Category Archives: Articles

Stories That We Hope Will Inspire You To Travel

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Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia – Bolivia salt flats

What is this section all about

During our vacation to India in 2011, we met a couple from Montreal who were traveling the world.  They seemed to be, more or less, the same demographic as Helene and I. They weren’t gap year 18 year olds. they weren’t college students or recent grads.  They were in, or around, thirty years old, traveling the world, and writing about it on La Fuite Aux Tour du Monde. Andre and Marie-Claude inspired us through their blog.  It was a glimpse into a possible dream come true.

 

So here we are, sharing our stories online.  This section includes all our blog posts, except for the street photos.  We hope that you enjoy.

Visiting the Turkish Beaches

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There comes a time when everyone’s travel blog falls embar­rass­ingly behind. I’m afraid Laughingabroad.com is almost three months (maybe more?) behind. It’s not all bad, though, because there is some good news for our Cana­dian read­ers who, I under­stand, are knee high deep in snow already. Today we will be talk­ing about our visit to the beach(es).

In a coun­try where peo­ple say it is becom­ing more Mus­lim by the day, the last thing that comes to mind is lib­eral beaches.  But, Turkey’s beaches are famous for tiny biki­nis, drink­ing, and, well, for being very Euro­pean. Con­tinue read­ing →

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Helene’s Guide to Istanbul

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Turkey Itin­er­ary: Istan­bul (8 days) -> Pam­mukale (3 days) -> Olu­d­eniz (4 days) ->
Olym­pos (6 days) -> Antalya (3 nights) -> Konya (3 days) -> Goreme (7 days) -> Amasya (3 days) -> Tra­b­zon (6 days) -> Erzu­rum (2 days) -> Kars (2 days) -> Van (4 days) -> Dogubayazit (1day)

Get In: Bus from Varna  $30 Euros/person
Stay: Air BNB room $20 EURO/night

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A view of the spec­tac­u­lar Hagia Sophia

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Nor­mally I like to tell a story about each city we visit, but recount­ing the 8 days we spent in Istan­bul day by day would be nearly impos­si­ble.  There are 2 rea­sons for this: firstly we were there nearly two and a half months ago (we’ve been really busy lately!) and sec­ondly because Istan­bul was jammed packed with activ­i­ties.   With­out fur­ther ado, I present to you my tips/tidbits to enjoy­ing Istan­bul and Turkey in general.

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Look­ing mis­chie­vous in the Blue Mosque

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The stun­ning inte­rior of the Blue Mosque

Con­tinue read­ing →

The Bulgaria Files: Part 4 — Visiting Varna

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Bul­garia itin­er­ary: Sofia (5 nights) -> Veliko Tarnovo (4 nights) -> Varna (5 nights)

Get In: Bus from Veliko Tarnovo 9 Euros/person
Stay: Varna Camp­site and Black Sea Cot­tage pri­vate room 20 Euros/night

Relax­ing on the Black Sea Coast

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Wait­ing for the bus

Vis­it­ing Bul­garia in the sum­mer and not hav­ing at least one stop on the Black sea coast is kind of like vis­it­ing Paris and never see­ing the Eif­fel tower.  We knew we had to expe­ri­ence it, but had trou­ble decid­ing where exactly we should go. Con­tinue read­ing →

The Bulgaria Files: Part 3 — Abandonned UFO-like Soviet Building

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Every once in a while there is an oppor­tu­nity to do some­thing that seems like a good idea, but for a vari­ety of rea­sons — maybe cost, time, or that gut feel­ing say­ing ‘don’t bother’ — you decide against it. We almost decided against this, but some nag­ging feel­ing con­vinced us that this could be some­thing big. Con­tinue read­ing →

The Bulgaria Files: Part 2 Veliko Tarnovo

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Bul­garia itin­er­ary: Sofia (5 nights) -> Veliko Tarnovo (4 nights) -> Varna (5 nights)

Get in: Bus from Sofia for 11 Euros per per­son
Stay: Hotel Anhea for 22.5 Euros/night for 2 per­sons ** Def­i­nitely one of our favorite hotels of the trip

Veliko what? Where are we going?

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The river, the city, and, accord­ing to our guide, the ugli­est build­ing in the city

Bul­garia. What a sur­pris­ing touris­tic gem. Cre­ators of the Cyril­lic alpha­bet, always on the los­ing side of war, the gate­way to Europe, where do I start a blog post about Bul­garia? Con­tinue read­ing →

The Bulgaria Files: Part 1 — Sofia

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Bul­garia itin­er­ary: Sofia (5 nights) -> Veliko Tarnovo (4 nights) -> Varna (5 nights)

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Back­pack­ing route across Bulgaria

Tim and I found our­selves in a pecu­liar sit­u­a­tion at the end of July. We were in Greece, but it was get­ting expen­sive, and the heat had defeated us. We wanted to go to Turkey, but wanted to avoid trav­el­ing in a Mus­lim coun­try dur­ing Ramadan. So, where could we go in the mean­time? Con­tinue read­ing →

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Backpacking From One Side of Greece to the Other

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Greece Itin­er­ary: Corfu (11 days) -> Athens (5 days)-> Mete­ora (2 days)-> Thes­sa­loniki (2 days)

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Acrop­o­lis theater

When we were faced with the deci­sion to either go to Alba­nia or stay in Greece, we decided to stay in Greece. There must have been some­thing in the air on Corfu island because we weren’t ready to leave yet. Con­tinue read­ing →

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The Time We Went to Corfu, Greece

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Greece Itin­er­ary: Corfu (11 days) -> Athens (5 days) -> Mete­ora (2 days) -> Thes­sa­loniki (2 days)

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Ipsos beach.

Since last sum­mer, my brother and his wife, Ger, had been plan­ning a fam­ily trip to Corfu to cel­e­brate her 40th birth­day. Tim and I had politely declined the invi­ta­tion to join, but once we knew for sure that we were going to be trav­el­ing for a year, it became a no brainer for us to rethink our deci­sion.  And what a good idea that was. We were due for a vaca­tion from the vacation.

Photo time.

Con­tinue read­ing →

Flash Through Western Europe: Fun, Family, and Friends

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Two months ago, Tim and I wrapped up our Latin Amer­ica leg of the jour­ney and set off to con­quer West­ern Europe in what was to be a lovely three week jaunt through some of the major cities between Madrid and Berlin before head­ing to our planned des­ti­na­tion of Greece.  We met loads of peo­ple, caught up with fam­ily and friends, and most of all, got to expe­ri­ence the ubiq­ui­tous “Eurotrip” in high sea­son summer.

Flights and accom­mo­da­tion, as we found out, can be much more expen­sive than it needs to be if not planned in advance. So, as much as pos­si­ble we came up with an itin­er­ary and travel route:

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Madrid (2 nights) -> Paris (5 nights) -> Bel­gium (3 nights) -> Ams­ter­dam (4 nights) -> Berlin (2 nights)

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One Month Backpacking Route Through Mexico

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When we left Mex­ico City at the end of Feb­ru­ary for Peru after study­ing Span­ish for two months, we had agreed that we would one day return to Mex­ico to explore the rest of the coun­try. That day came much ear­lier than expected.

In one of her great tricks to get cheap flights, Helene booked a round trip from Mex­ico City to Lima, all the while not intend­ing to ever use the return leg. But after find­ing a remark­ably cheap ticket from Can­cun to Madrid for $166 through Pull­man­tur Air, we decided to put that return ticket to good use.

The route

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The route, 30 days through Mexico.

Guadala­jara -> Tequila -> Puebla -> Oax­aca City -> Puerto Escon­dito -> San Cristo­bol -> Palenque -> Playa del Carmen

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