Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 4

Today is Harry Potter train ride day!

The day started out gloomy and wet and dark and cloudy. We had already identified a vegan restaurant for our breakfast and it was a 10 min walk from our hotel in the direction of the train station. We donned our raincoats and headed out in the rain.

The restaurant was almost full but we managed to get into the last two seats remaining and placed our order (Sourdough bread with butter/jam, fruit crumble, smoothie (oat, chia seeds, fruit), coffee). It was a table that is normally not assigned to customers because it blocked an entrance used by the staff and delivery persons but they allowed us to sit there by adjusting the seat positions. A few min later, the people at the table next to us got up and left, so we moved there. Breakfast was decent but not great.

We walked up to the station and saw our train waiting on the platform. In spite of the pouring rain, Sahana and I made our way to the front so we could see the steam engine in all its glory! Took the obligatory selfies in front of the engine and then made our way back to our carriage/coach/car. The conductor led us to our seats and told us that passengers facing the front of the train would need to face the back of the train and also switch sides for the return journey so all passengers got a fair chance to look towards the front as well as get a good view of the Glenfinnan Viaduct (the most famous sight on the whole journey). The Glenfinnan viaduct is on a curve to the left (while going towards Mallaig from Ft William), so people on the left side can see the viaduct on the onward journey and people on the right side can see it on the return journey.

The seating arrangement was in the form of tables with pairs of passengers facing each other. We were opposite a couple of sisters from Wisconsin that were big fans of Harry Potter. September 1 is apparently the day that the students at Hogwarts return to school and today was Sept 1! Quite a few passengers (young and old) were wearing robes and other stuff related to the Harry Potter series, so we were definitely one of the odd ones out on the train!

The staff on the train were very, very, very strict about not allowing passengers to put their phones/cameras outside the window to take pictures. The reason they gave is that lot of people had dropped or lost their phones/cameras in the past. So, everybody had to take pictures with their phones/cameras almost fully inside the train or through the glass window, so it was almost impossible to get good pictures.

Pro tip: Unless you're a huge Harry Potter fan, just buy a ScotRail ticket from Ft William to Mallaig or the other way. It will be much cheaper and travel on the exact same route. Also, get off at Glenfinnan station, stay the night in a nearby hotel and do the short (30-45 min) hike to the Glenfinnan Viaduct and just watch as the HP train goes by. Wave to the passengers and enjoy the much better view of the viaduct than any of the passengers on the train.

When we reached Mallaig, it was very windy and cold. Earlier, we had planned to go on a Wildlife Cruise around a nearby island where we could see dolphins, seals and some other animals/birds. But, because of the weather, that day's cruise was canceled so we didn't really have anything to do in Mallaig. We went into a restaurant and had a coffee and vegan hot chocolate. Then, we randomly walked around the local streets and the nearby harbor. My phone was already dying by then and I realized that I'd forgotten to pack the vape charger or a suitable cable. With about 15% charge remaining, I had to conserve power, so I could take pictures of the viaduct on the way back.

During the return leg, we were seated with our backs to the engine and the sisters from Wisconsin were facing the front, so they got a better view of the viaduct. I tried my best to crane my neck and get some pictures with the camera and my phone. I think I succeeded in getting a couple of good shots. But, honestly, being on the train prevents you from getting a wide shot of the entire width and height of the whole viaduct.

Also, at the start of the return leg, one of staff members came to our seat and handed us two boxes of something saying that we had ordered it. I told them that I had not ordered anything and that they were mistaken. Then, they asked my name and when I told them, they confirmed that it was my order. That's when I realized that I had actually ordered a vegan tea snack package! When we opened the box, we found a huge assortment of things in each that could feed a small village in Africa for a couple of days! We immediately closed the boxes and resolved to eat the contents slowly over the course of a few days.

We reached Ft William about 15 min early (around 3:45pm), so we had quite a lot of time to spend in the day. On the way back to the hotel, we went to a supermarket and picked up some bananas and some packaged noodles that we could use in Skye if we didn't find any vegan food. We came back to the hotel and started thinking of things we could do for the rest of the evening but we decided against it and instead spoke with Sneha and then with Ashwin. We tried a couple of items from the snack box we got on the train and then went to sleep.

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 3

Today, we canceled our planned morning visit to Dean Village and Water of Leith Parkway because we had to go to the pharmacy. I made an appointment for 9am at a pharmacy that was a 15-20 min drive and left the hotel at 8:30am by Uber. I met the pharmacist and explained the situation and they were very understanding. She asked us to come back in about 10-15 min while they filled the prescription. We found a cafe that offered non-dairy milk options and walked a couple of blocks down the road to grab some coffee. They also had vegan croissants and a vegan cinnamon bun that day, so we ordered those as well.

We returned to the pharmacy, picked up the prescription and returned to the hotel by tram (cheaper than Uber). We were supposed to pick up our rental car at 10:30am, so we didn't have much time. We quickly packed up all our stuff and checked out of the room. We dragged our suitcases to the Hertz car rental place which was a 12-15 min walk but it was mostly on a road on a down incline, so it wasn't too bad.

The process to rent the car took some time as we had to pick between two cars and complete the paperwork for it. We ended up with a pretty new BYD hatchback. I took some time to mentally prepare myself to drive on the left side of the road, adjusted the mirrors and seat position, got Google Maps set up and set off. Thankfully, there wasn't too much traffic because it was a weekend, so I didn't find it too difficult.

First stop was a small village called Cramond which was about 5 miles from Edinburgh. After getting a bit lost because I selected directions to some random car park (part of some surgical practice!), we made our way to a promenade that runs along the Firth of Forth. When the tide is low (which it was when we visited), the sand is exposed and people just walk there on the sand/beach. Dogs have plenty of fun because they're let off the leash and they go absolutely crazy running around and splashing in the few pools of water!

The weather was very pleasant, so we walked for about 30-40 min and then walked back to the car to get back on the road for our next stop: Stirling Castle. Stirling Castle was about 45-50 min away and we had to get on the freeway for this. I started becoming more comfortable driving by now and we made good time. We spent about 2-3 hours in Stirling Castle which was mostly ruled by Scottish rulers as opposed to Edinburgh Castle which traded hands among English and Scottish rulers over the centuries. We didn't do a guided tour here and instead relied on some headsets that we rented. Just like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle is on top of a hill that gives it a vantage point and natural protection from potential invaders. The height also gives us nice views of the countryside. The castle is also a bit unique in terms of having sculpted statues around the exterior walls.

After finishing up with Stirling Castle, we went to Cafe Aina (Greek restaurant with many plant-based options). We had a vegan souvlaki with potato wedges and a very unique dessert which is traditionally non-vegan but the owner's mother had created a plant-based version of it. After lunch, we walked around the Stirling town's center on cobblestone streets for about 10 min and the made our way back to our car.

We got back in the car and headed to Fort William, our base for the next day and a half. The landscape and scenery changes dramatically as we enter the Highlands area with huge hills and deep valleys and windy, up-and-down roads. We made some stops on the way to just take in the views. We reached our hotel in Fort William at 7:40pm and checked in. We skipped dinner because our lunch in Cafe Aina was quite late (around 4:30pm) and heavy.

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 2

Our plan for today included a visit to Edinburgh Castle and St Giles Cathedral followed by some general walking around in the Old Town area. Weather was forecast to be pretty rainy through the day, so we had to be well-equipped with rain gear.

For breakfast, we went to a new place called Lovecrumbs. We were originally thinking of going to a different place but we realized at the last moment that they were closed that day. We had passed by this Lovecrumbs earlier but we had assumed that there was nothing vegan on their menu. We were so wrong! They had quite a lot of options and we chose to have slices of bread with vegan butter and jam plus....a cinnamon roll! I have a thing for cinnamon rolls and I plan to have one every day in Scotland till I get sick of it! The bread was also so fresh and chewy on the outside but so soft/fluffy in the middle.

Energized, we walked to Edinburgh Castle and reached there at around 11:20am. There was a moderately long line but by the time we reached the ticket checking point, we were told that we were too early and that we should come back around noon. So, we turned back and went to some gift shop to buy some souvenirs. Then, we walked around that area for about 15-20 min, watched some bagpipers make some really sweet music and then made our way back to the line. This time, we reached the front of the queue at exactly noon, so the girl let us through. By this time, it was raining on and off, as predicted.

We made our way to the start point of our 30-min long guided tour. After that, we were free to roam around the castle grounds on our own, exploring different areas in depth, based on our interests. Our guide was Sam and he gave us headsets through which we could hear him as he walked around, explaining the history of the castle, the stories behind it and the various places of interest in the castle grounds.

After the guided tour, we stuck around the castle area for another couple of hours and explored different parts. We rented another pair of multimedia headsets that would explain each part of the castle in detail. But, we hardly ended up using it. It's difficult to keep track of all the names of the kings and queens and princes and the people around them, especially if the names are all repeated with a roman numeral attached to the end (James 1 thru' James VI, for example)! Again, by this time our feet/hips/ankles were all hurting but we decided to continue anyway after taking some rest.

We went to St Giles Cathedral which was a short 5-min walk from the castle. We went inside and admired the architecture and the sheer size of the inside. There was a choir group led by a young conductor and they were playing contemporary songs instead of church choirs! We heard them play Star Wars and the James Bond movie theme song and a few more. Then, we headed out and started walking along the Royal Mile and exploring small side streets (called Closes) that branched off of it. The entrance to these closes would be via an arch between two buildings. Some of the closes would wind down steeply to another street and you would get some really nice views of the city through the arch.

Eventually, we took a turn at a major intersection on to another street and then took a small lane (more like a series of steps) to some other random street. At this time, we were just wandering around without a specific aim but just trying to explore the Old Town. We walked into some random museum and saw the paintings and artwork on one of their floors before heading back out. By this time, we were beginning to feel hungry and I'd already set my sights on a plant-based Mexican restaurant called Antojitos. It was a 20 min walk but we still worked up the determination to walk there. The weather was looking extremely threatening with dark clouds hanging low overhead.

We reached the place where Google Maps said that Antojitos was but all we saw was a restaurant with a different name, so we thought Google Maps got it wrong. At this time, the rain started coming down in sheets. I checked Google Maps once more and got the impression that Antojitos was across the road in an outdoor food court type of area. We crossed the road in the rain and quickly looked around but we couldn't see the restaurant. We sought some shelter near a pub and asked the guy working there if he knew where Antojitos was. He asked to look at my Google Maps and then pointed back across the road to a different place. So, we put on our raincoats and made our way back across the road but we still couldn't find the restaurant in the place where he had pointed us. It was raining so hard that I couldn't even read what Google Maps was showing, so we decided to look for some shelter and take a closer look. Then, it struck me that Antojitos was possibly inside some other restaurant. I'm not sure what the deal was between those two restaurants (maybe Antojitos recently moved in there and had not yet removed the old signboard?). Anyway, sure enough, when we went back to the place that Google Maps had indicated in the first place, we realized that there's a small signboard that said 'Antojitos". So, we went inside but there was absolutely no empty table. Also, because it was raining so heavily, nobody was in a hurry to finish eating and go back out in the rain, so it was unlikely that we would get a table any time soon.

Then, Sahana made the bold move to ask a couple seated at a 4-seater table if they would be OK with sharing their table with us. They were nice enough to accommodate us, so we took our seats. The waitress was a bit confused about how billing would work and also wasn't sure if the other couple was OK with us sitting at their table. After she was reassured by them, she took our orders. We ordered a plate with three tacos with some toppings and also tostada with refried beans and some accompaniments. Everything was SO good!

By the time we finished dinner, the rain had eased up, so we headed out and started walking towards an ice cream place that was rated highly on Happy Cow for vegan options. There was a long line even in that weather but it moved quite quickly. However, after entering the place, we realized that both the non-dairy flavors were actually sorbets. Anyway, we got cups with one scoop of each flavor (black currant and lime-prickly pear-ginger) and walked back to the hotel for some well-earned rest.

That's when I realized that I'd forgotten to pack one of my important prescription meds from the US. We decided to cancel our plans to do some sightseeing early the next morning and instead go to a pharmacy to get an emergency 1-week supply. I think we need to work on making our checklist more detailed for future trips!

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 1

 About an hour before landing, they served some tea/coffee/soft drinks and offered some banana bread that was non-vegan. I took the tea but Sahana slept through it. The pilot had made good time, so we touched down in Edinburgh about 20-25 min ahead of time (butter-smooth landing!).

Immigration was very smooth with no interaction with humans but we had to wait a very, very long time for our luggage to arrive. We headed out and looked for the tram station. There are multiple options to get to the downtown area (about 35-45 min away) like bus, tram, train and cab.

We bought tickets for the tram and got on to one that was ready to leave. Thankfully, we got a couple of empty seats, so we could sit down. We realized later that the tram gets very crowded, so it wouldn't have been easy for us to stand for such a long time in our sleep-deprived state.

We got off at the Haymarket station and tried to orient ourselves so we could walk to our hotel which was supposed to be only about a 10 min walk. As usual, Google Maps and Apple Maps were confused about which direction we were pointing, so we initially headed down the wrong way and then had to trace our way back, all this while lugging 3 suitcases. It took us almost 30 min to reach our hotel because, as we realized later, I missed a turn somewhere, so we took a really long route to our hotel. We were already very tired when we reached the hotel on top of being sleep-deprived.

Thankfully, the hotel staff told us that they had a room available for early check-in, so we got our keys and headed up to our room to freshen up before heading out. The room turned out to be a typical, European-style matchbox of a room with barely enough room to keep three closed suitcases. But, Sahana found a way to organize them so we could at least open one of them at a time when needed. We had a shower in a super-tiny bathroom and then headed out for some breakfast and later, Hollyrood Palace & Arthur's Seat.

We found a place called Braw Brunch where they had vegan cinnamon rolls and coffee with non-dairy options. Unfortunately, they had only one vegan roll remaining, so we ordered that and two coffees. The staff was super friendly and pleasant to talk to.

It was a long-ish walk to Hollyrood Palace and we had to walk through the Royal Mile to get there. The Royal Mile is this super busy stretch of walkable road where there's buskers, street entertainers and a huge throng of tourists just walking around. It's got a very festive atmosphere. Later, we found out that it's the last few days of a festival called The Fringe. The Fringe along with the Edinburgh International Festival is the third highest globally ticketed event in the world after the Olympics and the World Cup!

We slowly made our way through the crowds and the streets of Edinburgh Old Town till we reached the Hollyrood Palace around 1pm. We showed our tickets and picked up the multimedia sets for the self-guided tour. This took the better part of 90 min but it was very interesting to see how the Scottish/British royals lived way back in the 16th & 17th centuries. It's still used today by the British royals as a summer residence. After visiting the palace, we went to see the Abbey (or what remains of it) and then walked through the garden.

We exited Hollyrood Palace and made our way towards the path that leads to Arthur's Seat. From where we were, Arthur's Seat looked impossibly high and I was ready to quit right there but I saw so many people walking up that I decided that we should try going as far as we could. It starts off as a paved path but quickly turns into a rough path of gravel/stones/pebbles and mud. People walk wherever it's convenient and sometimes, you have to figure out which way suits you best. Sometimes, you may want to take the gradual incline with stones/gravel/mud but just next to it, there will be some steep/high steps.  The other major challenge is just the degree of incline. It's equivalent to a 10:1 on the treadmill but at the same time, it's also relentless. There's hardly a point at which the ground levels off.

Anyway, we kept taking breaks to catch our breath, for drinking water and once, for half a protein bar each. There's a mini-summit at which there's a broad flat area where people take some rest and admire the view. Some people give up at that point and head back because the short stretch from here to the peak becomes more treacherous. The pebbles turn into big, loose rocks and there's no discernible path or trail anymore. Each person has to just identify footholds that look secure enough and make their way to the top. And, because these rocks are loosely strewn about, the footing is less secure when you're going down. This worried both Sahana and me a lot.

At this point, we kept thinking we should stop and head back and then we would change our mind and take a few steps up. We kept doing that till we finally reached the top. There were two "peaks" where there were a couple of pyramidal blocks placed to signify the peak(s). We chose one of them that seemed to be slightly higher than the other and found a place to sit and take rest and the obligatory pics! Also, we wanted to stop our brains from worrying about going back down through those rocks!

On the way back down, because there was no clear trail among the rocks, we ended up not joining the trail that we originally climbed up on. Instead, we appeared to be on some semi-trail that was about 10ft below the actual trail and there was no clear way to get back to the actual trail. Then, we noticed that, from our trail, we could actually find our way down to some wide flat meadow that slowly descended back in parallel to the trail and it looked a lot simpler/safer than the pebble/gravel-strewn one that we had climbed up on. There were a few people on that meadow also walking down, so we thought we would just follow them. This made our lives a lot easier.

About halfway down the slope, we met a local who was walking his dog. He seemed very friendly and advised us to turn and continue on a different path down the slope to a paved trail that ran around the base of the mountain. That would take us back to the parking lot where we started. We would end up walking for about 15 min longer but the views would be much better and the path would not be as perilous as the original one. So, we thanked him and took the path he recommended. Big mistake, as it turned out. We don't know if he was underestimating the distance or if we didn't follow his advice properly, but the paved path ended up being an extremely long, winding way to get back to our starting point. Think of it as doing 330 deg around a circle instead of doing the other 30 deg. By the time we hit the paved path itself, Sahana was limping because her hip was hurting and my feet were killing me and my ankle had begun to hurt (again!). And, the paved path refused to end. We kept walking and passing people and we would keep asking them if the path led to the parking lot and they would say yes, but that it would be quite a long distance. We kept trying to keep each other's spirits up but at a certain point (we were quite close to the parking lot by then, I think), we just gave up. We decided to call an Uber and go back to the hotel room.

Our earlier plan had been to walk to a place called Soul Vegan for dinner. But, now that we were heading back to the hotel, we had to come up with an alternate plan. We decided to try ordering from Soul Vegan using Doordash. Doordash has partnered with a local company called Deliveroo, so we ordered some food (Singapore Fried Noodles with tofu, spring rolls, fries) through them and had it delivered to our room. Food was very tasty.

Our overall opinion, so far, of Scottish locals is that they're super friendly and nice to talk to. They're always willing to help strangers and visitors out. As we found out later from an Indian cab driver, their economy thrives mainly on tourism and foreign students, so it benefits them to be very nice to tourists! But, I still think that they're just super nice people, in general.

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sept 2026 - Day 0

 Our day 0 started with us leaving home at 11:30am to go to DCA where we would attempt to get on an earlier flight to BOS (our layover en route to Edinburgh). Our original booking had us fly out of DCA at almost 6pm to get in to Boston at around 8pm with the connecting flight to Edinburgh scheduled to take off at around 10:30pm. 2-1/2 hours may sound like a decent layover but JetBlue's recent on-time %age looked absolutely terrible, so I didn't want to take any chances. It's a good thing we did because, around 2am of the night before travel, my JetBlue app sent me a notification saying that the flight would be delayed by 90 min. There were 5 more flights from DCA to BOS before ours that day but we opted to skip the first two.

The agent at the check-in counter did not attempt to put us on the flight we were thinking of (at 1:25pm) and instead put us on standby for the 5pm flight. I didn't want to argue with her to ask her to put us on the 2:25pm flight, so we decided to go to the gate and wait. By a strange coincidence, the same gate was also assigned for the 2:25pm flight! As soon as the gate agent came to log on and prepare for the boarding, I walked over and explained the situation and asked her if we could be put on standby for the 2:25pm flight. To my surprise, she agreed without any further questions and gave me a provisional boarding pass and told us to wait till boarding began. The incoming flight arrived a bit late so the 2:25pm flight was scheduled to leave at around 3pm. We settled down for a long-ish wait. I got some coffee and we had it with a protein bar. The crowd was building up all this time at the gate and I started feeling a bit apprehensive about our chances.

At around 2:25pm, they started announcing the start of boarding. Just before that, the gate agent motioned me to come over and said that our chances aren't looking too good but that we were were top of the wait list. We settled back down and waited for the boarding process to continue. By now, there was a huge crowd around the gate and it looked increasingly unlikely that there would be any no-shows.

10 min before departure, they closed the gate and a couple of min after that, two male passengers ran up to the gate and requested to be let on the plane but the agent refused to let them board and asked them to go to the Customer Service desk and try to get the situation resolved. As soon as they had gone, she motioned me to come over again and whispered conspiratorially that we got confirmed seating on the flight. It's like she was afraid that the two customers she had sent away just then would see her assigning two seats to some random passengers. So, we essentially ended up getting the seats of those two passengers that were sent away! Since they had already closed the doors to the jetbridge, I had taken it for granted that there's no way we can get on that flight. Anyway, she quietly re-opened the gate's doors to the jetbridge and asked us to hurry to the plane, also telling the flight crew that the "missed flight" passengers were headed their way! I'm not sure why she thought we had missed a connecting flight but I'm glad she did!

When we got to the plane, there were a few passengers in the first few rows that were looking slightly impatient/annoyed when they saw us because I think they thought that we had arrived late for our flight and held it up. Anyway, it turns out that those two passengers who were sent away had really nice seats (2F & 5D). The seats were right up front and although Amma and I had to sit separately, there was PLENTY of leg room and we could sit comfortably.

We took off quickly and I settled down to watch a couple of episodes of Friends on the TV. Good selection of media entertainment and most importantly, my AirPods worked with the entertainment system! About 30 min before landing, there was some incident in Amma's row of seats. Some passenger was having a medical problem, so the flight crew asked if there was a doctor on the plane. A couple of passengers went to help and I saw the crew caring for some passenger sitting two seats away from Sahana. The pilot told us to stay in our seats after landing till the medical staff could come on board and tend to the affected passenger.

It turned out (Sahana told me later) that the passenger was feeling finding it difficult to breathe, lightheaded and experiencing heart palpitations. After landing, the medical crew came on board, treated the patient for a while and then took her off the aircraft in a wheelchair. It didn't sound like it was a life-threatening issue.

Sahana and I got off the plane and headed to a helpdesk to ask if we could get the boarding passes for the second flight. We were hoping that our seats on the 2nd flight would be assigned by then but it turns out they would only be assigned a few min before boarding began. Since we boarded our first flight so late, there was no room in the overhead compartments for our carry-on, so they had stowed it with the rest of the luggage. So, we had to go to the baggage carousel to pick it up, which means that we would have to go through security once again.

Since we were anyway going to have to go through security and we had about 5-6 hours for the 2nd flight, we decided to take a train into downtown Boston and have some dinner. The train station was a bus ride away from the airport terminal but we were in the downtown area fairly quickly. We were fairly familiar with that area since we'd visited it in 2022. The Honeygrow restaurant we had chosen was near the piers, which was about a mile away. Weather was decent but we were dragging our carry on with us, so that slowed us down a bit. The worst part all along our walk was the stinky, fishy smell from the ocean and the restaurants. Seafood is big in Boston and almost every restaurant boasts about it.

We finished our dinner and then found an ice cream shop nearby that served a fruit sorbet in a vegan waffle cone. So, we headed there and had a mango-pineapple swirl and then, although our feet were hurting a bit by then (Amma more than me), we decided to walk back to the station and go back the way we came instead of catching an Uber all the way back to the airport. It took us a bit longer on the way back, so we reached the airport around 7:30pm. We went through security and got to our gate by 8pm, so we had a long wait for our next flight (10:36pm). When boarding started, we were relieved to find that we had got seats together in a decent row (16). We assumed that they wouldn't serve dinner because of the late departure but they ended up serving something around 11:30pm. Although we had already specified that our meals should be vegan, they had a common menu for everybody to choose from. Thankfully, one of the items in the meal was accidentally vegan (tofu chunks with quinoa and some other stuff). But, the whole thing was served in plastic containers and was freezing cold. Neither Sahana nor I felt like eating it, so we packed it in a bag and thought we would try to have it later sometime.

Sahana went to sleep almost immediately and I tried to as well but, as usual, I hardly got any good sleep. I watch 2-3 more episodes of Friends and grabbed a few winks of sleep in between.

Trip to Costa Rica - Day 0 (April 24, 2026)

Sneha had gone to Chicago to attend a classmate's engagement/wedding, so Sahana and I thought we could use the opportunity to do some travel ourselves. We had a Delta SkyMiles "Free Companion Ticket" voucher that was due to expire by the end of the month, so we decided to visit Costa Rica. There was a lot of hasty planning to be done but Claude came to the rescue and put together a clean plan for us, prioritizing the sequence in which we had to do our booking/reservations. We targeted a visit to two main places for this visit because it was only going to be 5-6 days long.

Bright and early in the morning on April 24, we headed to San Jose, Costa Rica. Our flight consisted of two legs: DCA to ATL and ATL to SJO with a 2-hour layover in ATL. Our flight from DCA to ATL departed at 6am, so we had to be at the airport no later than 4:30am. We had pre-booked an Uber and the driver arrived promptly to take us to the airport. We were through security very quickly, thanks to TSA Pre. Before long, we were up in the air and on our way to ATL. Short flight and after getting off from the aircraft, we headed to the terminal for our next flight and looked for a place to grab some breakfast. Almost every place had a really long line. We headed to Caribou Coffee and ordered a couple of bagels and some coffee/tea.

The next flight started boarding just as we finished eating. It was a longer flight (~4 hrs) and largely uneventful. We landed on time at San Jose (just before noon local time) and headed towards the immigration/customs area. There, we found that there were a million people (or at least it seemed like there were that many) in the line, probably because several flights had landed around the same time. The initial going was very slow but I guess they opened up a few more kiosks soon because we started moving up at a more reasonable pace. Still, it took us an hour to get to the baggage carousel. Thanks to the long immigration line, the wait for our baggage was very short and we were soon headed out of the terminal towards our rental car shuttle. There was no counter in the terminal for our rental car company so we had to walk outside and look for a guy holding up a sign with the company's name on it. He directed us to another guy holding up a similar sign further ahead so we made our way there and were asked to wait because the shuttle would be around to pick us up in about 15 min. Finally, the shuttle arrived and took us to the rental car office where we signed a bunch of documents and were shown to our car. It was a Suzuki Vitara 4x4.

Two important points to note about driving in Costa Rica:

1. Waze is the only maps/directions app that works in Costa Rica. Don't risk it by using any other app.
2. Rent a 4x4 and get the maximum insurance coverage. Road conditions can get very, very, very bad and you just can't predict what the car will have to endure, especially if it starts raining.

Our first port of call was going to be a lodge/resort near La Fortuna. La Fortuna is the base for sights and treks in the Arenal Volcano area. The name of the lodge was Finca Luna Nueva Lodge. I set Waze with that destination and we headed out of the rental car office. The first thing we did was get lost! I'm not sure what happened but Waze had difficulty figuring out where we were and what direction we were headed and I'm so used to the Google Maps (or Apple Maps) UI that I (and Sahana) had difficulty figuring out which way Waze wanted us to go. Finally, Waze gave us trying to make us go on the optimal route and instead rerouted us via some narrow lanes back to the way were supposed to go (which was in the opposite direction of where we were initially headed).

Driving in Costa Rica took some getting used to for me. There are a lot of ups and downs in Costa Rica, so they've created passing lanes very frequently, so slower traffic can move to the right and let others pass. The problem is that the lanes merge back rather abruptly after a distance. It took me a while to realize that because I kept moving to the slow lane to let others pass and then I would suddenly find my lane being asked to merge back to the left. Traffic was also quite heavy even though it was around 2:30pm on a Friday.

As we left the city behind, the roads became a bit emptier but also a bit curvier and narrower. We passed through some small towns/villages. Many of the bridges can accommodate vehicles in one direction only so you'll see a lot of 'CEDA' signs which means that you have to yield to oncoming traffic. If you don't see a 'CEDA' sign in your side of a bridge, that means that you have the right of way.

About 45 min before we reached our lodge, we got our first glimpse of Arenal Volcano, towering 5000ft up from the ground, perfectly conical in shape, just like we imagine volcanoes to be. By then, the roads were extremely winding and went through significant inclines up and down. You have to concentrate very hard and it can tire you out mentally, if not physically.

As we were motoring along, we started seeing signs for a resort/restaurant (called Lands in Love) that was advertising vegan food. We had been debating if we should have dinner at the lodge after checking in or have a light snack somewhere else. This resort/restaurant seemed to be calling out our name, so we kept following the signs until there was an abrupt turn off the highway into a narrow, barely paved lane into the woods. We followed this road for a mile or more, feeling more and more apprehensive about the remoteness of the location. Finally, we reached the place and parked the car. We headed to the restaurant and ordered a hummus pita and an avocado toast plus a mixed fruit juice. The food was delicious and the portion sizes were too much for us, so we had some of it packed and headed back on our way to the lodge.

Waze was rock solid the rest of the way and we arrived at the lodge at around 5:30pm. We checked in and got the keys to our lodge/cabin. We had a large cabin to ourselves and there was enough vegetation all around that we couldn't even see our neighboring cabins. There are no TVs in the cabin but you do get WiFi. It's super silent and the only things you can hear, depending on the time of day and weather, are birds, insects, amphibians or rain/thunder. The cabin had huge windows and we chose to keep all of them open, so we could see nature surrounding us.

The lodge/resort advertises themselves as being "Farm to table". That means that they produce everything they need to run the property on the property. Like most of Costa Rica, they are very environmentally conscious.

We didn't have any activity planned for the day and the change in time zone (CR is two hours behind Eastern) plus the early start to our day meant that we were ready to hit the sack by about 9pm local time. We had a busy day ahead of us, so we had to be fresh for it.

Italy 2014 - Some thoughts

I want to jot down some random thoughts about our trip to Italy

• Onions. Almost non-existent on most menus. While it's a staple topping on most pizzas in India and the US, it was almost impossible to find onion as a topping for pizzas
• Tomatoes. Absolutely the juiciest, firmest and most scrumptious tomatoes I've ever tasted. No wonder their pizzas and pasta taste so good. I don't know what the secret is to grow such delicious tomatoes but I thoroughly enjoyed them
•  If you ask me, all the vowels that were taken away from Polish names were given to the Italians. I would routinely see names with 5 vowels strung together like "iaiou" or something. How in the world are we supposed to pronounce that?
• Antique water fountains in Rome. Water is always pouring out from them. Cold, clean, sweet water that was very refreshing for us on our long walks through the city. It's a harsh comparison to India where there's so much scarcity of water.
• The famed pickpockets. We didn't see them anywhere except possibly in the Termini (Rome's railway terminus).
• The standard feature in almost all multi-storeyed apartment buildings in and around Rome was a balcony with colorful flowers and shrubs.
• The underground metro is not as sophisticated (is that the right word?) as the ones in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, London or Paris but they are pretty heavily used especially during peak hours.
• The Tuscan countryside is really very scenic and enjoyable. The ideal way (like one of my friends recommended but which we didn't do) is to rent bicycles, motorcycles or your own car and freestyle your way across the region visiting farms, tasting wine, cheese, etc. as well as getting to know the people. If you learn Italian, it would make it that much easier to blend in.
• Venice is a charming but a very, very confusing city to visit. Most tourist guides tell you to "get lost" in Venice and believe me, it's very easy! The streets are often unmarked and very, very narrow. Familiarity by repeated traversal is the only solution, it seems.

Trip to Greece - Summary

Weather

It's brutally hot in Greece in the end of August / early September. There aren't too many trees, except for the National Garden in Athens, so you're usually exposed to the elements. Sunscreen is a must and remember to re-apply sunscreen every 2-3 hours, regardless of your skin color.

Santorini is also very hot but there's usually a breeze blowing from the sea that helps to make it feel slightly more tolerable than Athens. Athens, by far, felt the hottest followed by Thessaloniki (slight sea breeze), Delphi, Meteora and Santorini.

Veganism

Greeks, by and large, are more aware of the meaning of "veganism". It's better to not confuse them by explaining what "vegan" means. Trying to elaborate by saying "no cheese, no butter, no meat, no eggs, no fish", etc will only serve to confuse them, in my opinion. Athens has several options for food and desserts that are either 100% vegan or have clearly labeled vegan items on the menu. The choice narrows when you move to other places. Thessaloniki has a few and Santorini has a few but they're practically non-existent when you go to small places like Delphi and Kalambaka/Meteora.

Driving

Driving in Greece can change from very easy to very difficult. Within the city (Athens/Thessaloniki), driving can be a bit of a challenge because you share the narrow streets with cars, vans, 2-wheelers and pedestrians. 2-wheelers are quite challenging to deal with because none of the traffic rules seem to apply to them and they often tend to take you by surprise. Greek car drivers can also be impatient if you are are too careful or defensive. Out on the highway though, driving is as easy as, if not easier than, the US. Speed limits on the A1 go as high as 130 kmph (which equates to more than 80 mph), so you can really step on the gas. The downside, though, is that the speed limit keeps changing dramatically within short distances. So, within a couple of kilometers of driving, the speed limit can swing wildly from 130 kmph to 80 kmph and back to 100 kmph. So, if you really want to stick to the speed limit, you can almost never use the cruise control feature in your car. The strange thing is that the terrain or the road conditions would not have changed in any way to warrant the change in speed limits, so I'm not quite sure why the Greek highway authority decided to keep changing the speed limits at such short intervals.

Driving in Santorini can pose a different kind of challenge. First, the roads are often winding and narrow and either ascending or descending steeply. So, you have to be extra mindful about all these things as you drive. Add to this the fact that you share the road with tourists driving 2-wheelers, ATVs, Quad-bikes and buses and it can definitely test your driving skills. Parking in Santorini is EXTREMELY difficult to find. There are several free / public parking lots in each town but with the number of tourists that are usually on the island, you'll be hard-pressed to find an empty spot. We got lucky on a couple of occasions but also had to shell out 12 Euros for a parking spot another time.

Finding your way around

Google Maps and/or Apple Maps can be your friend for most of your driving but when it comes to walking around in the narrow lanes in small towns like Pyrgos, Oia, Emporio, Fira, etc. on Santorini, these apps can get confused and keep rerouting you in different directions. We ended up not going to a couple of places because of this. One solution could be to use the apps as a reference and create your own path/directions to your destination.

Getting cash from ATMS

The maximum number of digits for the ATM PIN that Greek ATMs accept is 6. We were not able to withdraw any money because I've set an 8-digit PIN for my BOA debit card. So, be mindful of this and reset your PIN to 6 or fewer digits before you leave for Greece.

Very early (and hazy) memories

I have very few, if any, memories of my baby-hood and childhood. I was born when my father was posted to Kolkata (or Calcutta in those days). We lived in a railway colony in a place called Garden Reach. Garden Reach was on the west bank of the Hooghly River and I have vague memories of living in a fairly high floor (like higher than the 2nd floor). I remember hearing the honking of ships that navigated on the river. My mother used to tell me some stories about relatives that used to frequently visit us like my Vittal uncle or my cousin, Prakash Rao. Apart from this, I don't recall anything of my life in Kolkata. One story that my mother used to like relating more than once is about how I used to try to comb my great-grandmother's "hair". This was during a visit to Bengaluru when I was a tiny kid/infant. It seems that I used to observe my mother brushing her hair with the comb and wanted to try doing it too. My great-grandmother was widowed by then and going by traditional Hindu customs prevalent at that time, she was forced to shave off the hair on her head. The justification of this abhorrent tradition was that it would make the woman unattractive to other men which would prevent any thoughts of remarriage. Anyway, in spite of her not having any hair, it seems I would take a comb and try to brush her "hair" while she was lying down or sleeping which would make her laugh!