First blog post in a couple of years so I’ll keep it short and sweet: here are my one second videos from the last couple years. Enjoy.
In 2020 I put together a video containing a one second clip from every day of the year. This is the 4th year in a row that I’ve done this, and as you might imagine 2020 looks a bit different than previous years. Different isn’t necessarily bad, but either way here’s the video of what may go down as the strangest year of my life.
Hiking up Alpe di Tires
In October 2019 my dad and sister visited Bristol. They spent a week exploring Bristol and Cornwall before Linnea and I joined them for quick weekend in Munich. That quick weekend became even shorter when we missed our connection in Amsterdam on Friday night. A night in Amsterdam paid for by an airline doesn’t sound bad until you realize it involves no time spent in Amsterdam proper. We got to a hotel near the airport around midnight and had an 8am makeup flight to catch the next day, so there was no time to enjoy our unexpected visit. We did the best we could to relish our 24 hours in Munich. We were treated to a lovely autumn day that we spent wandering city streets and parks, one of which featured a surprising number of nude old men sunbathing in a section of the park where nudity is legal. And despite missing Oktoberfest by a week, we had no trouble finding biergartens to fuel us with pretzels and steins.
On Sunday we bid farewell to Linnea at the Munich airport. Bridget, my dad, and I hopped in a rental car and drove 3 hours to Ortisei to start our tour of the Dolomites, an alpine region in northeastern Italy. Ortisei is small and charming, but we were there for the proximity to mountains and not for the town’s character. 2 nights in Ortisei meant we had 1 full day to hike, which we spent on a plateau hiking to Rifugio Alpe di Tires. After a gondola ride up to the trailhead we enjoyed wonderful views as we continued our way up the mountain on foot. Never does a beer taste better than after a big ascent, so we treated ourselves to a malty beverage at the rifugio before retracing our steps back toward town.
Rifugio Palmieri
From Ortisei we drove east to a trailhead along a windy two lane road. Our accommodation that night was Rifugio Palmieri, a lakeside hut in the mountains a couple hours away via hike. Rifugios in the mountains in Italy provide dorm-like accommodation and hearty meals. They’re affordable and a great place to stay relatively comfortably while surrounded by beautiful scenery. Out of the trunk of our rental car we packed our backpacks with everything we needed for an overnight stay and began our walk. When I started planning a trip to the Dolomites most big name travel guides recommended going no later than September. However, I found several blogs that mentioned October as a great month to visit because of cool, dry weather, fewer crowds, and stunning autumn colors. The scenery surrounding the rifugio is where these colors were particularly spectacular. We nearly had the place to ourselves that night and enjoyed a comfortable night’s sleep after a tasty dinner. In the morning we took the long way back to our car, completing the loop shown here before driving to Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Lunch while hiking around Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Cortina, host of the 1956 winter Olympics and Milan’s future co-host of the 2026 winter Olympics, is a charming ski town with plenty to do. We stayed at a cozy, centrally-located Airbnb. I prefer staying in Airbnbs for a number of reasons, but worth noting is the best part about an Airbnb in Italy: having a kitchen where you can cook fresh, locally-produced pasta. I can’t recommend doing this enough - even generic looking grocery stores in Italy have an incredible variety of fresh pasta. We spent our first full day in Cortina hiking the very popular Tre Cime di Lavaredo circuit. The crowds were not overwhelming, but this was by far the busiest trail of our entire trip. It’s busy for good reason - the hike is only moderately difficult and offers spectacular views. If you do this hike during high season, I’d recommend arriving as early as you can. The next day we hiked up to Lago di Sorapis. Even though the lake at the end of the hike was mostly dry, the autumn colors were fantastic and the trail was not at all crowded.
Earlier I called this trip a “tour” of the Dolomites, but really it was just a Dolomites taste test. We hiked a few trails in a couple of regions, but there is so much more to do and see. It felt too soon when we left Cortina. We stopped for lunch in Innsbruck, Austria on the way back to Munich to drop off our rental car and fly home - me to Bristol, Bridget and my dad to the US. When international travel is allowed and safe again I have every intention of going back to the Dolomites to explore more.
Last summer Linnea and I recruited another couple, Charlie and Kaitlin, to join us on a backpacking trip in Snowdonia National Park in Wales over a long weekend. By backpacking I mean we hiked hut to hut with just medium-sized backpacks (30-40 liters) and without any camping gear. Despite being just a 4 night trip, it took a substantial amount of planning because we strung together several hikes that are typically done as separate day hikes. Without the option to call a taxi in a remote place without cell phone service, I had to be certain that each day of hiking was well thought out to get us from one hostel to the next. Early on in figuring out our itinerary I stumbled across this blog post and found it very reassuring that others had managed similar trips. Hopefully someone discovers this blog post and finds it equally useful.
Day 1 - drive to Wales
After work we drove from Bristol to Llanberis, a small town in Snowdonia, where we stayed the night. Not much to say about this straightforward drive, but here’s a fun detail about Welsh: Llanberis is not pronounced how you think it is. The “LL” sound in Welsh is pronounced like an “S” with a lisp.
Day 2 - Carnedd Llewelyn and Dafydd to YHA Idwal Cottage
We woke up to heavy wind and rain, which we saw coming in the forecast. This forced us to change our plans because our original itinerary had us spending a full day hiking from Aber Falls to YHA Idwal Cottage. Instead, we had a lazy morning at a charming local cafe (Mafon) waiting out the bad weather, adjusting our hiking plan, and figuring out where to park our rental car for the next few days. We considered parking on the street in the center of Llanberis or driving a little bit out of town to park it on a quiet side street, but weren’t sure whether either option would result in a ticket or getting towed. In the end we stumbled across Electric Mountain, a museum with a parking lot that allows overnight parking. Car sorted, storm over, and hiking plan amended, we called the taxi company (https://prsnowdoniataxis.com/, recommended to book in advance) and headed to the start of our trek.
Using AllTrails, which I highly recommend for finding hikes and planning trips like this, we guided the taxi driver to drop us off at the trailhead. Here’s what our hike looked like:
Carnedd Llewelyn and Dafydd to YHA Idwal Cottage. Click the image for a link to the map in AllTrails.
The start of the hike was a steady incline into sheep-covered mountains. Being a lightly-trafficked area, we saw barely any other humans. When we got close to the first peak, we ascended into a fog. For the next couple of hours, we dipped into and out of the fog, sometimes able to see only 50 feet in front of us, other times able to make out the surrounding scenery. Once we began descending, we were treated to a few gorgeous views:
Part of the reason that this view was so nice is due to the descent being very steep. I wouldn’t recommend the route that we took for most people; getting down was harrowing, including one spot that required a maneuver somewhere between scrambling and rock climbing. We made it down in one piece, breathed a sigh of relief, and checked into YHA Idwal Cottage. We stayed in the Anglesey Hut, a small building separate from the rest of the hostel that we had to ourselves. Since the hostel doesn’t serve food, we made dinner from some dry goods that we carried in our backpacks. They do, however, serve beer, so we treated ourselves to a pint before an early night.
Day 3 - YHA Idwal Cottage to YHA Pen-y-Pass via Devil's Kitchen
This was our first full day of backpacking, which meant we had to make ourselves breakfast. In our backpacks we carried powdered eggs, instant mashed potatoes, taco seasoning, cheese, and tortillas for some just-add-water breakfast burritos. Honestly, they were delicious. Similar to the first hike, this hike started with a steady ascent. We had the trail mostly to ourselves for the first half, but the second half was somewhat busy. Here’s what this hike looked like:
YHA Idwal Cottage to YHA Pen-y-Pass via Devil's Kitchen. Click the image for a link to the map in AllTrails.
As we ascended, the fog became heavy and the wind was gusting. When we got to Devil’s Kitchen, we began hiking through ancient-looking, moss-covered rock formations. While the weather wasn’t as pleasant as we had hoped, for about an hour it felt like we were on another planet:
Linnea adds a rock to the cairn, which is a pile of rocks used for wayfinding. These are extremely helpful on foggy days.
As we slowly descended, the fog lifted and again we were treated to great views. Once out of the wind and fog, we stopped for a lunch of ramen noodles before making our way down the mountain and along the road to YHA Pen-y-Pass. This hostel serves dinner, so we spent the afternoon and evening playing cards and enjoying their mediocre*, but hot, food.
Day 4 - Snowdon via Miner's Track and Pyg Track
Our last day of hiking turned out to be the most crowded and worst weather of the long weekend. Mount Snowdon is the highest peak in Wales, so people come from all over for the day hike. Despite crowds and scattered showers, 80% of it was lovely. The 20% that was not lovely was when we approached the summit. On a clear day, supposedly you can see for miles. On this day, the fog meant very limited visibility and gale force winds threatened to knock us over. Luckily, there is a visitor’s center near the top where we warmed up and had a snack before turning around. Any day spent hiking in the mountains is a good day, but I was particularly pleased to be done and wearing dry clothes when we got back to the hostel. If you’re curious, here’s the route that we took:
Snowdon via Miner's Track and Pyg Track. Click the image for a link to the map in AllTrails.
Day 5 - back to Bristol
After breakfast we borrowed the front desk’s phone to call a taxi to Llanberis to retrieve our rental car and begin the journey back to Bristol. Overall, this long weekend was fabulous. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys hiking. The four of us had a similar backpacking trip planned along the SW Coast Path in England over Easter weekend which was cancelled due to the pandemic. We hope to get back out there as soon as things open back up.
*3 out of 4 people on this trip gave five stars to the Beanz and cheese on jacket potatoes dish at the YHA Pen-y-Pass. The author of this blog post gave this dish two stars.
In mid-May (2019, yes that was 9 months ago), a friend proposed an early June hiking trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. Unable to resist the excitement of a relatively spontaneous long weekend, i accepted the invite and bought flights. After starting to plan the trip, however, we recognized that we may have jumped the gun by buying flights before doing any research. We pored over lists of trails, nearly all of which were marked as closed until mid-June or later. Alpine hikes need a lot more time for snow to melt than someone who grew up in mountainless Minnesota might realize. Though nervous about how much hiking we’d be able to do, we stuck to our plan and didn’t let the potential for ice and snow get in the way of a long weekend in the Swiss Alps.
My friend Nate and I flew into Geneva on Thursday. After an hour in the rental car, we arrived in Chamonix, France where we spent the night. We woke up to see that we were surrounded by mountains - I love arriving somewhere in the dark and waking up to a beautiful view. The local park headquarters pointed us toward a mostly snow-free ascent that was accessible from town and up we went. Nate is a runner and faster and fitter than me, so I worked hard all morning and afternoon to keep up. A few hours and several ibex sightings into the hike, we reached the peak. On the sun-facing side, where we hiked, there was a little snow toward the top but the trail was otherwise clear. On the other side was several feet of snow. Had we been there later in the summer, we could’ve made the trek a loop by hiking down on the far side of the mountain, but we had to hike back the way we came to avoid getting lost in the snow.
After finishing our day hike Nate and I drove to Switzerland where we caught a train to Zermatt, a city that doesn’t allow cars. We met up with the rest of our group (Connor, Andrew, and Adam) and checked into our Airbnb. The next morning we got moving early (well, as early as you’d expect a group of 5 men in their late twenties to get moving) to give us a full day to enjoy the 5 Lakes Trail. Everything on official Swiss websites said that this trail wasn’t technically open yet, but recent comments on AllTrails indicated that the trail was hikeable, albeit a bit muddy and snowy. I also confirmed that plenty of photos with a geotag near the trail were being shared on Instagram, which is a surprisingly useful technique for checking on a trail’s status. We took the funicular up the side of the mountain to the start of the hike, and were relieved to confirm that conditions underfoot, while not perfect, were fine. The weather was great; we lucked out with a cool, clear day. We took our time completing the trail loop, stopping at every vantage point to admire the Matterhorn. Maybe we naively went too early in the season, but in the end we were treated to a crowd-free, gorgeous day on the mountain.
For the third year in a row I took one second of video every day. I hope you enjoy the compilation as much as I enjoyed the year.
Church towers in Zagreb.
When I studied abroad in London the fall semester of my junior year, I was lucky enough to spend several long weekends traveling to mainland Europe. My favorite trip was to Croatia; it’s beautiful, especially Plitvice National Park, the food is inexpensive and delicious, which is key as a broke study abroad student, and it’s off the beaten track. Early this year, I learned that two of my favorite people, my college friends Kyle and Lauren, would be in Croatia in late May. I immediately made plans to meet them there. Croatia was part of a larger med school graduation trip with a few of Kyle’s fellow graduates, all of whom were happy to let me crash their travels for a long weekend.
I flew from Bristol to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, to meet up with Kyle and Lauren. I’d call it a glorious reunion, which for a moment it was, but they’re the sort of friends where we pick back up right where we left off. We spent the afternoon eating štrukli, a Croatian dish that I’d describe as cheesy dumplings in a casserole dish (yum), and wandering through the city. While none of us are big on museums, we gave the quirky Museum of Broken Relationships a chance. It turned out to be a wonderful place to spend an hour, full of happy, funny, sad, and serendipitous stories about relationships from many generations and parts of the world. Afternoon became evening as we happened upon a cluster of food and beer trucks. Among the trucks was a gazebo hosting live music, and we settled in for an night of street food and local beer.
The next day, Kyle, Lauren, and their crew got in a rental car to drive south to Split. I stayed in Zagreb for the day for a couple of reasons: there wasn’t room in their rental car, and I didn’t mind another day in the capital city. If you’ve read my blog or traveled with me, you might be able to guess the first activity of my solo travel day: a free walking tour. It was one of the better free walking tours that I’ve been on because of an engaging tour guide and Croatia’s interesting history, which includes major events that occurred in my lifetime, such as their declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. After the tour, I enjoyed the freedom of travelling alone, including a late afternoon nap followed by a jog around the parks south of the city. Antsy to meet back up with my friends after a day on my own, I went to bed early to catch a morning flight to Dubrovnik.
Friends walking the walls of Dubrovnik.
Flying to Dubrovnik instead of driving via Split meant a 1 hour flight instead of 7 hours of driving. I beat Kyle, Lauren, and co. to Dubrovnik by a few hours, which is just enough time for, you guessed it, another free walking tour. If you aren’t familiar, Dubrovnik is one of the best maintained medieval cities in the world. For much of its history, it was a city state with significant economic wealth due to seafaring trade. After learning these and many other interesting facts on the walking tour, almost all of which I no longer remember, I parroted them back to Kyle and Lauren when they arrived. I’m not sure if they listened, cared, or had any interest whatsoever in what I was saying, but I enjoyed acting as an amateur tour guide. Just as I was hitting my tour guide stride, however, I was interrupted. As we walked through the gate into the city, I saw a face that I recognized. I stopped, stared at him for a second to let my brain catch up with seeing a Madison-based Epic employee so far out of context, and finally said “hi Tony!” We exchanged pleasantries, he explained that he was on his sabbatical (see this if you’re unfamiliar with Epic’s sabbatical program), and I ran off to catch up with my group to resume my self-assigned tour guide duties.
Ambling along the walls was my favorite thing we did in Dubrovnik. The views are stunning in every direction, and there is something enchanting about every building having the same orange colored roof. Other than walking the walls and wandering the narrow, windy streets, we had beverages on the ocean and spent an afternoon hiking on Lokrum, an island a short ferry ride away featuring beaches, walking trails, and a surprising number of peacocks. Overall, I had a lovely time in Croatia nearly 8 years after my first visit. Zagreb was authentic and a place where I felt like I was able to live like a local, Dubrovnik was stunning and historic but awash with large groups of tourists, and spending time with Kyle and Lauren was the highlight of the trip. If y’all are reading this: come back to Europe!
I’ve had a difficult time motivating myself to write blog posts since moving to Bristol. I still enjoy writing and I still want to share what I’m up to with friends and family, so the main reasons for the blog haven’t gone away. I think what has been getting in the way is this: moving to Australia felt so interesting. Americans tend to associate Australia with big adventures; maybe it’s how far away it is, or the marsupials, or that the seasons are opposite those in the US, or simply how little most people know about Australia. Whatever it is that makes Australia interesting, it made me feel like my experiences were worth sharing. England, on the other hand, does not have the same association. Of course there are plenty of reasons to find England interesting, but Americans associate it with dreary weather and old, dead poets before associating it with big adventures. I guess what I’m saying is that it feels less interesting to write about what I’m up to in England. Now that I’ve written that thought down, I realize that it is not true. I’ve seen and done many interesting things in a last 11 months. My time and experience in England and Europe are not an attempt to replace what I had in Melbourne; instead, it’s a new adventure, and it’s time i begin thinking about it like one.
Melbourne reunion.
A major difference between travelling around Europe and Australia is the number of cities there are to visit. This probably isn’t new information to you, but a quick Google search helps illustrate it: there are 143 people/square mile in Europe and 8 people/square mile in Australia. This means that there are more cultures to get to know, more cuisines to taste, and more cities to see in Europe, which results in more weekend trips. More trips means that there is potentially more writing to keep up with, so how do I decide what to write about? Is it every time I fly somewhere? Or every time I’m not in Bristol for at least a couple of nights? Whatever the answer is, I have some catching up to do so I will stop meta blogging and move on to my visit to Copenhagen.
The trip that Linnea and I took to Copenhagen in May was with friends who we met in Australia. A couple of our Aussie friends moved to Europe since we left Melbourne, a few ex-Melbourne Epic office friends live here in Bristol while another lives in the Netherlands, and a few more friends flew in from New York and Melbourne. These are the people who helped make my Australia experience wonderful, so it was great to get together for a long weekend. After a late Thursday arrival, we began our exploration on Friday with lunch at WarPigs, a barbecue joint that serves great beer. We checked into our very cramped Airbnb (12 people, 1 bathroom - everything is expensive in Copenhagen) after lunch and wandered toward Copenhagen’s most famous areas - Nyhavn, a beautiful canal district and Christiania, a commune where Danish law was not enforced until a few years ago.
Brekkie.
While this trip was mostly about spending time with each other (and celebrating Gary’s birthday), I wanted to do a bit of sightseeing. After a self-catered Saturday morning brekkie, we went on a Google Maps-lead walking tour. Herding 12 people on a walking tour based on what you learned from an internet stranger is not easy, but I was pleased that I managed to lead us through 90 minutes of sightseeing before other priorities took over. The group was evenly split between “I need coffee,” “I need to pee,” and “I want a beer,” which are interests that even the most talented tour guide cannot compete with. Sightseeing gave way to drinks and a late lunch at a food truck park, where we spent most what was left of the day before finishing the evening playing cards at our Airbnb. On Sunday morning, we were sad to leave each other but not sad to stop sharing 1 bathroom among 12 people as we parted ways to fly to various home cities and business trips.
Selfie on the Clifton Suspension Bridge
In mid-April, Linnea and I hosted my parents in Bristol for a long weekend. Having just finished an action-packed cruise down the Danube, they wanted to spend the end of their trip to Europe relaxing. I happily agreed to a more relaxed weekend; between hosting my parents, two work trips to London, and a trip to Barcelona, April was a busy month. With relaxation in mind, the weekend was full of long strolls through Bristol, cooking dinners at home, and getting our garden ready for spring. While you may not think of gardening as a vacation-worthy activity, but my dad certainly does. Once he realized that the garden needed some love, he couldn’t help but spend a couple hours on Sunday afternoon weeding and giving me pointers. As I write this I’m sitting in the garden surrounded by a lovely mix of flowers and vines, so the springtime effort was well worth it.
The following weekend was Easter weekend, meaning Friday and Monday are public holidays here in England. Because April was so busy and we had recently returned from my sabbatical, we did zero planning for our Easter weekend trip to Barcelona. This is very unlike me. I don’t build out super-specific hour-by-hour itineraries when travelling, but I nearly always have a few activities picked out. The winding, narrow streets in the Gothic Quarter are great for wandering, so our lack of plans wasn’t a problem. Well, not a problem except that we weren’t able to get tickets to Gaudí’s most famous creations, the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell (both of which I’ve been to but would happily see again). If you want to see these places, make sure to buy tickets in advance.
Basilica view. Zoom in on my right shoulder for the Sagrada Familia.
Upon arrival at our Airbnb we got the wonderful news that our ‘private room’ would be a ‘whole apartment’ because our host was out of town for the weekend. The next morning, we joined a free walking tour of the city. Free walking tours are an integral part of how I get to know a city and I highly recommend them. They seem to be everywhere - I’ve joined them in Sydney, Seattle, and Buenos Aires, to name a few. Tour guides describe the culture and history of a city while they show you various landmarks. They are typically about 2-3 hours, and while they aren’t truly free because you’re expected to tip the tour guide at the end, they are very affordable. I like to join free walking tours early in a trip as an introduction to the city, which is what we did in Barcelona. After the walking tour, we had enough recommendations from the tour guide and our Airbnb host to keep us busy for the rest of the trip. We enjoyed a delicious (and inexpensive) tapas dinner at Fa Patxoca, a restaurant where we were the only tourists. We had Spanish tortilla (egg, potato, and onion - so simple, so tasty) for breakfast at a counter at the Santa Caterina Market. At the top of the Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor, we found a nearly tourist-free view of the city. We indulged in a late lunch of seafood paella and wine on the beach in La Barceloneta. We dined on pintxos during a flamenco show at 23 Robadors. Finally, we took ourselves on a self-guided tapas tour of the Gothic quarter, including a stop at Bar del Pla. Put briefly, Barcelona is a great place to eat, drink, and immerse yourself in the local culture. If I had to guess, Linnea and I will visit again while we live in Bristol. Other than buying tickets to the Sagrada Familia, we will probably plan very little and see what restaurants and activities we stumble upon.
My employer, Epic, has a sabbatical program. Once you’ve worked at Epic for 5 years, you get 4 weeks of paid leave. If you take that paid leave in a country where you’ve never been, Epic will pay for round-trip flights for you and a companion and provide a per diem to help with the costs of the trip. As you can imagine, you don’t have to work at Epic for long to begin daydreaming about your sabbatical. In fact, you might be doing that right now. Join the club - daydreaming about a sabbatical is part of the fun of getting to take one. After considering many destinations, I decided to build my sabbatical around hiking in Patagonia, meaning that Linnea and I spent 2+ weeks (you can take 2 two week sabbaticals instead of a full one) in Buenos Aires and Patagonia.
Chorizo + crusty bread = choripan.
After a 2 hour bus ride to Heathrow airport and a 13 hour British Airways flight, we arrived in South America. We checked into our Airbnb in Palermo, a trendy neighborhood full of cafes, restaurants, and tourists, which served as our home base for the first 4 nights of the trip. We spent this part of the trip getting to know Buenos Aires by learning how to tango, attending a soccer match (surrounded by fans who chanted for all 90 minutes of playing time), and by eating and drinking. A culinary highlight was the delightfully simple choripan, a chorizo sandwich on crusty bread. The choripan that I had at Nuestra Parilla in San Telmo is maybe the tastiest street food I’ve ever had.
On our final day before flying to Patagonia, we took a day trip on the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. In the cab on the way to the ferry terminal, Linnea remarked “I can’t believe there aren’t more car accidents,” as our cab driver weaved in and out of traffic. I nodded my head in agreement. It wasn’t that our driver was driving dangerously; it was that drivers in Buenos Aires seem to follow a completely different set of rules than we’re used to. Buenos Aires isn’t alone in this as I felt the same way in Thailand. Anyway, Linnea’s statement proved prophetic. 10 minutes later, our cab got in a minor car accident by rear-ending a car and hitting a bus on our right side. Nobody was hurt, but the car wouldn’t move. Shaken, we exited the car, dropped 200 pesos (about 5 dollars) to cover our cab fare on the driver’s seat, and left the scene. We walked off the adrenaline, caught another cab, and made our ferry to Uruguay.
A guanaco surveys the land.
After the cab incident, we were ready to get out of the city and go to Patagonia. If you’re wondering, Patagonia is a large region in Chile and Argentina in the southernmost part of South America. We landed in Patagonia’s main airport in El Calafate and rented a car to drive to El Chaltén. As anticipated, the drive was beautiful, and to our delight, we saw many guanacos along the way. Upon arrival in El Chaltén, we checked into our B&B and made dinner plans with a couple who we met during our aforementioned tango lessons. During said tango lessons, we realized that our plans for the following week were nearly identical. We hiked with them the next day and ended up crossing paths with them later in the trip during our backpacking trek, at which point they felt like old friends. But I’m getting ahead of myself - back to El Chaltén, a town in Argentina near the Chilean border where you can begin a day hike from your hotel. The day hike that we did was to Laguna de Los Tres, whose summit is the inspiration for the outdoor clothing company Patagonia’s logo. Scroll to the top of this blog post for a photo - it was probably the most spectacular view that we saw in Patagonia.
Our legs aching from that grueling day hike, we were glad to have a couple of easy days. The next day we drove back through El Calafate to the massive Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the few glaciers in the world that is not retreating. Measuring nearly 100 square miles, the scale of the glacier was difficult to comprehend, even while looking at it. Every 20 minutes or so, a sound like thunder would explode from the glacier, indicating that a piece of ice had fractured. We were lucky a couple of times and managed to see the ice before it splashed dramatically in the lake. The following day was spent taking the bus to Puerto Natales, Chile, the city closest to Torres del Paine National Park. This national park is the main reason we went to Patagonia and where we spent our next 5 days.
The granite towers that Torres del Paine National Park is named for.
The W Trek, named after the ‘W’ shape the route makes on a map, is one of the most famous backpacking treks in Patagonia. We spent 5 days and 4 nights completing the trek. While roughing it and carrying your tent and food is an option, we elected for the simpler and more comfortable method of staying in huts along the way. Sleeping arrangements were hostel-esque and the huts were nothing fancy, but they impressed me with their amenities considering how remote they are. Not only were we fed 3 square meals a day (full-service breakfast and dinner and a bag lunch to eat on the trail), but there was running water, hot showers, and wine, beer, and wi-fi were all available for purchase. After spending a night at the first hut our first hike was to the granite towers that gives Torres del Paine National Park its name. We got an early start to avoid the crowds and spent the next 8 or so hours hiking 15 miles to the tower viewpoint and back. While the view at the top was beautiful, there wasn’t much to see along the way. Even though this hike contained the most famous sight in the park, it would end up being the least interesting day of hiking. That night after arriving back at the hut, we struck up friendships with Davy and Rosie, a couple about our age from the UK, and Diane and Maura, middle-aged friends from Canada. We ended up spending a lot of time with these folks throughout the trek. We only occasionally hiked with them, but spent a lot of time getting to know each other and discussing the day’s hike and tomorrow’s plans over a glass of wine or dinner at the huts. By the end of the trek, we felt like old friends. It wasn’t the last time we saw Diane and Maura- we had dinner with them in El Calafate and took the same flight back to Buenos Aires. The way that the huts facilitated meeting fellow travellers was an unexpected and wonderful benefit.
Linnea on her way to a glacier-capped mountain.
The weather throughout the W Trek is unpredictable and can be unforgiving. Gale-force winds, torrential downpours, and snow aren’t unheard of in March. We were extremely lucky to have experienced none of those things. Other than a minor drizzle on the last day, we were treated to dry, calm, and relatively warm weather for the entire trip. We began each day around sunrise, bundled up and wearing pants and long sleeves. As the day wore on and warmed up, we finished in shorts. Day 2, the shortest day of hiking, took us along a lake and ended with a glimpse of a glacier-capped mountain. Day 3 brought us right next to that glacier-capped mountain as we hiked through a valley that forms the middle point of the W. Thanks to an early start, we had the valley and the views to ourselves for a magical couple of hours. On our way back down the valley, we had lunch at a spot where we could again listen for ice fracturing. The most exciting fractures resulted in mini avalanches, which caused every hiker on the trail to stop to admire the power of nature (from a safe distance of course). Day 4 took us to Glacier Grey, another massive and stunning glacier, by way of several picturesque lakes. After that out-and-back day hike, we had covered about 60 miles in 4 days. We really enjoyed the trek, but were ready to give our bodies a break.
We spent the next couple of days getting back to Buenos Aires, where we had 2 more nights before flying to London. We stayed in a different neighborhood (San Telmo) this time, and took it pretty easy, not feeling like we needed to push ourselves to do many more tourist activities. We treated ourselves to a fancy 10 course tasting menu with wine pairings at El Baqueano, which was a lovely and delicious experience at a massive discount compared to what something similar would cost in the UK. This dinner was a great way to finish off a wonderful first trip to South America. I certainly hope it isn’t the last - it’ll certainly be in the running when I begin considering destinations for the second half of my sabbatical.
Europe is much further north than the US. I suppose I knew this before moving here, but I didn’t realize how much further north it really is. In fact, Bristol is further north than Calgary. Understandably, we tried to find somewhere warm for a city break in February. We chose Alicante, Spain because the flights were cheap (under $70 round-trip) and we naively hoped that it would be warm. It wasn’t. That isn’t to say that the weather was bad; it was nicer than Bristol, where the day before leaving for Spain we woke up to 4 inches of snow. This was the only snow we got in Bristol all winter and it shut the entire city down. I’m not sure that Bristol owns any snowplows. While we had to wear jeans and jackets in Alicante to stay warm, it was a welcome change from dreary, drizzly England.
Our friends Luke and Gina, who also work for Epic in Europe (Luke in Bristol, Gina in the Netherlands), joined me and Linnea in Alicante. We’ve known Luke and Gina since our Madison days. It was nice to arrive in Bristol and immediately had a handful of friends, but having built-in friends presents its own challenges. It means that it’s very easy to not meet any locals. Without making a conscious effort to meet Bristolians, you probably won’t. My conscious effort, as it was in Melbourne, is playing basketball, which has worked so far. Anyway, the 24 hours that we were in Alicante was spent wandering through the city, eating and drinking, and removing cobwebs from Spanish-speaking part of my brain. I was hesitant to use my Spanish at first because I hadn’t used it in several years, but I slowly gained confidence throughout the day. When I studied abroad in college, one of my favorite things about visiting Spain was getting to speak Spanish. I’m pleased that I can still manage basic communication, especially considering that Linnea and I will soon be in South America for a couple of weeks for my sabbatical.
On our way to a work trip to Helsinki, Linnea and I spent a weekend in Amsterdam. Epic allows us to attach personal travel to work travel as long as we pay the difference in flight costs. Because you have to fly through Amsterdam to get to Helsinki from Bristol, we figured we would go to Amsterdam early. I had never been to Amsterdam, and I learned that I had been missing out. Something about the canals that run through the city is very enchanting. Everywhere you turn, there is a lovely view. And while Dutch food isn’t much to write home about, Dutch pancakes are a revelation. It’s somewhere between a pancake as I know it and a crepe, and can be served sweet or savory. We spent the first day in Amsterdam with Gina (yes, same Gina), who lives an easy train ride away in Den Bosch. After a guided walking tour of the city in the morning, Gina showed us around for few hours before we were sightseeing’ed out, which meant it was time to play cards at the local brewery. The next day, Linnea and I spent another day sightseeing, highlighted by a visit to the Anne Frank House. I’m not a big museum person, but I highly recommend a visit.
From Amsterdam we flew to Helsinki. I don’t have much to say about Helsinki because I spent most of my time there working, but I did find time for a night at the sauna with some coworkers. This particular sauna is on the shore of the Baltic Sea, so you can go from the sauna to the sea via a hole cut in the ice. The freezing water is both painful and invigorating, and after a couple of sauna-to-sea cycles I find that I’m pleasantly exhausted. This sauna is attached to a restaurant, so we didn’t have to brave the cold after showering and changing to find dinner and a glass of wine. If you ever find yourself in Helsinki, look up Löyly.
Not a week after getting back to Bristol from Helsinki was Linnea’s birthday. To celebrate, we flew to Switzerland. I have family friends in Zug (between Zurich and Lucerne) who offered us a place to stay. We were lucky to stay with them because they are wonderful hosts, fun people, and they have a hot tub overlooking the mountains. These friends, Anne and Rob, lived across the street from me when I was born. They soon moved to Chicago and then Switzerland, living there long enough now to be citizens. Their move to Switzerland was originally a “two year assignment”; I blame them for my parents worrying that I would never come back when I accepted my offer to move to Australia. Tongue in cheek blame aside, we had a wonderful 4 day weekend in Switzerland. Linnea and I skied at Flumserberg, a small, nearby ski resort, on our first day. I guess when I say small I should really say “small.” It’s small relative to what else is available in Switzerland, but it blows almost all other skiing I have done out of the water. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself - while it was beautiful scenery and wonderful skiing, the best was yet to come. The next day we had a relaxing, touristy day of lunch in Lucerne and dinner with Anne and Rob in Zurich. Days where I don’t do much other than sleep in, relax, and wander around a city used to stress me out. I used to feel like I needed to take advantage of every minute of traveling. I have now realized that it’s okay to take an occasional day off, especially when preparing for a massive ski day. Anne, Rob, Linnea, and I hit the road early to beat the crowds to the slopes at Laax, a spectacular ski resort about 90 minutes from Zug. Despite several YouTube instructional videos the night before and useful tips from everyone in the group, I started and ended the day as the worst skier of the bunch. I already knew Linnea was much better than me, and I confirmed what I remembered from skiing with Anne and Rob in 2011 that they are too. However, I am good enough that we were able to ski everything we wanted to ski. After warming up with a few easy runs, we worked our way to the highest peak on the mountain, which meant we got to ski down a glacier. After a wonderful day of skiing in the sunshine, we watched the sunset from the hot tub with a beer in hand. To make a very Swiss day even more Swiss, we had raclette for dinner. Look it up if you’re unfamiliar - it’s delightful. Our last day was spent exploring Zug with Anne and Rob as tour guides. When I say “last day” I mean “last day of the trip.” Assuming they’ll have us, I’m sure we’ll be back.
Like in 2017, in 2018 I took 1 second of video per day. Without further ado, here is the result of this project.
When writing from or about Australia, “g’day” is an easy and uniquely Aussie way to greet a reader. From England, it’s not so simple. In fact, after two months in Bristol the typical greeting here still catches me off guard. “You alright?” is how I’m often greeted at cafes and by my basketball teammates. I’m still at the point where I hesitate slightly too long before responding to this greeting, but hopefully given more time my social interactions with Bristolians won’t begin so awkwardly. Because I don’t want to subject you to similar discomfort, I’ll greet you in a familiar way: hello from Bristol!
Linnea and I arrived in Bristol two months ago. After a couple of weeks in temporary housing, we signed a lease and moved into a long-term place just a 20 minute walk from the centre of Bristol. We’re in a neighbourhood called Totterdown, which is known for streets of colourful row houses that look charmingly British. It is full of young professionals, young families, and, as you’d expect in England, pubs. I’m not exaggerating when I say that there are 3 pubs within a 60 second walk of my front door. And while these establishments are of course great if you want a cask ale, the nearest pub recently came in handy in a surprising way. I got home from work last week to a notification that I had missed a delivery. In England, it is common for a delivery person to leave a parcel with a neighbour when you’re not at home. This time that neighbour was the pub on the corner. I walked to The Shakespeare after getting home from work not for happy hour but to collect a parcel. That experience felt uniquely British and made me feel like a local.
Feeling at home in a new city takes time, and my schedule soon after arriving in Bristol didn’t do me any favours in terms of getting settled. A few days after arriving I spent a long weekend in Scotland followed by a work week in London. A few weeks later I was in Helsinki for work for 8 nights (Linnea was there longer). Surrounding these trips were many coordinated Gumtree (the UK’s Craigslist) deliveries and several Ikea runs, which are much more complicated without a car. Now that the Ikea items are built and we are able to host friends for board game night, we can spend our free time enjoying Bristol. Bristol is a lovely city full of independent cafes, shops, and bars. The public transit isn’t great, but the city is small enough that you can walk just about anywhere. Bristol’s airport flies to dozens of destinations in Europe, and the train to London takes only 1 hour 40 minutes. All in all, I think I will enjoy using Bristol as a home base for exploring Europe over the next few years.
I don’t live in Australia anymore. In fact, I left nearly 3 months ago. Leaving was bittersweet, and so is writing this. I loved Melbourne. I love Melbourne. I realize I may be too young to say this, but it’s the best city I will ever live in. Cultural vibrance, efficient public transit, and a great sporting scene all won me over. I’m tempted to begin a barrage of clichés about my time there, such as “time flies” and “life goes on,” but I’ll spare you.
After leaving Melbourne on July 13th, I took a month off from work. Taking this much time off was a bit of Australian culture rubbing off on me. In America, a month off is nearly unheard of, while in Australia a month off is a proper holiday. However, having this much time can pose a problem, albeit a good one, for someone like me who doesn’t like to sit still for very long. I needed to make sure I had things to do and people to see, especially since I would be on my own as Linnea was in Madison and had just started back at Epic. The first couple of weeks were a Midwestern delight. I spent a long weekend at the cabin with Mom and Dad kayaking, golfing, and surprising them with my cooking skills. Next was a road trip to Madison and Indianapolis. My college roommate Kyle and I played pickup basketball at the YMCA in Indy and I want everyone to know that we’ve still got it. He probably can’t dunk my off-the-backboard passes anymore, but we schooled some youngsters and even my many days of soreness can’t take that away. From Indy I drove to Chicago to hang out with my sister Bridget, where she ate, drank, and pretended to be a tourist with me for a long weekend. I stopped for a night in Madison on my way back to Minneapolis, where I spent a couple of days catching up with old friends before Linnea and the rest of the Foley crew flew in for my cousin Katie’s wedding. She got married on Nicollet Island (on the Mississippi River in the middle of Minneapolis), a nearly perfect mid-summer venue.
I did well keeping myself busy for two weeks, but two more would’ve been difficult alone. Enter: Craig and Kelvin, Madison friends who both visited me in Melbourne. Before I met up with them, I flew to Seattle to visit my friend Joe and his fiancée, Leah. It feels like I’ve known Joe for as long as I can remember, but we only met our freshman year in high school. We haven’t seen each other more than a couple times a year since, but we always pick up right where we left off. After a couple days of exploring Seattle, I tracked down Craig and Kelvin and we took a train to Vancouver, Canada. We were initially unimpressed by Vancouver, but spending the long weekend enjoying easy access to whale watching, biking, hiking, and brewery tours changed our minds. From Vancouver, we flew to Calgary and drove to Canmore, which is in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the world I’ve seen. Everywhere we looked was a picturesque mountain framing a turquoise glacial lake. However, these views were not always available during our stay. Banff National Park is surrounded by other national parks, and this group of national parks straddles the border between British Columbia and Alberta. Every year, there are wildfires in British Columbia, and while we were there those wildfires were particularly bad. On one otherwise cloudless afternoon, we could barely see the sun and slowly were coated with ash while we sat outside enjoying a post-hike beer. And while I’m on the topic of interesting but somewhat negative things about the Canadian Rockies, I’d like to mention something that I’m still grappling with: is improving accessibility good or bad for national parks? Of course it’s great to make natural beauty easily accessible for everyone, but we visited many beautiful locations that were so crowded that they weren’t enjoyable. I experienced the same thing in Yellowstone in peak season years ago, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Part of what I like about nature is the solitude, and there is no solitude to be had surrounded by strangers jostling for position to take a photo. Anyway, I’m lucky to be physically fit enough to go on long hikes to get away from these crowds, which is what Craig, Kelvin, and I did. We did a full day hike while staying in Canmore and another while staying in a wilderness hostel in Yoho National Park, both of which were spectacular. I wanted to continue exploring the Canadian Rockies, but my time off was ending and I had to fly to Madison to reenter the real world.
I worked for a week before Bridget and I visited our brother Mac in Dallas. We had a ball getting to know Mac’s new city and hanging out with his dog Brumby. After that quick weekend, I settled into Madison life, where Linnea and I have been staying in an Airbnb. It’s been fun to be with old friends and to visit old haunts. We’ve used our weekends wisely, spending them at the cabin, the Notre Dame-Stanford football weekend in South Bend, and hosting visitors. As you may know, however, those weekends are numbered. In fact, that number is one. We move to Bristol, England on Monday. We’ve known about this move for over a year now so we’re ready for it to happen. Bring on the new adventure!
New Zealand is being left off of world maps. Maps at Starbucks, maps at the UN, maps at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Calling this cartographic oversight a tragedy is probably overstating it, but it’s certainly a real shame. New Zealand is not a good country - it's a great one. In fact, its proximity is one of my favourite things about Australia. The landscape is varied and beautiful, the people are friendly, and the wine is excellent. New Zealand Tourism is doing its best to ensure map makers remember New Zealand next time, and I'd like to help the Kiwis make their case by offering a personal account of how much I enjoyed visiting their country in January.
This trip was my fourth to NZ and second to the South Island. Last year, my parents, Linnea, and I spent a week in the Queenstown area. Family came on for this trip too, as Linnea's mom, Nance, joined us for the adventure. For Nance, New Zealand was the last leg of a trip that included time in and around Sydney, Melbourne, and Cairns. Before reuniting with Nance in Queenstown, Linnea and I got dinner with friends, Nick and Lu, who recently moved back home to New Zealand from Melbourne. It was lovely to catch up and, as I always find to be the case when travelling, interesting to see what it's like to be a local.
After a relaxing first evening, we got to work on our itinerary the next day. We drove to Wanaka, a resort town in a picturesque setting on a lake, checked into our charming and well-outfitted Airbnb, and set off for a hike. An hour of dirt road driving later, we had arrived at the trailhead, and after a couple of hours of hiking through lush rainforest, we arrived at Rob Roy Glacier. We had the glacier to ourselves, and the scenery was spectacular.
I have a hard time knowing what to say about locations like this. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
We spent the following day resting our legs, enjoying Wanaka, and watching Stefon Diggs shock the world with the Minneapolis Miracle. A sidenote: technology is cool. Streaming the Vikings game using the Chromecast on the TV in our Airbnb couldn't have been easier. Another sidenote: that last sentence wouldn't have made any sense 10 years ago.
Next up was a strenuous hike that I insisted Linnea and I tackle. After dropping Nance off at a Wanaka cafe early in the morning, we drove partway around Lake Wanaka to begin the hike to Roy's Peak. And when I say hike, I mean slog. It was difficult. And even worse, it was boring. It was switchback after steep switchback with zero shade and nothing to look at other than a worse version of the view from the top. Thighs burning after a couple of hours of this, we arrived at our very Instagrammable destination. As you can see, the slog was worth it.
By the time we got down from the peak and into town, it wasn't noon yet and we had done what felt like a full day's worth of activities. There's something very satisfying about accomplishing so much before midday. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving to and getting settled in Twizel, which was our base for exploring the Mount Cook area. Our timing for visiting this area was unfortunate. It was cold, foggy, and rainy, which is somewhat typical due to the alpine climate. We began hiking the Hooker Valley Track, an extremely popular trail that affords views of Mount Cook on a nice day, but couldn't see anything worthwhile. We were soaked within a half hour, at which point we turned around. The only silver lining when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate like this is that I have a reason to go back.
The next morning we left Twizel for Christchurch. We made sure to stop along the way because arrival in Christchurch means leaving the mountains behind. Before having a coffee at Astro Cafe at Mount John's Observatory, we enjoyed this view of Lake Tekapo and the surrounding mountains. I don't claim to have been to every cafe in the world, but I have a hard time believing any of them beats this view.
Christchurch is a rebuilding city. Significant damage occurred during an earthquake in 2011, and it still hasn't recovered. We spent the afternoon walking through the city, which was charming despite the relatively recent natural disaster. In fact, some parts of the city have embraced the circumstances, notably a 'container mall' consisting of shops and restaurants operating out of shipping containers. After one night in Christchurch we had to say goodbye to Nance, who was about to begin the long journey back to New Hampshire. Before dropping her off at the airport, we had brunch at a place where fries are delivered to your table via pneumatic tube, which was a delightful distraction. I won't say this was a fitting ending to her trip because nothing else was delivered to us via such unconventional methods, but it was a fun ending to a fun trip.
Linnea and I had a weekend left. We drove from Christchurch to Akaroa, a historic town about 90 minutes southeast of Christchurch. The harbour that Akaroa sits on is home to the rare Hector's dolphin, which was the main reason we chose Akaroa. Our first morning was spent kayaking around the harbour. Pods of dolphins came right up to our kayaks because they thought our splashing paddles were playful. The New Zealand summer sun is very strong, so a morning kayaking in the sun is logically followed by an afternoon avoiding it at our hostel. We stayed at the lovely, unique Onuku Farm Hostel, which offers van sites, tent sites (our accommodation of choice), dorm rooms, and private huts on a beautiful sheep farm. After reading and snoozing in a hammock most of the afternoon, we stretched our legs and took advantage of the farm's hiking trails that double as the home of thousands of sheep. I wonder if these sheep realise how good their view is.
All too soon, we had to fly back to Melbourne. I don't know when I'll visit New Zealand again, but, left off of world maps or not, I'll be back.
My sister Bridget, who is currently attending graduate school for social work in Chicago, visited me during her winter break. This means that we got to enjoy a summer Christmas while still spending time with family. Those who are able to see a summer Christmas for how lovely it is, as opposed to viewing a hot Christmas as too strange to enjoy, might call this the best of both worlds. I, on the other hand, would call it the best of both hemispheres.
Christmas away from home was spent with friends, family, flora, and fauna.
In preparation for this blog post, I texted Bridget asking for a quote about her trip. Among other things, she said her favourite experiences were "backpacking in Wilson's Prom, discovering the wonderful creature that is the echidna, singing and giggling with Maggie, and, most importantly, the cricket." Allow me to elaborate.
A couple of days after my sister arrived in the country, she joined me, Linnea, and our friend Darby on a 4 day, 3 night backpacking trip on Wilson's Prom. This trip isn't anything like the relaxing time at the beach that you might imagine when picturing Christmas in Australia; while this trip involved a lot of walking in a national park, it was everything but a walk in the park. Each night was spent at a different campsite, and each day was full of hiking, including a 15 mile, 37,000 step day. While this isn't a typical way to spend Christmas, it is a lovely way to get away for a few days. The scenery in Wilson's Prom National Park is nothing short of stunning, which made the many kilometres worthwhile.
For whatever reason they hand out buckets to wear on your head as you enter the cricket grounds.
Bridget wasn't our only visitor over the holidays. After our Christmas backpacking trip, Linnea flew to Sydney to spend a week with her mom while Bridget and I welcomed our cousin Maggie to Melbourne. The first activity we had planned after Maggie's arrival, and the only one I was anxious about, was a day at the Ashes for the Boxing Day Test match. If you have no idea what that means, that's okay. All you need to know is that we planned to spend an entire day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground watching Australia play an important cricket match against England. When I say an entire day, I don't mean a baseball game amount of time. I mean an entire day. It starts at 10am and ends at 6pm. I mentioned previously that I was anxious about bringing Bridget and Maggie to a cricket match, and the fact that it lasts all day was the main reason for that anxiety. While I personally have taken a liking to cricket (even though the Australian cricket team is dealing with an embarrassing cheating scandal as I write this), a lot of people find it slow and boring. I was concerned that my guests would think the same thing.
Just a few hours into the day's cricket activities, Bridget and Maggie could've passed for regular Aussies. They were chanting along with the crowd, enjoying an adult beverage, and occasionally trying to figure out what was happening on the cricket pitch. They learned a few useful things about Australian culture, including what it means to skull (chug) a beverage and when it's okay to call someone a wanker. Not only was my anxiety about taking Bridget and Maggie to the cricket unfounded, they had a wonderful time. They had so much fun, in fact, that they let me listen to the rest of the Boxing Day Test match (yes, a Test match takes five days) on the radio in our rental car in Tasmania, which was our next destination.
A couple of wankers and their guide.
I've been to Tasmania a few times. I haven't gotten enough. I described it to Bridget and Maggie as a beautiful, inexpensive destination that's easily accessible from Melbourne and not crowded, and they were all in. We spent the New Year's Eve long weekend hiking Cape Raoul and Cape Hauy, eating and drinking our way through Hobart's Taste of Tasmania, and enjoying the hospitality of a friend's family who graciously hosted and entertained us for a couple of nights. Notably, we saw an echidna, one of Earth's only egg-laying mammals, in the wild, which lead Bridget and Maggie to become fascinated with the creatures, which lead to them composing an original song about them, which lead to the purchase of a small plush echidna that now sits above Bridget's fireplace.
We parted ways for the week after Tassie. I went home to Melbourne to work, Bridget and Maggie headed to Sydney for a few days. After that week, the three of us became five when Linnea and her mom joined us to spend the weekend driving the Great Ocean Road, a scenic coastal drive near Melbourne. This weekend marked the last activity before Bridget and Maggie had to fly back to the US, and I was sad to see them go. I look forward to seeing them soon at Maggie's sister's wedding, where I will be sure to call both of them a wanker.
Because I read In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson's delightful personal account of travelling through Australia, I was under the impression that Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is the most remote city in the world. After researching to prepare to write this blog post, I found out that this isn't true. While this bummed me out, I suppose it doesn't take away from how remote Perth is. It's over 2,100km (1,300 miles) as the crow flies to the next city (Adelaide) with at least a million people. This remote-ness is evident during the flight from Melbourne - after flying over Adelaide an hour in, you don't see another city for 3 hours. However, somewhat surprisingly, it doesn't feel remote. It's clean, large-ish, and has all the trappings of a modern city. In fact, I don't have much else to say about Perth that I haven't already said about most Australian cities.
Flights in Australia tend to be cheaper than flights in the US, but our flight to Perth was exceptionally inexpensive. Linnea scored us $99 return flights. That's under a hundred dollars (or 75 USD) to go all the way across the country and back! There's something very satisfying about taking advantage of such a good deal. Anyway, upon landing in Perth, we left immediately for Fremantle, a port city a half hour south. Fremantle, or Freo, is a common place for visitors to stay. It's distinctly different from Perth, with a creative, artsy feel and architecture dating back to the 1850s when Fremantle Prison housed convict exports from England. Our time spent in Fremantle was excellent. We toured the fascinating aforementioned Fremantle Prison (sidenote: think about what it means that Australia was started as a penal colony. Really think about it. It's crazy!), we enjoyed the shops and food at the vibrant Fremantle Markets, and walked along the ocean, soaking in the views, including one notably spectacular sunset.
Refreshed by a couple of days in Freo, we began a loop of the southwestern corner of Australia. Our first destination was Margaret River, a wine region regarded as one of the best in the country. I had a lovely day wine tasting at the wineries recommended by our Airbnb hosts, and Linnea had an even better day wine drinking (she wasn't driving). After a full day of wine snobbery, we headed east to Albany, a port city on the southern tip of Western Australia. The theme of the drive to Albany seemed to be "things you couldn't do in the US without signing a waiver", with stop number one being a beach where you can feed full-grown, wild stingrays. I fed a few fish to a stingray, and I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't freaked out. Stop number two was the Gloucester Tree, the poster child for surprisingly waiver-less activities. The Gloucester Tree is a fire lookout tree built in 1947 which, along with seven other trees, were built to protect the area's beautiful karri forests. At the top of the 53 meter (173 feet) tree, there's a lookout platform. Armed with only their wits and their fear of heights, visitors must climb 153 spikes to get to the top. It was only scary when I looked down, which was every step that I took to ensure my foot was securely on the next spike. The view from the top was nice, but difficult to enjoy because I wanted my feet back on solid ground. The final stop on our way to Albany was the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk, a series of platforms that bring you into the canopies of the tingle forest. This walk was constructed to permit enjoyment of the rare tingle tree without causing damage, which can be done simply by walking near the trees as they have very shallow root systems. This was less exhilarating than the Gloucester Tree but much more beautiful.
A couple of nights in Albany were spent checking out the recommendations of our Airbnb host, including enjoying local food and beverage and spending an afternoon hiking. This hike was a stunning track in Torndirrup National Park that took us through beautiful coastal heathlands to great lookout points, from which we could see a pod of dolphins playing in the bay. This national park and this hike aren't mentioned by any guidebook that I have seen. This seems to mean one of two things: it's off the beaten path enough that it hasn't been discovered by the general public, or there is so much stunning scenery in Western Australia that it hasn't earned a mention. I tend to think it's the latter, which makes me want to spend much, much more time driving around WA.
With a couple nights left in Western Australia, we made the 5 hour drive back to Freo. Our Melbourne friends Lizzie and Billy happened to be visiting Perth at the same time as us and we had plans with them to visit Rottnest Island, home of the quokka. If you're unfamiliar with the quokka, look no further than the furry creature in my selfie. Quokkas are small marsupials found in WA from Perth to Albany and famously easy to spot on Rottnest Island. They are well known to be friendly and will often smile for a selfie, as you can see here or if you Google "quokka selfie". While spotting quokkas was the main motivation for visiting Rottnest Island, it wasn't the only thing we did. After a ferry ride from Freo, we cruised around the island on rental bikes, stopping along the way to relax on the beach, snorkel, and of course hang out with quokkas. These funtivities on Rottnest Island, gorgeous weather, and good company made for a great last full day in WA.
Inspired by a few friends (shout out to Craig, Kelvin, and Travis) and finally in possession of a cell phone that takes high-quality videos, I set out to make a video containing one second from every day in 2017. You may have heard of the one second video concept before - the idea was featured in a Ted Talk in 2012 and shortly thereafter an app called One Second Everyday was released that allows users to mash up videos chronologically. I passed on using the app and elected to do the editing on my own, which was, in hindsight, the right decision for me. The editing process was a fun way to take a step back every several weeks to reflect on those weeks through video.
While this was a selfish project intended to result in a personal video flip book of sorts, I wanted to share with the hope that you enjoy it and maybe decide to make your own. Without further ado, here's my one second video from 2017. I hope you enjoy, and yes, I am already working on the 2018 version.
Hiking across Mordor and meandering through Hobbiton: if my 13 year old self realised these were activities that one could actually do, they would’ve been near the top of the to do list. Not at the top, though. Catching passes alongside Randy Moss and throwing alley-oops to Kevin Garnett, in no particular order, would’ve been numbers 1 and 2. At the top of the to do list or not, if current Ben could tell past Ben that recent past Ben participated in these Lord of the Rings-inspired activities, 13 year old Ben would almost certainly look forward to doubling his age.
I travel occasionally for work. When I was based in the US, this meant the occasional trip to Atlanta or the East Coast, among other locations. In our Australia office business travel is less frequent. However, with no offense intended toward Atlanta, the destinations tend to be more exciting. This particular trip was to a conference in Rotorua, which is in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island. Rotorua is a tourist town famous for smelling like rotten eggs. I’m not kidding – it’s built on natural hot springs that pump out sulfur. I agree that this doesn’t immediately sound like a great place for a conference, but the hosting event centre managed to avoid the smell. This was surprising because nowhere else, especially my hotel room, was safe from the smell.
I managed to hand out a few business cards, which, of course, is the mark of a successful conference. However, this success is a balancing act. Hand out too many business cards and you may feel like too much of an adult. Not wanting to risk this happening, I high-tailed it out of there as soon as I hit my handout quota. The conference also happened to be over, but let's not get bogged down in details. I got picked up by my lovely chauffeur Linnea, and we headed south for the small hamlet of Turangi. This would serve as our home base for exploring Tongariro National Park, also known as Mordor.
Tongariro National Park is best known as the home of the Tongariro alpine crossing, which is said to be among the best day hikes in New Zealand. The 19.4km track features steep ascents, views of imposing peaks, including Mount Doom, and volcanic terrain. In fact, the hike is nearly all volcanic terrain, meaning hikers are very exposed to the elements due to the lack of vegetation. Because of this exposure, there are many days that are too dangerous to attempt the Tongariro alpine crossing. The day we planned to do the crossing was one of these dangerous days, so we had to postpone and hope for the best for the next day. The next day would be our last chance because we had plans elsewhere on the island, and luckily Mother Nature came through with a day just nice enough to hike in. The hike started like any other, if all other hikes involved not being able to see further than a couple hundred feet in any direction. The region was completely covered in a blanket of fog. It was beautiful in an eerie, mystical sort of way. At least that's what my internal optimist was saying. Really, I wanted the fog to lift so I could see what was around us. As we began to gain elevation, I kept thinking that we were about to emerge above the mist and be able to see. For hours, I kept being wrong. Even at the highest point, we couldn't see anything other than the volcanic rock we were standing on and the handful of hikers who joined us to hike nearly 20km and possibly see nothing. I had given up hope of seeing anything when, about 10 minutes after leaving the highest point of the hike, we could suddenly see for miles. What a glorious moment that was. After seeing nothing for 2.5 hours, we were treated to 3.5 hours of stunning views. I can't speak for all day hikes in New Zealand, but the Tongariro alpine crossing is my favourite so far.
Next was a couple of nights on the Coromandel Peninsula, a lovely area known for its beaches and small town, relaxed vibe. This was highlighted by a trip to Hot Water Beach, which, as the name suggests, is a beach directly above natural hot springs. Dig in the right place and you have a hot tub at the beach! In fact, you have a hot tub of the beach. If that's not relaxing, I don't know what is. After a couple of nights on the peninsula we had to head home, but not before stopping at Hobbiton on the way to the airport in Auckland. If you've seen any of The Lord of the Rings movies, you know that the fictional Hobbiton is an idyllic place of verdant hills and Hobbit holes. I can confirm that the non-fictional Hobbiton is all of those things as well. The location was chosen for how sheltered from modern life it is; no power lines or tall buildings are visible from anywhere, and a ban on air traffic was instituted during a portion of the filming. The Hobbit holes are not the originals, meaning they aren't from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The buildings in that movie were merely facades, intended to last the duration of the shoot and no longer. It wasn't until The Hobbit trology was filmed that they realised fans wanted to visit. Because of this, much more effort was put in to build the Hobbit holes to last. The only way to visit is to take a guided tour, which was full of anecdotes about the films and opportunities to take selfies. As all good tours should, it ended with a pint. Specifically, it ended with a locally-brewed pint at the Green Dragon, home of much mischief throughout Tolkien's books. While admittedly touristy and a bit hokey at times, the tour of Hobbiton was delightful and an excellent way to end our quick adventure on New Zealand's North Island.
Today's story was inspired by a recent trip to Darwin and Kakadu National Park. It will be told in 3 acts, all centered around crocodiles because, if you want to keep all your limbs while travelling in northern Australia, crocodiles should always be on your mind.
Act 1: Freshwater Salties
Saltwater crocodiles, or "salties" as the locals call them, are a misnomer. While they have no problem living in saltwater, they tend to spend the wet season in freshwater. Our most recent trip to the Northern Territory was during the transition from the dry to the wet season, so no body of water, salty or not, was safe. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Arriving air travelers aren't greeted by crocodiles, so we had nothing to worry about after taking a surprisingly long (4 hours & 20 minutes) flight from Melbourne.
After gathering the essentials (sandwich-making materials, snacks, and beer) following a night's rest in Darwin, Linnea and I headed east for Kakadu National Park. For those who haven't heard of it, Kakadu is a massive (more than twice the size of Yellowstone) and extremely diverse national park. The local Aboriginal people, who own the land but lease it to the government, have called Kakadu home for more than 65,000 years! Think about that for a second. That's more than 250 times longer than the US has existed. Wow. The Aboriginal influence was obvious at the first stop we made, which was a short walk at Ubirr, a site famous for its rock art. Along with the rock art, we got to enjoy our first nice view of the park. This view hinted at the diversity of the park with forests, rocky outcroppings, marshes, and prairies all within sight.
We woke early after our first night in the park; we had a big day planned and we had signed up for a cruise on the Yellow River. The first cruise of the day was rumoured to be the best because the animals are still active, not yet bothered by the rising sun. That ended up being completely true. The sun was low and behind clouds for much of the cruise, keeping the air temperature comfortable. However, by the end of the two hour cruise, the sun was hot and high in the sky, which meant many animals would find shade for the day. Fortunate timing aside, this cruise was spectacular. We buzzed around the river and wetlands area in a pontoon and saw so many animals. Crocodiles were the highlight, but we got to see wallabies, buffalo, wild pigs, and many, many species of birds, including a pretty magnificent sea eagle. At one point, a massive crocodile (see above) was swimming alongside the boat when he decided to come say hi. By "say hi," I mean he swam at the boat. By "swam at the boat," I mean he swam directly at me (I'm pretty sure he licked his lips while doing this, but don't have proof). After it was made clear that salties can be 6 meters long and have the strongest bite force recorded in the animal kingdom, you know I backed away from the railing of the pontoon. He may not have gotten me, but he certainly scared me. Crocodiles 1, Ben 0.
Act 2: Crocodile Unseen
Maybe the scariest part about crocodiles is their stealthiness. They can move through the water silently and strike rapidly, or they can remain still and be camouflaged, waiting for something (or someone) to come a little too close. Considering the rest of our time in Kakadu involved hiking in remote parts of the park, we had to keep the stealth of the crocs in mind. Not that this was difficult - there were many signs reminding hikers to stay away from the water. There was no excuse to lose track of the danger.
Dangerous animals nearby or not, we were safe while we were in our car. There's something excellent about driving off road through the red dirt of the Australian outback. It feels so Australian. I can't describe it much better than that. I guess when something "feels Australian" to me, I generally mean that it feels like an adventure. Growing up, Australia had this adventurous mystique to it. I think a lot of Americans feel that way, and that feeling has not completely gone away for me. We spent much of the rest of our time in the park reveling in this adventurous mystique, taking our 4 wheel drive rental car off road, hiking to secluded water holes, and viewing Aboriginal rock art. These secluded watering holes were stunning - Gunlom waterfall had a natural infinity pool at the top, Maguk Gorge was crystal clear and surrounded by sheer rock walls. However, crocodiles unseen meant that we didn't explore as much of Maguk Gorge as we would've liked to. Crocodiles aren't typically in the gorge during the season we visited, but we weren't willing to risk anything more than jumping into the water and quickly scrambling back up the rocks. Crocodiles 2, Ben 0.
Act 3: Wranglin' Reptiles
To say that I wrangled reptiles would be giving myself way too much credit, but I'm going to stick with it because it's alliterative. Instead of wrangling a crocodile, I held a baby one (it was just a foot long but the mouth still had to be taped shut) and fed a few of them. There's a wildlife park in Darwin called Crocosaurus Cove that showcases many crocodiles among other reptiles. The most famous attraction here is the so-called 'Cage of Death' where you are put in a glass cylinder and dropped into the water with a 5 meter long adult crocodile. On the day we visited, the crocodiles couldn't be bothered that there were people in their enclosure. The cage did, however, have claw marks on it, hinting at some truly terrifying past crocodile encounters.
Getting to feed the crocodiles and witness their incredible bite force was remarkable. It was especially great to be able to experience this without putting myself in any sort of danger, meaning the final score for this trip was Crocodiles 2, Ben 1. I'm happy that I kept the score close when my opponent was a living dinosaur.