Istanbul is a place that we highly recommend taking some extra time to see and experience. For us, it was worth spending extra time just exploring the city and walking around because Istanbul is so different from most places we’ve been.
Istanbul is a place that we highly recommend taking some extra time to see and experience. For us, it was worth spending extra time just exploring the city and walking around because Istanbul is so different from most places we’ve been.
Public transportation in Turkey is a great way to get around the city while you’re visiting.
We did our research before arriving in Istanbul, however, what we think we know is often a bit different than what we experience once we arrive. We were excited to venture into a city that was very different than any place we’d visited in Europe so far. Not to mention, it’s one city on two continents!
Traveling continuously for months at a time can sometimes cause places and things to blur together. Turkey was a refreshing experience for our senses and Istanbul quickly set itself apart from other places we’ve visited.
We’ve been fortunate enough over the last five or so months of traveling to find homeowners gracious enough to allow us into their home to care for their pets and their home while their away. This has allowed us to see a great number of places that would have been difficult and much more costly otherwise.
You can’t walk the streets of Brussels (or many other Belgian cities for that matter) without smelling fresh waffles and seeing an abundance of specialty chocolate shops.
In part five of this multi-part city guide, we go over our adventures and sightseeing itinerary in Brussels.
In part four of this multi-part city guide, we go over our adventures and sightseeing itinerary in Antwerp.
In part three of this multi-part city guide, we go over our adventures and sightseeing itinerary in Ghent.
Our home base, if you will, was in Brussels, Belgium. From there we took three, one-day-trips to cities outside of Brussels (Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp) and then spent two days sightseeing in Brussels.
Our travels took us to Belgium and we couldn’t wait to see what the country was like. We’d just finished three days in Luxembourg and had 10 days scheduled in Belgium before a flight and a train would take us to Faversham, United Kingdom for a house sit.
Our time in Scotland came to an end. Our destination was Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
If you like green rolling hills, historic buildings, bustling city centers and castles, then Edinburgh should be on your list of places to visit.
As we travel different parts of Europe, we often see a particular attraction or even an entire city that reminds us of a loved one. We think to ourselves about how we’d like to share this place, this experience, and this time with them.
We were so excited to make our way to Hungary! We took a train from Didsburry, United Kingdom (outside of Manchester) to London and then flew to Budapest, Hungary. We generally prefer to take a train, but getting from the UK to Hungary is a bit more challenging to do by rail.
Just because we were leaving behind the stresses of home and achieving a goal we’ve worked towards for years, didn’t mean that life would suddenly be easy and smooth sailing. On the contrary, life is now full of new challenges, ones we haven’t faced together before.
We put a lot of time and consideration into what we’d pack in our ‘onebag’ for our yearlong trip across Europe.... So, after five months in Europe, we can’t help but ask, “How’d we do?”
We pride ourselves in being able to take on most physical activities at a moments notice. This by no means, means that we do the activity at the highest caliber or that we’re winning any competitions for speed or strength. We’re just in decent health and with good overall conditioning levels.
Public transportation is readily available in most European metropolitan areas, making it easy to get from place to place. London is no different. To be prepared, we did some research on London public transportation.
The United Kingdom is very similar to the United States in many ways, but very different in others. Of course there are the major things that are different, like driving on the left side of the road, an English accent, a much more exhaustive train system, and trash cans are rubbish bins. Then, there are the little things that take a bit of keen observation to notice, pubs are not bars, wall outlets have individual on/off switches, and you aren’t expected to tip.