October marks our 5th month of full time travel. I can hardly believe we’ve been on the road for such a long time. At some points this month I’ve just been exhausted and tired of traveling, (I was also insanely sick for about 48 hours) but Andrew and I are still having the times of our lives. We’re incredibly blessed to be able to live this life and see the world.
Like in my previous monthly updates, I will go through an overview of everywhere we’ve been this month, visit our “Top 3 Meals of the Month” and go into our budget and credit card points update. Come follow along with everything we’ve done in October in Italy, on a cruise, in Bulgaria, and Turkey!
Italy
Venice, 2 nights
We spent the last two days of September in Treviso, IT a small town north of Venice. On October 2nd we took a quick train into Venice and checked into the Hotel Aquarius Venice. We used points to stay at this hotel because Venice is one of the more expensive places we’re visiting this year.
We loved walking around the smaller street of Venice and admiring all the canals. However, the crowded areas of Venice were a little overwhelming so we tried to avoid those. Luckily our hotel was just outside the main touristy areas.
We didn’t go on a gondola ride, but we did go on a boat tour I booked through Airbnb. We met up with the boat on the outskirts of Venice and he took us around some parts of the city we never would have seen on our own.. We also got a bottle of prosecco to enjoy on the boat tour as well. Our boat tour cost $100 for a 90 minute tour plus the bottle of prosecco where a 30 minute gondola ride costs $80.
One thing we found very interesting about Venice (and the whole state of Veneto) is that the food is very different than Rome or southern Italy. Of course they still eat pasta in Veneto, but the sauce and kinds of pasta are different. They also have a big culture built around cicchetti which are like Venetian tapas. We tried cicchetti in Treviso and in Venice. Be sure to order a glass of prosecco with your chicchetti too, as most Italian Prosecco comes from the Veneto region.
Bologna, 3 nights
We took a train from Venice to Bologna and checked into our Airbnb. The next day we attended a typical Bolognese cooking class where we made tortellini en brot and tagliatelle al ragu. We had a lot of fun learning how to make these pastas and even more fun eating them later!
Unfortunately after the cooking class I started feeling sick and didn’t do anymore exploring or sightseeing in Bologna. I took a Covid test and it was negative, plus I’ve had Covid before and it felt a lot different. I think I had a sinus infection but not totally sure. Either way it really took me out of commission for a few days.
Ravenna, 2 nights
After three days in Bologna we took the train to Ravenna which is the city where our cruise departed from. It’s a small town on the eastern coast of Italy that is famous for being the burial place of Dante, the author famous for writing the Divine Comedy.
I was feeling a little better in Ravenna but not 100% yet so the most exciting thing we did in our two days was go to a laundry mat 🙂
Royal Caribbean Cruise, 7 nights
We boarded the ship on our one year anniversary, October 9th. I booked this cruise back in November 2021 when American Express was running a promotion to spend $1,500 on Royal Caribbean and get $500 back. I thought that sounded like a great deal and there just happened to be a cruise leaving on our anniversary so I thought that was too good to pass up. It was so nice and relaxing to have a “vacation from our vacation.” With the amount of Americans on the ship and English being spoken by everyone, it kind of felt like being back home in a way!
Kotor, Montenegro
Our first port of call was Kotor, Montenegro. We didn’t book any tours, so we wandered through the Old Town on our own, then hiked up to an fort above the town. The hike was almost completely up rocky, uneven stairs. It was a hard workout, but the views made it completely worth it.
Corfu, Greece
In Corfu, there were four large cruise ships in port at the same time, plus it was rainy and overcast so we didn’t have the best time. We walked around town a bit, visited one synagog, had a drink then went back to the ship.
Athens, Greece
Athens was the only port that we booked a tour for and I was really glad we did. The port is about a 30 minute drive from the main tourist area, so it was nice to have the transportation arranged for us. On our tour we visited the Acropolis and walked through the Plaka neighborhood. Afterwards we had some time to ourselves to have a snack and visit the Panathenaic Stadium.
Mykonos, Greece
We didn’t do much during our day in Mykonos, but we enjoyed walking around the little whitewashed village. There doesn’t seem to be much to do in the town itself besides shop and eat, so we just window shopped and picked up a couple souvenirs before heading back to the ship.
Argostoli, Greece
Andrew and I really just used our stop in Argostoli to stretch our legs a bit. We got off the boat, walked a mile or so, turned around and got back on the boat. It was a gorgeous little bay though and we really enjoyed our walk.
1 night back in Bologna
After disembarking the cruise, we took a prearranged bus back to Bologna. We stayed in a hotel for one night and enjoyed some more tagliatelle al ragu at a restaurant nearby. We caught up on everything we missed online in the last week and did our laundry. I hadn’t planned anything for Bulgaria yet before our night in Bologna so I also got busy with that. The next afternoon we headed to the Bologna airport (worst airport ever) and flew to Sofia!
Bulgaria
I was inspired to add Bulgaria to our itinerary after reading this NYT article in 2019: Roman Ruins? Sure, but Bulgaria’s Second City Offers So Much More. Plovdiv, Bulgaria made the NYT’s list of “52 Places to Visit in 2019.” The main reason this city was added to the list is that is was one of the “2019 European Capitals of Culture.” The city did a ton of revamping certain areas and there have been many museums, art galleries and restaurants opened in the last 5-10 years.
Sofia, 3 nights
We only had two full days in Sofia, but we tried to make the most of them. Our first day we did a free walking tour with Free Sofia Tour. I highly recommend going on this at the beginning of any visit to Sofia. We learned a lot about the city and the country from ancient times to the present.
Sofia was a Roman city 2,000 years ago and there are ancient ruins throughout the city. Many of them were only discovered and uncovered in the last 50 years, some as recent at 20 years ago while building a new metro line.
On our second day in Sofia we booked an Airbnb Experience that took us out to Rila Lakes National Park. The park was about a 90 minute drive from Sofia. Once there we took a ski lift up into the mountains and hike about four miles around the 7 Rila Lakes area. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with perfect hiking weather!
Plovdiv, 4 nights
Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s second largest city and is quite popular to visit. There are Roman ruins throughout the whole town and it’s one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Europe. We took a free walking tour, explored the city on our own a bit, and hiked up 3 of the cities hills. Plovdiv is known as the City of Seven Hills.
Andrew and I really enjoyed our time in Plovdiv. It’s the perfect size to explore in a few days and really feel like you’ve seen the city. There are wonderful restaurants at varying price points. We had $2.50 kebabs, $20 barbecued meats, and a nice Saturday night out for just $50 total.
Turkey
We stayed in Istanbul for a full week in Turkey, but decided to stay in two different continents in that time! We arrived in the European side on Istanbul in a bus from Plovdiv and after four days we moved to Asia!
European side of Istanbul, 4 nights
While Andrew and I did enjoy seeing Istanbul the amount of people in the city was pretty overwhelming. We didn’t just wander around the city as much as we usually do (on the European side at least.) We found one good Doner Kebab place close to our hotel and ate there three times in four days. Lol don’t judge us!
We did do two Airbnb Experiences: a walking tour and a food tour. The walking tour brought us to Hagia Sofia, Binbirdirek Cistern, Grand Bazaar, a 300 year old tea house, Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Spice Market.
Asian side of Istanbul, 3 nights
We moved over to an Airbnb in the Kadikoy neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul for our last three nights in the city. We took it pretty easy and slowly explored the area over the three days by walking around and trying the restaurants.
Kadikoy definitely has a more local feel than the European side but it’s still crowded almost everywhere. It’s just hard to wrap my head around the fact that over 15 million people live in Istanbul! It’s not even close to the biggest city in the world but it’s the busiest city we’ve been to so far on our trip.
Top 3 Meals of the Month
#3 Royal Caribbean Cruise Dinners
I found the buffet food on the cruise to be very average, but I really enjoyed the seated dinner each night. The highlights included below are lobster, braised lamb shank, rack of lamb, and braised beef short ribs. I think my red meat consumption increased by 500% the week we were on the cruise!
#2 Bologna Pasta Making Class
The two dishes we made in our cooking class in Bologna were truly so good! I already mentioned it in the blog above, but we made tortellini in brot and tagliatelle al ragu. The tortellini was stuffed with pork and cheese and the “brot” was homemade broth.
#1 Siirt Seref Buryan Kebap Salonu, Istanbul
Andrew and I came to this restaurant with a local Turkish guide that we booked through Airbnb Experiences. First we had dessert from a market, then enjoyed coffee on a rooftop with gorgeous views of Istanbul, before coming to this restaurant for an amazing dinner.
To start, we had lamb dumplings in a yogurt sauce with chili oil. Next we had lamb, chicken, and beef kebabs. Finally we had kunefe and tea for dessert. Kunefe is a dessert made with spun pastry outsides, and a cheese fillings. It’s served warm and drenched in sugar syrup and topped with pistachios.
Budget
Our budget fared much better in October than in did in September when we were traveling with friends for two weeks. I used points for our hotel stay in Venice, Sofia, Plovdiv, and some nights in Istanbul. In total that’s 13 free hotel nights in October! I don’t think we would have been able to stay (almost) on budget without those.
Italy
Budget: $1540 or $70 per person, per day for 11 days
Actual Spent: $1708.28 or $155.30 per day
Cruise
Budget: $1,400 or $200/day
Actual Spent: $1,765.39 or $252.20/day
We really spent $200 more on alcohol but each of our parents venmoed us $100 for our anniversary so we’re not counting that expense 😉
Bulgaria
Budget: $560 for 7 days, or $80/day. Originally the budget was $100/day but we used points for all 7 of our nights at hotels.
Actual Spent: $493.18 or $70.45/day
Turkey
Budget: $700 or $100/day. Originally the budget was $80 per day but we had to pay $100 for visas so we upped it.
Actual Spent: $696.38 or $99.48/day
Total Monthly Budget
Our total budget for Italy, the cruise, Bulgaria and Turkey (32 days) was:
$4,200 or $131.25 per day
Our actual spend was:
$4,663.23 or $145.73 per day.
I don’t think we’ve hit our budget for a full month yet, so I’m starting to get a little worried, however we still have a lot of credit points to use.
Credit Card Points Update
I made two new point bookings in October, a hotel stay and business class flights! The hotel redemption is a three night hotel stay in Singapore that Andrew booked through his Capital One portal at a standard 1CPP redemption rate. Hotels in Singapore are expensive and we have a lot of Capital One points between the two of us with no real plan to use them yet.
The business class flight redemption is on Singapore Airlines from Manila, Philippines to Bali, Indonesia with a layover in Singapore. I’m so excited for this regional business class flight experience and going to the business class lounge during our layover! The flights were 24.000 points and $15 each. I transferred American Express points to Singapore to make the booking.
What's Next for Us?
November is probably going to be one of our most adventurous months of our year! First we’ll be spending two weeks in Georgia. We’re planning to explore three different areas; the capital, the country’s wine region, and one of its northern mountain regions. We’ll hopefully spend most of our time hiking and wine tasting!
From Georgia we’ll be flying to Kathmandu, Nepal. After spending a few days in the capital city we’ll be heading to the mountains to trek the Annapurna circuit in the Himalayan Mountains. Wish us luck!
Our November update post will be a few weeks late as we’ll still be trekking in Nepal at the end of the month!
Cheers,
Kailyn (& Andrew)
1 Comment
The Seven Rila Lakes in Bulgaria looks fantastic! They’re so calm and clear. Glad to see you and Andrew had an awesome October including delicious food in Turkey and on your cruise – can’t wait to see what November brings for you guys!