After leaving Nottingham, which I'll get to in the next blog post, one of the big plans was a trip with my two brothers, Max and Jasper, so from Edinburgh I flew out to Spain to begin a two week exploration of even more of Europe.
My first stop was Madrid, where Jasper and I spent 3 nights. Our days mostly involved a lot of walking, which had me pretty exhausted quickly, but we did get to see a lot of the city. Our first day we took a walking tour, which started in the Plaza Mayor and took us to a myriad of places, including the Royal Palace and gardens, the world's oldest restaurant, and the ruins of a Moorish city wall. Our second day we went to the Prado art gallery, and then took a walk through the beautiful Parque Retiro. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather for most of our stay, although there were a few showers. Our evenings in Madrid were spent exploring further, watching the all important FIFA world cup, and enjoying the cuisine. While the Spanish food was pretty good there was a serious lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, and seemingly everything was deep-fried. We did stumble upon some seriously amazing frozen yoghurt though, which was a much needed refreshment.
From Madrid we flew to Lisbon, Portugal to meet up with Max. I fell in love with Lisbon immediately, as it was brilliantly sunny and felt great to be back at the seaside after so long inland. Our first full day in Lisbon was spent at one of the beaches just south of the city, and this was probably one of my favourite days of the trip. We got to relax, lying out on the sand in the sun, with a refreshing (and freezing!) dip in the bright blue sea. We also enjoyed some amazing fish! That night we experienced the Lisbon nightlife in the popular Bairro Alto area. It was crazy, with the bars not opening until late, well after 10pm, and the clubs even later. By the time we were leaving the revellers were filling the streets, it was like a massive street party. Definitely haven't experienced much like it. The rest of our time in Lisbon was spent exploring the city itself. We took another walking tour, with a great local guide. Apparently Lisbon (and Portugal in general) is tile central, with ceramic tiles covering many of the buildings we saw. We also got to enjoy some local cuisine, again heavy on the meat, and plenty of sangria which was just as popular here as it was in Spain. On the last night we had dinner at restaurant featuring live Fado music, a classic style of Portugal. From there we took the 3 hour drive up to Porto in our fancy rental convertible.
.jpg)
Porto was to be the last part of our trip, with just a couple of nights. As usual, our exploration of the city began with a walking tour. There were lots of similarities with Lisbon, the tiling, churches and numerous statues. We got a great view of the city climbing to the top of Clerigos tower. We also got some great views on our second day when we headed out across the Luis bridge, a metal arch bridge which crosses the Duoro river separating the city. From the bridge we could see both sides of Porto, as well as the river below. Aside from walking through the city we spent our evenings watching some very exciting football matches, as was seemingly unavoidable in Europe. We also tried a Porto speciality the Franceshina. Basically, this is a massive croque madame, with bread, steak, sausage, chorizo, ham, bacon, cheese, egg, beer sauce and a healthy serving of fries. I promise you, I could not make this up, people really ate this. Having eaten the worlds craziest sandwich, there wasn't much more Europe could offer us, so the three of us hopped on a plane back across the channel to end our trip in London. For Jasper and I the journey wasn't over, with plans to explore more of England with the parents. Come back later to hear all about it, but for now goodbye!!
Now where was I?
A very long time ago I started writing this blog, and more recently, although still quite a while ago, I was half way through describing my vacation in Europe when suddenly I lost all ability to keep on top of everything going on in my life. I was doing even MORE travelling, and then I was packing up the last of my belongings and hopping on a plane (or two, or three), and then I spent a few days explaining to my body why it was suddenly dark at 10 in the morning, and after all that I had to start university AGAIN and settle back into my life in Auckland. So in a round about way, what I'm trying to say is that I have been very very busy and this blog was very low on a long list of priorities, but I finally found some free time! Now it seems wrong to leave you hanging in Ljubljana, so I'm going to churn out a couple of blog posts with a short (well, probably not) summary of the rest of that trip AND the end of my time in Nottingham and the UK.
After Ljubljana we headed to Salzburg, the home of Mozart and the Sound of Music. There we spent our time humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and frolicking through the Mirabell gardens singing Do Re Mi and sewing dresses out of curtains. It was delightful, although the weather was quite miserable.
After one night in Salzburg we took a train, and a bus, and another train to Munich, turning what should have been an hour trip into 3 hours. But although our arrival in Munich was less than ideal, it ended up being one of my favourite cities. The weather was beautiful while we were there. On our first day we took a walking tour with the delightful Diane (10/10 would recommend if you find yourself in Europe) and that evening we went to the Fruhlingsfest, Munich's spring festival (a sort of Oktoberfest-lite), which was lovely, especially as everyone was in traditional dress and we were surrounded by lederhosen. There rest of our time in Munich involved lots of walking, past the university, through the gardens and around the main market. I really loved the general vibes in Munich, everyone seemed very happy (probably because they were drinking beer at noon on a work day??), it was very easy to get around and a really beautiful city.
(Our tour guide in Munich described this clock in Marienplatz as the second most disappointing tourist attraction after the astronomical clock in Prague).
After Munich we headed to two smaller German towns. First Lindau, an island town on Lake Konstanz. Although the town was beautiful, as was the lake, there were permanent downpours while we were there so not much sightseeing was done. We did manage to see the famous lion statue, and stumble upon a Matisse exhibition during our stay. We had much better luck in Freiburg. The weather was beautiful for the two days we were there, giving us a chance to walk through the Black Forest. We got some great views of the city from the forest. Freiburg itself was very charming, with a great cathedral, a market in the square and little canals running through the streets. There was also very cheap ice cream and very delicious Black Forest Cake, so good news all round.
Having farewelled the last of my companions, my final stop in Europe was Strasbourg, where I got to visit my big brother Jasper. We spent the two days I was there walking around Strasbourg, seeing the main sights, such as the Cathedral, the European parliament, and the giant river rats.
Probably the highlight was the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is first of all huge, and beautiful inside and out, with plenty of stained glass and its own astronomical clock. We climbed the tower to the top of the cathedral on my last day. Luckily it was sunny and the views were splendid, because walking up a very narrow, very tall spiral staircase was not my favourite activity.
Having enjoyed my last days in mainland Europe with my brother/built in personal tour guide, I hopped on a plane back to London. Upon landing (with Ryanair I might add), to my bewilderment, half of the passengers started applauding. I guess we had some nervous flyers that day, but honestly having survived a month of travel without the guidance of proper adults I felt like I deserved my own applause.
I aboslutely loved the entire trip over the Easter break, even if it was at times exhausting and frustrating, and it was great to experience travelling on my own (or at least without my parents) for the first time. I can't believe how much a saw, and honestly a second time around I might cram a little less in, but now I can add 4 new countries to the list of places I've visited!!
The next post will be coming very very soon I promise!!
BYYYEEEEE
The train journey from Budapest to Ljubljana was a long one, about 8 hours, so we arrived in a strange city, in a foreign country we really knew very little about, in the dark at 9.30pm hoping to settle quickly into our hostel. The hostel (Dragondoss, for future reference) was just a short walk from the train station, which turned out to be pretty much the only good thing about it. We arrived to a dark, seemingly empty building. There was no answer when we rang the doorbell, or when we banged on the door or when we tried hollering. After some 15 minutes of apprehension a very grumpy looking couple opened the door, handed us a card with a phone number on it and walked out. I rang the number and proceeded to explain that we were waiting outside the hostel, at the time we had arranged to arrive by email. "You're where?" "Outside Dragondoss" "What are you outside the hostel?" "Yes, we have a booking.." "Right now, you are outside the hostel?" "Yes.." "Hmmm okay I will be there soon". Eventually the hostel owner arrived, let us in, and everything was sorted. Although as we went looking for the bathroom one of us goes to open a door and the owner goes "don't open that, there's nothing to see in there", at which point we more or less convinced ourselves that we'd walked into the middle of a horror movie and that's where all the other dead bodies were being kept. Luckily our rooms didn't turn out to be quite as bad as we had begun to imagine in our heads, and the rest of the evening passed uneventfully.
Having survived out first night in Ljubljana, we got up early to take a coach out to Lake Bled, a famous Slovenian lake with an island in the centre. This ended up being one of my favourite days of the whole trip, as Lake Bled was beautiful. The water was such a vivid blue colour, and you could see mountains all around. Despite the weather forecasts insisting that a storm was impending we had sunny weather the whole day. Lake Bled is relatively small, so it was fairly easy to walk all the way around, giving us great views of every angle. About halfway around the lake we got to a rowing centre. Apparently this is a major location of olympic rowing training and world championships, and we even got to see some races out on the lake.
From just around the corner we could also rent a row boat to take out to the island in the middle. The island's main building is a church, with a famous wishing bell. Our entire time on the island the bell barely stopped ringing. We walked around the island, and also enjoyed some of the best dark chocolate ice cream I've had, before rowing back to land.
From there we kept walking around until we reached the main shopping area. Every cafe at Lake Bled was advertising the famous "Bled Cream Cake", basically a custard square. Feeling we couldn't leave without trying all of the traditional foods, we headed to the hotel claiming to be the original home the cream cake. It was delicious, although the slices were massive and far to sweet to manage a whole one.
Completely tired out, we headed back to the bus station only to realise we had a 90 minute wait for the next coach back to Ljubljana. Luckily we had a beautiful view to enjoy while we waited.
Our next day was spent in Ljubljana. We took a walking tour in the morning, which took us around the city centre. It's amazing that our guide managed to stretch the tour out to a good 2+ hours, as Ljubljana is a very small city. We learnt a lot about Slovenian history, particularly their separation from Yugoslavia. We entered one of the major churches, saw the university and crossed a number of bridges over the Ljubljanica river. Probably the most famous of these was the Dragon bridge, which ties in with the many myths about dragons and Ljubljana.
We were unlucky with the rest of our time in Ljubljana as just after the tour finished there was a sudden downpour. The heavy rain continued for most of the afternoon and through the evening, so we more or less gave up on exploring any more of the city.
With another long journey to Salzburg ahead of us we took an early train out of Ljubljana the next morning. Our first train was very busy and we found ourselves seated next to a Slovenian family. Part way through the ride the young boy turned to me to ask in English if I had a pen, I said no but my friend leaned across the aisle to offer his. Much to our amusement the boy replied "ah, so English truly is the language of the world".
Byyeeeee!!
We arrived in Budapest early evening, as it was just getting dark. Our first task upon arrival at the hostel was to take the terrifying elevator ride up to its location on the fifth floor. First of all the elevator was tiny, fitting two people plus suitcases was a stretch. Then it had those non-automatic doors, which basically make you feel like you're in charge of your own impending doom. As we got in the whole elevator moved, then began it's very slow, very dodgy ascent, before thudding to a stop. Apparently our companions who had already arrived could hear us crying all the way up. After that traumatising experience we grabbed dinner and took a late night walk. There was an ever ubiquitous turkish takeaway below our hostel, which was incredibly cheap like pretty much everything in Hungary, so this quickly became our regular dining spot. Being introduced to Budapest at night was a great experience. Both sides of the city were lit up beautifully, and we had an excellent spot to view it all from one of the bridges across the Danube.
We started our first proper day in Budapest with a walking tour. We were lucky enough to finally have some really sunny weather, so it was the perfect day to wander the city. Our tour guide was Hungarian, so she filled us in about the language, food and general culture in Hungary throughout the tour. The language was probably the hardest of any I'd encountered so far on the trip, I couldn't even master "hello" and "thank you", but this is largely because Hungarian doesn't share its roots with any other European language, so there was really no basis from which to start. We also learnt that the correct pronunciation of Budapest is more like Budapesht, which made us laugh because any time someone used that pronunciation it just sounded like a bad Sean Connery impersonation. Our tour first explored the Pest side (where we were staying), past the Great Synagogue, St Stephen's Basilica, and various famous statues. Every statue in the city had one particular shiny body part or section, as particular myths would arise about rubbing certain statues for good luck.
We then crossed the Danube to the Buda side, where we walked up the hill to the Castle District. This is famous for it's old houses and churches, as well as the Buda Castle. We walked around the area, finishing the tour outside Matthias Church. This was the perfect spot to finish the tour, as there were amazing views down to the rest of Budapest. Our guide also recommended to us the best place to get proper traditional Hungarian food, in my case mushroom paprikas with spaetzl, which was both cheap and delicious.
After returning to the Pest side of the city a few of us visited the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe. This was probably the first non-christian religious building I've been in, and it was amazing. Our tour guide was a Jewish New Yorker with the strongest accent I've ever heard. In my head I thought those accents were only exaggerated on television, but I seriously couldn't understand half the things he said. The synagogue itself was really beautifully decorated, and there was also a memorial and garden outside, and a small museum covering Jewish practices, culture and history. It was fascinating to learn about, especially given how little Jewish culture I've really encountered.
That evening we visited on of Budapest's famous ruin pubs, bars located in formerly abandoned buildings, which are usually known for their eclectic style. We went to Szimpla, which was just around the corner from our hostel and had a reputation as one of the best bars in the world. It did not disappoint, with a myriad of different rooms, with all different lights, decorations and art all over the world. We spent most of our time in the outdoor area, which had fairy lights, bucket lamps, cartoons on the walls, and a seat made from the front of a car. It's really difficult to describe everything that we saw, as there was just so much to take in. We did have a friendly reminder of just how far Hungary is from what we know when we went to find the bathrooms and discovered some squatting loos. Luckily they had real toilets as well or I think we might not have been able to handle the jandal.
The next day we were all absolutely exhuasted, but luckily Budapest is the perfect city to cater to the weary, as it is famous for its Turkish baths. After a late morning we headed out to Szechenyi thermal baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. The whole complex was quite large with various hot and even hotter pools, both indoor and outdoor. It was absolutely the perfect way to relax, and we definitely all needed to take a day off our feet. It also felt like even though we took a rest it wasn't really a wasted day because the baths are a major attraction for Budapest.
We ended our day with home-made (hostel-made?) goulash prepared by the hostel staff. This was a nice way to bring everyone in the hostel together, we met a few of the other residents, and also a nice end to our stay in Hungary. It was also the last night our whole group would spend together. We farewelled various groups heading off to Spain, Italy and back to the UK, leaving just 5 of us to hop on the train to Ljubljana in the morning.
Byyyyeeee!
While I've been trying my best to catch up on my Europe travels, I have also been busy celebrating the end of exams and the semester. One of the biggest events of the post-exam celebrations was the No Tomorrow Festival, which I got to go to yesterday, so I thought I'd better fill you in. This was basically a music festival at Wollaton Park, AKA Wayne Manor AKA home to everyone's favourite caped crusader. With dire weather forecasts and a miserable morning, I approached the afternoon of the festival with some trepidation. As it happens, Nottingham suprised us all with an absolutely stunning afternoon. We had sun the entire time, and no mud so we could lay on the grass and relax. The festival itself was great, with stalls, fairground rides, Pimms and of course a bunch of awesome musical acts. We spent the afternoon and evening dancing along to Jess Glynne, Clean Bandit, Sam Smith and London Grammar (none of whom I'd heard of until arriving in Nottingham). It was especially cool to see London Grammar who actually met at the University of Nottingham. Actually, being excited to see them BECAUSE they came from Nottingham made me realise how much the University feels like a place I would consider a second home. Also, I would thoroughly recommend seeing London Grammar live if you get the chance, as their lead singer sounds even more amazing in real life than she does recorded. All in all it was an amazing day and an epic way to celebrate the start of the break.
(PS cred to Emily White for the last couple of photos, I was a bit slack with taking my own)
Finally! As of Wednesday I am a happily free woman, having finished all of my exams. Of course this is just one step closer to leaving Nottingham, but in the meantime I have two weeks to enjoy free of studying, so I can't complain. In an ideal world I'd now be spending all of my time outside in the sunshine, frolicking in meadows and what have you, but unfortunately this is England, and the weather is not that kind, so I guess there's no excuse not to spend my down time stuck inside catching up on my Europe travels.
We had timed our arrival in Vienna to coincide with Easter Sunday, so that we could enjoy markets outside Schonbrunn Palace. Our first morning we headed into the city centre to explore before heading out to the palace. We visited St Stephen's, the main catholic cathedral in Vienna, during their Easter service. The church was huge, and really beautiful on the inside, and it was interesting to see a little bit of a European catholic service. Of course, it was all in German so we couldn't understand anything. We then walked towards the Museumsquarter via the Spanish Riding School. This area was just surrounded with amazing buildings and statues, so it was great to explore.
The rest of the day was spent out at Schonnbrunn Palace, a former summer residence. When we arrived it was teeming with tourists, so we had a few hours to wait around before our tour. Luckily the weather was great, so we got to enjoy the easter markets and have a picnic in the sun.
It really was a beautiful setting, and we also had a chance to explore the gardens behind the palace. The gardens were huge, and filled with greenery and flower gardens, not to mention a zoo and a hedge maze, which we certainly made the most of. We had an audio guide for a tour of the palace, which was quite a nice way to go at your own pace but still take in a lot of information. There was so much history behind the palace, and its various residents, but probably the most entertaining point in the tour came when everyone realised they were in the room where a 6-year old Mozart played, and simultaneously flipped out. After the tour we returned to the gardens and walked up the hill behind Schonbrunn, past the beautiful Neptune Fountain to the Gloriette. From here we had an amazing view of both the palace and the city of Vienna.
Having completely exhausted ourselves, we finished the day with the all-important Wiener Schnitzel.
Our second day in Vienna we took a walk along the Danube river, where we encountered some amazing street art. The walls on both sides of the river were covered in a huge variety of art, some of it very cool and plenty of very weird stuff.
From the river we walked towards the Museumsquarter, with a detour to the old home of Sigmund Freud, which has now become a Freud museum. Once at the Museumsquarter we spent some time at the Natural History Museum. The place was huge, with so much to see, so we didn't get a chance to get around all of the exhibitions, but we certainly saw a lot. Probably amongst the most popular displays would be the dinosaur fossils, which were very impressive. One of the other most famous displays has to be the Venus of Willendorf statuette, which I found surprisingly tiny. The whole museum was great, and it was only a shame that we were short of time, not to mention exhausted, and couldn't see everything there. Having exhausted ourselves out from days of walking around, we had a very laid back afternoon, which mostly involved deciding where we should stop to eat next. Austria is particularly well-known for its cakes, so we took it upon ourselves to try some of the most famous ones, particularly the Mozart Cake and Sacher Torte. These were 10/10 would recommend.
Once it got dark we also got the opportunity to see Vienna at night. Walking past the Opera House they had an outdoor screen to get to watch and listen to the opera for free, which give the area a great atmosphere. The buildings in the Museumsquarter and surrounding looked even more impressive all lit up, especially the Rathaus (town hall), and the parliament building.
Our final morning in Vienna I thought I should take the chance to visit the Hundertwasserhaus, especially to enjoy a little link with home. It did not disappoint, with a whole set of apartments designed in classic Hundertwasser style. There was also a gallery with some of his artworks and images of other buildings designed all around the world. There was also an underground bathroom with fountain, but of course not as great as the toilets in Kawakawa.
It was great to see something that was both a part of the country I was visiting, and of New Zealand, and also to see a part of Vienna a little out of the central tourist area.
I felt like we saw such a range of things in Vienna, from the historical palace to brand new street art, and everything in between. The city had such a lively feel, bustling with tourists and locals. It was a great place to explore, not to mention Vienna's great cafe culture (to rival Wellington even). Having very much enjoyed what Vienna had to offer we hopped on a train to our next destination, Budapest.
Byyyyeeee!
Well! I'm now halfway through exams, and not nearly halfway done with my blog posts about Europe, but I will soldier on, and hopefully get some more written in the next week or so! From Berlin a small group of us took the train to Prague (where we would meet the others taking the bus). While the bus might have been more economical, using the train to get between cities was definitely a great decision, as we got to enjoy some amazing views taking a scenic route. This was a great introduction into the Czech Republic, which was absolutely picturesque. Prague itself really seemed to epitomise the fairytale idea of Europe, and we were staying in the centre of the old town so we especially got to enjoy it. The only reminder that we were well in truly in the 21st century were the fast food chains which, for some reason, were unbelievably well signposted, with directions from hundreds of metres away. We also had a good laugh when we realised our hostel was directly opposite a Tesco. Suddenly the Czech Republic didn't seem quite so foreign after all.
Our first morning in Prague we took a walking tour offered through the our hostel. Our guide was actually a Brazillian now living in Prague. Although our tour wasn't as informative or well organised as the one in Berlin, we certainly got a unique perspective on the city. We started our tour in front of the great disappointment which is the astronomical clock. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that the actual functioning of the clock is impressive, but when you wait in a fully packed square for the clock to strike 11 with other tourists eagerly holding up phone cameras you expect a little more than a glorified cuckoo clock. It was fine. A much better sight, in my opinion, was the Charles Bridge.
We crossed the river via the bridge and it was a great walk. First of all, we were blessed with some beautiful weather, and there were performers and artists all along the bridge. Although I do have to say I have never understood caricature artists, of which there were plenty in every city, including this one. Why would you travel to a foreign city only to pay someone to draw a picture of you with a larger nose than usual. Why, I ask?! From there we wandered around the city on the other side of the river, and then alongside the river. We didn't actually see many of the sights of Prague on the tour, but it was nice just to get a feel for the city, and we did see a few some interesting buildings and sculptures along the way, including this famous depiction of Freud.
After our tour we headed to what would soon become my favourite place in Prague, the Easter markets. Unsurprisingly, the markets were chocka full of delicious and, more importantly, affordable food as well as some local musical entertainment, and lots of craftwork. It was a really great way to get to know the local customs and cuisine. We all quickly formed an obsession with Trdelink (your pronunciation guess is as good as mine), this kind of sweet bread which I was actually first introduced to at farmer's markets in New Zealand as a Hungarian speciality. Travelling around Europe we did find that a lot of cuisines we might associate with one particular country were in fact quite ubiquitous throughout the continent. In any case, the Prague version was delicious.
In the afternoon we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather to walk up the Petrin hill, which has a lookout at the top.The hill itself is a park, so lots of greenery, which luckily made the walk more enjoyable, as we did find climbing the slop a little brutal. Honestly it probably wasn't that steep, but we were all very weary and perhaps a little out of shape. But reaching the top of the hill was definitely worth out, and we had some great views of Prague.
In the evening we took a pub crawl, as Prague is apparently well known for its nightlife. Up until that point in the trip we had encountered a lot of American and Australian tourists, and I was disappointed at the lack of kiwis, so I was amused to discover that all of our guides on the pub crawl were from New Zealand which, really, sounds about right. In general the nightlife wasn't that different from anywhere else I've been, and they still played mostly American and British music, although I suppose that could have just been the places we were taken. It was also really more of a club crawl, with the final venue being a "five story extravaganza". Basically every floor was dedicated to a different music style, although the "hip-hop" floor was playing Ke$ha and Katy Perry, so I'm not sure if they quite had the genres mastered. Our tour guide from the morning had assured us that Prague, especially the old town, was a really safe city, so we decided to walk back to the hostel to save money, and it did actually feel very safe. There was hardly anyone about, no drunken hooligans, and we got to enjoy an empty Charles Bridge which was very cool. I think that there are three ways one must experience a city in order to really get to know it, from the city centre, from above, and at night. Luckily I got to experience all three in Prague.
Our second day in Prague we visited the beautiful Prague Castle. This looked exactly like something out of a Disney movie, and is also the largest ancient castle in the world, so we were certainly impressed. Getting to the castle involved another steep climb, up a hill opposite the Petrin hill, but we got some more great views of the city. The castle had a lot to see, including the Basilica of St Vitus, reproductions of the Bohemian Crown Jewels and a mock-up of a historic street. Unfortunately the weather again took a turn for the worse, so we didn't spend much time exploring the castle grounds, but the buildings we did see were beautiful and detailed a lot of Prague's history.
The next day we had to get a train to Vienna, but not until the afternoon, so we had some more time to explore. The Jewish Quarter had been recommended to us. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the first synagogue we realised that it was in fact Saturday, which is the Jewish sabbath, so everything in the area was shut. We decided to still wander through the Quarter, as we could see some of the buildings from the outside. The place was funnily enough still packed with non-English walking tours. We did get to see this very strange Franz Kafka statue.
Unfortunately this mostly served to remind me that I didn't manage to read any Kafka while in Prague, despite the best of intentions. Having worn ourselves out, we ended our exploration of Prague with one last visit to the Easter markets, before heading to a new destination. Prague was very much the traditional European city I had been dreaming of before I started travelling, and it did not disappoint.
