Nara In Nara’s center, city maps with marked attractions and signs to them are everywhere but if you step away from the center everything including street names is in Japanese only. I was glad to see that many new private houses are built in the traditional Japanese style with fancy roof tiles as on the […]
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The Black Sea in Byala, Bulgaria, was stormy when I was leaving it. Regardless of that, my 2 friends and I spent two lovely weeks in my apartment. After saying goodbye to them, I sorted out my belongings. A small portion of them was going with me on a 1-month trip to 5 countries in
South Coast Trolls definitely live in Iceland. I left 2 socks before going to bed and found only one in the morning. It was a warm night and I kept a small window pane open in my room, probably enough for a troll to squeeze in. On my last day in Iceland, I had a
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Golden Circle (continued) My next day trip was with a different agency, Sterna Travel. The logistics were the same – a small bus picked me up at my hotel, lunch was not included and we stopped for a meal where everyone ordered the food to suit their taste, at the end of the day we
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Golden Circle Iceland is the land of geysers. In fact, the English word “geyser” is derived from the Icelandic “geysir”. The first-ever geyser described in a printed material is located in Iceland. Since then, other languages adopted the word “geysir”. The Great Geysir, the ancestor of all geysers, was spectacular when it erupted. The Geysir’s
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Iceland Our guide Christina drove us first to the waterfall Gullfoss. All waterfalls are spectacular but Gullfoss comes with an interesting history. It is located on the land owned by generations of one family. About one hundred years ago, foreign investors became interested in harnessing the waterfall power to produce electricity. Tómas Tómasson, the head
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Only a decade ago, Iceland was not a popular tourist destination until Icelandair, a low cost airline, introduced direct flights to the US. Now, Iceland suffers from overtourism. Rather than discouraging visitors, however, Iceland is looking to diversify its tourism offering. Recognizing the strain being placed on Reykjavik and a small number of other sites,
In the Amazon jungles The last day of our vacation was in Lima. It was morning when we got there. This time, we had no bad experience leaving the airport (see the post Tumbes). At first, we tried to do usual sightseeing but the polluted air of the Peruvian capital made it difficult to enjoy.
From the Andes to the Amazon jungles On the following day, we got up at 5 am. Taking a cold shower in the jungle was easy. The temperature there stays over 30º C (90º F) all day long and humidity is 90%. Absence of electricity presented a problem for my husband who had an electric
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Lake Titicaca After another night in chilly conditions in Puno and almost all day on the bus, we were back to Cusco. It was time to see something completely different and we bought air tickets to Puerto Maldonado, a city in the Amazon forest. The flight was only half an hour, but what a drastic
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