europe – But first let's travel

September 28, 2015November 12, 2015

— 1 Comment

The catch up post part 3 : Budapest

As we were wondering where to go after Vienna, we realised St Stephen’s Day (Hungary’s National Day) was coming up, and we could get to Budapest in time to experience it. St Stephen’s Day is a massive celebration in Budapest, with markets along the waterfront on the Buda side of the river, and one of the largest fireworks displays worldwide.

Markets on the river

Crowds begin to gather for the fireworks

We booked onto a dinner cruise on the Danube and had a great night. Even without the fireworks, I’d recommend this – great fun and good food.

A few slightly blurry fireworks shots

We’d originally only booked a few days in Budapest, but loved it so much we decided to extend to a week. As usual we joined a walking tour, and as usual it was great – but Budapest is one of those cities you don’t need to ‘do’ anything in particular. It is a great city to walk around with interesting buildings and views in every direction. There are great bars and restaurants and loads of areas where you can sit and people watch. Here are some of the MANY photos I took – none of them seem to quite do it justice though, it really is beautiful.

The castle from the river

Food and drink comes in giant size only

Fisherman’s Bastion

Loads of Churches

And a random selection of others

Europe

September 21, 2015November 12, 2015

— 1 Comment

The catch up post part 2 : Bratislava

Travelling anywhere internationally as a Kiwi requires a minimum of three hours on a plane (plus 2 hours of waiting at the airport and the obligatory customs routine), so it always amazes me how easy and quick it is to travel between countries in Europe. My sister recommending Bratislava as one of her favourite spots, and at only 1 hour from Vienna on the train (and 16 Euro return) we had the perfect excuse for a a “Day trip to Slovakia!”

The weather didn’t quite play ball, and the GPS went on the blink leading to a pretty dismal start. The area around the train station in Bratislava is a little more communist-era than pretty city, and wandering aimlessly in drizzling rain wasn’t quite how we had imagined the day.

More by good luck than anything, we stumbled on the tourist centre and from there we were set. We headed into the old town and even the rain decided to hold off. Success!

The old town of Bratislava is gorgeous. It’s now clearly on the tourist map with loads of souvenir shops and the telltale signs of the English Stag-do/ Hen’s parties (1 euro shots heavily advertised) but thankfully it retains all its charm during the day.

So what do you do on a day in Bratislava?

Wander the Old Town…

Keep an eye out for Bratislava’s statues

Check out the beautiful buildings, and maybe a few shops.

Walk through Michael’s Gate and stop for Goulash at one of the many restaurants lining the streets.

Climb the hill to Bratislava Castle for a great view over the city and the old town.

Visit the Blue Church

Wave goodbye to Bratislava, and jump on the train back to Vienna.

Europe

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015

— Leave a Comment

The next 7 months of travelling

We’ve broken the trip into three sections before Christmas, with the option for another one afterwards.

America & Morocco

We’ll be waving goodbye to Sydney and heading for Texas at the end of May. Then it’s on to Washington DC, slight detour to Orlando, then up the East Coast stopping in New York and Boston. We’ll then skip across to Morocco and onto Intrepid’s Best of Morocco Tour.

Europe

Despite plenty of travels whilst we lived in the UK, there’s still much of Europe we didn’t get to, so we’re going again. From Morocco we fly into Geneva and head for Courmayeur in Italy for some hiking. We’re also hoping on jumping across to the French town of Chamonix for Scott’s Birthday/ Bastille Day celebrations. From there we head down through Italy to meet mum in Venice for a two week visit packing in Venice, Florence, Tuscany and Rome. We’ll say Goodbye to mum, then carry on down through Italy before making our way over to Croatia, then overland down to Greece and Turkey over the next few months.

India

Our final stop for the year is India. We’ll be joining another Intrepid Tour – the Classic Rajasthan for 15 days. Then there’s a few weeks in India on our own before we head back to NZ for Christmas.

Any tips or recommendations – please let us know!

On the road