Europe 2013

At the end of 2012, I finished my bachelors degree in psychology and decided to embark on a journey across the world with my boyfriend C and many friends, new and old, along the way. Though it meant I missed out on my graduation ceremony, the worldly experience I gained was worth it I believe. I'm doing a masters in marketing this year anyway so I'll get my chance to properly graduate this time around.

My journey began landing in Budapest on 12/12/12. The last time that kind of number pattern will ever happen for me. 

Budapest

My parents own a gorgeous apartment in Budapest where I was able to stay for free and explore the beautiful city whilst living on its ring road. The language, I'm not so fond of. I forgot it as a child and am finding it difficult to pick up again. It's part of the Urel language system which includes only Hungarian and Finnish. It's not a very pretty language either. The city is quite amazing though. It's lovely to simply walk through and explore the rich history and baroque architecture. 

Being able to speak a bit of Hungarian really helped but you can always get by with English, especially in the city. They're generally friendly people. 

Whilst there is so much to see and do in Budapest as any guidebook would show you, I would personally advice a small trip out to Szentendre which is a short train ride away. In the winter time, it becomes an adorably decorated quaint little town selling more affordable trinkets than in the capital. It's a great city escape on the cheap. 

Throughout the winter, we kept going back and forth through Budapest and parts of Romania where my family reside in. We also tried our hand at skiing for a week in the Romanian alps. Seriously good value for money. It's just that most people don't think of skiing in Romania. It's always France, Japan, New Zealand... Which can be very expensive. The quality of the slopes in Romania are just as good and the accommodation is comfortable and reasonably priced. 

Iceland

The holiday really started to feel like a holiday for me when we went to Iceland. I had never been there before and it's an exciting land to explore to say the least! From taking my bra off in front of a frozen waterfall in a Contiki Tours-style photo to getting our humongous monster of a 4x4 stuck in the snow and needing an even larger vehicle to come tow us out. The wheels were as big as an average person! And they needed to do a run up and yank our car out because it wouldn't even budge at first! 

Being in Iceland in February it was still northern lights season and so we decided to drive up the island overnight to go see them. It was a surprisingly long drive. The map made it look a lot smaller. A lot. It was exhausting to say the least and downright scary driving with 2m visibility on icy gravelled roads. We only knew where to steer by following the lights of the car in front of us and even so would lose them every now and then. 

When we finally made it up north, we gave up on finding accommodation because it was so late, we decided to sleep in the car. We didn't even see any lights that night as it was cloudy. Sleeping consisted of me waking up every 3 hours from the cold and turning the engine on for heat. 

We did the same thing the second night. We did however get to see some lights! At first I thought it was just cloud but it was odd looking and I decided to try out a long exposure shot. Then, there, in my review display, a bright trail of green light appeared. It was there all along! 

Whilst there are interesting landscapes and frozen waterfalls to see in the winter, the day is extremely short (9am -3pm sun) and I would definitely rather visit in the summer. There's so much to see! Many, many waterfalls, the original 'geysir', volcanoes and the man-made blue lagoon in the capital. 

Iceland. Definitely a must on any travellers' list.

Italy - Winter

How could a keen photographer like myself ever pass up the opportunity to see the Venice Carnival? It was amazingly fun. You can just walk around and there's a photo opportunity everywhere you look! And they're all very friendly. Don't forget your pleases and thank-yous :) 

C and I spent our nights out walking around with nice but cheap masks, enjoying wine with locals and fellow travellers. This was also the spoiling part of the trip, spending 2 nights in a 3 star hotel with the most delicious buffet breakfast! Too bad we ended up being too hungover after the first night to enjoy it :(

During this time we also visited Rome and Milan, because it was cheaper to catch trains around there and fly back to Budapest than to go back directly. The one thing I still remember quite well was that it suddenly snowed really heavily in Milan and covered the whole city again. So we decided to go to a park and built a snow-crocodile. Our snow man had his head kicked off after a few hours but the crocodile survived! 

The U.K.

With a limited amount of time being allowed in Schengen, we had to venture out into other countries as well. I'd never been to any parts of the U.K. before and was excited to increase my list of places I had been to. 

London was surprisingly sunny! We stayed at a friend's house as well and this saved us LOADS of money. London hotels are expensive as all hell. Avoid if you can. But London is fun to explore. Lots to see and do and just walk around for hours. The tube however.... Whatever you do, try to avoid having to go to the airport on the tube during peak hour. We were literally up against the glass. I was basically standing on my bag to fit. It's pretty good otherwise, other than one time we arrived by plane and it got stuck a few stops away from our destination so our friends had to come meet us and take us home by bus

The rest of England was quite nice too! No car for once because renting as an under 26 year-old costs 4x the price of renting the car. We went by coach which was cheaper than the train and a bit more comfortable. 

Hello Again

So apparently I do have readers! I must say, it was quite a surprise to come across an e-mail notifying me of a comment made on one of my posts. To be honest I thought my readers may have already given up on me due to my infrequent posts. This is for you anonymous.

When I'm overseas it's hard to always find the time to write down what is happening and sometimes there is just no internet. However, at the end of this year, I will be going to Europe for a year. Now, I'm hoping there will be certain periods of time where I can sit down and write about the worlds I'm in, so here's hoping my travelling posts live on. There are no concrete plans yet, however I will be staying in Budapest, Hungary and Urlati, Romania for a while. These are also the places where I am most likely to have some spare time to post updates and have access to internet for sure.

If any one else is still reading my posts, please let me know of any specific places I should visit, including date-specific festivals so I could try to incorporate them in my travels and cover them in my posts.

Thank you :)

Europe 2011

This June-July holiday, my boyfriend and I decided to head off to Europe for the summer. This has been my first trip traveling without my parents, even though we will be staying with them for a few days. It has been challenging and the fight is not over yet. Currently we are in Athens and have been here for the past 2 days, however tomorrow morning we will be awaking early to catch a ferry to the island of Milos.

The hotel we've had for the past 2 nights has been excellent. The best I've ever been in really and I've been in a fair few. I'd have to say, if you're looking for a hotel and you're booking in advance. Come to Metropolis Hotel in Plaka. Best location and the BEST view if you get a balcony room. From here we can see the Acropolis and it is especially beautiful at night when it's lit up. It's so wonderful I just want to live in this room forever. For only 80 Euro (100 peak-time), it's an absolute Gem. The staff have also been very helpful in trying to sort out our bag issues (discussed earlier) and I hope we haven't pestered them too much. This has been the best thing about this holiday so far.

The View From Our Room

The Journey

Before the holiday even started, we had to change the flights. Our exams just so happened to finish on the completely last time-slot on Monday the 27th of June whereas we had booked our tickets for the 23rd at night. Usually our exams fall on the start of the exam session, however for some reason destiny really wanted to screw with us and decided to place our exams on the last few days (mine actually being on the 16th, then a long journey to the finish line with the 23rd, 24th and 27th). Every other time we finished in the first week but this time something went very wrong.

So we got off to a bad start. We thought things couldn't get any worse. But they did. So much worse and it's still happening as I type this at 9pm.

We has a lot of connecting flights to Greece. First we flew from Australia to China, then from China to Paris, Paris to Romania and then finally Romania to Greece (we spent the night in Romania to celebrate my parents' 21st wedding anniversary). Now, the connections would have been even more if our Paris to Austria flight didn't get canceled. Yes, during our most stressful periods, our flight decides to get canceled. they only decided to tell us this when we were schedueled to start embarking (30 minutes before take off). We also had an Austria - Romania connection which was due 40 minutes after we landed - that was never going to happen.

After waiting in a few long lines for a few long minutes (maybe an hour or two, I lost track), we finally managed to get a flight straight to Romania from Paris. Whilst this did mean less changing planes, it also meant we would arrive 2 hours later and our luggage had no chance of making it (also because Paris airport is the worst airport in the world when dealing with luggage and I mean it. There has not been a single instance where our luggage was not lost by them).

So our main issue was and still is, our bag.

We only had one but it still managed to get in serious trouble. Even before the flight cancellation in Paris, its fate was already doomed. As soon as we landed in Paris, we went to a check-in desk and the woman at the counter decided that we had to collect our bags in Austria and check them back in for the Romania flight. She assured us that we would have time to collect our bags and go through all this process because 'It's a small airport'. Of course she didn't care if we had time or not, she just wanted the next person to check-in. I find the lack of personal responsibility in airports astounding. No one cares, at all. It's not their business and they'll do their best to push you onto the next person (quite like our Psychology department back at uni).

Oh and did I mention that she also managed to retain our bag I.D. tracker ticket as well? So by the time we made it to the next terminal for our flight, it was too late to go back through all the security check points and retrieve it. The rest of the journey was spent explaining how we lost it and that a number written on a piece of paper (which we got out of the system) was our official luggage I.D. tag.

So after asking a few people, we soon came to the realization that it was impossible to have enough time to get our bag and catch our flight as well. So we spent 2 hours changing that in the computer and making sure it went through to Romania. But after all that our flight was cancelled anyway and our bag never had the destiny to survive the trip.

I just received a call from my boyfriend (we shall call him C.) letting me know from the airport that they apparently did finally send our bag through and should arrive here by 10pm. If it doesn't, then it will probably be lost forever.

Wish us luck!


UPDATE:
9:46pm
Our bag arrived at reception. C. is still on his way back. It's been stressful and tiring but at least we have it now. I just hope the airports won't lose it again any time soon because it really shouldn't take 3 days to get a bag back.

Breathing in a Different Type of Air

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine


I've been many places. And you must travel to. You do not see true life without experiencing different views on life throughout the many cultures existing today.

So I've been to Romania of course and Australia as I reside here. Now... I've also been to Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Vanuatu, Fiji, Greece, Czech Republic France and soon Spain.



Romania:
Simply beautiful. In summer the scorching heat penetrates your skin and as you drive with the windows down heat waves enter within. You drive past sunflower fields as you approach country areas and the yellow hues fill up the landscape beside you. In winter it becomes a fairytale; ice hanging off the guttering, snow coveting rooftops, trees and a sheet over the valleys. Snow falls as in a snow globe. Wood stacked up for the fire to warm the house in the cold days of winter. It's a dream. Sure Romania is kind of a "second world" country but it is absolutely breath taking. So many things to see and do. The mountains are so lovely in winter.



Australia:
Laid back, temperate. It has so many places to visit, you don't even have to sail the seas. In the winter you can go to the mountains and get a sense of winter, but it is not so strong down here. Christmas just isn't the same. BBQ on Christmas day? It's not quite that atmosphere of a warm fire burning in the fireplace, snow gliding out your window. After the lunch you step outside, breathe out your heat and build a snowman. Here you have a BBQ and then maybe even go to the beach. That's the great thing here, you can go to beach really whenever you want, there aren't billions of people crowding every inch of the beach and if you live on the coast you are oh so lucky. Some just don't see it. They take it for granted. So overall, Australia is a land of plenty.



Hungary:
Went there when I was about 10. Only a short period of time, but it is a beautiful country. I remember the train ride. Dying of heat as we travelled to Romania. You must see the river. The architecture is marvellous. It's just so different.



Austria:
Stayed there i think a total of 2 days? One day on the way to Australia, where we grabbed a pizza and stayed the night, the other when we were driving from Italy to Romania in 2006. It is quite beautiful but i have mostly seen it at night.



Switzerland:
Oh so very beautiful. I was amazed by the cleanliness. It just glistens in the sunlight. No rubbish on the ground or anything. The mountains appearing ahead of you as you drive with snow on the tops. It is an amazing country. Don't think we stopped but it was breathtaking to see.



Germany:
We were there when I think the world cup was on and at the time Germany was playing so there were people all over the streets. There were also some stalls where they were selling German merchandise. We got a badge and 3 plastic bands with "Deutschland" written on them. It's quite a nice place to go to, I didn't see too much of it though. Love the autobahn. Feels so good to go so fast!



Croatia:
Didn't stay too much, remember driving along swerving roads and we stopped somewhere where i bought a dress... made in Italy! Haha. But it's quite nice, I think when we drove past Serbia we saw houses with bullet holes in them.



Italy:
Bellissima! A must see. Rome has so much culture and you can spend two days walking around and taking in the scenery. The Amalfi coast is just breathtaking. It's almost like a huge lake. Though it seemed to be quite hazy when we went. You must also go to Venice. And even though it costs approx. 120 Euro for the gondola at night, you really should. What if you never get the chance to again? It's something that must be done in Venice. We managed to get a ride for 80 Euro! The masks they have are also very beautiful. Expensive but a great memento of your journeys. We were in Italy when they beat Australia in the World Cup. At that time my mother and I were in the car and listening on the radio. As soon as they won, you could hear cars going past beeping and people shouting jovially. One man asked if we were from Australia and he was like... "Haha they're Australian! We beat them! Hahahaha!" Ehh... o_O"



Singapore:
We only stopped over in Singapore in transit but one thing I remember is going to a random hotel and pretending we were staying there just so we could go up the elevator. Now the elevator pretty much was the tour of the city. It was a massive building and the elevator was just made of glass, so going up you could see everything. It was getting dark and the lights were beginning to appear throughout the area, revealing the life within the buildings.



Japan:
Once again only a transit stop, we were only there for a few hours (and it was only my mother and I this time). We didn't have time to go to Tokyo but we caught a train to Narita (where the airport is located). We walked around and found a monastery where we walked around taking a few photographs here and there. Some of these can be viewed on my website. Japan is lovely. It's so clean, it reminded me of Switzerland. I also fell in love with the Japanese sweets - the beloved mochi.



Hong Kong:
My parents and I have stopped over in Hong Kong on two occasions (of course in transit). Last time was a couple of weeks ago (currently I'm writing from Romania). We had more time in Hong Kong this time, however it rained for most of it. We walked around the markets and bought a few things here and there. I love the old run-down buildings there. I don't know why really, most people would find them absolutely filthy but to me they seem to have a different, more realistic vibe. It's hard to explain but I find the modern buildings too cold and without a 'soul', whereas these buildings hold a story, they've been through it all. And there are some pretty tall buildings. Even flying in on the plane you see massive skyscrapers sticking out of the humid greenery of Hong Kong. This country is one of the few that still affects me, that still makes me feel something different. Having travelled pretty much all my life, a new culture isn't such a big deal, especially coming from Australia where you walk down one street and you're in Chinatown, you walk down another and you're in Lebville.



Vanuatu:
Vanuatu is great. So relaxing and quite beautiful. If you're looking for an affordable island escape, Vanuatu is the place to be. It's pretty cheap to stay and travel (whether you choose to walk, ride a bicycle or hire a car, it's a small island so getting around isn't a problem). The best place we found was a small beach on the left side of the main island where walking into the water you already have coral at your feet. Of course there are rocky areas where you can step through and go into the water, but the beauty of the ocean is really right at your toes. Slightly closer to Port Vila, there's a waterfall you can visit. It's massive and on the right there's a small cave you can swim into behind a smaller waterfall. I found it a little freaky, but it's pretty nice to check out. We also went to a small island where they had a turtle sanctuary and people could feed massive turtles pieces of mango. At the same place, we hired a few canoes and went up the river. A needed escape without deep pockets indeed.



Fiji:
Similar to Vanuatu, it's a place to go relax and enjoy the gorgeous warm and colourful waters. No real point staying on the mainland, it's best to go on its many islands. Fiji islands are gorgeous. There are a plethora of ferries which travel up and down daily which you can take from island to island. The food isn't the best thing in the world; on one island we were forced to pay for breakfast which consisted of 2minute noodles on rice. Tasty huh? We usually just ate the food we brought with us or dad opened up a coconut or two we found on the beaches. One of the best islands though is called Barefoot Island. Somewhat more expensive but it's one of the best places I've been to. On one side you have calm, bathwater with gorgeous corals spanning a large distance. On the other, there are waves and some larger corals. The staff on the island were also very friendly mixing cocktails and cooking us Fiji specialities. At night, they set up a massive camp fire by the beach. Perfect.



Greece:
Greece is great for two things; relaxing/partying on the islands and visiting its historic monuments such as around Athens and in Delphi - Olympia (whilst there I ran up and down the old stadium - sure I'm a few years late but I can still say I ran on the Olympic track, can't I? Well, the original one anyway). Anyway, the place I enjoyed most was the island of Santorini. We were only going to stay there two days but it was so gorgeous we extended it to a week. Classic Greek. White buildings on rock cliffs overlooking the sparkling blue water. Bliss. (photos once again on my website as mentioned earlier) The hotel we stayed at had a wonderful pool; clear blue, right up to the top so you could just slide in any beached whale with ease. The beaches were also great. One day we hired some scooters (very cheap I must say), and drove around the rocky cliffs next to the beach. Up above there were also some ruins one could visit if you didn't have enough history on the mainland. I hope to go back there sometime soon. One place I really must return to is Kyllini Beach near Delphi. I don't know if it was the darkening sky or the towering moon above, but the beach was absolutely magical to me. Warm water with waves hugging the shoreline as the moon begun to shine brighter and brighter with the setting sun. It was like my dream beach. Long shoreline with waves drifting in darkness. It's just my fantasy landscape. Byron Beach on the northern NSW coastline in Australia was close to it with it's long stretch of beach at night. The moon was also hazed by the mist of the salty air. Sorry to go off track but I just had to mention how great that was to me. We also walked up the beach to a river where fish were jumping at our feet. Might go back there some time again.
But yeah, in conclusion, Greece is great! Another must see indeed.



Czech Republic:
Just stopped by on the way to Romania from France. My parents were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary as this was their honeymoon destination. It's a nice country. We stopped in Prague and Bruno. In Prague we visited the massive monastery on the hill and walked around a little. In Bruno we went into this place which housed human remains which were hundreds of years old. A little creepy but very interesting how they were preserved. One man even had his shoes left.



France:
Didn't seem as romantic to me, though I guess that may have something to do with the fact that I went with my parents. It's still quite beautiful. We went up the Eiffel Tower after waiting in its two hour line. We also took a ferry up and down the Sienne River to take a quick tour of Paris. Both daytime and night-time (even though we were jet lagged as hell). We stopped at Notre Dame for a while. It's so beautiful both inside and out. By then we were well and truly sick of waiting in lines so we entered through the exit. No problemo. The line was moving but we just didn't have time for any wait at all, just flew through and left right away to catch the ferry back. We're going to go back there in a few days and visit the Louvre, as well as the southern coast of France. Should be great!


“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

And so the School Begins.

Alright. School. Worst thing ever.

Schools here in Australia are quite different to Romanian schools. If you know what American schools are like, that's how Romanian schools function. Looong summer holidays and different dates for terms. So when i came here to Australia, my parents thought they brought me here just in time for the beggining of a new year in September. Instead it was, i think, the second-last week of the third term. I couldn't speak English very well and when we went up to the office of Wentworthville Public School, the woman asked what i now think was; "Would you like to start now or wait untill after the holidays?" I responded with "Ok." And so began my first grade in an Australian school. I had left Romania at the end of year one, and began school here at the end of year two =P So i practically skipped year 2.


Fast Forward ->
I remained at Wentworthville Public School until the end of year 3. After which we moved to Randwick and attended Randwick Public School from year 4 till the end. Hated it by the end of it. Then Highschool... i think i shant disclose that ;) And yes i hate it. Longest i've been to a high school for, It's driving me up the wall. 2 girls i gravely dispise one of which i wish would just shut her huge ass mouth and go change schools already. Most others are quite fine.

=TODAY=