Ember Travels

In the late 80s a striking hotel was built, jetting 17 stories above the water and situated only a few kilos outside of Dubrovnik. Hotel Belvedere was a five star oasis, boasting gorgeous views of the Aegean and Dubrovnik for the wealthy who could afford it. Just two years after opening,, Hotel Belvedair was bombed in the civil war. The structure is still standing,, all of its luxury trapped in time with blown out windows and rooms filled with remnants of an extravagant past. Being one of the most talked about and mysterious landmarks in Dubrovnik, Ruud and I decided to take a look for ourselves. Approaching the hotel, we were filled with excitement and anticipation of what we might find. It's not everyday that you get to explore a bombed building left untouched. Entering the hotel was like taking a step back into that fateful day in 1991. It was as if time merely stopped when the rest of the world kept moving. There were cassette tapes scattered on the floor, trays with wine glass...

I must admit, I am absolutely smitten with Croatia. The more time I spend here, the more attached I become. In America, Western Europe seems to be all the rage. For some reason, we are obsessed with it and tend to forget about the rest of the world when thinking about travel destinations. Any country that's not "first world" or over three hundred years old seems to immediately get crossed off the list. I'm not bashing Western Europe by any means, I believe it's a great place and has a lot of history, I'm just encouraging us to think with an open mind. It has always been a struggle for me to "fight" for Mexico and try to dispel the myths about it when the press is constantly ragging on it. I will continue to advocate Mexico and now Turkey and Croatia, two of my favorite "under dogs." If you like pristine nature, untouched coast lines and deep blue water, Croatia is the place for you. This little country was just established in 1991 when Yugo...

I must admit, one thing Greece has going for it is the ferry system. Apart from the ridiculous and inconvenient schedule, they are always punctual and spend a mere ten minutes at port unloading and reloading semi trucks, cars and passengers before they are on their way again. The Greeks don't mess around and their ferrys mean business, unlike those of Croatia.  On Sunday morning mom and I went to the port in Bari to check the ferry schedule and purchase my ticket to Croatia. The terminal was dead. Note to self: never try to get anything done in Italy on a Sunday because everything is closed.  In addition, every travel agency was closed, so I decided to buy my ticket online but the ferry line forbade me from purchasing my day-of ticket on the Internet. Panic. This was another awesome ferry schedule that only came a few times a week and if I didn't get the Sunday boat, I would have to wait until Wednesday night. Luckily, when we arrived at the port that night, the ticket window ...

Im not gonna lie, mom and I were not terribly heartbroken to be leaving Greece.  After one too many run-ins with rude Greeks, an inconvenient and incomprehensible ferry schedule and a non functioning bank card, we were ready for a change in scenery and language.  Italy has everything I need to survive-cheap coffee, cheap gelato and delicious pizza. Unfortunately, I only have twenty-four hours to bask in its goodness, then I'm Croatia bound and mom is Rome bound. Our final days in Santorini were wonderful. We rented scooters again and  zipped around the island and spent a final night with our new American friends enjoying live music at our favorite Spanish-themed cafe before our one A.M. ferry departure.  This is where the journey starts to get really interesting, and we start wishing Greece was never even placed on the map.  We decided to book a hotel 3 Km outside of the main city on Kos Island.  It looked really nice online, and we thought something out of...

You know the classic question, "if you were stranded on a desert island what would you bring?" let me give you some insider tips; air conditioning, a book in English and some snorkel gear! We got to the island at two in the morning and spent our first half hour in paradise siting in a small car waiting and wondering where our driver taking us to the hotel had vanished to. Luckily, we were accompanied by a nice Australian couple headed to the same hotel. Together we watched all the cars and people disappear. The ferry departed on it's journey to Athens, and we were left alone, in Santorini at two in the morning. Finally, mom found our driver at his second job...a car rental shop, and we were soon on our way. The next morning, we saw the view out our hotel room and realized that Santorini is merely a giant sparsely populated volcanic rock in the middle of the Aegean. We began to wonder if the beautiful Santorini seen in the postcards was a big scam. The town we are staying ...

Friday evening we boarded a huge ferry to Santorini arriving at 1am sat. Ferry was larger than our San Juan Island ferries, 9 stories high, 2 decks full of 18 wheelers & cars, the rest was like a cruise ship. We snuck into the movie theater room, laid out on 3 comfortable seats & slept. Kris woke at midnight to the unmistakeable sounds of Grey's Anatomy & watched her favorite show in the middle of the Aegean Sea!! Upon picking us up, our host drove very fast up a series of narrow switchbacks to the top of the island with Kris telling him that "it was ok if he wanted to slow down!" Sunday found us renting motor scooters, driving around the whole island, swimming at the Red Beach, saw an awesome sunset at Oia - traditional Greek cliffside town, square white houses nestled into the hillside, narrow winding road transporting people up on donkeys! Oh yeah, we're livin' the dream :)

So Em & I are on the ferry to santorini.  Hope to get in around 1-2 am. Our hotel will pick us up, thank God! Time tables are very vague, Em & I have  been very lucky so far.  Great bus system throughout the country.  Got around Istanbul fantastically. Weather in the 80 s-90s, cool breezes @night; no humidity!  Our bus ride from Ephesus was great: ac, individual tv, juice & snacks served for FREE, seats that leaned back, etc countryside looks a lot like western CO. , low hills, deciduous trees, bushes; yet Arid. Now the coast is a different story! Rocky coast with white square bldgs. Built into the hillsides forming small villages; just like in the movies!  Our biggest challenges are finding free American-like toilets, changing our money, and finding places to fill our water bottles.  Most folks think we're French or European. So we're working on our French accents Merci!  Miss news about the States. Saw Obama w/Turkish President; don'...

Coming from a country that's only a few hundred years and learning about Colorado history that only stretches back a few centuries, it's hard to imagine something eight thousand years old, or 6,000 B.C. And grasp my mind around the idea that historical figures such as the Apostle Paul used to walk the same streets. Ephesus used to be the capital of Asia back in the day. It was built and rebuilt and added on to and became one of the largest cities of it's time with a population of 200,000 before it's fall (sometime around 300 A.D.) The ruins that we visited have a main street that extends the length of the town and is just over two miles long. The city  is complete with marble roads, an underground sewage system, fountains, a library and two stadiums-one of which holds 24,000. Wow! The most shocking thing for me was seeing the architecture and layout of this ancient Roman city and comparing it to what the American Indians were building two hundred years ago. What a stark...

Traveling outside of Istanbul has shown me a completely different side of Turkey. We are staying in the small town of Selcuk which is just outside of the ancient city of Ephasus and only a few km from the coast. Here, the lifestyle is much more relaxed. There are only a few mosques and ruins mixed in with the city. The Turks spend afternoons sitting in cafes playing games, smoking and sipping on Turkish tea. Many of the eateries here have a name something like "(enter Turkish name) Restaurant and Cafe." I spent several days thinking how redundant and funny it sounded to say, "restaurant cafe." Clearly, there was no one fluent enough in English to inform these people that the second label was not necessary. Finally, after noticing certain "cafe only" places I learned the secret. The place where the Turks spend their afternoons drinking tea and playing cards are cafes...or drinks only! And restaurants serve food. I found this really interesting and such a pr...

If you ever visit Istanbul, you will notice that the skyline is scattered with unusual dome shaped structures with spires extending from each side. This typical mosque outline resembles a spaceship sandwiched between two rockets ready for blastoff...something surely from a sci-fi movie. With a population of four million and 99% Muslim, there are mosques nearly everywhere you look. Mom and I counted ten from just standing in one spot! Along with the mosques comes the five-time daily call to prayer, announced through the loud speaker attached to the spires on each mosque and many many women clad in burkas and head scarves (not sure of the official term for this). Mom and I have become really skilled in singing the call to prayer. It goes something like this, "uhhh-ahhhh-ahhhhh-uh-ohh-ayyyy" and so on. This doesn't nearly do it justice, so ask for a personal demonstration next time you see one of us! Our four days in Istanbul have been jam packed! We explored much of the cit...

Little did I know that I was about to spend nine transatlantic hours sitting in front of the single three angriest German citizens on the planet. Mom and I sat at gate B41 playing "German or American" just to pass the time until the flight. We saw the plane approaching in the distance. I was in awe. It was the most gorgeous piece of shiny white double decker ginormous airplane I had ever seen. The gray and gold letters spelling "Lufthansa" glittered in the sunlight. The excitement to fly on this colossal double decker beast known as Germany's (and possibly the worlds finest) airline was overwhelming. I spent the first hour of the flight watching a movie trying to pass the time until dinner was served. I finally just dozed off and reclined my seat. Suddenly, my chair rocketed forward and I was jolted awake. Strange. I engaged the armrest button and slowly leaned back. Again, my seat was abruptly jammed into the upright position. I turned around and was promptly s...

I haven't been on top of the time situation, so I hope you're not disappointed by my lack of countdown.  I will be boarding the plane for Istanbul in a few short hours, and I am lucky enough to have my mom joining me on my journey for the first two weeks!  The past month has been full of browsing online travel forums (Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum has saved my life many times), getting travel vaccines, memorizing airport codes and vigorously studying world geography.  The last one wasn’t so hard since my shower curtain is a map of the world.  Needless to say my obsession with maps paired with said shower curtain was probably not conducive to saving water.  Now, I have everything necessary to live stuffed into my little backpack and I am ready to embark on my new career as a nomad. When I tell people that I'm traveling the world, I get one of two responses. 1: wow, that's awesome, I've always wanted to do that, I'm jealous! Or (the critical) 2: Is that saf...