22 07, 2017

Souvenir Saturday: Cartouche

By |July 22nd, 2017|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Custom cartouche necklaces. The most common souvenir in Egypt. You'll find hotels, your Nile cruise ship, and numerous shops selling these to you. They also take 24-48 hours to make and return. The first step is deciding what it should say. For me my first name is too boring, so I decided to go with initials (yes...I have that many middle names...). After that you'll choose the cartouche (you'll see tons of styles), what metal the cartouche and the letters should be. (Its hard to tell but the cartouche is silver, while the letters are gold.) And you can also choose if

17 07, 2017

Travel Missteps: The Determined Thief of Edinburgh

By |July 17th, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Source I've written before before how my family used the "Hop on / Hop Off" busses in England to get around the cities a lot. But one of our last times on those sightseeing busses turned out to be the most eventful. As per usual, we got to the designated starting point early and claimed seats at the top. We had a wide choice of seats, the only other person on the top deck was two older women sitting together. I decided to sit halfway back, mainly because at this point in a 2 week trip I

13 07, 2017

Lush Products for Travel Review

By |July 13th, 2017|Categories: Product Review, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Years ago, I stumbled upon this post on solid shampoo by Alex in Wonderland. As I read a lot of travel blogs, it was just one article among a sea of others. But later in 2015, as I planned my trip to Egypt, I was trying to figure out how to limit the amount of liquids that I'd take to Egypt. On previous trips to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, I had either checked my main bag, or checked a smaller bag that only contained sunscreen. I didn't want to do that this time, so I started pouring through

11 07, 2017

May 2017 Recap

By |July 11th, 2017|Categories: Blog Recaps and Roundups|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

I didn't really do anything in May other than get ready for my June Panama trip. So here is a random dream I had: I had one of those stress-travel dreams (except I don't get that stressed, it's mostly, "wow this is not going well" plus it was all dreamland like where it wasn't like any normal trip.) At some point we finally board the plane. The guy next to me is telling me about his awesome bag (I had been IRL looking at bags before going to bed) he then points to this thing on top of his bag. This is

10 07, 2017

Museum Monday: Djed-maat-es-ankh’s Mummy

By |July 10th, 2017|Categories: Museums, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This is not a sarcophagus, it is actually called a cartonnage, meaning the mummy is covered with layers of plaster and then painted. (Therefore she is sealed inside and cannot be removed or opened.) This cartonnage mummy is a woman by the name of Djed-maat-es-ankh and she now resides at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. She was likely an ordinary middle-class woman or even a musician had lived in Luxor in the 9th century BC (22nd Dynasty during the 3rd Intermediate Period) and died of a dental issue. She is one of the best-preserved examples from her timeperiod, although it is rumored

8 07, 2017

Souvenir Saturday: Nightmare Before Christmas

By |July 8th, 2017|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Happy Christmas in July! I wanted to share these two dolls I got in Orlando last year. There was a full size Sally, but she just looked weird and that bothered me. So I went with the smaller cartoon-like version of her instead. But the smaller cartoon-sized of Jack looked funny, so went with his more true skinny version. Both were found in the Christmas shop in Walt Disney World. Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.

3 07, 2017

Travel Missteps: Getting out of (Timeshare) Jail

By |July 3rd, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

I remember when growing up, my parents would frequently go to timeshare presentations. Not to actually buy anything, but to use whatever free stuff they were giving away. In Colorado, that usually was a free or discounted hotel room (and free childcare during the presentation) at a ski resort in the summer. I remember multiple times going up for a quick weekend in the mountains while my parents disappeared for a few hours before coming back.  But, I was young and didn't have any idea what was actually happening until I experienced it first hand. I don't know how this