Pacific Specifics

  Day 2 waking up in Skopje. In Macedonia. Macedonia. This place is way more foreign than the other places we’ve been. And we’re on our own. Crazy. It’s a certain kind of madness, I know. We went through Airbnb again. This time I’m having issues with the place. I’m working them out. I stepped in and looked around and I was over-whelmed by the clutter. Then I just pulled things off the counters and put them in cupboards, and I felt much better. Plus, the kitchen is a good size and overflowing with pots and pans and bowls and equipment and supplies. The last kitchen in Lodz, Poland didn’t even have a potato peeler. It was so small we couldn’t both be in there at the same time. I would go in to get some bread, and then turn around and Ron was in the fridge. I couldn’t leave the kitchen until he went into the living room to let me pass. It was easy to clean, I’ll give it some credit. The stove was the kind you have to light the burners with a long lighter. Not good for morning people...

  The latest and greatest and weirdest. The currency in Budapest is the Hungarian Forint (HUF). It's a Denar in the Republic of Macedonia. I'm so glad I gave up spending money. It's easy to do when I need to buy so little, and don't want to do all those calculations with multiple currencies. After almost 9 months we still only have 2 suitcases each. My souvenirs for each country is a coin from there. Except I missed Nicaragua. But I have a coin purse with one coin from Canada, the U.S. Costa Rica, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and now Macedonia (not to be mistaken for the other Macedonia in near-by Greece). One day I will put them all in a frame on the wall.   Each place we go is unique. The apartment in Budapest looked fairly normal in most respects. That apartment had 2 bathrooms. One room just for the toilet, which makes sense to me. I never liked the idea that the toilet is usually a few inches from the bathtub. But that room was claustrophobic. I could rea...

  How much time travel did we do? It seems that Denmark and Poland are in the same so called Time Zone. What about Hungary and Macedonia? I don’t even know. It doesn’t even matter until we have to be on a plane. I miss my watch that I left behind in Cedar City, Utah in the United States of America. But I have to admit, I haven’t needed it much. I had to turn off my cell phone and turn it back on. It’s supposed to reset it to local time, right? So it appears to be 7:17pm. Actually 19:27. I’m getting used to this 24 hour clock. Back home I called it military time and it drove me nuts. It makes more sense. You don’t have to do extra calculating to figure out if someone is saying AM or PM. Do they mean 10 Ante Meridian, or 10 Post Meridian? (I finally looked it up, and we are still in the same time zone as Denmark, even though my computer still tells me Cedar/Samara time. It's both 12:25pm and 18:25pm, but don't get me started on time travel/dimensions).   This morning we w...

  How do I catch up on the awestruck wonder of Budapest in late May? It has been completely outstanding. The views, the scenery, the massive buildings, the castle, the basilisks, the tram system, the perfect weather, the stolen moments, the hidden trails, the multitude of statues, and the list goes on.   People here are not shy. They hold hands a lot. They hug a lot. And unlike the U.S. there is a lot of kissing. The kind where you want the couple next to you to be quiet, and get a room. Because there is a cool statue behind them you want to look at, but they are busy smacking lips and playing tongue hockey.   Day One wasn't very exciting, I was so tired. I took a nap, then we navigated the tram system to get a mall. They have impressive malls here, maybe because the winters are so harsh? So they have a huge bio-dome to go to, maybe? That's my best guess. So the first day wasn't actually a big deal. But the next day we found our way to the Danube river, and it took my b...

  I need to know about my parent's grandparents, and the parents before them. My curiosity is overwhelming. Where did it start? I wish it started when I was 14 years old. Back then at least 2 of my Grandparents were alive. The ones in Canada that spoke English. The ones from Poland. At that time I was living with my maternal Grandmother. Did I think to ask her questions? No! I lived with her for 5 years and I don't remember anything. I have been specifically trying to pull up memories for most of the last year. I only remember her mentioning once about riding in a horse and buggy to church. She probably talked about things, and I just didn't pay a lot of attention.   My Grandfather didn't live with my Grandmother by the time I was a kid. He didn't talk about anything. My Mom says he never spoke about his family.   As for my paternal grandparents, I met them when I was 7 years old, and they came to Canada. I don't remember much about it, and they didn't s...

  I'm doing a new post for this. You need to understand that I am an average person. I'm not that old, I'm not that young. I'm in the middle. 46 years old. I'm not that fat, I'm not that skinny. I'm not that rich, I'm not that poor. I'm not that smart, I'm not that stupid. I'm a bit of many things too. I haven't travelled much as I grew up. 2 weeks in Montreal as a school exchange program when I was 14. A summer in Denmark when I was 14. A few road trips to the west coast of the States with family, not really that far.   Then I did the big brave thing of moving to Las Vegas, Nevada when I was 19. Not to be a show girl, but to start a family. I'm average, but I feel like the irony in my life may be above average. I lived there for about 20 years. I traveled to Costa Rica once when I was 34, for 3 weeks. I moved around the United States for 3 years, I guess that counts.   If you ask me how I am able to walk away from my lovely neighb...

What interests you the most? I had 5 days of traveling from Costa Rica to Denmark. 11 days in Denmark 27 days in Poland so far How about food? In Costa Rica - for 7 months the food was all unprocessed, and simple, and good for me. Fresh fruits, home cooked meals with my Mom. I was sad and relieved there were no frozen dinner options. 5 days of travel - we were lucky to eat 2 meals a day. We snacked a lot. Never good food. 11 days in Denmark - simple food with my Dad, he made us a soup the first night. But there was not much to do in the rain except walk to the local bakery! My extended family always had wonderful meals for us. I don't know if I could do justice trying to describe the buffet for the big Easter lunch. I was distracted by all the happy laughing people. I remember well the dinner afterwards, at my Uncle's house. His wife made red deer stew, and it was very good. I thought the food would be weirder, but I stayed away from most fish options just in case. And...

  I am so beyond tired. We walked and walked and walked today. I'm so glad we did all that today. I'm so happy to be tired. We started at the Litzmannstadt train station. It's a museum and part memorial of the Lodz Jewish ghetto. It was the train station where they took people from the ghetto to the concentration camps. Otherwise known as death camps. And annihilation camps. And extermination camps.   Then we walked to the nearby (but quite a walk) to the Jewish cemetery. Once one of the largest ones in Poland and the world. I can't imagine a bigger one. It was so beautiful, so creepy, so amazing. The cemetery was inside of the Jewish ghetto in Lodz. That explains the outer walls with large shards of broken glass embedded in the concrete at the top.   As we walked we only ever saw one person, walking out of the cemetery. He looked like maybe he worked there. This place was so massive, and no one was in there. I think the last people placed in there were the 43,572 pe...

  Today we went for a long walk. If I had realized we were going for an hour and a half walk, I would not have tried to brave it with a hoodie. It was ok though. When the sun decided to shine and the wind chose to not blow - it was perfect. I swear it ended up dropping 10 degrees when the sun gave up, half way through the walk. Such an interesting walk, I loved it. So much to gawk at on just a regular street around here. I can't get over the buildings, and these Polish people love their brick as much as I do. A part of me wants to work creating the bricks, the other part wants to be a brick mason. Maybe I just played with a whole lot of Lego as a kid.   Life is so amazing, I can't believe it. It just doesn't seem real! Me, little old Suzette, I'm going to keep traveling. Even in April as we planned for the trip to Demark, I could not have conjured up the possibility that we would keep going like we are. I didn't even try to believe. My husband is always the first t...

We left San Francisco one month ago today, on April 8th. I'm not doing a good job of catching up on how I felt about the trip, and how it has changed me. I thought maybe I would do a timeline of dates and highlights. April 5  We said goodbye to my Mom and Samara, and went to a hotel near the airport city 6  We said goodbye to Costa Rica, after 7 months, and spent the night in San Francisco where they had a bad storm (mudslides), but all we saw was rain. 7  We spent the day in San Fracisco looking for warm weather clothes 8   We got on the plane to Denmark with a run through the Toronto airport to rush to our next plane that was already boarding when we got there 9   We flew all night long, even though it was only 6 hours. Time travel is weird. We arrived in Copenhagen at 10am, but we were so tired. Day 1 in Denmark! Not much luck sleeping on the plane. Visit a lovely cousin I'd only texted with, and after a huge Danish lunch we caught ...

  Where am I going is as interesting as where I've been. I find myself in this incredible warp of time and space, where I am a Traveler. I didn't see this coming, I really didn't. I though being able to travel required many things that I didn't possess. We are constantly amazing ourselves.   Mike Dooley says to imagine how it will feel to live your dream, and don't waste precious energy worrying about "the cursed Hows". I tried to balance getting to Costa Rica with chasing down options of how to get there. Then options for staying there. Minus the worry. I had my doubts about how to pull it off for a month, let along 7 months. But I wanted to believe, and that was a good place to start.   Day 1 of arriving in Costa Rica was September 2. Day 1 of leaving Costa Rica was April 6. Day 1 of arriving in Denmark was April 9th. We left on Denmark on Day 12: April 20th. Which was also Day 1 (the only Day) of Sweden. And Day 1 of Poland. We are now on Day 18 of Po...

  It's a trip to Europe! There is so much to gain from that. Immediately I have a growing list of 100 things that I want to do, that my husband wants to see. Which means that I can't do it all. What do I sacrifice? How do I let go of some of those things that I can't imagine doing before I leave Europe?   Can I go to Poland and not see the famous salt mines by Krakow? Can I explore Polish history for the sake of my family tree and not do a tour of Auschwitz? Can I go to Lodz and not go to Strzegowo and Jedlicze? I have to make some choices. The days are going by so quickly here!! Can I leave Europe without setting foot in Italy?   I have to go back to Denmark. I have to go to Macedonia. I have to make the most of my time here. I have to buy new tickets and pick a new date to return to the States. All of this crowds in my mind as I try to blog about days gone by, and read a book I can't put down, and no I did not even try to work on my own little book today. I need to ...

  This question has plagued me since we bought the tickets to Denmark. In good ways and bad ways. What next? The reigning question. Today it has morphed into What next in my research? What next since we cancelled our plans to leave on Saturday, like our tickets say we should.   It's why I haven't written yet. I'm so busy living the story, I haven't had the time to write the details. Last night we were up late trying to get the answers we needed. It has been a lot of research, on many levels. A lot of re-defining. Each day is filled with something different. Today was supposed to be about going to a historical sight, we are all dressed up. Then it took something like an hour for Ron to just find an address. This is how it goes. So we stayed home, missing the first item on the list, making more plans for the next.   I want to do so many things right now. I want to crochet, I want to blog, I want to sweep and dust, I want to do more research, I want to reach the archi...

  Good grief, how many pictures did we take today? It started with another gloriously slow and easy morning in Poland. Then we headed to this extensive cemetery that we saw on the way to the gigantic mall the other, day. The mall is called Manifaktura, and I feel like saying the way they say Mufasa on the Lion King movie. The cemetery is back to back with another cemetery called Cmetarz Prawoslawny. One says it's a Catholic cemetery. (Next time around we're visiting the Jewish Cemetery, wherever it is).   We walked around for 45 minutes and didn't even walk the entire perimeter of one of the 2 cemeteries. It was very interesting. Outside of the cemetery there were several vendors who sold things to put on graves. Mostly flowers, real and fake. And these lantern things that you put candles in, those are quite popular here. There were quite a few people at the cemetery, several had little bags for weeds and tiny brooms to tidy up the plots they were visiting. The...