The next morning, we got our second delicious breakfast at our hotel. Honestly, I was very happy with the Grand Hyatt; it was not cheap, but the roof top restaurant and pool have incredible views and that alone was worth it, plus they were so friendly. The included breakfast had many options and all tables had a view of the acropolis somehow. Anyway, we made our way via the expensive hotel shuttle to the airport where I had booked two small rental cars with Enterprise. After checking in, we walked about 500m to the lot where we encountered seriously the most friendly Greek of our trip. He was so nice! I thought I was in a different country somehow. But the cars were small! Poor Tyler! We drove along the nice highways, with lots of tolls, ... read more

**Question: Does anyone know why my portrait photos look like crap all of a sudden? They are not shown properly** After arriving in the wee hours of the morning in Samarkand, we made our way to the next hotel where we were actually going to be able to get some sleep tonight! This time, I actually took a nice hot shower and climbed into my semi-comfy game. Then we had a nice breakfast before saying goodbye to this lovely hotel at 9am. Samarkand is another city on the Silk Road and its name means "sweet soil". Gur-e-Amir We walked about ten minutes from the hotel to the first stop, Gur-e-Amir, Persian for "Tomb of the King". It was constructed in 1403 for the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) and also contains the tombs of his sons, grandsons, and ... read more

Our last and final day in this beautiful country. We had breakfast (bacon and eggs!) before loading up the bus one last time. We had a three hour drive down to our last stop: Bay of Kotor. This place is probably what most people think of when they hear "Montenegro". It's like a fjord, with two large bays and narrow access to the Adriatic Sea. It is very mountainous, so the internal bay at least has one narrow road that winds between the mountains and the bay, and a few little villages dotting the coast. It was already beautiful. We had had only one short stop on the way down for a coffee for the others and bathroom break because we were on a strict schedule to make our boat ride at 11am. We had some ... read more

Early the next morning, we made our way to the local restaurant our guide sent us to have our breakfast, which was really good. We shared plates of eggs, grilled veggies and bread. After breakfast, we hit the grocery store where L and I picked up rum (pronounced room) and Coke Zero, then we all packed up, got in the bus, and drove about 1.5 minutes to the nearby clinic for our PCR test. We waited a bit, but it was small with just a couple people waiting for their turn. Then the two nurses / techs came outside and gave us our test in the fresh air. It was not my favorite test, they kept the nasal swab in there for far longer than I am used to and swabbed the mouth too - but ... read more

I have spent most of 2021 working Northwest Saudi Arabia on various projects. It's been exhausting, but the scenery is completely gorgeous. Without going into detail, here are some highlights: Al Ula - Take 1 We previously worked here back in 2019 for a mapping campaign. It was impressive and amazing to see the progress they had done since we were here. We were staying in Tabuk, but while waiting between projects, we decided to take a trip to the prettiest place in Saudi Arabia, and friendliest, to get some Moussaka. We had this every night when we mapped and missed it. First, we stopped at the Winter Park in the main part of town, hoping to get tickets to see Mada'in Saleh, since it was closed when we were working here before. Unfortunately, since it ... read more