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