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Riad: heaven in a chaotic city!
Hmmm… my taste buds are happy with the warmth of this fresh home-made moroccan bread. All the hassle from last night is forgotten and we are looking forward to exploring the streets, but first we walk around the Riad… Why should you stay in a Riad whilst visiting Marrakech? What’s so magic about it?! … Our first Riad is called Dar Eliane, right in the middle of the souks and near the fruit market. 10 minutes walking distance from the main square Jemaa El-Fna. Despite being difficult to find at first, it has a very central location in the Medina. Our host was lovely Lorena, she is spanish and also speaks…
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Marrakech – we arrived! HELP!
– Follow me!!! – But the taxi driver said to turn right… – No no, your hotel is this way! We look at each other, the taxi driver didn’t quite know where was the Riad but refused to let us go when we said we would find another driver and acted like he knew. Then dropped us here and told us to turn right at the end of this street. Now this tall man, dressed with a long dirty vest, came out of nowhere, literally grabbed the paper with the address of the Riad from our hands and started showing us the way to the left… It’s night time, the…
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Murano, Burano and Torcello
We bought the excursion tickets from our reception hotel and later we found out we could have just taken a bus-boat, but well, here we go to the islands! The first island is Murano, the island of glass, well has a glass fabric. There is a little demonstration on how it is all done and then we are taken to a glass shop. I was disappointed because we didn’t get to walk around the island, so I don’t really know if there is much to see. As the boat approaches the second island, Burano, my eyes must have looked like a cartoon – wide open! The island is so colorful!…
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Venice, a ride on the Gondola
My parents don’t speak English… but when it comes to negotiate the prices my mum speaks the international language… the body language! And she just walks away… we look at each other, we know what that means – we follow her. 100 euros for a 20 minutes Gondola ride is a “let’s esturpate this tourists” bit too expensive. So my mum counts slowly 1…2…3! And we hear “Senhora!” The man nearly running after us… He says “Eighty?” I translate to my mum… “Oitenta.” My mum looks at him pretending to consider, pretends to hesitate and say “Okay”. – She is the best!!! That’s the price she wanted to pay from the beginning!…
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Venice in a Postcard
My father cleans the tears after hugging my mum once again, and he turns to me and my sister with a big smile. I haven’t seen him in over 6 months: he was with his work, the Navy, doing the NATO. He opens an envelope with a collection of postcards from the places he has been: “…and this one was my favorite city: Venice, in Italy”. A little boat is reflected in the water, a man stands at the rear end of the boat holding a pad, he wears a hat with a red ribbon and a stripped jumper, very elegant, I thought. “In this city, the roads are rivers…
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I am inside a Volcano!!!
Ahh today I am very excited because we are going inside a volcano. Iceland has the only volcano on earth where this is possible – the Thrihnukagigur (which means “Three peaks volcano”) last erupted 4000 years ago, so it’s safe right? First we have to walk for 1 hour across a lava field until we reach the entrance of the volcano. To get in the volcano we go in this lift… The lift take us down 120 meters, the first bit is quite tight but then we reach the enormous and intimidating chamber! The magma chamber of this volcano could easily fit the New York City’s Statue of Liberty. This place is amazing!…
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The Blue Lagoon
Time to pack – bikini, towel, shampoo, another change of clothes…! Our last stop is a geothermal spa – the so famous Blue Lagoon! The water is rich in silica and sulphur and so warm! It has reputation for helping with some skin diseases and there are several packages available where you can get massages and other treatments. But we only wanted to get in the lagoon! Also, there are different saunas to experiment dry and wet saunas. Personally it was the first time I have been in a sauna and the wet one made me feel dizzy! But the nordic people seem to enjoy it and jump from one to another! We…
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Iceland – Snorkeling between Tectonic Plates
Hello!!! Here we are at the Thingvellir National Park again! This time we came with the Scuba Iceland Dive Team to dive in the lake, more precisely at the Silfra crack, where the melted glacier water joins the lake, a 50km journey through lava fields that gives this water an all year around temperature of 2 to 3ºC, no matter the water or the season of the year!!
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Laugavegur Hiking Trail – Last Day
Good morning! Breakfast time (yeyyy! -.-‘): oats with hot water, but this time the Russian boys have cinnamon to add on to this mixture. And… wait for it…. aaah it is so much tastier! If I only would have known it earlier… So, today is the last day of this hiking trail… we only have left 15km till the last hut! wwoo hooo! As we are lucky girls we have our sleeping bags and the tent taken in the truck of another Icelandic guide. He explained that he won’t stay in same hut as us… but it is only 3km away from each other… so we thought it is just 3km,…
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Laugavegur Hiking Trail – Day Three
Today, I am in a such good mood that I even try to eat oats mixed with fruity tea… the truth is: it’s slightly better then plain water, slightly! haha Between today and tomorrow we are going to do 30km, 15km each day! As usual, we are one of the last ones to leave the hut! And finally we start our walking through beautiful green mountains… 20 minutes later we have to cross the first river of today… it is not as deep as the one we crossed yesterday, but it’s larger, and of course I go barefoot: s-l-oooo-w-l-yyy stepping on p-a-i-n-f-u-l little stones. Back on dry shoes we carry…
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Laugavegur Hiking Trail – Day two
This day starts in a way I will never forget: eating oats!!!! Plain oats with hot water is disgusting! Back in Reykjavik, when we were shopping the groceries to bring to the trail, Verena had promised me that oats are the best you can eat because it is light, tasty, lasts longer, and it’s full of nutrients to give us the energy for a whole day walking in the mountains. So I was bought by all those arguments and now breakfast became a nighmare for next few mornings! Just because I still had the “full of nutrients” part echoing in my head, I managed to force myself to just eat and not throw up the whole bowel of…
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Laugavegur Hiking Trail – Day one
8h00 – it’s time to catch the 4 hours coach to Landmannalaugar. The further we are taken away from Reykjavik, the rougher the landscape is: it’s lava and more lava for kilometers. The view is indescribable and just the ride is amazing! Nearly at the end, the driver does a quick stop so we can go out and take some pictures from the top of the mountain, facing a big lake and other green mountains. 10 minutes later we arrive at Landmannalaugar: our starting point of a 4 days hiking trail – Laugavegur, a 55 km trail! I must admit I feel a bit nervous now that we are actually…
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Golden Circle
8am, time to join the Dutchies: Tijmen, Johan and Jeroen, who is driving. Our first stop is Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage. It was here that after the settlement of Iceland, plans were made for a formal government structure, commenced about 870 AD. The wind and rain does not stop us from walking around the park. Other excursions just arrived too, and we all have a good laugh by watching how a cute chinese couple fight against the wind with 1/4 of an umbrella 🙂 -> Walking down the path, we cross the river and there is like sort of a little village with: a little church, 4 little houses…
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Reykjavik, Iceland
23h30, we landed in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital! Verena travelled from Netherlands to London to meet me, so we got the same flight. We haven’t got much planned yet and we only know where we are going to sleep the first 2 nights, out of 10. Still at the airport, several companies provide transport to city center and prices are about 2400ISK (no idea how much is it in €/£…). But we found a return ticket for only 4000ISK and we head to the coach. They asked us which hostel we are going to stay and dropped us right at the hostel! Nice! It’s already after 1am when we check-in!…
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Roadtrip in Scotland – waterproof tent?!
Day 3 Drop, Drop, Drop… I wake up with water dropping on my head. Without moving I look around, what is happening?! It’s raining outside and also inside our tent! hahaha, so good! -.-‘ As I sit up, so Marie and Thibaud wake up. We have to get out of here as soon as possible… but first shake the laziness from the body and get the courage to face the Midges! That’s right, they are back, and they are just outside looking for a little hole to get in! Rain does not scare them away! Ready, steady, go! In few minutes everything is taken back to the car! What to do next?! We need fuel……
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