When we left Malaysia, we headed to Phuket, Thailand. This area of Thailand is a peninsula, well known for its beaches and vacationers. We chose to go here because we were able to find a very affordable Airbnb ($38/night!) within walking distance to the beach. Brennan and I both felt like we needed to stay in one place for awhile and Phuket was a great spot for that.
We arrived into the airport and took a taxi about an hour and a half to our Airbnb. It was dark by the time we arrived, but we checked in with our hosts and headed out to get some dinner. I was nervous about walking-there were no sidewalks to the restaurant. We walked on the shoulder of the road, so cars were zooming by. We easily made it up to the restaurant and ordered. Our food was delicious and so affordable! I shared a picture of the receipt-2 entrees, 2 waters, and a lemonade was 165THB. This was less than $5!
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On Sunday, October 23, we flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We chose to go to Kuala Lumpur because there was a hotel there we could use our free nights from our credit card at, as well as it being an easy flight from Singapore. Neither of us had ever been to Malaysia, so we're always trying to visit new places. Malaysia and Singapore are on the same peninsula and were one country not too long ago.
We weren’t supposed to go to Singapore after the Maldives.
Before we left for the Maldives, Brennan and I had talked about all the credit card rewards we had that were expiring at the end of the year and realized we had several nights in hotels left that we didn’t have a plan for yet. The best place to use these was in Southeast Asia. So, instead of flying to Bucharest, Romania like we originally intended, we got on a red eye flight from Male, Maldives to Singapore (with a quick layover in Kuala Lumpur). We booked a hotel in the Little India area of Singapore. While this is a little farther out of the main tourist areas, Singapore is such a geographically small city that it was very easy to get everywhere we needed to go. We had an amazing cab driver from the airport who narrated our entire drive and gave us lots of tips about things to try and places to visit while we were in town. We arrived to our hotel and were able to get to our room right away. We both really wanted to go to sleep, but knew it would be better to stay awake and keep a more regular schedule. We went and walked around the neighborhood, as well as heading to a mall so I could get a raincoat. Going to the Maldives was by far the best travel experience Brennan and I have ever had. Every single part of our time on this island amazed us.
We arrived by sea plane to the island’s dock. We were greeted with coconut water to drink and taken to our overwater bungalow on a golf cart by our personal host, Naeem. On October 11, we got off the cruise ship in the port of Rome and boarded a bus to the Rome airport. We weren’t supposed to take off on a flight until late that evening (we arrived around 9AM), but the airline employees at the counter were able to get us on the earlier flight, which was so helpful! Our flight was direct from Rome to Madrid, so when we arrived, we took a taxi to the airport hotel, and spent a few hours there before going into the city center.
Before we left Rome, Brennan had found a hot sauce store he wanted to visit in Madrid to replenish his hot sauce supply. Yes, he loves hot sauce enough that he travels with it. He found Sally Pepper and we arrived to find a tiny store, with a very knowledgeable employee. The man didn’t speak much English, but encouraged Brennan to “talk like Tarzan” so they could understand each other with his basic English skills. He was very kind and gave Brennan descriptions of each of the hot sauces, where they were from, and how hot they were. Brennan LOVED it and ended up walking out with 3 different types of hot sauce. We arrived in Athens after an unexpected day on the ship. On Thursday, we were supposed to go to Mykonos, but the ocean was rough and it was not safe to go into the port. So, we had a nice day of relaxing on the ship before we went back to Greece for our day in Athens on Friday.
We arrived in port and took a very expensive taxi into the city. We arrived at the Acropolis and joined the security line to climb up to the Parthenon. The first thing we saw was an outdoor theater, which is still used for concerts. They were setting up for one when we were there. Brennan said he remembered a CD they had when he was growing up that was recorded here. This is not a post I thought I would be writing…we went on a cruise to start out the month of October. Let me give you a little back story-when Brennan was in Wales, he called me one day and told me he had found a cruise through some rewards we had. I was hesitant until he told me we would be paying around $100 + taxes and fees for an 11 night cruise through the Mediterranean and it worked out for the dates after our time with Lauren & Melvin. At that point, I was sold. The funny thing was, it was the exact same ship we were on when we did the cruise at the beginning of the summer in Norway. So, on October 1, we made our way from central Rome to the cruise port in Civitavecchia and began looking for the Carnival Pride. We ended up on a long walk through the port that was very unnecessary, but eventually found the boarding area. It felt a little strange to be back on the same boat 3 months after we left. Beside us in the port, this large ferry was painted with Batman on one side and Wonder Woman on the other side. We got to see both sides, since we took an accidental tour through the port trying to find our boarding area. Our first two days on board were calm. We enjoyed knowing where the best spots were to work, relax, and get coffee. It was much warmer than when we did our first cruise, which was great! As we were sailing on Sunday, we went past this volcano, near the island of Stromboli. Less than a week later, there were news articles about how the volcano on Stromboli was erupting. It was very interesting to see all the water and the different colors compared to the ocean near England and Norway from the first cruise we took.
We arrived to Rome on Thursday afternoon. We walked a lot of the way from the train station to our Airbnb in Trastevere before getting on a bus, which was much faster. The whole way it looked like rain and by the time we got to the Airbnb, it started pouring. We ordered food in that night and spent the evening at the apartment.
We chose to stay in the area of Trastevere because it was our favorite part of Rome when we visited on our honeymoon. There were lots of great restaurants, bars, and since we were there for only 2 nights, we wanted to be in the area where we wanted to spend the most time. The next morning we had booked a free food walking tour in the neighborhood of Trastevere. This may be one of the best food tours we have ever been on. The tour guide went on the same food tour we have been on in New York, decided Rome needed something similar, and created it. The tour was free, but you paid for a sample (or not) at each of the stops. Everything was excellent! We sampled Italian cookies, cheese, lasagna, suppli al telefono, porchetta, and gelato. The tour was informative and everyone was friendly. We made it to Florence in the afternoon of Monday, September 26 and got started exploring right away. We found one of the main piazzas in Florence and spent some time walking around before joining a free tour around the main parts of the city. The tour guide was very informative, but had a thick Italian accent, which made it challenging to understand her. Thankfully, the scenery itself was beautiful and what I caught of the tour helped bring context to what we were looking at around us.
At some point before we left Florida, Lauren (one of my best friends from college) let me know that she and her husband Melvin were going to Italy this fall. She asked if we wanted to meet up with them and I enthusiastically said yes! Brennan and I did nearly no planning on this trip-Melvin and Lauren really let us tag along on their Italian vacation and it was amazing. We spent 5 days together in Cinque Terre (on the Western Coast) and in Florence. Italy is one of my favorite places and none of us had been to any of these cities, so it worked out great to explore them together!
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We're Brennan & MeganSince June 2022, we have been traveling to learn more about ourselves and the world around us. Categories
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