Well, the name of this blog is “Anna Logs It” and, of course, over the past six weeks I have not done any logging. Sorry! These past six weeks of travel have absolutely flown by. We’ve been to 3 countries and counting, and we’re loving it. We’ve only had a couple of very minor bumps along the way and we’ve met some amazing people, as well as traveled with and met up with some good friends here and there as well.
More in-depth logging to come (for real, I swear!) about each leg of our trip so far, but here’s a little recap to catch you up on where we’ve been:
11 days in Russia
We kicked off our trip witnessing our beautiful friends’ wedding in Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Russia is a fascinating place, as to be expected, and we had many mixed feelings about being there given Russia’s authoritarian government and human rights abuses (still applauding Pussy Riot’s brave protest at the World Cup final), but attending this wedding and the World Cup made it worth it. Also, our Airbnb hosts in each city were incredibly kind and welcoming.
At the Sweden v South Korea match in Nizhny Novgorod.
Some of our highlights:
- Metropol Hotel in Moscow: this was Anastasia & Arnaud’s wedding venue, and it was absolutely magnificent and magical—so very fitting for the amazing couple. Having read and loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles at the beginning of this year (highly recommend!), which mostly takes place in the Metropol, I was even more excited to experience it and it far surpassed even my wildest expectations. It is beautifully ornate, so very grand, and well-preserved.
- Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg: we ended up spending two days at the Hermitage because it is absolutely incredible and huge. One of the largest and deepest art collections we’ve seen outside of Paris, and a remarkable setting within the beautifully ornate Winter Palace.
Peterhof Palace.
- Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg: did I mention I’m dubbing this trip a “world tour of palaces (and religious institutions)”?! Seriously. Peterhof is magnificent and made for the perfect day trip from SPB. It’s the most incredible palace and grounds I’ve ever seen (though I should note I’ve never been to Versailles, which this is often compared to).
- The World Cup drives a fun, diverse environment in any city: we attended matches in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s 5th-largest city which felt much more old-school than the very-European Moscow and St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, we attended Iran v Morocco—the fans were fantastic and the energy inside the stadium, and even on the Metro there, was amazing. My favorite part: a lot of fans paint their flags on their faces (as you’ve likely seen if you catched any matches on TV) and Iran and Morocco share colors (red and green). In the ladies room in the stadium before the match, a Moroccan woman fan painted an Iranian flag on an Iranian fan’s cheek after she asked whether she might share her face paint. If only these women’s behavior was an indication of the state of foreign affairs and diplomacy today… Turning to the Sweden v S. Korea match in Nizhny Novgorod, the Swedes basically took over the entire city. We could hear them chanting from basically anywhere in the town as we explored it the afternoon before the match. Needless to say, they were an incredibly fun crowd and the South Koreans equally showed up at the match with amazing energy.
One magical week in Sicily
We had the best time in Sicilia in June with Shezaad’s family. We spent most of our time in Southeastern Sicily, which is full of quaint beach towns, picturesque and walkable UNESCO World Heritage site towns, and, of course, impeccable food.
Magical Modica.
I’m working on a post about Sicily, but here are a few highlights until then:
- Ever heard of Modica? I hadn’t either, but it should absolutely make it onto your bucket list. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and deservedly so; it is beautiful to walk through, and evokes so much old world Sicilian charm. It also is famous for its chocolate, and had the best gelato of our trip.
- Granita > gelato? Look, I’m not sure I can take sides but it’s a real question after our week in Sicily. Granita is this incredible flavored shaved ice concoction that you eat at any time of day, with or without brioche. And it is marvelous. Our favorite granita we had was in Noto — another favorite town of ours — at an old-school Italian bakery and bar called Caffe Sicilia. They make a special combo of almond and coffee granita, with a dollop of whipped cream, that is probably worth traveling to Sicily for.
The Valley of the Temples.
- Ruins are incredible! I’d never seen ancient ruins before Sicily, and they were spectacular. After spending a day at the Valley of the Temples, and seeing massive amphitheater ruins in Taormina, my desire to revisit Ancient Roman and Greek history and mythology has never been higher. (Any book recommendations on the topics much-appreciated!)
- Live volcanoes are pretty dang cool, not to mention huge. We spent a few hours hiking at Mt. Etna, and it was incredible even in intense clouds and with some rain.
Unforgettable 10-day trek through the Dolomites
This leg of the trip will definitely get at least one dedicated post, but believe me when I say the Dolomites should be on everyone’s bucket list. The mountain range is incredibly different than any we’d seen before, and full of WWI history. Trekking the Alta Via 1 trail was absolutely unforgettable. We stopped at rifugios (mountain huts) for our lodgings along the trail, which were cozy, welcoming, and served up some of the most magnificent sunsets we’ve ever seen. We started our journey with an overnight in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which is a swanky little ski resort valley town, then took off to the start of the AV1 trail about 1.5 hours away at Lago di Braies (a lovely alpine lake) to embark on a heck of a lot of hiking. Some days were more intense than others (like our second day of trekking, when we (unnecessarily…will explain more later) hiked 21km.
2 days of R&R in Belluno, Italy followed by 2 days of trying-to-avoid-tourists-and-missing-the-solitude-of-the-mountains in Venice
Our hike ended in the lovely valley town of Belluno, Italy. It was a much larger, functioning Italian city than our starting point and we loved that about it. It made for the perfect spot for some light touristing, resting our feet and legs, and easing back online and into the real world. The best part? Everything pretty much shuts down at 10pm, which is basically my ideal. We also stayed a little outside of the city center in a converted 17th-century villa which had fabulous views of the mountains, and an incredible breakfast.
I have so many mixed feelings about Venice that I’m still thinking through! It is so gorgeous, walkable, and ‘grammable, but the massive amount of tourists and the prices made it hard to love. We did manage to find some less-touristy parts and what we think might’ve been the cheapest priced Spritzes we found in Venice. It was a canal-side college student hangout serving cicceti — Venetian small bar bites, which are basically a variety of small toasts with things like herring or white fish or sun-dried tomato — that we went to twice.
Kicking off our Southeast Asia leg with 4 days in Bangkok
After Venice, we flew off to Bangkok (by way of Istanbul) to kickoff the next leg of our trip I’m Southeast Asia. I must say, we got very mixed reviews about Bangkok, but we loved it! It’s a massive, bustling city but full of incredible food, people, markets, and temples. Basically within two hours of arriving, we started eating on the street, and we really haven’t looked back. We loved Bangkok’s Chinatown at night; it’s full of awesome energy, lights, traffic, smells, and overflowing with street food options.
We also started to get a sense of the abundance of Thai markets, with a flower market, day markets, night markets — some more overwhelming than others, but we love exploring them, the food, and the things you can buy or do (like get tattoos?).
And I should quickly also mention that I’ve fallen in love with how Thailand does indoor malls. I wouldn’t be my mother’s daughter if I didn’t love a mall, but seeing two incredible malls in Bangkok made me envious! The (luxurious) bathroom had a full powder room, the stores are full of colorful and unique displays and clothing, and the food courts are full of delicious food.
3 days in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai is pretty much everything we thought it would be — in the best way! Full of backpackers like us, we found an awesome quiet hostel that was the perfect home base for a few days and did a whole lot of walking. We saw a heck of a lot of Wats (Buddhist temples), ventured through the Old City and a few of the places on the outskirts, went to the Hmong village in the Doi Pui Hills, and did a 90-minute vinyasa class. We also ate some incredible Khao Soi and other Northern Thai cuisine, and even went to a Muay Thai boxing match.
Will share much more about Bangkok and Chiang Mai in blog posts to come!
…And that brings us to our current location: the sleepy, artsy-hippie mountain town Pai in northern Thailand. We took a cheap (about $7) tourist van from Chiang Mai for a 4-hour journey winding up curvy mountain roads and made it riverfront to our guesthouse as it poured. Time for more exploring in and around Pai!
Anna Logs It 