, and a forest trail. The house was built in the 17^th century and it heated by a wood stove. It has very tall ceilings and huge windows to overlook the gardens. The kitchen has a big old-time aga stove. We were staying in a guest house that had a small wood stove. We met Sebastian her husband, a professor from London. We met their neighbor Billy that has a farm with cattle and sheep. The first night Colette cooked everyone dinner. She made a wonderful parsnip soup and teriyaki chicken with rice and sautéed zucchini with bok choy and purple sprout broccoli in sesame oil. Then she brought out a beautiful crystal bowl with figs in brandy for dessert. 

The next day we went over what we needed to do while we stayed here. She had a list of things we could choose from and another list of things we could do if it was bad weather. The first day it was raining so I stayed inside made some dried apples and cleaned the kitchen and made an apple walnut cake with caramel drizzle. Justin chopped some wood inside the barn. That night it was our turn to cook dinner we made roasted lamb chops with balsamic glaze and glazed carrots and rosemary potatoes. They loved it! We all started talking more about food over dinner and we started to plan a dinner party for some of their friends that were coming in for a funeral that weekend. We will get to that later. 

Second day was sunny and warm so we worked out in the apple orchard. Most of the apples were ready to pick and a lot had fallen off. We filled around 8 baskets of different kinds of apples! And they had a few pear trees. We were going to juice all these apples later when it was a rainy day. That afternoon we rode into town with Sebastian and did some shopping. Colette cooked a wonderful dinner that night. She taught me how to make a kale salad and she made a beautiful vegetable quiche, all from her garden. The next day I worked some in the garden. I planted new bulbs that would flower in the winter and she showed me where to plant them so they could be seen from the big windows when you are inside. Justin helped put up a pin for the ducks. A family of ducks picked their yard as a home but one of the babies got taken so they made a pin that would protect them and they could still be outside. One of the little babies hurt her foot so we nursed her back to health, we called her melody because she would chirp up a storm when we were all in the kitchen.  Colette had to work late so it was Sebastian’s night to cook. Colette is a phycologist but mainly does therapy with horseback riding.  That night Sebastian grilled us some delicious ribs. We always had interesting dinner conversations living with a professor and a phycologist they were always conversations that made you think or dig a little deeper. We learned a lot especially from their traveling, they had been to china recently and brought back a lot of tea, which we got to taste. They knew a lot about wine as well and everywhere they went they would bring back wine. 

Thursday it was the day before the big dinner party so we had to make a list and go shopping and do any prep work that we could. Colette and I got out the fancy china that was her grandmother’s and she had a separate dining room that was only used on special occasions so we decided this was one of those times. We cleaned and set the table and planned out how the evening was going to go. She gave us the rest of the day off because we would be cooking all day Friday. We went over to our guest house and watched a movie while we picked the meat off the crab we were using, and I made my detailed prep list to get ready for tomorrow. First thing Friday morning we made the sushi while it was still cool in the kitchen, then we made the chocolate mousse so it would have time to set in the fridge. Next we marinated the leg of lamb and chopped up a lot of herbs for an herb rub. Then we had some time for afternoon tea. We started the slow roasting of the lamb and prepped the side dishes the last thing we did was make the two sauces. 

So the full menu was course one: fresh crab sushi with avocado, fresh salmon and cream cheese roll, fresh salmon sushi, and a vegetable cucumber and avocado roll. Course two: herb roasted leg of lamb with red currant gastric sauce. Honey glazed carrots, sautéed asparagus with hollandaise sauce and blue cheese grits soufflé. This was served and carved table side and Sebastian had picked out a nice red wine to go with it. The third course: a choice of raspberry chocolate mousse or figs in brandy with a dollop of cream. And they had a dessert wine or brandy as well. Then the last course was a cheese plate. 

The evening turned out great and everyone loved the food and it was really fun getting to talk to all these interesting people. After a long day of cooking and a long night of eating we were off for the weekend.  We took a bike ride up to the next town and saw some beautiful scenery of the countryside. Sunday they cooked the traditional Irish Sunday brunch for their son and his family came to visit. A big roast served with mustard and boiled potatoes and sweet potatoes. It was really good and his son lives in Kinsail on the coast so on our next weekend we planned to stay with his family and have a mini vacation.

Monday we cleaned the weeds and dead plants from under the huge walnut tree. It took a while but when we were finished it looked really good. It was a perfect place for a picnic. They have a dog named harry and he loves to play, when they rescued him he had a hurt hip because he was hyperactive and didn’t know when to stop playing. But while we were cleaning under the tree he kept finding a new stick and would beg to play, he was so cute you couldn’t resist. That night was our night to cook. I made a butternut squash and apple soup with baked salmon, we had left over from the sushi, a citrus beurre blanc and green beans. 

The next two days we juiced apples. We made about 30 bottles of apple juice and started the apple cider vinegar. Sebastian had a friend staying for a few days and he wanted to cook something special for him so he grilled salmon and Justin roasted potatoes and I made a cheese soufflé. 

The weekend came around and we took a bus to Kinsale to meet up with Dillion. He drove us around on a little tour of the city and we went to a famous golf course that only billionaires play at but it has a gorgeous view of the ocean and the cliffs. Then we went up the mountain to his house. He and his wife just moved in a few months ago they bought this farm house that has been remodeled. They have a really nice view from their kitchen window. We helped him put up a polytunnel that he will use to grow vegetables and lettuce. He also makes homemade fruit wine kind of like moonshine but with fruit, we got to try some from last year’s batch. They have two girls a 4 year old and a newborn. So I had a new friend that loved princesses and showed me all her princess dresses and when I told her Justin worked at Disney she freaked out! After we helped with the polytunnel we went out to the beach and dillion used to be a kayak instructor so he and Justin went out on kayaks. They didn’t get very far because the sea was pretty rough and they were in river kayaks so not very stable. Justin flipped twice and got soaked! So we had to go back home before he froze. That night we made spaghetti bolognaise. Our last day there they cooked us a traditional breakfast with sausage and black pudding and breakfast potatoes and eggs it was so filling but so good.

We got back to Colette’s house and she had a surprise for us. She took us to a local cheese maker that she knows. Fred is a dairy farmer and makes his own cheese from his cow’s milk. He also sells raw milk and yogurt. He showed us around and brought out like 6 cheeses for us to taste. He just lights up when he starts talking about his cheese so it was really interesting to talk to him. He was doing an experiment and making his own culture for the cheese and he let us have some of that it was so good you could just taste the farm, it was so fresh. That night we had our gnocchi dish with walnut and pears from the garden and we ate more cheese! Our last day we planted garlic and leeks for the winter and we harvested herb and lavender to be dried. We made sushi one last time so we could teach Sebastian how to make it himself. We had a great last night and reminisced on our time spent there. We left behind some of our recipes but gain some as well and learned a lot about gardening and harvesting things to last all winter. It was a wonderful experience.

We took a night bus to Dublin airport and had an early flight to Scotland. 

The estate 

Our guest house 

Purple sprout broccoli 

Baby melody the duck 

Apple orchard 

Apple juicing process 

Kale salad and quiche 

Getting ready for the dinner party 

Harry with two sticks ready to play 

Cheese soufflé 

Waiting at kinsale 

Billionaries golf course

View from Dillion's kitchen 

Kayaking 

Cheese!