Prologue

Welcome to UADarthMaul's travel blog. Only a handful people even know this exists. I have no idea if anyone will read it. I'm doing this for myself. I am not a writer. Most of this will be dictated using Google Voice translation, on my phone.  This means that there will be a ton of errors!  I will do my best to go back over it and correct them.

I have spent most of my life going on very short vacations, mostly to Disney, sci-fi conventions, and concerts. I didn't develop an interest in traveling abroad until sometime in my late twenties. My first time abroad was in the summer of 2016, to Italy. I went to Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, and then Rome.  I loved Venice, which was incredibly unique. Cars are nowhere to be found, and you are to walk everywhere.  Boats replace taxis.  You can pick any direction and follow the random and winding streets and discover neighborhoods and hidden restaurants.  It also has unique islands, only a few of which I had time to explore.  The small museums throughout the city were enjoyable.  I had an especially goot time at the Doge, which was open at night.  It didn't appear that many people knew this, as there were only a handful of people in the entire facility.  It was an extraordinary location.  I also really, really enjoyed the peaceful island of Torchello.  A peacefull path lead to a small bridge, and eventually a tower, which we climbed without seeing a single other tourist, to have a magnificent view of the area.  Cinque Terre is a beautiful set of tiny towns.  It has an amazing atmosphere and insanely beautiful hikes.  I also got to experience swimming in a cove, after climbing down the steps of a cliffside.  Florence was very much a big city feel, with narrow sidewalks, and one hundred museums.  There were a few streets without cars in the center, near the Duomo.  The museums, like most in italy, lacked air conditioning, in the scorching 99 degree weather.  I got bored relatively quickly, and although there was some uniqueness to the area, much of it felt like the big cities I grew up near.  The highlight, beside the inside and outside of the Duomo, was ribollita that I had discovered online, was a food that was common to this local area.  Rome was exciting, at first.  a lot of ancient ruins.  The pantheon was extraordinary.  It was disappointing that the statues were destroyed or moved years ago, but it was still an extraordinary structure, both in and out.  The Colosseum was uninteresting to me, as I had seen pictures throughout the years, and it didn't show as anything different than what I had seen.  The forum and surrounding structures had interesting points, but too much of it had been lost in time.  These experiences have helped shape these upcoming trips and what I learn from them will continue to affect my trips in the future.

I am currently most interested in exploring and learning about different cultures, visiting towns off the beaten path and seeing castles and other unusual and historical pieces of architecture. I also want to observe people around the world and recognize the differences in the way they live their lives compared to mine.

These first two trips will be with my son, miles. He is nine and a half years old, and has never been out of the country.  I do not know what to expect.  It will be very different from anything that he has experienced before. Hopefully, he will see the beauty and historical significance in our travels.  

We leave for our first trip, to Portugal and Spain, on Saturday, in two days. We leave at 5 o'clock at night and arrive at 6:15 in the morning. We will then be renting a car and driving a little over an hour east of Lisbon, Portugal, to a small town called Evora. I picked this in order to experience what the small-town way of life is like in Portugal. We will be staying there for two nights.