Lampang, Thailand

Lampang is a 1-hour bus ride southeast of Chiang Mai. We went to Chiang Mai bus terminal 3 to speak to someone to buy our ticket, because we didn't trust ourselves to buy via the 'GreenBus Thailand' app, but we probably could have.

Smaller towns are a favorite of ours, and while we did run across two or three other groups of westerners, it was certainly far less than Chiang Mai.

We stayed at Kanecha's Home guesthouses, which was absolutely lovely and I feel comfortable highly recommending. We realized when we arrived that Grab was not available there and songtaeows to the attractions we wanted to see would cost us 2000THB. Renting a car was cheaper.

Grab, the Uber-esque ride service is not available in Lampang.

We had only 3 nights in Lampang, and 2 of the days were spent on day trips out of the city, so we had limited time to explore the city. But what we saw of it was lovely. Horse-drawn carriages pull Thai tourists around the city. We got curious stares from Thai people who I'm guessing probably don't see American kids very often. Babs did her tricks, saying chun chu Annabelle and khop khun kha to make them laugh and pinch her arms.

Our first night in Lampang, feeling a bit exhausted by rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we stopped in to Mr. Lasagna Lampang, which promised authentic Italian food (perhaps even cheese?!!?). My salmon salad was nothing special, but Mr. Go's spinach and mozzarella bake was refreshing in a way that made me question how dependent we Midwesterners are on cheese products. A European man came out from the back and sat at the bar drinking a beer, so Mr. Go stood up to say arroy mak. Turns out Simone, the Italian chef, also speaks passable English and we worked through a hilarious and delightful conversation in which we almost made plans to go with him out to his pig farm.

We'd seen a little girl popping in and out, and Simone said it was his daughter, Gisela, also 5, and told Annabelle to go on upstairs and play. So she did. We then chatted with Simone for another hour, during which time we lamented our tragic cheese deprivation and Simone brought us a plate of INCREDIBLE truffle cheese and HOMEMADE gorgonzola. I don't even like gorgonzola, but that cheese was incredible. He set a bottle of Limoncella on our table and we all drank.

When I retrieved Babs from upstairs, Gisela's Thai grandma was watching them in the play room and we chuckled together at the girls, who had been playing with makeup. Gisela's eyelids and lips tastefully colored, while Babs had painted her face to look.. .. like a cat.. .. ..

The next day we had a car delivered to Kanecha's Home (from this very nice company) and took off for Wat Chaloem Prakiat, a temple high in the mountains. The drive was delightful, there was hardly any traffic. We stopped off for coffee and to make sure we were going to the right place. The barista gave us a 2020 calendar, then another one and drew us a map to point us in the right direction.

You park at the base (here), get some meat on a stick if you're feeling peckish, then buy tickets. The price of the songteow up and back is included. Online research suggested kids cost 100baht, but the ticket booth people told me "baby free."

Prices seem to be subject to the feeling of the day, whether the tourist in question is dressed appropriately, and how cute the child is. Lucky for us, we take great pains to be culturally respectful and our child is incredibly cute.

We saw only 2 groups of English speaking tourists, the rest were Thai tourists. The climb up was slow and easy, they have metal stairs attached to the mountainside the whole way. We were there in the afternoon, the hottest time of day. I highly recommend going as early as you can in the morning, to avoid both the heat and the people.

There were plenty of people, but after the crowd at Doi Suthep, this crowd felt like nothing. The views from the temple were spectacular. You can ring the bells and gongs as much as you like. I didn't see any monks, but I'm sure they were there. Remember to take your shoes off before approaching a Buddha shrine. Walk slowly and speak quietly.

At the parking area, if you walk up the paved road behind the food stalls and ticket booth, you'll find a monastery with several temples that no one bothers to visit, because they're focused on the big temple. It was quiet and beautiful. [See above picture.]

We returned to Mr. Lasagna that night, hoping to pay back some of Simone's generosity with the cheese. We'd already had dinner at Aroy One Baht (popular with Thai people, very busy, cheap, small plates and pretty good too), but wanted to stop for a cheese plate for dessert (and see if our hints at wanting tiramisu were received).

Tragically, there was no tiramisu and Simone was busy cooking, but the waitress informed Gisela that Babs was in the building and she came downstairs to fetch her. We ate our dessert cheese gratefully. When I fetched my daughter again, her face was entirely smeared with makeup. We had a talk about it.

The next day we took ourselves 40 minutes northwest to the Elephant Sanctuary. For under 200 baht per person, we caught the morning elephant bathing and the optional elephant show. First, you take the trolley to the bathing site. The elephants come up with their mahouts on their backs and you can buy baskets of food to feed them, or just get up close and pet them. They're on the other side of a wooden railing, reaching their trunks out to you hoping for food. Babs was leery of getting too close, but she fed them gingerly and I got to pet their scruffy trunks.

A lady with a karoke speaker told us in Thai-glish about the elephants and we watched the mahouts balance on their backs as the big beasts dipped in the river, sucked water into their trunks and sprayed themselves. We sat at the river's edge and as the elephants paraded out of the river, some mahouts instructed their elephants to spray water at us, to everyone's delight.

The elephant show demonstrated how elephants were used for logging before the practice was banned in 1989 and how the Conservation Center now provides sanctuary for elephants displaced by humans. Elephants picked up objects dropped by their mahouts, placed hats on their mahouts' heads and even painted a couple different pictures, which you could then of course purchase.

We encountered the same group of American tourists at the center as we did at the temple the day before. The ladies (Texans and a Minnesotan) were on a guided tour and were very happy to see us again.

Back in Lampang, we wandered long enough to find the market. My favorite market of the whole trip, so far. It was blocked off so vehicles couldn't enter, not even motorbikes, and there were no elephant pants for sale. There were some new clothing vendors, but many second hand, too, plus hand-carved wood, hand-hammered metals and of course, a million food stalls selling fresh veggies, meats on sticks (do I even have to say it anymore?), quail-egg wontons, soups and fried foods of all kinds. We tried bacon-wrapped tentacle-looking-mushrooms (we'll pass on those next time) and some mini-pancakes. We got double-takes, people elbowed each other and nodded in our direction.

One afternoon, we went down to the river near a dam someone told us might be good for fishing. A stall was set up along the road with low tables on sitting-mats, so we stopped to eat. The chef immediately recruited the table next to us, one of whom spoke English, to help translate, a fact which we sort of resented-- we can use google translate and pronounce pad gaprao just fine thank you.

We pointed at some Thai words on the menu, hoping for the best, and Mr. Go was instructed to choose some things on sticks for some reason? The pork salad I ordered was actually just pork rinds drizzled with a sweet soy sauce dressing. Not what I was looking for, but delicious nonetheless. The table next to us discreetly took a selfie to get us in the background and posted it on Twitter. She also gave Babs a hot dog on a stick. The kindness we encountered in Thailand has been incredible. Though people are kind everywhere, if you're just open to it.

There were plenty of fishermen with their harpoon crossbows for Mr. Go to harass while Babs and I went to find some ice cream.

We extended our car rental so we could drive further south to Tak, where I discovered a farmstay on Airbnb that looked cute, and so we could continue our quest to get rural and immersed in Thailand.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a perfectly nice place and we enjoyed our time there. But cities aren't our favorite, and being catered to a level inside our comfort zone isn't our idea of 'experiencing local culture'. Menus written in English and shabby chic, whitewashed pallet decor is cute and everything, but I flew halfway around the world to see Thailand, give me bamboo and banana leaves and coconut shells.

After leaving our extremely luxurious digs in San Sai, just northeast of Chiang Mai city, we realized just how extremely luxurious we had it. We stayed at the Wangburapa Grand hotel, right on the mote road by Therapae Gate. A short walk takes you around the southeast quadrant of the city and all manner of restaurants, shops, walking streets and markets.

Wending our way through the little alleys inside the city, Mr. Go found a meticulous barber (we would later realize meticulous is part of the Thai way) and I found a storage-unit seamstress to make me a dress. (More on that later.)

We quickly came to realize that the shops selling elephant pants and brightly patterned dresses in one-size-fits-all style were all carrying the exact same things, imported from China for the European tourists who thought that was what an experience in Thailand meant: coming home with beaded bracelets and balloon pants. You know who I didn't see wearing elephant pants? Thai people.

I don't mean to run down on tourists, because I know that, while we strive to be respectful and blend in, we are also tourists. But as we made our way to some of the temples, we ran across Canadian tourists who, despite having been in Thailand for two weeks, were just learning how to say hello and thank you in Thai. We certainly didn't study Thai as much as we should have, or nearly as much as we practiced Spanish before our Spain adventure, but polite greetings were the first thing we learned, within our first two days in the country. The simple courtesy of saying arroy mak (very delicious) to our chefs has earned us respect (and one time, a plate of jackfruit, my new favorite food).

Anyway, in Chiang Mai, there are temples every 200 meters, all beautifully gilded in gold and carved with curving serpents. (And crawling with tourists.) Being properly dressed for Thai culture, but especially for visiting temples, means ladies cover their knees and shoulders, meaning I was sweltering uncomfortably for many days. But it's a small price to pay and as I mentioned, we do our best to blend in. We spotted tourists wearing shorts so short their butts were hanging out the bottom, not even trying.

We found the Buak Hard park on the southwest corner of the city, and an even quieter park just on the other side of the mote from it, and let Babs play there for a while before wandering around.

Trying to find restaurants on Google Maps only ended in frustration most of the time. Places that have a presence on Google often cater to Westerners, and reviews can be deceiving. Westerners are the ones who tend to write reviews, and "no English speaking staff" is often a reason to knock off stars for them, while for us it would be an indication of authenticity.

The big, once a week walking streets proved far too crowded for our tastes. (Walking Streets are essentially closed-off streets with pop-up vendor stalls selling food, clothes and other random souvenirs.) The Wua Lai Walking street was impossible to navigate. Being herded like cattle through stalls is not conducive to stopping to peruse the odd table here and there with unique wares worth perusing. Same for the Tha Pae walking street, though the earlier you go the better it is (though some stalls may not yet be open). It gets more crowded later on.

Chiang Mai seems to be a backpacker's party town. The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar area hosted mostly seedy-looking bars. We didn't spend much time there. In general, anything right on the mote road seems to be more expensive and more apt to cater to Westerners.

One of the most fun dinners we had was after we bailed on the walking street and wandered around to find dinner. It was going to rain, so when we saw a hunchbacked old lady whipping things around in a wok with three tables set up behind her, we ducked in. No English on the menu. Perfect.

We pointed at some pictures on the wall and the lady's husband got us some beers (Singha, the best Thai beer). He apologized for the slowness of the service, but we were like that's cool, don't rush the lady, she's old. Babs ordered herself a gai pad thai (rice noodles with chicken, egg and bean sprouts), while I had pad see-ew (fat rice noodles with veggies) and Mr. Go ordered the old standard pad gaprao (basil and pork with a side of rice).

The rain came down in buckets and the "restaurant" such as it was filled up to standing room only, with people hanging out waiting for the old lady to box up their takeaway. A sliding glass door partitioned the eating area from the living area of their home. The food was amazing and cost us a whole 1.50 USD per dish.

On every Chiang Mai block is an office with signs advertising elephant experiences, which cost upwards of 1,000THB/person. After our discussion with our pet-sit people, we opted to wait on the elephant experience for a different area.

New Year's in Chiang Mai, we stayed out until midnight. Front-desk staff said the 'fireworks' would start at 7pm. We were confused, but when we started seeing specks of orange light floating up into the sky, we realized 'fireworks' meant Chinese lanterns. People bought them and set them off, but companies were also setting them off, so a steady stream of lights bobbed against the stars all evening.

We wandered down into a Thai NYE festival, with the obligatory food stalls, but also a stage where young girls performed traditional Thai dance, a Thai band sang traditional songs, then a jazz band performed some covers of Strumbellas and The Beatles before going into original material. We sat and enjoyed for a while, then wandered through the market back to the mote, where at midnight, some small fireworks were lit off from several places.

January 1, 2020, we would take a bus south to Lampang, begin escaping the tourists for more rural areas and some of our best adventures to date.

Pet Sitting in Thailand

We took an early flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand and by pure luck found the airport bus that took us (for 30 baht/adult, kids under 6 free) to the Nimman neighborhood, closeish to our Airbnb villa. I showed the driver my google maps, with much pointing, nodding and smiling. When we arrived at the closest stop, he motioned, smiling, that we were to disembark. It was a good start and a sign of the friendliness to come.

Mr. Go wanted to move to Thailand immediately when we realized how many places require you to remove your shoes before you enter. What a good idea! It should be universal! Shoes are disgusting!

We walked down to the Old City, heading toward a park and thought a TukTuk drive around the mote would be cool.

Hot Take: tuktuks on busy roads aren't cool. Getting blasted in the face by songthaew exhaust made me realize why so many people wear those surgical masks. Turns out, the air quality in Chiang Mai is not great.

We were tired, so we ate at a well-rated Mexican restaurant (it was really good). I went out for coffee the next morning, as packets of sugary cappuccino mix and dried tea without bags (how do?) were all that was offered by our villa.

House/Pet Sitting

Our house sit (again through TrustedHouseSitters.com, more on that in this post) began the next morning. The lovely American couple offered to make us breakfast, so we Grabbed out there. They really were the loveliest people, and they and their two sons made us feel welcome. Their two dogs were the sweetest and their house was amazing. It felt like a luxury palace after the cramped, sketchy digs of the last week.

TIP: Our people told me about this Chiang Mai House/ Pet Sitting Facebook group, a private group where you can find other house sits as well.

Mark took us for a tour around the neighborhood, pointing out good restaurants, where the markets were on which days (hard to keep straight at first-- every day here, only sunday here, only tuesday here).

The next 9 days were infinitely relaxing, and a great place for Babs to get sick, which she did. A high temp and a cough, though that didn't slow us down much.

Our hosts told us we would get odd looks for walking around the neighborhood, and we did. Everyone takes motorbikes or drives. The odd pedal bike here and there. But despite feeling a little fish-out-of-water, everyone we met was super friendly.

We got Thai massages from a Muay Thai boxer, a woman named Pon (Pawn) who was friendly and extremely strong. She graciously gave me the option of soft, medium or hard. I chose medium and shudder to think what the hard option would have felt like. "I hurt you, you tell me," she kindly offered and I nearly took her up on that. I was sore for days. Mr. Go said he felt like he'd just had a big cup of coffee afterward, jittery from increased blood flow.

Chiang Mai Zoo

The Chiang Mai Zoo was pretty neat. You could get closer to the animals than in American zoos, and their enclosures did NOT seem as secure. Going by the tiger, pacing in his enclosure, all that separated him and us is what amounts to a ditch that is definitely NOT wide enough to stop him if he really wanted to get to us. His eyes followed us as we passed. We walked a little faster.

We paid for a panda ticket, too. The panda enclosure is just one building with two separate spots for pandas. We got to see a panda munching on some bamboo. We'd never seen one before so it was something new, but I couldn't help but think, "Is that it? That's what we paid for?"

After the zoo, we walked the 500m to Huay Kaew waterfall. It was pretty. Probably a nice place to sit in the shade and enjoy the sounds of nature, but we didn't stay too long.

We walked down a dirt alley to find the restaurant I'd flagged on Maps which was more expensive than I thought. Without knowing any better, we ordered two papaya salads. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the spiciest thing I've ever had in my life. It was painful. Neither of us could eat much of it. Luckily Babs was smart and ordered gai pad thai and we split that.

Pro Tip: Order dishes mai pet (not spicy) pet ni noy (little bit spicy) or request only neung phrik (one chili).

Wat Phra Lat & The Monk's Trail

The Monk's Trail was a highlight. A 3km or so hike through a jungle trail to a secluded temple with beautiful rolling hill views. Go as early as you can. By 10am it was beginning to get crowded. Apparently there are some waterfall offshoots, but we must have missed the trails.

Make sure to tell your driver you want to go to the Monk's Trail and start at the bottom of the hill. If you say Wat Phra Lat they'll take you to the parking lot in front of the temple, as we saw one poor backpacker arguing ineffectively to his driver as we left.

Doi Suthep

Since we were on that side of the city, we decided to grab our very first songtaew (Thai taxi-- a red truck with benches in the open back) up to Doi Suthep, a main temple attraction.

The drive up nearly made me hurl, wending around mountain switchbacks far too fast with no seatbelt as the tropical air heated up to midday. Trying to look out the front windshield instead of the back or sides helped a bit. At the top, Mr. Go bought me some strawberries and we started the climb up the steps.

Foreigners have to pay 30 baht/adult for admittance to the temple, then we had to shuffle around all the other tourists snapping pictures. It was beautiful, all ornate gold sculptures and I appreciated its significance, but I just kept thinking about how we were contributing to the degradation of its secluded charm by touring it. How could anyone meditate their way to nirvana with tourists who can't read the "don't push bells" sign ringing the ancient chimes?

We got crammed into a songtaew with more and more and more people for the ride down (including a nice couple from Toronto & Sault Ste. Marie, MI). Mr. Go made fun of me to the other riders re: my motion sickness, then we hopped off at the zoo at the bottom of the hill to hit up the restaurant we saw the day before and regretted not eating at. We got laughed at for trying to speak Thai, but in a nice way.

Thai Farm Cooking School

I took a solo Grab (thrilling) to the nearby Ruamchok market (an excellent open-air supermarket with veggies, fruits & fried foods) and met the Thai Farm Cooking School people, who'd already collected the other 9 participants (All american and 2 british) from their hotels. We drove about 15km north to a farm where we learned about the ingredients and made 6 dishes. The day cost me 1500 THB, or about 50 USD.

There are plenty of Cooking School experiences in Chiang Mai, and I can't attest to them, but I loved my experience. I would recommend doing the full rather than half day.

I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate the dishes successfully, without access to the incredible fresh sweet coconut milk, Thai basil and green chilis. But I'll surely try. I brought a small bag of leftovers home for the fam. Babs is still not doing great with the amount of heat in even the most mai pet of dishes, but here's hoping her tolerance will improve. A girl can't live on rice alone.

Huay Tong Tao Reservoir

It costs foreigners 50 baht each to enter (6 & under free). We strolled around the reservoir, stopping to chill on a towel and let Mr. Go fish for an hour. There's a weird park with hay sculptures of gorillas that was fun, if overrun with tourists. We had lunch on a bamboo raft just off the shore and appreciated the misty rolling hills and cool breeze, and also the fact that we have such easy access to that kind of lake experience at home in Michigan.

In the afternoon, it starts to get hot and crowded and loses a bit of its charm.

After 9 days, our pet sit came to an end. We left the enormous, spotless house with the playroom of Legos and went on to adventure in Chiang Mai city.

Top 6 Essentials for Travel to Europe

Reflecting on 2.5 months abroad, we're coming to realize what things were absolutely essential, what were not, and what we wished we'd brought. In no particular order...

1. Rain jackets
Lightweight, easy to carry in a backpack and doubled as a sweater on windy days.

November through January in Southern Spain can get nippy, especially at elevation. But you don't want to carry a bulky jacket or big sweater. Layering is key. A mid-weight sweater and a rain jacket to block the wind was the perfect combo.

The stylish jackets you see the Go adults sporting are the Marmot Precip.

2. Travel towels
For the times when your Airbnb is a little stingy with the bath linens. Our REI travel towels would have been great to have in the backpack on rainy days or on days when our wanderings brought us to the beach.

3. Travel car seat
We forgot ours at home, so we bought one in Chicago and then never used it. But if you might take a taxi or rent a car, save on the carseat rental fee and get a MiFold. It's small enough to carry around in your backpack when you go out exploring.

4. Outlet converter
Your chargers aren't going to work in European outlets. This adapter doubled as our charging block for phones, laptops and kindles, as it had two USB ports.

5. Portable battery charger
If you have an iPhone with good battery life, you'll probably be fine, but our crappy old phones lose battery life within 8 hours when you're constantly on GoogleMaps and TripAdvisor. I can't tell you how many times this Anker portable battery saved our skin.

6. Hardcover Notebook and Pen
Specifically for the 4-year-old child being toted around to historically significant that were not interesting to her. We had no space to bring toys, except one or two small dolls that she eventually grew bored of.

This 1,50 euro hardcover notebook, together with 2 euros in writing utensils, were her constant companions. She was able to create, to play open-ended games quietly by herself on planes, trains, at busy restaurants, and on rainy or sick days when we were cooped up.

We called it her Travel Journal. I was so proud to see her happily scribbling away, asking me how to spell words or to play tic-tac-toe. It was all she needed to entertain herself for 2.5 months and we carried it absolutely everywhere with us. Every child is different, but some sort of open-ended creative toy is highly recommended.


Any other vagabonding essentials I missed?


*Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links. You don't pay any extra, but I get a kickback for purchases made via some of these links. That's why I only recommend products we truly love!*

Flying Home Via Madrid

After a few days in Seville, we headed onward to Madrid, the last leg of our journey.

I'd checked on train tickets from Seville to Madrid and saw the number 74. Assuming it meant 74 euros total for 3 travelers (since that's the way Alsa's website works), I thought it was a done deal. But nay, Renfe shows you prices per individual ticket rather than the total. So booking passage to Madrid became a little more difficult.

Instead of a 4 hour, 200 euro/passenger train ride, we opted to spend half that for a 7 hour bus ride (via carrier Socibus). Mr. Go likes buses better anyway, something about a better scenic view than trains. Given my tendency toward motion sickness, I was not looking forward to it.

We downloaded shows on our phones to keep Babs entertained, made sure we had puke bags handy and set off.

ProTip: Much of the time, bus routes, especially between smaller destinations, are not listed online. Save grief and money by going to the bus station beforehand to scope out the destinations and timetables. 

I stocked up on some snacks prior, because I had no idea how many times the bus was going to stop. I'm glad I did. We had one 15-minute stop about halfway through the trip, at a roadside gas station.

Babs felt sick for a little while, so I held her head over the plastic bag. Luckily no vomit, but she fell asleep with her forehead sagging against my palm.

She'd been snoozing on my lap for about 10 minutes when our bus was stopped and searched by the Guardia Civil. I knew I was completely innocent, but my heart started thumping anyway when the golden retriever came on board to sniff everyone. Two passengers had to deboard for a search. After a quick search of the luggage under the bus, we were released.

We stopped in Madrid, just a few kilometers from our airport destination, so the bus could top off on some oil, I think. A Spanish girl translated for us, but we were not convinced she knew what she was talking about. We loitered in the bus station for 20 minutes until the bus returned and brought us to the airport, where we called the SHS Hotel Aeropuerto shuttle.

We'd been using Airbnb this whole time. This was our first actual hotel since the States. Aside from the outrageous restaurant prices, it was lovely. Crisp sheets, an unending flow of hot water and good wifi.

Madrid has great public transportation, and between the hotel shuttle, the train and the green bus (with a stop directly outside our hotel), we were able to make the 7km jaunt from our hotel to city center for the next two days.

We didn't do a whole lot of exploring in Madrid. We were Over It, and cities aren't our favorite anyway. Madrid didn't even seem to have an old town proper. The Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol that are touted as the 'center' of the city were simply large plazas surrounded by shops. We didn't see any of the narrow cobblestone lanes that marked our other Old Towns.

Madrid felt like New York City to me. As we were making our way to the Puerta del Sol to check it out, I looked down the major pedestrian streets to find a sea of people. It made me shudder. We didn't spend much time there.

Instead we walked through El Retiro, one of the city's big parks. Mr. Go wanted to take a boat on the lake, but when we reached it we realized the lake was no more than a large pool. So we walked around it, then headed off for sushi.

Sibuya Urban Sushi Bar was phenomenal. As a large city with something for everyone, we found plenty of gluten-free options. Celioso was an exclusive gluten-free bakery with cupcakes, cakes, breads and cookies. Not all-star caliber, but we were tickled to sit down for coffee and cake just like Spaniards.

The next day, we managed to slip in just ahead of the lunch rush at the #1 rated restaurant in Madrid Los Montes de Galicia. With entrees starting at 20 euros, it was one of the pricier meals, but still cheaper than some mediocre meals in Denver, plus it was absolutely delicious. They served us two free tapas plates, plus a free dessert for Babs, who, as per usual, charmed all the wait staff.

We were so clever to book our flight to Spain in the evening, so our bodies could sleep on the long 9-hour leg. For some reason we neglected to do the same on the return journey. Our flight back to the states left at 8am (via Wow & Norwegian Air) which meant taking the airport shuttle at 5am.

With the sunlight streaming in through the plane windows, it was nearly impossible for Babs to snooze. We cajoled her into a 20-minute nap but for the remaining 8 hours and 40 minutes, she was wide awake.

We watched a movie, we listened to a book, we had snacks out of my backpack, she colored a little, took seventeen trips to the bathroom. She was a wreck by the end, tired but wired from a day of inactivity.

We landed in Chicago at 3pm, (10pm Spanish time). Then we proceeded to stand in the customs line for an hour. Due to the government shutdown, there were very few staff working and it was chaos. Finally we got our bag, got our rental car and drove an hour and a half to a Motel 6 in Saukville, WI.

It was 6:30pm (1:30am Spanish time) so we picked up a pizza from the Domino's next to the hotel. Babs couldn't stay awake long enough to eat it, so we saved her slice for her breakfast. (At 2am when we all woke up.)

At a 24-hour Subway we realized we could have basically an omelet by piling veggies on their egg patties. We puttered around at 24-hour Walmarts and Meijer (Babs needed snowboots) until it was time to return the car to the Green Bay airport and meet my in-laws, who would deliver us home.

The feeling of walking into my house was beyond lovely. I thought my house was small before, but after living in European apartments for months, our place seemed enormous. It was clean and spacious and smelled like home.

Not even the 2 feet of icy snow could spoil my happiness at being home. Re-integrating into U.S. society was easy. I appreciate the dependability so much more. And the ease of everything! To be able to call or go somewhere and explain what I need and to understand instructions.

I feel like I'm still processing everything. The ways in which we stretched the limits of our capabilities will have lasting effects in every area of our lives. The experiences and lessons we learned will continue to affect us as we reintegrate ourselves into our lives, as does any stint of extended travel.

We've already had a few conversations about what adventures 2019 will bring us, but for right now, we are thoroughly enjoying home.

Arcos de la Frontera & Going to the Hospital in Foreign Country

Our second house sit of the trip brought us to Arcos de la Frontera for 10 days. (More on becoming a house sitter in this post.) Mr. Go and our friend had their own Airbnb for the first two days while Babs and I cared for three lovely cats.

It took me another day and a half to recover from my food poisoning while Mr. Go and our friend explored Arcos, which is really quite tiny. The charming whitewashed old town, with its castle and church high on the hill, was rife with shops and restaurants.

The narrow lanes climbing up the high hill were a struggle for automotive traffic. If a truck had to stop to make a delivery, all the vehicles behind just had to wait. And pedestrians had to find a doorway to hop into when a car went by or else be nicked by the side mirror.

Our apartment was incredibly comfortable. We had a clothes dryer for the first time in two months and relished the efficiency of not waiting for the stuff on the rack to dry in the sun. The homeowners were an American & a British former American and very much our kind of people. She left games and markers out for Babs and upon her return, brought a gift from Barcelona for her!

There was a playground directly outside our front door that was always filled with kids. Annoying on New Year's Eve when they were tossing firecrackers at our windows, but otherwise fun for Babs to walk outside and have kids to play with. One girl with whom she played several times saw us on the sidewalk one day and greeted Babs with a hug just like they were old friends.

The cats were indoor/outdoor, but still somehow felt clean. As clean as a cat can be, anyway. It was a breeze to care for them. I never realized how lovely it is to have the warm weight and gentle vibration of its purrs on your lap (or chest, or hip). The oldest cat was a snuggler and slept in bed with Mr. Go, while Babs and I cuddled in the other guest room.

In the coming week we would discover several lovely hiking trails around Arcos, some that led to the lake and others wrapping along the river and around the castle.

But after two days in Arcos, our friend left for home and Mr. Go joined us at the apartment, tired and wrecked. As I was putting breakfast on the table, Babs headed upstairs to wash her hands, caught her toe on the first step and BAM, started screaming.

Her parents frantically rushed to her. All teeth were intact. There was no blood. That was good. I scooped her up and a second later, the blood came in big red drips. Mr. Go removed the paper towel after a moment to inspect then looked at me, face sheet-white, "We have to go to the hospital."

I had been dreading this situation, but knew it was all but inevitable. With three people on such an extended stay the odds were someone was going to need medical attention. I was just glad there was nothing broken.

Luckily, Mr. Go's Airbnb host had given our friend the phone number of her taxi driver friend, who'd driven him back to Jerez that morning. I called him and managed, in Spanish and a panic, to arrange a pickup.

Google told me there were two hospitals in Arcos, but it was a Saturday, and hours of operation on weekends were spotty. Our taxi driver, Juan Luis, bless him eternally, knew where to take us.

We checked in at the window and were pointed down the hall. I had a child who needed stitches, so when I saw an open door and a nurse in the room, I went in, I didn't care that she was still waiting on a patient. My typically hesitant Spanish was forced out of me by a million years of maternal instinct.

"Mi hija necesita puntos."

She pointed across the hall to the waiting room we hadn't noticed before. But before we sheepishly sat down, she removed the paper towel from Babs' chin to take a look, probably thinking these silly Americans were overreacting. But her eyebrows shot up and she nodded at me. Yep, stitches for sure.

There were two or three people waiting, and two or three nurses on duty. We were seen within 10 minutes. I was instructed to lay on the bed and hold Babs on my chest, pinning her arms down. Mr. Go was to hold her legs. One nurse held her head while another did the stitches.

To her credit, my daughter was so brave. She cried for a few minutes after the injury, but not a tear after that. Not even when they gave her two shots of anesthetic in the chin. She wound up with three stitches.

A doctor did a brief exam of her chin and jaw to check for anything broken. She spoke about a dozen words of English and not very confidently. We were to come back in 7-10 days to have the stitches removed. We asked what questions we could and thought we sort of understood the instructions. But when Juan Luis dropped us back off at home, we scheduled a consultation with our dear Doctor Friend in Colorado. DF told us the stitches looked well done and gave us the run down.

"It's really hard to mess up the aftercare for stitches," she told me, sensing our panic through the video screen. Nothing could have eased my worry any better.

DF recommended leaving the stitches in for 3-5 days, so we split the difference and on day 6, went to the other hospital in town, as it was closer to our apartment. But the nurse told us the stitches weren't ready to come out. So we tried again the next day, at the hospital we received the stitches.

Luckily, our previous doctor was there. I'm pretty sure she let us cut the line of 5 or so patients. We slipped in and within five minutes were out again.

Mr. Go had purchased us Arch RoamRight travel insurance before our trip and the hospital took that info on our first visit. I'll update this post if/when the bill comes in the mail.

We took it easy after the injury. Probably too easy. We made Babs drink her meals through a straw for several days, worried about her jaw and spills down her chin.

Arcos was very comfortable. If there hadn't been an injury we'd have been going out way more often to explore. We liked the small-town feel, the beautiful scenery and the charming old town.

But we were getting kind of tired. We'd been exploring Spain for over two months. Always thinking about what we should do next, where to go and how to be prepared and safe. Entertaining Babs and ourselves, struggling to communicate, to keep putting ourselves out there even when it was uncomfortable, because otherwise what's the point?

Taking a slice out of our normal routine to live in a different country has not been easy. It has been beautiful, delicious and fun. Navigating medical issues in a foreign country (various infections, bloody noses and stitches) were some of the more challenging moments, but challenges of all sizes came daily.

I was ready for a rest. To let my brain rest by falling back into the comforts of the known, of an old routine. I needed a break from exploring. I'll be ready for more before too long, but we were counting the days to our flight back home.

We just had a few more days to spend in Seville and Madrid first.

Jerez de la Frontera: A Vagabonding Christmas

We departed Seville after two nights via our very first Renfe train, simply because Alsa did not run a bus to Jerez. The Santa Justa station is big, beautiful and comfortable, with plentiful restaurants (including a McD's with free wifi) and shops. It's big enough, but you won't get lost in it.

We purchased our train tickets online because we were nervous. There were no extra processing fees, and you don't need paper tickets. Attendants just come around the cars after takeoff and check the ticket on your phone.

It was a comfortable 1-hour train ride. The train is steadier than buses, because they go in more or less a straight line and don't have to contend with Spain's plentiful traffic circles. You can also always be sure there is a bathroom on board, a plus when travelling with kiddos.

We spent the night of Christmas Eve in Jerez, after a slight miscommunication debacle with our Airbnb hosts in which we were both equally to blame. We wound up loitering around Jerez for a couple hours with our heavy packs before they were able to meet us to hand off the keys.

After we checked in, we picked up some groceries (cookies for Santa, sherry for us) and set about prepping for Christmas.

For the previous few days, we watched some Christmas shows on Netflix and talked about Santa Claus, trying to make the holiday festive and exciting for Babs. She'd written a letter to Santa while in school in Albir, and we mailed it from a Correos box in Galera.

In Seville, Mr. Go had snunk out to buy a small toy or two that we'd scoped out earlier and some wrapping paper. Our apartment had a small potted plant, so Babs and I drew some decorations on the back of the cookie-box cardboard and cut them out. We left Santa his cookies and an onion for the reindeer (we forgot to buy carrots) and let the magic happen.

Without snow, big dinners and a decorated tree at home, it was a very different feel to Christmas. The day snuck up on me. Honestly, I didn't miss the holiday all that much. I was perfectly content letting the day go by just like any other, walking around with my family, enjoying the sun and life in general to its fullest.

But we tried our best to make it a special day for Babs. It helped that Spain is big on Christmas, and every town had twinkly lights and trees in their town squares. I think she had a good time, sneaking out of her room in the morning to peek at what was tucked around the makeshift tree.

Christmas Day we welcomed a friend from the States who'd come to visit for the week. We had our Christmas lunch in the main plaza and wandered around the streets as night fell and the lights came on. I was surprised at how many restaurants were open, both on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Most of the shops were closed and most of the good restaurants too, but it was no trouble to find a place to eat.

During the day, we walked around exploring. We toured the Diez Merito bodega (a winery for sherry), which was wildly unimpressive. Our guide was doing her work study and though she did her best to do the tour in both Spanish and English, we still could understand only every other word. At the end, we were able to taste some of the sherries, and were able to discover sherry is not our thing. The sweet sherries are like syrup and I'd rather drink a red wine than a dry sherry.

But Jerez is famous for its sherries, as one boundary of what they call the Sherry Triangle in Southwestern Spain.












On our last night in Jerez, I woke up in the middle of the night, managed to slither down from the top bunkbed in a flop sweat and was violently sick. From the Mercadona bagged roast chicken, the bottle of sherry consumed that night, the chocolate our friend brought from home as a Christmas gift, or a hellish combination of the three, we'll never know. I was sick all morning, leaving Mr. Go to clean up, pack and corral our party on his own.

The four of us took a 40-minute bus to our next destination, Arcos de la Frontera, where a pet-sit stint and a hospital adventure awaited us.

Seville, with Kids, on a Budget

From the cave, we took buses to Seville, with a stop in Granada just to sleep for a few hours.

It was my undying wish for a hot shower and to wash the fleas off the clothes in our duffel, but alas. The cheapest Airbnb we could find in Seville did not have that squeaky clean feel I was so desperate for. Despite the animal dander still clinging to my clothes, I refused to get into the moldy shower stall.

Grubby accommodations aside, the city of Seville has wonderful history, mind-blowing baroque architecture and the perfect Spanish Old Town. We nearly got lost in the higgledy piggledy cobblestone streets on our first day.

You absolutely could spend days, not to mention a bunch of money, touring historic buildings, museums and shops, but you may not be surprised to learn that my most favorite things to do in Seville were 100% free.

TO DO: Plaza de Espana y Parque de Maria Luisa

My #1 must-see in Seville was the Plaza de Espana. A street performer was making a million shining bubbles for kids to run through and it gave the place a magical feel. With arched bridges over the little mote, bright and intricately painted tiles adorning the spires, it was a romantic's dream come true. We even photobombed a couple getting their engagement shots taken.



You can wander through the pillars and arches, go upstairs for a nice view of the park or hire a boat to motor you around the moat, but that last one sounded silly to me. We enjoyed the water and the fountains by walking around, and didn't spend a centimo.

The Plaza is set at the north corner of the Parque de Maria Luisa, which was my second favorite thing. Stroll through the hedges, marvel at the architecture of the surrounding buildings, let your kid play on the playground. We could have spent all day meandering through the grounds.

Between the Plaza de Espana and the Real Alcazar is a little park where they had a fair of sorts set up. Carnival rides, bumper cars, a ferris wheel and an ice rink, plus churro and other food vendor stalls. We spotted it at dusk, because of the lights, and it definitely looked more charming at dusk than in the daytime, when we had time to get back and explore it. But we spent too much money to let Babs ride some rides anyway, because she's a good kid and deserves to be scared on a rollercoaster.

La Catedral de Sevilla

One of the big attractions in Seville is the Cathedral. The third largest church in the world and the largest gothic church in the world, it covers 23,500 square meters (253,000 square feet). Christopher Columbus is entombed there.

It started out as a mosque, built in 1184, but was consecrated a Cathedral in 1248 and had Gothic and baroque additions throughout the centuries.

We managed to time our visit to Seville on the worst possible day, the days leading up to Christmas. The tourists were so thick you could almost crowd-surf down the street. The line for the church went halfway down the block.

Luckily, after passing through Seville to Jerez, then Arcos, we decided to return to the city for a few nights on our way up to Madrid. Early January was a much calmer time, though the tourists never really stop flowing through the city.

Inside is cavernous, with stained glass, pillars and arches, alcoves of 15th-century artwork and shrines. There are slivers of time when you can climb the tower for free, but we paid the 9 euros/adult to spend an hour gawking at the cavernous cathedral, the ornate organ, the shrines, the tomb of Christopher Columbus, and climb the bell tower, La Giralda.

The view of the church spires from the tower is like something out of Beauty and the Beast.

Our Airbnb on our second run-through of Seville was a mere block from the Cathedral, tucked in charming Old Town right off a lovely square of orange trees, next to the Spanish turron (fudge) and sweets shop, Sabor, where much of the time they have baskets of samples and offer free tastes.

Comer: La Brunilda

We ate at plenty of bad restaurants. We were charged inordinate amount for tiny tapas plates, like they were almost daring us to complain. But I can recommend La Brunilda. It's tucked off the main drag and there was an actual line outside waiting for it to open. Everything was amazing, though a little pricey for our vagabonding standards. But totally worth it.

Shower Thoughts:

During our first pass through Seville, the square in front of the cathedral and in the Plaza de Espana were lined with horse-drawn carriages pulling tourists on sightseeing tours around the city for entirely too much money. Babs liked seeing horses up close.

But then we saw a horse slip on the stones and fall hard on her knees with a disconcerting clatter and it made me sad. We had just finished reading Black Beauty (for the second time), and I wondered how happy those cab horses really were. I wondered if they were being cruelly exploited to serve tourism and I wondered if we weren't an unwitting part of it. We want to travel too, to see these wonders dropped all over the globe, to experience different cultures, to learn their history.

Seville was a tourist hub on par with Granada, understandably so, given the beauty and the incredible history there. And I felt the same way about it as the Alhambra. Too many souvenir shops, too much comfort, too many American accents.

In any case, it was beautiful and we enjoyed our days in Seville. I'm glad we were able to hit it a second time and visit the Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Seville, we were headed to Jerez, where we would meet up with a friend from Colorado and spend Christmas.

Get Free Lodging Internationally: House and Pet Sitting

When in need of a pet-sitter in the past, we've used Mindmyhouse.com with great success (this post), but as potential home- and pet-sitters, we went with TrustedHouseSitters.com, for the sheer volume of available pet sits. The fee is a bit steep at $120/year, but having scored 17 nights of free lodging so far, it's already paid for itself.

This article has a good breakdown of the different house-sitting websites out there and even some coupon codes for discounts. On TrustedHouseSitters, you can sign up for a Home Sitter or Homeowner membership separately, or combine the two for an extra fee.

The competition can be stiff, so make sure your profile is as complete as possible to make homeowners feel comfortable with you. We even added a video to introduce ourselves. I applied for 7 house sits, each of which had up to 10 other applicants. We were chosen for two sits, would have gotten three but the travel dates didn't end up working out.

Our first house sit was located in the tiny (pop. 1200) cave town of Galera.

We got some lovely mountain scenery on our walks with the dogs. Galera doesn't have much to distinguish itself, other than the Tutugi and Castellon Alto sites, where artifacts (and even 3000+ year old mummified human remains) from ancient settlements were found. The Galera museum houses the mummy and you can visit for 2,50 euro.

There's a little copse of English and English-speakers in Galera. Our Scottish neighbor acted as our homeowner's assist, bringing us pellets for the stove and other supplies. He has three dogs of his own and would sometimes join us on walks. In fact, the whole neighborhood was littered with cats, dogs and at least one chicken that we could see.

The cave in which we resided was small but cozy. It had all the modern amenities you'd expect, just carved out of the side of a mountain instead of built with bricks or wood.

Lucky for me, Mr. Go is an early riser, and so was tasked with feeding Meg, the 13-year-old dachshund. Each morning he did acrobatics in his efforts to clean up her overnight accidents before she stepped in them as she tried to remind him from under his feet that she was hungry, while also feeding her quickly to quiet her frantic whines before she woke Babs. For as slow as she moved the rest of the day, for 10 minutes around feeding times, she was as sprightly as a pup.

After everyone had breakfast, we took our morning stroll with the three other dogs (Meg took a nap after the morning excitement), and sometimes the cats tagged along too. Of the remaining three dogs, Bobblehead had hydrocephalus and was unable to walk on her own, Benji probably had fleas and Pippin was a bully with an underbite. (She was our favorite, though.)

We love dogs of all shapes, sizes and special needs. And these dogs were quirky and charming and we will talk fondly of them for a long time. But between poor old Meg's incontinence and handling Bobblehead, who inevitably lies in a little bit of pee until I can get her puppy pads changed and bathe her, I had a hard time getting myself to feel clean, and that wore on me by the end of the week.

Bob's hydrocephalus also means she needs you to hold her head into her bowls to eat and drink, and needs to be carried in a sling for walks, which we never begrudged. (The sling was pretty fun.) But I did learn through experience to put a puppy pad in the sling for when she needs to wee during a walk.

The two cats were self-sufficient in the way cats are. One was MIA for the first 36 hours we were there. I haven't cared for a cat in my adult life, and had to remember to clear all the food off the counter if the cats were in the house, lest someone help themselves.

The homeowner was super nice (she even gave us a lift from the next town over) and really appreciated the daily updates I sent her, complete with pictures of her menagerie. She left a box of Christmas decorations out for Babs to put up around the cave, which helped us to feel festive on our unorthodox holiday.

The owner had warned us to be vigilant for fleas and on our last few days in the cave, flea bites started showing up on Babs' arms. The homeowner had another week out of town, so we were to hand off the cave and crew to the next home sitter and give her all the complex instructions. However, she was late and we had to split to catch our bus, so the owner's sister stepped in to meet the next gal, though I did give her a call after we were settled in Seville to give her a few key pointers (mainly, to put a pad in the sling).

The seven days we spent in The Cave were challenging in some ways and undoubtedly memorable. Each dog was lovable and I appreciated them all. We had missed snuggling with warm, furry pups. Though I tease that our own is a nuisance, it made me miss my Flotsam.

After the house sit has been completed, you have to request a review from the homeowner via TrustedHouseSitters.com. The homeowner also has to request a review from the sitter, which is a flaw in my opinion. It allows both sides to potentially hide bad experiences from prospective house-sits.

But we got a stellar 5-star review to add to our profile. Here's hoping it will inspire confidence in homeowners to choose us for future house sits wherever in the world we go.