This trip log gathers all of my live Facebook posts from my trip to the Society for Ecotourism Conference in South Korea, Stockholm, and through the Netherlands.
(c) ABR 2017
Day 1-3:
The past couple of days have been so busy! I flew from LAX to Seoul (13 hr flight- omg way too long). The next day I presented at the International Society for Ecotourism conference. And then today I spent the whole day touring the wetlands and ecotourism projects of Ansan, S. Korea.
One of the biggest tidal power plants in the world! Ansan, S. Korea (c) ABR 2017
Day 4:
Lots of times people tell me to “let go of my fears” and “stop worrying.” But today all that anxiety saved me. See, I was worried that Ansan was too far away from the airport, so the first night I was here, I booked another place two train stops away from the airport for my last night. That meant that today after lunch, it was time to get in a taxi and move to my new place. Only every taxi refused to take me! It was too far for them. It took me at least two hours by train to get over here. Thank God I didn’t need to do this tomorrow or I would have surely missed my flight.
Day 5:
No picture with this post, because you don’t even want to know what I look like right now. Hahaha. Anyway, I am in the middle of trying to get from Asia to Europe. I had a 5 hour flight from Seoul, a 12 hour (!!!) layover in Bangkok, and once that is over an 11 hr flight to Sweden. Thank goodness for transit hotels, that is all I am saying right now.
Day 6:
I finally made it to Sweden yesterday! We didn’t do too much (besides taking an accidentally long nap). Went close to downtown for some amazing vegetarian food, and stopped by the photography museum. It is beautiful but cold here!
Beautiful Stockholm (c) ABR 2017
Day 7:
We hiked through 9 verdant miles of forest in Tyresta National Park today and then rewarded ourselves with some delicious dinner in Stockholm. Now I’m falling asleep to the sound of rain on the windows.
(c) ABR 2017
Day 8:
Today we explored Stockholm. First, we stopped for some delicious chai before going to the open-air museum, Skansen. This place has lots of cultural exhibits, but due to how quiet it was, we hung out in the zoo section of the park. There were lots of active animals here, with great enclosures and lots of enrichment. Then we got lunch at the Spirits Museum where I tried some alcohol that “wrinkled my tongue” with its bitterness. Finally, because everyone said we should go, we went to the Vasa Museum to see the giant boat (it was worth it).
The famous Vasa (c) ABR 2017
Day 9:
We arrived in the Netherlands and in true Nightborn style we went straight to the Dunes of Loon and Drunen National Park. Really cool to see dunes in the middle of the forest.
(c) ABR 2017
Day 10:
I went to the high point of the Netherlands, visited downtown Tilburg, and saw the Van Gogh bike trail in one epic, mini-road trip. I’m ready to sleep in tomorrow!
(c) ABR 2017
Day 11:
Today we explored the “Little Venice” of the Netherlands (Giethoorn) in a little blue and white boat. We had to navigate through a reedy jungle of a national park, and survive boat jams in the town waterways. It was quite the adventure.
(c) ABR 2017
Day 13:
We’ve done a ton in the past two days. We walked through Amsterdam yesterday and stopped by the Van Gogh Museum. We attempted to see the Anne Frank Museum as well, but we weren’t able to go because we didn’t have reservations. Today we rode bikes through De Hoge Veluwe National Park (saw more Van Gogh), and went to the beach at Noorwijk. The Netherlands is an amazing place. There are still things I wish we had time to see, but tomorrow we begin the long journey home.
Free bikes come prepared for families! (c) ABR 2017
Day 14:
We drove the 1.5 hours to Eindhoven this morning, said farewell to our trusty car, Sasha, and hopped on the plane back to Stockholm. We enjoyed an evening walking around the city, and finally got the waffles we have been craving this whole trip at a beautiful cafe in the old city.
Our trusty car from the Netherlands, Sasha. <3 (c) ABR 2017
