December 7, 2015

Transportation in Eastern Europe

border crossing, Night Train, planes, rental cars

While there were plenty of unknowns for our trip abroad, the most concerning thing for me was transportation. For some reason, I couldn’t find a ton of information on the subject which made me uber nervous. Our entire trip revolved around getting from point A to point B in a timely manner and any hiccups could have really thrown a wrench in things. I’m happy to report that we had zero issues despite my heightened anxiety. Phew!

So I thought I would recap our various modes of transportation to help those of you who might be making your way to Eastern Europe sometime soon.

Flights
OK, everyone knows how to book a flight. NBD. I set up a kayak.com alert and watched a few possible arrival cities to see which would be cheapest. I originally wanted to start our journey in Prague, but prices never went down so we ended up flying into Amsterdam, which saved us a couple hundred dollars. I know horrible, right? 🙂 We flew through Iceland, had a short 60 minute layover then took a three hour flight to the Netherlands. The flight was quite comfortable and I never felt like we were seated FOREVER. I bought these tickets (through Icelandair) with no return flight knowing that we’d save some cash booking them separately.

Getting from Amsterdam to Prague was another quick flight. The train would have taken us 12 hours and the flight was maybe an hour? Looking back, I should have just bought us the Seattle to Prague tickets as it was about the same cost as our two flights. Oh well! Lesson learned.

We booked our return flight with Condor, which I had read HORRIBLE reviews about. I told the hubby to prepare for the worst and it actually ended up being a really great flight (10 hours to Seattle from Frankfurt plus a short two hour flight from Dubrovnik to Frankfurt). The outer rows of the plane were just two seats wide, so we had our own little space to ourselves. They served us two meals plus a snack during our 10 hour flight and we each had our own TV. Economy seating was plenty comfortable for us. I wouldn’t hesitate to book with this airline again. AND a $500 plane ticket from Dubrovnik via Frankfurt to Seattle is like the best deal ever!

Trains
Trains, oh trains. How I wanted to love you but ended up hating you. Granted, you got us where we needed to go but man, do you have to be so uncomfortable? I had romantic notions of all of these train rides from city to city, but alas night trains are definitely not that.

Since we were taking two night trains (Prague to Krakow and Krakow to Budapest), I wanted to be sure we got the cabins we needed so we booked these before our trip. I used this blog to help navigate the booking websites as they were VERY confusing. I also found it helpful to get to the train station early and check in at the counter to make sure your documents were in order. For some reason, we still had a buy a general train ticket even though we had a cabin, which were upwards of $180 dollars for us. A minor inconvenience, but what can you do?

The sleeper cabins hold up to three people and there’s a special way you can book them to get it to yourself, which we did. I can’t imagine piling three people in one of those small cabins! The beds are fairly uncomfortable with a thin mattress and tiny pillow, but they keep the rooms warm. Both offered a croissant and coffee or tea in the morning. I found all of the train conductors to be helpful, friendly and English-speaking. You hand over your passport and tickets for the Krakow to Budapest train and they hold them for you the entire night – just an FYI. I know it’s hard to let a passport go, but no worries, it’s safe.

We did take one short day train ride from Ljubljana to the Croatia border, which was quite nice and more like I had imagined. I loved seeing the countryside go by! We shared a cabin with a young English couple and had a good time chatting them up. We bought these tickets the day before, but could have bought them the day of and would have been fine.

In conclusion, the train system is a necessary evil.

Buses
Buses were never part of the plan, but after Budapest shut down their station during the initial refugee crisis, we decided it might be wise to have a backup plan. Instead of the train, we took a Eurolines bus from Budapest to Ljublana, which was unfortunately not direct. I think it was $30 per person, which is a steal of a deal if you are looking for budget travel.

We spent eight hours on a cramped bus with two border stops since we had to pass through Croatia twice. I think those two stops took up about three hours of that drive time. Lots of on and off the bus and showing passports to border patrol. The buses do stop for bathroom and snack breaks too, but you are looking at gas station eats. We were definitely not in love with the bus, but it was great to have a back-up option.

Renting a Car
After bus and train rides, it was a major luxury to have a car again. We rented a small two door from Sixt, which ran us $325 for five days. We rented it from Zagreb, Croatia, drove it to Plitvice Lakes and Split, Croatia then to Mostar, Bosnia and finally returning it to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I’d read that Croatia’s public transportation wasn’t super convenient so figured this was a good option for us to cover the most ground.

Renting a car in a different country is always a bit stressful, but let me tell you, Croatia is totally easy people! Make sure you have some sort of navigation system and a back-up old school map…oh and maybe some snacks and you are good to go 🙂 Small bills are necessary too as they’ve got some toll roads. Unlike the U.S., people aren’t bumper to bumper commuting all day long. We never ran into any traffic and the main highways were easy to drive on and navigate. Croatians do love to speed though!

We crossed the Croatian/Bosnian border twice on our little road trip and I must admit, I had a bit of stress leading up to the first one. I just didn’t know what to expect. Luckily, there was no line and we drove right up to the booth, showed them our passports and were on our way. Smooth sailing! The crossing back into Croatia was pretty much the same, with maybe five cars in line.

I would definitely recommend renting a car in Croatia. Having the freedom to just pull over at any time to admire the views is worth its weight in gold. It was the best way to see the country for sure.

So what are your favorite modes of transportation when you’re in a new country? Do you like the freedom of the road or is public transportation your jam?

December 3, 2015

Currently

Watching: We just saw The Martian – highly recommended. I suspect I’ll be watching a ton of film footage from our trip in the coming weeks too. That’s right folks, an Adam & Leslie production coming your way in early 2016!

Loving: Incense. Yah, missed that boat in college – whoops. Snagged a few the other day at the Co-op and our home now smells like smokey myrrh and Frankincense in the evenings. It makes our house feel a bit warmer and cozier when it’s crappy outside.

Listening to: Don’t laugh….classical music. I’ve started tuning in to the local radio channel during my commute to ease my holiday/work/road rage. Plus, listening to news radio is a big bummer these days. I like to stay informed, but there’s only so much a gal can take.

Doing: Getting tons of bids on plumbing, electrical and bath renovations. Ahhh, the joys of home ownership. We’ve got a few high priority things ie. old galvanized plumbing and chipping bathtub siding that desperately need to be replaced.

Reading: I took decluttering by storm last month and was all over the book: The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art Of Decluttering And Organizing (which is why I’m so anti-gift this year!). It was a quick, two night read which led to a 6+ hour closet/dresser binge. My clothes have never been happier!

Eating: TURKEY + all of the fixings. We often don’t have a ton of leftovers from the family holiday dinner, which is fine because secretly I like to cook a bird for just us. There’s something satisfying and adult-like about cooking up your own and it really isn’t that hard! I did attempt a dry brine this year, but couldn’t tell the difference. It all tastes the same to me once you douse it in gravy 🙂

Thinking about: Hiking in the winter months. Ya’ll know that we love a good summer hike and winters in the PNW aren’t super frigid so there is the possibility of getting outdoors still. Hmmmmmm….just need some microspikes and we’ll be good to go! Oh, and a four wheel drive vehicle!

**This blog post was inspired by http://sometimessweet.com/ – check her out!

November 30, 2015

This is an emergency 3…

house

Check out my emergency preparedness brain dumps one and two…

OK, supplies are stocked and food is on the shelves. What else is missing? Oh yes, things that I’ll lump together as miscellaneous emergency preparedness.

PLAN.
As in have one. The hubby and I have talked about the variety of scenarios of where we could be if a natural disaster went down. I’d most likely be at work on Capitol Hill and he’d be at home or in Georgetown. Worse came to worse, we could both walk home fairly easily. I keep an old pair of tennis shoes and socks in my car, just in case. I’d also snag my sister and her BF who live nearby my office if they were around. Getting home ASAP makes the most sense since it’s where all of our emergency ‘ish is.

If it looked like we couldn’t stay in the city for long, then I’d consider a trek over the pass (road conditions permitting) to my gal pal’s house in Eastern Washington.

DOCUMENT.
Thankfully, we live in the age of “the cloud.” I’ve got both hard copies and a thumb drive of these items below in our kit plus I have them stored cloud-style. These days, most everything is kept online but I wanted to be sure to at least have some of our basic account information handy.

Passports
Driver’s licenses
Emergency contacts – do you know anyone’s phone number these days?
Bank accounts
Passwords
Health insurance and medications
Mortgage account and copies of bills
Photos

IN THE FUTURE.
This list could go on and on….if money weren’t an issue, I’d definitely look into retro-fitting our house so it’d be less likely to slide off the foundation. I’d also love to purchase some property outside of the city, which could be our out of town bug out location 🙂 or just a fun camping spot! I’d say the one realistic thing I could manage would be to snag a solar charger for our electronics. This one is on my list!

What am I missing? How do you stay prepared?

November 25, 2015

Decluttering with the KonMari Method

declutter, KonMari Method, organization

So let’s talk about the KonMari Method of decluttering. I know, I’m late to the party…this book was huge at the beginning of this year. Whoops! I randomly came across an article a few weeks back talking about its folding methods and all of a sudden I was in the internet research downward spiral. I was intrigued, I was hooked, and I bought the e-book immediately. I spent the next two days powering through it, taking notes as I went and reading though provoking passages out loud to my husband. I was hands down sold (he was not). I was going to become the tidiest person I know.

The basic concept of the method is to get rid of anything that does not “spark joy” in your life, thank it for its service then organize what you have left in an origami-like fashion. No need for special organization systems, bins or boxes either. A shoe box lid or Tupperware container will do the trick.

This all sounds well and good, but let’s talk about real life implementation people. Was it a catalyst to get a major purge done? HELL YES. Am I going to keep our house tidy 24/7? Probably not. Did I find some new ways to keep things a bit more decluttered and organized? For sure! Has it given me a new outlook on things I own? Most def.

Like the book suggests, I decided that my clothes were the best place to start and blocked off an entire afternoon to tackle the project. I love clothes and getting dressed up, but I was holding onto plenty of mediocre things that when put on, did not make me feel like a million bucks aka “spark joy.”

My donate/sell pile got very large very fast and it felt GOOD. It took me about three hours to go through everything then another two to fold and put things away. In the end, I donated or sold about 10 bags of stuff. I went from two full dressers down to one and emptied half my closet. Our bedroom has space now, like open physical space that feels kinda wonderful. And picking out an outfit in the morning is a breeze because I know that every single item is the most flattering, feel good piece of its kind.

In the next week, I also went through my papers and photos. I downsized from 30+ files to five and although I kept many pictures, I actually spent the time organizing and putting them into photo books. I do plan on going through other groups of things i.e. kitchen and bath items in the near future using this same technique.

I will never have that “everything in its exact place” sort of house, but it definitely brings a new, lighter energy to things. And now when I’m out shopping, I take a good, hard look at each and every item to make sure it’s the right fit for me. If it doesn’t “spark joy” then it’s not coming home!

Biggest takeaways:

It got me thinking about what really means the most in my life and only surround myself with those items. Why hang on to things that don’t make me 110% happy? If that means having less, well that’s cool.

Sometimes an item is hard to let go of because it represents something important or memorable from the past. Acknowledge its place and time with those special memories, then let it go. It’s served its purpose. This was a big one for me.

It made me re-think my whole pajama/lounge wear situation. I’ve always been a crappy sweat pants and hoodie sort of gal, but I took her words to heart and made myself a nice little lounge wear wardrobe from items already in my closet. And guess what? Not a pair of sweat pants in sight! I feel like a lady of the house now and not a frumpy old maid J

I was always of the mind set of hanging every piece of clothing so I could see it, but then I’d run into a super stuffed closet where I could hardly pull a blouse out. I thought the folding technique was sorta stupid at first, but now I’m hooked. It’s a pain to do it the first time, but easy to maintain.

November 23, 2015

Packing for a month long trip to Eastern Europe

backpacking, traveling light

When we decided to make this adventure happen, we knew that it was only going to work if we were highly mobile ie. no checked luggage. I did my due diligence and rounded us up some convertible backpacks for the journey. When we arrived to the airport, I knew our bags where too big despite my best efforts to make sure they were the right size. P.S. – my Rick Steves bag specifically said it was for international travel. WTF Rick? I was very nervous that we’d get caught and have to pay the steep checked baggage fees. You know that I hate to be a rule breaker. **Note to future travelers – get an even smaller bag if you are looking to breezily pass the carry-on restrictions.

We got away with them on the way there, but were finally caught on our last flight back to Seattle and the bags had to be checked. Luckily, it was at the gate so we didn’t have to pay 🙂

While we did appreciate the backpack aspects of them, we packed them to the gills and they were truly back breaking at times. If I could do it all over again, I would totally bring less. We were able to wash as we went but I really struggled with the wide variety of climates – the north being more like Seattle with rain and the south being warm and sunny. I did the best I could and never felt ill prepared but knew I’d, once again, over packed! Typical Leslie.

What I would bring next time:
~~4 tee shirts~~ I’d go with 3
~~4 tank tops~~ 2 would have been fine
1 zip sweatshirt
~~2 button downs~~ I’d go with 1
1 vest
1 black suit jacket
~~2 cardigans~~ I’d go with 1
1 fancy top
~~2 pairs of jeans~~ I’d go with 1
1 pair of leggings
1 black skirt
~~2 pairs of shorts~~ I’d go with 1
1 dress
1 small purse
1 reusable bag
1 large purse
~~1 baseball hat~~ Never even wore it!
1 scarf
Nike tennis shoes
Dansko booties
Plastic black Birkenstock sandals
1 bathing suit
1 set of light weight pajamas
Socks, bras, underwear
1 rain jacket
1 light jacket
I also broke down and bought a pair of light weight loose fitting animal print capris pants at H&M, which ended up being awesome for the warm nights in Croatia.

Lessons learned:
• We didn’t need to get as fancy dressed up as I thought we would so I could have gotten away with fewer of my nicer pieces. Most of my basics were enough to get by for sightseeing during the day and dinner at night.
• Choose plain colored tees and tanks so you don’t have to worry about mixing and matching them to your bottoms.
• Black jeans were my best decision. They dressed up and dressed down and always looked flattering.
• Not all athletic shoes are created equal. I thought these ultra-light weight Nike shoes would be perfect for travel, but they gave this gal major plantar fasciitis as they were meant to mimic barefoot walking. I paid dearly for that!
• BUT Dansko booties are the way to go! And Birkenstock Madrid Slides are the bee’s knee’s. Lightweight, comfortable and super versatile.
• Having a light weight set of PJ’s helped keep my shirts, well shirts, so that I could wear them a few times before washing.
• I brought this large, fabric multi-compartment purse, which seemed like a good idea, but wasn’t in the end. It was way too heavy and not comfortable to walk around with. Plus, it’s like the black hole. I could never find what I needed.
• I bought a few pairs of earrings and two necklaces. I could have only brought one of each and been fine.
• We bought two of those money fanny pack things to keep our valuables close and safe. Yeah, didn’t need those at all. Same with the backpack locks. Not needed (at least in the areas we traveled.)
• In the end, I really learned that an ambitious itinerary like ours really didn’t allow for much brain power to devote to outfit selection. Bring the classic, key pieces you love and save your energy for the adventure!

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