Posts

Barcelona, London, Saigon

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Hola amigos! This is going to be my last post. I’m pretty gutted to be headed back (I’m about to board my final flight to Sydney shortly), but my wallet and my waistline will be happy. Straight back to work when I land, which is less than ideal. So after Budapest, I flew to Barcelona where I had 4 nights. Again, the decision to go there was dictated by what flights I could get for the right price and the right time. Budapest is a bit of a tricky place to get to and from. But I had never been to Spain and it all worked, so that’s where I went! I have to say, I’ve really killed the hotel/accommodation game this trip. Other than the place in Vienna (which was absolutely fine and new and cheap, but no frills), everywhere I have stayed has been fab. The hotel in Barcelona was new and very central in a cool neighbourhood. It also had a rooftop pool, daily activities in the lounge (I.e. local craft beer tasting) and had few bowls of candy (lollies) in the lobby. The room was small-ish,

Vienna and Budapest

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Szia! πŸ‡­πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή I think that means hello in Hungarian. Hello can also be hello, but that’s not an interesting way to start this post.  I’m going to divide this post into two parts - Vienna and Budapest, because while they were similar in some ways, they were also quite different! Vienna/Wien Since it turned out to be impossible to get from Dubrovnik to Budapest in less than 8 hours and without spending $600+ on a one way ticket, I decided it would be better to get a cheap 1 hour flight to Vienna, spend 48 hours there, and then get a 2 hour train to Budapest. I’ve never been to Vienna (or Austria) so I thought it was a good opportunity to see a little bit of it. Despite it being just a one hour flight, getting off the plane and into Vienna was a completely different experience that getting out of Dubrovnik and onto the plane. In Dubrovnik I had to ask about 10 people which the airport bus was, which included a lot of vague pointing, eye rolls and unclear hand gestures. The Dubrovn

Adriatic Coast sailing

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Hello from Montenegro πŸ‡²πŸ‡ͺ I have spent the last 7 days on a 15.9 metre sail boat cruising down the Adriatic coast. And it has been glorious.... mostl y...... The boat itself is 5 (2 person) bedrooms and 3 baths, for 9 of us on board. While it is a decent size overall, the sleeping quarters are pretty cramped. There are two bunkbed rooms and three double bed rooms. Naturally, the doubles went to the couple, the mother/daughter and the skipper, so I ended up in a bunkbed room. The top bunk is squishy, to say the least, and as I am one of the smaller people on board, I had to put my hand up to take it (some people would not physically fit). While I did my best to channel my inner KK and enjoy the novelty of a top bunk, it was a bit too ‘coffin like’ for my liking. I’ve been reminded numerous times this week by the fact that I am quite claustrophobic. Sleeping arrangements aside, the boat had everything we needed and was pretty well equipped. While it is a sail boat, we actua
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Hello, from Dubrovnik Im on holiday so it’s time to start writing again. I find this to be quite therapeutic, particularly when done with a cup of tea or a glass of wine in hand.    I’ll probably write 4 or 5 times on this trip - depends on how much I have to say I guess. I’m here in Dubrovnik for two days before heading off on a 7 night sailing trip down through Montenegro. I’ve been to Dubrovnik once before, so I think two days this time is enough. It’s such an unbelievably stunning place, but there isn’t heaps to do other than walk around and look at things. I’m not sure why I don’t remember it being as pretty as this when I was here 9 years ago. Maybe the weather wasn’t as spectacular as it is now, or I was drunk more of the time last time. My trip to get here was lonnnnngggg to say the least. 30+ hours. Actually so long I lost track of time, day, etc. It was comfortable at least, as I flew business class. After so much work travel, I’ve become accustomed to a certain

Cape Town

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Hi All, One last post from Africa.  I’m really not that keen to go back to Australia and to work on Tuesday. I could easily just take a few more weeks off and go up to Namibia.  I’ve met a few people who are doing two week trips from here in Cape Town up the coast of Namibia.  I think that will be my next trip to Africa. Anyway, I’ve spent the last 4 days in Cape Town and it’s a great city. Unfortunately I didn’t get the best weather while here, as it is winter. All things considered, it could have been worse if it poured the whole time, but I had a lot of grey skies and clouds. So I didn’t quite get to do everything I wanted, but it was still good. Just means I’ll have to come back. On Wednesday when I arrived the weather was wonderful.  Sunny and warm. Unfortunately I didn’t arrive until 2:45pm, so by the time I was checked into my hotel it was already 3:30-4. Not wanting to waste the afternoon though, I booked it down to the V&A waterfront, which is a tourist area w