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Happy Friday! I almost forgot it was Friday...crazy! Short weeks always have me on the wrong day. But happily it's the weekend again...and time for our Friday Travel Deal Alert. 1. Istanbul, Turkey! You can fly from JFK to Istanbul on October 8th and return on October 22nd for $610. I found this deal using Skyscanner. It's a pretty awesome site where you can put in your departure city and your destination and look for the best price with specific dates or the whole year at once...which is pretty cool. But back to Istanbul! Istanbul is a huge city (about 14 million people). It's also a cultural and historical hub for the region. This means you're going to encounter a diverse collection of food, architecture and people. It's historic center is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. With so much to see and do, you're going to want to leave plenty of time for exploring. 2. Myrtle Beach, SC. You can fly from Chicago to Myrtle Beach on September 3rd, returning on September 15th for $108 with Spirit Airlines! That's a crazy good deal! I also found that with Skyscanner. Myrtle Beach is a famous resort area that is perfect for everyone. Bring the kinds...or don't and have a romantic getaway. With 60 miles of sandy beaches, how could you not have a good time, right? Do you have some vacation plans this summer? If so, where are you going? If not, why not?! If you're having trouble finding deals, or budgeting for your trip, let us know. We're here to help!
Have a great weekend, and don't forget the sunscreen! ~Skeeter
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Hi everyone! I am so excited to share my trip to Italy with you. I'll be sharing all the good, bad, and the ugly. So often with travel blogs, it's easy to share only the beautiful and amazing. While there's certainly plenty of astounding things that come along with visiting a new place, there's also the difficult, gritty part of travel. I like to share that part to spare you those difficulties if possible. I'll be splitting this all up into several posts...otherwise it will turn into a novel. So, I'll be starting with our first stop, Venice! I had heard lots of negative stuff about Venice: it smells, the water's gross, there's garbage everywhere, etc. Let me start by saying that that is completely wrong! In any city of size, particularly on the water, you will occasionally encounter unsavory smells. Which was true, but the smells I came across where more often the sweet smell of flowers that are growing from nearly every window, and the delicious smell of food all over the city. People in Venice do leave their bagged garbage outside their buildings on the street, but first thing in the morning, there were men and women carting it off and sweeping all the streets. It was actually a very clean and beautiful city. Venice was one of our favorite stops. One tip that will make your trip to Venice spectacular is to explore early in the morning or in the evening. The picture of St. Mark's square above is at about 7:30 a.m. We got up and started roaming the city at about 7:00, and until about noon, we hardly saw anyone. It was just us, and the sounds of pigeons cooing and water lapping, it was amazing! Venice is a port city for cruise ships though. When one of those disembarks (as two did when we were there) the city will be flooded with thousands and thousands of tourists. The city went from peaceful and quite to booming and bustling. So, we just ducked in for a panini, and enjoyed the view from our apartment. After a while, we saw the ship leaving and the city was ours again. Which is great, because it is so incredible. I will be honest, we didn't go for a gondola ride....what's wrong with us, right? This is one thing that didn't seem as magical in real life as you might imagine it. When the city is quite and it is at its most romantic, I didn't see any gondoliers giving rides. But, at the peek of the day, when the crowds had descended, that's when I saw them out offering rides. At that point it seemed too crowded to be relaxing and romantic...more like bumper boats to me. So, we skipped it. Why pay $85 a person for that, right? There are few things as lovely as strolling the quite streets of Venice in the morning though. I would recommend renting an apartment while there. The hotel rates in Venice are astronomical! We stayed with this Airbnb host. They arranged to have someone meet us at the boat stop, which was so nice because after 40 hours of traveling, and being in a new city, I would have gotten lost for sure. It was lovely, close to everything, yet you feel tucked away in your own magical world. The windows of our apartment gave us views of a little private courtyard filled with flowers, and you could hear gondoliers singing and bells chiming...it was so heavenly. As for the water. The canal water didn't seem like something I would want to swim in...but it wasn't gross by any means. And like in many Italian cities, they have public water fountains, like the one below with clean drinkable water. We filled up our water bottle with water from here...delicious. I wasn't sure what to expect, and it was actually really good. Venice is full of surprises! Venice is also very walkable. We walked pretty much the entire city from end to end in both directions. Just getting happily lost and meandering through the maze of streets. Shortly after commenting to Pat that Venice has basically no grass, we stumbled upon a huge park, with lush grass and it was a nice little retreat from the labyrinth of streets. I would have never guessed that it was here. I would happily return to Venice any day. I could spend ages discovering all the cafes and shops down all the little alleys. Every corner you take opens up into another world to discover. To see any of our other photos, check out our Travel Photos page. If you're thinking of traveling to Venice and have any questions about getting around, or are looking for suggestions, let me know in the comments. I'll be posting more soon about the practical side of getting around Italy, getting cash, eating out etc. Until next time! ~Skeeter My restlessness and longing to travel is a serious problem. I admit, it often gets in the way of daily life. I refuse to get a 9-5 job because I won't have enough vacation days to travel and I always have to wake myself from my daydreams when they take me to far-off places I want to visit, And the one that gets me the most... when I hear from others to "snap back to reality"... that it's great that I want to travel so much, but I can't just keep hopping in planes. I have responsibilities. I have to plan my life out. I have to work and make money. I have to already start saving for retirement (ugh). And they're not wrong. But they're also not right. I know all these things, and I certainly don't have the money to travel around all the time. That's why I'm trying to learn how to relax every day (along with making money). I'm not telling anyone to quit their jobs and just start traveling. Bad idea. But if you're not happy with your job, if you're not happy with your life, do something to change it! At least try doing something to help you relax every day. And I'm not talking about coming home, and crashing on the couch to watch TV. For those who do work full-time, who maybe actually like their jobs, who have responsibilities and can't leave town, you can still let your mind have a vacation. Here's a list of things you can try. Starting with the one I've recently become obsessed with.
Make time for yourself. Breathe. Relax. Set aside some time every day to completely forget about any stress. If you can do all these with a beach near, then lucky you. Just clear your mind and stop thinking about your to-do list. You can come back to it later. Even if you can't travel, at least your mind can. -Liz |
Skeeter
Hi there! I'm Skeeter. I grew up moving a lot and that makes me a bit restless for travel and exploration. I started this blog with my husband Pat when we decided to backpack New Zealand for a year. We are always looking for the next adventure and are loving life. We're just your average couple with two sassy dogs and a love for travel. We're sharing our travels and the tips we pick up along the way. LIZHello! I'm Liz. Blogging is very new to me, but I'm so excited to finally write as much as I talk! Archives
December 2016
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