Travel: What It Means

Travel.

Over the past few years my travels have defined me in ways I could never expect.

I've begun to see my trips as markers along my path purely because of how much each trip has taught me -- how I changed after I studied abroad, how my perspective on solitude changed during my first real solo trip. It's taught me a different kind of self confidence, how to interact with strangers, how to be satisfied with solitude, how to be flexible, the list goes on. 

It's also taught me how to appreciate "home."

2015 was filled with Australia, Jordan, National Parks, and 17 European cities. To say the least, it was a whirlwind. When I came back, though, I made a different kind of New Years Resolution: "to grow deeper roots."

To me, that meant spending more time in New York City & deepening my roots in my faith, my relationships, my job, and my community.

It has been a beautiful year of exactly that: growing roots deep. After 8 months of limiting myself to a few domestic trips here and there, in 3 short days I embark on my first international trip of the year: Iceland. I feel that familiar sense of excitement tingling in my stomach, my wanderlust ready to burst out, my eyes already imagining incredible photographic shots, and more.

To add to the excitement even more, this trip is the first time I get to share my love for travel with my wonderful boyfriend, Caleb. We joked at the beginning of our relationship that there were different "versions" of ourselves - Party Caleb, Outdoorsy Caleb, California Amanda, Get Down to Business Amanda, and more. A beautiful part of our relationship has been discovering new sides of each other, and finally, finally...Travel Amanda gets to step into her element. And with that, I get to share an extremely important aspect of my life.

Travel on.

[1Month2Wander] STOP 5: Fjords and Snowcapped Mountains In Flam

On one hand, I’m tempted to not even write a blog post for my Norwegian fjords tour and just let the photos speak for themselves, but on the other hand, I can’t help but absolutely gush at how out of this world the experience was. A thousand thanks to my wonderful friend Kathryn whose photos essentially convinced me to do Norway to begin with. At one point I was considering just taking a train straight from Oslo to Bergen, but I’m so happy I decided to do Norway in a Nutshell instead! During the entire journey, I was able to see vast snowy landscapes, rushing icy waterfalls, and of course, fjords fjords and more fjords. Not just any fjord, my friends, oh no, we got to pass through Sognefjord, Norway’s longest and largest fjord! We even went through it’s narrowest part, which is only 980 feet across. The trip was just so breathtakingly beautiful and it was one of those moments where I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I’m really here. I can’t believe. I’m really. HERE." Even though I've continued on to other cities full of beautiful sights, I think this experience ranks #1 in terms of awe-inspiring. It was so unbelievable to see the multiple waterfalls cascading down the mountains throughout our trip, and the picture above might be one of my all-time favorites.

Now, to let the pictures speak for themselves!

Details for those of you planning on doing the trip yourself:

Norway in a Nutshell is essentially a perfectly scheduled trip from Oslo to Bergen with a variety of trains, buses, and boats in between that provide maximum scenery. Since it’s not actually a tour, there are quite a few blog posts out there that provide advice on how to do-it-yourself, but I didn’t have the time to handle all of the bookings myself and decided the convenience and peace-of-mind was worth the extra cost. After finishing the trip, I can tell you without a doubt that paying the steep price for Norway in a Nutshell was well worth it.

The Just Wanderlust blog (JW) was particularly useful for reading more details about the trip, so I recommend checking this post out. The following is a mixture of her seating advice & my post-trip opinions since I went at a different time!

Oslo to Myrdal Train (4 hours): We left at 8am, and I was running on so little sleep that I really wished I could have kept my eyes open longer – even this part of the trip was absolutely stunning. I lucked out because it had just snowed, so the scenery was a gorgeous white infinity. This portion of the trip gives you an exact train & seat assignment, but since I was traveling off-season, I was able to move over to the left-hand side to get some better pictures as recommended by JW. The train itself was very comfortable and each seat had an electrical outlet!

Myrdal to Flam Train (50 minutes): It’s an adorable old green train and while I loved the boat ride, I think this was actually my favorite because of the incredible waterfall that the train takes a pitstop at. Our first train was running with a delay, but since the majority of the passengers are from Norway in a Nutshell, our second train waited for us. JW had recommended getting a seat in the front or back of the car since the windows can be opened for better pictures. I’ll add on to that & mention that the very front of the train has a section you can stand in (between the conductor and the seating area of the first car), and you might as well go to those windows for photos!

Break in Flam: As a few blogs recommended, I bought groceries for lunch the night before in Oslo since I didn’t want to pay the steep prices for the Flam restaurants. The town itself is quite small, and I was a little too hungry and tired at this point to explore so I found a table in the information center to eat at.

Flam to Gundvagen Boat Ride (2 hours): The most anticipated part of the trip! An incredible ride through the fjords themselves. I believe JW went during peak-season, and I’m assuming her seat recommendation is due to the boat being quite crowded. For my trip, however, we were able to walk and sit pretty freely since there weren’t too many people onboard. I found that the 2nd level front was the best spot for photos – the 3rd level front unfortunately has too much boating equipment so you can only get side shots. One issue we did run into, though, was fading daylight! Doing this trip in early December meant that the sun set around 4pm, which was halfway through the boat trip (note that the schedule may change day-to-day. I wish we didn’t have the break in Flam so we could have gotten more daylight for the boat!).

Gundvagen to Voss Bus Ride (45 minutes) / Voss to Bergen Train Ride (1 hour): Sadly we did these both totally in the dark so we didn’t actually see any of the sights out the window. However, I already knew the majority of the sights were in the first section, so I wasn’t too concerned.

General Thoughts:

·      If you’re doing the trip in the winter and have the same issues with daylight, you could consider doing this trip backwards from Bergen to Oslo

·      Bring food! It will save money and you can eat at your own pace during the non-incredible portions of the trip

·      There are quite a few blogs that suggested splitting up the trip into 2-3 days, but if you’re going in the winter, like me, I don’t think this makes as much sense. I think there’s quite a bit of nature and hiking to do in Flam during the spring / summer, but I thought one day was perfect for me.

·      Consider going in the winter…AND the spring! I was so blown away by this trip and what a winter wonderland it was. However, I am 100% planning on coming back in the spring or summer because I’m sure it’s completely different. Both are such unique visions, but definitely don’t rule out the winter! I was actually quite annoyed that none of the gift shops sold any winter scenery postcards since I thought the snowy capped mountains were just so incredible.

·      Follow the herd and make friends! Chances are, there are quite a few people who are doing the whole trip, and you’ll be spending the next 12 hours together so you might as well make friends.

[1Month2Wander] Stop 1: A London Homecoming

Note: All photos in this post were taken on an iPhone, not a DSLR. 

Oh how quickly things can change! In just a few short weeks, I went from job searching to sitting in my friend Stephen's flat in London, enjoying a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. In an exciting turn of events, my social impact job search has come to a close, and I am ridiculously thrilled to start a new position in January 2016. Fortunately, this meant that for the rest of 2015, I could take advantage of my true time off by backpacking through Europe! Since I unabashedly love unnecessary hashtags, I'm calling this one #1Month2Wander because that's truly what it is. After embarking on my incredible Jordan Solo Trip, I realized I was completely capable of setting off across the world by myself, albeit with a travel group. With the encouragement of my friend Megan, blogger over at Drifting Not Aimless, I decided I was in fact going to backpack without a firm plan! Not going to lie, it has only been a few days in, and I've bounced back and forth between having mini freakouts and total zen. On one hand, I wanted to kick myself this morning when I realized that a Eurorail pass probably would have made more sense for me given the unpredictability of my travels, but it requires enough planning to anticipate the 3-4 days of shipping. Not to mention, nearly everything is just so much more expensive at the last minute! On the other hand, it's pretty awesome having total freedom over my schedule - my weeks have been in flux nonstop & I like that I'm not particularly tied down to anything at the moment. 

One thing I did know, though, was that my trip had to begin in London. Just a month ago, I was lamenting that I couldn't come back to London for Thanksgiving this year, only to discover last minute that in fact it was possible. My incredible friends Stephen & Beccy threw open their arms and welcomed me to London with literally only a week and a half's worth of notice.

Honestly, I'm so happy I decided to start my trip here! Ever since my ABCD Trip this fall (yes, yes, I'm rather behind on blogging about that...), I've been more aware of the way a trip's "flow" impacts my experience. It's been wonderful starting off a really big trip on a little bit more stable ground; a homecoming of sorts. I've already seen most of the big sights, so there's no franticness to the pace of my day. I'm here to have good conversations, get my bearings on the world, spend the day cooking American dishes for a medley of British & Canadian friends, and explore new parts of London that the tourists don't get to see. There's also the relief in being able to easily navigate the tube system myself & knowing I should stop at Boots to pick up a toothbrush or Oxford street to replace my broken boots. I love that I don't have to get fish & chips this time around (although I might), and instead Beccy and I can stop by her local Malaysian-Thai restaurant for some good curry laksa. I love that I don't need to see Big Ben for the thousandth time, and instead can spend a solid hour with Stephen at the temporary pop up British Museum of Food sampling chocolate in sound booths, sitting in massage chairs to feel what it's like to get digested, and jot down our recommendations of what a hopefully full-time exhibit should include. There's just such a feeling of comfort and familiarity that has made this such a great time already.

For that reason, all of these photos are just iPhone snapshots rather than DSLR quality photos. Bringing it back to my traveling roots and original style of blogging, really! Most of the snapshots below are of the British Museum of Food's butterfly effect room highlighting the importance of butterflies in the ecosystem for pollination. We were so impressed that they were able to build a complete rainforest atmosphere and that we could even watch a few butterflies coming out of their cocoons! The pink lighting is due to the type of lamps they had to create the environment. We literally stumbled across the exhibit, and couldn't be more thankful for it - it was only 5GBP, so I highly recommend it.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Up next? Copenhagen with Patrick! I'm going to do my best to semi-live blog my travels if I can! 

ABCD Trip Part 1: The Grand Canyon

I’ve always been a cheater when it comes to communication. I am essentially incapable of letting my photos or my words speak for themselves so I resort to doing both. That alone probably explains why I choose to blog instead of just letting this website stand as a portfolio - photos and words on their own cannot encapsulate it all, so why not combine the two? So as I begin blogging about my ABCD Trip*, I will do my very best to capture even a sliver of what this trip meant to me in terms of as many senses as I can describe! 

*Coincidentally our trip’s participants were Amanda, Benedetto, Corey, and Dana

As some of you may already know, this trip came at a time of significant transition: I’ve just finished up over 2 years in finance and am looking to shift to the social enterprise industry. As I was planning this trip with the others, I was ridiculously excited about the itinerary, but didn’t anticipate how the “flow” of the energy levels & emotions would impact me. My trip split into 3 parts: Vegas, the National Parks, and San Diego. Each one vastly different than the others. I finished up my job on a Wednesday, and less than 24 hours later was on a plane to Vegas which was perfect for a hyperactive catharsis of sorts. Over the course of two days we were running nonstop, barely sleeping, and literally dancing the night away. Then, suddenly, we were in nature nature nature for 5 straight days: the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Moab, and Zion. We were actively hiking each day, viewing grandiose creations of God, physically exhausted but mentally at peace. Finally, I was in San Diego, experiencing for the first time in a long time what it meant to have solitude lead to peace in my heart, mind, and spirit. I look back on the flow of this trip and am just so amazed by how KNOWN I am by God. We planned this trip based off of logistics, yet I can see so clearly how God's hand worked to ease me perfectly into where I needed to be in New York at this moment. Each aspect of the trip - the hyperactivity, the physical exertion, the self-confidence in accomplishment, the awe & wonder, the peace - was all what I needed to encounter. I just didn’t know it at the time. 

Enough with the misty-eyed reflections, though! Let’s talk about how epic The Grand Canyon was. After much deliberation, we opted to do the Bright Angel Trail, one of the more popular trails that descends into the canyon. There were signs all over warning us "what goes down, must come up" and that the ascension would take 2-3x as long. We slowly meandered our way to the 1.5 Mile Resthouse, taking photos every other second (mainly glamour shots of Benedetto heh...) and found a great lookout spot to eat our lunch at. The vision of the canyon are truly incredible - there's so much depth, so many layers, such an extensive amount of colors. I had originally bought my Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 wide-angle lens for my trip to Jordan and was so happy to have it with me for this trip as well! It makes a huge difference in the landscape shots.

Without a doubt, the true winner of our hike back up was Dana. Girl was storming up the canyon at a crazy pace, but making it look like she was just going for a chill walk. I, on the other hand, was merely grateful that I was passing some, but not all, of the 70 year olds on the trail. As some background, Dana & I were still getting to know each other on the trip since we hadn't hung out too many times before. It was as we were watching her fly up the steps that Corey began to spin his deception about how when I had the time, I should ask Dana to tell me more about her "condition." He convincingly started weaving a tale that Dana couldn't actually feel pain and that was why she was so good at these sorts of things. I was doubtful for sure, but coincidentally, 20 minutes before, she had told me a story of how she accidentally bruised herself doing a pretty mundane task which seemed to fit right into this issue. I started peppering him with questions (Wasn't that condition really severe? Wouldn't she be stuck at home?) , all of which he had answers to: she's really careful and has to monitor herself really closely, it used to be difficult but now she has it maintained, she eats really carefully, etc. etc. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and gave the ruse up to which I nearly pushed him off the canyon ledge. Not usually the one to fall for pranks, I had to give him credit where credit was due & we all had a solid laugh at the fake condition. Moral of the story? Dana's just a total hike killer & never believe any story that comes out of Corey's mouth.

Fortunately for us, we missed a sudden thunderstorm by about 3 minutes and managed to seek shelter in time. We were originally considering just heading back to the hotel, but instead opted to wait the rain out with some hot cocoa and try to catch the sunset from Maricopa Point. While the clouds weren't being cooperative, I have to admit that the shots came out beautifully. The amount of color & light in the horizon compensated for the lack of actual "sun." The way the light filled up & bounced off the inside canyon also made for a vastly different scene than what we saw only a few hours ago. 

One thing that we didn't fully grasp before our visit was truly how vast the Grand Canyon is. The next morning, on our way to Antelope Canyon, we got a view of it from a greater distance & just couldn't believe how it kept going and going and going. Driving around the canyon definitely added a significant amount of time to our trip, but it was well worth the views during sunrise. 

Overall, the South Rim was just a magnificent visit. A couple of tips & tricks below in case you are curious about the more minute travel details. Next up: Upper & Lower Antelope Canyon!

Learn From Our Successes and Failures!

Lodging:

• We stayed at Canyon Plaza Resort for two nights and enjoyed our stay quite a bit! We were worried we would be too spoiled since we were just coming from the ARIA in Vegas, but the room itself was very clean & spacious. We had a slight issue with our key card on the second day, but overall I would recommend it. It is within walking distance of quite a few restaurants and a quick 10-15 minute drive to the National Park.

Food: 

• We had a great learning lesson to always trust Yelp. We forgot that the world doesn’t operate like NYC where restaurants are open until 2am, so by the time we decided to get dinner at 8:30, our options were extremely limited. I voted for Pizza Hut (the safest option), but we ultimately settled on Sophie’s Mexican Kitchen. Honestly, I’m not even kidding you when I say avoid it at all costs. Our meal was essentially the equivalent of “college kids try to do taco night.” The second night we were ecstatic for Pizza Hut, and despite the long wait, it hit the spot just right after a long day of hiking. 
• For lunch, RP’s Stage Stop is a fantastic option - decently priced breakfast & lunch sandwiches. We all ordered delicious bacon-egg-and-cheese’s & lunch sandwiches to eat on the trail! All their coffee options are delicious as well. 
• Once you enter the park itself, there are quite a few Lodges with food options. While we didn’t check out any dinner menus, we made the good choice of grabbing hot chocolates & pastries as we waited for sunset.

Driving:

• The parking lots & shuttle system within the Grand Canyon is pretty useful! Unfortunately due to the downpour, the shuttle system became extremely overcrowded.
• If you are driving from the Grand Canyon to Antelope Canyon, you will need to drive through the park. I recommend leaving a large amount of time for the drive because there are some truly incredible sights along the way. Unfortunately we were on a tight time schedule and couldn’t stop as much as we wanted to!

Photography:

• In general for this entire trip, I think it would have been worth it for me to invest in a flexible gorilla tripod. There were plenty of situations that I could have taken advantage of a longer shutter speed to compensate for the large depth of fields I wanted to capture with my wide angle lens. The South Rim viewing points usually have a guard rail of some sort that would have been ideal to wrap the flexible legs around.

Want more details? Just contact me! We essentially stole most of the trip's planning from our good friend Claire & Greg and are happy to share details.