Sunny European summer
Update 6: Europe
Wait… aren’t we supposed to be travelling South America? Yes, but in June two exciting things were happening:
Two friends getting married in Sweden at the start of the month, and
Work commitments (a conference) for Aisling in the Netherlands at the end of month.
This was another moment we appreciated the flexibility that comes with being digital nomads. We decided to attend both events take some leave and stay in Europe for the time in between, working remotely (mostly Ash) and exploring a little of Europe. Infamously, one of us did a Eurotrip with friends in 2010, so when choosing where to go we balanced visiting new places with budget, time to get there, and getting to our event commitments. So we hopped from Buenos Aires to Panama City, left our suitcase full of (as yet unused) snorkelling gear in a storage locker, and off we went!
By the way, this is a long-ish email with quite a lot of photos, so you might want to open in your browser rather than reading direct from your email.
Stop One: Sweden
Louis and Lauren moved to Gothenburg, Sweden about 6 years ago, and their wedding was the perfect excuse to finally visit them at their new home.
We really enjoyed our time in Sweden. Some general thoughts:
Hotel breakfasts were so good here. There was a good selection of mueslis, fresh fruits, yoghurts, pastries, cold meats, cheeses, and fish products. Somewhere between 10-20% of the Swedish population is lactose intolerant so lactose-free options were included by default which delighted Aisling.
The streetscapes are very clean - the streets, the buildings, parks and gardens, everything.
We were visiting during the ‘end of high school’ celebrations and initially were pretty confused by seeing so many 18 year olds around the town wearing sailor caps. We stumbled across some of the formal graduation events, as well as plenty of cars full of kids driving around town beeping horns. The most fun was the flat-bed trucks full of graduates, blasting music and jumping around so much that the trucks were bouncing!
Food was excellent but more expensive than we were used to, especially after Argentina. We found a new favourite potato chip flavour (dill and chives), enjoyed the Swedes love of hollandaise and bearnaise sauces, and discovered tasty shrimp sandwiches, and would recommend the sausages at Gourmet Korv to any future visitors for a tasty and affordable lunch.
Dave was game enough to eat the traditional Swedish options on the breakfast buffets: pickled herring and the Kalles (cod roe paste). The herring is often pickled with other tasty flavours (like onion or mustard) which dominated and made it quite enjoyable. Despite trying the Kalles on toast and boiled egg as recommended, Dave didn’t go back for seconds.
We got great weather with sun and clear skies for the first five days in Gothenburg, which enraged Louis who claimed were not getting an authentic experience. We probably jinxed ourselves by continually sending him photos of blue skies, because the normal weather pattern with drizzly rain, overcast skies, and cool weather reinstated itself for the rest of our time there. Aisling had to buy a down jacket to cope.
Our absolute highlights from Sweden were:
Cabin in the Woods
Far from being the premise for a horror movie, a weekend trip to a little cabin in nature is a popular activity in Sweden and we can see why!
Credit to Louis for organising and driving, because we probably wouldn’t have done this on our own. We took full advantage of the long summer days and enjoyed a hike, swimming in a cold Swedish lake, and drinking beers in a Dave-powered canoe convoy.
We spotted lots of unripe berries, looked (unsuccessfully) for mushrooms, developed a paranoia of tick-borne encephalitis, and on the way back to Gothenburg enjoyed stopped at ancient burial mounds and the village of Trollhättan.
Three days of wedding celebrations
The celebrations were very fun and perfect for these two lovely humans!
The festivities kicked off on Thursday: reception with drinks and speeches, a musik flotten (canal cruise with music and snacks), and karaoke to finish. Saturday we got to experience the Swedish civil ceremony, with the icon question from the administrator: “Would you like the short version or the long version? The short is 3 minutes, the long is 6 minutes.”
Finally, family and friends from overseas joined Louis and Lauren for a winddown on Donsö Island. Great company and food was accompanied by a cold water plunge, slightly windswept walks, and rescuing a kite that ripped its tether for a kite surfer!
Stop Two: Belgium
We flew from Gothenburg to Amsterdam, which was our last plane until we headed back to South America. From here we shifted to one of the easiest ways to travel: inter-city trains.
Antwerp
We arrived at what is considered one of the most beautiful train stations in the world: Antwerpen-Centraal railway station.
Antwerp surprised and delighted us. We didn’t know much about the city before going, but found it to be friendly, multicultural, and layered with interesting history. As a port city, Antwerp has long been the melting pot of commerce and culture. A few of our favourite things were:
Trying lots of different cuisines: Antwerp is estimated to be home to people from over 150 nationalities. We enjoyed trying traditional Flemish beer beef stew (stoofvlees), bitterballen (croquettes with beef), Moroccan tajine, hand-made Chinese noodles, Tibetan momos (with the spiciest sauce - which when pointed out to the waiter “yes, we try to kill you.”) , and Moroccan pancakes (msemen). The msemen in particular were new to us and the favourite from the Saturday morning markets. They’re a light flaky flatbread (similar to a roti) filled to order usually with goat’s cheese and honey, plus options from a huge selection of dips, pickles, and other fillings.
Learning about the history of printing: during the 16th-century, printing became an important industry within Belgium and the Netherlands. The Plantin-Moretus Museum explores how printing evolved and the pressures (commercial, political, and religious) on the industry. We enjoyed the way history was told through the exhibits, as well as getting to see two of the worlds oldest printing presses, original copper plates for illustrations, and a demonstration of the printing process.
Exploring the architecture of the city: the history and different flows of wealth have affected the built environment in Antwerp significantly. We loved seeing everything from the Het Steen (medieval fort), Town Hall and Bourse (both built in the 16th century), to the current Diamond Quarter. It was also fun to check out the Saint Anna tunnel built in the 1930s, running underneath the river to connect the two banks for pedestrians and cyclists. The original wooden escalators are still in place!
A fancy dinner: Argentina left us with such an appetite for good steak that when we saw that one of the world’s 101 best steak restaurants was in Antwerp, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to try their food. We had a great experience at Maven Noble Meat Craft, which proudly displays its dry-aging beef above the pass and welcomes people to come and see the variety of beef sources and cut on offer. They were so welcoming that Dave ended up behind the pass chatting to the staff! The food was full of flare and we enjoyed a tasting menu which included five different cuts and preparations of beef, plus a very creative take on the classic Spanish jamon and tomato bread.
Bruges
Bruges’ reputation as a beautiful, well-preserved medieval town made it attractive second stop in Belgium. Also, it’s not Ghent where Dave already had some adventures in 2010. Overall we enjoyed Bruges, which is very pretty (think gardens, canals, windmills and old city gates), but unsurprisingly it’s much more touristy and for us ended up being all about the beer. We visited the Beer Museum and did a very fun brewery tour. The Brouwerij De Halve Maan is a family-run brewery in the centre of Bruges, which has pipelines under the streets to pump the beer to it’s bottling plant more than 3 kms away. We also got to experience our very own little In Bruges moment, after sitting down at Café Diligence and discovering from the menu that a scene for the movie was filmed there. We also had the best waffles of the trip in Bruges and also got rained on quite a bit.
Bruges also gave us one of the stand-out quotes of the trip. While walking to breakfast one morning, we passed an American family. The teenage daughter took one look at Dave and said loudly to her family “That man has penguins on his shirt, and I like it!” Me too random girl. Me too.
Belgian Beers: the standouts
We sampled a lot of beers in our time in Belgium, including most of the Belgian Trappists, primarily the dubbels and tripels. If you’re looking at the imported beers section for a little treat some time, we would recommend these of the relatively easy to find beers: Omer, Affligem triple, Cherry Chouffe, Chimay White.
Other breweries we enjoyed: Carolus, St. Bernardus, Rodenbach, Le Fort, Finesse, Kwak, and Bourgogne des Flandres.
Stop Three: the Netherlands
Amsterdam
The Euros were in full swing by the time we arrived in Amsterdam, so it was a great time to be in the capital and see the seas of orange supporters throughout the city. We stayed just outside the main canal rings and enjoyed walking through different districts. The key highlights were:
Trying some delicious traditional Dutch food (stamppot) at a restaurant where the staff enjoy collecting some… naughty decor (link is pretty tame but probably not safe for work). It’s not a theme of the restaurant, they’re just scattered about and you gradually notice more and more as you’re eating. The best moment was when the waitress was proudly showing us a few items and a new couple walked in the door looking for a meal. She just improvised to use one as a microphone while greeting them. Pretty tame compared to other Amsterdam shows available, but hilarious!
We took a canal tour through Amsterdam with drinks and snacks on a beautiful, warm sunny afternoon, seeing the sights from the water.
As always, good food is a highlight for us. We enjoyed discovering a dedicated cheese and wine bar, with recommended pairings (the Dutch definitely take their cheese seriously), frites with truffle mayo (sorry to the Belgians, but these were the best chips of the trip!), a good French set menu at Café Caron, one of the best apple pies ever at a cafe in the Red Light District, as well as late night classics like FEBO and Wok to Walk.
Watching the Netherlands v France game in the Euros group stage with a pub full of locals. There were the highs of a goal, the lows of the goal being disallowed and finishing on a draw. Dave also got to experience the stereotypical Dutch directness when ordering a beer. While pouring a drink the bartender looked up at him, saying “Yes?”. Dave, trying to be considerate (and knowing he was going to order 4 things) asked “Are you able to take an order now?”, to which the bartender replied “Yes sir, that’s why I engaged with you.” He got our order wrong though.
We also enjoyed the range of cultural experiences available in Amsterdam, from seeing painting by Dutch masters in the Rijksmuseum, exploring modern and street art at Moco, and the live music scene in local bars and pubs.
Utrecht
A very pretty, cozy university town, which was much more relaxed after coming from Amsterdam. Time here was mostly take up with work for Aisling, as she was helping to host and facilitate a range of conference events from Monday to Friday, including being a keynote speaker on the final day. But we managed to squeeze in some exploration and some time with friends.
The summer weather very suddenly reasserted itself for this last week of the trip, with most days in Utrecht around 28 degrees Celsius. It’s the biking capital of the Netherlands, so we were glad our awareness as pedestrians for bikes alongside other traffic had built up since Belgium because the pelotons of commuters are no joke here. Colleagues based in Utrecht told Aisling they’ve never been in an Uber or similar - they mostly bike, or if they need to they take the public transport options.
Saturday we got to enjoy the atmosphere of Utrecht, including enjoying a beer in a bar directly next to the canals and getting to see a beautiful library build into the old central post office.
Leaving Europe
We had one final day in the Netherlands before starting the travel back to South America. We kept things easy and stayed at an airport hotel near Schipol Airport. We decide to make the most of our last day and visit Amsterdamse Bos, a large park and nature reserve outside of the city - with a working goat dairy in the centre! It was a nice opportunity to connect with nature before the whirlwind of airports and planes.
Quick updates
Dave’s Duolingo streak is: 844 days
Dog poo on shoe tally: 2
Hair growth (days are numbered as we get closer to diving and snorkelling): beard length 80mm, ponytail length 32cm.
Where are we now?
We’re stretching from our initial focus just on South America to Latin America. We’re currently in Panama and planning to be in Central America and Mexico to the end of 2024.
Want more photos?
