Rome, Italy 2022

 



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New Year, New Country

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In October, Pedro turned to me and said, "Pick a country and we'll go there for your birthday."  Immediate whirlwind of thoughts and ideas. Do we go somewhere with snow? Get warm? East? West?  At first I picked Iceland.  It's been on my list for awhile, and I figured January might have a greater chance for us to see some northern lights.  However, once we compiled a list of things we wanted to see and stuff we wanted to do, we realized winter was not going to be the best time for us to visit, so we pivoted.   Pedro's always wanted to visit Spain, see his roots.  And I thought it'd be great to visit a more Summery country when it's not so hot.  Barcelona it is!  And this trip was going to be different, as in an actually being a holiday. Relaxing, meandering, enjoying the sights instead of our usual GO GO GO.  We have a big habit of mapping out every second, and while it's great to cover so much ground in a short amount of time, we end up ...
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Yala National Park

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We were waiting outside our hotel, ready for pick up at 4:30a.  Our safari vehicle was much like yesterdays, a truck with a row of seats set on top of the flatbed, giving us a view over the cabin of the truck. There were two other couples to pick up, then we'd book it to the park entrance to queue before it opened at 6a.  We had a fair warning, our guide Sulu saying, 'I'm going to hurry', and Pedro and I were getting a front row roller coaster experience.  The difference in a safari truck slowly driving on dirt roads versus smooth straight-shot highway was crazy.  We barely had time to snatch our bags and white knuckle the bar in front of us, but it made us laugh all the same.  At each stop, we enjoyed the starry skies with little light pollution, and I was able to quickly braid back the rats nest that was my hair from the ride.   At 5:50a sharp, we were at the gates of Yala, third vehicle in line. Our guide Sulu took that time to go over the game plan...
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Nine Arches Bridge and Udawalawe Elephants!

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It rained a lot the night before (it's typhoon season after all) so we weren't sure at first if we'd get to see this viewpoint.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day.  Down the road from Ella's main street, a quick tuk-tuk ride, a walk down the side of the valley and along the train tracks, is a hidden little viewpoint called Nine Arches Bridge, or Sky Bridge.  Besides the gorgeous views, it is famous for its architect.  At the start of the 20th century, British engineers struggled to connect the railways between two mountains, which included a 9 degree curve, and delayed plans for years.  Finally, a local Ceylonese builder consulted on the project and managed to build this bridge with his local workers from only rocks and cement (no steel or rebar as these materials were diverted with World War I) and completed this in a year.  Our guide told us of a legend beyond this, that the British did not trust this feat so the Ceylonese man offered to lay under the br...
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