Travel - Lili on the Loose

15 04, 2013

Travel Missteps: Disrupting Go Slow

By Lili|April 15th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2013, Belize, Caye Caulker, Central America, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, golf cart, hammock, island, Mayan Encounter 2013, Motto, racing, rush, scavenger hunt, slow life, sunset, tour, winner, winning|1 Comment

"Yo Mamma! Go slow. They ain't gonna leave you." I had heard that Belize's islands unofficial motto was "Go Slow". I had been warned that if I rushed I would be told to slow down. But I didn't expect that to be my first greeting in Belize while waiting for my water ferry to Caye Caulker. You see my group had been split up, and our van arrived an hour later than the other half of the group. When we finally made it to the dock I was told the boat was leaving in 2 minutes, so I was running around, going

1 04, 2013

Travel Missteps: The Color Coded Dance Card

By Lili|April 1st, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2009, at the heart of it Ireland 2009, CIE, color, colored sheep, Europe, Ireland, sheep, tour|0 Comments

An Irish Sheep with colors on its back. Ireland is full of 3 things: Pubs, Churches, and Sheep. In 2009 I visited southern Ireland for a few weeks. One thing I thought was out of the ordinary was the different colors on the sheep. Some markings are to help determine the owner of the sheep, as sometimes sheep from multiple farms are kept on the same land together. But other color markings are during the breeding season. The male sheep, a ram, has a harness installed near his neck that contains an animal friendly dye. When he mounts

18 03, 2013

Travel Missteps: Stuck in Paradise

By Lili|March 18th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2010, Caribbean, eruption, paradise, Snowpocalypse, snowstorm, St. John, St. John 2010, stranded, stuck, USVI, volcano, work|0 Comments

View overlooking Trunk Bay, St. John USVI In February 2010 I visited a paradise known as St. John USVI for the first time. Nearly 3/4th of the island is national park land and it is beautiful. I stayed in an eco cottages (pretty much tents in trees with geckos and frogs as roommates) and snorkeled every day. I didn't want to ever leave this paradise. But as with all trips the end seem to come too soon and it was time to go home. A day before I was supposed to fly out, I started hearing rumors that flights into the USVI had been cancelled and no

4 03, 2013

Travel Missteps: What time is it?

By Lili|March 4th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2002, Champs de Elysee, Europe, first trip abroad 2002, France, French, language, Paris, planning, time, watch|0 Comments

Time seems to stand still in Paris. You feel the desire to sit and watch as life unfolds around you. My first trip abroad was when I turned 16 and was a week in Paris, France in February 2002. It was a family trip, my mother had found insanely low vacation package that included pretty much everything (air, hotel, river cruise, museum passes, metro passes, etc) for around $700 per person. This was a few months after September 11th, 2001 and the world, including the travel industry was still reeling from the effects and that is why the package was so cheap.

18 02, 2013

Travel Missteps: Lost in Italy

By Lili|February 18th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2005, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, Assisi, bus, Christmas, church, churches, Europe, Italy, lost, New Years Eve, police, smart car, taxi, tour, Trafalger, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, view point|0 Comments

This is the view I should never have seen, but because I got lost I had a chance to see it. When you are on a strict timeline, getting lost can be a disaster. In late December of 2005 I was on a bus tour of Italy with my family. We were adamant that we were not "Bus Tour" people. We were use to doing things on our own. But we didn't speak any Italian so we decided to utilize a bus tour "but only for the transportation logistics". So we set out to plan down our moves in each "stop" of the tour,

12 02, 2013

Upcoming Travel Plans: Mayan Encounter 2013

By Lili|February 12th, 2013|Categories: Itinerary, Travel, Travel Planning, Upcoming Travel|Tags: 2013, Belize, Central America, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Guatemala, itinerary, Latin America, Mayan, Mayan Encounter 2013, Mayan ruins, Mexico, plan, planning, ruins, snorkel, snorkeling, tour, upcoming travel|0 Comments

For my next adventure I will explore Mayan ruins and enjoy fabulous snorkeling in Central America. My basic itinerary will be: After a full day of travel I will arrive in Guatemala late at night. I will spend 2 days in Antigua, Guatemala to explore the city. I plan on visiting many ruined churches, see a Coffee Plantation, see how Jade is made, and make my own Chocolate! Then my tour with Gadventures will start and we'll move onto Flores, Guatemala to explore the quaint and small island city on foot and by boat. The next day we'll move onto

4 02, 2013

Travel Missteps: Not Lost on Translation

By Lili|February 4th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, Asia, cabins, camping, Chino, exchange program, ghost story, horror story, Japan, Japanese, language, local culture, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, slang, Tokyo, translation, Yen|0 Comments

I am in the center of the photo next to Chris and in the front left we have my host sister. In the summer of 2004 I participated in a student exchange through the Sister Cities program to Chino, Japan. I was the first person in 13 years of this exchange to speak some Japanese. This was great for me as I could talk to my host family and strangers and absorb more of the culture. For example, on our first day in Tokyo we went to a "one yen/one coin" store where everything was just 1 yen. We

21 01, 2013

Travel Missteps: Punks on a Train

By Lili|January 21st, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2011, Bavaria, beer, cannibal, Christmas, Christmas in Germany 2011, Europe, Germany, locals, Munich, music, Punks, Rothenburg, train|0 Comments

Travel is all about the journey and sometimes that journey is unexpected. In December 2011 I was traveling through Germany with my family. I am the navigator in my family, it is my duty to plan out all methods of travel to make sure we get where we need to go. After spending Christmas in Munich we were making our way to the Medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber by train. Our first train was packed and so we had to spread out. My mother sat next to an old German woman who spoke quick German to my very confused

7 01, 2013

Travel Missteps: Postponed

By Lili|January 7th, 2013|Categories: Currently Traveling, Travel|Tags: 2013, CES, CES 2013, current travel, currently traveling, Las Vegas, USA, work|0 Comments

No Travel Missteps this week as I'm at Las Vegas for CES 2013. I'll have some more stories for you soon!

24 12, 2012

Travel Missteps: A Grave Christmas Tree Mistake

By Lili|December 24th, 2012|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2011, Bavaria, Christmas, Christmas in Germany 2011, Christmas Tree, Europe, Germany, graveyard, Home Alone, local culture, Movie, Munich, Odeonsplatz, ornament, traditions, U-Bahn|0 Comments

A decorated Christmas Tree in Munich. A little large for what I was looking for. My little sister had been teaching in Kenya, so the family decided to meet "halfway" in Germany for Christmas 2011. I felt like Kevin McCallister in the "Home Alone" movies, worried we wouldn't have a real Christmas tree. So I had researched ahead of time where to get a little Christmas tree and Odeonsplatz in Munich was recommended on a ex-pat forum. The key issue with this plan is we were staying two U-Bahn stops away from Odeonsplatz, which would make for an interesting subway ride if