In his mid twenties my Dad spent some time traveling around Europe, and he once told me his favourite spot was Santorini, Greece. With a recommendation like that it had to go to the top of my to do list. Well that was in 2010! So don’t ask my why it took me nearly 4 and a half years to make it to number one on my to-travel list but I finally got a chance to spend a lovely sunny week in Santorini, Greece.
I’ve been a huge fan of traveling through Scandinavia with all my ‘new favourite places’ being from my trips to Iceland and Norway so it wasn’t long before a visit to Copenhagen, Denmark shot to the top of my to-travel list.
Unfortunately for us it looked like it was going to rain all weekend. We didn’t let that stop us though and after arriving to the airport and making our way to our AirBnb apartment (I would totally recommend the location of this place!) we headed out into the city to go on the Copenhagen Free Walking Tour. On the way we stopped off for what would be the first of many Danish pastries and perfectly made coffees of our trip.
If you are looking for a nice place for a girly weekend away to Europe, I highly recommend Lake Como. A friend of mine, Vanessa, had spent a week in Italy and so the rest of us decided to join her for her final weekend and spend three days relaxing in the Italian sun and eating and drinking to our hearts content.
We decided to stay in Varenna one of the little villages on the side of Lake Como. Once we arrived at our airbnb flat and looked out the window we instantaneously relaxed. It was such a beautiful view it’s hard to think about anything else but the blue water, cool breeze and sunshine.
Last summer a friend of mine came to visit me in London. Whilst she was here we thought we would have a summer escape to the continent – so she could do some more travel and I could visit somewhere new and exciting. Many places were tossed up – a week in the Greek Islands? Spain? Or Prague? Finally we settled on Krakow and, I have to say, I was stoked as it was pretty high on my to-travel list.
We decided to spend 4 nights there to give us the chance to fit in as many of the tourist attractions and cultural experiences we could. Our first afternoon was spent hanging out in the local town square buying Polish dumplings and beer from the food stalls, visiting the cloth market, resisting buying heaps of amber jewellery, and walking through the cobbled streets. We were so lucky that we had a stunning blue sky and warm sunshine in which to do our exploring.
After our ‘diplomatic encounter’ at the Russian/Estonian border I was glad to be on the friendly and more helpful side of the border. Those of us who got left behind checked into Monk’s Bunk, had a shower to freshen up and then headed out to explore downtown Tallinn. Our travel buddies had already done some scouting around and found a cute little medieval themed bar, Ill Draakon, that served hot elk stew and cold beer by candlelight. The perfect place to catch up with the girls, see the guys for the first time and recount our story.
St Petersburg – what a city! About 5 minutes after arriving in St Petersburg I had already decided it was my favourite out of the two Russian cities we visited. While Moscow was interesting, it was also very concrete, large and bleak. Whereas in St Petersburg just walking between the metro station and our hostel we saw more colourful buildings, canals and the people just seemed friendlier.
Like many of my European adventures, my trip to Russia was inspired by an airline deal. EasyJet were advertising £50 flights to Moscow – what better excuse to go visit Russia? Originally planned for a long weekend, once my friend Kim and I started looking into the practicalities and what Russia had to offer, we realised that there was no way we could do this one in 3 days. So our trip extended from a few days in Moscow to a week with a visit to St Petersburg too. Then, once we realised the flights home from St Petersburg were super expensive, we thought we’d jump over the border into Estonia, check out Tallin, then fly home from there. Once we started talking about our baltic adventure the list of travel buddies suddenly jumped from two to six.
With the makings of a tradition James and I headed to Italy for the first bank holiday in May. Last year we had been to Cinque Terre to spent 3 days devouring pizza, pasta and pesto in the sunny seaside. This time we headed to the seaside again but this time on the opposite side of Italy in one of the more famous cities – Venice.
I had been to Venice previously on my Topdeck Adventures however most of the time was spent wandering the streets hungover after an epically crazy toga party. This time I was glad to be actually seeing much of the city sans headache.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit to Germany four times now and have always really enjoyed my time there. Even though after eight years of school lessons I’m completely rubbish at the language. This time I got to visit the lovely city of Hamburg, thanks to my work writing for the Australian Times, to stay at and review the newest Generator Hostel. Thankfully I got to add two more nights onto my trip and spend the weekend touring the city.
Hamburg was great to visit as you can see much of it on foot. I set off from the hostel along the canal and like a good shopaholic discovered the Gansemarkt – the central shopping and café area. I spent a little while wandering around this area before weaving my way back through and finding the town hall. The ‘Rathaus’ as the Germans say is right by the canal and directly in front of a large square where you can find a perfect spot to grab a currywurst or bucket of frittes with a bier before settling down on the many steps and watching the crowds go by.
It has started coming to that time in my London Life where I have to start saying goodbye to some really good friends due to visas, different travel plans and people not wanting to suffer through another English winter. Sadly these reasons mean I have to say goodbye to three of my topdeck family members. It had been so long since we had been on a ‘family’ holiday with the Topdeck crew that we thought it was about time we went on another – a perfect way to party together before we had to say goodbye. The trouble was we couldn’t settle on somewhere that 14 people with a passion for travel hadn’t already been before.
We tossed up between Liverpool and Isle of Wight before Candra just made a command decision to go to Nottingham. I’m glad she did because we got the chance to explore somewhere we might not have usually picked. After doing a bit of research we found that Nottingham is not only famous for the adventures of Robin Hood but also has England’s oldest inn and apparently a pretty awesome nightlife. Which is exactly what we were in the need of!
We headed up to Nottingham on the Saturday morning which is only an hour and a half away and we were all pretty chuffed because we had scored first class tickets! (Oh how we love train special deals) So we did the trip up in style and arrived just in time to dump our bags at the hotel before heading into town to go to the oldest inn in England for lunch. The Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is built into the side of the wall surrounding the castle and was established in 1189. We were lucky enough that it wasn’t too busy and since it was a sunny day we grabbed two tables outside, grabbed some drinks and had some food while we all caught up and chatted. Sean had bought some of their traditional Ale which I had a sip of and it tasted like it was from 1189. Yuck.
From there we went on a wander around the town and first stop was the statue of Robin Hood right outside the castle. We all took this chance to get a few funny photos and muck around before heading up through the castle gates. By this time it was getting later in the afternoon and none of us were really in the mood for history (shameful I know) so we opted out of visiting the castle and instead visited the gift shop where we bought felt hats and bows and arrows. This meant there were more photos in front of Robin Hood before heading further into the city centre to check out down town Nottingham. The city of Nottingham is pretty much similar to the centre of most English cities with all the shops, a main square and a few bars and restaurants around. After a quick sticky beak we went back to the hotel to have a few drinks and get ready for a night out.
We played a few drinking games before heading to a nearby Wetherspoons for a cheap meal and cheap drinks before heading straight to Oceana nightclub. We had found out this was the place to go by a random stag night and I would have to say their recommendation was pretty good. It was a pretty cheesy place with a light up dancefloor and lots of old school music but it was exactly what we wanted for a night out. It meant we could drink and dance and sing along in a big group, not annoy anyone and just enjoy a good night out.
The next morning we were up bright and early to head to the walkabout to watch the grand final of the Rugby World Cup. As you know I have lots of Kiwi friends so they were excited that they were in the final and wouldn’t have missed it for the world. We grabbed some cooked breakfast and some snakebites and settled in to watch the match. It was quite a close game and was so suspenseful to watch but in the end the Kiwi’s pulled through and they won. Leaving all my friends pretty happy! We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the walkie and wandering the shops before getting the 3pm train home.
We had intended to check out Sherwood Forest after the match but due to the Sunday time table we weren’t able to make it back in time to catch our train. I was pretty disappointed we didn’t get to do much of the touristy stuff however I had a great time just hanging out with my Topdeck Family (plus new members) and spending time with Sean, Toni and Clare before they had to leave. Sadly they have all now left us for bigger and brighter adventures and while I am sad to see them go, I am extremely jealous of their upcoming travel. I will miss them heaps but we have a few new members of the London family so I don’t have to worry about being a loner just yet!
Eat Well Travel Often 