Category: Uncategorized

A Day Trip to Armenia

I had been in Tbilisi for two day before I took the option to get out of town to voyage to another country. Actually that is not fair. So far, I have really enjoyed Tbilisi and what it has to offer, and I will write another post about that later. We had just booked a tour from Tbilisi with Gamarjoba Georgia Tours that took us over the border into Armenia so we could enjoy the beautiful mountains that are found there and visit a couple of their oldest monasteries that are built on to the peaks there. It was a great way to spend a day, and it took me to some of the most dramatic sights I have ever seen in my life.

The tour we went on took us to basically two different, famous monasteries in the Lori region mountains just across the border from Georgia. They have a close relationship to each other as they were built around the same time from competing builders. The first one we went to was called the Haghpat Monastery. This one was built second and from a builder that was angry with the head builder at the other monastery. He decided that he could do better, so he quit and went to this spot to built his own complex. The original builder came down from his sight and saw what was being built and was impressed with it, and decided to call it based upon the huge walls that fortified the complex, by calling it ‘huge wall’ which translates into Haghpat in Armenian.

The story does not stop there though. The same builder pointed to the original complex and proudly pointed out that his was older than the other one which translates to Sanahin in Armenian. The names stuck, and ever since then, they have competed for being the monastery that people should go to worship the lord.

The silly rivalry produced to monasteries that are recognized by UNESCO today. Both are amazing sights to go see, and it is also nice to have someone drive you to each place in a nice comfy van where you can sit by and watch the hills roll by. This is the time to go as well. The monasteries are not on the typical tourist path right now, and they are not very crowded when you get there. At the start of the tourist season, we had these places almost to ourselves, sometimes with only the people that came with us on the small tour.

There were other places that we went on the tour that were just as interesting, but it was really the competing monasteries that was the highlight of the tour. It was a long day, and it took a little while to cross over the border, but it wasn’t too difficult, and the tour company, Gamarjoba made sure that we left early enough in the morning to avoid any crowds that might gather at the cross over point. it also included a home cooked lunch with garden fresh vegetables that could easily be one of the best meals I have had in this region.

Overall, Armenia is a hidden gem that will only take a matter of time before the world finds out about it. I am glad that I made it out here before the crowds did, and I hope that you can do the same because it is definitely worth the trip.

The Freedom Flight

The world needs to beware. Teachers everywhere are putting away their red pens and lesson plans, and are making their way to the far reaches of the globe. It is summer time, and there will be a need for these people to unwind. For all teachers, the release at the end of the year is a time where they can let out that breath they have been holding on to. The kids have been on edge because they know the end is near, and the older they get, the more stressful it becomes for them. But after that final bell rings, and everybody floods out of the building for the summer months, there is a collective sigh. It is over, and we can recharge our batteries, and find a way back to that sanity we all crave.

For international school teachers, there is another layer to this. Most of them live thousands of miles from their family and friends. They do build many relationships with the people that they work with, but it is those other relationships that they wish to return to. Their new found home, wherever that may be, becomes a burden at the end of the school year, and they wish to escape to different environments.

This is where the freedom flight comes in.

Many international teachers wait a couple of days before they board that flight to their adventure for the summer. It gives them a couple of days to unwind. But there is another group of teachers who will throw a bunch of clothes in a bag, and rush to the airport a couple of hours after they have clocked out for the last time. Even before the clock strikes midnight, they are on a flight to a different part of the world. This is known as the freedom flight. It is an escape from the daily grind to try to grab as much of summer as they can. It can induce a different kind of stress than what is presented during the school year. They feel like they are leaving something important behind, and they are not quite sure if they will make it to that plane in the first place. But the rewards are worth the effort.

I woke up in the afternoon on the day after my last day in school in a completely different country with a completely different ecosystem. I had left behind the hot, dusty streets of Amman, and was in the cooler, tree lined boulevards of Tbilisi. Responsibility had been placed on hold, and I could now focus on different important things in life such as enjoying a great meal, and having my first adult beverage of the summer season. It only took a night of flying and a distance of about 900 miles to have a change of perspective and attitude.

It is a great way to start the summer, and I am already feeling the stress of the school year wash away as I prepare for a couple of months of rest and relaxation. I hope you join me on my adventures as I travel around the world, and if not, I hope it is because you are out there enjoying your own freedom flight.

Responsibility on Hold

Life is busy on top of the mountain
As we take care of work and family.
I can not take in the sights I have seen
Because my duties do not make me free.
But I will travel down that windy road
That will remove me from my place up high,
Then I can discard this burdensome load
That me to this rocky top, it does tie.
I will make my way down below the sea
Where the sun peeks out underneath the clouds.
There I’ll find a different way to be
That releases me from the hectic crowds.
It’s a day of restful relaxation
When we take the Labor Day vacation.

Petra, Round Two – The Jordan Loop

Petra is the reason that people come out to Jordan in the first place. It is easily the biggest draw of the country, and during the months of April and May, when the weather is not too warm, tourists can be seen packing the paths of the narrow canyon that leads to the great sights that can be seen along the way. Except lately, the tourists are not making their way to Jordan, and the places that used to be packed are now empty.

Though Jordan resides in the Middle East and is situated in a place surrounded by conflict, it is not greatly affected by these conflicts. In fact, it is getting a little bit of a bad rap at the moment because of its location. Many people do not wish to travel out to this location and see the impressive sights. This is bad for the tourism industry in Jordan, but it is a great time to come out here as a tourist. Locations like Petra are almost empty, and it makes you feel like you have the place to yourself.

Petra is not only a must-do location if you make your way out to if you are in Jordan, it is also a place that should be placed on everybody’s bucket list. There is not another place like Petra in the world. It is a city carved into the cliffs and wadis found in the mountains outside of Wadi Musa. The first time that I visited this sight, I took a guide book with me to help me discover the mysteries of the place. It was a fine way of doing it, but I did not feel like I got everything I could out of the experience. This is why the second time we went with a guide to tell us a little bit more about the place.

No matter what time you visit Jordan, with or without crowds, I highly recommend going with the guide option. Some of the locations that did not impress me much the first time around came to life when it was explained to me by someone who had more knowledge about it rather than your typical guide book. I could start to distinguish between a tomb, and home, and what purpose some of the rooms held in some of these buildings. It helped me gain an even greater appreciation for Petra than I had in the past.

Many might associate Petra with the Indiana Jones franchise, and it is part of the reason that many know about this location today, but there is a lot more to it than a movie set that was used for a few minutes in a movies from the 90s. It is a great location to visit, and with the crowds at an all time low, now is the time to take advantage of what this place has to offer. I have been twice, and enjoyed it both time, but I know there is a lot more to it than I have seen. I will be back again to see what else it has to show me. I hope to see you there.

Karak Castle – The Jordan Loop

If you find yourself doing the Jordan Loop, and you have just left the Dead Sea to make your way over to Petra, there is a nice stop along the way that makes a nice break, and a beautiful place to enjoy a little piece of the areas history that does not have to do with either the Bible or Roman times. It is the Karak Castle, a large medieval castle situated on a hill in the city of Karak. The castle was built during the Crusades in 1142, and was used as a defensive position by many factions during that tumultuous time period in history.

The castle is a windy series of tunnels and rooms that sits on the hilltop that overlooks a large expanse of the valley below. For the most part, it is well preserved, and even though its dark passages might look foreboding at first glance, they light up as you walk along them so you can explore all the nooks and crannies that are there.

For how big and interesting it is, it is surprising how few visitors come to this location. I went during a down period of tourism for the country of Jordan, and I felt like I had the place to myself, but I am told that even when tourism was at its height, it was still not very packed. This makes it an essential place to visit, especially if you are traveling between the two bigger sights in Jordan.

The photo opportunities that it offers are limitless. I loved looking through the many embrasures, or arrow slits, in the castle and seeing how they could frame the valley below. Though the castle does not offer many explanations about what you are looking at, there is a museum on its grounds that will give you more insight about the area. I would tell you more about it, but I visited it on Jordan’s Labor Day, and it was closed on that day.

Even with missing out on the museum, there was still plenty to see on the grounds of this medieval castle. It is a great place to stop, and should be included as a quick adventure for all people making their way around the Jordan Loop. I would do it sooner rather than later because this place cannot remain a secret for too long.

The Jordan Loop

Many people are surprised when I tell them that Jordan is a great tourist destination. They do not always think about this small country in the Middle East as offering much more than a desert landscape, and Arabic cuisine, but this is not the case. It boasts of history dating all the way back to Biblical times, landscape so starkly beautiful and distinct that movie companies come out all the time to shoot their movies out here, and a culture so rich that you can’t but help to want to learn more about it. For these reason, many people that find themselves working out in Jordan can often convince their families to come out and take in the beauty that is Jordan. There are three locations that become must sees for those that travel out here that we like to call the Jordan Loop.

Just to be clear, it is not really a loop. It is more an out and back, but that does not have the same kind of appeal. Still, they are the three must sees when coming out to Jordan.

The first is a short forty-five minute drive from Amman, the Dead Sea. The lowest place on Earth has many resorts dotting the salty shore. From here, you can take quick drives down to see the Salt Flats, or up to see the Panorama to learn more about the area and take in the incredible views.

The second stop is a quick three and half hour drive from the Dead Sea to the town of Wadi Musa. This town holds Jordan’s biggest attraction, and the one that brings people from all over the world to this part of the world, Petra. It has been highlighted in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and ever since then, it has held the imagination of many. There are many more amazing buildings carved into the walls of the cliff, and it is a great place to come back to again and again.

The last stop comes on the heels of the most recent blockbuster filmed there, Dune Part Two. It is Wadi Rum, the expansive desert landscape with spectacular hikes, beautiful sunsets, and the closest you can come to the Bedouin experience without becoming a Bedouin.

The trip gets made by some of my colleagues on numerous occasions, every time one of their relatives come out to visit. For me, it is the first time that I get to make this trip as a tour guide, and show people around. I have been to a lot of these places already, and though I am excited to go back to them, I also can’t wait to see what other new experiences I can find while out in Jordan. I will get to learn more about the Jordan Loop, and I hope to share what I learn with the rest of you. So over the next few days, join me as I explore more of this country that is worth coming out and seeing.

An Unexpected Day in Vienna

On Sunday, April 14th, I was supposed to get up early to take a flight back to my home in Amman, Jordan. We were going to catch an early bus in Bratislava to take the short trip to Vienna’s airport for a four hour flight. It was supposed to be a pretty routine way to end a vacation, but we got a little surprise that morning. Our flight home had been cancelled. In fact, it had been cancelled the next day as well, so rebooking became even more complicated. It all came down to the fact that Jordan’s neighbors decided to extend their bickering over the country’s airspace, and the night sky was covered with rockets exploding into each other. No one was hurt, but pilots did not want to fly into that mess. Jordan was kind enough to close their airspace, so there would be no excuse for a corporate executive to think otherwise. I tended to agree with the decisions, but it meant that I needed to figure out what to do to get back home, and find a place to stay in Vienna until I could find that route back.

First off, I would like to say that Austrian Airlines was spectacular. They found a few connecting flights, and I was only delayed by twenty-four hours to get back home. The company also hooked us up with an Ibis hotel room and vouchers for bus fare there, dinner, and breakfast. It set me up for a nice afternoon in a city I was not expecting to visit on this trip.

I also have to point out that my job was very understanding as well. Of course, they couldn’t be any other way. It was during one of the school’s breaks, and there were a lot of teachers that were stuck in various places all over the world. This also extended to students and their families, so they could not do anything but be understanding.

I really did enjoy my afternoon in Vienna. We were able to spend the day with other teachers that were also stranded there as well. At the same time, it was a little bittersweet. Friends who decided to stay behind sent footage of the war happening overhead that they could see from their balconies. I had a hard time, not thinking about the innocent people that lived below the two bickering countries. It blew my mind that they could think of nothing other than the retribution that they wanted to deliver to one another, and not how it affected the people whose involvement in was either non-existent or minimal at best. Though I was not physically in the country at the time, it was the closest I had ever been to actual war. It demonstrated that ideological differences aren’t always contained within imaginary lines, that sometimes they have to make a show of brute force to demonstrate how important that ideology is for them. In the end, it proved nothing except who could throw a bigger temper tantrum.

Needless to say, living in Jordan over the past year has been interesting, and this is just another story to add to the many I have already encountered. It makes me hope that someday soon we can come to a peaceful solution that allows all parties to feel comfortable so we can avoid these sophomoric displays of power. Granted, I earned another day of vacation out it, and in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, but I would rather find that other solution instead.

Thanks for listening to my rant, and maybe next time, we can find that solution that we are all looking for.

The Foodie Tour – Bratislava, Slovakia

What should you do if you find yourself in a town with great food, and nothing planned for the day? Well, we made a little game out of it. We decided that we would visit as many different restaurants as we could while enjoying a bite to eat and a beverage at each place. It turned into a great way to experience the food that was offered while having a fun day in the process.

The first stop was a coffee shop called Enjoy Bistro. This way we could get caffeinated, and have a quick bite for breakfast. It is located just down the road for St. Michael’s Gate, and offers great seats in the sun in which to watch people as they take their pictures in front of the gate. The coffee and carrot cake were both good, but I am obligated to say that my wife makes a better carrot cake.

After the first stop, we were ready to get into the more serious business of finding local cuisine and enjoy a drink. We traveled a little further down the walking street to Fach (I don’t really know how to say it, but pick the one you are most comfortable with). Once again, there was plenty of outside seating and in the early afternoon is probably when you could start to find a little shade if it is getting too hot out. They do not have a lot of selection with their drinks, but there was good wine and I was excited to see Scotland’s own Brew Dog represented. The food at this place rotates day to day with always having selections that are vegan friendly. We enjoyed a salmon bao that was a perfect amount to share on an adventure like we had set up for ourselves. The wait staff was also really friendly, and when things died down a little bit from the lunch rush, our waiter was able to supply us with some more insight about the town we were staying in.

The gelato shops were just starting to open up for the summer season, and since we had not had gelato all winter long, we had to stop off for a quick cone. There are many excellent choices on the walking streets of Bratislava, but we went to the most convenient one, across the street from Fach, called Squisto. They had a good selection with your typical flavors represented. It was good, but if you want more variety I would recommend walking a little further to the tree lines streets and the bigger gelato shops found there.

The beer gardens closer to St. Michael’s Gate are a different story. There are a few courtyards that can be found off the street, all of them offering cozy places where you can grab a seat and taste locally brewed beer. Sladovna was just a couple of doors down from the gelato shop and the ivy strewn walls offered a great respite. Of course, we jumped right on the beer sampler, so we could have a taste of all the beers the place had to offer. Our stomachs were a little full with all of the food and drink we had had so far, so we only shared a pretzel, but it was warm, soft, and a great pairing with the beer.

The sampler took a little longer for us to get through and it allowed us to digest our food some. By the time we left, we were ready for another bite to eat. This took us to Orbis Street Food. We skipped having a drink at this place because the selection was not that great, but they did have frites, or Belgian fries. They were not as good as they would have been if we had them in Brussels, but they were the perfect food to give us enough energy to make it to our next stop.

That spot was 17’s Bar on the tree-lined pedestrian street at the far end of the old part of town. This was dressed up to look like any biker bar found in the United States, but the pizza, and great beer choices made it feel more like any place you would find in the touristy areas of Europe. The crowds had already gathered, and it was only four in the afternoon on a Friday. I am pretty sure that this place gets really crowded during the high season, so if you are going to make it here, be early. It has a nice shady spot where you can people watch on one of the busiest parts of the old town, so it is well worth the visit. Though we did not try the pizza, it looked really good, and there were times I wish we had.

Despite our full stomachs, we wanted to continue on our voyage, so we looked for a place where we could relax and was off the beaten path. I had discovered Storm Bar online. This was a board game pub, and I had always wanted to visit one of these places. It wasn’t took far from where we were, so we decided to check it out. It was a fun place to go to, and it did not have the crowds that the places in the old town did. The drinks were still really good, and about half the price. I also loved to decor of the place, and if this was a town I lived in, I would have my Dungeons and Dragons group meet there at least once a month to play. They did have a series of games there that you could play for free, but it was not the best selection, and very few of the games had rules in English. Still, we were able to sneak in a game of Ticket to Ride before leaving for our last spot for the evening.

This was the Flagship Restaurant which is situated in an old theatre in Bratislava. This is not in the old town area, but it is a big draw with the tourists. It is the place where you go if you wish to get some traditional Slovakian food. The wait staff is very friendly, the food is really good, and the atmosphere is something you will never forget. It was the perfect place to end our tour of food and drink for the evening, and it made me realize that I should do this more often to places where I visit. It is a great way to get to know a place, and experience all of the food that it has to offer.

So until next time, I hope the next place you visit, you can do the same as me, go on a foodie tour, and tell the tale after it is all done.

Before the Rush – Bratislava, Slovakia

It is early April in Europe. The weather is starting to warm up, but there are still hints of the bitter cold of Winter still in the air. Restaurants, cafes, and bars are struggling whether they should pull out their tables to invade the walking streets of the cities with their welcoming airs, or if they should hold off for a couple more days as they wait for the weather to pass. It would be an activity in futility though because the crowds are not yet here to take those spots and enjoy the comfort of the hospitality that the countries have to offer. They will be here in a month or so, but in the meantime, it is just practice by going through these motions.

It is early April in Europe, and it might be my favorite time to be out here. It feels like the streets in the old parts of town were created just for my delight. The locals wish to avoid the tourists, and the tourists are busy with their lives across the vast oceans. There are no crowds of people blocking my way from looking at the architecture, and I do not have to weave my way through the streets to make it to my destination, a location where I do not even know.

It is early April in Europe, and I can go into a restaurant without a reservation. Though the halls are huge and will seat many people, during the busy season, it is hard to find a place to sit down. The guidebooks all talk about how this is the best place to get local fare in an atmosphere that will make you feel like you are back in medieval times. They have wiped away the dust and are just waiting for those crowds to return, giving me the time to relax and enjoy my meal at my own leisure.

It is early April in Europe, and they have cleared away all of the snow. The lawns are starting to shirk off their brown to display the green that is hidden underneath. Trees are starting to bud, and flowers are beginning to bloom. They give life to the stark brown brick buildings surrounding them and invite people to stroll through them. The gardens will have to wait a little longer because those people have not yet shown up.

It is early April in Europe, and I am lucky to be able to travel here at this time. It feels as if the city has just woken up from a long slumber to greet me. It is still shaking the sleep from its eyes as it prepares for the mad rush that will surely come, but in the meantime, it is here for me to enjoy. I love the feeling of strolling through the town without the crowds and confusion that the summer months often offer in Europe. It is the best time to be here, and I am happy to have been able to come.

A Late Night Arrival in Bratislava

After a day of travel, I was able to wake up this morning to a new country that I have never been to, Slovakia. It is going to be a quick trip, but it is nice to wake up this morning to look out the window of the place I am staying and see a completely different view. It also fills me with joy knowing that I can put aside work for a little while, and lose myself in a new town, Bratislava. I have nothing important on my plate except exploration, and I hope you join me these next few days as I look around to see what this town has to offer.