Category Archives: Trip Reports

A Unique Food at McDonald’s Romania

Food, Trip Reports, ,

a poster on a wall

I’ve written a bunch of times about how I love to visit McDonald’s when visiting a new country but rarely ever eat there at home.

Food is a big part of travel but sometimes it’s nice to eat something that reminds you of home (especially the Heinz ketchup!). However, the main reason that I have to visit McDonald’s when traveling is to see if there are any menu items which are not available at home which might be unique or a variation of a local dish. Continue reading A Unique Food at McDonald’s Romania →

Should You Take Your Toddler to Oktoberfest

Travel with kids, Trip Reports,

a man drinking beer from a glassAfter writing a post based on a Fodor’s article about 10 Things Not to DO at Disney World, I felt it was fitting to finally write a little about our experience at an amazing festival (which has some rides).

Most people probably consider Munich’s Oktoberfest an event just for adults but they’d actually be wrong. Continue reading Should You Take Your Toddler to Oktoberfest →

Back to The Balkans- Day 5: Visiting A Bear Sanctuary & Getting To Bucharest

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Trip Planning: Back to The Balkans

After visiting castles and medieval towns around Transylvania, we decided to change things up a bit. Before heading to Bucharest (our final stop in Romania), we figured it would be great to visit the Libearty Bear Sanctuary.

Romania has the largest amount of brown bears in Europe and we thought it would be very interesting to get to see them and learn a little about the sanctuary.

The European brown bear is very similar to grizzly bears but are a bit smaller. The bears we visited were all rescued from some pretty awful situations and we got to hear the stories of many of them. Continue reading Back to The Balkans- Day 5: Visiting A Bear Sanctuary & Getting To Bucharest →

The Sweetest Ending To A Flight

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a heart shaped chocolate candy
Air Berlin Chocolate Heart

During our trip Back to The Balkans we flew with Air Berlin to get to/ from our destinations. Over the past couple of years we’ve flown with the airline a few times, finding award availability using our American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

If Air Berlin wasn’t a member of oneworld (making it a partner of AA) our summer trip to the Balkans and last years trip to Germany for Oktoberfest may have not even happened.

The thing about Air Berlin is that we’ve found the seats on their planes (in coach) to be some of the most uncomfortable for international flights. Continue reading The Sweetest Ending To A Flight →

One of the Narrowest Streets In Europe

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Trip Planning: Back to The Balkans

During our trip Back to The Balkans we spent a few days in Transylvania. If time was no issue I think that we could’ve spent at least a week checking out the different towns and sites in this area.

For our visit we stayed in Brasov and did day trips to a couple of different areas. While we slept in Brasov for 3 nights, we didn’t have tons of time to check out the sites around the town. However, I think we touched on the main things to do.

We had some time to wander around Brasov during the 2nd & 3rd days of our trip.

During this time we had a chance to visit a very popular and interesting site- Rope Street (Strada Sforii) one of the narrowest streets in Europe. Continue reading One of the Narrowest Streets In Europe →

Back to The Balkans- Day 4: Sighisoara & Saschiz, Romania

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Trip Planning: Back to The Balkans

After checking out some of the interesting Castles of Transylvania on Day 3 of our trip of our trip Back to The Balkans, we decided to visit the fortified city of Sighisoara which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sighisoara is around an hour and a half from Brasov (our base in Transylvania). We once again used the services of our hostel to get there and back. This saved us a lot of time and didn’t cost much more than taking the train.

After spending a few hours in Sighisoara we started to head back to Brasov. I then decided to negotiate a stop along the way with the driver. Continue reading Back to The Balkans- Day 4: Sighisoara & Saschiz, Romania →

Back to The Balkans- Days 2 & 3: On to Romania & The Castles of Transylvania

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Trip Planning: Back to The Balkans

We made it home from our trip Back to The Balkans this past Sunday evening.

It took us quite a bit of time to reach our first destination in Romania. We had a long layover of 20 Hours in Berlin before flying to Bucharest. From Bucharest we had to take a 40 minute bus ride to the train station to catch our train (about 3 hours) to Brasov, a town which would be our base for exploring Transylvania.

We had originally planned to take trains around the area to visit various towns & castles in the area. However, a couple of things made us change our decision and just go along with a (unguided) tour from our hostel. Continue reading Back to The Balkans- Days 2 & 3: On to Romania & The Castles of Transylvania →

Back to The Balkans- Day 1: 20 Hours in Berlin

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Trip Planning: Back to The Balkans

To start off our trip Back to The Balkans we had a layover of 20+ hours in Berlin. Besides spending the night at a hotel close to the airport, we also had around a half-day to wander around the city.

We had a really nice time during our visit to Berlin last September (including seeing some Amazing Art at the Berlin Wall) so we didn’t mind the time in the city.

We didn’t really arrive with much of a plan besides heading over to one museum that we missed back in September. We decided to head over to the area around Checkpoint Charlie and figure it out from there.

Here is how we spent our time: Continue reading Back to The Balkans- Day 1: 20 Hours in Berlin →

Tasty Souvenirs From Our Trip to K.C.

Food, Trip Reports, , ,

$348.65 + 71,906 Points= Trip For 3: Air, Hotel & Car Rental

Over the years our trip souvenir shopping has rapidly decreased. These days, our purchases tend to usually be some sort of little toy for Lucas.

On occassion I’ll buy a t-shirt to remember or support a place that I enjoyed visiting or some other small item if it really stands out

During our trip to the Mid-West there wasn’t really anything that caught my eye. Lucas did get a bunch of small toys but for me, the best thing to remember our trip was an edible item. Continue reading Tasty Souvenirs From Our Trip to K.C. →

Feasting At 5 Tasty K.C. BBQ Joints

Food, Trip Reports, ,

a man eating meat at a restaurant

Earlier in the summer, Kim, Lucas and I went on a Mid-West Mini Roadtrip, visiting parts of 4 states in around 5 days. (Find out all about our trip planning details here.)

One of the main purposes (and highlights) of our visit was getting to sample some of the world-famous Kansas City barbecue. With (from what I’ve read) over 100 BBQ restaurants to choose from, we had some difficult decisions to make.

All along I knew that we had to try two of the oldest and most famous of the BBQ restaurants, Arthur Bryant’s and Gates. I had first heard of them on the Travel Channel show Food Wars. Otherwise, we did a bit of reading before deciding which other places we wanted to try out.

Here is where we chowed down (in the order we visited): Continue reading Feasting At 5 Tasty K.C. BBQ Joints →