#some balcony seats were surprisingly pretty cheap

[ladyshandioftheendless]

Got my Sonic Symphony ticket! Guess ya gurl is back to Boston in September!!

[retirementhomecollab]

☾ the witching hour

☾ decision: bathroom

☾ warnings: f!reader

☾ word count: 1.8k

You decide to head towards the bathroom in a bid to spend a bit of time away from the crowd.

Edging around a skinny-looking Jotaro Josuke, you manage to sidle towards the narrow hallway uninhibited. The crowd begins to thin here and you’re five feet away from the door when there’s a loud clatter from one of the bedrooms. You turn your head in the direction of the noise and manage to catch a glimpse of someone you actually know.

With his signature silver hair and broad shoulders, Bokuto is a standout amongst the crowd. However, as he emerges from the room you notice something distinct about him; he’s incredibly scantily clad.

Sporting only a loosely draped ivory sheet as a toga, he strides out of the hallway with a bright grin and a red plastic cup in hand. The glimmer of a golden laurel wreath is woven into his uncharacteristically flat hair and you think you even spot glitter upon the divots of his bare collar.

You struggle for a moment to say anything; perhaps you’re too dazzled by his sudden, sparkly appearance to string together a sentence. But as he nearly passes by you, you’re able to find your voice.

“Hey, Kou,” you call out, reaching to tap the apparent deity on his upper arm.

Hearing his name, Bokuto immediately turns in your direction. Recognition flashes in his eyes and he gives you such a bright smile you think you feel yourself burning up. Maybe he was a god. Or maybe it was just you, unusually flustered at the sight of Bokuto dressed as a god. Either way, you suddenly feel much too warm for comfort.

He takes a step towards you, one arm swinging wide for a hug when it happens. You watch in horrified slow-motion as he stumbles over something you can’t see. Eyes wide, he reaches out with his other hand to stabilize himself but seems to forget there’s a sloshing beverage in his grip because it ends up spilling all over the front of your dress.

The cup clatters on the floor and you blink in shock as you feel the rapid, cool spread of cheap beer across the bodice of your costume.

“Oh, shit,” Bokuto exclaims, his face inches from yours as he realizes what he’s just done. He babbles apology after apology as you feel the drink soak into the fabric and onto your skin and all you can do is gape because did that really just happen? Did that really just fucking happen?

“Let me clean you up,” he nearly shouts and before you can even respond, he grabs you by the wrist and pulls you into the bathroom. You hear the door shut behind you and the faucet start to run before you finally come back to your senses and realize what’s going on.

“Wait,” you squeak out as he leans down to begin dabbing at your dress with a wad of damp toilet paper. His head is level with your chest now and you can’t help but feel a little flustered at the way he just stops and looks up at you from that height.

“Yeah?” he asks, eyes wide as he takes in your reluctant expression.

“It’s—” you begin, heat rising in your cheeks as he continues to stare. “It’s all over my—” you motion to your torso and he blinks before the realization hits him and he backs up.

“I don’t mean to—!” he blurts out, straightening up as he raises his hands in surrender. “I, uh, I just—”

“Yeah, yeah,” you nod rapidly in complete understanding. You knew Bokuto, you knew he wouldn’t do anything you weren’t comfortable with. Not that you wouldn’t be comfortable with him touching you (anyone with eyes could presume why) but this was just too embarrassing of a situation for you to stomach.

“Do you want to do it by yourself?” he suggests and you bite your lip.

“I’ll go get you some of my clothes to wear,” he tacks on and you brighten. It really would suck to have to spend the rest of the night in a beer-soaked lace dress and nothing sounded better than clean, dry clothes and the opportunity to clean yourself up alone.

“I’d love that,” you nod relieved and Bokuto gives you an apologetic grin before reaching for the door handle.

You hear it jiggle behind you a couple of times, clicking with the telltale noises of a locked door before Bokuto utters out an, “oh no.”

You whirl around to glance at his hand on the knob, twisting at it to no avail. His eyebrows are knit together in annoyance and you feel the sinking realization of your situation in your stomach.

“What do you mean, ‘oh no’?” you ask anyway. Because how could this night get any worse?

He wets his lips. “Well, you see,” he laughs. “Sometimes this door sticks and it’s uh…you can’t open it until it wants to open…”

“What do you mean wants to open?” you interject, a panicked edge to your voice as you hear him try the door again unsuccessfully. “Can’t you force it?”

Apprehension crosses his face and he scratches the back of his neck. “Ah, well. I could, but it would break the lock and maybe even the frame and Kuroo says we’ll have to pay a whole bunch of fees cause of the damage so we usually just…wait for it to unstick.”

“So we’re stuck?” you exclaim, backing into the wall of the tiny bathroom.

He lets out a short laugh. “Yeah…”

“Fuck,” you mumble, feeling the beer begin to warm against your skin. It’s gross. You feel gross. And now you’re stuck in the surprisingly clean bathroom of a university student apartment with a guy you can’t look in the eye most of the time because you think he’s too attractive.

“Hey, at least it can’t get any worse!” he states brightly.

But as if the universe is laughing down at you, it does.

The lights above the mirror flicker for a few seconds before going out entirely. Outside the door, the music cuts and a hush falls upon the party before a few people start shouting in surprise and complaint.

“You’re kidding,” you moan, hands reaching out to grip the sink as you’re plunged into sudden darkness.

You think you hear a few rallying shouts from Kuroo amongst the chaos but you can’t make out any distinct words.

“Does this happen a lot too?” you ask the shape in the darkness that is Bokuto.

He chuckles. “Nope! This is a complete surprise.”

He sounds a lot more amused than you feel he should be in this situation, but knowing Bokuto, he probably isn’t even concerned.

You reach for your phone and tap the screen, causing the device to flicker to life.

3:00 AM.

You take a deep breath. You know it’s silly and sort of childish to be afraid of the dark, but you can’t fight the biting anxiety in your chest now. You lean against the wall and slide down to the ground, not even caring about the obnoxious-smelling beer stain on your dress.

“Hey,” Bokuto’s voice sounds from in front of you. In the dim light of your phone, you can see him kneeling down in front of you. You set the device on the ground, still unlocked.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he mumbles, shifting to take a seat next to you. His presence is warm and steady and you can’t help but lean into his side. You feel an arm wrap around your shoulders and you stiffen.

“Kou, I smell like beer,” you protest quietly, but he just laughs and pulls you even closer.

“Who doesn’t smell like beer?” he says and you feel the rumble of his chest as he speaks.

You’re blushing now, much harder than you were before. It’s only now that you feel a glimmer of relief at the sudden power outage and the cover it brings.

You feel your hands shake at your sides. The noises outside seem to die down and you wonder if people are leaving. You wonder if you and Bokuto will be forgotten and trapped here for the rest of the night.

“It’ll be okay,” he says, as if reading your mind. You glance up at him, able to make out the planes of his face from the blue light of your screen. On his skin, smudges of golden paint reflect in its glow and you think you even see glitter shot through his two-toned hair.

“You’re gorgeous,” you blurt out thoughtlessly and Bokuto’s eyes widen in surprise. Part of you regrets the words immediately after but another part of you is holding out; waiting for a reaction that might salvage the situation.

His teeth glint as his lips part in a grin. “You really think so?” he breathes and relief floods throughout your body.

“You’re pretty gorgeous yourself,” he admits. “Cutest witch I’ve seen all night.”

Elation flickers in your chest.

“Even with beer all over me?” you whisper.

He leans in, his forehead just grazing yours. The strands of his hair tickle against your skin and you feel his breath across your lips. You take a deep breath but before you can close your eyes there’s a sharp knocking at the door.

“Oi!” Kuroo’s voice sounds from the other side. “Anybody in here?”

“Yes!” you call out, scrambling to your feet. As if on cue, the lights flicker on again and Bokuto gets up from his spot on the floor.

“The door got stuck,” he calls out and there’s a second of silence before Kuroo responds again.

“Wait, you’re both in there?” he calls out in disbelief and you feel the blush come on again in full force.

Bokuto grips the handle of the door and twists it. This time it turns fully and he wastes no time yanking it open.

You’re greeted by the amused smile on the Kuroo’s face as he takes in the sight of the two of you, clothes rumpled and skin flushed.

“It’s not what it looks like,” you begin, throwing your hands up.

“Are you sure?”

“We weren’t doing anything,” you try to explain but you’re interrupted by a hand on your wrist, pulling you further down the hallway.

Kuroo gives you a knowing look and waves as you’re taken towards the entrance of Bokuto’s bedroom.

“Have fun!” he calls out as he turns to sort out the mess of his party.

You turn to face Bokuto as he leans against the door.

“Now,” he says, with a grin on his face.

“Let’s get you out of those clothes.”

Pick a different room: > Go to the closed bedroom. > Go to the open bedroom. > Go to the balcony. > Go to the kitchen. > Go to the hallway. > Go to the living room.

[kyber-crystal]

united we stand || s.r

summary: in which you, sam, steve, and natasha are forced to go on the run after civil war. unfortunately, being a fugitive with government officials out for his blood doesn’t seem to stop the great captain america from falling even more in love with you.

words: ~2.5k

warnings: slight angst, sam and natasha being matchmakers, fluff 

a/n: OMG IM SORRY THIS ONE WAS SO POORLY WRITTEN ADLFJDSF

It doesn't have to come down to this, Tony. Look what you're doing. You're tearing the Avengers apart."

"You did that when you sided with Cap, Y/N."

"What do we do now?"

"We fight."

"He's my friend."

"So was I."

"He killed our parents, Y/N. And you're still willing to take his side? I thought I could trust you. But I guess I can't even rely on my own judgement anymore to make decisions, can I?"

Your heart hammered against your ribcage as you jumped from rooftop to rooftop, a dull ache forming at the edges of your skull due to all the thoughts rushing around in your brain and narrowly escaping a flurry of over two dozen of General Ross's men.

Guilt settled in the pit of your stomach, making your insides churn. You turned against the last family you had left, and now you were paying the price.

You're one hundred percent sure that Tony hates your guts at this point. Leaving your brother for someone else; what had you become?

"What now?" Sam asked, looking around and sending Redwing out to survey your surroundings for any other agents that could be approaching. "What's our next step?"

"We gotta catch a train. Belfast's no longer safe for us," Steve panted as he slid his shield over his back, trying to catch his breath. "Our safety's already compromised as it is."

"Nat's gonna go get the tickets, I'll buy us some disguises. We're less likely to be recognized because you guys are all suited up with your wings and shield," you explained. "Wait here."

A few minutes later you were all dressed inconspicuously in your new disguises, looking like the other civilians that were walking around. You didn't have enough time to check the sizes of the clothing, so Steve ended up wearing some jeans and a light grey T-shirt that was about a size too small for him, outlining every inch of his toned torso.

You quickly tore your gaze away before anyone noticed you staring. Sam caught this, however, and sent you a little wink. You glared at him in response.

"The next train to Glasgow leaves in nine. We gotta hurry," Natasha said as she handed you your tickets. "Come on."

Luckily you weren't recognized as the ticket holder came around, though you tried to keep your heads down low when she passed by.

"It's a 14 hour ride. You fellas might wanna relax, take a nap or something," she said, reclining her seat back and closing her eyes. "We won't be arriving until early tomorrow morning."

You relaxed in your seat, the tension in your muscles loosening a bit. But Steve saw the distressed look in your eyes and placed a gentle hand on top of yours.

"You alright?"

"Could be better, I mean, it's not like I chose to be a fugitive on the run from the entire world," you joked, but the smirk on your face quickly fell. "No. I'm not."

"It's going to be okay, you know. Things'll work out in the end."

"I sure hope so."

You fell into an awkward silence after that, resting your chin on your hand as you stared out ahead, watching the rolling hills whiz by in a blur, the vibrant green a sharp contrast to the powdery blue sky. Ireland was a beautiful country, really. You wished you could stay longer purely for the sake of admiring all the lovely scenery.

"You know, if you just want to talk about anything, we can do that. 14 hours is a pretty long train ride," he finally spoke up about an hour later. Sam was fast asleep at this point, mouth opened slightly as his head rested on Natasha's shoulder, who was sleeping as well.

"Yeah, it is. But we've had worse days, right?"

"We have," Steve agreed.

So you just talked, about whatever came to your minds. Your childhood, your past before joining the Avengers Initiative where you'd previously served as one of SHIELD's top agents for several years, Steve's life back in the 40's before becoming a super-soldier, how much things changed over the years. About past missions.

Soon enough you felt your eyelids droop heavily from fatigue. He noticed your tiredness and reached out his right arm, gently wrapping it around you and pulling you towards his side, encircling you completely in his warm embrace. Slowly but steadily, your muscles began to release the tension in them and you leaned into his touch.

"Why don't you get some shut-eye. We have plenty of time to talk when we arrive."

"Mhm," you mumbled sleepily. He smiled, brushing a few stray hairs away from your face as you drifted off.

...

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is our final stop. We have arrived at Glasgow Central Station," the conductor's voice announced over the intercom as the train began slowing down. "The weather is currently 59 degrees, and it is 5:27 a.m."

"Wake up, lovebirds," Natasha clapped as you stirred slightly, looking confused as you raised your head from where it rested against Steve's chest. "Time to get going."

You yawned and stood up, stepping off onto the platform into the station, surprisingly busy at the crack of dawn. You really just wanted to curl back up into a ball and sleep. Talking for four hours straight with Steve had knocked you out completely.

After getting new SIM cards, Sam quickly created an account to get you checked into a hotel.

"It's a half hour walk. We should probably limit public transportation as much as we can," he stated as he slid his phone into his jacket pocket. "Managed to snag a 40% off deal including a free night, so we're good for the next few weeks until we get an actual apartment."

"You know," Natasha commented, adjusting her baseball cap and aviators as you made your way outside down the bustling street, "if we weren't currently trying to flee from the government's grasp, I'd say I'd wanna come back here for a vacation. And that's on nice architecture."

"With us?" you raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? You're pretty good company. I wouldn't wanna hang out with anyone else."

"Well, what can I say?" Sam puffed up his chest. "I'm smooth with the ladies."

You simply laughed. "Yeah, sure you are."

Glasgow was a breathtaking city. With sprawling Victorian style buildings and cobblestone roads, brightly labeled bars and restaurants, it appeared as if it was pulled straight from a rustic 19th-century painting.

You checked into your hotel after grabbing some food from the nearby bakery. For a cheap price, your room was surprisingly simple but large: a king bed in one room, a pullout couch, and a small balcony so you could stand outside and take in the view of the city.

Despite having no time zone difference between Ireland and Scotland, you were still extremely jet-lagged, most likely due to the flight you'd taken over to Berlin not long ago. After binge-watching reruns of some sitcom for the rest of the day, you fell asleep, clutching your pillow tightly.

Natasha and Sam had good eyes, and could clearly see something was going on between you and Steve.

The truth was, you wanted something to happen but both of you were too chicken to make a move, thinking being in relationship while on the run was inconvenient and unnecessary.

The first few days passed by relatively quickly. You only really went out to buy groceries, and even then you went two at a time to avoid drawing unwanted attention to yourselves. Once, you treated yourselves to a night out at a nice restaurant, enjoying each others' company. It was a way to forget about your currently unfortunate situation.

...

But then the nightmares began.  

You swung your legs over the edge of the bed after waking up in a cold sweat, heading over to the bathroom. Everyone had already gone to sleep long ago, and you envied people like Sam as he could knock out cold almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Staring at your ghostly reflection in the mirror, you squeezed your eyes shut, releasing tears that cascaded down your flushed cheeks in a hot flood. You ran trembling fingers through your messy hair in an attempt to tame it, taking a brief look at your disheveled appearance. The heavy dark circles underneath your bloodshot eyes that were a result of hardly sleeping over the past week were clear, as well as your sunken cheekbones and deathly pale complexion.

You studied the woman that looked back at you, with the same unnerving and hollowed out gaze that she'd worn for years; a façade she learned to develop so that nobody could see when she felt weak; helpless. 

Ten days. 

Only ten days had passed since you arrived in Scotland, yet it seemed as if you aged ten years during that short amount of time. Small creases in between your brows indicated stress and anxiety from leaving everything you knew behind, for a future you could barely see ahead of. For a life that held an endless amount of consequences if you took one misstep, one wrong move.

Your body felt heavy, weighed down as if you carried the weight of a thousand men upon your aching shoulders. You didn't know what to do; what to think anymore.

You didn't look thirty-two anymore, you looked older. Almost as old as Tony. And there was a 10+ year age gap between you and him.

God, Tony.

You betrayed him. The last living member of your family on earth, and you betrayed him.

Turned your back on him, because you didn't believe in the same ideas. Was it really worth turning your back on your own blood just because of a disagreement?

I thought I could trust you.

I thought I could, too. But I guess things don't always work out as planned, do they?

They don't. I don't even know what I can say to you anymore. Hell, I can't look at you without seeing a traitor. You turned your back on all of us, and that's unforgivable.

The Accords, you know I couldn't sign them. It isn't right. I'm fighting for what I believe in.

No, you're fighting for Steve, not yourself. Always running over to precious Cap even if it costs you your safety, if it costs you everything and everyone you ever loved. Because you think that you can rely on him and him alone, to get through this. You won't get very far by keeping this act up, you know.

News flash; the world doesn't revolve around you, Tony. Just because someone doesn't agree with what you believe, doesn't mean you have to tear their team, their family, apart for it.

You're blaming me?

Maybe I am.

"What are you doing up this late?"

Steve's voice jolted you from your train of thought, and you looked up to see him leaning against the doorframe dressed in sweats and another tight-fitting T-shirt, his blue eyes scanning over you worriedly.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm fine, if that's what you're wondering. I'm just a bit jet-lagged," you muttered, hastily wiping away another stray tear that escaped. He pushed himself off the wall and caught your wrist as you were bringing your hand down, tugging you towards him slightly.

"Tell me what's going on."

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're not. What's wrong, Y/N?"

"I..." your voice faltered. You didn’t even realize you’d started crying until you felt your face grow wet from the salty tears that rolled silently into your cracked lips. "I don't know. Everything's wrong."

"Everything?"

"I made a mistake."

"What do you mean, mistake?"

"I turned my back against Tony. My family. I betrayed my own family, Steve." Your voice cracked. "And now I can't even guarantee that I'll ever see him again."

"You did what you had to do," he said softly, placing a hand on your shoulder. You felt your skin burning up under his touch. "You were just trying to do what you felt was right."

"Yeah, by teaming up with the side of the man who killed my parents. I can't imagine what he even thinks of me right now."

A look of hurt briefly passed over Steve's face at the mention of Bucky.

"...But I know their deaths were out of his control, so I don't blame him," you continued. "Still..I hurt him. And now, I have to live with knowing that fact." "Look, I'm sorry."

"What?"

You looked up and met his gaze, feeling his bright blue eyes boring into yours. He didn't seem upset or angry at all; there was an eerie softness and calming feeling about the way he looked at you that made you relax a bit.

"I shouldn't have dragged you into this mess. I never wanted you to have this kind of life; where you're always living in uncertainty. You deserve better than that."

"It's not your fault at all," you swallowed hard. Talking and breathing grew increasingly difficult with the sob that was building up in the back of your throat, that you tried desperately to conceal for so long, "it's mine. I made that decision to side with you, not only because I couldn't stand the idea of signing the Accords. So it's...it's on me. God, I don't know what to do anymore, I can't—"

A wave of grief suddenly hit you from all sides, causing you to keel over, sliding down against the cold wall with a hand clutching your stomach as an agonized scream tear itself through your body and out of your throat. And you were drowning; suffocated by your own tears as you struggled to breathe. You tried desperately to stop them but nothing could seem to hold back the heavy sobs that wracked your body, clawing at your lungs and heart. 

Steve crouched down in front of you and pulled you against him, arms tightening around your body with each cry that escaped your lips. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to take all your sadness and frustration and grief and put it upon himself, to carry the weight on his shoulders so he wouldn't have to watch you endure the pain. He'd much rather have to suffer himself than watch you try and bear the burden and fall to pieces in the process.

Seeing you breaking down before him with your gut-wrenching cries that echoed across the small space, more vulnerable than you'd ever been in front of him before, made it feel as if someone was directly ripping his heart right out of his chest and tearing it into a thousand pieces with their bare hands. 

"Hey, it's okay," he whispered soothingly as he pressed his lips to the side of your temple, "it's okay. I've got you. You're gonna be okay."

Despite how you felt as if your heart was twisting itself into knots, there was something comforting about the way he held you ever so gently in his arms, the way his warm breath fell against his neck as one arm was firmly hooked around your waist, running his free hand through your hair.

So for a moment, you allowed yourself to believe that there was no one else in the world except for just you and him, holding you close, and that everything was fine, even if the feeling only lasted for a second.

[electrickoushi]

denki kaminari has lost his sister

a/n: happy new year! this fic was for one of my other friend’s xmas presents which is just a bit late. i hope you enjoy it!

pairing: kaminari denki x shinsou hitoshi tags: fluff, lifeguard au, they are equally whipped, pre-relationship, crush at first sight wc: 5.8k

Denki is ready for vacation. He’s ready to hit the beach, eat a ridiculous amount of hamburgers, and maybe even get a tan to show off to his friends back in Japan. He is significantly less prepared to chase after a lost sister (multiple times) and talk to a surprisingly cute lifeguard that manages to stumble upon Denki in his time of need. 

Denki’s cheap slides slapped against the ground as he and his family stepped off the airplane.

He swung his backpack over his shoulder and looked around. Large windows surrounded them, allowing sunlight to flood in. Potted plants sat on the tiled floor and lined the walls. People tripped over one another as they all eagerly ran to security to start their vacations.  

Denki’s family took their sweet time retrieving their luggage. They walked at the pace of a snail despite the boy’s wish for them to hurry up. For some reason, they decided to stand still on all of the walkways (which had the word walk in them, Denki pointed out) and gawk at all the foreign stores. 

They arrived at the tram station that would take them directly to their hotel, just to find out that they had missed it by only a few minutes. The woman working at the desk for the tram told them that it would be another twenty minutes until the next one came. Denki’s mom just thanked the woman and waved it off, not understanding that she was wasting the precious minutes of vacation Denki had calculated on the plane. 10,283 minutes of relaxing time in which he didn’t have to deal with Katsuki’s terrible behavior, Mr. Aizawa’s dull grumbling, or Ms. Midnight’s provocative... um, homework. 

Twenty minutes later (10,223 minutes left), the tram screeched to a halt, and the Kaminaris walked out to board. 

Smiling widely, Denki’s sister Yuki took his right hand as she glanced around to explore the new country they would be living in for the next week. Once they got seated, Yuki let go so she could turn and look out the window. 

“So how’s Hawaii so far?” he asked his little sister, flicking one of her pigtails. 

He was scared that the foreign land and language and people might be too overwhelming for a five-year-old, but she was clearly enjoying every moment so far. He saw her wide eyes in the reflection as she took in all the scenery. 

“Wonderful! Do you see the ocean? It’s so blue.” She pressed her finger against the window. Wonder and amazement flashed in her eyes and Denki laughed. It’s like she forgot they also lived on an island surrounded by an ocean. 

They both watched the exotic flora pass by while the driver spewed out facts about Hawaii that would entertain the tourists. They flew over his mom’s, dad’s, and sister’s heads since Denki was the only one with strong enough English to understand the fast, muffled speech of the driver. 

The tram stopped in front of their hotel, and the brother and sister stood up to follow their parents out to collect their suitcases. They rolled them up the brick pathway, careful not to bump into other guests. 

A cold burst of air conditioning greeted them when they walked into the building. Warm, earthy tones decorated the lobby, giving it an overall oriental feel, which was probably why his parents chose this hotel in the first place. Guests were drawn toward the main novelty of the lobby: the small waterfall in the middle of the room. The water cascaded over a wooden wall and emptied into a small koi pond where kids could throw in small pellets of food. 

His parents walked straight past the wall and towards the check-in desk with the assumption that their kids were trailing right behind them. Denki hurried after them (only 10,206 minutes remaining), but suddenly saw a small flash of bright blonde hair dip into the gift shop. He groaned and ran after Yuki. 

Denki found her next to the souvenir t-shirts with sayings like “Aloha” and “Welcome to Hawaii” on them. She was tugging on a hot pink one that was five times too large for her. 

“Yuki, you can’t run off like this.” He grabbed her arm that was clinging to the fabric and made her let go of it. 

She whined, sticking out her tongue at her older brother. Denki rolled his eyes at the childish behavior but was secretly thankful that she didn’t start throwing a temper tantrum. Those meltdowns could last for hours on end, and he wasn’t prepared to deal with one of those in public. 

Denki had just managed to get Yuki to leave the gift store when their parents walked up to them, glaring. 

His mother started the attack before Denki could even try to defend himself. “Denki, I thought you were more responsible than this. After we got our keycards, we turned around just to find you gone.” 

Denki wanted to scream at their ignorant, illogical thinking. He held back his sigh and tried to explain. “You don’t understand, I was coming to get her and-” 

“Stop making excuses. You also left your suitcase in the middle of the lobby. You should be glad no one stole it.” His dad thrust the handle of his suitcase towards Denki. 

I’m sorry that you can’t keep track of your own child, so your poor son had to do it for you, just to get in trouble for running off, Denki bitterly thought as he watched his parents spin around and march off. Naturally, they expected their children to follow them. 

It had been less than an hour since they landed and they were already mad at him. He rolled his eyes and huffed. What a great family trip this was going to be. 

Even Yuki must have sensed the tension since her usual, endless babbling had subsided while they walked behind their parents to the elevators. 

The elevator ride was quiet. 

The doors slid open and Denki was the first to escape the cold atmosphere. He reached their room first but had to wait for his mother with the keycard. She swiped it, the green light switching on to signal that it was unlocked. He quickly pushed the door open and entered the room. 

There were two beds, which meant he would be sharing one with his sister unless he wanted to sleep on the couch or the floor. That would also mean that she would get an entire bed to herself, and that was utterly unacceptable. 

He tucked his suitcase between the wall and the bedframe before checking out the rest of the hotel room. They had a giant TV on top of a dresser placed in front of the beds. There was a nightstand between them with a clock, lamp, and phone on top. Pictures of various plants and landscapes adorned the walls. 

Skinny French doors opened to a smaller room with a living area. There was a green couch facing another TV, and a desk situated in the corner. Denki found a small kitchenette and a door leading to the bathroom. 

He returned to the earlier room and pulled back the beige curtains to reveal a sliding glass doorwall leading to a balcony. They had a great view of the strip of beach that the hotel owned. 

His parents sat on their bed and talked in hushed whispers. 

Probably about me, Denki thought as he flopped on his bed face-down. If only he could escape for a while to give them time to cool off. 

He unzipped his suitcase to dig out his Switch when he saw his swim trunks. He looked out the doorwall again. 

“Mom, Dad, can I go to the beach?” he asked, forgetting all about his game and pulling out the hideous shorts instead. 

“I don’t know, can we trust you?” his father retorted. 

Denki bit back a tart response. “I’ll be okay. I’ll take my phone and stuff.” “I want to swim!” Yuki popped her head in out of nowhere. She seemed to have returned to her normal, hyperactive self. 

His mom clapped her hands together. “Perfect! Denki, you take your sister to the beach and your father and I can have some alone time here.” 

“But I wanted to-” 

“You wanted to what?” his dad asked, arching an eyebrow to give him The Look.

“... Talk to girls,” he sheepishly admitted. And guys too, which is what I would say if I was actually out to you two. 

“This is a family vacation. If you want to go to the beach, take your sister along with you. Besides, you speak English well, so if your sister gets lost, she’ll be fine.” 

He held back another aggravated scream. “Fine. Yuki, go get your swimsuit on.” 

Denki grabbed his pair of hideous yellow swim trunks with black lightning bolts on them. They were so outrageously horrible, which is exactly why he bought them in the first place. 

Walking into the bathroom, he quickly changed into them and applied sunscreen to his face. 

He packed a bag to take with him while his sister changed. In it were his phone, three towels (one for him, one for his sister, and one to sit on), and one of the keycards. 

“Okay, here’s her floaties, and some money for snacks.” His mom handed the objects to him. He tucked the cash into the outside pocket of his drawstring. The floaties wouldn’t fit, so he would just have to carry them. 

“Carrying transparent pink and blue floaties with flowers on them is truly the epitome of hotness,” he muttered to himself as he blew a strand of hair out of his face. “Come on, Yuki.” 

“Have a great time, you two!” his mother beamed as if she wasn’t mad at him only a few minutes earlier. 

“Will do.” he said, shutting the door behind him. 

His sister darted down the hallway and Denki couldn’t help but groan.

-

They found a shady spot underneath a palm tree that was pretty close to the beach, the optimal location. From here, Denki could watch Yuki if she wanted to go swim or play by herself. They could also build sandcastles more easily since they wouldn’t have to haul ass to get wet sand. Finding the spot wasn’t too difficult since the beach wasn’t packed either. It was the middle of a Tuesday after all. 

Denki rolled out the striped towel and set the bag on top to weigh it down. He dropped the floaties with a dejected sigh before sitting down and peeling off his shirt. Despite the warmth of the sun and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, he still felt agitated from the altercation earlier. 

He pulled Yuki into his lap, twisting one of her pigtails around his finger. Her arms were already sticky from sweat and her feet were coated with sand. More granules of sand transferred to the towel and Denki’s legs the longer she sat. 

“You’re not mad at me too, are you?”  he asked, picking her small body up to reposition her to face him. 

She shook her head, placing her small, sticky hands onto Denki’s bare shoulders. “I love you, Denki!” She kissed him on the cheek and giggled. 

He couldn’t help but smile and pull her into a hug. She may be a brat sometimes, but if anyone was on his side, it was her. “I love you too, Yuki.” 

“Can we get ice cream?” she asked while hugging him back. Her hair tickled his ear as the slight breeze swung it back and forth. 

Ice cream was a great option to battle the heat, second only to jumping into the ocean. Plus they hadn’t eaten anything since the plane ride, so he was starving. He wanted a real meal, preferably a hamburger with a large side of fries, but they wouldn’t be having dinner for a few more hours. The pool bar was open, but he had no clue what they sold or how much it was. Frankly, he wasn’t feeling up to the task of talking to people either. 

“Of course,” he replied, bringing joy to his sister’s eyes. He eyed at the crowd swarming the ice cream truck. There were so many people, all shoving to get their popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, and he didn’t want her to get hurt or lost. 

“Um…” Crap, he had no clue what to do. “Yuki, I’m going to go get us ice cream, okay? Listen, you have to promise me that you won’t leave this spot. Can you promise me that?”  

“I promise!” 

Denki nodded and set her down on the towel. She fell square on her butt, digging both her hands into the damp sand. She looks occupied enough, he decided as he dug the money out of his bag and told her goodbye. 

Halfway to the truck, he turned around to check if Yuki was still sitting on the towel. Thankfully she was, easing his fears slightly. 

He waited in line for a bit, bought two ice cream sandwiches, and made his way back to the large palm tree. The sandwiches seemed to be melting in his hand by the second, so he took up a quick jog. He watched his path, trying not to step on anyone or anything while the sand burned his feet. 

When he reached their resting place, he expected sticky fingers grabbing at the sandwich in his hand. Instead, Yuki was gone. 

He dropped the two wrapped sandwiches and frantically swiveled his head around in search of those blonde pigtails and purple swimsuit. 

He had really done it now. What if she got kidnapped? What if she got into the water and drowned? His parents would never forgive him. He would never forgive himself. Of course he shouldn’t have left her there. 

“God, why am I so stupid?” He felt like crying and screaming and kicking something. This vacation just kept getting worse and worse. 

“Hey, are you okay?” a deep voice said in English. 

Denki looked up and shielded his eyes from the sun to find a purple-haired boy staring at him with concern. The boy’s lips were set in a firm line and the bags under his eyes were quite profound. He may not have been found objectively attractive by the common person, but Denki couldn’t help but find a certain kind of beauty in the orderly unkemptness of the boy. 

Now is not the time to think about that though, Denki thought, chiding himself for his behavior. 

“I mean, you just look… distressed,” the boy said when Denki didn’t reply. 

Denki was distressed. So much so, that he didn’t notice when he started cussing in Japanese, which is what brought the boy over in the first place. 

“Oh. I’m fine. I’m good besides the fact that I literally lost my sister and when I go back to the hotel, I will get decapitated by my parents after being awarded ‘Worst Brother of the Year.’” Denki slapped his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes of any stray tears. 

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. Do you want help looking for her?” he asked, squatting down and prying Denki’s hands off his face. 

Denki looked up and into the purple eyes of his new savior. “Yes. Please, yeah, thanks.” 

The boy stood up and offered his hand out to the blonde. Denki took it and smiled. Somehow, his hand wasn’t as sweaty as everyone else’s. It’s like his body had adjusted to the almost unbearable heat. That or he was just too pretty to sweat. He wasn’t sure. 

“What does she look like?” the purplet asked, placing his hands on his hips and cracking his back then his neck.

Denki was not staring at his back muscles nor at his crazy hair that must have been at least sort of soft. 

Cracking his knuckles, the boy looked at the blonde expectantly and waited for his response. 

“Oh, right,” Denki cleared his throat. “Well, she is five, and she is kind of short. She has blonde hair too, but it’s lighter than mine and in pigtails, and she has a purple swimsuit on, kind of like the color of your hair, and yeah.” 

“Okay. Don’t worry we will find her.” He took in the long expanse of sand and people ahead of them. His sunglasses would have been nice.

Denki rubbed the nape of his neck. He felt guilty that he was wasting someone else’s time, but he needed all the help he could get. This vacation was already a complete shitshow and a lost sister on his watch would make it an Oscar-winning shit-performance or whatever the step up from shitshow was. “My name is Denki, by the way. Uh, thanks for helping me.” 

“I’m Hitoshi, one of the lifeguards here. So it’s really no problem. It’s my job to save everyone.”

Somehow that made Denki feel a little better.  

“Okay, Denki, do you have any idea where she could be?” 

Denki shook his head. 

“Okay, let’s just ask around then?” Hitoshi suggested. 

They started their trek, Denki with his slides on and Hitoshi barefoot. The heat had made Denki’s hair start to frizz, and he tried to discreetly pat it down. He didn’t put any gel in it this morning since he thought he would be swimming, not talking to a hot guy while looking for his sister. 

They approached the nearest person, a middle-aged woman with a big, floppy hat and large sunglasses who was reading a magazine and tanning. Clad in a skimpy pink bikini, she laid on one of those beach chairs, long legs stretched out. Her giant boobs spilled out of her halter top, drawing the attention of many males around, which seemed to be one of her objectives of the day, along with tanning and reading about the top seven diets that are taking the world by storm. 

Hitoshi promptly ignored the lady’s more than concerning fashion choices and led the conversation. “Excuse me, ma’am, have you seen a little five-year-old girl anywhere? She has blonde pigtails and a purple swimsuit on.” He held his hand near his waist to illustrate her height. 

She pulled her sunglasses off with an exaggerated snap of her wrist and glanced up at the boys. “Did you lose a child? Aren’t you supposed to be a lifeguard?” She flicked the whistle hanging from Hitoshi’s neck and turned back towards her magazine. 

Denki was shocked, first by her ginormous, unshielded tits, but now by her sharp words. Hitoshi was just trying to help him search for his sister. Why was she being so rude? 

Hitoshi started to speak, but Denki stepped forward. “Look, lady. You have no right to speak to my friend this way. Have you seen my sister or not?” 

The lady narrowed her eyes at the blonde. “I have not,” she said, snapping open her magazine and turning away. “Brats.” 

Denki stomped away from the woman. Once they were out of earshot, he started grumbling. “Despite your strong milf status, you’re a complete bitch.” 

Hitoshi softly laughed at the strange yet comical remark. 

The joyful sound was unexpected as it landed on Denki’s ears. Hitoshi had a deep, almost gravelly voice (one that Denki found undeniably hot) that seemed to never fluctuate in tone or timbre. It was calm and stable, so the warm, sweet sound made Denki’s heart skip a few beats and made his mouth malfunction for a few seconds. 

“You have a nice laugh,” he blurted out. His cheeks went red with embarrassment once he realized what he said. “Er, I-” 

Hitoshi just laughed more at the blonde’s candor. “Thanks.” 

Denki decided to stop talking, stop looking at the purple-haired boy altogether before he said another stupid thing. 

The two boys walked around, going from person to person and asking if they had seen Yuki. Everyone shook their heads and returned to their activity, clearly uninterested in finding the lost child. So far the bitchy milf was the worst of the worst, but no one else was that much better.

Each time they got out of earshot, Denki had some underhanded comment that made Hitoshi laugh. 

-

As they walked around, Denki and Hitoshi made small talk, discovering different things about each other. (Denki had lost track of exactly how many minutes of vacation were left a while ago, as he was just a bit too preoccupied with something, or someone, else.) 

Hitoshi worked as a lifeguard during the summer, weekends, and school breaks along with his two friends, Eijirou and Mina. His purple hair always stuck up like crazy, even though it got wet all the time. Oh, he also loved cats and liked to go biking when he had some free time. 

Denki had come to Hawaii for a vacation with his family, but they were sort of fighting right now. The black lighting bolt in his hair was natural, even though no one really believed him. Oh, he also loved hamburgers and liked to hang out with cute guys who liked cats when he had some free time. 

Hitoshi smiled at his last comment. Sometimes he had a hard time discerning whether someone was just being very friendly or if they were trying to flirt with him. It was seven times harder when it came to boys. But by now, he was ninety-nine percent sure Denki was flirting with him. He just called him cute for goodness sake.

They walked around for a few more minutes with no luck. Hitoshi was frustrated at the lack of care from the guests while Denki was about to go berserk. It had been twenty minutes and still no luck. How were they ever going to find her? 

Hitoshi was very worried about the blonde. He could sense the spiraling about to occur, but his break was ending right now. 

“Hey, Eijirou!” He shouted, waving both arms above his head to get the attention of the other lifeguard. The red-haired boy turned around and squinted at the pair. Was Hitoshi actually talking to another human? 

Hitoshi grabbed the blonde’s hand and ran towards the tower. Denki started thinking about how nicely the lifeguard’s hand fit in his. 

“Hitoshi, what’s up bro? Who’s this?” He climbed down from the tower and stuck his hands on his hips, looking back and forth between the two boys. His eyes followed their arms that met in a handhold, and Eijirou couldn’t help but smirk. Listening to Hitoshi while very obviously staring at their interlocked hands, he shook his leg to get the sand off before slipping his foot into a red croc. 

“This is Denki, and we are looking for his sister. So can you just cover my post for a little bit more?” 

They were not getting the hint. He watched Hitoshi very slowly slip his thumb out to stroke the side of Denki’s hand. Eijirou watched the blonde’s breath hitch as he stared straight ahead, trying not to pass away. 

The redhead just gave them a cheeky grin. “Yeah, no problem! What does she look like?” 

“Well, she’s five and has blonde pigtails and a purple swimsuit,” Denki described, motioning with his free hand. 

Eijirou considered the description, squinting, until something finally clicked. “Oh, you mean her?” He jabbed a thumb in the direction of his lifeguard tower.

The three watched as Yuki popped out behind the white wood of his lifeguard chair. Eijirou smiled, Hitoshi gasped, and Denki felt his soul ascend. He would live to see another day. 

He tore away from Hitoshi and ran over to his sister, kneeling down so they were eye level. “Yuki, why did you leave when you promised me you wouldn’t?” 

She shrugged, playing with her skirt and wiggling around. The sand must have been terribly interesting because she refused to make eye contact with her brother. Maybe she was finally feeling guilty about all the trouble she’s caused today. Denki pouted in return and furrowed his eyebrows.

Watching the blonde’s cute expression, Hitoshi could swear he fell in love just a little more. 

Yuki dashed away, kicking up sand and dodging Denki’s arms. “Not again,” he whined, bowing his head in defeat before standing up to go chase after his sister. 

She ran right past Hitoshi who scooped her up before she could escape. 

“You should have listened to your big brother, Yuki. He’s been spending all this time looking for you,” Hitoshi said in perfect Japanese. He was still standing next to Eijirou, far enough away that Denki couldn't hear him. 

She frowned and flashed him big puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” he said, glancing over at Denki. He set her down and she ran back to him, hugging his leg. “Sorry, Denki.” 

He sighed and sat down on his butt. “It’s okay, just please don’t run away again.” 

Yuki giggled and crawled into his arms, burying her face in his neck and blowing a raspberry. 

“Yuki…” He cracked a smile and started tickling her, seeming to forget about the harrowing experience she just put him through. 

-

While the siblings made up, Eijirou left, clapping Hitoshi on the back and wishing him good luck, both with the second half of the shift and his newfound crush. 

Hitoshi climbed back up on his chair, leaning against the back of it and sighing. In the past twenty minutes, he saw a swearing Japanese boy on the verge of a breakdown, asked said boy what was wrong, helped said boy find his sister, and developed quite the crush on said boy. 

The sun beat down on Hitoshi as he watched the brother and sister duo with a smile on his face. He rested his arms on his knees, holding up his face with two curled fists. Sitting down and watching people enjoy their lives was very boring compared to the adventure he took with Denki. 

“Ooooh, who are you staring at ‘Toshi?” 

Hitoshi almost fell out of his chair, which would have been quite the sight to see. “What?” 

“You haven’t blinked for a full minute. Who are you watching?” Mina asked, surveying the ocean in search of the individual who managed to steal Hitoshi’s heart. 

“No one,” Hitoshi said, blinking aggressively. His eyes did feel very dry all of a sudden. 

Very unconvincing. “Mhm…” she mused. 

“Don’t you have work to be doing?” teased Hitoshi as he dragged his eyes away from Denki and placed them on the waitress.

She stuck her tongue out at him and tucked her hands in the back pockets of her jean shorts. Hitoshi just stared at her silently. After a few seconds, Mina just scoffed and ran a hand through her pink hair. 

“You’re so boring. I’ll find out who you were staring at though, Mr. Heart Eyes, just you wait!” Mina ran towards the other tower. “Eijirou! You’ll never guess what happened to Hitoshi!” 

Hitoshi chuckled at the black girl’s behavior. His eyes wandered for a bit before finding the blonde boy again in the water. Denki was splashing around in the water with his sister, his smile so bright that it stood out against the sunlit ocean. 

A flash of red dove into the water, momentarily drawing Hitoshi’s attention away. A few seconds later, Eijirou’s head popped out of the water, wet hair clinging to his face and over his white headband. He looked over in Hitoshi’s direction and gave him a thumbs up. Hitoshi gave him one back, unable to hear the complaints that came from Eijirou’s mouth. This was the third time he had to save someone in Hitoshi’s zone since he was too distracted by a certain blonde boy. 

Hitoshi did a once over of the sand and water before inevitably being drawn back to Denki and his sister. She was in a yellow inner tube and Denki spun her around in place, causing her to shriek out of joy. His hair was completely wet and fell down to his shoulders in nice waves. Hitoshi admitted that his swim trunks were objectively ugly, but he somehow pulled them off. It could have been the toned abs but Hitoshi was definitely not studying the muscles that looked extremely nice when Denki would emerge from the water. 

He started staring into space, dreaming about the boy, when he heard screaming. The blonde’s voice carried across the ocean as he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “Yuki, where are you?” 

Hitoshi looked at the inner tube, unsurprised to find empty air where a person should be. She was quite the handful it seemed. A few seconds passed before Hitoshi stood up and dove into the water to search for the lost girl. 

The saltwater stung his eyes slightly while he swam around to find her signature pigtails. He spotted her among the various legs of people and grabbed her arm, pushing her up to the surface of the water before him. 

Once he sprung up, he was met with an angry glare fixed on the small girl’s face who was back in her innertube with Denki in front of her. His back was to Hitoshi when Yuki started yelling at the purple-haired boy. 

“You ruined our game! You’re no fun,” she snipped. 

“Yuki, don’t talk to him like that. He was just making sure you’re safe,” Denki reprimanded in Japanese. 

Denki turned around to apologize to Hitoshi for his sister’s attitude, just to find that his brain had malfunctioned and refused to communicate with his mouth. He must have forgotten how to tread too, because he accidentally plunged down into the water, curing him of his original shock. 

Why were men so attractive? More specifically, purple-haired lifeguards who just came out of the water after saving his sister who didn’t need saving. 

Saltwater filled his mouth and burned his nose as he flailed in the water for a second before propelling himself upward. Choking and sputtering, he grabbed onto Yuki’s tube to stabilize himself while he was in the process of dying. 

Hitoshi watched on with concern. “Are you okay?” 

Denki kept coughing but nodded regardless. “Sorry, I, um, well, we were just-” 

His face was bright red, possibly from his near-death experience, possibly from the hot male in front of him. 

Hitoshi would bet it was the latter. 

He found that flustered Denki was somehow even cuter than beach boy Denki, and the strong desire to fluster him crept up further. He smirked to himself for a split second before swimming closer to Denki and tapping him on the shoulder. He shot a deadly smile at the coughing boy. “Hey, I’m Shinsou Hitoshi, lifeguard on duty right now,” he said in Japanese.

“I know, you told me before,” Denki reflexively replied in his first language, still recovering from the past five minutes of his life. His eyes widened. “You just spoke perfect Japanese?” 

“I did. I was born in Japan and moved here just a few years ago.” Hitoshi looked smug at the fact that he succeeded in rattling the blonde. 

Denki stared at him, trying to remember if he said anything stupid in Japanese while in the presence of the lifeguard. He didn’t think so, but he could never be sure. His coughing fit had finally stopped, and they stared at each other in silence. 

“Your English is really good, Denki,” Hitoshi said, watching a small blush spread on Denki’s cheeks again. 

“Thanks.” 

Did he always have freckles? Hitoshi wondered as he swam closer. 

The romantic moment abruptly ended when Yuki splashed water in both of their faces. 

Hitoshi shook his head to get rid of as much water as possible while Denki just growled at his sister, restraining his desire to splash her back twice as hard. The purple-haired boy noticed this and tugged on the other’s arm. Denki paused his murderous rage to look at Hitoshi. 

“Why don’t I show you around after my shift? Are you in the hotel up there?” Hitoshi asked as he pointed at the large building that loomed over the beach. 

“Yeah, yes I am. Um, sure, what time is that?” Denki stuttered out, cringing at his voice. Now was not the time to be majorly awkward, he scolded himself. He glanced back to see if Yuki was listening. Thankfully, she wasn’t or she just didn’t care. That would be quite a long conversation with his parents, one he definitely preferred not to have soon. 

Hitoshi cracked a smile at the way Denki stumbled over his words. “Around six. I can take you out to dinner at the beach restaurant.” 

“That’s perfect. I’ll meet you here again, yeah?” 

“Sure.”

Denki turned towards his sister who was entertaining herself by spinning in tiny circles. He could never be too careful when it came to boys. “If Mom and Dad ask where I go tonight, you just tell them that I made a new friend, okay?”

“Okay. Can we go back to swimming now?” she asked, looking up to find the pair laughing at her uninterested tone. 

Denki nodded through giggles while Hitoshi waved goodbye to Yuki. She’d warm up to him later if he had anything to say about it. 

Hitoshi swam to shore and walked back to his lifeguard chair. Sand stuck to his wet feet and legs. He tried brushing it off as best he could, but the curse of sand clung to his body like, well, wet sand. He dried his hair and torso off before settling back into his chair. 

Once again, his eyes found Denki whose head was sticking just above the water. He managed to position his sister so that she was sitting on his shoulders. Once she was properly situated, he stood up, boosting her into the warm air. Squeals and shouts came from her mouth as she grabbed onto his hair while Denki spun around. 

He stopped spinning, facing Hitoshi and making eye contact with him across the ocean. Denki grinned and offered a flirty wink before thrusting himself backward and falling into the water with a large splash. They surfaced a few seconds later, laughing and chasing each other around. 

Hitoshi smiled at the boy’s antics and tried to calm his racing heart. 

Someone knocked on his chair leg, pulling Hitoshi out of his thoughts about his future date. It was Eijirou who had come over to notify Hitoshi that he was taking his break now. Hitoshi nodded and watched the other lifeguard walk towards the bar to go talk to Mina. 

“Hey, Eijirou?” Arching his eyebrow in curiosity, the red-haired boy turned around and motioned for his friend to continue. “Do you think I can get off early tonight?” 

“Got a date with a cute blonde?” Eijirou teased. 

“Yeah, something like that,” the lifeguard replied with an uncharacteristically large smile on his face. 

Eijirou had never seen anything like it before.

[bevioletskies]

Starmora Movieverse Prompt: Romantic Date Night while pregnant.

mild spoiler warning for avengers: infinity war and a brief mention of speculation about avengers 4.ao3 | word count: 2.2k

“I swear to all the gods in the universe, if you ask me whether my feet hurt one more time, I will actually - ”

“Kill me? That stopped working five years ago, honey.” Peter glanced over at Gamora, who was sat in the co-pilot’s seat of the Benatar’s external pod, her hands resting comfortably atop her belly. “But seriously, you feelin’ okay? I can turn the ship around - ”

“I will turn this ship around myself if you don’t stop fussing,” Gamora exclaimed incredulously. “I’m pregnant, not incapacitated. Though I wouldn’t know the difference since you stopped me from being on active duty over a month ago.”

“Listen, I know you could be in labor and still take down a whole army by yourself. But it’s still risky, and anything could happen. I’m just lookin’ out for you and our kid,” Peter insisted, turning back towards the screens. “Besides, you’ve been great at being mission control. Our last two jobs went super smooth.”

“It would have gone even better, had I been present,” she retorted. “So where are you taking me, Peter, since you’ve been so stubborn about keeping it a secret?”

“It’s gonna stay a secret until we get there,” he teased, reaching over to squeeze her leg. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Marginally,” she said dryly, softening when he turned to frown exaggeratedly. “Of course I do. And this was a good idea, having a night out together. I feel like it’s been months since we’ve had some quality time alone, away from the team. I adore them, but Groot especially has been so fussy lately.”

“Prob’ly worried he’s not gonna be the baby of the group anymore,” Peter reasoned. “But he’s always gonna be our first kid.”

Gamora smiled. “He is.”

They settled back into comfortable silence - aside from the gentle lull of a song playing through the pod’s speakers, of course - Gamora glanced down at her stomach in contentment. She never pictured the sort of half-chaotic, half-domestic life she was living would have become her reality, a life in which she spent her days battling monsters and negotiating deals, and spent her nights curled up with Peter and having quality time with Nebula and the other Guardians. A life where, in a few months’ time, she was going to have a child, raise them to be good and honest and kind in a world where she’d witnessed so much of the very opposite. Or at least, she hoped that she could.

Life had stabilized greatly after the universe had been restored, and the Guardians were taking on less work as time went on, prioritizing their health, sanity, and relationships above almost all else - it was hard to say no when the entire galaxy was in danger, or when the Nova Corps came calling with a hefty cash reward within reach. Nebula now lived with them permanently, proving to be a surprisingly capable and cooperative team member, especially when it came to combat. She was also a little kinder in her Nebula-ish ways, cutting back on the snark in favor of awkward, but genuine expressions of affection for Gamora, sometimes even of the other Guardians as well.

“You definitely aren’t the worst person my sister could have decided to have a child with,” Nebula declared to Peter over breakfast one morning.

“That means a lot to me, thanks,” Peter deadpanned without missing a beat, shoveling more eggs into his mouth. Nebula almost seemed proud.

That wasn’t to say they were without their bad days. Drax was ecstatic that there was a baby on the way, but he did get a little morose when he thought too much about Kamaria and the time he’d spent with her and Hovat in the Soul Dimension. Rocket was less acerbic than before - after all, watching Groot die twice and being the only official Guardian left took a lot out of him - but he still got immensely cranky over the smallest of things. Then there was Groot himself, almost full-grown again, but now in the late-teen stage in which he believed he already knew everything he needed to know, that there was nothing left for him to learn from the others, making him near-insufferable.

“We’re here,” Peter announced, bringing Gamora out of her thoughts. She sat up, wide-eyed, at the realization of where they were - Knowhere. It was fully rebuilt as if Thanos had never touched it, still just as dirty and crime-ridden as ever, crawling with suspicious individuals committing suspicious acts, running rampant with no regards for anyone or anything in their way. Gamora had never been so relieved to see a place she once thought she would never want to return to again, not after what happened the last time they were here.

Peter brought the pod down to a parking dock and helped Gamora make her way out, given the fact that she was in the unflattering stage of less of a walk, and more of a waddle. They paused to glance at their surroundings, to see if the galaxy had pieced itself back together exactly the way it was supposed to, to take in the horrendous sights and smells, but Gamora knew exactly where Peter was planning on taking her.

“You know I can’t drink,” she reminded him as they walked through the front doors of the Boot of Jemiah. They were immediately greeted by the familiar shouts of excitement and anger at the gambling tables and the bar.

“We aren’t stayin’ inside. Just thought we could pick up some food before we head out there.” Peter gestured further down toward the back of the venue, past all the commotion, where the balcony was, the place where they’d first danced - sort of. Gamora smiled softly, accepting the menu that he passed her. “Any weird cravings today?”

“I would offer to split a piece of cake, but that would imply I couldn’t finish it all by myself,” Gamora smirked.

He laughed. “Just for that, I think I’m gonna have to get three slices so you can have one for the ride home.”

After they ordered and received their foods in cheap takeout containers that looked about five seconds away from crumbling into nothing, they went out onto the balcony, momentarily stunned by the surprising beauty of Knowhere’s night sky, swirls of deep, rich color in contrast to the twinkling stars. They sat down with their arms braced against the railing, legs swinging over the edge, and began eating in companionable silence.

A few minutes went by before either of them spoke again. “So this was your idea of a ‘romantic date night’?”

“I think comin’ back to Knowhere is very romantic,” Peter said defensively. “You don’t think so?”

“Believe me, I much prefer this over an expensive dinner by candlelight,” Gamora replied. “Or an evening boat ride...or a tour through an abandoned palace…or that strange club on Xandar with the dancers and the funny drinks...”

“I thought you had fun when we did that stuff.” Peter frowned. “Gamora - ”

“I did, honestly. Just...I like this more.” She reached over to take his hand, guiding it to rest on her stomach, rising and falling with every steady breath she took. “You also said you had a surprise for me.”

He relaxed somewhat, his shoulders loosening up while he gently rubbed her belly in reassurance. “Let’s finishing eating first and I’ll show you, okay?”

Once they got to their dessert, with Gamora taking a generous first bite of her cake as promised, Peter rummaged around in his bag for his holographic mapper. She looked at him curiously. “Haven’t seen that in a while.”

“Been working on reconstructing a couple things, scroungin’ around for data, that kinda thing.” Peter smacked it a couple times on the side before the display finally came to life. He then scrolled through a few menus, landing on the item that he wanted. Within seconds, a scene reconstructed itself before them, something incredibly...familiar.

“Peter,” Gamora breathed. “How did you - ”

“Pulled a few strings with the Nova Corps. Turns out they did pretty thorough documentation of Zehoberei after...y’know. Including some of the houses from your town.”

It wasn’t exactly Gamora’s house, of course, but most of the houses in her area were constructed at roughly the same time, resulting in similar structures and furnishings. Plaster walls, cone-shaped clay roofs, large windows, and rather impressive columns. Furnishings in creams and dark browns, with the occasional touch of deep reds, curtains that billowed in the breeze and comforters that, for a moment, looked far more inviting than anything Gamora had actually slept in before. She could almost remember her father’s cologne, her mother’s laugh.

“It’s amazing,” she whispered, her eyes becoming suspiciously wet. “And you have this saved?”

“So you can call it up whenever you like,” Peter replied, grinning. “There’s more, though. How ‘bout this one?”

Beside the Zehoberian house came a house of a different kind, one a little rundown but still well-maintained, with a lush front yard and a cozy-looking porch. Peter scrolled through to the inside, revealing a living room with mismatched furniture and an old-fashioned television set that was playing cartoons, a kitchen where an entire spread of baking utensils were waiting to be used, and at the dining table, a woman with headphones on, tapping her feet on the linoleum absentmindedly, flipping through a newspaper.

“Your mother.”

“The house I grew up in,” Peter nodded. “All these years later, and I can still remember the names and dates of the magazines she always kept on the coffee table. The number of stairs. That weird stain on the bathroom ceiling. I wish I got that kind of detail for yours.”

“It’s wonderful as it is, Peter. I couldn’t recall any of that myself,” she reassured him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Didn’t say I was finished yet,” he chuckled. With a few final taps on the screen, the two virtual houses slowly diverged to make room for one last location, one that didn’t exist yet. It was a bit shapeless, colorless, nothing distinctive, entirely nondescript. She looked at him in confusion. “So, what’s your favorite part about where you grew up?”

“I...liked the big windows,” Gamora said slowly, furrowing her brow. “Lots of fresh air...light. I didn’t get much of that while living on Sanctuary.” Just like that, the walls of the unknown house began to reshape itself, opening up to large, arched windows similar to the Zehoberei house. “Oh.”

“And I always loved that porch. Spent a lot of evenings sitting out there with a book and my Walkman.” It formed on the very front of the building, topped off with a modest door to match. “Rooms for our friends - ” a second floor materialized in front of them “ - a room for us, a room for the baby - ” it continued to grow into something more real, more akin to an actual house “ - living room, kitchen, dining room, a home gym...do you want your own study?” Gamora nodded, speechless. Another extension popped out on its side. “I think that’s starting to look like something, don’t you?”

“Is this...real, Peter?” Gamora asked, watching as the furnishing began settling in their places, a near-perfect mixture of the Zehoberian style and the Terran style, homely and cozy yet subtly stylish, with an array of rugs and throws and blankets, shelves full of all the books she loved and the ones she still had yet to read, old-school audio equipment for Peter to tinker around with, and a crib, waiting patiently for its occupant to arrive.

“It can be,” he said quietly. “I think we’ve saved up enough money - and saved enough lives - to afford to settle down for at least the baby’s first year, right?”

“Is that what this is all about?” she laughed, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I know you wanna keep kicking ass and protecting the galaxy. I do, too. And you managed to bounce back from everything that happened and still fight, when just about anyone else would’ve given up. That takes some real guts, and I love you more than ever for being so damn strong,” Peter said fiercely, setting down the holographic mapper so he could take her face in his hands. “But just...hear me out, okay? What if we just...took some time to ourselves? And I mean the whole team. Shacked up in a house we designed and built ourselves to act as our new base of operations. Do some remote missions, I dunno. Bond with the kid, be a family. Well, until we get sick of each other.”

“You say that like it hasn’t already happened,” Gamora teased, placing her hands over his. “And...it’s a really good idea, Peter. After everything that’s happened, everything that’s about to happen...I think I deserve a break.”

“You really do,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Don’t bear the burden of the entire universe, Gamora. I know you think you’re responsible for more than you really are. You’re not. And that’s a good thing! So let’s raise an awesome kid with our family and let the galaxy take care of itself for once.”

“Unless there’s a universe-ending event, again,” she protested, smiling despite herself.

“That goes without saying,” he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her, his hand coming to rest on her stomach once more. She leaned into him, pleased to hear his heartbeat match with hers and the baby’s, in perfect synchronicity. “Gotta make sure there’s a whole world out there for our kid to explore.”

[zadien]

Written in response to this piece by @ceruleanmusings . 

“Whoa!”

Isaac and Melanie jumped apart and Siobhán spun to give them some semblance of privacy as they collected themselves on the threadbare carpet of the cheap motel Coach had booked. In terms of romantic rendezvous spots, it wasn’t one that she’d have personally chosen. But it had been a long time coming, so hopefully Isaac’s puppy dog infatuation would switch to a more worthy target. Not that it was any of her business.

“Shiv!” Mel’s voice was strained and she cleared her throat before adding, “Is everything okay?”

Deciding they had been given enough time, Shiv slipped back into the room with a wary glance around the walls. “They found Scott.”

Isaac leapt to his feet with that preternatural grace that all supernaturals were blessed with — and which none of the boys in her school seemed inclined to hide — and helped Mel scramble to her feet. 

Running her hand frantically through her hair, Mel shot Shiv a quick look. “Is he okay?”

“He tried to burn himself alive, and then Stiles tried to join him. I don’t know what the hell is going on but it was terrifying.” Shiv rubbed her arms against the chill that had settled in her bones since she’d spied that scene play out from the balcony above the car lot. She’d been too far away to do anything but even if she’d been closer, sure what could she do?

Isaac and Mel shared a panicked look before Mel asked, "Are they okay?” 

“They’re fine. Lyds saved the day.”

That caught Isaac’s attention, his brows leaping up beneath his damp curls as he laughed ruefully. “Lydia?”

“Yes, Lydia. She knocked them out of the flames.” Honestly, that had been pretty fantastic.

“So what now?” Mel asked, rubbing her neck as she glanced around the sparsely furnished room. “I don’t feel comfortable staying here for the night. Maybe we could stick together. Safety in numbers.”

“I’d feel safer if we weren’t in this motel anymore. It’s driving everyone batshit.”

Isaac snorted. “It’s not the motel. It must have been something we drank.”

Shiv met his eyes directly then immediately dropped hers. She might have been the token human acquaintance — friend was a bit of a stretch since Mel was her only link to the group — but she knew how to navigate this world. “Maybe but Scott and the others are taking refuge in the bus. Which, I personally, think is a good idea. I’m gonna to ask Danny and his friend too - who is mysteriously good looking again considering the beating he got. Whatever concealer he’s using I want the name of it. So someone has to befriend him.”

Isaac pointed at both of them, eyes serious. “Neither of you two are to go near Ethan. He’s not friend material.”

Mel and Shiv exchanged wary looks before Mel lifted a cloth from the floor and headed for the bathroom. Isaac straightened and wiped his hands on his jeans, then stood uncomfortably in the room. Without Mel, he suddenly seemed a little lost.

Shiv sighed. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

“Of course you are. You’re all surprisingly okay with a death motel.”

“Alcohol,” he replied, scratching the back of his head. “Boyd smuggled it up. Thought it would make the bus ride more fun but it must have gone bad.”

Shiv nodded slowly. “Spoiled alcohol. Makes sense.” It didn’t in the slightest but she had to give it to him, it was a much better lie than anything the others had come up with on the fly.

“Uh, hey.”

They spun to find Danny standing awkwardly in the doorway, his gaze bouncing from Isaac, to Shiv, to Mel drying her hands by the bathroom door.

“Have either of you seen Ethan recently? We were…” He flushed and closed his fingers around the doorframe. “Hanging out and he left.”

Shiv clasped her hands in front of her. “I haven’t seen him but we’re all thinking of having a sleepover on the bus.”

“The bus?”

“Yes, because this place is a wee bit disturbing.”

Danny chuckled faintly. “Uh, no, I’ll go find Ethan. I think a bed might be more comfortable than a bus seat.”

“Well,” she began, “would you mind walking me down to the bus first? We can look for Ethan on the way. I want to ask him about a concealer.”

Danny straightened and folded his arms, dark eyes concerned. “Okay, sure. This place really creeps you out, huh?”

“Too many American horror movies are based in motels. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“I’ll come with you,” Mel offered.

“No, no.” Shiv clasped her hands together, shooting Mel a pointed look. “You’re grand. Stay with Isaac, make sure he gets down safely. You know,” she said, glancing at Isaac, “you might be feeling the effects of that spoiled alcohol.”

His lip curled in disdain. “I think I can get down to a bus.”

“Well, make sure Mel gets down to the bus okay. At this point, I really think it’d be safer to travel in pairs.”

Danny chuckled. “I wouldn’t argue with her, man.”

And with that, she pushed Danny out of the room and into the cold night air.

[griswoldadventures]

Colorado Ski Trip

We had a lot of trips in 2019 and were all happy to have spent some time at home in December, but we had one more trip planned. We decided that the kids were at a great age to try out skiing for the first time, so we planned a ski trip to Colorado. We opted to travel west because the snow in New England is always unpredictable and we all wanted a trip with as much real snow as possible, on a bigger mountain. We have some friends that are living in Colorado now, so we worked out dates with them and made the trip in January. Our hope was that we’d have good weather, and hopefully avoid some crowds. We booked the trip as a long weekend, arriving on Thursday and returning home on Tuesday. 

We had three free plane tickets to use, and we flew into Denver and then booked a shuttle to take us to Winter Park. The kids did great on the plane. It helps that as they get older they can sit still longer, and are happy to play games and watch videos on their Kindles, using their headphones most of the time. 

We ultimately decided on Winter Park after doing a lot of research on different ski mountains. Our friends were living just outside of Aspen and just outside of Denver, so we wanted to be somewhere in the middle. We also wanted somewhere that catered to families and had activities for kids, and somewhere that we could stay slope-side. Winter Park rose to the top of our list. As we were looking into lodging options, we wanted at least 2 bedrooms and a kitchen, but also wanted to be as close to the lifts as possible, since we knew it’d be tough to transport all of our stuff and we weren’t planning to have a car. 

We got a good deal on a 2-bedroom unit at the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. The unit was a bit smaller than we might have wanted, but we sacrificed space for location, which I think was a smart decision. The unit had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a small living room with a fireplace, and a small, but well-equipped kitchen. 

We initially planned on the kids sharing a bed in the 2nd bedroom, but it didn’t really work well the first night - they woke each other up a couple of times and clearly weren’t excited about having another person in their bed. So, we got a pack and play for the rest of the time and put it in the bathroom for Riley. We transitioned Riley to a big girl bed in November, so we weren’t sure if she’d actually stay in the pack and play, but it ended up working pretty well. She was happy to sleep there and didn’t mind the bathroom at all. Phew! 

Our unit also had a balcony and a great view of the mountain and the gondola, which was right next door!

The best part of staying at Zephyr was the location. It was perfect for everything that we needed. The Village at Winter Park was literally right outside our door, giving us easy access to several restaurants, shopping, and kids activities. 

Winter Park, like more and more ski resorts, offers a wagon service for families, something that made a huge difference for us! Each morning, we found a wagon, usually just outside our building, loaded the kids and all of their stuff (as well as some of our stuff) and were on our way. 

We didn’t really have to leave the Winter Park village area at all during our stay. There was a small general store that was well stocked with things like breakfast foods, milk, cheese, bread, mac & cheese, soup, and snacks, so while the prices were a little high, we could easily get everything that we needed. There were also several restaurants, including a good takeaway pizza option that also offered several local craft beers. 

There were also fun things for the kids - an ice skating rink (that we didn’t actually use), musical instrument stations, a Coca-Cola polar bear to climb on, a candy store, and a fun wooden train playground. 

There was also a cabriolet lift that was used to transport people to one of the overflow parking lots. While we didn’t need to go to the parking lot, the lift was fun for the kids to ride on!

We had 4 full days in Winter Park, and opted for 3 days of skiing - a 1/2 day on Friday afternoon, and then a full day on Saturday and Monday. After a full day of traveling and 3 hour time change on Thursday, we took things slow on Friday morning before getting our gear on and heading over to lessons just after lunch. The kids were very excited to get their skis and meet their instructor. We dropped them off inside the ski school building each day, where they put their things in a cubby, and usually sat down and colored. They were able to stay together the whole time, which I think definitely helped things. 

They ended up having a different instructor each day, but had so much fun and were eager to back each time! By the end of the third day, they had both mastered the pizza wedge stop and Jackson was starting some pretty strong turns. Riley’s focus was still on maintaining her balance and not falling over.

Their lessons were a lot of work and they were pretty beat at the end of each day! But, they were troopers and really did great - especially because they didn’t have any real down time/naps and we ended up eating late dinners and not getting to bed on time. 

On our last day, after picking them up from lessons, we took them up the gondola. The mountain was very quiet and we were able to ride the gondola alone and enjoy the views on the way up. 

We got out and walked around a bit at the top of the mountain and watched some skiiers and snowboarders as we made our way back down again. 

While 3 days of lessons for the kids was not a cheap option, we knew that they’d do better with someone other than us teaching them, and we were also excited about the opportunity to spend some time on the mountain alone. While Marc had been snowboarding a couple of times in the past few years, I hadn’t been in over 5 years, since before Jackson was born. Since we were going to have the kids on skis and it’d been so long, I opted to try out skis this trip. I hadn’t been skiing in about 20 years, so I wasn’t really sure how it would go, or if I’d need a refresher lesson, but I threw the skis on and up the lift we went!

Surprisingly, it went pretty well and things came back to me pretty quickly. I was still a bit hesitant to get too much speed (mainly because I didn’t want to have to get up if I fell!), but was linking turns before too long and definitely didn’t miss the snowboard when I was on the chair lift or the catwalks. And there were a lot of catwalks!

While we weren’t allowed to go into the ski school area of the mountain, we could see the kids down below as we were making our way down the mountain. They had fun on the magic carpet and on their last day they took a snowmobile to another area of the mountain where they could start practicing their turns. They couldn’t stop talking about it!

We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. It was cold, but not unbearably cold, and it actually snowed a bit every day. And on Friday and Monday things were very quiet and it seemed like hardly anyone was there - no lift lines and no crowds on the mountain at all. 

One of the reasons we picked Winter Park was to meet up with our friends from Mozambique that were now living in Colorado - the Colborns and the Quinns. We last saw them before Riley was born when we traveled to Breckenridge, so we were excited to get together. The Colborns came out on Friday and we ran into them while we were skiing and then had après ski snacks/drinks and dinner. On Saturday, Marc got up early to go out with James and his cousin and then we dropped the kids off at ski school. Marc enjoyed some time exploring other areas of the mountain and not having to wait up for me. Though, while it was nice that it was snowing, visibility wasn’t that great unfortunately. 

After a fun day skiing, we met up with the Quinns and made plans to order some pizza and head over to the Colborns Airbnb for dinner. The kids had fun playing with each other and quickly became good friends. 

The next day, we took a day off from skiing and met up with everyone at Hideaway Park to do some sledding. We took the bus into town and enjoyed some time on the great sledding hill, complete with free sleds that everyone could use.

After everyone else left to head home, the kids played on the playground at Hideaway Park for a bit.

We walked down the street a bit to Fraser Valley Hot Dog for lunch. They had a full menu of gourmet hot dogs and we all thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, which also included local beers from the Hideaway Park Brewery next door. 

There was no seating inside, so we were thankful for the sun and not-so-cold temps while we sat outside and ate our lunch. 

After lunch, we walked around for a bit and then hopped back on the bus to head back to Winter Park, do some shopping, and play on the train playground. 

We all had a great final day of skiing on Monday and a pretty quiet morning on Tuesday before we caught our shuttle to take us back to the Denver airport. We arrived in time to get some snacks in the lounge and get some food to bring with us for dinner on the plane. 

Everyone did great on the flight home and went right to bed when we got home around 11pm (which felt like normal bedtime thanks to the time change). The kids had a great sleep that night and were ready to go back to school in the morning! 

We all had such a great time on this trip and are already looking forward to when we’ll all get back on skis again. It’s one of the more difficult sports to enjoy in the South, but there are a few decent places in North Carolina, and we’re thinking that we might try Vermont next year. 

[adamjoicey-blog]

If you’re planning to ski Slovakia with kids, we recommend Park Snow Donovaly for stunning landscapes, easy access, powder lines and beer for €2 a pint!

Travel has always been my life, my passion and my everything. So when my daughter came along, I knew travel would become a big part of her life too. Since she was a week old, we’ve brought her on road trips in Iceland, Spain and Oman, and on beach holidays in the Caribbean, Maldives, and Cyprus.

Kaleya has just turned three, so we decided that it was about time she tried her hands at skiing. I’m absolutely shit at skiing (hey I’m from the tropics!), but Alberto is an expert skier. We figured if she didn’t want to ski, we could still have fun in the snow and get enjoy quality time together.

A quick search for ‘family ski resorts’ led us to Park Snow Donovaly in Slovakia, a small-sized ski station great for young families like ours. Within five minutes, we had our budget flights and rental car booked for January, the peak ski season in Europe, and we were ready for our first family ski holiday.

  Why Ski Slovakia?

Forget about the same old ski destinations like Austria and France — Slovakia makes a great family ski holiday destination for several reasons: it’s spectacular, yet to be overrun with tourists, easy to get to and it’s really cheap.

The Tatras Mountains are absolutely stunning, and surprisingly free of tourists. We visited a ski town in Poland’s side of the Tatras Mountains last year and swore to return, so this trip was a perfect chance for us to see more of the Tatras and experience a different culture at the same time.

Thanks to budget airline Wizz Air, we nabbed ridiculously cheap flights from Cologne, Germany to Kosice, Slovakia for a mere €30 round trip. Our car rental was also really affordable, at €60 for three days. Once there, we were even more thrilled by the cheap prices — a pint of beer cost €2 in the ski resort, €1 in Kosice town, and a hefty Slavic meal usually cost around €8 to 15 accompanied by live music and plenty of fun.

Though travel guides sometimes file the region under eastern Europe, locals prefer to think of themselves as central Europe, having long since shaken off the iron curtain and invested in lift systems every bit as modern as that of its Alpine neighbours.

Where’s Park Snow Donovaly?

Park Snow Donovaly is an easy 2.5-hour drive away from Košice International Airport. The airport is small but modern, well connected to Košice city and several ski stations in Tatras Mountains. The drive is mostly on a highway, flanked by beautiful snow-covered fields and tall mountains in the distance. Once you exit the highway, you’ll notice the roads getting narrower and climbing higher and higher into the Tatras Mountains.

I recommend driving only if you have some experience driving in extreme winter conditions. Rental cars in Slovakia are always equipped with winter tires, but you’ll need to know how to manoeuvre a vehicle in snow to drive around the Tatras Mountains.

Another airport that’s closer to the Tatras Mountains is the Poprad-Tatry Airport, just an hour’s drive from Donovaly. Wizz Air files from London Luton directly to Poprad-Tatry, for prices as low as €65 return.

Search for cheap flights here.

Why Donovaly is Great for Skiing with Kids:

Park Snow Donovaly is a relatively small ski resort, with 11 km of pistes with 7.4 km of snowmaking. The pistes are divided between two areas: Záhradište is perfect for beginners and intermediate skiers, while Nová hoľa suits intermediate and advanced skiers. Skiers have 2 chairlifts and 14 ski tows available.

The main reason why we chose Park Snow Donovaly for Kaleya’s first ski trip was just how child-friendly it is. SkiResort.info awarded Park Snow Donovaly a top ski resort for families. Donovaly has the second largest children’s ski areas in Europe. The kids’ Funpark is a 10,000-square-meter area located between two ski slopes Záhradište and Nová hoľa. It has 9 Sunkid moving walkways and lots of fun kids-oriented amenities, which allow kids to learn to ski much quicker, while having fun.

Kids can enter the ski play school from the age of 3 (which we really should have signed her up for!). Every day at 12 noon, the Funpack also puts up a “Show on Snow” with lots of games and fun with their mascots Dodo, Lulu, Brumík and the PARK SNOW mouse. Even if your kids doesn’t want to ski, the Funpark is great fun for young kids to just frolic in the snow and play with the wave run and kids’ adventure course.

Prices for Skiing with Kids in Slovakia:

The best thing about skiing in Slovakia is that it’s really affordable. In comparison to other ski destinations like Austria or France, Slovakia is cheap to travel and prices are great. Family ski trips in Slovakia are a lot easier on the pocket here, especially if you have a big family.

Kids under 6 can ski for free. Access to the Fun Park only costs between 4-7 euros an hour and a one-day ticket costs 10-15 euros (depending on the season). As for ski school, the price depends on the age of your kid and for how long you’d like them to go for. More information here.

For adults, here are the prices for the ski-passes (vary with the season):

1-day ski pass: 12 – 33 euros

3-day pass: 50 – 76 euros

7-day pass: 101 – 185 euros

Skis + boots rentals: 15 – 20 euros/day

Check the full price list here.

My Advice for Skiing with Kids in Donovaly:

For families with kids as young as Kaleya (3 years old), I would recommend making the Funpark your first stop. It’s the best area for them to get their first footing: it’s relatively flat and the fun amenities there will make them feel more at ease. Our biggest mistake was bringing Kaleya straight to the slopes, and it really threw her into the back seat.

The only ski rental shops in Donovaly are located in the main carpark of the town. You can rent skis, boots and poles for kids as small as two-year-old. From there, you can cross the bridge on skis and – voila – you’ll find yourself on the top of a blue slope. That was the route we took, but Kaleya got pretty scared on the slope and would only ski when she was hanging on to Alberto between his legs. When we finally found our way to the Funpark after walking through thick snow, Kaleya was too tired and cranky to ski.

My advice would be to pick up your equipment and drive to the Funpark (as it’s quite a distance away), then start them there. I would also recommend signing up your kid to the ski play school at the Funpark. It’s best to enjoy the experience as a family but leave the teaching to the professional instructors, you do that every day in school so why not skiing?!

From this experience, we learned that family skiing should be about fun and snow play — not about goal setting come what may.

What to Do in Donovaly Beyond Skiing

As Park Snow Donovaly is a relatively small ski station, there are limited options for après-ski options. Most of the action takes place around the two carparks at Záhradište and Nová hoľa. There’s a flood lit toboggan run, a skating rink and several bars. On the top of Záhradište, there’s also dog sledding and a kids’ snow train that you can hop on for some fun with the kids. Close to the Funpark is also a llama farm.

For the non-skiers, be sure to take the cable up to the highest point of Nová hoľa, for wonderful panoramic views of the Low Tatras and the Large Tatras. We did this on our third day, since Kaleya refused to ski. With a bit of luck and good weather, you can see the end of the Western Tatras with the dominant peak Kriváň in all of its glory and majesty. A ride by chairlift is 8 euros.

This region of Slovakia is also well known for their hot springs. Gothal Chalupy Liptovská Osada is a beautiful resort with relaxing hot spring pools and children’s pool, that you can visit for the day. Special 3-hour packages start from 36 euros for 2 persons. It’s 12km away from Park Snow Donovaly, making for a great escape after a day of skiing. Be sure to pack your swimming suits if you plan to come here!

Where to Stay in Donovaly

We splurged and stayed at a luxurious aparthotel housed in the prominent four-star Residence Hotel. And I’m very glad we did, as our apartment was spacious, extremely comfortable, well located and had a spectacular view of the valley. It was just a few minutes’ walk from the main town centre and most ski slopes. The apartment even had boxes of toys for young kids and a baby crib that was perfect for Kaleya.

Our balcony opened up to stunning panoramic views of the mountain peaks, pine forests and ski slopes. The best thing was that it wasn’t even expensive (110 euros/night), considering the quality of the accommodation. Note that the apartment actually looked nicer in reality than in the photos online.

Check the latest rates here.

If you’re looking for something cheaper, check out Penzion Damisport (60 euros/night), a log-cabin style pension that’s part of a ski rental shop. It has the best location for skiing — you literally go downstairs, get your rental skis, cross the road and swish down a blue slope. It’s right in the centre of town, next to the central carpark and steps from restaurants and bars.

Check the latest rates here.

Where to Eat in Donovaly

After a full day on the hill, you’ll welcome a plate of Slovakian comfort food, invariably heavy on garlic and stodge. Try beef goulash and bryndzové halušky – potato dumplings with goat’s cheese – and settle in for the inevitable food coma. Fortunately, the locals have an effective antidote: Zlaty Bazant, a local pilsner served ice cold at a price that’s as refreshing as the taste.

There are only a handful of restaurants in Donovaly and most of them are located around the Záhradište carpark. Our absolute favorite restaurant in Donovaly was Koliba Goral, a traditional Slovak tavern housed in a wooden log cabin. The mushroom soup served in a massive oven-baked bread was divine, so was the tender beef goulash and halušky. The interior was cozy and atmospheric, and we also enjoyed some live folkloric music there.

Donovalsky Pivovar is the main drinking hole in town, and it’s so conspicuous you won’t miss it. It’s surprisingly modern, tastefully designed to blend in with the traditional stone-walled exterior. The bar has a high roof and cool log-cabin design, and the pub food here is just as good as its frosty beers.

Are you planning a family ski trip to Slovakia? Let me know if you have any questions!

  More from WildJunket

Easter in Poland: From Medieval Towns to Snow Mountains

Zipping through the Swiss Alps on the Glacier Express

Glamping with A Baby

Best Winter Destinations in Europe

The post Ski Slovakia with Kids: Park Snow Donovaly appeared first on Wild Junket Adventure Travel Blog.

[superkaralovesfanfiction]

Of Supergirls and Cherries

Of Supergirls and Cherries Cat watched with barely restrained control as Kara built up her pile of cherry stems in the discard bowl, and rapidly emptied the full bowl of whole fruit in front of them. The cherries were amazing, Cat loved cherries, but apparently so did Supergirl, and seeing the girl in her suit, licking her fingers clean in between the tiny treats, and seeing her lips rapidly stain to red from the fruit while she ate... Cat barely restrained a moan. Kara licked off her fingertip and reached for another cherry, and Cat sat back, watching her from the corner of her eye. Hey, if Kara was going to provide a show, then Cat didn't see why she shouldn't enjoy it. Long time happening, this attraction, but usually Cat could tame it, it being Kara beside her, the personification of sunshine. The sweetheart. Cat could handle that, the loose unflattering blouses and cheap thrift store slacks. But this girl... Supergirl was anything but calming to Cat. It was the opposite, raging and flaming... Cat wanted this hero like nobody ever should, especially at her age. This was a simple invitation to have Supergirl here at the event. It didn't mean anything, if not insane protection should anything untoward happen here, and Cat could see Kara was happy in her suit, happy to be here, and the girl seemed to have boosted her confidence a little while ago. Cat knew Kara was comfortable as Supergirl, but in such a public place as a CatCo party, Cat understood that Kara had secrets to keep. Things to hide from the paparazzi filled world. But she was calm now, happy even, laughing with some people as they passed by their table, and cheering for the presenters on stage occasionally. It was the freaking red cherries that were killing Cat softly. This was too much. Cat had always thought Supergirl was stunning, even more so than Kara, and maybe it was a kink, that beautiful cape currently laid sweetly over her lap. Or maybe it was seeing Supergirl with red stained fingertips and even redder stained lips, but Cat was dying here at this table, watching her lick her top lip off and then bite again, then lick off her finger when some of the juice ran down and stained her. Cat wasn't going to properly survive this, not fully, anyways. Not without getting what she... no. Cat wouldn't. Not on her life. It would be corporate suicide if anyone ever caught Cat with her assistant, let alone Supergirl. Cat watched as Kara moaned at a surprisingly sweet fruit, and licked her own lips, which were suddenly all too dry, and clenched the satin of her dress in her hand, trying to ground herself. Cat was right beside her, there were inches apart, hidden by low lighting and dark ambience. Cat could touch her, right here, right now... she had no doubt in her mind Kara would accept. Kara could hide her identity and her secret powers, but her want for Cat was plainly there, even if only to Cat. Cat slipped her hand under the table, against Kara's skirt, and felt the younger woman stiffen, then look over barely, and settle back into her seat. ''Keep eating those, and I might lose my mind, Supertease.'' Cat whispered barely, knowing Kara would hear it like a drum in the room. As if that was a challenge, Cat watched her reach forward for another fruit, and Cat groaned softly. ''You're a vixen, Supergirl.'' ''I know what I want.'' She retorted in a whisper, and her free hand slipped to Cat's thigh, underneath the slit of her expensive dress, and Cat's breath caught in her throats when a powerful finger slipped beneath the edge, just barely, of her silky black panties, at her hip. ''I like getting my way, Cat Grant.'' ''You're insane, Supergirl. We're at my own party, which I expressly invited you to, and you want to... what? Go backstage, my office, break the rules and some furniture? Now?'' ''Why not?'' Kara said barely, and bit into another cherry, making Cat sigh and sit up straight in her seat. ''You're the Queen, after all. Shouldn't you make your own rules?'' Cat was going to respond, and possibly get up and take Supergirl's hand and drag her along right now, she'd rarely been so aroused in her life, let alone by another girl, but Kara kept slipping her fingers closer, and Cat bit her lip as Kara leaned in a bit and teased a finger along the inside of her thigh, and Cat nearly combusted in her seat. When Kara removed her hand, Cat suddenly felt very cold and hollow for a second, lonely, and her body begged for Kara's touch to return. Cat stared, mouth agape, as Kara licked her finger again, not from the cherries this time, and Cat stood up, the look in her eyes proving no words were necessary for Kara to understand, but Cat spoke anyways. ''You have two minutes to be on my balcony, Kara Danvers.'' Cat said, and Kara gasped softly, but she smiled wickedly, dark intent sparkling in her pretty eyes. ''Bring the cherries.''

[panda-hat-meesh]

My First KCON

yeah so, much like my AX 2017 post, I didn’t even know I would be going to KCON until it was released that Seventeen would be a guest there. I was sad that I couldn’t go to KCON NY last year when they were there because I’m on the west coast. Anyway, this was definitely an experience. wow

story and tips from personal experience under break:

so I was buying tickets on July 17 because I couldn’t go to the Sunday night concert (I have work the following morning and the very last flights don’t leave after 9:30 which is when the concerts end). sad lyfe. And I spent 1.5 hours trying to get concert tickets for me, my friend, and my sister. I was so mentally exhausted but Seventeen helped me powered through it :))))

I’ve learned that the platinum and the diamond tickets aren’t actually that worth it unless you want to go to the meet&greet and the sound check. but yeah. So there are things like Audience passes and Hi Touch passes and people sell those things yo. There’s a Facebook group and people mark up those prices but it’s possible to get them for cheap cuz some are nice. I was able to buy a Seventeen Hi Touch off of someone (god bless their soul).

and on the day, we woke up HELLA early. If you’ve read my AX 2017 post, then you’ll know that we didn’t wake up early for AX registration lol that was a mistake. But surprisingly, for KCON the registration goes by really fast. I spent more time waiting for things to open than in the actual lines. And this is for the whole day.

Months ago, I was building set pieces for a musical and freaking dropped a 2x4 piece of wood on my phone and cracked the screen. Pieces of screen have been falling out since then. But WHEN I WAS WAITING IN LINE TO ENTER THE CONVENTION CENTER. I FREAKING. DROPPED MY PHONE and the screen is just bad. it’s so bad that there’s black space and it spazzes out when I try to type. lolllllllllllllllll

I went to the thing where people taught the first chorus choreo for I Don’t Wanna Cry and my knees got so scraped like wow. We also saw Koreos (I wanted to audition for them if I got into UCLA. I didn’t get into UCLA). And we saw a bunch of YouTube stars hanging out in a room that looked down into the convention center (I saw HeyItsFeiii).

Oh yeah, I met Kevin from UKiss by coincidence. My group was just walking down the hall when this security guard told us to move out of the way and Kevin made eye contact with me. I was waving and saying hi multiple times like a starstuck fangirl. more starstruck than fangirl though. On the other hand, my friend was pissed off cuz the security guard told us to move to the left when we were on his right side and then she went on about how she has the same lunchbox as Kevin like lol dude. priorities

The Seventeen Hi Touch was pretty cool (understatement). They look so beautiful in person and OMGGGGGGG. I made eye contact with 12/13 because Hoshi’s sick and honestly, 10000/10 would go again because I love themmmmmm. I don’t know how lucky I’ll be the next time around because this is my first KCON and I was able to touch my bias group’s hands??????? like what????????

Overall, I had a pretty fun time and I feel really fortunate over how much I’ve been able to do and experience because I stan one of the most popular groups in the world and was able to hi touch them in my first kcon like what?????

tips:

So my family owns property in Orange County which is an hour away from LA so I didn’t really book a hotel :). And my mom came with me so I didn’t need to pay for parking :). That’s just my personal circumstances and just a thing I did to save money and time (yes michelle, because owning a whole house is saving money).

so for the concert tickets, everyone’s trying to buy tickets at the same time so literally just keep clicking. Just keep trying. I went on for 1.5 hours before I got mine. and don’t be discouraged when you don’t get a P1 or a P2 (The order of best to worst tickets are diamond, platinum, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) because you can still buy and trade with other people. I had 3 P3s in row 10. There’s actually no real row 10 so we straight up balcony seating. BALCONY. SEATING. LUCKYYYYYY. I could stand up without blocking people behind me and not be surrounded by screaming. like yoooooooooooooo.

Also, diamond and platinum aren’t actually worth. As I’ve said, you can buy and trade but diamond, platinum, P1, and P2(i think) have possible standing sections but when you’re SHORT LIKE ME AND STANDING BEHIND A BUNCH OF PEOPLE, YOU’RE NOT GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME. plus, when you’re sitting in the audience, then you have a broader view, which is what I actually prefer. The only thing is that these listed tickets above have higher chances of being closer to the idols. I personally prefer the view man. idk.

[mytravelgeno]

Whether you associate IKEA with fun design, meatballs or cheap furniture, you know that it’s going to be the same all over the world. Under their blue and yellow brand, products and stores don’t really differ from country to country.

When translating the whole IKEA concept to the Chinese market, some compromises had to be made. One of the biggest things to change was the name. The letters in the word ‘IKEA’ reference Ingvar Kamprad and his hometown in Sweden. Nevertheless, adapting the name to suit the Chinese language went surprisingly smoothly and now the characters in the company’s Chinese name Yi jia mean “comfortable homes, home furniture.”

In China, IKEA isn’t just a home furnishing depot, a place to buy what you need and leave. Many here treat it like a furniture filled theme park, a place to spend hours taking every product for a spin.

Brand new IKEA Xi’an Store has 57 inspirational room settings, more than 8,000 products, 633 seats in restaurant and free smalland which is the great place for you and your family to spend whole day to enjoy!

Products have also been redesigned with Chinese customers in mind, little things, like deepening bowls so they can hold rice. Every store in China features mock-ups of the tiny apartments common in many Chinese cities, kitted out with IKEA products.

IKEA offers the same product range in all countries 8,000 to 10,000 products depending on the store’s size. But the company adapts the layout of the store, presentation of the goods, home solutions offered, and prices according to national economic and cultural conditions. In China, the store layouts reflect the layout of many Chinese apartments, and since many Chinese apartments have balconies, the stores even include a balcony section.

It is amazingly busy in IKEA, but it is so much fun to see the Chinese people experience this Western concept. They try, touch and use all the furniture, actually exactly what a showroom is for.

IKEA Xi’an Store has 884 parking spaces and easy for you to drive product home.

Electric Vehicle charging points at IKEA, Xi’an China Store

The IKEA restaurant was pretty interesting too. They have lots of different choices, and the prices are very good. The restaurant serves Western and Chinese food for a very good price. Be aware of long lines during lunch time, but see this also as an experience.

There were lots of senior citizens socializing over coffee and families enjoying Swedish meatballs. The food choices included the standard IKEA fare plus some interesting extras, including very tasty cereal-coated fried shrimp cakes.

The food range was good , the side dishes and salad was good too. However the restaurant size is bit small compared to other IKEA stores. So if you are going around lunch time, expect a delay in finding a seat.

We never leave without trying the Swedish meatballs, drumstick, and egg tart too. Food is good, it really hits the spot if you are hungry from shopping. They also offer spaghetti, salads, steamed veggies, fried shrimp patties and chicken wings.

This is a very convenient tasty simple cafeteria style eatery. Overall, if you are an IKEA fan, this IKEA is worth the trip for a fun day out.

Store Opening Hours：

Sun. – Thur. 10:00 – 21:00 Fri. – Sat. 10:00 – 22:00

Restaurant Opening Hours: 

Sun. – Thur. 9:00 – 20:30 Fri. – Sat. 9:00 – 21:30

Store Address

South East of Sanqiao Viaduct, 3rd West Ring Road, Fengdong, New Town, Xi’an

Accessible by

Metro Line 1 Zaohe Station Exit C

500m walking distance to IKEA Xi’an

IKEA Xi’an Store, China Whether you associate IKEA with fun design, meatballs or cheap furniture, you know that it’s going to be the same all over the world. 581 more words

[rachelisnotatwork]

Iceland: finally we see the light!

The worst bit about flying to Iceland, or I should probably add flying to Iceland when you are too cheap to pay for a decent airline, is that you have to dress like you are going on a solo trek to the South Pole in order to reduce the weight in your suitcase. Luckily it was quite cold the day we left but we were still glowing, red-faced, as we headed to the airport wearing snow boots, scarves, big coats, all our heaviest stuff in our hand luggage etc.

The flight there was pretty uneventful and it was a beautifully clear day, which meant for good views over the sleeping tourist by the window. When we arrived we just had to pick up our car and go.

Now by this stage in the “life of constant holidays” game, we are pretty much Hertz deluxe members which means what normally happens is we book a smart car and turn up to be upgraded to a minibus. Often we have to scale back the excesses of the upgrade because we don’t want the hassle of trying to park a giant car/fuelling up a giant car. So we were pretty confident that whilst we’d booked a tiny and shit car, that wouldn’t be what we were given. Well that smugness came to an abrupt end when we collected our tiny and shit car. Turns out that Iceland isn’t one of those free upgrade locations...and car rental is expensive here so they had no desire to give us a freebie. So we puttered into town in our tiny and shit car, a journey made far more stressful than it needed to be by the fact that Marcel’s phone is an early adopter of Brexit and the GPS locator dot on google maps only seems to work in the UK. After a lot of swearing we did make it to our surprisingly chilly airbnb. It was in a converted garage and the host had made the interesting decision not to install an extractor fan but instead keep the windows open 24/7 (in Iceland electricity is pretty much free so no one cares about their heating bills). We closed the windows because the humidity definitely wasn’t our problem. 

We decided in the evening we’d go to the Pizza Restaurant we liked, so we headed into town, struggled to park (there’s a lot of snow, which means getting a tiny shit car into a space is quite hard) and skittered down the pavement in the -10c weather to the restaurant. Only to find it had stopped being a pizza joint last week and was now trialling its new menu. I wasn’t hugely keen as they didn’t have much of a vegetarian selection but Marcel didn’t want to re-park or go out walking in the cold so decided to stick with it.

I asked for a pearl barley dish, without the lamb that was supposed to be on top of it. Marcel selected their rutabaga dish. I advised him not to select this as vegetarian is always interpreted in expensive restaurants as “on a diet”. He said I was being silly and it would be a decent portion. He ended up with a palm-sized dish of pureed rutabaga with some crispy slices of it on top. Didn’t want to say “I told you so” but felt I had to, because that’s what life is like in a long-term relationship. 

The next day we headed out of town after a delicious breakfast somewhere that looked like a construction site, but was actually a decent cafe. We had quite a long way to drive so we decided we’d drive straight out to Vik and lunch there. As we headed out of town, the roads got pretty icy and once the wind picked up there were drifts of snow on the road. Always reassuring to see some people digging out a 4 x 4 that’s skidded off the road when you are in a tiny 2WD city car with about 4 inches of clearance.

We had lunch in Vik, which has got much busier since the last time we were there (it has 2 places you can lunch now rather than one) and went for a quick but windy walk on the beach, before setting off again.

We wanted to visit Jökulsárlón the next day in the morning and since there’s not much in the way of accommodation in those parts we had booked into a place called the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon. It was surprisingly busy and we had to park right the other side of the car park. In my business putting on my gloves, I completely failed to notice Marcel getting out the car and immediately falling over on the ice, but thankfully he was uninjured and thus was able to complete his usual suitcase duties.

Our room had a pretty nice window seat overlooking the view down to the sea so we snuggled up on there and read books before dinner. The only option was the hotel restaurant and I decided I didn’t want to know how much I was going to pay for dinner so refused to do the conversions. It was an...interesting meal. My starter involved so much horse radish I spent the rest of dinner constantly wanting to sneeze. We’d decided we wanted to go hang out in the sauna after dinner so were slightly impatiently waiting for the bill, which they were tardy bringing. The delay was soon compensated for though by the announcement from the staff just after we’d paid our bill that the Northern lights were visible outside. We immediately stampeded onto the balcony to see a very impressive green streak of light across the sky.

We were torn between “this could disappear any second” and “I’m really cold and I want to go get my coat” so in the end we made a mad dash for our room, layers and my camera. Maddeningly, I almost always bring my tripod with me on holiday, but this time pressed for space and weight and with so many unsuccessful trips behind us I’d not bothered. I’m not sure I’d have photographed things much better with it though, because I hadn’t really appreciated that there’s nothing really to focus on through your view finder when what you are trying to photograph is green shimmering light on a black background. I tried though.

It did look amazing. We walked out to the front of the hotel (which incidentally involved us and a bunch of other guests stampeding past the sauna full of confused nude people to get out the quickest exit) and stood in the snow, watching the green waves slowly undulate and shiver across the sky. I hadn’t really got a grasp on the speed of how they move before. Sometimes they seemed like they barely moved at all, and indeed for at least an hour there was one solid green band across the sky that didn’t really change. In other areas you had to look at the edges to notice any movement at all. But occasionally something rapid would furl and unfurl and move across the whole sky in 10-20 seconds.

The other thing that I hadn’t anticipated is that I guess the light in the atmosphere warps our perception of the light from the stars so they looked very unfamiliar. Much bluer than normal and Sirius was swapping between flashing blue and orange so rapidly we thought it was a plane for a while.

Eventually we got cold so went back inside and sat on our window seat and watched it until about midnight. After that it had got pretty dim and we decided we’d better shut the blinds or neither of us would really get any sleep.

The next morning we rose with the dawn and headed over to Jökulsárlón. We did not want to pay 28 euros a head for breakfast in our hotel and we’d vaguely remembered there was a cafe there, so we decided to eat there. I don’t remember the food options being so basic last time. It has also got considerably busier so the indoor toilet is no longer open to visitors and we had to go out to the (thankfully perfectly clean) portaloos in the car park which were absolutely freezing. Climbing up a small hillock to look over the lagoon exposed us to such lacerating winds that my phone promptly went from 98% battery to 9% from the horrors of the cold. I had to tuck it inside all my layers to keep it alive. It was beautiful though.

There are two things to see at Jökulsárlón- the lagoon where ice bergs calve and you can see cute seals pop in and out between them and the so-called Diamond Beach where the ice bergs meet the sea and often get washed up on the shore. Last time we’d driven between the two sites but with the thick snow on the ground we didn’t dare take our car to the beach and instead plodded through the deep snow and strong winds over there.

It was beautiful, especially since unlike last time the sun was out and was glittering through the ice. However the wind was so cold it burnt my face, which ended up really painful and weirdly bright red on one side by the time we returned to the car.

We had gone to Jökulsárlón quite early because we had another 5 hours drive ahead to our Airbnb in Seyðisfjörður. The only reason we’d come back to Iceland was we’d loved our airbnb in Seyðisfjörður so much the last time we’d been there that we resolved we’d return one winter and just hang out there. And this was our plan.

The views as we drove east were spectacular. 

The road conditions driving out east were….pretty appalling. After Jökulsárlón, there aren’t many tourists which means there really isn’t much traffic. I think we saw more reindeers than cars as we fishtailed on ice and wondered why in the hell they only had crash barriers off the side of some of the roads that hooked around cliffs over the sea. At one point we drove past an abandoned van on it’s side with “accident” tape around it. By the time it was getting dark there was such a high wind driving over one of the passes you couldn’t see more than the 5m road marking pole in front of you. Which is when you really rue your car rental choices of a Kia Rio.

The winds had at least calmed down a bit by the time we arrived in Seyðisfjörður. All we had to do was get up our drive to our airbnb overlooking the valley. I said to Marcel I hoped the car would make it. He said he wouldn’t mind if we got stuck in the snow now because we could walk to our airbnb. He had to say that...seconds later our car gently skidded off the road and into the huge snow bank on the side of the drive.

Our hosts had apparently been supposed to email saying meet them in the town because the drive way had been blocked by a lot of snow, but they hadn’t. However they did use their monster truck to spend the next 45 minutes extracting us from the snowbank, so swings and roundabouts. In the end we ended up leaving our car at their house in town and getting a lift up to our cabin with our stuff. Thankfully we’d already done a shop and planned to self-cater so we could recuperate from the long and slightly terrifying drive with a soak in the hot tub and dinner.

Our hosts had been very emphatic that we could ask them for lifts in and out of town whenever we wanted, but a combination of Britishness and embarrassment about disturbing their dinner to get them to dig our car out meant that we decided to walk into town instead. It was a pretty gentle and pleasant 2.5km downhill and we felt very smug especially when we saw some locals “walking” their dog by driving slowly as the dog chased the car (later saw the tracks of someone who’d been driving their snowmobile to exercise their dog). 

The supermarket in town was...weirdly British. There were McVities digestives (Marcel discovered the chocolate and caramel ones on this holiday so I ended up having two packets wedged in my pocket for the journey home). Suede was playing over the tannoy. And a woman, who turned out to be the owner with a very strong midlands accent on the till. Apparently she met her Icelandic husband in Nottingham.

We pottered back up the hill (slightly less pleasant walk against gravity and into the wind when it is -12c outside) and spent the rest of the day living the dream eating biscuits, reading books and popping in and out of the hot tub. Just as good as I remembered it.

The next day we got slightly more adventurous and decided to go on a little snowshoeing adventure. It was -14c out and REALLY windy so I decided I didn’t want to venture far. Marcel wanted to go on the ridge behind our cottage but I said it looked avalanchy so we continued along our level of the valley a bit further. I love snowshoeing but our tracks were getting covered in seconds with the waves of snow blowing across the ground and it was incredibly cold so we only stayed out for about half an hour. When we got back Marcel said he was going to ask our hosts if it were safe to go up higher into the mountains but his conclusion was that it couldn’t be an avalanche risk area or they wouldn’t have built the town there. A quick google later and we discovered that the town is the site of Iceland’s worst ever avalanche tragedy with 24 people killed at the end of the 19th century and a factory flattened at the end of the 20th century. After that we decided to stick to the hot tub in safer activities.

The next day, despite stocking up on enough chocolate digestives to last several lifetimes, we had to go back into town to start our car because we’d forgotten that car batteries don’t really like it brutally cold. So down to town we pottered. Problem was, Marcel forgot that key fob batteries also don’t like it cold and he’d left the fob in an outer pocket. So when we got to the car we couldn’t remotely open it. We had to manually open it with the key in the lock, which triggered the alarm to go off. I think our hosts, whose house we’d parked outside, were fairly sure we were actually handicapped when it came to motor vehicles. We drove the car around a little bit and then tried to park it again, only to find ourselves menaced by a goose. I know this sounds like a joke but it was hanging out in our parking space, wouldn’t move and then tried to get inside our car. We had to lure it away with crisps (not sure if salt and vinegar crisps are good for geese. If anyone found a dead goose later that day, sorry[ish]). 

We pottered back up the hill and settled down to the rest of the day; an exhausting cycle of hot tub and reading in our beautiful cottage.

By the night time it had started to lightly snow. We decided we’d have a really long final hot tub soak so lazed in there like hippos. I was trying to catch some snowflakes on my tongue (sod’s law, none seemed to fall in my mouth but they kept repeatedly landing directly on my eyeballs) and suddenly we saw the northern lights again. Which was incredibly luck considering the night was reasonably cloudy. They whirled around for about 5 minutes and then disappeared, which was a very nice last evening at our cottage.

The next day we nervously checked the road conditions and headed off. Going south there was a huge storm forecast and the road was pretty much out of bounds. Luckily we were heading back to Reyjavik via the northern route. Step one of the journey was get over the pass to Egilsstaðir. No problem. The next step of the journey, which was between Egilsstaðir and Mývatn, is the least driven part of the circular road around Iceland, Route 1. We drove for about an hour. All was well. Then we noticed some cars slowing down ahead to find that the snow had drifted across an uphill portion of the road, where a little car had skidded and got stuck on the opposite side of the road (not dangerous, because there’s about 10 cars an hour on this road). This was unsettling to us in our tiny Kia as we clearly couldn’t turn around as the Southern roads were out, there is no other road ploughed at this time of year to get around this, and our car was clearly no better suited to it than the skidded car that a jeep was now trying to rescue. Marcel got out of the car and walked the hill to better look at it. We had zero phone reception (annoyingly we did at most places along the route but we had none there) to call the roads number to see when the next snowplough was due. So in the end we decided to risk it. We skidded and skittered but we eventually made it through!  Which was both good and bad as now we were aware that if we hit any further bad road conditions we’d be really screwed as we’d be unlikely to be able to go back the way we came as the snow was continuing to drift. We did however make it to Mývatn okay, which was good because after that the road is a bit more used so a bit more ploughed.

We had lunch in the cow restaurant we’d been to before and ate rye bread cooked in a lava vent and looked out the window at the 3ft of snow piled outside and debated thermal baths over further snowshoeing. 

There was however a road that wasn’t ploughed in winter but led up to a caldera, which we thought might be nice to snowshoe on as would have a level terrain under the snow and a decent end point. So we drove down there….only to find that some extremely optimistic/dim tourist had decided to drive their 2wd small car on what was clearly an unploughed road with several feet of snow on it and got stuck, and now the entrance to the unploughed road was filled with vehicles trying to rescue them. With our plans to snowshoe thwarted, we decided to head to the Mývatn baths.

The downside of this is that they turned out to be in a selectively extremely windy spot. We got out the car to find a wind speed best described as “scouring”. We are made of stern stuff though so headed bravely onwards. The pools are obviously hot, but the wind was so strong it was generating waves in the pool (fine) and then breaking those waves into spray in the air. Which meant the only tolerable thing to do was float on your back with only your nose and mouth above water. Unfortunately I suffer from a terrible affliction known as “extremely buoyant legs” so struggled over the next hour to stop them surfacing and exposing my feet and knees to a little light hypothermia. I ended up tucking them under Marcel’s legs which are incredibly unbuoyant (how lucky that of all the people in the world I found my leg buoyancy opposite).

We eventually got out and drove onto Akureyri. Our accomodation was right in the middle of town on a steep hill. So steep and so badly gritted (which I feel is a strange thing for a road in a pretty big [for Iceland] town in a very snowy part of the world to be) that our car got stuck trying to get up it. Eventually we got enough traction to make it into the car park of our hotel, but we decided to limit dinner choices to “restaurants within walking distance”. Luckily there was a burger joint in our street that we could totter carefully to.

Our final day was 6 hours of driving to get to the airport in time for our flight. Which was pretty stressful. Not going to lie. There seemed to be an uncanny (given how empty the roads were) link between where the snow was thickest and most slippery and the sudden emergence of a large lorry barrelling along in the other direction (the ring road is a single lane in each direction for about 99% of the road). But we made it! With just enough time to collapse with nervous exhaustion and eat some sandwiches before our flight home. Despite the terrors of driving and the discovery that renting a tiny car in winter is only a good idea 75% of the time, it was an amazing relaxing week and also FINALLY we got some decent northern lights!

[thistransient]

The Full Report ...

...on life in China so far. 

The "naughty router" as a friend put it, and similarly naughty VPN have left me either completely cut off from the internet at home, or driven to frustration when it appears to work, gives me hope, and then fails me utterly. This woe is offset by the fact that bananas are very cheap compared to Taipei. Like a tenth of the price. Oh yeah. 

I'm typing this in a document on my computer in the hopes that I can swiftly copy, paste, and post if/when things start working again.

I crossed the border on the 16th, with the recruiter taking me on the metro to the border crossing at Shenzhen, where she crossed as well, handed me over to the director, and returned immediately. The immigration officer stared intensely at my passport, then stamped it with no questions asked. I was taken out for lunch to one of those dining halls with the round tables, and the first thing I noticed were people smoking inside the mall it was located in, and the occasional cigarette butt on the floor. Nonetheless, China has not at all been the dirty, crowded hellhole that a man in a bar in Taipei described it to me as. If anything, it reminds me a little of some Eastern European country in a way I can't quite put my finger on (at least this corner of Guangdong). Everyone rides these electric bikes with small wheels, they stay on the streets and there are no rogue scooters on the sidewalk making me fear for my life like in Taipei.

I haven't gotten to look around Huizhou much on account of exhaustion from being flung into teaching immediately after days of travel (which I was expecting, and thus fairly calm about it). Low expectations have been a blessing, in fact. My apartment is quite nice by English teacher apartment standards. The balcony with the washer is separate from the kitchen, which is surprisingly large with two gas burners, a sink, and some cabinetry. There's a double bed and a decent living room space with a sofa, coffee table, TV, and an armoire niche (if someone put up a dividing wall I think there could have been two rooms). The huge sliding glass doors across my bed with an inadequate curtain are my only complaint, because if I can see into everyone else's apartment, they can surely see into mine. The bathroom has a squat toilet, which is actually nice because I don't have to worry about a wet toilet seat from the shower. The area's a little noisy but I sleep pretty solidly. There are plenty of restaurants and a grocery store on the block, a Walmart in a giant mall is 15 minutes walk away.

The school office is two blocks down and around the corner, but I don't actually teach any classes there, I'm more like a rent-a-teacher and get driven around the city to various schools. Ironically, despite my vows to never teach kindy again, it's mostly kindy, but it's incredibly different to the set-up in Korea that scarred me for life. I taught two demo classes (so the schools could be sure they wanted the most recent import, I guess) on Friday- they were large compared to a hagwon class but my company gives me a Chinese "assistant" to try to translate things and help keep everyone in line. I had Saturday off but mostly spent it trying to obtain internet and figure out what was happening today. Today I got driven to another location an hour away at 7:00 to teach a one hour class that suddenly became two hours when the teacher for the second half failed to materialize. I was unfazed and the kids (who were 8-10ish?) got really into the game we played so I think it went well. Then I had to teach another demo/recruiting class for some 4 year olds- somehow I made ‘parts of the face’ last 45 minutes.

Lunch was delivered, and Business English wasn't til 14:30 (til 17:00) so I was handed a pillow and recommended a nap. Never have I worked a job where I was encouraged to take an after-lunch nap. I had great hopes for Business English because the book resembled what I'd done my CELTA course with, but the students, who were apparently here at the behest of their companies, were at a pretty low speaking level and again, I had a translator for most of it. Towards the end their personalities started to show through though, and hopefully they forgave me for forgetting everyone but the most talkative guy's name.

My goals this week are to summon the energy to go back to Walmart and finish buying household miscellany, and try to meet some other humans since my foreign coworkers seem distinctly disinterested in socializing beyond the obligatory first dinner and lunch. They've been here two years, have local girlfriends, and have apparently seen a lot of "crazies" come and go, although they think it's a decent enough workplace if you're able to adapt to the somewhat relaxed disorganisation of the country, which requires a certain measure of independence. My Chinese coworkers are nice enough as well- it would be convenient if one of them wanted to offer me a language class but if not, my quest for a tutor continues. I'm surprised that everyone seems to be speaking Mandarin, not Cantonese, and I can get the gist of some conversations.

Right now my main attitude is one of caution- my workload seems alright, my coworkers are just helpful enough to not leave me floundering completely (I got the tour to Walmart but since I'm on a business visa and apparently will get paid in cash, there's been no need for a health check, ARC application, or bank account opening) and the living arrangements are satisfactory, but I'm suspending judgement because it's just the beginning. "Eh, it's alright" is better, though, than the beginning in Korea when the teachers we replaced greeted us with dire warnings about how we "never should have come here".

[freethetreepeople]

Thailand & Vietnam Vacation 2018

Vietnam & Thailand Trip: A Novella

  February 28th/ March 1st: This is the day I began my journey. I was a bit scared of traveling by myself for fear that I wouldn’t be able to produce digital boarding passes in ye foreign lands. Thankfully the Captain gave Helen a cracked (unlocked) shellphone that was a good security blanket. I had never bought sim cards in foreign lands before, but apparently it was quite easy! Well I got on my plane from Denver to San Fran – Success! I then got on a plane from San Fran to Hong Kong and begins reading my novel “The Rooster Bar”. It is a book about three law students who are so encumbered by debt, they quit school and pretend to be lawyers and troll for people at jails and hospitals who need immediate legal assistance and are willing to pay cash. I got about a third of the way done and switched to movies – big mistake. I have a tendency to get screen sickness if I watch too much tv. I got a blinding headache for about 6 hours of the 14 hour plane flight. Luckily I friended two lovely British and Middle Eastern flight attendants and gained the courage to ask them for some extra food and a carbonated drink. But when I told them I had a headache they were like “Do you want Advil?”! I swear back in the day flight attendants told me they were not allowed to distribute drugs. I had never been so happy in my life. The flight attendants also had amazing recommendations for things to do in Vietnam. They told me to see the Cu Chi Mihn tunnels, the war museum, the backpackers street, and eat a Bahn Mi sandwich. I still have the napkin the guy wrote it all down on and it will go in my memory box! You shall live on forever friendly flight attendant!

 After relieving my headache I did watch some good movies from Hong Kong to Bangkok – namely one “Goodbye Christopher Robin” about how A.A. Milne writing Winnie the Pooh ruined his son’s life. It was really good – must watch, but I did end up crying and I felt rather stupid being surrounded by people. I finally got to the Bangkok airport and was SHOCKED at how run down and hot it was. It was like being in this weird skinny factory. I made it to the international terminal and messaged Limp Legged Loc  – he had left the terminal to find food! What a rebel. I tried walking the in direction that I thought would allow me to leave the terminal but a sassy gay Thai airport guy saw me and knew I was lost and pointed me in the right direction. I finally got to the food court and met Limp Legged Loc for the first time – he was a pirate from another ship you see, and we were both porting at the same island and meeting for the first time. Well he looked different than I was expecting, but seemed like a nice pirate friend overall.

  March 1st/March 2nd: Loc and I took a flight from Bangkok to Ko Samui and then a ferry ride from Ko Samui to Ko Pha Ngan. On Ko Samui I begin to notice that everyone is dressed in clothes much frattier and sexier than what I have packed… hmm. Loc and I exchanged drunken tales to pass the time and finally arrived at Ko Pha Ngan. Loc taught me how to buy a sim card – it was the easiest experience in the world! We made our way to our hostel… if you could call it that.. which was essentially a bleak room with two twin beds, some thin sheets, and not much else. The bathroom had concrete floors and a toilet that was basically in the shower area. To give you some idea of the conditions of this place, I saw two cockroaches (or perhaps they were spiders?) having intercourse on day 2. Sometimes slumming it can be fun so I took it all in with a laugh.

Loc and I spent the first part of the day walking around the town, shopping, and eating.  I was very impressed Loc was so patient with the whole shopping thing. I asked him why that was and he said he went shopping with his lady friends/love interests sometimes back home. Good lord – you can not get Tom within 50 feet a mall, so good for Loc. We then rented a motor bike and started riding uphill from the town that was frat city. Once we got back into the residential areas it got a lot nicer. We found a secret bar (whose name I can’t remember!) with a great view of the island and pool. The bar was essentially a deck on a hill so we walked below the deck on these steep stairs to explore what was below. We found a dilapidated deck, some great climbing rocks, and an especially good one of those little pagodas you see everywhere in Thailand. On the way back up one especially large hill we were having trouble getting the bike going straight – they are surprisingly top-heavy. We ended up crashing the bike into the little concrete lips on the edge of the street a few times which was no Bueno. Long story short, we took it back to the guy we rented it from and had to spend about $300 USD between us to fix it. He probably overcharged us, but as we have learned, you don’t mess with the Thai… they also had our passports. They probably copied these while we were gone and our information is being used somewhere in SE Asia.

Finally Emma arrived in a tizzy – She was quite put out with United – they messed up her flight FIVE TIMES. I think she mentioned something about they kept giving away her seat. I will have to ask her the whole story once I see her.

So I was sitting in our room, waiting for Emma to get ready, and I see these snapchats from my best friend and bridesmaid Sonia (with an IA) of her sitting on a beach somewhere in Thailand. And I just get this feeling that she is in Ko Pha Ngan. I knew she was going on a Thailand/Cambodia adventure around this time but I thought surely we wouldn’t be in any of the same places at the same time! So I snapchat her and say “girl.. I think we’re on the same island… are you going to the full moon party?” Indeed she was!! So I use the trusty Captain’s cell phone to navigate us to Sonia and her friend Gilli and honestly it was pretty hard to tell someone how to find them on a beach full of 30,000+ people. They gave us a general location and like a hound dog I began running through the crowds. It was the weirdest thing – it was like I could sense where my bestie was. I ran up from behind and gave her a big ol’ bear hug and we celebrated. Sonia, Gilli, Loc, Emma, and I all danced, bought lots of buckets, drank, made friends, and had a fantastic night. At one point, Sonia, Gilli and I went to these tall scaffoldings out in the ocean with some people and danced and hung out. It was pretty magical. Then I left Sonia and Gilli with my non-sim card phone and navigated the beach to find Loc and Emma. Honestly, it was pretty dumb. I didn’t know how to make it back to our hostel and I didn’t have data. Again, second miracle of the night, I walked 10-15minutes along the beach until I saw a sign I thought I recognized and god bless Emma and Loc were there. At some point I had ditched my shoes, so I distinctly remember running through the streets of Ko Pha Ngan with no shoes like a mad drunken loon. Finally I convinced dad to let me go get my shoes – he was convinced I couldn’t find them in my drunken state, but I SHOWWED HIM SIR. Dad was quite surprised. Dad and mom put me to bed at 3 and they went back out and continued to party until 5.

  March 3rd: We spent most of the day exploring the island and laying out on the beach. At one point I went for a run by myself and that’s where the monkey incident happened! I found an abandoned restaurant (I think) and it was inhabited by monkeys! First mate Helen tried to take pictures of these monkeys but grandpa monkey was not having it! He and two of his sons or nephews (or nieces! Let’s not be sexist) started running at me! Well I didn’t have my rabies shot so I said “I don’t think so!” and ran into the ocean for safety. Later that day we hung out at this casual little bar (whose name I don’t remember gahh!) and met a bartender named Koko, who was the most adorable little shy man ever. He made us mojitos and was pretty distant at first, but after a while he warmed up to us and even let me go behind the bar and make a drink. We visited Koko a few times that day and finally he said he would take us to a locals party after he got off of his shift at 1! Well we went back to the death bunker and I made the mistake of lying down – soon the team followed suit and next thing we knew we had all passed out. Both Emma and I randomly woke up at 1:30 AM and knew it was too late. We had broken Koko’s heart! What a**hole Americans!

  March 4th: We left Ko Pha Ngan in the afternoon and took a ferry to Ko Tao. Ko Tao was much less fratty and more spread out that Ko Pha Ngan. We booked ourselves an extremely nice (but still really cheap when you do the conversion) hotel located on the top of a huge hill. Let me describe this hotel for you. It had a romantic canopy bed (sorry Loc – dis for the girls), a bathroom with lots of stone, a private deck that had a gate and led out to the infinity pool, super powerful air conditioning, many mirrors (good for females), and a beautiful view! Like I said the hotel was on a steep hill so when you looked over our balcony, it basically dropped right into the ocean (remind me to show you a picture). Emma hung up a hammock and everything was right in the world. There was also a set of outdoors stairs that led to a public bathroom and then down further to our room. Every day I would be walking behind Loc and he would say “I need to take a shit and I don’t want to blow up our bathroom” and deviate to the public toilet. Soon this became a funny routine that would go on every day. However, I still don’t love it when guys talk about their poop…

              That night we went out on the town at 9 and started walking along the street into town. It was really dark and there wasn’t another person in sight, so we began to RUN as to not get taken. By the time wee got into the main drag of town we were all super sweaty. We went into this restaurant to good food, but they had stopped serving food, so we took tequila shots. Emma ran away to find the “toasties” from Sev Lev, which she had heard about from her cousin. We ate the toasties and then started walking through town. We were walking by this bar that had a bunch of locals dancing and eating – they looked like a family because they had children and people of all ages. So we walked up to the bar and they motioned us in and offered us some food. They told us it was some man’s birthday and we began to dance with them to traditional Thai music. It was AWESOME. We spent about an hour there and then wandered down to the beach where we went to this bar called “Lotus”. At the time it was so dark, I thought we were in some sort of secluded jungle clearing which I really liked, but when I passed by there the next day I realized that the bar wasn’t in a jungle meadow but literally on the beach next to hundreds of other bars! It kind of killed the magic a little. Let me tell you about that night though! There were guys dancing with fire ropes and fire juggling sticks at the beginning. Then there was a fire limbo. This really strong Thai guy took both Emma and I (separately) and sat us on his waist and limboed under the fire limbo stick! Emma and I also tried it together where I let Emma sit on my waist and limboed under it! So many hilarious pictures for this, so lucky you, I have attached them. I also let one of the Italians and this British chick braid my hair, because I tell strangers to do weird things when I get drunk (see picture). Other highlights of the night: At one point we made this British girl let us take body shots off of her because I was like “I am wearing a dress – can not be the body shot receptacle”; this girl started telling me about her adventurous/gross love life (will not disclose as this is via Deloitte email) and I turned to Loc and go “Loc! Have you met So-and-so? She was telling me the most interesting stories about what she’s into, and excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom” and left him in that conversation. As I am walking away all I can hear is Loc going “what the f**kkkkk?”. Basically by the end of the night we were all these tight-knit drunken foreigners – it was great! I did wander off by myself to go to the bathroom and then wandered into some abandoned apartments and Emma got pretty mad at me… but I always come back to the group! At the end of the night we had to walk up the GIANT hill to get back to our hotel – It was really hard to do this drunkenly.

  March 5th: We spent the morning sitting on the beach and drinking mojitos. This is probably where I got the majority of my tan. The beach was beautiful and full of bars and restaurants and lovely hidey-holes. That day Emma Loc and I spent several hours in the ocean just swimming and chatting. But Emma and I kept getting stung by what felt like mini jellyfish! I asked a few males and a few females and only the females reported getting stuck. SEXIST JELLYFISH! We met some cool people in the ocean – three Spaniards who we talked about culture stereotypes with, and a couple named Denver and Storm who told us the cool things to go do on the island. Note to self – name daughter Storm. Emma and I then went to a Thai massage place where I had the most amazing massage. The massage parlor was on this upstairs open desk facing the ocean with basically just shades for walls and fans everywhere. All you could hear was the sound of fans – it was weirdly peaceful. So this Thai lady rubbed me down with this warm coconut oil (ok admittedly I broke out so bad for the rest of the trip, but it was worth it) and massaged me hard for an hour straight! Not like in America where you pay an arm and a leg and they always seem to be doing other things instead of rubbing you. Also I love when they message you rough because it makes me feel like you are actually getting all of the knots and bad juju out.  Emma and I then walked all up and down the beach and saw so many dogs trying to catch fish in the ocean – it was so cute! Finally we headed back to our hotel and walked up the GIANT hill – dear god lord Jesus that hill sucked, but at least you felt like you had done your mini work out for the day once you were done. We swam around in the infinity pool and hung with people at our hotel. I don’t think we went out that night, but I can’t remember…

  March 6th: We spent more of the day tanning at the beach, drinking mojitos, and eating some random gummy vitamins that Emma had brought. We were having lots of silly conversations like whether green and yellow make blue. We also spent a lot of times at their beach property bars where you sit on the ground or sit on bean bags which was a lot of fun. We ate some really tasty curry and panang meals and I think had our first Mango sticky rice. This is decidedly in my top 5 favorite foods. In the afternoon we went to some bar and met some really cool lone wolfs – an Australian guy who was already drunk and making hilarious conversation; a super jacked British gay guy named Aaron who I decided was my new best friend; this guy from Denver/Boulder who went to CU and, albeit, was living a super cool life, was hitting on me way hard and I was not into; and the Thai bartender who we convinced to take shots with us even though his boss was sitting 20 ft. away. That night we went back to the Lotus beach bar and watched more of the dancing shirtless fit fire guys routines. After that we wondered into the city and saw some lady boys in the street beckoning people. They looked SO HOT, I was v impressed. So we went into the cabaret and bought some beers and watch their shows. If I was being super legit at this log, I would include pictures of that too, but all of my pictures were pretty bad quality. We ended the night by eating a crepe and walking up … wait for it… our BELOVED SUICIDE HILL. As the nights went on we began to build a love-hate relationship with that damn hill.

  March 7th: I woke up early, went for a run, and went to talk to the dive people at Rocktopus. They explained that they could fit our four day session into three so I was overjoyed. Running through town was so much fun. I tried to run until there stopped being shops and it was residential but this one street went on FOREVER. Finally I got to the point where it started going straight up hill and that is when I gave up. I was running back home when I saw all of these colorful umbrellas suspended in a net, so I hoped a fence and wandered into this fair that was being set up (I think it was going on a few days later).  When I got back to the hotel, Loc and Emma were still sleeping. Oh I don’t know if this made it into the other days logs, but every morning we would eat an amazing all-inclusive breakfast on this deck with breathtaking views. And they gave you FREE water so I would drink so much water during this time. I really liked the deck because it was sort of built into a rock and the edges of the deck weren’t really finished. The hotel was a great combination of super nice and fancy, but also island laid-back. That day we went on our snorkeling trip. A truck came and picked us up and took us to a restaurant where we met some of the other attendees. We met one guy named Max Geisinger who turned out to be a famous German guitarist! He has 575,000+ followers on Spotify. We then got on a boat and got our snorkels on and our instructor would let us off at different coves. Emma and I were together at first and then I lost Emma so Loc and I were together for a bit. We saw some awesome neon colored fish, and a giant sea turtle, and a shark. On the last dive, I grabbed someone else’s snorkel and jumped in, but I soon came to realize it had a hole in it. I was trying to keep up with the group but I couldn’t keep my face in the water, so I was essentially treading water for 20 minutes straight. Then the swells of the ocean started getting really big and pushy us towards the shore. At one point I turned to some German guy next to me (there are Germans EVERYWHERE when you travel) and said “I’m a little scared, I think I’m drowning” and then I started swimming back to the boat. That was the longest most frustrating 10-15 minute swim of my life.

We had made friends with some British dudes, so after the snorkel trip was over we went with them to this restaurant known for these special milkshakes – unfortunately when we got there they said their shake machine was broken and there were no special shakes, so we just ate and enjoyed the views. After that Loc Emma and got ready to go out, headed into town, and went to awesome little shack/bar that sold really cheap shots. We took shots from this hot middle aged Thai bartender lady (with especially perky… personality… hmmm) and started out night. We met up with these French guys we had met from the snorkeling trip at guess where… LOTUS. We watched the fire dancers for a bit and decided to wander to this bar called “BND” (Bar Next Door) where they had American ping pong tables! I played some beer pong and then ran away to buy my friends baby guinesses. My hair was in a tizz so I asked this British girl if she had a rubber band. She didn’t but she said she would braid my hair. After she braided my hair I was so grateful I insisted on buying her a shot. I think she thought I was lesbian coming onto her, so after I bought her shot I had to pull out the fiancé card so she’d rest easy. After that I hung out with my friends a bit. Then I ran away again to see things or get more shots and I saw a guy who was flirting with the bartender and got her to serve him right away. I bluntly asked “could you teach me how to flirt with bartenders in a way that they pay attention to you and serve you drinks?” This gentleman’s name was Logan and I think he was taken back by my audacity. He laughed and we started chatting and I learned… surprise surprise, he had gone to CU. He noticed that I had an engagement ring on and we established I was taken and for the rest of the night we had a fantastic intellectual conversation about a myriad of topics and I didn’t even have to deal with him hitting on me. He became my second favorite person after gay bestie Aaron. Loc Emma and I ended the night by getting Truck (we were moving up in the world!) ride back to our hotel.

  March 8th: Last day on Ko Tao. Loc was hungover (theme of our trip) so Emma and I petered into town, explored, ran some errands, and decided to grab lunch. We asked someone the best place to eat and they recommended this place called “Su Chili” on a different part of the island. Emma and I walk a decent way there and guess who we see... Freaking LOC! At this point we decide we have some sort of friendship radar for each other. I got a delicious yellow peanut curry dish (See picture attached) and Emma and I got fresh strawberry and watermelon smoothies. This may have been the best meal of the whole trip. Then Emma went to get one last message so Loc and I walked back to our hotel. As we were walking there we saw this meadow with booths and exhibits and figured a festival was coming up in the next few days. I saw the most AMAZING rainbow umbrellas suspended in a net (see picture) and had a grand time photographing them. It was like something you see on Pinterest. There were also a few other cool works of art, but I won’t overwhelm you with pictures. We went back to Su Chili for dinner and grabbed pizza and then went out. I don’t remember anything particularly exceptional from this night, except that we went to that little pop-up ally bar with the woman with the great fake … yeah. I remember being so full of liquid and Loc and Emma pressuring me into taking shots. I believe we ended the night by getting some sort of Nutella crepe and all was right with the world.

  March 9th: We had asked our hotel to call us a cab at 5 AM so we could catch a ride to the ferry, but unfortunately, they forgot ☹. So we grabbed our packs and started jogging down suicide hill in hopes that we could find a cab in town. As we were jogging, we saw two guys driving up on motor bikes, and Emma flagged them down. God bless Emma and her lack of inhibitions and social graces. She asked if all three of us and our giant backpacks could hitch a ride to the ferry. The two guys were south American (Brazilian?) and spoke pretty broken English, but they agreed. So Loc and I hopped onto the back of one guys motor bike, and Emma hopped onto the back of the other guy’s motor bike. We drove for a good 20-30 minutes in the pitch black on the back of these guys motor bikes while I tried to make small talk. The guy we were with would toot his horn every 2 minutes to make sure the other guy was still behind him. They were both actually driving pretty fast – if we had crashed it would have been a bad story for all of us. We made it to the ferry feeling very very grateful and the south American guys left, I wish I had at least friended them on Facebook! I told you about Loc eating some foreign candy and feeling very dizzy on the ferry ride. The candy plus the lack of sleep probably put him over the edge. We got a ferry to Ko Samui and a flight from Ko Samui to Chiang Mai and arrived midafternoon. Upon getting there, we realized that the hostel we had booked was closed, but we soon found a new one. A guy in a tuk-tuk asked if needed a ride anywhere and we said YES! We wanted to go to the elephant sanctuary that day! The guy’s name was Jimmy and he had a little son named Joe. Jimmy was so sweet – he had even built a little child-sized seat into the tuk-tuk so that Joe could ride along. Jimmy and Joe took us to the elephant Sanctuary and chatted to each other the whole time. It was very sweet to see a father spending quality time with his son, even though he was working.

Jimmy dropped us off at the elephant sanctuary a little before 2 and we started the day by changing into these awesome pink hemp shirts and baggy pants and eating lunch. Soon our guide, Phonkneng took us to this tent to learn some elly language. Really the most important ones were “Dee dee!” which means “very good!” and “Bon Soong”, which means “open your mouth”. There was a pretty old mom elephant, Nong Luck, and a teenage elephant, Lanna, in the pen near the entrance, so we petted them and fed them a lot. Then Phonkneng walked us into the woods to see this other mom elephant, Uthai, and a 6 month old BEBE elephant, Waree! Before we started, Phonkneng was like “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I can see your but”. The pants were VERY baggy and confusing and I had tied them in a way that they were snug around my waist but apparently the material sagged below my but. I was v embarrassed for about 5 seconds but then I just laughed and fixed my pants.

We hugged and petted the baby elephant (Waree) and poured water on him and his mom. Phonkneng told us to push on the Waree’s head because he would push back, which was his version of playing. I pushed on his head and he pushed back and pushed me about 15 feet! I was afraid he was going to push me straight out of the pen (see attached photo)! Then Phonkneng and his coworker took us into the river where Nong Luck and Lanna were hanging out. Lanna was playing and splashing by herself a little upstream and Nong Luck was just chilling in the water. Phonkneng and his associate gave us this organic root/bamboo looking material and instructed us to wash the elephants. We washed the elephants and at one point the other supervisor guy picked up some poop and was chasing me around trying to touch me with poop – in the end I let him because I wasn’t getting out of it lol. Then he lifted me onto Nong Luck and I got to sit on top of her and wash her! It was so much fun! Except that Nong Luck kept reaching back and trying to eat the bamboo root thing (apparently its edible and that elephants like to eat this) and she was freaky strong and hard to swat away (see picture). Then Loc Emma and I were taking some posed pictures by the elephant and the other assistant guy snuck up behind me and grabbed my ankle and I thought it was a water snake and about died. I must look like a perfect victim or something. Then Loc Emma and I each got to stand over Nong Luck’s trunk and she lifted us into the air! I feel like I looked really goofy in my photos, so I will attach photos of Loc and Emma instead! See attached. We were all very sad when it was time to go but we begged Phonkneng to take us on as American volunteers. Unfortunately they did not allow volunteers yet at this particular sanctuary.

  TBC….  

[themartinsguide]

Koh Phangan and Koh Tao

11-16 March 2017

We arrived in Koh Phangan determined to have a great time but also not completely blow out on the exercise front. Seizing a great opportunity to start as we meant to continue, we opted for a short 1-2km pack march to our “resort” in the blazing midday heat, as opposed to a very reasonable taxi ride (Koh Phangan actually proved to be one of the most expensive places for taxis). Arriving at the suggested location, as marked on Google Maps by Booking.com, we were surprised to find an empty paddock. Not too perturbed, as some previous addresses had been out by a few hundred metres, we searched for another 30 minutes in ever widening circles. However, it was nowhere to be found and after some group reflection at a local 7/11 we decided we had better reconfirm the address. Fortunately, a friendly local (who was very concerned that we may be suffering from heat stroke) provided us with his phone, and an internet search indicated that the Booking.com address was wrong, and that we had been searching fruitlessly approximately 2km from the actual location. At this point, and after some further group reflection (James’ comment “I always reconfirm the address” was not considered helpful by Hannah), a taxi was hailed, and 5 minutes later we reached the “resort”. The proprietor appeared very unconcerned when she was informed about the address being incorrect on Booking.com despite James’ dripping wet clothes, and Hannah’s death stare.

After a quick dip in the pool, some AC time for Hannah, and a Fanta for James (“it’s Fanta time” has become a thing), we were nicely re-energised for an afternoon’s shopping. Walking back into town (gluttons for punishment) we passed ‘The Mason’s Arms’ which appeared to have been lifted out of the English Home Counties and deposited by the side of a Thai street, complete with picnic tables, healthy dogs and expat families. We decided to give it a whirl, casually walking in and ordering two shandies. The English proprietor, upon hearing shandy and seeing a quizzical look on the Thai barwoman’s face, jumped straight in and whipped up the finest shandies we have drunk in the last 3 months (to be fair the only ones). So pleased with our discovery, we returned that evening for steak sammies, after kitting ourselves out with the required fluorescent clothing for the next day’s festivities.

The day of the Full Moon Party dawned bright, and we were up nice and early, raring to go. Reflecting that perhaps we would be in a bit of a state the next day we headed out for a dawn run around the bays of Koh Phangan Island. The run was surprisingly hilly, extremely warm (especially once the sun crested over the island’s mountains), but we viewed glimpses of 3 different bays we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. It did occur to us that perhaps rising at dawn, in order to run and savagely dehydrate ourselves, may not have been the ideal preparation for a nights partying. Oh well.

But then we had a day to kill, as the Full Moon Party didn’t appear to kick off properly until midnight, on the other side of the island. Showing great restraint (or so we thought), we waited until 4pm to crack a few beersies by the pool, clad in our matching outfits. Recognising that we are in no ways hip or cool, we had opted (after much encouragement by James) for matching Team Jannah singlets and neon yellow shorts (which the shop owner considered to be “one size fits all” simply because she had (somewhat haphazardly) cut off all the sizing tags… now that was a funny conversation). Although our outfits were the cause of some judgmental stares and querying gazes, it actually turned out to be a great conversation starter and by the end of night we had developed an unofficial fan club and some (i.e. James) might say, a cult following. It did make us look like massive douche bags when we stopped for our shandies at the Masons Arms (we loved this place) on our way to the Party.

We had met a youthful chatty fellow on the ferry over to Koh Phangan, and as he was staying at what sounded like a party hostel we had made a pretty loose plan to meet up with him again. Turning up at the hostel early afternoon he was nowhere to be seen, but looking dope in our matching outfits, it was no worries as we blended in by tucking into a free dinner, painting ourselves in fluorescent paint, and knocking back a few strong drinks. Surprisingly no one else seemed ready to go, despite it being 7.30pm… Had we cooked the goose? Was it the wrong day?? Why was no-one drinking heavily???

It was the right day. It just transpired that all the youth had been at a Jungle Party the night before (not running at dawn), and were less motivated to drink and walk across the island mid-afternoon. Fortunately, the place quickly warmed up and within an hour we had met a number of people we would party with for the rest of the night (most of similar age - thrilling), met Team Jannah Fan No 1 (her idea, not ours… apparently we were some kind of “relationship goal” or whathaveyou), and decamped to a new bar for some Twister (Hannah) and pool (James). Come midnight, our group had coalesced into a semi-tight knit crew composed of:

Team Jannah; Team Jannah Fan No1 (Mary); Other James (Mary Fan No1); Johnny (swarthy Italian with great teeth); Jay (Welsh guy); Dan; and Creepy tall guy (name unknown).

The Full-Moon Party was as dominating and intense as we had expected, perhaps more so. The Haad Rin Beach stretches in a crescent for approximately 3 km, and along its length 15 separate bars had erected monster sound systems, pumping out a variety of music. In between each bar were stalls selling buckets of liquor for approximately $10NZD, each bucket consisting of a hip-flask of cheap Thai liquor (Sangsom is a particular winner), a bottle of Red Bull concentrate, and a splash of mixer. With most people wearing various combinations of fluorescent clothing and body paint, and each bar combining their music with a light show, the beach from end to end was a seething mass of people dancing and drinking. A pretty unique party atmosphere, but not one for the faint-hearted.

After a great night’s partying, and managing to keep our crew intact less Jay (sorry mate - we did look for you), at around 5am, having been on the go for about 22 hours, we were wilting rapidly. Having carefully planned our movement to the party, we had learnt nothing about how to get home. Unfortunately, the taxi area was not easily locatable in our state and after some aimless wandering we paused for some reflection (and so James could eat a sandwich). Mercifully, a share taxi pulled up, and offered us two seats at a somewhat inflated price, which James accepted over Hannah’s protestations of being ripped off (seriously - what position were we in to say no?). An enjoyable hour followed for James, loudly chatting to some Poles (one with a fractured collar bone) as he hung out the back of two taxis (we had to swap halfway). Hannah, feeling less cordial, was slumped in the sleepers sections of said taxis, desperately willing James to shut up. Still married, and pre sunrise (mercifully), we collapsed into bed.

The Mason’s Arms called us the next day (little else did). Bangers and mash for James and beef casserole for Hannah was just what the doctor ordered. Seriously, check it out when you’re next in Koh Phangan, it’s a game changer.

Having partied, exercised, and enjoyed some jolly good pub food it was time to head off to Koh Tao.

James had booked the accommodation on Koh Tao, so it was his fault we barely slept for the next three days. Located smack in the middle of Sairee Beach, which is the main backpacker town on Koh Tao, and accessed by a dingy staircase behind a pancake cart, it was an absolute sweat box. Perhaps this was a positive in its previous incarnation as a brothel, unless there is another reason for having a bikini clad Thai woman painted on the shower wall, but we were not huge fans. In the middle of the day the concrete box was uninhabitable, although at night if we opened the window and door (on to our balcony/pathway for drunk Nordic tourists), and angled both fans onto our prostrate bodies we could achieve a semblance of rest before waking in pools of sweat. Less the night of the power cut, when Hannah awoke James in a suffocating panic at 1am yelling, “the powers gone! I’m cooking! It’s a sauna in here!” The sauna like atmosphere was enhanced by the drunken crowds howling at the moon as the entire town was plunged into darkness.

Our exercise plans for Koh Tao had not been formed based on fragmented sleep, and semi-lucidity. However, feeling marginally more human as the days progressed away from the Full Moon Party we made good use of the close by and very well-equipped 'Koh Tao Gym and Fitness’, heading up twice for some treadmill sprints and weights work. A classic Koh Tao power cut once caught James out mid-sprint on the treadmill, sending him sprawling and cursing into the console cut.

We also managed to head out for an early morning mountain run, though we somewhat underestimating the steepness of the terrain. As we staggered into the viewpoint 45mins into it, we were met by a rather confused set of tourists who had been watching us shuffling up the steep road for the previous 15 minutes. James sparked up conversation with one sharp fellow, who felt it necessary to observe that it was quite humid and hot to be running. Unfortunately, our route home took us further up the mountain, but at the summit (thankfully) there was a roadside stall selling large bottles of chilled water. After checking directions with the stall owner we enjoyed a scramble down a washed out mountain path, with Hannah gallantly telling James “you better not break your ankle, because I’m not carrying you out.” We returned home safe and sound, but not quite done punishing ourselves…

It was a beautiful, still morning and we were feeling refreshed after a good breakfast, so we decided it was a perfect opportunity for 4 hours of kayaking. We set out for a secluded bay around the northern headlands on a calm sea, and in great moods. We arrived at Mango Bay, and found ourselves confronted by approximately 15 speedboats, each carrying up to 30 people, blaring techno music. The snorkelling was pleasant though, and we had a nice couple of hours lying on the beach. Ahhh the serenity… Perhaps it was the lack of any lunch, perhaps it was the strong wind whipping the sea into half a metre of chop, perhaps it was James’ helpful advice, perhaps it was the sunburn, perhaps it was fatigue from the mountain run… but the kayak home was not conducted in a great mood. Sea kayaking is now firmly consigned to the Martin’s possible divorce causing activity bin.

Despite the sweat box and kayak induced arguments, Koh Tao was a great success, as we went primarily to dive, and we weren’t let down. Going out with Mojo Divers at a grim 6am we were lucky enough to dive at Twins with no-one else there (Koh Tao is a busy dive spot). The visibility was amazing (15-20m), the water was glorious, the coral varied and colourful, and the schools of fish were pretty impressive. We saw one of Hannah’s beloved sea turtles (she is now claiming sea turtle magnet status), spotted sting-rays, a barracuda hunting through the schools of fish, and a great array of tropical fish. Returning back to shore after a second dive at White Rock, we were both in agreement that it was definitely one of our highlights so far.

The early mornings, moronically hot runs, late nights and broken sleeps were starting to wear us down though��� it was time for a holiday within a holiday.