group - Lili on the Loose

7 11, 2016

Travel Missteps: Static Cling Terror

By Lili|November 7th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2005, 2006, All in the family 2005/2006, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, bus, Bus Tour, Europe, Florence, group, Italy, micro beads, neck pillow, static cling, styrofoam, tour group, Trafalgar, Tuscany|0 Comments

Source Do you know what that is? No? Consider yourself lucky. What those are, are little styrofoam balls called Micro-Beads and they are found in a lot of those travel neck pillows that people have. I discovered what was inside mine the hard way on a tour of Italy. I think it was halfway through the trip, somewhere around Florence or Tuscany when it happened. I remember my black neck pillow had fallen to the floor and gotten stuck. I was late getting off the bus, so I tugged as hard as I could, and it still wasn't

8 03, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 5, Part 4 – Papyrus Trap & Alexandria

By Lili|March 8th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, Alexandria, bargaining, bbq, bread, cat, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Travelogue, falafel, G Adventures, GAP, Giza, grill, group, group tour, hustle, Ice Cream, Middle East, papyrus, papyrus museum, road trip, shawarma, shopping, souvenir, tour, van|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday October 26, 2015 Egypt: Day 5, Part 4 – Papyrus Trap & Road to Alexandria We then headed to a "Papyrus Museum", or a store that has been licensed in making real authentic papyrus (fake/cheaper ones are made with banana leaves). The store showed us how the papyrus is cut, left to age in the water, and then how to make it by alternating layers in different directions and pounding out all the water. She showed how it

3 03, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 5, Part 3 – Mystery of the Sphinx

By Lili|March 3rd, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, bathroom, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Travelogue, G Adventures, GAP, Giza, Great Pyramids, Great Pyramids of Giza, group, group tour, Khafre, Middle East, mortuary temple, Pharaoh, sphinx, Temple, tour, van|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday October 26, 2015 Egypt: Day 5, Part 3 – Mystery of the Sphinx I don't recall why we had to wait, but as we did I snapped a photo of a pyramid through the first trees I had seen since arriving. We then started the walk through the souvenir sellers towards the mortuary temple in front of the Sphinx. Mikel acted as translator for any sellers that came up to us. He later said its easier for him

2 03, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 5, Part 2 – Khufu, Khafre, & Menkaure

By Lili|March 2nd, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, Camel, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Travelogue, G Adventures, GAP, Giza, Great Pyramids, Great Pyramids of Giza, group, Harry Potter, Khafre, Khufu, Menkaure, Middle East, Pyramid, Pyramid of Khafre, Pyramid of Khufu, Pyramid of Menkaure, Scabbers, tour group, van, Weasley, Weasley Vacation|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday October 26, 2015 Egypt: Day 5, Part 2 – Khufu, Khafre, & Menkaure One thing people always warn you is that the size of the pyramids make them seem like they are close enough to walk to...but they really aren't. Which is why we had hopped back into the van near Khufu's pyramid, and drove past Khafre. I strained to see it as we drove by. A short time later we were in front of Menkaure's Pyramid,

1 03, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 5, Part 1 – Great Pyramids of Giza

By Lili|March 1st, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Travelogue, G Adventures, GAP, Giza, Great Pyramids, Great Pyramids of Giza, group, Khafre, Khufu, Middle East, Pyramid, Pyramid of Khafre, Pyramid of Khufu, stones, ticket, tour group, van|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday October 26, 2015 Egypt: Day 5, Part 1 – Great Pyramids of Giza Elizabeth and I woke up early, and took turns taking showers. We got most of our belongings ready and then headed down to breakfast. To my dismay the potatoes were out. I tried to get attention of the staff and failed, so stuck with bread, butter, and those donut-esque little balls that I had previously. After a while they finally did bring some potatoes and

24 02, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 4, Part 6 – Starting the Tour

By Lili|February 24th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Abydos, Africa, bomb, Dendera, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Travelogue, falafel, Felfela, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Giza, Great Pyramids, group, Middle East, road, Shish Taouk, tour group, traffic|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Sunday October 25, 2015 Egypt: Day 4, Part 6 – Starting the Tour Upon entering my hotel room I noted that none of my friend Elizabeth's luggage was in the room. I figured she left her bags at the front desk and had gone out sight seeing. So took a shower and then I crawled into bed, and slept until 5:30 PM. When I woke up and Elizabeth still hadn't returned I got a bad feeling that the front desk

8 03, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: Its Smaller on the Outside

By Lili|March 8th, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2009, at the heart of it Ireland 2009, castle, CIE, Coat of Arms, coins, collectable, collection, contrade, contrade of Siena, Doctor Who, Dublin, euro, Europe, exchange money, flag, group, Ireland, large, memento, memories, shopping, Siena, souvenir, tour, tour group, travel|0 Comments

I was on my last afternoon in Ireland, and had a lot of euro coins left over. Knowing that my bank won't exchange coins, was buying random souvenirs as gifts. One of the last items I bought was a small county flag of Dublin, Ireland. I had seen them around while traveling and they reminded me of the flags of the different contrade of Siena. But when I returned home and open the package, I found that this 7 euro flag, was not a small flag. But it was actually the size of a traditional flag (about the size of a

22 02, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: Volcano Snow Globe

By Lili|February 22nd, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2012, Arenal, Arenal Volcano, Central America, collectable, collection, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, glass, group, La Fortuna, memento, memories, rain, San Jose, shopping, snow done, snow globe, snow globes, souvenir, tour, tour group, travel, unique, volcano|2 Comments

My latest snow globe souvenir is a unique find. While on my last full day in Costa Rica, my group asked our tour leader Randy where the best place to buy souvenirs was. He knew that we would be getting into San Jose really late and since most of us had an early flight the next day would not be able to get anything. So on the way back Randy had the van stop at a large and fancy store. He said it was usually frequented by the all-inclusive hotels and so would have the best selection of souvenirs, however

8 02, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: My First Snow Globe

By Lili|February 8th, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 1st, 2006, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, collectable, collection, Europe, glass, group, Italy, Mask, memento, memories, New Year's Day, Piazza San Marco, rain, Rialto Bridge, snow dome, snow globe, snow globes, souvenir, tour, tour group, Trafalger, travel, vaporetto, Venetian Mask, Venice|0 Comments

As I often travel during the colder, wetter, and snowier months, snow globes make a great souvenir for me to capture the memory of my travel experiences. It was New Year’s Day 2006 and I was standing under the awning of a small little shop right on the edge of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. I was with my mother and we were waiting for my father and little sister to return so we could board the vaporetto back to our hotel. It was alternating between rain and snow that day, and so we ducked into the shop to

20 01, 2014

Travel Missteps: In the Dark of the Night

By Lili|January 20th, 2014|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2013, airport, Belize, Caye Caulker, Central America, dark, driving, finish line, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, golf cart, group, island, lost, Mayan Encounter 2013, ocean, race, racing, runway, tour, tour group|0 Comments

"Now stay here, turn off your engines, and be quite! I'm going to see if the coast is clear." "Can we get arrested for this?" "No, not likely. This isn't the states. Possibly a bribe, that's all." We waited quietly in the dark while we watched one of the golf carts slowly make its way onto the unlit runway. Its little front lights getting dimmer as it blended into the darkness. Minutes went by but it seemed like an eternity to my excited and frightened mind. Then the golf cart came back. Our guide motioned for us to come over