Day 99: Giant's Causeway & Antrim Coast

The research into bus and train times didn't look good >_< So, we ended up taking a day tour up the Antrim Coast and to the Causeway. With the bus and train times as they were, we actually would have only been able to spend as much time at the Causeway as we did with the day tour! K said the tour spent enough time at the Causeway for him. I would have liked more time there, but I'm the type that likes to linger ^-^;; In retrospect, maybe we could have rented a car (which we have yet to do during any of our travels). Then, at least we wouldn't have the extra other day tour stops like the Bushmills Distillery (whiskey), the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (though that was fun), and a couple of other much shorter stops.


The *best* bread I've had this whole trip: wheaten bread! The texture and flavor remind me a bit of cornbread. It was sooooo good. We (mostly I) ate the whole loaf before our day tour ended.

I definitely got my day's fill of sheep (so much pasture for them, too!) and beautiful Irish coastline!


The naturally-formed hexagonal stones at the Giant's Causeway were just as strangely-cool as I imagined they'd be. These were even better than the similar formations we saw at Jusangjeolli in Jeju-do last year because we actually to go right up next to (and on!) the rocks ^o^

We used up every minute of our time at the Causeway, making the last shuttle back to the parking lot in time to make our on-time tour bus departure ^-^

With a bit of traffic, the bus ended up getting back into Belfast later than the previously-stated time of 7pm. In fact, it got back to two blocks from the hostel a few minutes before 7:30pm, which is when we had to catch our bus to Dublin! It might have been the fastest I've ever had to run in my life, getting off that bus, sprinting to the hostel, grabbing our stuff, and racing down many more blocks to the airport bus stop. Thankfully, we made it *just* in time!

There were only two other people on the bus, a young couple from Florida who were only a few weeks into their six-month trip! It was definitely exciting talking to them about where they were planning to go, some of which overlapped with the places we'd been. Their trip would take them through Western Europe, Central Europe, Egypt, the Middle East, and Nepal. Wow.

Day 93: Bernese Alps => Golden Pass rail journey

When we got to Murren yesterday, we asked the cable car ticket counter if going up to Schilthorn would be at all possible during our short stay here. He said go up first thing this morning and that the clouds usually start setting in around 9am!

We took the 2nd train out of Interlaken at 7:05am. (Actually, we were intending on taking the first one at 6:35am, but as we neared the station, we realized we left our day tickets back at the hostel ^-^''); this had me up on Schilthorn at 8:27am. Only me. Being that Schilthorn is above 10k feet, we decided it wasn't prudent to risk K's proneness to altitude sickness. K waited for me at Murren.

The view of the big three was indeed excellent! And K later told me that a ticket person told him that usually the mornings are clearest but this is much better than usual ^o^


(While I was up at Schilthorn, K took the cable car guy's advice and went up to a much smaller peak, Allmendhubel, which is a pretty decent view itself.)

After I got back down from Schilthorn we traveled to the other side, Wengen, took the cable car up, and then a short hike up to the peak and back. Gorgeous. We originally intended to do the 2.5-mile hike, but having added Schilthorn to today, it was impossible to do both. Rain droplets started as we came back down.

13:11 train out of Interlaken.

Switzerland has a bunch of beautiful rail journeys, the Golden Pass supposedly being the best of them. It starts in Lucerne, then Interlaken, then Zweisimmen, and ends in Montreux. The rail path is actually a separate, prettier path from the usual faster paths between those cities.

I once thought Austria had one of the prettiest train views, with hilly countrysides, lots of lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Myrdal to Flam in Norway certainly was up there as well. The Golden Pass had some varied nice views throughout and also a special 'panoramic' train. When we booked, we had supposedly reserved a 'normal' seat in a non-panoramic car of the train (the windows in the 'normal' seats can be opened), but when we got on the train at Interlaken, we noticed all the train cars were panoramic train cars, which might have been a fairly recent change. A seat in a panoramic car meant larger windows, but they couldn't be opened.

After our various train rides now, K says train journeys are overrated; he's not the 'sit and just watch' type of person. Plus, you can't just stop whenever you want and explore an area more.

On the train, we chatted with a guy originally from the States but who's been living in Geneva for the past nine years or so (married someone from there ^_~). Having now been immersed in both environments, he had some interesting thoughts to share. On why there are laws for store hours, that is, why they close early on Saturdays and are closed all day on Sundays, even the grocery stores, he said that it's because Sundays in Switzerland are considered family days. Besides, after living there for a bit, you quickly get used to planning out your shopping week accordingly. He also told us about how his house mortgage in Switzerland is essentially a mortgage for life; he's not expected to be able to pay if off within his lifetime. It's the first time we've ever heard of that, so I don't know how true that is for other residents.

K also chatted with a French-speaking, nice, old Swiss lady before she had to get off the train. Or perhaps I should say tried chatting? The last time he used any of his high school French was during our trip two years ago, so the conversation was definitely stilted. But the lady seemed to enjoy whatever they were able to get across to each other. I don't speak French =/

Montreaux's waterfront was crowded! It turns out today is a day in several of the Jazz festival. Festive.

We took the boat out to Chateau de Chillon. Big castle with lots of interesting little rooms! And latrines that used to empty down down down thru the castle and eventually into the lake O_o


We hit an unexpected roadblock on our way back to our Zurich apartment tonight. The good thing about trams having continually-updating displays showing the next few stops (or even all the way to the end of the line) is that you know ahead of time if things aren't quite right. We were on the right tram, but that tram was not going where it was supposed to go! Talking to the driver didn't help (language), but thankfully, a fellow passenger overheard us and told us we should get off at the next stop, walk several blocks following some new construction (just started yesterday!), and the new temporary tram spot should be obvious. Apparently, it's a temporary tram set up just because of the construction and the line to our apartment is the only one affected. Poor K will have to go through this same tram transfer every day this week as part of his commute.

Day 79: Oslo => Flam => Sognefjord => Bergen

The morning started out a bit stressful. We had an early early 6:38am train to catch, but after waiting at the tram stop for a while, we looked at the schedule to discover that the tram just doesn't run that early on a Sunday morning. Eek, we should have checked out the tram schedule last night! Thankfully, eventually a taxi passed by, and we managed to wiggle our way to a slightly lower taxi fare from the super-nice driver ^-^;; After that, we made our train and everything was happy ^o^

Oslo to Bergen is one of the most scenic train routes in Europe (though we only did half of it by train). Right as it got colder, we started seeing more snow, water, falling water, and also some cute towns. We got off the train at Flam and got some food as we waited for a boat to take us the rest of the way.



Fjord: a word that entered my vocabulary during scrabble in college, played by the ever-so-knowledgeable E. Even after that, I never really *knew* what it meant until last year. Explained in the context of something I already knew, it's like Yosemite Valley, except filled with water (both were carved by glaciers).

Here I was, seeing a fjord in person. I can't believe I'm saying it... actually, I was a little underwhelmed. I think it's one of those meeting-of-expectations times. Like our train ride earlier in the day, there was snow, water, falling water, and cute towns, but this time, we were seeing it from water instead of land. Waterfalls falling into water one after another... it was incredible! But there was something missing. We've been to amazingly gorgeous places set on water (e.g. Halong Bay) and my expectations were high. After the exhilarating train ride in the morning, I had even higher expectations >_< Perhaps if we were hiking next to the fjord it would have been different?

Having said all that, I did have a good time. It was cold and super-windy outside the boat. K says this is a really weird-looking picture of me. Of course it is! My face is all distorted by the wind!

I was standing at the very front of the boat at the time and took the picture with one hand while holding on to the railing with the other. I would have been blown back otherwise! I had a tough time keeping my eyes open, too. Once most people actually got to the front of the boat, they started heading back pretty quickly. I stayed there longer than most ^-^ K went out for only a couple of minutes and promptly returned back inside where he could enjoy the scenery from the comfort of his seat. I absolutely loved the wind, but it eventually just became too cold to stay out there!

Typical fjord scenery...



Entering into Bergen harbor was a definite highlight; it all looked so cute from the water! It was 9pm and as expected, there was still plenty of light out.


A few more twitter recaps from Oslo:
- Midnight. Looks like darkness might finally be starting to settle in. Maybe in another hour? (Or two?)
- False friend... applesin = orange!
- Actually, it never really gets fully dark! Nearly there and then haha, just kidding.

Day 69: Plitvice Lakes National Park

When I had first mentioned Plitvice to K, he wasn't really interested. I guess I didn't explain it well. But then we saw it on an RS episode and he changed his mind, and happy he did!

We ate a yummy breakfast at the hotel with lots of fruit -- cantaloupe, pears, pineapple, and kiwi -- and made the first tram, 8:00, from the entrance to stop 4 on the Upper Lakes. It was before any tour groups were out and for a good couple of hours we had quiet with just ourselves and the lakes and waterfalls.

This place is waterfall overload! Crystal clear lake waters at varying levels flowing into each other, with meandering wooden pathways cutting right over the water. K called it "M heaven". It wouldn't be too far off. Give me my friends, family, K, and give us a place like Plitvice. Maybe also a bi-weekly market of fresh fruits and veges and a well-stocked library. Then I'll be pretty set ^-^





Just about everyone says the Upper Lakes are better than the Lower Lakes, but we loved both. They're different. The Upper Lakes has great at-your-level up-close waterfalls. The Lower Lakes is more serene and has really nice big-picture views.

We explored the Upper Lakes in the morning, took a late afternoon break for lunch, and then explored the Lower Lakes in the afternoon. RS said one hour for each -- maybe for some people, but not us. We saw the girls again during our break; they were on their way out to their 2:30 bus to Split. Haha, maybe we'll bump into them in Split, too!

We also saw the Frenchman we met in Bled! He was hiking with his firemen friends in the higher part of the Upper Lakes. Actually, I didn't see them. At the time, K and I had split up, me heading back to a certain spot and he going further ahead to explore and see if there was anything more to see. Apparently I was so absorbed in the trail and my mp3 player that the Frenchman didn't want to disturb my concentration when he passed me! That's what he told K when they saw each other.

Day 66: Bled, Vintgar Gorge

I didn't really know what a gorge was but I'd come across a couple of pictures of Vintgar Gorge and I convinced K to go. It was, absolutely, gorgeous!~

It reminded me of our walk down from Neushwanstein castle two months ago, following the path of the river. Similarly, this was a walkway following the path of the river but in an even more dramatic setting with a much longer path, super clear water, in the middle of rocks and greenery. The path even crossed over the river a few times ^-^

We passed by this one pair of Asian girls a couple of times. I envied the one who touted a G10 and wondered if she was using her built in ND filter to catch some nice water shots. But then again, with all the people walking on the shaky wooden bridges, it was probably hard to do. It's definitely one of those "you have to be there" places you can't entirely capture in a photo. K's glad we went ^o^




Strangely, we encountered a group of school kids on a field trip in the gorge. That, in and of itself wasn't strange, but they were all wearing helmets! We didn't think it was particularly dangerous, but I guess you have to be extra careful with the kids?

The tourist info office yesterday told us about the morning bus to go the gorge. It makes one loop around the lake and then heads over to the gorge. Then, it waits a bit (enough time for the average person to make it to the end of the gorge and back out) and comes back, making another loop around the lake. We took the bus there, but with our usual slow speed, we knew we probably wouldn't be able to make it back on the bus (it only makes the trip once a day). And we didn't. So the entrance booth lady at the gorge directed us towards where we might hope to catch a local bus back to Bled.

Much walking, a few more inquires of locals, and several unsuccessful hitchhiking attempts later, we finally found a bus stop and caught a bus, an hour after leaving the gorge -_-

The rest of the day was pretty calm... dessert, lunch, and a trip to Lesce Bled to buy train tickets. K's foot has started acting up again (pain in the top part of his right foot) >_< So with that and my knee, we decided not to make the long hike up the castle that overlooks the lake. Maybe next time?

Day 37: Cappadocia

Another long, fun day! In fact, there's so much that I either blank when I start writing or the overwhelming number of thoughts block me from writing anything. (I'm already writing this a day later because it really was too much to absorb in one night... and I was *really* tired after getting back!)

We were to leave for our day tour at 9:30am, so we made it up to breakfast a little before 9am. We had met one of the tour guides while checking in the other day. While eating, she sees us and says her friend will be our guide today. But then a few minutes later she comes by again and says that it turns out she'll be our guide after all. Shortly after we finished eating, a third girl who had just signed up for the tour this morning shows up (I think while we were eating), so our group will be five, nicely small.

But then, one of the pension people comes by and says our tour was cancelled! The two other people from yesterday had dropped out! Grrr. Our option now -- to join a tour by another travel agency. The itinerary is a bit different though. The hike in Ihlara Valley (the highlight for us) is only 3.5 km instead of 7 km >_< Also, it doesn't stop by Nar Lake (volcanic crater lake) but visits Derinkuyu, the other underground city everyone visits. But we had already seen the Kaymakli underground city yesterday. It didn't take too long to deliberate on that choice though, once we found out that there were already 14 people on that tour and adding us 3 would make it 17 total. Bleh.

So now what? Our quandry induced them to offer us a 3rd option... to have a private driver for the day. If all three of us do it, K and I would end up paying less for the driver than we would have for the tour. But once you add in all the entrance fees and lunch (both included in the tour), it's slightly more than we would have paid for the tour. Much deliberation, but the three of us decide to do it in the end.

The cast for the day:
- MK - us
- Jocelyn - our new travel companion, on her day 3 of four total days in Cappadocia
- Unal - our super-nice driver (and also turned out, indirect guide)

I struggled with Unal's name quite a bit. The 'u' is actually a 'u' with two dots on top. It wasn't until the end of the day that I realized the closest sound I could compare it to was yu4 (jade) without the 'y' part.

While waiting and before we were told the bad news of our tour being cancelled, I noticed that Jocelyn had a g1. But not just any g1, a g1 with the cute android and design on the back. It could only mean one thing. I show her mine. For a brief second we gave each other a knowing glance. She's Asian, lived in Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S., and currently working in the G NY office. She's super outdoors-y/active, at least judged by the things she likes to do, and well, by the fact that she just finished a week-long trek through southern Turkey.

Since we have our own driver, the day is pretty flexible to what we want. We followed the original tour itinerary, adding a couple of things, mostly towards the end. First stop, Nar Lake. Beautiful crater lake. Something different is the kids with donkeys by the lake. K decides to ride one for a short bit; after all, how often do you get to ride a donkey? Once again, the kids seem to find us amusing.

Ihlara Valley is over an hour's drive from Goreme and more than twice as long via public transport. Unal drops us off at the start of the hike and will meet us after the 7 km at Belisirma. 'Valley' is not quite the right term we would use; it's more a canyon. A hike through the whole canyon is twice as long as we're doing, 14 km. The canyon from above was an amazing sight. I looked and thought "Wow, I'm going to be down there, hiking next to the river! Yay!"

Every now and then we would have to navigate up and down, through, or under rocks, but the hike was fairly flat for a good portion of the way. We only saw a few people on the first 3.5 km, but then had to squeeze through tour group after tour group during the second half. It wasn't *that* many but definitely contrasted with the first half. And the pace of the groups was quite slow.

The other downside was the heat and sun. There wasn't much tree cover >_<


A dog adopted us during the first half. We encountered it somewhere early in our hike; it subsequently followed us until the start of the second half (when the tour groups started appearing). It would either walk with us, or walk ahead and then wait for us, as if we were its owners.

A tortoise peed on K. It was on the side of the path. Jocelyn picked it up, and then K took it. The accident happened right after I took a picture of K with it. Eek.


Other animals:
- Saw a snake. A fairly small one, but I didn't try to tempt fate by sticking around and trying to grab a picture.
- K saw a frog. Jocelyn and I missed it; it jumped in the water just as K walked by.

At the end of the hike, we ate lunch at a slightly more expensive touristy restaurant. Being that it's the only place to eat, all the tour groups stop there; we got the last unoccupied, unreserved table.

Selime monastery. Dug into the rock, of course. It's quite a sight to just see! But even better, Unal took us into some areas that groups usually don't go to. He assured us several times, "It's a little dangerous, but don't worry, it's ok." The tour groups don't go because of liability issues. He said he's suggested his path to group leaders before (for whom he was the driver), but their response... "Are you crazy???"


Unal said, "Do you see the three small windows up there? That's where we will climb to."

While we were climbing the holes and steps going up, I worried a bit about the down part. That's not going to be fun. The last tiny bit was a climb up a hole with very little foot/hand holds. Unal climbed up with some effort, but not too much. Easier for him because the best foot holds were opposite each other in the hole and he had the requisite longer legs to reach and use them! Jocelyn tried twice and nearly made it to the top on the 2nd try, K didn't get very far at all, and I said 'nevermind'... no point in getting myself all tired out while I still need my strength to make it down. When I saw it, I immediately thought of S because she rock climbs. Rock climbing -- something I'll have to take up when I get back. Then, when I encounter something like this again... ^o^


Climbing back down was a bit nerve racking in some parts.

Brief stop at Guzelyurt, a little Greek settlement with apparently the oldest church. We looked at the church from the outside. The interesting bit here was the donkey that went up to the horse...

Derinkuyu underground city. Since Jocelyn had not been to one of the two underground cities yet, we stopped here on the way back towards Goreme. Derinkuyu is supposed to be the deepest underground city. According to different guides, the city either held 2000, 5000, or 10000 people at its max. It was indeed deep (but they only let you go down six of the floors) and we could even look up a ventilation shaft just to see how far down we were. K and I were glad that we went to Kaymakli though. Though deep, Derinkuyu was less interesting for us. The rooms we did see were mostly grandiose/spacious rooms (e.g. a large town meeting room) and there seemed to be a lot less open for visitors to explore. At Kaymakli, there was a lot more variety in rooms, more to explore, and left more 'rugged' -- at Derinkuyu, it seems the govt had put in easier-access steps for visitors to reach down to the lower levels. Although Derinkuyu is supposed to be much more crowded with tour groups, since we went in the afternoon, we only encountered a few, especially good because the one-way, more than a hundred steps would have been quite annoying otherwise.

After Derinkuyu, we stopped at a viewpoint of Pigeon Valley. Very nice! And then, because K and I had expressed interest in seeing more 'fairy chimney' structures and we all liked the idea of seeing the sunset, super-nice Unal first took us to a sunset viewpoint and then drove all the way north to Pasabagli to see the chimneys. We got back past 8:30pm! (The tours usually get back around 6pm.) Any other driver probably would have said it would be too late and gone back to Goreme after the Pigeon Valley viewpoint.

I'll miss seeing these entirely unique landscapes...

Day 11: Jeju-do, hiking Hallasan

Being that it was later than we planned to get out for Hallasan, we debated for a bit whether to go (chance of cutting our flight *really* close). Sure, let's go.

We got to the Eorimok stop a little before 9:30am. By that time, the rain had mostly disappeared. We still had to walk the 15-20 minutes to the start of the trail though. Except for the cars that passed us every now and then and one other hiker ahead of us, it was really peaceful...


The sidewalk was wood and it had small raised parts spaced evenly apart, presumably to provide traction and to aid in walking up the incline. But for me, it was annoying rather than helping; the raised parts were spaced awkwardly for my stride =/ So I ended up walking on the half of the sidewalk without the raised parts.

We encountered two groups of kids, both on the way up (aside from the Pacific Land show, the island has been free of K's disliked kid groups). We managed to pass one group (elementary school age) and the other was coming down as we were going up. The coming-down group was composed of teenagers and came in mini spurts of 3 or 4 at a time (old enough to go at their own pace?). All these kids coming down the mountain were blasting music from their cell phones, quite odd.

This must have been the most well-maintained trail we've ever been on. If not for the cold (which wasn't too bad) and kids, it's one of the nicer hikes we've been on, perhaps because I got to see lots of autumn along the way. Most of it was either rocky or wood-covered...



We met some nice Korean couples on the trail. One offered to take a picture for us and another offered us some tangerines (they had a whole bag full of them) ^-^

Our 'peak' was the Witseoreum shelter, which sells lots of instant noodles to hikers. Since those noodles are usually pretty spicy for me, we had brought our own food. The line for the noodles was loooong.


To get to the actual peak of Hallasan would take twice the amount of time, but we had a plane to catch. Picking up the pace going down the mountain, we managed to finish our hike 8 minutes before the next bus... but still another 15-minutes walk out to the Yeongsil bus stop. So, we ran. Running after a 4.5-hour hike and when not in the best of shape is not fun. Could we really make it in time for the bus?

Halfway down, K managed to flag down a car and they graciously gave us a ride the rest of the way to the bus stop ^-^ It was the same couple that had offered us tangerines on the trail. We arrived just in time, one minute before the bus came.

Being able to take this bus meant that we actually had a little bit of time to spare in Jeju-si before going to the airport, enough to walk a bit along the waterfront (not many people at this time of the year) and to grab some food to eat later at the airport ^o^