http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/steve_n_neens/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from steve_n_neens en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:23:36 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:23:36 +0000 We spent an awesome couple of weeks road tripping through Europe with our friends Cam and Heidi. We made our way through central and eastern Switzerland Bavaria Melk Austria Vienna Prague and wrapped up in Berlin where we met with our Aussie Brit mates Moo Nicole and Catriona. Highlights included eating traditional Swiss food such as Raclette and Fondue and staple sausage eh Cam heavy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-105650.html The Dalmatian Coast was everything we wanted it to be. We'd been craving the sun and sea since we left Costa Rica and basically just relaxed on the beach for our whole time on the Island of Hvar and in Dubrovnik. There's not a great deal to write about as we spent our days swimming snorkelling and scooting around the island and the evenings drinking wine and Slivovic grown and distilled by the c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/blog-96296.html Many people we met couldn't understand why we'd want to go to Romania at all. We'd heard all the horror stories such as 'gypsy women' throwing their babies at you so that their older children could fleece you as you reach for the flying child. We'd also been warned of all the usual dangers such as pick pocketing and scams and were mentally prepared for a very difficult time. We touched down in Buc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Transilvania/blog-95824.html Our time in Seattle was mainly spent sleeping as much as possible to overcome jet lag and eating as much fresh food as we could fit in. One of the greatest things about Seattle is the Pike Place Market and the scores of smaller farmers' markets and strong local food movement. Pike Place Market is chock full of rows and rows of fresh organic produce direct from the farmers and fishermen in mind bo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-88574.html Having spent a few days in Seattle resting our feet and feasting on the local produce we were once again in the air heading to Costa Rica. We were over the moon to see the familiar faces of Rachael and Jeffrey waiting amongst the throngs of taxi drivers at San Jose International and after a night in the capital we were on our way to the Caribbean coast. It was dark by the time we arrived in Cahuit http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-88709.html Sain bainuu We're back from the countryside and can happily say the Mongolia we came to see is alive and well outside the city with nomadic life carrying on much as it has for centuries. We spent a magical 10 days in the Arkhangai Aimag a central province participating in a nomadcentered project called Ger to Ger www.gertoger.org designed to create alternative income for herder families http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/blog-77634.html We made the day trip out the Terelj National Park about 2 hours from UB to do some hiking and check out the rock formations we'd read and heard so much about. The public bus ride from the city was a breeze a man selling cigarettes by the street even went out of his way to help us find the bus stop a rareity in Ulaanbaatar especially when we compare it to Seoul where people actively went out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/blog-78134.html Well we made it into Mongolia even with all the dried food Neen had stockpiled the customs officials were a lot more interested in checking Mongols returning home than foreigners entering. Our hosts were there to meet us at the airport near midnight on Saturday and after a short drive in the rain in a van with no seatbelts and no headlights either for that matter we arrived at our guesthouse http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-73409.html We arrived in the evening after a surprisingly comfortable and pleasant 11 hour flight from Sydney. I'm sure we'll feel differently after the next 6 months of flying but Korean Airlines rock on Managed to find the bus from Incheon airport to our guesthouse in Myeongdong in central Seoul pretty easily and after asking for a lot of directions ended up at the Namsan Guesthouse where our hosts had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-70377.html