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Yerevan, Armenia

The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful

November 8, 2024

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Welcome to the first of a series of eight weekly posts covering the eight countries I visited this fall. My journey was epic and I chose not to write posts while traveling, in an effort to be engaged and present on this amazing odyssey. I hope you will enjoy reading my posts covering all that happened over the two months of travel – The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful. Let’s begin with Yerevan Armenia.

Where Am I?

Yerevan, Armenia is not on everyone’s travel bucket list, but it was on mine after reading about it from another travel blogger several years ago. In fact we were scheduled for this trip when Covid shut the world down. So we were happy to finally get to the beautiful Caucasus region.

Armenia was the first of eight former Soviet states we would visit on this whirlwind trip. Over the past 8 plus years on the Grand Adventure, I have grown to really appreciate what it was like behind the Iron Curtain and why many people believe things were better for them during that time. Not all, but many people miss the security they enjoyed during the Soviet era.

A Little History

Armenia, one of the oldest countries in the world, boasts a rich and complex history that dates back to ancient times. The region was home to the Urartian Kingdom in the 9th century BCE, which laid the foundation for Armenian culture and identity. The Kingdom of Armenia was officially established in 301 CE when it became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion, a pivotal moment that significantly influenced its cultural and social development. Throughout the centuries, Armenia faced numerous invasions and occupations, including those by the Persians, Romans, Byzantines, and later the Seljuks and Ottomans, which shaped its political landscape and often led to the displacement of its people.

Yerevan is known for it’s delicious water and free drinking fountains around the city.

Many ancient and beautiful monasteries survived the Soviet era

Learning about the Armenian Genocide was eye-opening for me. In the early 20th century, Armenia experienced one of the most tragic events in its history: the Armenian Genocide. Perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were extinguished. Why have I never heard about this?

Be sure to check out the book review The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian I posted last Wednesday. This novel is a must-read to learn more about the Armenian Genocide.

Following the war, Armenia briefly declared independence in 1918 but was soon incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920, where it remained until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Few people are aware of the horrific genocide the Armenian people suffered at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. Armenia’s relation with Turkey remains strained.

How’s it Going?

Since gaining independence 1991, Armenia has sought to rebuild its national identity and address the historical injustices faced by its people. The country is navigating complex geopolitical challenges, particularly its relationship with neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan. Armenia is part of the EU’s Eastern Partnership since 2009. Today, Armenia is recognized for its rich cultural heritage, including its ancient churches and monasteries, and its ongoing efforts to establish itself as a modern nation-state in the South Caucasus region. The world-wide Armenian diaspora (about 10 million) create awareness around the world about this little known and beautiful region of our planet.

As a visitor to Yerevan Armenia, we found most everything inexpensive from restaurants to tours and souvenirs. During our stay we ate delicious meals with drinks in Yerevan for less than $25 USD for two. Gas prices however, were about $5.30 gallon. The average monthly salary in Armenia is around $675 USD a month.

We even found a couple of craft breweries. Hubby happy.

The Good

Armenia is still working its way through issues from the past Soviet era, but the people we met seem happy with the direction of their country with some exceptions regarding education. In Yerevan (one of the oldest cities in the world) we had a great Airbnb with an engaged and friendly host. We did three tours; a history walking tour, a food walking tour and a cooking class and market tour. These were all private tours we booked through Viator, and we had excellent guides and experiences. All of our guides spoke great English and were enthusiastic about the future of their country.

Walking tour we learned so many things including about the more than 115 drinking fountains around the city

Jengyalov Hac is one of the best things I have ever eaten. Without our guide we would never have known about this herb stuffed sandwich.

The Bad

Similar to our visit last spring to Albania and Serbia, the traffic was awful. It’s clear that the pace of automobile acquisition in Yerevan, Armenia after independence has outmatched that of infrastructure development. Drivers are aggressive, blaring horns constantly and the din can be annoying. Most drivers seem untrained with little regard for rules of the road. Case in point – we ordered a taxi on a rainy day. The taxi arrived and it was an old car, no seat belts and past it’s prime. In hindsight we should never have gotten in this vehicle. But we did. The driver was driving way too fast, in the wrong lane and swerved to miss a car. We crashed into a concrete barrier. Unfortunately, because we were not wearing seat belts, my husband hit is head hard on the ceiling and suffered a concussion.

Accident does not look bad, but our injuries were due to the fact we were not wearing seat belts. Despite rules for such safety features, we had little recourse.

Because of the concussion and my husband needing to rest, we ended up missing our all day tour outside of the city to Khor Virap and the Tatev Monastery. Even though I did not visit these places, I still recommend them if you have the chance. These are the top sights outside of Yerevan. It was disappointing but necessary for us to not travel on the day after our taxi accident.

Khor Virap (Canva) with Mount Ararat in the distance

Genocide

The Genocide is one of the worst things that has happened to the Armenian people, and it is something few people in the world know about. The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through the mass murder of around one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian Desert and the forced Islamization of others, primarily women and children. Today in Yerevan, this horrific period is remembered with an excellent Armenian Genocide Memorial & Museum that is a must visit for everyone visiting Armenia.

Today Armenia has no diplomatic relations with neighboring Azerbaijan. There are no open border crossings which presents a problem for visitors navigating the Caucasus region. This is due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict – an ethnic and territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is an ongoing issue, very volatile, with no negotiations in sight.

The Beautiful

Yerevan, Armenia has many beautiful sites. We enjoyed our time inside the city. Our favorite places included the giant statue of Mother Armenia, the view of Mount Ararat (Armenians believe it to be where Noah’s Ark is), the Yerevan Cascade Climb, Matenadaran Manuscript Library, Republic Square and the amazing Genocide Memorial and Museum. We spent several hours exploring the National Gallery of Armenia and the GUM Market (has nothing to do with chewing gum) and we recommend both.

The beautiful and kind people stood out. They were interested in us and welcoming. Like many of the countries we visit, we did not meet any other Americans. Most of the visitors are from Europe.

Mount Ararat on a cloudy day. Most of the mountain currently lies in Turkey and is one of Armenia’s border conflicts with that nation

A shout out to the local Emergency Room too. Our wonderful Airbnb host personally escorted us to the emergency room on a Sunday, stayed with us the entire time and translated for us. We would have been lost without him. Our ER visit with CatScan and prescriptions was $128.

We were lucky to have our Airbnb host help us at the hospital

Armenians are proud of their unique language and alphabet. The Armenian alphabet, created in 405 AD by the linguist and theologian Mesrop Mashtots, is a unique script that reflects the rich cultural and historical heritage of the Armenian people.

An outdoor exhibit explains the unique and ancient Armenian alphabet

Food Glorious Food

Our food tour and cooking class both provided us an eye-opening education to the cuisine of Armenia. We had amazing Khorovats – like a shishkebab grilled meat; dolma, vine leaf wrapped meat; ghapama (my favorite), a spectacular stuffed pumpkin or squash; gata – a sweet bread; pickles of every persuasion; jengyalov hac – an incredible herb filled flat bread wrap; and the famous lavash flat bread served at every meal.

Here below is a link to our YouTube video about Armenian Food. Delicious.

Watch this video to learn more about the surprising cuisines of Armenia

Yerevan, Armenia – The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful

Yerevan, Armenia was a perfect place to spend a week. Plenty of time to see many historical sites, museums and parks and to eat the great food. We really enjoyed the people, the architecture and the culture. We enjoyed learning about the Armenian Apostolic Church (97% of Armenians are Christian) founded 301 AD. Christianity is the official state religion.

This tiny country packs a powerful punch. Yerevan is small and easy to maneuver. It is an up and coming destination you should have on your radar. I highly recommend it. Yerevan Armenia – The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful.

We love it when you pin and share and comment about our posts. Be sure and come back next Friday for our post about Tbilisi Georgia.

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Europe Travel

Adoro la Puglia – I love Puglia, Italy’s “Segreta”.

March 8, 2024

Laureen

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Puglia, a little secret – at least it was to me. Having traveled to the big five of Italy; Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice and Naples, I kinda thought I had “done” Italy. We were researching Bologna, and then I stumbled upon Puglia. And now Adora la Puglia – I love Puglia, Italy’s “Segreta”.

Our five days in the Puglia region was a whirlwind. I thought it would be plenty of time. Re-examining I wish we had ten days, even though we made it work. Interestingly, visiting in February had the advantage of almost no tourists but the disadvantage of many shops and restaurants closed for the month. Evidently this is when many business people take a vacation. It was not a hardship for us, we found plenty to see and do and really loved how quiet and uncrowded it was. We had beautiful weather which we were very grateful for.

Bellisima

In the course of our five days we hit nine cities and villages. Most places we just wandered aimlessly through the streets, astonished at the history, architecture and beauty. In a few other places we hired a guide to give us more in depth knowledge. And everywhere we ate the incredible food, and drank the incredible wine.

Below is a list of the nine places we visited over our five day visit. For your planning purposes I would recommend you look beyond these nine, as there are other places we did not get to. But for this blog post, this is what we did – Adora la Puglia – I love Puglia, Italy’s “Segreta”.

A Note – you can do this tour by train, but I really recommend a car. It is a law to have an International Drivers License in Italy so plan ahead. During our visit we used an app called Easy Park to help us find and pay for parking in every city we went to. Italians drive like crazy people. Take it slow and safe and they will go around you.

Alberobello

This beautiful little town is what first attracted us to the Puglia region. After seeing a photo of the iconic Trulli architecture of Alberobello we were smitten. We spent our five days in a historic Trulli turned Airbnb, and used Alberobello as our Puglia base. Alberobello is a UNESCO World Heritage village and has grown in popularity for visitors and group tours over the past few years.

Trulli

What is a Trulli? In the 17th and 18th century Alberobello was overseen by a feudal lord. In his effort to avoid taxes, he had all the peasants live in the Trulli – a stone house with a conical roof that were built without mortar. The lack of mortar made the structures “temporary” and thus no taxes. At the time, the area was a vast forest (Alberobello means beautiful tree) and the peasants were clearing the trees. Until the late 1700’s Alberobello was not a designated town.

Aia Piccola

Today, throughout the region for miles around Alberobello you will see historic Trulli dotting the landscape, including the Airbnb we stayed in. But within the historic center of Alberobello there are two distinct areas of tightly compacted Trulli. We did a private walking tour with a local through both areas. Our guide Guido showed us the smaller Aia Piccola which is still home to many locals. It is a small neighborhood of friendly people. We went inside one home to see how people once lived.

Rione Monti

The larger more touristic area is Rione Monti. This neighborhood is positioned on a hill and provides perfect photo opportunities. This is also where the shops and restaurants are. Many shops are local products including popular wood and ceramic works as well as jewelry and clothing. I purchased a beautiful scarf, a small Trulli shaped olive oil decanter and a charm for my bracelet. On our first day we discovered two delicious local specialties; Orecchiette with turnip tops and Braciole, a delicious slow roasted rolled beef.

Beef Braciole at the tiny but delicious My Grandmothers Pantry

Monopoli & Polignano a Mare

After our morning walking tour of Alberobello and a quick lunch, we headed out towards the coast and the two larger cities; Monopoli and Polignano a Mare.

Monopoli

An ancient fortified city, Monopoli was founded in 500 BC by the Greeks. Similar to much of this southern part of Italy, Monopoli passed through the hands of the Romans, Goths, Byzantines and Normans. Today it is a beautiful seaside city with a gorgeous Basilica of the Madonna della Madia, sparkling turquoise water dotted with quaint fishing boats and lots of restaurants and shops for visitors. In the summer it is a popular beach destination.

Polignano a Mare

Another seaside town perched ontop of limestone cliffs with beautiful views of the Adriatic. A rich ancient history beginning in the 4th century, Polignano was likely originally named Neopolis by the Greeks, while some historians say Julius Caesar founded it as a hub along the Via Traiana, one of several ancient Roman roads in the region. Today Polignano a Mare celebrates itself as a modern city popular with tourists all year long. A statue of native son Domenico Modugno, best known for the song Volare, is a popular tourist photo spot.

Next time I’d love a hotel room with this view

Ostuni, Cisterno, Martina Franca and Locorotondo

On day three we set out early to explore four ancient hilltop villages all within about an hour or less from Alberobello.

Ostuni

We actually arrived in Ostuni so early nothing was really open yet. But we parked the car and took a long walk around the “white city” – referred to for it’s white walls and buildings. Ostuni is very popular with visitors and the population explodes in the summer. On the morning we were there we seriously had the place to ourselves. It was wonderful to just wander and peek into the various alleys and stairways. The original settlement here can be dated back to the stone age.

Cisternino

We really enjoyed the hilltop village of Cisternino, with views across the valley to neighboring Martina Franca. The village was just coming awake on our arrival. We enjoyed an espresso before wandering the streets, taking in the view from the panorama vista and visiting some local cathedrals.

The original town is said to have been destroyed by the Goths, and it was rebuilt as a monastery by the Basillian Monks in the Middle Ages. Today it’s dense interior gives it a maze feel and offers visitors to enjoy a treasure hunt as they wander.

Martina Franca

Named for Saint Martin and founded in the 10th century, Martina Franca is famous for its olive oil production and its Baroque architecture. It’s another good place to take a slow stroll within its gated walls, or wander outside the gates where commerce continues and locals sit and watch the world go by.

Locorotondo

One of my favorites of this day was our final stop in Locorotondo. Another very small hill top village, with the name meaning “round place”. The village was a unfortified walled city from about 1000 AD, founded by Benedictine monks. Today it is a tourist mecca for its beauty and architecture.

We had a late lunch/early dinner here in Locorotondo, and it was one of the best meals we had anywhere in Italy. We just stumbled into Osteria Il Rosoni, one of the few restaurants that were open. It was a great discovery. We drank the local Verdante wine and ate several local specialties. It was a great way to end day three.

One of the best meals we had in Italy at xx

Sassi di Matera

Day four we headed out from Alberobello about an hour and 15 min drive to Matera. I had seen photos of this place and I knew it had a unique history but was not prepared for how amazing it was. We spent the entire day in this town and if I were to visit again I would spend a night or two in this remarkable UNESCO site.

You definitely should start your visit on the Murgia side, across the ravine, to get a good look back at this astonishing cave city. What you are looking at is a prehistoric troglodyte village, thought to be among the first human settlements of what is today Italy. The oldest Neolithic pottery found dates to 7500 BC. It is truly one of the oldest inhabited settlements in the world.

Today’s city is built on top of the original caves, but many cave dwellings still exist and are occupied in their updated form. In the 1950’s it was considered the “shame of Italy” because the inhabitants were so poor. The government relocated them to a new area. But eventually in the 1990’s the potential for tourism and commerce started to be noticed, and today it is really one of the most remarkable places in the world. Read the Smithsonian story about it here.

We enjoyed a really delicious meal in Sassi di Matera at Il Terazzino within a cave. Great food and service too. It was a favorite day and I am so glad we visited this remarkable place.

Lecce

Our time in Pugla flew by, and on our last day we were tired, but decided to make the hour and half drive south to Lecce. We figured it was unlikely we would ever return to this area, so we didn’t want to waste a day. The drive was on a good freeway much of the way and we arrived with plenty of time to find parking and then search out the tour we had booked ahead.

Lecce has a fascinating history. Most of the architecture is Baroque dating back to the 12th and 13th century. But legend dates the original city to the 5th BC. Below the current town only recently (early 1920’s) was discovered an entire coliseum, and nearby an entire Roman theatre. Both areas are still to be full excavated but will eventually be opened to tourists.

Lecce has several stunning cathedrals, including the recently restored Basilica de Santa Croce. You should also visit the city’s Bell Tower, popular with tourists and you can climb to the top. The walls of the original city, dating back 2000 years, can still be seen in several places around what is often referred to as the “Florence of the South”.

Back to Alberobello

We made the drive back to Alberobello, where we wanted to enjoy this little gem after dark on our final night. We had an outstanding dinnner at 100Metricubi, a unique menu of local octopus, bean mash (a local favorite) and of course, wine.

I do not take lightly how astonishing my travel life is. It can be exhausting and sometimes it’s a lot of work for the planning and execution. However, the result is a treasure chest of memories of people, places and experiences that have forever changed me, taught me, inspired me and made me a better steward of the earth. Thank you Puglia, you were something special. Adora la Puglia – I love Puglia, Italy’s “Segreta”.

Thank you for reading my post Adora la Puglia – I love Puglia, Italy’s “Segreta”. I hope you will consider adding Puglia to your travel bucket list.

See last week’s post San Marino Hiding in Plain Sight.

See this week’s book review Still Life by Sarah Winman here.

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At Home

The History of Halloween

Celtic Origins We Celebrate Today

October 29, 2021

Laureen

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Note my facts here come from The History of Halloween from History.com

As an adult I look back on so many fond memories of my 1960’s and 70’s childhood, including Halloween. As soon as school began in September we began thinking about and planning for that big day. We always made our own costumes just from found things around the house…never sewing anything elaborate and NEVER purchasing anything from a store.

Halloween When I Was a Kid

Unfortunately my parents were not big photo takers so I have only one photo I know of, of me with my siblings on Halloween. That was the year my sister proclaimed she was going to be the Fairy Godmother and I was going to be Cinderella in rags. Okay fine. My brother was a “hippie” and my littlest brother was a cowboy. It was a time in life when it didn’t take a lot ot make us happy.

In high school and even college we celebrated the holiday with homemade costumes but the trick or treating gave way to parties. Here I’m sharing a few photos I pulled up from those days.

Halloween When My Kids Were Little

When my kids were little I made their costumes most years and we had a lot of fun with Halloween as a family. In the 1990’s when my kids were young, trick or treating was still safe and the school always had a special event with costumes.

Today fewer kids wander the neighborhoods, but with Covid it’s hard to imagine that communities and malls will be holding their annual gatherings.

The History of Holidays

I’ve always been fascinated with how our holidays evolved into what we accept today as normal, ever since I discovered that Santa Claus is a fairly new invention. So I have over the years gathered lots of fun information about holiday rituals and their evolution.

Halloween Began 2000 Years Ago

The origin of Halloween can be traced 2000 years years ago to the Celtic festival called Samhain. This festival was a celebration to ward off ghosts and included costumes and bon fires.

Ghosts were responsible for death and havoc

In the 8th Century Pope Gregory III declared that November 1st would be All Saints Day to remember all Catholic Saints and the Samhain festival the day before became known as All Hallows Eve.

November 1st was also considered the New Year to the Celts and was marked as the end of the harvest and bounty and the beginning of the dark days of winter, a time of hunger and death.

People believed black cats were witches in disguise

The Druids (Celtic Priests) gave the Celtic people guidance during this time, when all believed the ghosts were responsible for failed crops, poor health and bad weather. The Druids built bon fires and everyone dressed in costumes to scare away the ghosts. Crops and animals were sacrificed.

Rome, Of Course, Intervened

When the Romans conquered this region, the Samhain festival merged with Feralia, a Roman festival similar to Day of the Dead; and Pomona, a celebration of the apple harvest (assumed to be where bobbing for apples comes from).

Christianity

By the 9th century the Celtic lands had become Christian and the November 2nd Christian holiday All Souls Day merged with All Hallows Even (Alholowmesse) and the costume tradition expanded.

Welcome to America

Colonial America celebrated this holiday, despite the New England Protestant objection due to the pagan origins. As immigrants from many nations came together, the American version of the holiday emerged.

Early Jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips

Outdoor parties, bon fires, scary stories, fortune telling, pranks, games, music and dancing were all part of the early American celebration. By the early 1800’s most communities celebrated an Autumn festival but Halloween as we know it was still a ways away.

Irish Americans Bring the Tradition

As Irish immigrants flooded America in the late 19th century, with them came many of the traditions we today associate with Halloween in the USA. This included costumes, Trick-or-Treat for food or money, and the focus of the holiday became more about children.

Bobbing for apples is an ancient game still practiced today

But in the 1920’s and 30’s vandals hijacked the holiday with pranks and sometimes drunken violence and many gatherings stopped. By the 1950’s local towns redirected the holiday back to family-focused and encouraged family gatherings. Trick-or-Treating was revived.

Today’s Halloween

Small homemade treats gave way to store bought candy in the 1960’s when parents feared for their children eating anything they didn’t know the source of. Today 6 billion dollars are spent annually on Halloween and it is the biggest candy buying time of the year in the USA.

Both children and adults dress up annually, with many adults wearing costumes to their jobs. Halloween parties for kids and adults happen in the weeks ahead of the actual Halloween night.

Halloween is the second biggest commercial holiday after Christmas in the USA.

And now you know – the history of Halloween.

See this week’s top performing pin here.

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At Home -- Inspire

My System for Organizing Digital Photos

May 29, 2020

Laureen

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This is my system for organizing digital photos. It might not work for everyone but it works for me. I use an iPhone and a MacBook so if you are not using Apple products your system will need to be different. For those of you who are not Mac users, I have included in this blog information about Google Drive photos (see below). So at the request of some of my friends, I have put together this blog that lays out my system for organizing digital photos. I hope it can be helpful to you.

What Kind Are You?

I read an interesting article once that placed digital photo people into three different categories; casual, moderate or enthusiastic. My photo library has 59,000 photos and nearly 400 videos. I’m pretty sure I fall into the “enthusiastic” category. Or crazy. I think my husband would label my photo taking as crazy.

I was a Mac user before I was an iPhone user and the day I realized my two devices were going to be talking to each other was the day my life changed. I mean really. It didn’t take me long to give up my SLR camera altogether and use my iPhone as my sole camera. I currently have an iPhone 11x and it takes beautiful images. Even though I have a few complaints about the iPhone 11, photos are not one of them. So I take lots of photos every day and I need a good system for organizing my digital photos.

Photography — Photo I took in 1980 on my first film SLR when I was learning photography in college. That’s my husband…before he was my husband.

Editing

Before I get into storage let me talk briefly about editing. On the iPhone you can adjust the light level before you take a photo by tapping lightly on the screen and adjusting the up and down toggle for brightness. But often I don’t have time to do that if I need to capture a fleeting moment. And so I do it in edit mode after. The iPhone editor has a wide variety of options for lightening, brightening and adding color to your images. Sometimes I will turn a color photo into a black and white photo for dramatic effect. You can warm up a photo or cool it down. It’s all very user friendly.

Photo drama — I added color and drama to this image taken from a moving car.

Sometimes I use the bounce or loop feature on the iPhone and I really enjoy the long exposure feature. When traveling I find I love it for any water image, storms or even traffic.

Long exposure photography — Iguazu Falls in Brazil, long exposure image

Another cool feature with the iPhone is the live camera. I keep live on all the time. If I capture an image where the subject may have moved unexpectedly or a car moved into the frame, often you can go back to the live edit and skip back a frame or two to easily make your photo perfect. Super easy without needing to be a techno whiz.

Filters on photos — Using Snapseed I made this old Route 66 gas station look very vintage

The only other edit program I use is a very rudimentary app called Snapseed. In Snapseed I can add lots of dramatic color to a stormy photo. Or I can make an old vintage truck look even more old and vintage. I can make my photos look like they were taken on a Polaroid camera 40 years ago – or a number of other very simple edit options. I use Snapseed often and don’t find I need any other complicated editing software for the purposes I use my photos for.

Lightening a photo — In this image I was in the shadow with bright light behind. I used Snapseed to lighten up the forefront of the image. This image also is in portrait mode, one of the features on the iPhone 11

Types of Storage Options

Not so long ago all my photos were printed and put into photos albums. I still have all those photo albums and one long term project goal is to eventually transfer those to digital.

Not so long ago I was storing photos on CDRom and thumb drive. I hated this system because I didn’t seem to be able to keep these organized or find them easily, needing to pop the CD or thumb drive in and out of the computer.

Then came the wonderful cloud.

Today there are a variety of photo storage options available and everyone has their favorites. My photos are in iCloud, while other people prefer options like DropBox, Shutterfly, or Picasso. Amazon Prime has a photo storage program, but I haven’t been able to find anyone who uses it. From my experience the two most popular are Apple iCloud and Google Drive. Since I don’t use Google Drive I asked a fellow blogger, Slavka, to share a little about Google Drive:

Do you have a Gmail email address? If you do, Google offers other convenient services that you can access via your Gmail email account. Google Drive is one of them and it’s great cloud storage for your photos and other files.

Google Drive Photo Storage is popular and reliable

So how to use it? First of all, you need to have or open a new Gmail email account. With this email account, you have 15 GB of free space. You can use this free space for any of the connected services such as Google Drive, Google Docs, or Google Sheets. You can access these by clicking on the 9 dots icon that appears in the top right corner next to your login icon. Click on the triangle icon of Google Drive. This is a space where you can store photos, videos, audio files, documents files, etc. You can group then into separate files and share them with others via a sharable link.

Google Drive storage is convenient for the temporary storage of recent photos or the ones you want to share. Older images and files should be downloaded to an external storage drive for archiving. Or, if you want to keep them available online, you might need to pay for additional cloud storage after you run out of free space. Currently, Google charges approx. $28 per year for 100GB of cloud space.

Link to my blog: https://on2continents.com

Thanks Slavka. Be sure to check out Slavka’s wonderful travel blog on the link above.

So, the iCloud photo storage works basically the same way. It’s free for the first 5G and then you pay monthly for additional storage. For a long time I paid $4 a month for 200GB but now I pay $10 a month for 500GB. My photos are automatically uploaded regularly to the cloud.

No matter which storage system you chose, keeping your photos organized is the challenge. For me it’s a big committment given the number of photos I have and my constant need to access them. Here is how I do it.

Organizing my Images

When you open the iCloud photo library, you can go to File in the top left hand corner. Click on File and you will get an option to create an album. In my photo library I have dozens of albums. I have albums for family, friends, house and garden, genealogy, cycling, hiking and camping, and of course cats. (LOL). Then I have an album for every country we have visited. Sometimes I will combine a couple of countries to save a little space. Additionally I have separate albums where I store art work for my blog, birthday funny memes, or things I might want for holidays on social media. I have one whole albums for Seahawks and Cougar football memes.

Creating the albums is the easy part. The hard part is continually moving your new images into the files. Here is how I do that:

Every few weeks I sit down and delete images. Ideally you should be doing this daily or minute to minute on your phone, but that doesn’t seem to happen for me. So I go through and delete duplicate images, poor quality images or other images I don’t want in one go.

Photo organization — Albums for all the things I love and want to keep organized

I check the date I last moved images to albums and after deleting I start with that date and begin moving the images (click and drag) into the albums. Sometimes an image might end up in multiple albums (for example family album and hiking album). This way I can find it easily for future use.

Photo storage — Working on deleting hundreds of images

The Big Delete

Since I’ve had A LOT of free time on my hands these past few covid months, I began a new delete project. Going to the overarching file called Photos, where all images are from all albums, I started with the oldest images and slowly am going through and deleting. I have found there are photos I don’t even remember taking or where I took them. Some photos that seemed important at the time, no longer have meaning for me (the first time I saw a wild baboon it seemed impressive…now so many thousands of baboons later who cares). And so I delete. This is very time consuming but will eventually help my overall storage issue. I am committing a few hours a week to accomplish this task by the end of the summer – it’s about ten years worth of photos, but an important goal for organizing digital photos.

So What About External Hard Drives?

For a couple of years before I went all Mac I used to have an external hard drive I would plug in to my PC and back up my photos regularly. But I haven’t done that since I went to 500 GB in the cloud, as I feel confident in the system I am using. However, I recently purchased a new external hard drive called Photo Stick that stores 128GB of data. I haven’t started using it yet, but I decided it was worth it to have it since it is very small (like a thumb drive), has a huge amount of storage, works continually and will help me clean up duplicates. It also will offer me even more peace of mind. Hopefully it actually does all those things. I paid $79 for it.

So What is Best for You?

Remember in the beginning when I asked what kind of photo person you are? Determining the answer to that question is your first step in getting your images organized and safe. As an “enthusiastic” photographer, as well as a blogger, travel writer and very active social media user, my photos are incredibly important to me in my day-to-day life. I consider myself a good photographer, after years of practice and a small amount of training, and photography is an important hobby in my life. So I spend both time and money making sure my images are protected, accessible, and good quality.

No matter what kind of photographer you are, you can start organizing your digital photos with a little knowledge and commitment. Good luck!

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Inspire

The Surprising Things You Learn From Full-Time Travel

March 27, 2020

Laureen

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Location: Cyprus

I never ever imagined the word pandemic or quarantine becoming a part of my daily vocabulary. And yet it is. Wow. So many surprising things you learn from full-time travel.

A world pandemic is at the top of the list of surprising things you learn from full-time travel. I’ve said it many times, despite all the preparation and planning, reading and studying – there still are so many surprising things you see and learn and experience that you never ever imagined. Pandemic one of many.

So today I thought I would share some of these things, since we are still stuck indefinitely here on Cyprus (currently day four of a new three-week total lockdown), it’s a good time to write a blog about the things you don’t realize you will learn from full time travel. The lessons keep coming but here are a few that stand out for me;

How the World Views America

We try to be good ambassadors for our country, but it can be really hard. Because many people have a view of Americans as loud, selfish, gluttonous and most of all ignorant and misogynistic. The view also extends to American media as biased and unreliable.

Where are you from?

So we get this question a lot. Sometimes the question is phrased like this; “Where are you from? Australia? England?”

This always cracks me up because anyone who is a native English speaker is very in tuned to the nuances of those who speak English in the USA vs England, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland etc. But for those whose first language is not English the subtleties are often lost. It’s rare that we get asked if we are from the USA. I believe that is because the countries we are visiting for the most part aren’t often visited by Americans. We are often surprised by how surprised people are to meet someone from the United States.

But the other odd thing when we get asked this question is how the answer goes. We answer “From the United States”, and 95% of the time we get a blank uncomprehending stare. So we rephrase our answer and say “From America.” Ahhh light bulbs come on and faces light up, “Amerikah!”. Despite the fact there is no country called America…much of the world refers to the USA as America.

Metric System

The USA is only one of three countries in the entire WORLD still not using the metric system (Myanmar and Liberia are the other two). I mean honestly people this needs to change. I have no choice but to learn the metric system as we travel and although I don’t have it down perfectly, yet it is an integral part of everyday life from cooking to driving to filling up the car with petrol. We think in Celsius and kilometers, meters and liters. You should give it a try.

Holy Days and Holidays

I left my heart in Guatemala — Semana Santa

In the 110 countries we have now visited we have not visited anywhere that celebrates holy days and holidays by spending the amount of money Americans do on holidays. Most holidays are about family and church with minimal decorating and gift giving. One strange thing…they often leave the Christmas tree up (artificial) until spring.

Airplane Etiquette

Here is a win for the USA. I have been horrified by how some cultures behave on airplanes – ignoring and harassing flight attendants, barging up the aisle on landing and not letting other people get out into the aisle, as well as other rude behavior. We have found this particularly the case in Asian and African countries. In the USA this would be almost unheard of.

Dogs and Cats

It never occurred to me before beginning our travels that we would witness often horrifying conditions for dogs and cats around the world. I can’t and won’t describe some of the things we have seen…things I try to put out of my mind.

English Speakers

Before embarking on this full-time travel we had visited many countries in the nearly 40 years we have been married. Some of those countries we found communicating easy and others not so much. But in the past decade most countries have begun teaching English in schools and I can’t think of anywhere we have been in the past four years where we have not been able to speak in English to just about anyone we encounter. English is definitely becoming the world language.

Oh My God

This has become a travel joke for us. Everywhere we go, whether or not the place we are in speaks good English or not, the phrase “Oh my God” is used. It is sometimes the only English words some people know. It is used to express frustration and surprise. I’m not sure if most people even know what they are saying – it’s just a colloquial term used around the world similar to Uff Da or Oi Vey or Gesundheit. Oh my God.

Water

Boy oh boy I sure don’t take clean drinking water for granted anymore. It is to me the biggest problem around the world, and it generates another gigantic problem – what to do with all that single use plastic?

There are some countries and cities making a huge effort. In Antigua Guatemala there are free filtered water stations. In Thailand you can refill giant water jugs for just pennies. Good on ya. I’d love to see this expand.

Germs and Hand Washing

We are all now washing our hands more than ever before. But one thing I have witnessed in most countries is very consistent hand washing already…way more than what I see in public places in the USA. Particularly in Muslim countries but in most other places too people wash not just after using the bathroom but frequently throughout the day, before and after meals and in both public and private places.

Green Africa

Hey guess what? Africa is really, really green. So many Hollywood movies and even NatGeo portray it as a barren brown place – and there are certainly some deserts and dry areas. But most of it is so beautiful and green and big and diverse. You really should go there. Any country…just choose one. They are all great.

Risky Business

I find myself in situations often while traveling that make me pause…what the heck am I doing? Things like being in a sinking boat in a hippopotamus infested lake, swimming next to the edge of Victoria Falls, hiking on a snowy mountain without clampons, standing 4 meters from a wild Silverback gorilla …crazy stuff. Stuff I wouldn’t be allowed to do in the USA because of much tighter laws and a litigation culture that keeps us away from danger. In most of the world, that is not the case.

Mangos

You might think this is a funny category…and it is. But how did I never know how many kinds of mangos, bananas and so many other kinds of tropical fruit were waiting out there for me? There are 500 kinds of mangos for heavens sake! There are 1000 different kinds of bananas! Have you ever eaten a custard apple? How about a dragon fruit? What about a pomelo or jackfruit or langsat? I’ve been living a sheltered life.

Left or Right

Although most countries of the world drive on the right hand side of the road, it still is surprising how many countries drive on the left (including here in Cyprus, a former British colony). Even more surprising is a country like Myanmar, which switched from left-hand driving to right-hand driving in 2015 BUT 90% of the cars still have the steering wheel on the right side. Talk about disconcerting.

Toilet Paper

As toilet paper has become such a valuable commodity in the USA I’ve chuckled about how different Americans view the little white squares compared to the rest of the world. Many cultures don’t use paper…the sprayer attached to the toilet does the job. Many countries you must bring your own paper if you want it, and most countries you aren’t supposed to flush it. Including here on Cyprus where flushing is a no no. Systems are not designed to handle paper, and so it goes into the bin next to the toilet.

It may seem very strange if you haven’t lived somewhere like this but just like anything else you get used to it. I always have TP in my suitcase (and paper towels too) and always have some kind of tissue in my purse.

Have You Learned Anything

Have you learned anything crazy and surprising on your travels? Have you learned anything crazy and surprising from this blog? I could go on and on because there is so much more (cheap medical care, free universities, corrupt governments, government supported community days) that most Americans can’t comprehend.

For me it’s one of the absolutely best things about travel…an eyeopening experience to how the other 96.25% of the world lives. Because get over yourself…the USA is not the center of the universe and we should all try to be more neighborly and interested in our entire planet and the diverse peoples and cultures that make it such a wonderful place.

Don’t give up on travel…we will all hopefully be back traveling again in a few months. Just wash your hands.

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Europe Travel

Island Hopping from Antiparos Greece

My Fab Fifties Island Girl Life

October 7, 2018

Laureen

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Location: South Aegean Greece

What a wonderful decision it was for us to spend three weeks on the tiny island of Antiparos in the south Aegean. We have truly loved our time here.

Antiparos

Delos

Using Antiparos as our home base for island hopping wasn’t really what we set out to do, but it worked out well for us to take short day trips to some of the other islands around the area. However, something to note – because of the unusual weather pattern (around the world) the ferry from Antiparos to Paros was shut down for two days due to wind while we were here. Something to think about if you plan to stay only a short time. We had lots of time so it did not affect our plans.

Santorini

You can hop to Santorini from here, but the off-season ferry schedule makes that tough. During the summer more boats run. But we had already spent three days there so no need to go back. But if you visit and want to do a day trip to Santorini check out both the ferry schedule as well as the privately operated tour boats. The private boats run more frequently. When we took the ferry from Santorini to Paros it costs us 58 Euro for both of us (one way) and took three hours, stopping at Ios along the way. We used Minoan ferry line for this trip.

Mykonos and Delos

Delos

Mykonos

We used a private tour boat to visit Delos and Mykonos together on one day. We took the ferry from Antiparos to Paros and we got on a van that transported us to Naousa (the van transfer was included in the tour price). Here we hopped on a boat that could carry about 200 people. It wasn’t full, but perhaps 100 people. It was an hour ride to Delos where we spent three hours touring this amazing island and its significant ancient ruins. Guided tours were available but we did the tour on our own and really enjoyed it.

Back on the boat we motored 15 minutes to Mykonos. We had three hours to wander here. We had a fantastic lunch at Salparo, sitting on the rocks overlooking the harbor. We then enjoyed sauntering around the historic blue and white village, visited historic sites and looked at shops. Three hours was just enough, since we had been to Mykonos once before eleven years ago.

That trip to Delos and Mykonos was an all-day adventure and costs us 50 euro each. We booked this through Polo Tours in Paros.

Paros

Naousa,Paros

Naousa, Paros

We visited the island of Paros twice. The first visit we had a car and we headed to Naousa in the north part of the island. The weather wasn’t great but we still enjoyed exploring the tiny alleys and hidden shops and homes in the old chora (village). Naousa also has a charming and picturesque port. We drove up into the mountains to visit the teeny village of Lefkes. This ancient town, far from the water, is unusual in how green it is, unlike most of the brown island landscape, and is home to a small agricultural population. Lefkes is one of the few remaining chora that retains its authentic roots.

The next time we visited Paros we spent several hours discovering Paroikia, the port town where the large ferries come and go. The port area is bustling and noisy, but hidden back behind it is an incredible old chora that many people miss. It once again had some fascinating buildings, tunnels and passageways, a spectacular old castle and temple of Athena, many lovely shops and of course, cats.

Naxos

We traveled on the lovely Blue Star Ferries to the island of Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades Islands, about a 45 minute ferry ride from Pariokia. We paid 42 Euro total for both of us round-trip. It was a very windy day and I worried about the boat ride, but the Blue Star line runs large, almost cruise-ship style boats, and I did fine with my motion sickness issue.

Pariokia, Paros

It was also very windy in Naxos, and this port town is very exposed, so we spent a lot of time wandering the old chora up to the ancient castle and trying to stay out of the wind. It’s another beautiful ancient town. We enjoyed having a drink at the rooftop of 1739, which was out of the wind and offered a spectacular panoramic view. We had a nice lunch of simple souvlaki at Yasouvlaki. We then braved the crashing waves to cross the pedestrian manmade causeway to walk out to the famous ancient portara (door), site of an unfinished temple from 530BC. We got wet. Like I said, it was very windy. But it was worth it. The Naxos Portara was worth it.

Antiparos

Naxos

At the end of the day in Naxos I told my husband that I have really enjoyed visiting all five of the islands, but in the end, I am so glad we stayed three weeks on Antiparos. It has everything we want; quiet and peaceful, small village, beautiful secluded beaches, a handful of shops and is still close enough to visit the surrounding islands.

I do hope to return here someday.

Where to next?

But now its time to leave. Next stop – ten-day tour of Egypt and Jordan. A definite bucket list destination for me ever since I was a child. We hope you will continue to follow along on our Fab Fifties Adventures.

Farewell Greece and Antiparos. I love you.

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Africa & The Middle East Travel

Namibia Part I

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

December 8, 2017

Laureen

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Location: Namibia

Once again I am astounded. Astounded by a place I knew so little about. I am so thankful we came to Namibia. Incredible

Good morning

Namibia.

I know only three people who have been to this country. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was open to the adventure I thought it would provide. And I was not disappointed. Only lightly touched by tourism, Namibia is an astonishingly beautiful place and if you have the means you should see it now – because it will change. It always does.

This is an Oryx

There is so much to share about our ten days here, so I’ve decided two blogs are in order and I am starting with the most obvious and most well-known topic of Namibia – the Etosha National Park and the safari we did there.

Why did the giraffe cross the road?

I did a safari seven years ago in Tanzania with my son and sister, but this was a first for Arne and I really worried he might not get to see all the “big game” safaris are known for; elephants, zebras, lions, giraffes, rhinoceros. I needn’t have worried. Yes, we saw all of those and much, much more.

I booked our tour of Namibia with Wild Wind Safaris about six months ago. The tour was $4500 for the two of us for ten days. We could have seen Namibia on our own without a tour guide, the roads (although often gravel) are very good and easy to get around. But our guide “Seven” (a childhood nickname from his football number) provided us with what we learned to call “African eyes”, and the value of that can not be understated. He knew the answer to all of my endless questions and if he didn’t, he found the answer and got back to me within in minutes. He described

With our guide Seven

plants and geology, politics and population, and of course knew facts about animals and wildlife I would never possibly have known. I highly recommend both Seven and Wild Wind Safaris if you want a great experience in Namibia.

So this tour was an anniversary gift to ourselves and although definitely more than our usual $200 a day budget, it was worth every penny.

At the watering hole

The animals in Etosha National Park are varied and abundant. The park has supplemented the natural watering holes around Etosha with some manmade ones, providing constant water in this arid and hot environment. This way the animals stay within the park boundaries and are protected and visible to the guests.

There are still problems with poachers, who specifically target both the black and white rhinoceros in the park. They kill the animals and then cut off their

The beautiful and endangered black Rhinoceros

horns which are then smuggled and sold in the Chinese market. Although this is entirely illegal it is still a problem Namibia struggles with. In fact park officials regularly sedate and cut off the horns of the animals to keep the poachers from killing them. The horns grow back and are made of a material similar to fingernails so it doesn’t cause the animal pain.

Hunting is against the law throughout Namibia (except on some private game hunting reserves), which has changed the culture of many hunter-gatherer tribes and some of the people are extremely poor. But game is also farmed in Namibia and you will often find farmed

Springbok are abundant

game on the menu. Oryx is very popular and tastes just like beef.

With Seven’s guidance we spent our early morning searching for animals – a great time of day for successful sightings. We then would return to the lodge and relax, maybe take a nap or lay around the pool, before heading out again for a late afternoon game drive. You are not allowed to get out of the vehicle for any reason within the park, so having just Arne and I in the vehicle with Seven gave us lots of ability to view the wildlife and go everywhere in the park.

Zebra is the favorite meal for the lions

My photos tell the story of all the incredible creatures we encountered – but only to a point. It’s hard to describe the thrill of moment and how sudden and spontaneous and unplanned it all can be. So often it would just take your breath away. Let me tell you about a few of my favorite moments;

Our first early morning drive we set out with Seven feeling confident we would find lions. We had been out for about two hours and with his “African Eyes” he spotted the three “boys” he knew were often in the area. These lions cubs were about five months old, still young and cub-like but looking full-grown. We watched them from a distance of about 200 yards trot and gallop purposefully across a field,

Lion reunion

ignoring all the animals they usually hunt in the area. They were intent on one thing. Mom. She lay about 30 yards ahead of us on the road. We positioned ourselves and watched in anticipation as the playful and loving reunion took place. The boys happy to be back from whatever adventure they had been on – back with mommy.

This same family we saw several times after that with the magnificent full-maned father (shown in the title photo) proudly watching over his pride. We watched the mating process (in fact got it on video) and these animals truly seemed like a family.

One of the five month old boys

We saw many lions during the rest of our visit but other “cats” were elusive, until one afternoon.

We were exploring several of the water holes in the car but hadn’t seen very many animals. But we noticed that at one water hole the giraffes seemed a bit on alert, staring off into the brush. We watched for a long time but nothing happened so just as we were rolling forward to turn around and leave I spotted a rhino coming out of the trees. So Seven parked the car at an angle where I could get some good photos and we watched. The rhino walked down to the water hole, but never drank – he turned and walked back to the woods. This seemed curious and just then I noticed a lion alone on the other side of the waterhole. “Seven there is a lion” I said. He looked and nearly jumped for

Hard to see from a distance but this is our leopard

joy! “That’s a leopard!” he nearly yelled. “Oh my god a leopard and we are the only ones here at the watering hole!” What a great moment that was. The leopard, though too far to get a really good photo of, was so well camouflaged I couldn’t believe it. He took his time drinking his fill and then quietly disappeared back into the brush. Only then did the rhino return to enjoy his own cool drink. A very rare sighting indeed.

Spotting the endangered Black Rhino was one of my goals as this animal had eluded me when I was in Tanzania. We actually saw many rhinos during our time in Etosha and they are huge, magnificent and very pre-historic looking creatures. But two special moments stand out.

As we were leaving the watering hole and chatting excitedly about our leopard encounter we came around a corner on the dusty gravel road and startled a lone

The beautiful black Rhino at the watering hole after dark

rhino very close to the road. He didn’t like being surprised and he charged our car. I’ll never forget the look on that gigantic creatures face as he lowered his head and charged, while Seven put the car in reverse and I fumbled to get my seatbelt on. He snorted and stared us down but never actually hit the car. Not an animal you want to mess with. Seven told us because he had his head down and was feeding as we came around the corner we had frightened him. Also, because of the poachers these intelligent animals have learned to be wary of vehicles and being snuck up on.

Later that night Arne and I went to the watering hole near our lodge. This hole is designed with night vision lighting that does not bother the animals, but allows people to view the animals from seats at a distance. Every night we went to see what was happening at the watering hole, and on this special night a mama rhino arrived with a teeny little baby.

Giraffe taking a sip

Watching the two of them, never more than a few inches from each other, was a special sight.

For as important as water is to all these animals, watching the effort it takes a giraffe to have a long cool drink is astonishing. Giraffes cannot hold their head down for very long because it cuts off their blood flow. It also puts them in a very vulnerable position to predators, so a giraffe takes a long time to consider its surrounding before finally spreading its long and skinny legs wide and dipping its camel-like face into the water. What a strange and beautiful beast.

Speaking of strange and beautiful, I have saved my favorite animal for last. We saw every animal from Impala to Zebra, Ostrich to Wildebeast, Jackal to Hyena, Warthog to

Ostrich

Tortoise and hundreds of birds. But my favorite always is the intelligent, magnificent, domestic and loving elephant. And we saw so many and have many memorable moments:

The elephant throws mud on itself in an effort to keep cool and keep off the insects. This creates what is known either as a white elephant or a black elephant depending on the mud. We watched as elephants sprayed the mud and played in the water. We saw elephants nearly pure white amongst the green leaves, we saw

My favorite photo of this bull at sunset

white elephants as the sun set looking just like a white concrete statue.

The younger male elephants (bachelors) roam together while the older males usually are associated with a matriarchal group, but don’t spend time together. The matriarchal group is made up of females and babies and “teenagers”. The male teens leave the group at about 15 years. The female elephants spend all their life together. Once again the watering hole provided us a spectacular venue to witness

Elephant parade

these family ties.

One evening we arrived at the watering hole to find two males – one much older than the other. We watched as the younger male began vocalizing as the matriarchal group made its way out of the trees. The older male took this as his cue to exit right, while the younger male greeted both vocally and physically each female as she came near the water hole. The younger male, clearly part of this family, then left the females and youngsters to enjoy the water as he went on his way.

Magnificent

On another evening at the watering hole we watched a small fox running across the sand directly towards a giant elephant drinking. As the fox neared the feet of the elephant he reared up and sprayed water all over the fox – clearly showing who is the boss. The poor little fox scampered away.

The morning we were leaving the park, we had already checked out of our room and only gone about 100 yards down the road and Seven spotted elephants in the distance – with a brand

Our final sighting. Perfect.

new baby in tow. We turned immediately around and headed back to the lodge and the watering hole where we watched for twenty minutes as this new mother, another small male and this itsy bitsy newborn, no more that two or three days old, drank. The baby wanted to wallow around and the mama kept him near to her and out of the mud. Seven told us this was a young female, younger than usually reproduce, probably about ten years old. But she seemed to have a good maternal instinct and watching this

A front row seat

little group was a joyful and satisfying way to end our time in Etosha.

This blog was long, but we had such a great experience in Etosha and in Namibia. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I’ll be writing more soon, about the people and places of this unique country, but in the meantime, the lion sleeps tonight.

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