Our plans, decisions, and adventures
Istanbul. A city split over two continents (Asia and Europe). A city with a countable population that is roughly half that of the entire country of Canada. The Turks speak of the country's uncountable population (refugees and their growing families, primarily) as, well, uncountable--nobody knows how many more this adds to the population number--and Istanbul is a... Continue Reading →
We had 2 weeks free after our house sit in Turkey before we needed to be in Istanbul for a flight out of the country. Rather than spend a few days at several spots along the 1,000km route, we planned a (hopefully) quiet week in one coastal town followed by a (likely) crazy week in... Continue Reading →
The flight plan was Bologna to Istanbul with three hours to spare before our connecting flight to the Dalaman airport in Turkey's southwest. Thanks to the remnants of The Beast from the East causing icy-rain conditions on the morning of our departure from Bologna, and the lack of available de-icing fluid at the airport, our departure... Continue Reading →
OK, it wasn't all sleet, but there certainly was snow. And icy rain. Bologna was our home during the second half of the Beast from the East, the unusually harsh winter in the UK and Europe at the end of February and first few days of March. We were flying to our next destination from... Continue Reading →
We've been incredibly lucky with weather since September. We had some rain in England, but not enough to keep us from getting out and seeing everything we wanted to. We had cold and snow in Switzerland in December, but no surprise there (though I did whine about the cold in one post). We had some... Continue Reading →
While housesitting in Canalicchio, we took it easy, in some respects. We took car trips less frequently than we have in other areas, and I wrote no blog posts after the first impressions one in our first week. I worked quite a bit on Eastern Time covering for a vacation, which meant I didn't shut down... Continue Reading →
From Rome, we took a train to Terni in the Umbria region of Italy where we are house- and pet-sitting for about 3 weeks. We were picked up by our homeowners, Michael and Sophie, who greeted us warmly and whisked us away to Canalicchio, a tiny hilltop village smack dab in the center of the country.... Continue Reading →
We hadn't been to Italy before, and it was one of the two target countries for us on this leg of our journey. We will be house and pet sitting in Canalicchio, in the Umbria region of Italy, for about 3 weeks. Before our sit started, we planned for a few days of sightseeing in Rome.... Continue Reading →
We had a deadline for our rental car return (we've been traveling by car since Zagreb), so couldn't meander the coast as we are normally wont to do. The first part of the 3½-hour drive from Split was inland on fast, modern and virtually empty highways (the toll for this leg was about $10 CAD),... Continue Reading →
We experienced two different versions of Split: one, on the damp afternoon of a mostly pouring rainy day; the other, on the following day filled with sunshine. One could say that Split has a split personality. On the rainy day, there were only one or two bedraggled sellers out with their wares at the green... Continue Reading →
Getting there For us, the journey to Zadar held as much interest and enjoyment as the city itself. The drive from Rabac on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia to Zadar was beautiful and varied. We started out in valley farmland, drove through a 5km tunnel and incredible highway infrastructure to and around the city of... Continue Reading →
Just left: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Now: Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Up next: Vancouver area British Columbia, Canada
Life: Phase Next 