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Europe France

Paris Olympics 2024

I have loved the Olympics for as long as I can remember. It’s what drove me to try figure skating and gymnastics as a child (both unsuccessfully, I might add). I love everything about it – learning about the random sports that I didn’t know existed, the international camaraderie, the inspiring stories of overcoming the odds to make it to the world stage. The memory of the Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremonies will forever be seared into my brain. I’ve always wanted to go to experience it live, and when I found out it would be in Paris, one of my all time favorite cities, in 2024, I booked the tickets immediately!

I went through the official hospitality website for our tickets, where I selected a package that included the hotel stay and two events, along with transportation around the city. From there, I added on two more events for the time frame that we were looking at being in Paris, so we had a total of four events across three days and two nights. We minimized the time we spent in Paris that wasn’t directly related to the Olympics, although it turned out that’s what everyone was doing and it was actually really pleasant to be in the city doing the tourist activities during the time we did have!

When we weren’t at Olympic events, we did a lot of sightseeing! We went to Musée d’Orsay to get in some culture, went up to Sacre Coeur, and wandered through as much of the city as we could within the time we had. We even managed to meet up with a few friends for meals. Sam had never been to Paris before beyond spending the night in a horrible hotel near the train station after one of his connections was cancelled, so I was excited for the chance to show him how amazing the city can be.

Plus, it was all decked out for the Olympics! I loved all the signs featuring their mascot reminding guests to recycle, and the rings and logo almost everywhere you looked. The train stations had signage on the floor leading you to the lines that you needed to take to get to the venues. It was also cool to get a glimpse of some of the “behind the scenes” components – I loved the “official timekeeper” buses we passed right next to the Seine.

Our first event was Track and Field. I truly could not have picked a better event to start at. First of all, we had an awesome lineup. We had seven events: Men’s 400m semi-final, Women’s Hammer Throw final, Women’s 400m Hurdles semi-final, Men’s Long Jump final, Men’s 1500m Final, Women’s 3000m Steeplechase final, and Women’s 200m final. The night started out with a few medal ceremonies, which was cool but we couldn’t see much from the angle of our seats, and then the competition started!

Beyond the actual events that we saw, though, Track and Field is one of those events that feels like the quintessential Olympic experience. In the US, at least, it always makes primetime coverage, so it’s one that I grew up watching, and it’s also very clear who the winners and losers are. There’s not much background you need to understand it. We saw the races that my friends and family were talking about the next day. We saw Olympic records being set and races that were decided by photo finish. It was incredible.

Also, there’s something about seeing all of these sports live that lets you appreciate just what it takes to do them. Yes, I know they jump really freaking far in the long jump, but seeing the setup in person emphasizes it so much better than on TV. The hammer throw, too – watching how far those women could throw across the field was amazing. The athleticism on display was so spectacular across the board!

Before they start their attempt, the climbers all get a chance to take a look at the course and map it out in their heads, which was so fun to watch

The next morning, we headed out to an entirely different part of the city to go to our next event: Sport Climbing! Climbing was introduced as an Olympic sport in Tokyo in 2021, along with surfing and skateboarding. Of the three, I thought surfing was cool (although it was held in French Tahiti on the other side of the world for these Olympics), skateboarding was kind of lame (although they did a much better job with the venue in Paris, what I saw on TV was a lot more exciting this time around), and climbing was cooler than I expected it to be.

In Tokyo, they had it as one combined event, with three scores evenly weighted: Bouldering, which is how many short “problems” you can solve in a given time frame; Lead, which is how far you can get up a very tough course before falling; and Speed, which is a set course that climbers get up as fast as they can. Speed climbing is kind of a different entity, and there isn’t much overlap between that and the types of climbers who excel at the other two components, so they did a smart thing and separated those out in Paris. Our set of events was the Men’s Lead semi-final and the Women’s Speed final, which also included the quarterfinals and semifinals because they go just that fast.

Climbing was a great spectator sport. While the physicality is important, there’s also an element of strategy and problem solving on display, and watching the climbers back-to-back meant we could watch how different athletes approached the various sections. Also, the stakes are high – they only get one attempt, and a fall off the wall means they’re done.

And then, when we got to speed climbing… I saw it once before on TV, at the Tokyo games, but holy shit. It is unreal. That photo above this paragraph is the final times of the gold medal run for the women. Watching them scramble up that wall in under seven seconds seemed impossible. If one finger or toe missed one hold, they were out of the race.

Also, these were objectively our best seats. Setting aside that I know that from their category, their location, and their price point, we got another clue…. I ended up sitting right behind someone famous! Specifically, Chris Sharma, who I have been informed is rock climbing royalty.

Did I know who he was, when he sat in front of me? Of course not. I think climbing is cool but I don’t follow it regularly. As a matter of fact, when he first sat down, he was a little late and so I had held out a sliver of hope that maybe the seat in front of me would just be open only to have that hope dashed. And he’s reasonably tall. Which is not a trait you want in the person sitting in front of you in a crowd.

But my slight annoyance quickly turned into intrigue when a woman with a microphone came and pulled him out of the crowd to do an interview in the middle of the session. As soon as there was a break in the action, people from all over the arena were coming over to shake his hand, and get photos with him, and have him sign autographs. They were telling him how much he had inspired them. Finally, I turned to the guy on the other side of me, who clearly knew things about climbing, and I asked him.

“So, is this guy a big deal, in the climbing world?” I said.

“Yeah, he’s actually… he’s kind of the biggest deal?” he replied.

Later, when I sent a photo to a friend of mine who does follow climbing, she confirmed his name (which I’d figured out from Google but did want to verify) and told me that he was “the Brad Pitt of climbing.” Even if I couldn’t fully appreciate his level of celebrity in the moment, it was really cool to feel as though we were present for something important. To learn more about the history of what I was watching, one hastily searched famous rock climber at a time.

From there, we headed to our next event, which was Diving!

The diving arena looks extremely close to the stadium, except it’s actually a 40 minute walk away. Don’t ask how I know this.

I love watching diving on TV, but I found it a little harder to follow in real life. I’ve realized that I don’t actually know that much about what makes it good, and I really like seeing the slow motion shots and where they draw the angles over them – which, surprise, don’t feature in the live prelims of the event. It was cool to see an aquatic event, and helped add to the diversity of the types of athletic events that we saw, but I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I could have if I’d known a bit more about the sport.

From there, we headed back into the city to check out the Clubhouse 24 in Palais de Tokyo! We had access through the hospitality package, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I thought it was really cool. When we came in, they gave us a welcome snack and drink, and then we got to explore their various Olympics exhibits. We even got to meet our new fav, the Paris 2024 mascot!

Obsessed with the hat mascot
Yep, those are the anti-sex beds

Definitely worth the visit, especially if you’re an Olympic nerd like me. The food court was pretty good as well, and we grabbed dinner there. They had lots of viewing areas set up as well, but we had a long day ahead of us the next day and opted to head back to the hotel instead.

Our final event of the trip was Rhythmic Gymnastics! We went to two rounds of the Individual All-Around Qualifying. Note – only women do Rhythmic Gymnastics, and there are individual and team events.

This one hasn’t taken off as much in the US, mostly because we’re not historically very competitive at it. Of all the Olympic sports, this has always felt the most like dance to me, so I’ve always loved it. At the very least, I know what to look for, even if I don’t know the names of all the elements and the difficulty levels. And they’ve started letting them use more fun music, which makes it a lot more entertaining.

We saw them do two rounds, the ball and the hoop. They also have to compete with the ribbons and the clubs, which was the other session later in the day. Sam said he would have been happy with only one round, but I felt as though I was back in one of the dance competitions in my childhood and absolutely could have kept watching!

But alas, our time at the Olympics had come to an end. We had a few more hours to do visit a few more tourist sites, and then it was back to the airport to head to our next destination.

I had the most amazing time at the Olympics. It was, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life, and I am so beyond grateful that I got to experience it in all its glory in Paris. It was a true bucket list item for me and it managed to live up to all my expectations. Next up, Sam and I continue the journey with a flight to Vienna and then a journey back to Paris by train and the occasional bus!

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North America United States

A Year in Washington DC

It’s the anniversary of my move to Washington DC! One year ago today, Sam and I boarded a plane, each of us having checked luggage to bring just enough to be able to camp out in an apartment while we waited for our worldly possessions to be shipped across the country. We had about 15 apartment tours lined up over the next few days so that we could try to get a lease signed before I left for a week in Mexico and Sam left to visit his family for Thanksgiving. It was a real whirlwind!

Now, a year out, I am so glad to have made the leap. There were a lot of things to love about Utah. I miss a lot of our friends there, as well as the incredible feeling of living in a house that we owned – it was a bit of an adjustment back to having a landlord, although it’s nice not to have to call our own plumber when things went wrong. And the hiking and natural beauty in Utah is unparalleled. But at the same time, I had been living there for about seven years, and I was looking for a change. And I’ve loved living in DC so far!

The best change has absolutely been how walkable the city is. We sold our car in Salt Lake before we moved, and I’ve been loving the ability to go pretty much anywhere on Metro or via bus. Also, I love walking through the city. I love trying to identify the flags at the embassies and coming across new monuments. Salt Lake’s urban design is a lot more car-centric.

Related to that, we are so connected to everything. This is the first time I’ve lived east of Chicago in the United States, and it blows my mind how interconnected and close everything is on the East Coast. We’re only a few hours from Philadelphia or New York, and there are Amtrak connections all up and down the Eastern seaboard. We have three airports, two of which are international, so the amount of direct flights that are available is incredible (even if more of them are on American Airlines).

It’s still strange that the national news is essentially our local news now – a visiting dignitary or a NATO conference can disrupt traffic or close metro stations. I somehow expected the politics to impact me more. I haven’t made any friends who work in politics, which is fine by me, but it means that I have felt strangely disconnected from all of it so far. It’s always a belated realization that the street I need to go down is currently hosting the IMF or something. We’ll see if that changes.

Obsessed with the Australian embassy’s Christmas display

What I love about it being the seat of government, of course, is our proximity to the embassies. I have gone on a lot of trips lately that have required visas. When I went to Djibouti in January, the evisa wasn’t working for me and it was a game changer to be able to show up live and get help applying for a tourist visa in person. I’ve had something of a marathon of visa applications for the trip I’m currently on. It gave me options – for one of them, going to the consulate was just up the road and meant I could get the visa in advance instead of doing it on arrival, so I could carry less cash and have one less that I had to worry about at a border.

The Smithsonian museums are incredible as well. They are world class cultural institutions, and they’re free. It means there are more options of what to go do on the weekends and what to show visitors. I’ve made it a goal to go to all of the Smithsonian museums here, which is definitely a marathon and not a sprint, because it is possible to get museum’d out.

This is the first time I’ve moved to a city where I’ve actually known people. The other times I’ve moved as an adult – to Chicago for school, to SLC for my first job, and to a lesser degree, to Copenhagen and Strasbourg for temporary educational opportunities – I’ve known no one. Moving with Sam obviously made a huge difference, and it was nice to actually have a bit of a network out here already.

The types of people who are interested in moving to DC are more of my type of people as well. While I made amazing friends in Utah, the type of person who would move to Utah as an adult was often so outdoorsy that we had little in common as far as hobbies go. Sam and I once went to a party where every single other person we met did backcountry skiing. The DC vibe is more internationally minded, and more interested in indie movies or trying a new restaurant than hiking a 14er.

Our one snowstorm in DC last winter. It shut down the city for about three days.
It’s wild to see historical places casually?

DC isn’t perfect. No place is, because life is messy and unpredictable and there will always be stressors. But I’ve had a pretty great first year here. It’s impossible to know what the future holds, but at least for now, my future is here in DC!

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Belgium Europe France Germany Luxembourg

Day Trips From Luxembourg, Ranked

In three days, Sam and I went to the adjacent regions of three different countries as day trips from Luxembourg. It’s the kind of thing that makes me marvel at both the distances and the transportation networks across Europe – coming from the Western US, you can’t even have a similar experience in US states, let alone different countries. It was a great start to the trip and I would recommend any of these destinations, but part of why I keep up this website is to reflect on my own experiences, so here goes.

Third Place: Metz, France

Full disclosure, we weren’t even planning on going to Metz because I’d made this exact same calculation when I was planning this trip based on travel blogs. But the universe had other plans, and instead of the nice, 2.5 hour nonstop train ride from Paris to Luxembourg, we had a stop in Metz and then another stop in Thionville and then a bus ride, and we wanted to have dinner with Sam’s friend in Paris. So we did a stopover in Metz. I was glad to get the chance to explore it a bit before we headed up to Luxembourg City. Perhaps ranking it last is unfair of me, because we only gave it about a half day, which was the least amount of time of any of these places, but I’m also not entirely sure what we would have done with the other half day.

Pros: It’s very convenient, only an hour by transit even if there’s no rail and you have to do a bus bridge. Cheaper than Luxembourg. French food, and in particular, French bread. Charming, small Old Town with a few cool old churches and castles.

Second Place: Namur, Belgium

Namur was my top choice for a day trip, because I really wanted to visit the French part of Belgium – when Alan and I went to Antwerp, we stayed pretty north, and I was interested in going to a new region. I compared Namur, Liège, and Dinant, and Namur had by far the best train connections to Luxembourg. Still, I am going to ding this one in the rankings because of how far it was. Two hours by train was the scheduled time, and it ended up taking us closer to three to get there because our train broke down and we had to get off at the platform and wait for the next one.

My phone informs me that our unintended transfer point was Libramont

Still, despite that strange start to the morning, I really enjoyed Namur. We were there during some sort of food truck festival, which made for a fun lunch.

The best thing we did was take the cable car up to the Citadel. The views were amazing, we had a lovely walk down the hill, and we even found the golden turtle that functions as a de facto symbol of the city, which was something I had wanted to see! We also headed to the Félicien Rops museum, who was billed as Belgium’s most controversial painter. After seeing the room in the museum entitled “Eroticism and Satanism,” I can see why.

Pros: I think the Wallonia region is the most culturally interesting of the three day trips, especially if you’ve traveled to the Flanders region of Belgium in the past. The linguistic division of Belgium is something that we talked about in French class, and the way that my travel has worked out, it was easier to come to Namur from Luxembourg than it was to visit Wallonia when I was in Antwerp and Ghent. There were some solid museum options and we definitely could have spent more time up in the area with the citadel, as they had built that area up more for tourists.

First Place: Trier, Germany

Trier wins because of its Roman ruins and because of its proximity to Luxembourg City. Only an hour away, and it is seriously dense with options of what to do. We started at their symbol of the city, the Porta Nigra, which was an old Roman gate. Fun fact, part of the reason it was preserved so well is because a Greek monk started living in it to get away from society. We also made it to the Roman baths, which were over a larger site with a subterranean portion, and there was an amphitheater nearby that we could have gone to if we hadn’t wanted to eat dinner before our train back.

We also headed to the Karl Marx house, which was a well done museum that read like a cautionary tale – what if you really like philosophy and you think that workers should have a few rights, and then a bunch of politicians decide to take your life’s work and use it to justify a lot of terrible things, like genocide or imprisoning people in Siberia? Pretty rough, if you ask me.

We also had a chance to explore some of the city center, which was beautiful and had a few plaques to commemorate history that Sam had to translate for me, including a very old pharmacy. Sam also found us a potato restaurant for dinner, which for me is the peak German food experience!

Pros: Between the short distance and the German rail system, this was definitely the easiest, logistically. I also think it’s the best option for history lovers, between the Roman ruins and all the other historical sites spread out across the city. Trier has the oldest bridge in Germany, dating back to the 2nd century, and somehow it’s still both standing and in use.

Regardless, all three were excellent and I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong here. We went every direction from Luxembourg City and found something cool – north to Vianden, east to Trier, south to Metz, and west to Namur (well, northwest, but we’ll still count it). It sits really well at the crossroads of a lot of interesting places, and it was the perfect way to start out this trip. Once we were done in Luxembourg, we headed back to Paris to start the main event: the Olympics!

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Europe Luxembourg

The Castles of Luxembourg

For the summer of 2024, most of my travel plans revolved around one thing: the Paris Olympics! I got an ad for their hospitality packages last year and was immediately sold. I’ve always loved the Olympics, and it has been on my bucket list to go experience one in person. This year, it was being hosted in one of my favorite cities in the world. Sam decided to join me and we planned out a two week trip around it. We started in Luxembourg!

That might sound random, but Luxembourg usually has easy train connections to Paris, and it’s one of the countries that I hadn’t been to yet in Europe. Unfortunately the theme of this trip seemed to be construction work on the trains that we needed to take, so it wasn’t quite as straightforward as I planned, but it ended up being a great place to start our journey. While it’s on the expensive side, it is clean, beautiful, and central to a lot of cool day trips in this region of Europe. We were well acquainted with their train station by the end of the trip!

Once we arrived in Luxembourg and dropped off our bags, we headed into the city! I wanted to start along the walls of the Old City, where I knew we could see the most iconic view of Luxembourg. We walked along to the Casemates and then headed into the city to find a museum and dinner.

We headed to the Natural History and Art Museum, which gave us a nice overview of Luxembourg’s art and culture. Most of the exhibits about Luxembourg were focused on what is unique about it vs. what it gets from the other cultures around it, since it sits at a crossroads between several larger powers. I’ve seen it put in the regional “BeNeLux” category with Belgium and the Netherlands, and it does feel different from both of them – richer, certainly, and it has the sense of being the textbook example of a European fairy tale city. This feeling only intensified when we left the capital city.

One of the days, we spent the morning traveling north to Vianden! Fun fact about Luxembourg, the public transit is entirely free within the country. When you’re traveling to one of the nearby towns just outside of the border, it’s subsidized so that you’re only paying for the portion once you leave Luxembourg. It made it super easy for us to get on a train and then a bus to Vianden.

From the minute you arrive, you can see Vianden Castle on the hill. It’s a pretty magnificent sight! The bus, of course, dropped us off all the way on the other side of town, and I was a little worried it was going to be steep hike up to the entrance, but the walk through the town is a gradual uphill the whole way. It was nice getting a chance to see the town as we made our way to the castle. I would have liked to have breakfast in Vianden, but there was only one café that was open and it seemed to be mostly in a hotel, so we had opted for a breakfast in the Luxembourg train station instead.

Once we got to the top of the hill, Vianden Castle was really cool. They had a great section on the history of the castle, including the restoration efforts, which were only started in the 1960s after the castle had stood in ruins for decades. There were also some nice views of the countryside from the castle grounds!

In my opinion, Luxembourg is underrated. It is a bit pricier than its neighbors, but it was so well-situated within the region, and everything we saw there felt like a quintessential, perfect fairy tale location. There isn’t a ton to do in Luxembourg City itself, but exploring more of the country and the surrounding areas meant we easily filled three and a half days in the area and could have spent more time there. Next up, the day trips we took to France, Germany, and Belgium!

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North America United States

Stopover in Detroit

It’s wild that after all the time I spent living and traveling through the Midwest, I never made it to Michigan. On my way back from Washington Island, I decided it was time to change that! I took a flight path that took me through Detroit and had one full day there.

I didn’t have a particularly ambitious itinerary for my visit. I wanted to go to the Motown Museum, but it was closed the day I was there. Instead, I explored the city center. Detroit is such an interesting city – for probably 50 or 60 years, it was thriving due to the automotive industry, but when the industry left, it felt into decline and for a while, Detroit considered the most dangerous city in America. Lately, there’s been somewhat of a resurgence. Definitely not back to where they were prior to going through urban blight, but there has been a concerted effort to improve the city and bring back more cultural institutions.

Part of how this manifests is through street art and outdoor spaces. There are a lot of monuments and murals throughout downtown, and there seem to be a lot of new parks or spaces for bars and restaurants to serve outside. It seemed to me as if some of that was working – while there were areas where I didn’t see anyone else out walking, there were a few streets that had a lot of residents out and about.

Canada is just on the other side of the river, although I didn’t cross over. I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly interesting to see on the Canadian side. I wanted to walk along the Riverwalk, which is meant to be pleasant, but it was closed off for some sort of event.

The main goal, besides exploring the city a bit, was to get Detroit style pizza! I ended up meeting a friend for dinner and trying it. I love that it was invented as a way to reuse the automotive plant parts, and I thought the end result was absolutely delicious.

I came away wishing I’d had a little more time in Detroit! I had a nice time exploring, but I didn’t get to go to any of the museums or anything, and it felt like the city had more to offer. I love seeing cities that are working to change negative perceptions – from what I could tell, Detroit is doing an amazing job to work on rebuilding itself after the deindustrialization that happened in the 70s and 80s. I would definitely be interested in going back.

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North America United States

Washington Island Weekend

This is the year that I turn 30. To celebrate, my high school friends and I did a mini-reunion where we all went up to Washington Island together! One of my friends arranged for us to borrow her aunt’s cabin for a long weekend. Washington Island is a tiny island off the tip of Door County, which is that long skinny tip of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan. We flew into Milwaukee and rented a car, and after about a four hour drive, we had to take a ferry to get to the island. Also, a note about the Milwaukee airport: they have a section officially labeled the “recombobulation area” after security, which I found charming and delightful.

Door County is adorable! It feels like the Midwest’s answer to Cape Cod, with boutique shops and local produce off the side of the road. We had stocked up on groceries and each of us brought a craft to teach the rest of the group, so we were ready to have a relaxed weekend of spending time together and exploring a bit of the island.

The main sites of Washington Island, in no particular order:

The local Norwegian-style stavkirke. Fun fact, there are only 9 of these in the United States – most are in northern US in areas that had a large number of Scandinavian immigrants, but one of them is in Epcot in the Norwegian pavilion. So I’ve now seen two of the nine in the US, I suppose.

The lavender farm. For an extra fee, you can pick a bouquet of lavender, which we did, and then they have a café with a bunch of foods that incorporate lavender. The lemonade was excellent!

Schoolhouse Beach. No sand, just rocks! We swam in the lake, which was chilly but doable.

Nelson’s Hall Bitters Pub. I’m going to link to the Atlas Obscura entry here, because their description is pretty thorough, but basically it is the oldest continuously-operating tavern in Wisconsin. Founded in 1899, it managed to survive Prohibition by “prescribing” bitters, which was challenged in court and won. Nowadays, if you do a shot of bitters, you get a card that you sign and stamp with your thumb declaring you a true islander! I wouldn’t do the shot of bitters again but it was a fun night out.

Last view from the ferry 🙁

Washington Island was amazing. I cannot recommend it highly enough. We had such a good time exploring the island, and when we weren’t out picking lavender, we were learning how to knit and embroider and basket weave together. I also saw my very first fireflies, which was magical! I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a cool destination in the US.

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North America United States

Shenandoah National Park

Moving from Salt Lake City to DC, I did wonder if I would be able to find good hiking and outdoorsy activities out east. While I stand by the statement that Salt Lake is the best place in the country if you are outdoorsy but also want to live in close proximity to a city, it was fun to explore our closest national park: Shenandoah!

Our friend Chelsea came into town and the three of us headed there for a weekend in June. This isn’t necessarily the time of year I would recommend, as it was brutally hot in the afternoons. We did a couple hikes but we made sure to get up bright and early so that we could beat the heat as much as possible. While I would have preferred a slightly later wake up time, it was beautiful to see the sun rise over the mountains.

The hikes were nice – mostly wooded trails, with a few rocky sections, and a nice payoff of views out over the landscape. We also saw quite a few deer and some raccoons (which, incidentally, is the first time I’ve seen them in the wild. I often heard them rattling around in the trash cans of my college campus but they were concealed).

We spent one of our afternoons avoiding the heat in Luray Caverns, which is a massive cave system in that area of Virginia. The rock formations were incredible! There was one section, called Dream Lake, with a perfect mirrored illusion reflecting the stalactites in the water, and it felt like something straight out of a fairy tale. They also had a pipe organ set up in the cavern near the end that was attached to the stalactites, and we got to watch them play music on it, which was a pretty cool way to end the visit.

The one thing I would say about Luray Caverns is that I struggled with the fact that it was privately owned and operated, instead of being managed by the National Park Service, like the caves I’ve been in up to this point in the US. It felt wildly commercialized, and I’m much more interested in spreading a message of conservation and education – some of the behavior that was allowed in the caves, like throwing coins in the water, was absolutely shocking to me. I would still recommend visiting, because the cave system was amazing, but it is something to be mindful of.

All in all, it was a great weekend trip from DC! Once we rented a car, it was easy to get to, with good hiking and activities, as well as nice local restaurants in the small towns surrounding the park. I would definitely go back. Hopefully on my next visit, the weather is a little cooler!

Categories
Canada North America

Memorial Day in Montreal

Once I returned from Nepal, I looked at the calendar and realized we had a long weekend coming up. I asked Sam if he wanted to go somewhere for Memorial Day, and after looking at flights, we decided to head to a destination that both of us had wanted to explore for a long time: Montreal!

It’s not a long flight from DC, either. Only about two hours to get to somewhere with a pretty unique vibe. Montreal definitely feels like a North American city, but it does have a certain European flair, from the coffeeshops and cute walkable neighborhoods. It’s also got a great food scene, which I didn’t really realize going into this weekend – we had amazing food for every meal!

One of our best meals was very serendipitous – Sam had heard of a specific bakery, and we went there to check it out. As we ordered our pastries and chatted with the man working behind the counter, it turned out that he had worked for a different subsidiary of our same company. He asked if we had figured out our dinner plans, and ended up helping us make reservations at this pasta place that was fantastic. Our seats overlooked the kitchen and it was so fun to see them make the food as we had our meal!

We also checked out several museums while we were there. We learned about the history, saw the old sewer, and explored the art scene. We also went in the Biodome, which was one of the more interesting zoos I’ve been to lately – each section was its own habitat, with open areas for the animals that made it feel a little more like how they would live in the wild than most zoos manage.

I wanted to check out the Olympic Stadium, which was hosting some sort of music festival when we were in the area. There wasn’t much to see, but they did have a small exhibit on the history of the games in Montreal.

And of course, we couldn’t leave without trying both of the Montreal specialties: bagels and poutine! Both classics, and it was fun exploring the neighborhoods that were full of cafés competing to offer the best Montreal bagel.

One of our morning outings was to the titular Mont Royal, where the name Montreal came from. I’m not sure I’d call it a “mountain” but we took a bus up and had great views overlooking the city. There were a lot of paths crisscrossing around and we saw plenty of people who were there to run and bike. Definitely worth a visit, especially if it isn’t as hot out and you want to spend some time outdoors.

My biggest takeaway: I loved Montreal. It felt very livable, with a lot of nice neighborhoods to explore and enough amazing food options that you would never run out of restaurants to try. I would definitely be interested in returning, and I’m excited to explore more of Quebec now that I live so close!

Categories
Asia Nepal

Stopover in Kathmandu

This time, Chelsea and I managed to sit on the correct side on the flight between Paro and Kathmandu. And wow! The views were spectacular. I think this is the best window view I’ve ever gotten on a plane, full stop. We got to see the Himalayas up close, and the pilot came on over the announcements and pointed out various significant peaks, including Everest. I read Into Thin Air at a formative age and have a great degree of respect for the Himalayas, so it’s always been a dream of mine to see Mount Everest from a nice safe distance.

Kathmandu has a very different vibe from anywhere in Bhutan – it’s a lot more populous and a lot more chaotic! The most similar place I’ve been would probably be Hanoi, and the skills I learned trying to cross the street there came in handy in Kathmandu. We made our way to our accommodation, which thankfully let us check in even though it was mid-morning.

Once we had stored our luggage and gotten our lives together a bit, we headed out to explore the city. We wandered around Thamel for a bit, got lunch, and spent a portion of the afternoon in the Garden of Dreams, reading and going through the various exhibits in the surrounding buildings. Our first lunch was fantastic – in general, I was very impressed with the food in Nepal. It didn’t hurt that we had mostly had buffet food in Bhutan as part of the tour, which wasn’t bad but was also…. just fine. I also had never had momos before! The Nepalese place that Sam and I used to get takeout from never had vegetarian ones, so I tried those for the first time on this trip and they were incredible.

The next day, we headed to two of the three Durbar Squares around Kathmandu Valley! These are royal squares, and they’re UNESCO sites that have some of the architecture from previous kingdoms that used to rule Nepal. A lot of the buildings were damaged in 2015, and you could still see some areas that had fault lines or damage, but I was impressed how much of it had been rebuilt. We went through a few exhibits in the one in Kathmandu, which had a pretty comprehensive history of how they transitioned into their current form of government. I didn’t realize how recently they transitioned to democracy.

From there, we headed out to Bhaktapur, which has one of the other Durbar Squares! We took a taxi there and back, which was pretty straightforward, and then we just wandered around. If you want a guide, there are a lot of people around who offered to take us around for money. There were lots of markets and restaurants as well. We only had a half day here, because Chelsea’s next tour had a meeting and dinner that evening, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip out from the Kathmandu city center.

I knew this was going to be a short time to explore Kathmandu, because it was really just a stopover and I had to fly home so I could get back to work, but I was still disappointed to have to leave so soon! I really liked Kathmandu. I have a few other places I would love to see in Nepal as well, and I will need to figure out a way to get back here again.

It’s a long series of flights out there from the US, but definitely worth a visit. Looking forward to my next trip to Nepal!

Categories
Asia Bhutan

Hiking to Tiger’s Nest

If you’ve ever seen any pictures of Bhutan, there’s a very good chance it’s been a picture of Paro Taktsang, aka Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It’s probably the most famous building in the country. Most itineraries place it on the final day, making it a sort of grand finale to a trip to Bhutan! The monastery is only accessible by hiking, which is a 3.5 mile out and back trail with an elevation gain of 1,948 feet. Alltrails considers it to be a hard hike, which is mostly from the elevation and the sheer number of stairs.

The start of the stairs!

We woke up very early so we could get started before the sun got too hot. This was the right call – it was a lot less busy when we were hiking up, and by the time we were heading down, the trail was crowded and it was getting quite warm. We had our packed lunches from the hotel. The hike started with a short flat walk through the woods, and then we came around a corner to start the stairs.

From there, the hike was a lot of stairs! The halfway point, more or less, is the café. One of the wildest things is how far away the temple still is when you’re at the café – the picture below hopefully captures the scale. Still, the stop to eat a little and get some coffee helps a lot psychologically, even if it’s right back to more stairs. At some point, you get to the end of the stairs and it flattens out for a bit.

The most amazing moment of the whole hike is when you round the corner and the monastery comes into view! After marveling at it, and taking all the pictures you could want, there are two more sets of stairs. The worst is the staircase going down, because you know you have to immediately go back up again to actually get to the temple.

Touring the monastery was a great reward for the hike. We’ve seen a lot of cool Bhutanese architecture while we’ve been here, so it wasn’t especially different from the dzongs and temples in other places, but we appreciated it more here after the effort it took to get here! The hike down wasn’t too bad either, because after the one staircase up, it’s all downhill. We had a relaxed afternoon and then a cultural show with dinner, and then the next morning we all headed out for our international flights to our next destinations.

And that’s a wrap on Bhutan! It’s a fascinating place. Years of isolation from the rest of the world has left Bhutan with a truly unique culture, and I’m glad I had the chance to learn more about it.