Cyprus: Birthday Celebration

Our second day in Paphos was my birthday, so I chose activities that I would especially enjoy. We started off our day with a visit to the Local Ethnographic Mueum of Geroskipou. I enjoy learning about crafts and handiwork unique to new places. At this museum, we learned about the importance of pottery and silk. The museum was quite small, but free to visit. It is located in an old home, so it was neat to see the various rooms and imagine what they would have been used for in the past. 

Down the street from the museum was the main square. Our taxi driver recommended visiting it to see the church. Due to Greek influence, they have Orthodox churches which have very elaborate images of saints inside. We visited the inside of this church, but opted not to take any photos to respect the woman inside who was praying. 

Outside in the square was the first time I have seen poinsettias planted in the ground. Previously, I have only seen them in pots around Christmas time. 

Found some street art!

After returning to the hotel, we stopped by the café to grab coffee and snacks. I indulged with some chocolate mousse and Charles tried a Cypriot coffee. From my research, it is similar to Turkish coffee.

Cyprus is well-known for having cats all over the place! They were introduced to the island for pest control. They are well-taken care of and very friendly. Every day we were able to find at least one to say hello to. Of course seeing black cats made me extra happy!

After our spa treatment (heavenly), we returned to the room to find a sweet surprise from the hotel staff. The other surprise was that the dinner theme was Italian! 

Innsbruck, Austria

The next leg of our December getaway was to Innsbruck, Austria. Each time I visit Austria I fall more in love. 

Innsbruck has a myriad of markets scattered around the town. We visited in the evening and, because it was midweek, it was not super crowded. We enjoyed the sparkling lights and holiday spirit. 

One of the market streets is dedicated to fairy tales which was one of my favorite parts! 

Gluhwein, of course! The vendors had a variety of mugs from different years. I liked this mug, but it was from 2019 so we didn't keep it. 

Innsbruck is home to Swarovski crystal, so a Swarovski crystal tree is the centerpiece of this market. 

I love, love, love folk art so when I saw there was a folk art museum in Innsbruck I added it to our itinerary. I am just so impressed with how people took everyday objects and made them beautiful. 

The folk art museum is connected to the Hofkirche, so we visited that, too. Just a little tip (because we were confused), to visit both you'll need the combo ticket. The regular ticket only allows you into the Hofkirche. You cannot buy a ticket just to the folk art museum. 

The hands down best part of visiting Innsbruck was our hotel! We stayed at DasMEI which was located just outside of Innsbruck in a town called Mutters. This is the view from our room!!! I was ready to move in and never leave. The breakfast buffet was delicious. Parking was free and the tram stop was just up the road for an easy trip into Innsbruck. 

Our room overlooked the nearby town called Natters. This is the church we could see from our balcony.

Strolling around European towns and seeing the variety of churches never gets old. This is the church in Mutters.

Faroe Islands

Have you ever heard of the Faroe Islands? Until about a year ago, I had never heard of this small country situated between Scotland and Iceland. My husband revealed that it had been on his travel wish list from before we even met. It struck me as funny that it took about 17 years before he let me in on this long held desire. 

We visited in September which is at the end of the ideal travel season. I was anticipating dreary, rainy days. Upon arrival, it was a little misty and grey. But we lucked out with some amazingly beautiful days, too!

Fishing accounts for about 97% of exports for the Faroe Islands. Needless to say, boats are plentiful around the islands. 

The Nix, represented here as a horse, is a fascinating tale from Faroese legend. It lives in the lakes of the Faroe Islands lures people to him and then drags them into the water to meet their end. But if you shout his name, he loses his power and you will live. 

If you know me at all, you probably know that I love church pictures. Charles and I jokingly said that we should create a book of all the churches on the Faroe Islands. We tried to capture as many as we could, but we definitely missed several. 

I also love ruins. These were beautiful!

One of our days was spent with a guide hiking up to a tiny little light house. The area around the light house was used in the filming of the most recent James Bond movie. Charles and I are not James Bond fans, so that part didn't really matter to us. But it was beautiful! 

The seal woman statue represents another legend from the Faroe Islands. I cannot do the story justice, so please go read it for yourself. The more I travel around Europe and hear local folklore, the more I wonder why Hollywood keeps making the same movies over and over. These legends would make really great films.

This church was in the town where our Airbnb was located. It was sunny in this part most of the time we stayed.

Our Airbnb! This place was fantastic! The views alone were worth staying here and the house was cozy and well stocked with everything we needed for our stay. 

The Airbnb was located on a sheep farm and we were allowed to wander around the fields. We made friends with several sheep. 

Hanging out with the sheep was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

The art museum in the capital was really neat! 

And because I can, a couple more churches to end our trip! 

The Faroe Islands were beautiful and peaceful. I am so glad that Charles made it a priority to visit. If you have a chance, please go! You will not regret it. 

Monaco

Another goal of our trip to Provence in France was to check off Monaco. Monaco is a very small country not too far from Nice. It was so pretty to walk around, even on an overcast afternoon. 

Can you believe this building is the ocean museum? You have to see the inside, too! I did not take any interior pictures, but the lobby and some of the areas had amazing architectural details. It was so impressive. We enjoyed visiting the museum and seeing all the fish and sea creatures. Plus their gift shop was top notch! They had an amazing selection of home decor and souvenirs. 

Can you visit Monaco without picking out your yacht??? 

Nice, France

A top trip on my bucket list was the Provence region of France in the summer to see the lavender fields. We began our trip by flying into Nice and spending probably less than 24 hours in the city. It was not enough, but such is life! 

If you have followed any of my trips, you'll see a theme of church pictures. We could see this one from our hotel (Holiday Inn Nice).

We booked a walking tour through Airbnb (highly recommend) which brought us to this really great overlook of the Nice coastline. The beach is very rocky (apparently it's covering black sand) and we did not spend any time by the water except to walk along the promenade. But it was lovely to look at!

One thing I really appreciated and loved about our tour guide was he made a point to take pictures for all of us! 

It was very hot during our visit (it was mid-July after all!) and walking by this fountain was like a natural air conditioner. It felt so nice.

We visited this museum at the end of our trip to kill some time before heading to the airport to fly home. Neither of us were familiar with the artist so it was neat to learn something new. The museum had some amazing stained glass and mosaic installations. 

The Nice airport has a food vendor with a super cute logo. We enjoyed iced coffees and a cookie to share before jetting home. A sweet way to end a lovely trip. Stay tuned for more about the rest of our trip to include Monaco and small town Provence. 

Day trip to Plovdiv, Bulgaria

When visiting Sofia, there are a couple popular day trips to choose between. One is to the Rila Monastery and the other is to Bulgaria's second largest city, Plovdiv. It was a tough decision between the two because we only had one day to dedicate to a side trip, but in the end we chose Plovdiv.

We booked a guided tour which left Sofia in the morning. We rode a van with five other tourists to Plovdiv which is about two hours from Sofia. We saw tons of sunflower fields on the drive! It would have made for some great photo opportunities if you were driving yourself. 

Our guide did not have us introduce ourselves to each other, so I am not quite sure where everyone was visiting from. We found out toward the end that one couple lives in Italy. I think another couple was Italian, as well. But the lady that sat next to me in the van was quiet the whole time. I never heard her speak. It was a little odd spending a good chunk of the day with a group and knowing almost nothing about them. 

This building is now a post office, but its roots are from the Communist era (if that wasn't obvious from the style).

The city has unearthed a lot of Roman era ruins. 

Can you believe it's free to see this? A lot of places would charge you to enter and sit on a Roman era amphitheater. 

Our guide told us about this Bulgaria tradition. They give each other friendship bracelets and then hang them from trees in the spring. After he told us about it, I noticed several hanging from trees around the city. 

This was near the Old Town area of Plovdiv and gave fantastic views of the city. But I had to capture this lovely message spray painted onto a rock. 

And here's the view! 

This was the group we toured with except for the couple with the child. They inserted themselves into our tour at the previous stop and, for some unknown reason, thought it would be cool to be in our group photo. People are weird! But it gave us something to laugh about. 

The story behind this statue reminded me of the one in Bratislava. This was a man that often sat in this spot that was well-known to the people of Plovdiv. After his passing, a group of people raised funds to erect this statue of him. It is rumored that if you whisper a wish into his ear it might come true. 

One thing not pictured was a visit to the Ethnographic Museum. It was a small museum, but it had some nice pieces on display including beautiful traditional Bulgarian outfits. If you love clothing and/or folk art, a visit to this really affordable museum is a must. When we visited there was a small market in the front garden. It prevented us from getting a picture of the building (which is beautiful), but we were able to pick up a couple souvenirs.