Still Travelyn

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Still Travelyn

Fun and exciting group travel with Chris and Carol Mastronardo

13/02/2024

Nardo and Carlos perform¿? at Big Guy Fest '24. My phone lyrics in English, Carlos' in Spanish!

I think we should go on tour all around Aruba!

13/02/2024

BIG GUY FEST '24

Brought to you by Walt and Irene, 1 year in the planning! Such great times, great people and great food. I was able to invite all the locals that I have met over the years here in Aruba and just have a great Celebration. Walt even arranged so my dad and sister from AZ could celebrate via phone.

12/02/2024

Super Bowl in Aruba

And thanks to Google, I now know that KC won, which means that Roska won on her bet at The Sports Book in the Casino. 😀 Great appetizers before the game, burgers and brats during the game and a birthday cake for dessert at halftime for Mary Nolan....Happy 66 Mary. Oh yea, and a beautiful sunset to boot!

08/02/2024

Fun time at the pool. We broke out the floating p***s' that Roska and Mary Nolan got for birthday gifts. Played ring toss with Roska's toy.

Had a fun dinner at Alfie's where we showed off our pics to Winston the server, needless to say, he lost his train of thought!

04/02/2024

Been a while since I did a Post. You just get sooooo busy here in Aruba lounging around the pool 😀.

Well our first month here has ended and we had to say goodbye to Derrick, Cyndi, Gail, Randal, my brother and Mary. Then we welcomed Mary, Steve, JP1 and JP2. And Debbie and Dean came in late January and will hang with us for the duration.

Now Carnival season is kicking into High Gear here, parades, parades and more parades. Tonight is the Lighting Parade in Oranjestad and next weekend is the Grand Carnival Parade. Seeing how we've been to the parades before, we opted to skip it tonight and Roska and I had a "date night" at Papiamento's Restaurant. Next week is the BIG Guy Fest that Walt and Irene are throwing for me and all of my Arubian Island friends.

27/01/2024

Full moon over Alto Vista Chapel, Cuban singin' and a beautiful day a Arashi Beach.

We snapped some pics of the full moon over Alto Vista Chapel, had a fabulous dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Oranjestad with entertainment. Check out my brother JR joining in on the stage.

We spent the day at Arashi Beach lounging by the ocean under the big shade umbrellas that Hilton and Iguana set up for us. Some of went into the ocean, some walked the beach and others lounged and read books. Krajewski tried to get me into the ocean, but that wasn't going to happen. Then JR decided to get me to pose for a pic near the ocean when a 25' wave came up and nearly knocked me over and got me soaked, I swear I felt a fish bite me in the ass! OMG

25/01/2024

JR jamming with the singer and me tipping him a buck! And you all know how hard it is to get money out of my wallet :-)

19/01/2024

Roska's birthday cruise cont'd

19/01/2024

Roska's birthday cruise

19/01/2024

Roska's Birthday Cruise

Noooo, there was no rum consumed!!

16/01/2024

Todd and Michelle went back to frigid Wisconsin and we welcomed my brother, Mary, Don, Cheryl, Sandra and Mark.

We had a brat fry and cheered on the Packers to a VICTORY. Roska, me and Todd & Michelle stumbled onto a new distillery called Pepe Margo. They loved the rum and gin. Went to AYO Rock formation and the broken bridge. Late last night some of the group SADLY watched the Eagles lose. In between everything else, we're just enjoying pool time.

09/01/2024

Today we said goodbye to Mike, Ruth, Steve, Tom and Mary. Lori and Larry are on their way from snowy WI.

We did the fun shoreline boat ride on CPT Colin's 45' Boat again. I do believe that plenty of rum was consumed and lots of singing and dancing. At least the rum didn't start effecting people until after the swim stop, otherwise these characters would have tried to fend off "make believe" sharks.

We all gathered on our deck and cheered the Packers on to a win clinching a playoff berth. We enjoyed fajitas prepared by Todd and Michelle Gruszynski, Yummy 😋

We all went to Baby Beach for a swim too. Sorry, I didn't take any pics of baby beach this year, you all know me, I stay out of the ocean as much as possible....there's fish in there and they p**p.

04/01/2024

We're Travelyn again!

We're back in Aruba for our 4th winter in a row. We got settled in to our favorite Air B&B in Alto Vista with the Albiero's, Todd and Michelle Gruszynski, Derrick and Cyndi Iceler, Mike Rooney & Ruth and Steve Latus. We cooked on our grill and lounged around the pool.
Yesterday we went to our favorite pub, Alfie's. Next we went to a speak easy bar, The Apotek, where someone named Nardo was cohoursed into having a shot and an Espresso martini (Mary Ann Albiero forced me. OMG). Some people tried their luck in the casino and actually won money, Roska is up right now, but I'm keeping a spread sheet on her.

This morning we did our daily walk again and then went to Lobster and Chicken for their fabulous breakfast special.

Tonight we're heading to Terrazzo Italian restaurant overlooking Eagle Beach

25/12/2023

Happy Birthday to the Cookie Monster!!! From today and from the early 80’s he’s always been one of the kindest, most generous and silliest humans whom I couldn’t be luckier to have as a brother!! 🥰🌟✨

19/12/2023

A wonderful evening at our GIN gle Bells and cookie party.

Tons of fun was had to include "dialing" singing Christmas carols to friends, many calls were made all over WI, MI, WA and FL. Roska got to break out her keyboard and play with Carmen, for a moment I thought Elton John was here playing those keys!

Thank you to our little Christmas elf for the wonderful sliders.

And of course, thanks for all the cookies too. I think I ate about 4.

Have a very merry Christmas 🎅

01/12/2023

Our last two days in Vienna.

We went to a Strudel Class at the Schönbrunn Palace, we all enjoyed hot tea and Strudel. Then we watched and learned how to make apple Strudel.

More shopping at the Christmas Market at the Schönbrunn Palace and Roska bought a gnome.

Yesterday we went to the Spanish Riding School. It was only a practice for the horses, so there was no show, just beautiful horses and their riders practicing.

Then we had one last Schnitzel dinner.

Today we are Travelyn home for the beautiful month of December to enjoy Christmas. We'll be up at our condo at the Osthoff for a couple of days to see all the decorations there and to go to the Osthoff Old World Christmas Market.

Thank you for following me along on another one of our Stilltravelynn adventures.

29/11/2023

We just had to go to where they make snow globes, after all, it is Christmas in Vienna and the snow globe factory is here. We all managed to purchase snow globes. Then we went to more Christmas Markets where I found this dude who makes pasta, and you know how much I LOVE pasta. I was telling every person that walked by to buy his pasta....OMG was it yummy.

Today we decided on the spur of the moment, to hop on the train and go Travelyn to Bratislava because we heard they have great Christmas Markets too, and they do. They even have music in the streets. So once again, we shopped and ate our way around Slovakia.

27/11/2023

Frohe Weihnachten
We're Travelyn to Austria for the Christmas Markets with John-boy, Carm's, Lynn, Glen and Kelly popped over from Germany.

Our first day we went to a little cafe, some of us had coffee and some of us had bier, we met some great locals and had a blast. Now off to the Christmas Markets. It was picture perfect, we had SNOW! We shopped and ate our way thru the Christmas decorated streets, everything is as beautiful as can be.

On our second day we started out at a Catholic Mass at the Wiener Hofburgkapelle Church to see the Vienna Boys Choir and then we went for lunch and had some awesome Schnitzel then off to some more Christmas Markets.

14/10/2023

JUMP. JUMP. JUMP. JUMP. JUMP AROUND!!

LET'S GO BUCKY

14/10/2023

My first Wisconsin Badgers game ever. This is sooo cool. We are in Tim and Lisa Kelley's suite. This is awesome.
Gotta go the game started. The Yellow guys have the ball.

GO BUCKY!

Normally I write words on my pics, but not today. I'm having too much fun.

Gotta watch the game now. Need to get the ball back. I'm need to yell DEFENCE

12/10/2023

DRACULA
We went to visit Dracula's Castle in Transylvania, also known as Bran Castle.
Luckily Dracula only comes out to suck your blood after dark.

If you want the real history on Bran Castle, you can Google it, but I prefer the legend! SPOOKY/SCARY/DARK/SCREAM/BLOOD!¡!

We survived Dracula's Castle and are now Travelyn home.

10/10/2023

Travelyn around Bucharest, Romania now. Yesterday Roska and I walked around the Old Town of Bucharest and today we went on a city tour with Dan for a few hours. While out driving, we were stopped in a traffic jam because President Volodymyr Zelensky's motorcade drove by. I tried to get a selfie with him, but to no avail....I guess I didn't want to end up in a Romania prison 😀

Check out the pics and captions of Bucharest.

Tomorrow we go to visit DRACULA. ⚰️

08/10/2023

Welcome to Bulgaria. The BAD news, we're stuck. The ship can't go any further, the mighty Danube River has run out of water. The GOOD news, the ship didn't run aground 😀. It's Saturday and we only have one more day to Bucharest, I think Dracula has something to do with this situation.

Today we have two tours in Bulgaria and then on Monday they are going to drive us to Bucharest.

We just got back from one of my trip highlights. We went to someone's private home and made Banitsa Pastry. OK, you know me, some of the group made it and I just ate 😋

Seeing how we're parked in Bulgaria and we can't go any further on the ship, we decided to go on the unplanned 2.5 hour bus ride to Veliko Tarnova. What a pleasant surprise. We got to ride thru rural villages all the way there. Veliko Tarnova was the original capitol of Bulgaria. We visited a fortress followed by some free time in the picturesque village to do some shopping. We bought a Christmas tree ornament and an artist picture for home. We then went to the village of Arbanassi to admire the beautiful frescoes inside the Nativity Church, sorry no pics allowed, so you'll have to visit it yourself someday. Back to the ship as we disembark tomorrow for another long car journey to Bucharest to see Dracula's Castle.

07/10/2023

We are now Travelyn in Belgrade, Serbia. Both Roska and I are still trying to figure out the history of this country. They have had so many different rulers and so many wars, hell, Serbia was even bombed once by NATO, I'll have to take a college course to even attempt to learn the history of this place. But Belgrade is a fascinating and beautiful city, I forgot to mention, even though Serbia is "free" from communist rule now, the Government sure has some crazy rules. A person can actually get arrested and locked up if they take USD or EUROS for payments, and don't dare leave the ship w/o your US Passport, because when you leave the ship, you're leaving Europe and entering the Balkan country of Serbia. We went on an excellent walking/panoramic city tour of Belgrade, where we had a really cool tour of Nikola Telsa Museum, you'll have to GOOGLE this dude, it is amazing what he is known for. The group held out fluorescent bulbs and the tour guide made this machine that Nikola invented and it created a lightning bolt which in turn lit all of our fluorescent bulbs, really cool. Then the tour guide asked for volunteers who wanted to feel the lightning bolt in their hand, well after I saw that the guide lived, naturally I just had to volunteer. Roska and I then decided to leave the group, stroll the streets of Belgrade, and go out for lunch. I won't tell you where we ate or the waiters name, because I slipped him some EUROS for a tip, no one was arrested. We finished off day 4 at a Brandy Tasting, well that's what they called it. Their brandy is Rakia in all sorts of flavors and that stuff is potent, it will clean up your sinuses.

Day 5,

Today started off with a visit of Golubac Fortress from 14th century. The soul purpose of the fortress was to protect the Danube River, naturally Nardo climbed to the top to overlook the river and town. We are right on the border of Serbia and Romania. You can swim over to Romania.

We are now on the sundeck of our ship getting ready to enjoy a BBQ cookout, open bar and an ice cream party. As we continue sailing down the Danube and the views are spectacular to include the large face of King Decebalus carved into the cliff. Later we are going to pass through the Iron Gates, the widest part of the Danube River, 9 miles wide, and the largest lock on the Danube, we can now say we were in the largest Lock and the highest Lock (on the Douro River) all in the same trip.

06/10/2023

All Aboard.

We're Travelyn down the Danube of Southeast Europe through the Balkans.

I have decided to split the post that I have been working on into two separate posts. We have done so much and seen so much in the last 4 days that when I started working on this post it turned into a novel.

The AMAVerde is a beautiful ship right down to the staff being dressed up in pressed shirts and bow ties. The entertainment onboard has been exceptional, and the excursions go above and beyond. As far as for the dining, lunch and dinner are served to you....no buffet! The second night on board we were invited to eat at the Chef's Table with a wine pairing and six course dinner. They have the happy hour every day from 6pm to 7pm with complimentary drinks too.

As you know, we started out in Budapest Hungary and then made a stop in Pecs, Hungary where we went on a walking tour to see St. Peter's Basilica with its underground burial chamber, we also went to a Mosque and a Synagogue.

Day 3 we went to Vukovar, Croatia, where the Yukoslav war of 1990s began. We then traveled to Ilok to visit an ancient wine cellar, that the Croatians actually built a wall to hide it from the public when the war began in 1991. There we toured the wine cellar and did a wine tasting-I actually liked one of the wines. At the tasting, they served these really yummy donuts. OMG I won't tell you how of those I had!

Well until my next post....збогом
zbogom

02/10/2023

We've navigated 10 miles up and down the hills and cobble stone streets of Budapest. We first tried to find The New York Cafe for breakfast, but Google Maps was wrong and got us lost, then when we got to the New York Cafe, there was a line a block long to get in....OMG. So, we ventured off to a cute little independently owned cafe called The Velvet Cafe, great food and great service. After our awesome breakfast we decided to head towards the Danube River, once we got there I knew where we'd be, the heck with Google maps sometimes!

We walked along the river and came upon the Shoe Memorial, The Shoes on the Danube Bank, where Jews were ordered to take off their shoes and then shot and killed during WWII.

We walked the pedestrian shopping district, found a laundromat and did wash while sitting at an outdoor Cafe enjoying Coca-light and mojitos.

We went to the Jewish Synagogue and Museum where they house millions of artifacts that the Jewish buried before the war and where there's mass Graves of Jewish people buried.

Went to dinner at the same restaurant the Mastronardo family found 8 years ago for my Pop's 80th birthday trip, Százéve Étterem, the oldest in Budapest and the Hungarian goulash is amazing.

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Videos

Nardo and Carlos perform¿? at Big Guy Fest '24. My phone lyrics in English, Carlos' in Spanish! I think we should go on tour all around Aruba!

Roska's birthday cruise cont'd

Roska's birthday cruise

Yes, I have the recipe and we will make it again

OMG I'm laughing too hard to take a video. This will Crack you up.

Love is in the air!!! They have the dance floor to themselves

OMG! My brother is dancing!!!

Having a GREAT time at The Osthoff with Lorgy's band, Past Curfew, and great friends!!!

The school girls of Hazyview dancing for us.

Had to send the video of the Dixieland Jazz band too.

Had to add a video from last night's Carnaval too. Just an amazing night!!

You gotta watch this video from the start all the way to the end...Roska took this while we were on our sunset boat trip. It is a KLM plane coming on for a landing from Amsterdam.

This was not me. It's someone disguised as me in a brand new Aruba shirt that I bought 😁 I think that "so-called someone" had 1 too many diet cokes!

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