Genova, Italia

And our Italian month adventure begins. Our first stop was in Genova (Genoa), Italy for 2 nights/3days.  

Genoa is a very old port city with a bustling port even before the Romans.  Closer to the water is the "old city" area, which is medieval style with extremely narrow dark winding alleyways.  

We booked our Airbnb in the old city by the water because as every other place we have visited, the old city centers are where most tourist things are. But not in Genoa!  

Apparently, the closer you get to the water the more dangerous it is and we are pretty much on the water.  

On a Sunday afternoon walking to a restaurant for an early dinner, we quickly discovered how extremely seedy it was.  The population in this area is mostly made up of Nigerians and Arab Muslims.  By the time we had finished dinner and started walking back, it went from just very seedy to fucking scary.  There were no women on the streets at all, only men. Every one of them was staring us down and felt like they were ready to kill me and rape Lily.  It was crazy.

Thankfully we got back ok to our Airbnb, which is a beautiful rooftop apartment above all the riff-raff and stayed in for the night.  Looking down on the streets, all you saw besides men was an occasional prostitute or a woman dressed from head to toe in a burka walking very fast to her destination.  Now I can understand why Muslim women wear the burka and why they are usually accompanied by a man.

The next morning, we went out and the streets were completely different! Still scary dark and intimidating narrow alleyways everywhere.  But at least men were not staring you down as you walked by. We headed more inland away for the water to explore. Once you get past the old city center, you come into this gorgeous Italian city with 400-year-old buildings everywhere. That is was we were expecting down at the "old city center" but NO! Anyways, this area was simply gorgeous.  We would come back again, but now we know where not to stay! 

The next evening, thanks to our last creepy experience, we decided to stay in and cook instead of going out. So we got stuff for a nice salad and, of course, wine bottles. Plus, the rooftop was amazing and we figured that would be very enjoyable. 

Once back at the house, the Airbnb host offed us a traditional Genova pasta pesto tasting. He was going to make it from scratch! This was super nice,  we ended up in a home cooking class and learned how to make Genova pesto from scratch!!! We can't wait to get home to make it! Who is coming over for some Genoa style dinner? We will take reservations lol 

Anyways, the night tuned out quite nice. We made the salad with a homemade dressing Lily whipped up, the pesto pasta and the 2 bottles of wine. 

We went to the rooftop, right before sunset. Set up the tables, chairs, placemats etc and brought up all our food and drinks. We had a great evening full of delicious food, drinks, and conversation. Our host is a 23-year-old college student going for a History degree...so he had a LOT to share! 

This made our stay unforgettable and we are very grateful. Thank you to our host!!!

Thanks for reading...

L & H

Working from Europe

So far, we've written a lot about or leisure activities, but this post is going to explain how we are working remotely while traveling through Europe.  Due to the time difference, we do most of our leisure activities in the morning and early afternoon.  We work from about 3pm to 11pm local time, which was 9-5 Eastern Time.

Our cellular service provider is T-Mobile and they offer free data, texting, wifi calling, and $0.20/min calls on over cell network.  I make a lot of calls for work, so I knew I needed to have a wifi connection for the free calls.

When we booked our Airbnb places, we always made sure they have wifi and a desk or a table to work from. 

So, as you can imagine, this can be challenging in some areas. We faced our first challenge when we got to the Airbnb in Madrid. We discovered that the wifi at the Airbnb was not fast enough to handle wifi calling AT ALL.  So, the first day there was very frustrating as I had to deal with many dropped calls.  I knew I needed another solution and fast.  After a lot of research, I ended up renting a 4g wireless card for $40 for a 5-day rental.  The card was great.  I was able to connect to wifi from anywhere and the 4g card provided enough speed to be able to make and receive wifi calls from anywhere. 

The other benefit of this solution was that I could work from anywhere and I wasn't locked down to working from a hot stuffy Airbnb room.  The next day, I worked from a park in Madrid. Check our post "Madrid for 3 days" for details :)

So the solution was great but only short-term. This was going to be very expensive if I was going to rent the card for the remaining 60 days.  So, after a ton more research, we decided to return the card in Barcelona after the first 5 days and we purchased a pre-paid 4G sim card from Orange.  This prepaid card provided 9GB of 4G data for only $18.  Getting the SIM card in Spain was much cheaper than getting it in France or Italy, plus it allowed for free high-speed data roaming in most EU countries.

The 9GB was enough for about 3 weeks of use and we could recharge the card online.  We put the SIM card in Lily's phone and we used her phone's hotspot feature so that I could be connected to "wifi" in order to make and receive free calls.  This served its purpose. The only issue was that Lily couldn't use here US number at all.  

If we do travel for a long period again, I'll be sure to bring a wifi card from the US and put a prepaid SIM card in there. 

Aside from connectivity, there were some other essential pieces of equipment we brought for work. One is a Bluetooth headset with excellent noise canceling. The one I have is called "BlueParrott Noise Canceling Bluetooth Headset" and allows me to have a conversation from a busy cafe or street with almost no background noise for the listener.

Other work equipment included:  laptops, power strip, power converter and external battery for phones.

As you can see, the connectivity aspect of working remote took a little while to figure out and perfect, but what I would say it is the most difficult part about working while traveling through Europe is the discipline it requires.  

It can be difficult to stay focused when you've just arrived in a new beautiful area and you're anxious to go exploring.  If you know me, you know I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to work and I can usually stay focused under most circumstances, but there have been times when it was very difficult.  

I can say that so far, I've been able to stay focused enough to get done what was needed every day, but I don't think I was as productive as I could have been if I was working from my home office (the dining room table).

That's it for now. Sorry for the delay on posting, we will start our Italy blogs soon.  SO much to cover!!!! 

Thanks for reading.

H & L

Nice & Monaco, plus a gem beach town we found!

Flying on a budget airline from Barcelona to Nice, France was Nowhere where near the chaos of spirit back home. 

The flight was only an hour or so and the airport was easy to manage and find our way from the airport to the city. Our Airbnb wasn’t going to be ready until after 5pm and that was a challenge because we were landing around noon. So after much research, we found a site called luggagenanny.com. Basically, for 6€ you can book at a hotel space to leave your luggage for the time needed. We found the closest place to our Airbnb and dropped off our luggage. 

This was awesome! We then went to get a bite to eat. Since the weather was rainy, we looked at places nearby and found a Lebanese place with great reviews. Yes, we know...not what you eat in France...but hey, what a great find. 

This place was magnificent. The flavor of the food, the variety of the assortment of the dishes and the service was amazing. This place was so good, we can twice during our stay. 

After lunch, we walked over to a public library and Henry had to take a few business calls from the steps in front of the Library, not ideal, but it worked.  

After a bit of work, we checked into our Airbnb and headed to a restaurant nearby for drinks. In Barcelona, we went at it pretty hard so we were tired. And by 11pm we were done. 

The next day we headed down to the Nice coast.  We first checked out the city's outdoor market.   Lord these markets are so amazing!!!

After that, we went down to the sea. The views of the sea are amazing. We walked down the Promenade des Anglais. It’s a 4.5miles path that goes along the coast. We climbed up to the highest point to see the city from above. The views from the park on the top of the hill where amazing. 

Nice is a calmer city than places like Barcelona, so we just took it slow and relaxed. 

The following day we headed to Monaco. This was our last full day in the area before Italy.

On our train ride to Monaco, we stop in about 4 towns. One of these towns was  Villefranche-sur-Mer. The train station was literary above the beach. It looked great. We decided to stop on our way back from exploring Monaco. 

In Monaco, we did the touristy things like the casino and the palace. It was pleasant to walk these crazy entangle streets. The restaurants and shops in Monaco are way over the top on prices. So beforehand Henry had done research of good affordable restaurant and right at the top of Monaco, the line that crosses back into France, he found us an Italian restaurant. Lol. We were getting ready for our month in Italy lol 😉

The cook was an old-school Italian guy that owns and runs the restaurant. He was super nice, greeted us, talked in Spanish and English, explain the menu and made a few suggestions.  The meal was sooooo good! Especially after the hike up to that part of the city. 

When we left, we finish our walk around Monaco and headed back to that tiny beach town we ran into on the way in. 

When we got to Villefranche-sur-Mer, we settled in a beach bar that was playing the game between Argentina vs France. Great experience to see all these French folks all excited. Sucks for Argentina but very cool to experience the soccer passion in each country we have visited. 

The drinks were well priced and by drinks, we mean wine and beer lol. The water was refreshing and so calm. The perfect way to cool off and unwind after a hectic day walking the ups and downs of Monaco. 

Lastly, we went back to nice and had our last dinner at the same little Lebanese place we began our adventure with. What a joy!!! 

Next is Italia...stay tune!

Thanks for reading,

L & H

Barcelona

Finally after a long sunny day of beach hoping we made it to the infamous Barcelona. 

The arrival was a bit rough; it was very difficult to find our Airbnb via car since the Gothic area is mostly not accessible by car! So we had to park, walk, check-in and then drive back to the airport to return the vehicle. 

Once we headed back to the apartment from the airport, we got ready and went out for a nice dinner in the Ramblas. Like everywhere else in Spain, it consisted of tapas and wine. The beach hoping was tiring so we called it an “early night” and went to rest after dinner. 

The next day, we got up early and rented some bikes. It is very pleasant to bike in these cities. They are so bike friendly and you get to cover more than walking. We did our touristy things like going to “ La Sagrada Familia” and walked by the Roman walls that still remain today. These are pretty impressive and it is very neat to see how a city has been built around them. Barcelona is often referred to as a city that was built on a city and you see it everywhere in the old city.  If you look closely you can see where the bottom of a building might be a Roman wall, then a little further up a slightly newer building material (still probably hundreds of years old), then even higher up is a modern building.  The marks of the past can be seen all over this city. 

In the afternoon, we stumble upon an AMAZING little bar with tapas. The place is called “Zona d’Ombra,” they have a great selection of wines plus Torrija, the most delicious Spanish dessert you can ever have. Sunday night was a big day for the Spaniards. They celebrate the summer solstices and there were parties EVERYWHERE. The night went on until very late and it helped that next day was a holiday so most places were closed. We headed to a place called “La Republica” where we got to watch Colombian soccer game against Poland. From there we started bar hopping and went to a Brazilian bar where we dance the night away Samba style until we couldn’t anymore and returned to our Airbnb. 

So, as you can imagine after an intense night out our Monday turned into hangover recovery day plus work since in the USA it was not a holiday! We took it slow to recover from our hard Sunday night! J

On Tuesday, we headed to the market because how can we not go to one of the most famous markets in Europe. The market is called “La Boqueria” and it was very cool to experience. After, we headed to the famous Barcelona beaches. There was NO SHADE ANYWHERE!!!! The beaches are not sandy beaches. They are mostly rocks/pebbles.  We stop at a nice little bar called “PetitBar” which had the best sangria we had so far in Spain. After a whole morning of sun and sand, we headed back to get some work done. In the evening, we went for a late night drink to a place that had live music and was recommended by our host. The bar is called “Guzzo”. We have seen better live music, so we took off after a few drinks. The drinks were amazing, though. 

On Wednesday, we took it slow to regain some energy. From the market, we got some groceries so we could make lunch at our Airbnb. It came out great. We had a yummy cheese sandwich with a fresh salad. This was a very refreshing and needed meal. We started work early because we wanted to take off early in order to head to the magical fountains. What an amazing area to go to in the evening. The views, lighting, music, and water fountain show made it a very romantic area and just pleasant to hang out in. 

Since this was our last night and we wanted some tapas and drinks, we stopped at a little restaurant where we had very tasty eggplant with honey and a steak and a couple of glasses of Cava. Last, we stopped once again at Guzzo for a quick glass of wine and off to bed since the next morning we were heading out early on a flight to Nice, France. 

The Airbnb we stayed at was comfortable but not very clean but not as bad as the one in Madrid!!! What is it with these main cities and their lack of cleaning at homes! 

Our stay in Barcelona was wonderful, we partied, we drank, we worked and well we definitely enjoyed ourselves. 

Thanks for reading!!!

L & H

Beach Hopping on the coast of Spain

This is a small post but worth mentioning the great adventure we had. Tarragona is about 1.75 hours away from Barcelona by car. So since we had covered all of Tarragona and its surroundings and our Airbnb room wasn’t ready yet, what a better way to kill time on the coast of Spain than by BEACH HOPING all the way!!!

This was freaking mind-blowing!  We started by looking up the nearest beach, getting driving directions, finding parking free and going in. We either got into the water and hang out or in some places, if there was a bar on the beach, we got a nice glass of wine and, of course, some olives…maybe even a tapa here and there. This was so much fun! 

The highlight of the trip was when we found a secluded beach, by mistake. We had directions there on our GPS but when we got about a mile away, the road just ended and the GPS told us to park the car and walk.  Little did we know we were hiking a mountain trail that leads us to the railroad track, that leads to another trail on the coastline of this mountain that we had to hike up…I mean HIKE!!!! Then we saw down below these inlets, a few secluded beaches. The next bit of fun was hiking down into those secluded beaches. We carefully made our way down the side of the cliff and made it to these secluded gems of beaches. 

This was amazing!!!!! Like out of a movie. The scents, the air, the people, the WATER…even the vegetation was too beautiful. The pictures DO not do it justice. This is something we highly recommend to anyone that is making the trip from Tarragona to Barcelona.

Happy Monday! 

H & L

Tarragona & Surroundings

One of the longest drives we did was traveling to Tarragona from Madrid. It took about 6 hours to get to our destination. To our surprise, it was amazing! After the crazy hustle and bustle of Madrid and the crappy Airbnb we had, we arrived at the best Airbnb we have ever stayed at, in a location that was so peaceful we wished we had stayed longer. 

Our Airbnb was not in the center of Tarragona but since we had a car it didn’t matter. Our place was located in a town called “Els Pallareros” mostly composed of residential homes and supermarket stores. 

We checked in to our small apartment, which was fully equipped and had a private bathroom and its own kitchen. The place was super clean and the host welcomed us with a freshly baked cake plus some groceries like yogurts, juices, bread, coffee and tons of other supplies. THIS WAS AMAZING!!! 

Click here to book it or see it :)

The place was clean, spotless, and looked brand new. It had a closet, bed, nightstands, fireplace, small dining table, and small but fully equipped kitchen and a private bathroom. The front porch had some outdoor furniture that made it pleasant to unwind in the afternoon. This place was a 5-star. 

After arriving, we went to a nearby market to get some groceries in order to take advantage of our kitchen J. Groceries are so CHEAP in Spain. We got eggs, bread, vegetables, beans, 2 bottles of Cava, etc and the cost was under 20$! We were excited to have a cooked home meal instead of eating out or having sandwiches. 

  After we returned, Henry set up camp to work for a bit, the Internet was solid and the set up was ideal for concentrating and I got cooking. We ate this meal that tasted like heaven…the ingredients make everything so much tastier here. 

In the evening we had another great meal while working for a bit longer. Followed by a walk before heading to bed and waking up early to tour Tarragona the next day, very pleasant area for a late night stroll. 

Tarragona was very nice, here you just have to walk it and get lost in it to enjoy all it has to offer. This city used to be the capital of the Roman province and some great features. It’s by the ocean and the breeze is amazing.  There are Roman ruins all over the city including an amazing Ancient Roman Amphitheater that is by the water. Here are some pictures of our day:

The next morning before heading towards Barcelona, we were to see the other significant ruins in the area. This was a Roman-built Aqueduct that was used to bring water down to the city from the nearby river. It’s a small hike from the parking lot but it was very cool to see it from the bottom then hike up to the top and cross it. 

Tarragona although small and not too commonly visited as other cities, was definitely a great place to stay. We were able to rest and recoup for the next busy city we were visiting…Barcelona! 

As always, thanks for reading!!!

L & H 

Madrid for 3 days

Oh boy, Madrid was wonderful.

We stayed in Madrid from June so 16th to June 21st...although both the 16th and 21st do not count since we had to travel between cities. Plus the 17th, we spend it in Toledo...so we were in Madrid for 3 days 😉

Upon our arrival on the 16th, the first thing we had to do was find FREE parking (paid parking is about 40€ a day). Thankfully, we were able to find a neighborhood about 2 miles out that had free street parking. From there, we Uber into the city center and check in our Airbnb. (Uber ride 5.5€).

Our Airbnb host was not the most communicative type so we were a bit concerned. Thankfully he was there upon our arrival and although check-in instructions were not clear AT ALL, we managed to find it and check in.

In order to stay in the center of the city and not cost us a pretty penny, we were willing to forgo a bit of comfort. So we found this room, on Airbnb, it had relatively good reviews and feedback plus the price in comparison to others nearby was unbeatable. What was not mentioned was the host is a single male artist who has no idea of what cleaning means!!! The place was pretty nasty overall but the location was great and we had a roof over our heads.

Well, we suck it up and made the best of it. Now in terms of Madrid, we did the typical site seeing areas like El Palacio Real, La Plaza Mayor...and its beautiful streets...

But our favorite was "El Parque del Retiro." It's the Central Park version of Madrid. This place was amazing! It used to be a private park just for the Royalty of Spain.  It's now a public park and is absolutely beautiful.   Everything was just perfect, the gardens, the paths, the people, the animals, the scents and it on top of that it has bars and restaurants right in the center!

We loved it so much that we went twice! The 1st visit was in the early afternoon. We brought a Cava with some olives at one of the restaurants and people watched. There were people canoeing, musicians playing, and people from all kinds of different strokes of life walking around. 

This experience was so good that we managed to pick up a wireless internet card and came the next afternoon to work from the park!

The nightlife in Madrid was very fun too.  For us, it mainly consisted of going from Tapas bar to Tapas bar trying their house wine and a tapa or two, then moving on to the next one.  It was a blast, all the wines and tapas were amazing plus very decent prices! 

Madrid was a great experience. Very much "alive" all day and all night, so sleep was at its minimum...

Thanks for reading. 

H & L