You're My Favorite Destination | Valentine's Day 2014

Last year, I made Markus a super geeky Valentine's day card about time travel. For this year's card, I wracked my brain for something awesome. I started a few and they were awful. I was about to give up when a burst of inspiration hit me. As you know, Markus and I love to travel and have been to so many amazing places. I have to warn you, I'm about to get a bit mushy and cheesy. So if you cannot handle that sort of thing, just skip on ahead or admire my handiwork.

Markus and I have lived in South Korea. We explored the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We walked the streets of Kyoto as a geisha and samurai. We've ridden emaciated horses to the top of Taal, an extinct volcano in the Philippines. We've walked the halls of Pemberley in England. We've traveled to so many places and experienced so many wonderful things together, but when it comes down to it, my favorite place in all the world is wherever Markus is. I know you're all cringing now, but it's the truth. We could be in the crappiest place, which has happened, but it's still worthwhile because Markus is with me. My life is so much better because of him and I can't wait to spend the rest of our years going on adventures and traveling to faraway lands.

Japan Cheap Eats #1 | Nagasaki

This is part of a series about eating on a budget and I've titled the series, "Japan Cheap Eats". Many people think Japan is expensive, but I'm here to prove them wrong! We found many budget options and I wanted to share them with you!

Earlier, I posted about cheap eats in Japan and promise that I would post more. Markus and I knew that Japan was gonna be the last international trip that we would make for a year or two, so we wanted to make the most of our trip there. We had one problem, we couldn't spend as much as we liked. We saved quite a bit of cash while working as ESL teachers in South Korea, but we didn't want to go overboard. In a country like Japan, it's SO easy to spend all your money. Markus and I knew that we would probably never have a chance to fly to Japan for free, so we took full advantage of the opportunity.

It's a pretty well known fact that Japan is expensive, but if you know the tricks, it's surprisingly affordable. When Markus and I travel, we try to be smart. We don't do everything on the cheap, but we try to spend our money wisely. One of the ways that we made the trip affordable was eating cheap. Thankfully, Japan has many economical options and many of these options are really yummy.

Our main go to place for budget eats were the marts or convenient stores. In America, most people in their right mind would not eat a meal at a convenient store. In Japan and even Korea, it's a popular place to get cheap and yummy eats. In Japan, there are so many options and on our first night we really pondered our selection. One of my favorite snacks in Korea was samgak kimbap. It's also known as onigiri in Japan. Basically, it's a triangle of rice that is mixed with a vegetable or protein and then wrapped in seaweed. We ate every version available in Korea and in Japan, there were even more offerings. The best thing about samgak kimbap? They're so cheap. The cost varies between $1-$2. For our first cheap eat, we got two kimbaps, a fried chicken patty, a huge U.F.O. ramen and a Suntory beer.

As for the taste of everything? I would say average and quite good. It was filling and it didn't taste bad at all. The kimbap were okay. We got one with a weird root vegetable and one with fish eggs. I loved the fish egg one, but I love fish eggs. The root vegetable wasn't my favorite and it tasted like salty rice. The ramen was pretty yummy and had a nice flavor. The fried chicken patty wasn't anything special and tasted like you expect. I've always wanted to drink something by Suntory, ever since I watched Lost in Translation. One of my favorite scenes is when Bill Murray is shooting a commercial for Suntory. It's great and I made it a life goal to have a Suntory drink in Japan.  The beer itself tasted like a pale ale. Nothing really special.

Overall, I enjoyed our first cheap eat in Japan. Although, between the ramen and the fried chicken, I was feeling a bit heavy. I love ramen, but the sodium content is really too much and this meal completely lacked veggies. By the end of our trip, we were mart experts and had it down to a science. I can't wait to share more Japan cheap eats with you!

Cost Breakdown:
Samgak Kimbap: 240 yen
U.F.O. Ramen: 300 yen
Fried Chicken Patty: 350 yen
Suntory Beer: free with chicken purchase
TOTAL: 890 yen or $8.71 

Historic Marathon Village | Nashville, Tennessee

As I've said before, I love Nashville. It's a great city. One of my favorite parts of the city that we found by accident was the historic Marathon Village. It was the location of Marathon Motor Factory and they manufactured cars in from 1914 to 1918. Unfortunately, Marathon Motors did not take off and they closed their doors soon after. Thankfully, the space has been fully restored and is now used for local businesses like Antique Archaeology.  I love when cities take old warehouses and buildings and turn them into lofts or commercial spaces. I think that we tend to lose a lot of charm when we demolish old buildings. They add a lot of charm and character to a city. I'm glad we were able to explore this great space and see the charming side of Nashville.

Bizarre Food: Grasshoppers and More | Cambodia

The last time I posted about bizarre food was tarantula in Cambodia. You would think that would be extent of our strange eats, but there was even more! We asked our tuk-tuk driver, MJ, to take us somewhere we could eat something strange in Siem Reap. He said he knew of a place that we could eat crickets. We couldn't turn down the opportunity and asked him to take us there!

When we arrived to the nondescript corner of a random street, we saw the piles of items lined up on the sidewalk. There wasn't a person in sight and understandably so. I think tourists are not on the search for strange eats like this. There were crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and even dried snake. I think any creepy thing you could think of was cooked and ready to eat!

Initially, we only wanted to try the grasshoppers, but we decided to be adventurous and order a variety. I mean, might as well, you never know when you'll have the chance again. I will say that for a moment I freaked out. I was holding the bag of bugs and I looked down. For a split second, I imagined them all alive and slithering about. I quickly got over it and we dug into that bag o' bugs.

Surprisingly, they weren't bad. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but it's definitley worth trying. I was most keen on the crickets and grasshoppers, but could've passed on the snake and beetles. All I know is that if something happens and we run out of other protein sources, I could survive on insects!

Antique Archaeology | Nashville, Tennessee

When Markus and I were living in Korea, we scoured the internet for interesting television shows. Through the encouragement of our dear friend Brittney, we watched an episode of American Pickers. It's a show about two guys that drive all over the country looking and "picking" for really strange and old items and paraphernalia. After that first episode, we were hooked and watched heaps of episodes. Every time we watched an episode, we dreamed of "picking" and visiting Mike Wolfe's Antique Archaeology in Iowa. We knew were were moving to Chicago and that it wasn't too far to drive.

While were driving around Nashiville, I remembered I read online that Wolfe opened a second store there. Thankfully, my dear cousin Joy was flexible and fit it into her packed itinerary. We had a great time exploring the store. The space was a lot smaller than I thought and it didn't have a lot of "picked" items. It was more geared toward fans of the show and I was a little disappointed. It's okay though, I was happy to be able take the detour and see some strange things.