Country #61 - Cyprus

The Flights

I took a rather roundabout way to get to Cyprus but hey, it worked! The trip all the way to London was on a single family American Airlines pass so of course, it came with a few challenges. I flew out of Dallas for Huntsville as a standby passenger - it took a few tries but I finally got on a flight that landed that night. My brother, Edward, drove down from Nashville to pick me up and we went to my Grandma’s house near Huntsville to surprise her! It was so great (she was definitely surprised) and made the trip to Nashville totally worth it! I then spent the next day in Nashville with Edward and my one of my closest friends, Kat. It was a great day and loved having the day to spend with them.

My next flight was from Nashville to Philadelphia where I had a four-hour layover before flying to London. I had two seats side by side and attempted to sleep but was pretty unsuccessful. When I landed there was a thankfully short immigration line. Heathrow is totally hit or miss on this and thankfully today, when I was in a big hurry, it worked out well. I was in such a hurry to catch my National Express bus to London Luton (LTN) airport. I made the first bus with a few minutes to spare which gave me some definite breathing room.

The ride took about an hour, and as always it was sad not to be stopping in London. Transiting through your favorite city is never easy! Alas, I arrived at Luton and after waiting in a painfully long line got checked in for my Blue Air flight to Larnaca, Cyprus. Many people consider Luton to be the worst of the London airports but I will always hand Stansted that title, though Luton would be a close second place. It has been under construction since when I studied abroad and it looks exactly the same. There are also no self check-in kiosks (a rarity in a major airport) and no direct train access (there is a station ten minutes away that a shuttle runs to, so it’s not impossible). It’s also the airport I slept in when I studied abroad and got zero sleep so it’s definitely not my favorite place in the world.

I grabbed a quick snack, waited for my gate to be announced (I will never understand the logic behind not announcing gates for so long - it is the worst), and then finally waited to board. And it was a long wait. In the freezing cold. They scanned our boarding passes and then made us wait in a stairwell where the outside door was open and it was painfully cold for at least twenty minutes. After finally boarding the plane I completely lucked out - I had an entire row on the plane to myself! There were very few even empty seats on the plane so to somehow have an entire row when I most needed it was amazing. The flight was about four hours and I attempted to sleep the entire time.

When I arrived I had to take a taxi to my hotel, Palm Beach Hotel and Bungalows. The taxi was annoyingly expensive ($25) and was probably the first time in the EU that I’ve had to pay over $10 for transit thanks to the lack of many public transit options. It was unfortunately dark even though I landed around 5:30pm. The hotel was located on the beach, though, which was awesome even though I couldn’t see it! I had an incredibly nice room facing the water and was able to listen to the waves at least. The hotel room was really cool and the lobby was beautiful as well! I’d love to come back to the resort when I have time to spend a few days and relax and actually see the ocean.

It was a really long day but I was very glad to finally be able to go to sleep and get a few hours of rest before heading to Tel Aviv, Israel in the morning!

61 countries down, 135 to go.

To learn more about Palm Beach Hotel and Bungalows click here.

Country #60 - Spain

The Guggenheim

Today I visited Bilbao, Spain! You’re probably wondering why I chose Bilbao of every amazing place in Spain that there is to visit and the answer is pretty simple. I spent a week in Spain last year with my mom when she visited me during study abroad; we visited Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia, all of which I loved. However, ever since I heard about the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao it has sat at the top of my bucket list and a visit became a must. I am a huge fan of museums if you can’t tell, and especially modern art museums which the Guggenheim Bilbao is. Also, it seemed like a good idea to avoid Barcelona right now considering everything that is going on politically. So Bilbao, finally, it is!

I thankfully got a really good nights sleep before setting off for a full day in Bilbao. My first stop of the day was Catedral de Santiago. It was right near I was staying in the heart of Plaza Nueva area and was a beautiful example of gothic architecture. There was a nice audio guide that I appreciated and it was a really stunning Spanish church. From there I walked along Ria del Nervion O de Bilbao all the way to the Guggenheim. It was a beautiful walk along the water and I really enjoyed being able to see the city that way. When I arrived at the Guggenheim my jaw literally dropped. It is one of the most, if not the most, incredible buildings that I have ever seen. It is made of titanium (that’s as thin as tissue paper), stone, and glass. It is incredible and words simply cannot do it justice so please enjoy the pictures. The art outside (besides the creepy spider) was all amazing and I just so happened to walk by when the fog installation on the bridge went off which was really cool.

If I can give you any advice for visiting it would be to definitely buy your ticket ahead of time. The line outside went stretched up the long stairway entrance and down the street, but I was able to just walk right on in. Also, the ticket includes an audio guide! I took my time in the museum as it was the entire reason I was in Bilbao. And I was not disappointed. The first floor was filled with large installation pieces which I really enjoyed and will include some pictures of below. The second floor was entirely a video installation by one artist spread throughout the galleries which was really interesting. Lastly, on the third floor was the Guggenheim's permanent collection. It was a more typical gallery feel and included works by Rothko and Pollock.

I thoroughly enjoyed every floor as well as learning more about the building which is basically a sculpture in itself and was my favorite work of art on the day. It’s just such a cool building! I spent three hours in the museum and another hour outside taking pictures. I even walked up on the bridge next to it to get some better shots which I recommend if you visit. It was definitely worth travelling to see and I can now say that I have seen every Guggenheim museum (the others are in New York and Venice).

After the Guggenheim, I was starving but everything was, unfortunately, closed thanks to Siesta being an actual, annoying, thing. I get that it is a cultural thing but, speaking solely as a tourist, it is annoying to find things closed in the middle of the day. I found an ice cream place that was open at least. It wasn’t the ideal lunch situation but it was enough to hold me over until a large dinner later in the evening. After getting the ice cream I walked to Federico Moyúa Plaza which was filled with people and was just a cool spot in the center of the city to see. From there I walked to the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao. The permanent collection there is free from 6-8 so I waited ten minutes before entering and it was great!

I really enjoyed the museum because it covered all time periods, from Medieval to Modern and everything in between in sequential order. I also enjoyed my time there as it wasn’t huge but was high in quality even having works by Picasso. I spent about an hour in the museum before walking by the next door Doña Casilda de Iturrizar Park for a few minutes and then walking back across the river to Plaza Nueva for dinner. I had originally planned to take the Metro back until I realized why their streets were swarming with people - Bilbao Athletic Club (soccer team) was playing Barcelona (FCB) tonight! There were fans everywhere and I even saw an approximately ten police car long motorcade escorting the Barcelona team bus. This added to it being a Saturday meant people were everywhere! As a result, I decided to walk and people watch instead of packing into a metro. I did not see any protests due to politics the entire day and the only thing I saw on my walk were lots and lots of soccer fans and a few chants!

Plaza Nueva is basically the heart of Bilbao. It was absolutely packed. I think it is just a thing in Spain for children to run around squares at night while their parents socialize because I have seen it many times before. This one was no different other than some of the kids were wearing Halloween costumes. My favorite was definitely the little girl dressed as Iron Man; she was SO into it it was fantastic. She would try to blast everyone she saw with her hands like Iron Man does.  It was adorable.

It was a bit of a struggle to find a place to eat because ordering tapas off of the bar is a little stressful, but especially in Bilbao where English was much less common than in cities like Madrid or Barcelona. I found a sit-down restaurant on the square and only had to wait for the table for a few minutes! It was great. A French family came up and sat at the rest of my table. It wasn’t ideal because it was just a bit weird - they didn’t talk the whole time. My server told me, while they were deciding to sit down, that what they were doing was considered incredibly rude in Spain! It was weird but my food was fantastic and included some of my favorite tapas: croquetas, manchego cheese, and Iberian ham.

After dinner, I sat in Plaza Nueva for a bit and called my mom. My bus to Madrid didn’t leave until 1:00am so I had to find something to do to pass the time. I eventually found a cafe around the corner that served my favourite Spanish dessert, churros and chocolate! You dip the churros in the melted chocolate and it is as good as it sounds. I sat there for about two hours and then made my way back to my hotel to pick up my luggage and head to the bus station. I arrived about thirty minutes early and we started to board not long after. It was a four-hour ride to the Madrid airport and I slept at least two of them.

When I arrived in Madrid there was almost no one in the airport as it was 5:00am. Security was, as a result, really easy. Of course, the information boards didn’t say which gate to go to because Europe is the worst at this, but I used the American Airlines app to find out since I was flying home using a family pass. It was a long wait but I watched some TV and worked on my blog. I then had to do the new extra security screening for the first time. It’s the one that was just enacted where you have to answer questions (to the airline employees) about your travels. It was just as stupid and pointless as I thought it would be. I was asked what my occupation is and where I travelled in Spain. It was more annoying than anything else.

I got a seat on the plane even though I was low on the standby list and, excitedly, it was an exit row seat! There was nothing in front of me and I had tons of space for the entire flight. I watched two movies (The House and The Big Sick), slept for three hours, ate two meals, and worked on the blog. It was not turbulent at all and was overall a good flight back! I’m going to work in Dallas for a bit before heading out on my next trip back towards the Middle East! I had an amazing time on this trip, notably in Iceland and Spain. I highly recommend you visit both. I wish I could have done more of Spain on this trip but just know that Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia are all also amazing Spanish cities that you should definitely visit. Spain is such a unique country (or countries, depending on what happens there) and I have loved every second I have spent there!

60 countries down, 136 to go.

Country #59 - Andorra

The Dali Statue

When I landed in Barcelona from Reykjavik, Iceland, it was about 2:00am. My bus for Andorra was leaving the airport at 7:30am so it made no sense for me to try and stay in a hotel. I had read about the Barcelona airport and knew that I needed to find gate U to sleep - and luckily it was where my flight arrived! Gate U had benches without armrests making it possible to lie flat, and there were tons of other people sleeping there. It took me a while but I think I got about three hours of good sleep.

It was a bit difficult to find the bus outside as there were bus areas on both sides of the street but I eventually found it (it was described as being the bus stop near the technical block, whatever that is, but I eventually found it). I talked with my brother on the phone while I waited because I still had thirty minutes until the bus would show up. I was the only person picked up at the airport and we took the bus into the heart of Barcelona to pick up the rest of the passengers. During the ride, the iPhone X went on sale and both me and my brother tried desperately to get one ordered for me (my iPhone 6 is caput and, as the major Apple lifelong fan that I am, this is a necessity). I finally got through to T-Mobile on the phone and to my surprise, there were still some left! I was so excited! Thanks to my parents for helping on the best birthday present. Oh yeah, my birthday was last week - I turned 23!

The rest of the bus ride was through winding beautiful Spanish roads but honestly, I fell asleep because I was just so tired and the winding roads were too much to handle. The bus ride was about three and a half hours. Andorra is not in the EU (even though they are right in the middle of it) so when crossing the border police boarded the bus and checked to make sure everyone had a passport or ID but other than that they didn’t do anything. When I arrived in the heart of Andorra, Andorra la Vella, there were luckily luggage lockers right at the bus stop which was super helpful.

I immediately noticed a few things about Andorra including the emphasis on shopping, the abnormal amount of cigarette ads everywhere, and the beautiful mountains surrounding it. Weird mix, I know, but it seemed pretty accurate. I walked first to the tourist information center which was super unhelpful - I needed witness signatures and they could barely speak English which, for a tourist center in the middle of Europe, doesn’t seem too smart. I walked through a cute market along the river and in the same area found the famous Salvador Dali statue, Nobility of Time, just sitting in the street in Andorra. It’s a melting clock statue (naturally) but it was really cool to see!

I then set out further on my quest to find witness signatures - how this hasn’t been more of an issue I’m not sure but it’s definitely just a bit annoying to run into problems in countries that shouldn’t be so difficult. I asked at two different hotels which were super unhelpful and also spoke poor English. This was pretty surprising because hotels are usually a safe bet for English. The third time was the charm, though, as the super kind people at the front desk of Art Hotel helped me out as witnesses!

It was a huge relief to have that finished and I spent the next thirty minutes or so walking around town. I went to one of the buzzed-about Andorra shopping centers, Andorra 2000, and it was honestly no more than a glorified grocery store. I then walked past what was basically a giant car show and then back down the water past the cute Parc Central to eat pizza at an Italian food spot on the bank of the La Valira. It was a great and much-needed meal after only having a tiny airport croissant for breakfast.

From there I headed to the Plaça del Poble area. I walked past the strangest thing on my way - basically a fully fledged cattle show? It was bizarre and smelly and I’m still just very confused by Andorra on the whole. I made my way up a small hill to Plaça del Poble which had really good views of the surrounding mountains. I then walked past Sant Esteve d'Andorra la Vella church which was closed but still beautiful on the outside. My last stop was Casa de la Vall which was, once again, closed but, once again, beautiful and also very historic.

I made my way back down to the bus terminal where I had thirty minutes to spare before headed back to Barcelona to catch another flight. Fun fact is that during my day today Catalonia formally declared independence so technically I was kind of in a country on the day it was formed! Also then Madrid declared power like a few hours later so who knows what’s going to happen, but I got extra witnesses in Barcelona just in case it becomes its own country in the next few months or so. The bus ride back was just as winding as the first and I slept again because I was still so tired from the attempted airport sleep.

On the way out of Andorra, I asked the bus driver to stop at the border so I could get a passport stamp which is definitely a thing you can do, and it was super simple to do so! Andorra was an interesting stop but I definitely wouldn’t put it high on your list - I’d honestly probably just stick to Spain if you’re in the area unless you just want to tick off another country on your list! There are things to do just not a ton, and it is pretty but not incredible. If you’re driving nearby then give it a stop but otherwise, I don’t think it’s really worth dealing with the bus ride!

I had a really late night flight out of Barcelona to Bilbao which I will be exploring tomorrow. The flight was really short and I took the inexpensive bus from the airport to the city center and then took the Metro from the city center to where I’m staying, Bilbao Hotel Jardines. I was absolutely exhausted after not having good sleep in two days so I was really excited for a good night’s rest and fell asleep instantly.

59 countries down, 137 to go.

Country #58 - Iceland Day 3

The Blue Lagoon

This was the first time I’ve spent almost three whole days in a country (other than the US, obviously) and I’m so glad it was Iceland. Sydney had an earlier flight than me so we decided to actually walk around Reykjavik this morning before taking her to the airport. Our first stop was breakfast - we ate at Sandholt again and this time we actually sat down for the meal which was a good call because it was very tasty.

We then began our walk to the few spots in town to see. For the capital city of an entire country it is very tiny (but cute) and there is not a ton to see, though we definitely saw some of the highlights. Our first stop was Hallgrímskirkja church. You can see it from all over town and it is an incredibly unique design. The inside was very plain but there was an organ player playing the giant organ which was cool to see! From there we walked the main street, Laugavegur, where Sydney bought some gifts and I bought a wool sheep magnet (of course).

After we finished up on Laugavegur we headed to our last stop in town, Harpa. It was one of, if not the most, incredible Opera houses that I’ve ever seen. It was unlike anything architecturally I’ve seen before and the use of glass and light was really amazing to see from both the inside and out. After walking through we started the drive to the airport. It’s only about forty-five minutes from the city and Sydney was there in plenty of time for her flight. It was so great having someone join me for a stop, especially in Iceland! I think it would be really difficult (but obviously not impossible) to do Iceland on your own of every country that I’ve seen because there is so much driving, it can get really expensive, and seeing some of the coolest stuff ever it was nice to have a friend along to experience it with!

From the airport, I made my way to the infamous Blue Lagoon. I was not going to pay (almost $60 minimum) to go in the Blue Lagoon but I still wanted to see one of Iceland's most famous landmarks in person. I had three hours to kill before I needed to be back at the airport for my flight, and it was only a twenty-minute drive away. When I got there I found the cafe where I bought an orange juice and was able to sit and look out at the Lagoon from inside! It was definitely interesting, but I enjoyed walking around the other blue pools outside of the main entrance much more. You could get up close to the water which was better than watching a bunch of people swim around in basically an overpriced pool (that’s blue). I am glad that I saw the Blue Lagoon but also glad I didn’t pay to do it.

From the Blue Lagoon, I drove through some of the cool mossy rock landscape for a bit before turning back towards the airport. I drove past the airport to the coast where I found two cool lighthouses and also almost completely froze when walking to take their picture because it was so windy. I then drove on to the next town near the airport and just enjoyed driving around and seeing more of the country and especially the small towns because we saw so few of them. After a short drive back to the airport I returned the rental car with ease and was only a little early for my flight.

I’m really sad to leave Iceland and I can’t say enough good things about it. It was the coolest place that I’ve ever seen from the incredible landscapes throughout to Reynisfjara Beach, the Northern Lights, and everything in between. There is so much to see and I definitely recommend you put it towards the top of your list! And the good news is, even though I’m leaving Iceland at least I’m headed to Spain (and Andorra)!

58 countries down, 138 to go.

Read about my second day in Iceland here.

To learn more about Old Charm Reykjavik Apartments click here.

Country #58 - Iceland Day 2

The Northern Lights

Today we started the day off by pretty expectedly oversleeping. We were so tired and another long day was ahead of us so an hour late start was totally justified. We grabbed a quick breakfast to go from a place called Sandholt and then headed off towards the Golden Circle. The first thirty minutes of the drive were exactly the same as yesterday, and then we curved off towards the left to start the Golden Circle at Kerio.

Kerio is a giant crater formed by volcanic activity - basically, the magma drained out, the ground collapsed, and Kerio was born. That’s the gist of what I gathered, at least. We walked along the outside of it and it was a pretty quick stop as literally there is nothing to see other than a hole in the ground. From Kerio we drove on to our farthest point for the day, Gullfoss (another waterfall!). This one was pretty spectacular but, unlike Skógafoss yesterday, it actually reminded me a lot of Iguazu Falls. It basically felt like a mini Iguazu, but even at that, it was amazing and breathtaking. So much water was continually flowing over Gullfoss and it was so interesting to learn about the history as well. There are great views from the top and bottom of Gullfoss so I recommend you do both!

From Gullfoss, we drove maybe five minutes back up the road to Haukadalur. Haukadalur is an active system of geysers and is right next to a geyser called geyser which, uncoincidentally, is where the name geyser came from! The namesake is actually no longer active but it was really cool to see Haukadalur in action. It would explode to varying degrees and send water shooting up between every five and ten minutes. It was also enjoyable to walk around and see the smaller pools of water.

After Haukadalur we made our way to Þingvellir National Park. We didn’t spend a lot of time there because we didn’t have time to really walk through it, but at the main visitors' entrance there is an amazing view out over the park and you can also actually see the break in tectonic plates. This was our last stop for the day before dinner. There aren’t a ton of restaurants outside of Reykjavik near where we were so we had to drive back into the city. We ate at a cute place and I had an amazing and much-needed burger, fries, and garlic mayo. I finished the whole burger before Sydney was even halfway through proving definitively that she is the slowest eater I know.

After dinner, we stopped back by Old Charm to put on extra layers before driving forty-five minutes outside of the city to attempt to see the Northern Lights! We were too tired to even possibly try last night, and also yesterday there ended up being clouds that were not originally in the forecast (and clouds make the Northern Lights impossible to see). So all day today I gave an hourly cloud update and good news, the clouds never came! My hopes were definitely up after reading the forecast that we had a possibility of seeing them. This is the second time I’ve tried to see the Northern Lights, the first being when my brother visited me last year during study abroad and we walked around a frozen lake in Norway to no avail. So I was definitely hoping that this freezing lake experience would be a more positive one.

The drive out went from being in Reykjavik to being in the middle of nowhere in what felt like ten seconds. Once we were on the road driving to the lake I drove so slow because there was no one around and it was so dark I wanted to avoid driving off the side of a cliff into a lake that I couldn’t see. We found a parking spot on the side of the road and started to look. I had read that you never know when during the night that they will be active, so when we saw a faint light upon our arrival I almost didn’t believe it. It was really faint - so much so that we weren’t sure it was the Northern Lights. But within maybe five minutes tops we were positive. It was them! I was so excited!

They were so cool to watch the lights move and we took pictures for about an hour and a half (keep in mind that it’s actually freezing outside). We tried so hard to take pictures that weren’t blurry and thankfully got a few good ones! There are definitely some pretty funny bloopers, though. The Northern Lights has been at the top of my list to see for a very long time, and they definitely surpassed my expectations. Seeing the Lights, coupled with more stars than you could even imagine, just did not feel like it was even real it was so cool to see and experience.

It was another successful day in Iceland and I really don’t want to leave tomorrow. Every second was amazing because even on drives across the country I was constantly enamoured with the otherworldly views of the country. I would love to come back and spend a week (or more!) driving all over the entire country, especially since we Googled it and, square mileage wise, Iceland is smaller than the state of Alabama (so very easily doable to drive the whole thing). I had no idea that Iceland was so small because like everything else near the poles of a globe it looks so large! If you weren’t convinced after day one to visit Iceland I hope that you are now. It is truly indescribable but I hope that I’ve done it at least a little justice in the blogs!

58 countries down, 138 to go.

Read about my first day in Iceland here.

Read about my third day in Iceland here.

To learn more about Old Charm Reykjavik Apartments click here.