Budget Friendly World Travel
Cool feature...buildings built into the rock This is the current city with the tortuous roads originally laid out thousands of years ago. Not the easiest city to navigate. Note the little ramp up the hill on the left...that's the two way street up to the hostel The day of driving from Syracuse was generally calm… Continue reading Agriento
Soooo....one might think of an overnight train as an exciting experience. Visions of the Orient express...opulent luxury and fine dining come to mind. The reality of an overnight train in India is sadly...far from it. It sounds fun and exotic...spending the night slumbering to the steady beat of the rails and you travel great distances.… Continue reading Overnight Train Experiences: Expectation vs. Reality
Holy City By the Ganges After the sleepless night on the train...the day was met with less than enthusiasm. We were picked up and driven to the hotel. When we arrived they had people staged on the level above us dropping flower petals. Nice touch. The rooms were rustic. At long last my friend John… Continue reading Exploring Varanasi: A Journey by the Ganges River
India So another adventure begins...got to admit I feel a bit like a chicken. I went with a prepackaged tour for once. This was with a group called “G Adventures” through a tour company call “Tour Radar”. Booking a two week tour of northern India seemed like a pretty good idea. Usually you get what… Continue reading India 2025
9/25/2024 Getting there: It was a hot and humid morning. Hurricane Helena was churning in the Gulf of Mexico not far away. We were just beginning to feel the effects of the huge wind field. My faithful buddy Leo showed up right on time and took me to the train station. Train to Miami airport… Continue reading Belize – Guatemala 2024
Who wants to live forever...or the life not well lived is not worth living https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKthRyf6t10 This was the day. We had just gotten off the bus - I was traveling with Ryan and Johann, a couple of recent buddies from another bus group - we were all pretty excited and nervous. Saying to each other… Continue reading New Zealand Bungee Jumping
Castle by the seaport The trip to the rail station went well. Previously, using the luggage carrier for my large 70 liter backpack had not worked so well. The many cobblestones in Rome made it such slow going that it was necessary to take a cab across town when I had to move. Clearly unacceptable… Continue reading Napoli
Grotto at Cordari Syracuse to Agrigento Car survived the night intact. Cool. Loaded up the gear and said goodbye to the nice folks and friends at the hostel. Good bunch there made by the guests sharing their food...would have been nice to spend a few more days. Got the phone synced with the car so… Continue reading Syracuse
Up as planned a quick breakfast and out the door or should I say "wicket". Chris and I headed out for the mountain in the rental car which had survived the night without incident.The day was sunny and hot at sea level but got progressively cooler as we gained altitude. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump… Continue reading Mount Etna
Port of Catania The night crossing had been largely without incident. Dined onboard the ship. It was of the Grimaldi line and a well maintained vessel it was. Had a cafeteria on board which was pricy but good quality. Unfortunately after a couple of hours the night had been rainy so not too much time… Continue reading Sicily – Cantania
