Pit stops can still be beautiful. If your only ever In a town or city for even just a couple of hours, take a little wander around. You might be pleasantly surprised. I spent just a night in Venice, Italy... You know that city that has canals instead of roads, and boats instead of cars. And honestly, I wasn't even going to bother looking around, I'd had the most shocking three days in transit. Yep, surprise surprise I missed a train, then I missed another one,so it's fair to say I was feeling a little exhausted and lazy when I finally reached my hostel. But after a nap and some small talk with my fellow backpackers I was invited along for dinner and a wander around the city. It's amazing how fresh (and starving) you feel after a quick two hour siesta. We picked the first pizzeria that did a whole pizza under 7 euro (7 euro is always my dinner budget, oh the life of a traveller) And that also had WiFi...yes WiFi is absolutely a reason to eat some where. So we filled our belly's with pizza and wine. Now I could lie and say I smashed my whole pizza, but I just couldn't squeeze that last piece in. Not when I knew I had to save room for gelato. GELATO always! We wandered for an hour or so around town, it was a pretty quiet night. But still beautiful. I had another quick stop in a little medieval town in Italy called Orvieto. Pretty little Orvieto. Now there was defiantly nothing to do here. So I grabbed a bite to eat, and of course a coffee, and went and checked out the towns cathedral. STUNNING. Orvieto is perched up on top of a hill so I walked out and along the towns surrounding walls. It had some amazing views. And we all know views are good for selfies....
Belgrade to Budapest. Also known as Beograd and Budapest pronounced Budapesshhhhttt! Be sure not to get that "ssshhhttt" wrong. Originally none of these destinations were part of my trip, but after discussions with fellow travellers I discovered it would have been silly of me to not visit them. So Belgrade started off much the same as every new destination for me. LOST... But this time, with a broken bag. You would think after almost three weeks on the road and also this being a second time solo venture I would have reading maps absolutely nailed. Nope. Lucky for me an Aussie chased me out the airport, Ryan Werts, shout out to you. Thanks for getting me to my hostel in one piece. Since I didn't have much time to research the area I was staying, I decided to do a free walking tour. Definitely worth it. Not only are they good for general information of the city, but also a great way to get your bearings. Safe to say....didn't use a map for the rest of my stay there. A must in Belgrade, have some Rakija (local spirit) in one of the oldest and originally kept streets, Skadarlija in the Bohemian District. You should also check out the Floating clubs on the river, called Splavs. I went on a Sunday night, and probably too early around 11.30 pm (which is already way past my bedtime) so they weren't as packed as people said they would be, but none the less I had a a couple of beers and dropped it like its hot to some sweet 90's RnB. So I had fun. Now, Budapest on the other hand, I did do some research, and the more I did, the more excited I was to get there. I extended my stay by 3 nights. And I still didn't have enough time. Again, I did another walking tour, I can't recommend these things enough. And from there...went on a pub crawl. This is where my stay in Budapest took a turn, now I'm not saying for the better, but I also wouldn't say for the worst. I just ended up spending more time sleeping then exploring. Whoops. So on my list of things that I was "going" to do was. Go to the baths, which is an obvious it's what Budapest is known for. I also wanted to climb Gellert hill, it gives you a panoramic view of the city from the "Buda" side. So yes, I'm a little disappointed I didn't do those two things. But hey, guess I'll just have to go back. What I did do though was check out the Jewish quarter on more then one occasion. What an amazing place to eat! If you love food and drinking and chatting and laughing and eating, yes I said eating twice! EAT. That's what I loved about Budapest, it really caters to a social lifestyle. I was also lucky enough to happen to be in Hungary for St. Vincent's day. Which for us Australians is "Australia day" or you Americans "4th of July"... You get the picture. That was a special experience to say the least. Another must is to check out the Ruin Bars, regardless if your a drinker or not, these places will blow your mind. I also treated my self to a delightful sundee' at the New York Cafe, I could have sat in this place for hours. What an incredible building. Enjoy the photo's, I know they don't do it justice....
Ok, I may not of sailed "the seven sea's", I only sailed one, the Adriatic Sea.... And by sailing I mean spending most of the day laying on the front of the boat and stopping in the middle of the ocean for a dip every now and then. I did my week of sailing with www.sailweekcroatia.com and I'm glad I did. Travelling solo can be very hit and miss when your booking tours. What's my tour guide going to be like? What are the other people on the boat going to be like? I definitely got lucky. My tour guide/skipper was the head skipper for the whole 6 sailing boats. So he was an absolute guru on the boat, except for the one day when he sailed us directly through a storm and proceeded to laugh at the fact that majority of the boat was hanging off the back heaving their guts up, myself included! I also ended up with a pretty good crew. Every body else came with a travel buddy, but at no point did I not feel like part of the crew. Fewwwfff. Now I'd love to go into detail about all the islands we visited.. But that would just be way to much writing. So instead I will just highly recommend that you do some sort of Croatian island hopping tour, weather it be on an enormous boat or a little sailing boat. Or even basing yourself on the mainland in Split and just catching the ferry to an island of your choice. Here are a couple of teaser photo's.
The lead up to this solo adventure second time round, is much different from the first. I strangely had no overwhelming feelings of excitement or sadness or even being a little nervous. I mean a 24 year old girl, just about to embark on a pretty massive adventure, just a back pack (larger then I would have liked, damn!) a couple of camera's, definitely too many pairs of shoes and probably way to wide eyed for what I'm about to experience, you would think my emotions would be on a whole different level.. but they just aren't. I feel so calm and content about my next move. Especially sitting in an airport waiting to board my flight... my long flight, alone. Friends and family always asked, Aren't you scared to fly, aren't you going to be bored by yourself. My answer was no every time. If anything airports are the one thing that get me excited. I know once I get on a plane I'll be getting off in a new place. And the fact that the "new place's" are endless is the best part about this.
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AuthorJust a girl... Living. Follow my adventures and mishaps. Archives
November 2015
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