Caminho Portugues: Days 1-3

  After a delightful 1.5 days exploring Lisbon, G and I took the train to Porto to begin our 2nd camino journey! So far so good. Portugal is beautiful! I ate shellfish...and I liked it! First time for everything. We chose to do the coastal Camino because why not. Day 1: Porto to Matosinhos (via the …

Camino del Norte: Days 4 – 8

Hola amigos! We have delved deeper into Basque Country, and I have now mastered exactly one phrase in Basque: "eskarrig asko" which means "thank you." Here's the scoop.... Day 4: Orio to Zumaia, 16.8 km. We stayed in a 400+ year old monastery, San Jose. It had a beautiful garden and I got to eavesdrop on …

Camino del Norte: Days 1 – 3

Hola! I am writing this blog post from the bucolic albergue above the town of Orio. This is my current view: So far so good! We are not moving as fast as I'd like because apparently I am out of "hill-walking" shape. Oops. Nothing like walking over mountains with a heavy pack to get in …

Great Scott!

When trying to come up with a clever title for this post about my trip to Scotland, I thought of this "Great Scott" business, but I wasn't 100% sure what it actually means. So I asked the internet. I guess it is appropriate as a title here. The very best part about this particular trip …

Corsica part 2: Bastia

Continuing in Bastia... I arrived late, nauseated from the train, and sweaty from my hike....super cute look. It was hot and much more humid than Ajaccio or the central mountains. My roommate at the hostel was a very friendly woman from Toulouse who invited me to join her the next day. She had rented a …

Corsica part 1: Ajaccio

Hooray for vacances scolaires!!!! Ah France, the land of having plenty of time off. I decided to go to Corsica and then Berlin during the break since geographically, it makes lots of sense (just kidding). Things I knew about Corsica before arriving: 1. It is an island in the Mediterranean. 2. It is now part …

La foret noire + Updates + Help my cousin

Updates from the Black Forest (the one in Germany): It is not, in fact, black. It's much more gray and green: I think the only other place I've encountered such thick, pea-soup fog was on top of Mt. Davidson in San Francisco on one of the foggier nights. I joined the local chapter of the Club Alpin Français so I …