We had a lovely experience when traveling to four cities/countries in Eastern Europe: Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Budapest, Hungary. Each place was extraordinary and beautiful, full of culture yet charming, and both historic and modern at the same time.
Because the trip was so long and jam packed, I’m going to
have to break it into different posts on each city/country. They will probably be
a little longer than my usual posts, but filled with tons of memories. As for
this post, it’ll be a nice introduction to what’s to come and the planning that
went into it.
I started planning this trip around February or so, and I’m glad I started early because it took so much effort to put together. I used the website www.gadventures.com for the skeleton of our journey. This website is really amazing…for single travelers, but when you’re in a group and you’re sharing rooms and getting group discounts, it’s just cheaper (but way more work) to do it yourself.
The trip was from 3-12 July, the flights and trains were all extremely reasonable, kids were in school so it wasn’t overly crowded, and the weather was perfect nearly every day. Our first flight was to Berlin at 1145 and it was a little under 2 hours. We stayed until the 5th, caught a 4.5 hour first class train to Prague, and arrived around 1730. On the 8th we set off to Krakow on our longest day journey. The train was a little under 4 hours and then we immediately got on a bus for another 2.5 hours. We paid extra and got this business class as well. If you’re doing a trip like this, I would highly recommend it since you’ll be stationary for so long. We stayed two full days in Krakow and took an overnight train to Budapest. If you’ve never taken an overnight bunker train before, I’d suggest you not! More into it when I post about Budapest, but it was quite an interesting ride. We ended up having a long delay causing us to arrive around 1030 instead of the intended 0830 (which really messed up our schedule!). Because of a schedule oversight, we only stayed in Budapest for a night, but it was still a lovely time in a beautiful city.
In my next post, I’ll go into detail about how our time was
in Berlin. I’ve been to the city before (in May), so I may add pieces of what I
did the first time as well.
Here’s part 2 to the Tenerife trip! There are tons of pictures, so I hope you enjoy.
Monday – Island Tour
On Monday we decided to take the Mt. Teide and Masca Valley Tour in Tenerife, which was my favorite part of the trip. It was just over 30 pounds and the tour lasted about 9 hours. If you’re going to Tenerife, staying in the south, and have a day available, I highly recommend you take a tour to see the entire island. The south looks kind of like the planet Mars, but the more north you go, the greener it gets.
Pool created from molten
view of the city
rainbow
houses in trees
beautiful view
tight traffic
Rainbow over city
The tour started pretty early in the morning. We were the first stop, so we were on the bus before the sun was even up. After everyone loaded up, we hit the road to go to Mount Teide (an active volcano!). On the way to Mt. Teide, we stopped at this little hole in the wall restaurant so everyone could use the bathroom. The tour guide mentioned this drink that’s, for the most part, only served in Tenerife. It’s called Barraquito, and is a liqueur coffee that uses Licor 43. We continued our travels to the volcano and made it past the clouds. We were literally above the clouds! When we finally made it to the volcano, we got out and took plenty of pictures. The tour gives you a little while at each section, so you don’t get to do too much. If you want to do any of these places for long periods of time, I’d suggest renting a car or something. It was really cool being next to it and I kept thinking to myself, if this thing were to erupt right now, we’d be goners. Luckily for us, it hasn’t erupted since 1909.
landscape above the clouds
next to the volcano
Shaun and Gian
view of the covered city
beautiful landscape
We then went to a town called Garachico. This town was hit badly by an eruption hundreds of years
ago, but that created a whole new culture for it. Everything looks like
volcanic debris, so it’s a charcoal-like colored area. The eruption created
some really cool natural rock pools that people swim in. We didn’t get to dive
in because the tour was short, and because it was raining. Not like we would
have anyways – no one wants to be wet on a bus.
The bus stopped at a little restaurant where we had lunch for pretty cheap. I want to say we ordered beef or something, but I can’t remember. The island is also known for its bananas, so they passed them out for dessert. I would have preferred them a little riper, but hey, it was an experience. Also, we got extra food thanks to Gian and Davoo speaking Spanish! The tour guide was extremely happy to hear they were from Puerto Rico and wanted them to have a good impression of Spain. It stuck!
Masca
#selfie
winding road
greenery at the volcano
us a little scared
We briefly stopped at Vilaflor,
a small little town, but only to go to a souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything
there, but they did have tons of samples that we tried. All kinds of salsa made
from exotic fruit. Afterwards, we went to El
Drago (the Dragon Tree), a really..really old tree (looked more like a
bush). Apparently it’s somewhere between 650-3000 years old. That’s a really
big difference though ha. It was raining and I think we were behind on time, so
we only saw it from the road. We got out and took pictures though (yes, on the
road while cars were in motion.)
The coolest part of the trip was going to Masca Valley. It’s by far the most beautiful part of the island with stunning sceneries, rainbows everywhere, and one heck of a drive to get there. There is one road up and down, and typically, the locals go up one way and down another. When you have tourist that aren’t familiar, they go the wrong way causing messy traffic. There were plenty of people who couldn’t maneuver their cars, so they had to get out and let the bus drive move the car out of the way for them. It was a lot of work!
megs trying to not fall
linds posing
volcano baby
group photo!
street pic
covered city
Anyways, we made it to the top and it was gorgeous. You can
see out to the ocean from certain angles and the sun shines so brightly up
there. We went to a gift shop at the top which wasn’t too ridiculously priced,
so I was happy about that. Check out the photos because they were awesome.
Tuesday – Check out
By Tuesday we were worn out. We really took the time to
relax, catch up on sleep, and stuff our faces with the remaining food we had
left over. We really lucked out because the Airbnb host was super nice. She
allowed us to keep our stuff at the place after checkout while we searched for
a printer. There were no stores that could print our boarding passes and the
local library had closed down. Fortunately for us the host offered to take Gian
and Davoo to a store that printed. It wasn’t walking distance, so we were
grateful.
#Lessonslearned – If the country is safe, try not to stay in
the touristy areas. Vacation spots aren’t as authentic, and you may not get the
full experience and culture of the country.
I decided to split this into two separate posts because it
ended up being longer than expected!
Our second trip outside of the United Kingdom was to Tenerife over U.S. Veterans Day weekend (10 – 13 Nov). Tenerife is the largest of the seven Canary Islands and the most populated. We flew into the Tenerife South Airport because it was cheaper and touristy. The original flight was from 0640 to 1120 but we had a schedule change to 0830 instead. We then had another schedule change which ended up being 0930-1410. I’m glad that we had the change because no one wants to be at the airport at 0400 in the morning. I heard that RyanAir does this often, so be aware if you book with them.
View of Tenerife from the plane
Food from the restaurant
Red Mountain
Saturday – Touchdown
When we landed, we headed straight to the Airbnb which was
in El Medano, about 10-15 minutes
from the airport. It was beautiful and spacious: right outside of the beach,
four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and not too far from the center of town. We
were starving so we walked down the street to this restaurant called “The Metro
King” that sold these humongous burgers! I wish I had a picture of it because
they were gigantic.
After eating, we roamed the town to find some things to do
later on. It was getting kind of late so we picked up some food from a local
grocery store and headed back to the Airbnb. We sat on the patio, had a few
drinks and laughed, and enjoyed the warm weather. We played some games (in
Spanish!) that the Airbnb host had around the house (Pictionary, taboo, etc.).
Surprisingly we did better than expected. During Pictionary we ended up in a
heated discussion about some of the verbs which was hilarious because the
arguers were on the same team. We lost.
Sunday – Nature
We were outside for the majority of Sunday – hence the
subtitle. We hit the beach for a few hours which was amazing, but let me tell
you, that water was FREEZING. Anyone who knows me knows I hate the cold and I
don’t really like water, so cold water
just doesn’t do. I got in to about my ankles and gave up. Instead, I bathed in
the sun while everyone else bobbed up and down in the water like ice cubes. While
they froze their booties off, I just did what I do best and people watched.
There was a topless lady not far from me, an older gentleman dating someone way
younger than he was, and a family that let their kids run across the beach
naked.
After everyone decided that the water was finally cold enough, they joined me on the beach and we started to play random beach games. Tons of sand pictures were drawn and cartwheels were flipped. Davoo and I got into some Olympic challenge (as usual) where we crab walked, handstood, and other simple things. Somehow Gian and Davoo got to wresting on a beach and Megs drew a circle around them as a ring. Gian should have easily defeated him but I think he was just scared to try. I wrestled Davoo and was also scared, but only because I almost body slammed him to the ground which would have basically ended his life. I played gently instead. I won, of course.
Flavored Icees!
No Turning back
Handsome fellas
view climbing up
After going back to the house and probably eating, we
decided to hike up Red Mountain.
While on the way there, we stopped on the boardwalk and got some snacks (liquor
icees) which were pretty good. Now, before I go on about this mountain, let me
tell you that these pictures do not do it justice. We thought this was going to
be a small little hike up and down a hill, but boy were we wrong.
When we were walking to Red Mountain, I thought it wouldn’t
be that bad because there were people running the trail, breathing like it was
no big deal. They clearly had been training for that mountain for months
because we couldn’t walk it without gasping for breath every few minutes. Okay,
I’m exaggerating, but there were definitely parts of the mountain that you
basically had to climb up. Half of our party decided that they wouldn’t
continue to the peak. It was absolutely beautiful at the top of the mountain
though. It was surrounded by beaches, but we were so high up that the people on
them looked like little specs. Gian, Davoo and I were chilling on the top
(because after you climb a mountain for 45 minutes that’s what you do!) when
then Megs and Linds joined us! I was happy that they continued because we were
so close to the top and the view was spectacular.
I thought going up the mountain was bad, but going down was even worse! The path was nothing but rocks, dirt, and sand, so the slightest moves and you were sliding down the hill. There was a moment when I slid, and as I ungracefully glided down the mountain, runners continued to move like it was nothing! My pride was hurt.
view from up high
Tripleta
Paella
In total, from the Airbnb to the mountain and back, Google
says it took a little over 3 hours. That was one heck of a hike.
I’d like to say we ended the day at a restaurant on the water where we ordered Paella. We were in Spain, so obviously we were going to have Paella. It was good, but it wasn’t as amazing as I wanted it to be. It was probably that the service sucked.
#Lessonslearned – If you’re traveling with a group and you see tickets are cheap, buy them. We paid nearly half for our tickets than some others on the trip.
This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK. This is all about Brussels!
It’s the last one in the Belgium series.
Before traveling to Ghent on Sunday (2 September), we had registered for a “make your own chocolate workshop” in Brussels. The meet up spot was in Town Hall, and it was crowded, as expected. Many of the buildings had trimmings of gold, and the sun hitting the building made it a lovely view. Our tour guide finally came for us and we began the class.
If you go to Brussels, this is definitely something I would recommend. It takes a few hours, but you get to learn how chocolate is made and actually make your own. It was so much fun, and we ate so much chocolate that we kind of got turned off of chocolate for the remainder of the trip! As you can see from the picture, we really had a blast. We made truffles, or chocolates that have a hard shell but a softer inside. We did have one scary moment when the wall started to fall apart, but I swear we had nothing to do with that haha.
We went back to Brussels on Monday (3 September), but by
train this time! We traveled the city and tried to hit as many touristy spots
as possible. We saw all three of the peeing statues: The Manneken Pis statue
(the little boy), Jeanneke-Pis (the little girl), and the Zinneke Pis (the
dog). I think I can speak for everyone when I say I was disappointed with the
famous little boy. All the statues in the store and references made it seem
like it was such a large statue! It was all of 1.5 feet tall, and it was
dressed up in clothes for the weekend. What a drag.
We also took another class, the “Waffle Workshop”! Everyone knows that Belgium is known for waffles and chocolate, and we had a ton. We (Gian, Davoo, and I) ate like 6 waffles each. I even got the recipe for them, so I hope you guys enjoy it!
The last day we had some extra time, so we went to the
Atomium which I wasn’t too impressed by. I will admit that we didn’t go inside,
but it just didn’t seem too appealing. We took some photos outside of it and
then walked a nearby trail. We got some cool pictures on the trail including me
doing a handstand on some very wet grass on a timed camera.
This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK. This is all about Ghent!
Don’t worry, it’s only one more Belgium post (Brussels is up next!)
The plan for Sunday (2 September) was to drive into Brussels and enjoy a “make your own chocolate workshop,” then train to Ghent to check out the city. We were lucky because it turns out parking is free on Sundays, so that saved us from paying for parking! We took the train from Belgium to Ghent, which was a little over an hour, but it was a smooth fun ride. If you’re interested in the chocolate workshop, you’ll have to see my next post (Brussels baby!).
We walked many miles to visit the City Center. I have never seen a town that had as many bikes as Ghent – it seemed like everyone had two bikes and just left them on the street for anyone to take. We went to Saint Nicholas Church, some other nearby buildings, and we also tried to go into this castle, but it closed early and we missed the entering time. It worked out because none of us were too thrilled about paying because it wasn’t the largest of castles.
One of my favorite parts of Ghent was Graffiti Street. Many
urban towns have them and they are also so fascinating to see. It’s just
something about local (and not local) artist tagging an alley with their own
flare that’s amazing.
On the way back to the train station, we walked by some really creepy caves. We had an awesome photoshoot with Davoo looking like some kind of cave dweller, and Meggie and Gian resting under some vined columns.
This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK (Check out the first blog post here). This one is all about Bruges!
On Saturday (1 September), we went to Bruges and what a beautiful city it was! It was nice and sunny out, so we really took advantage of walking around the town. We found parking, which was actually pretty cool because you could add money to your meter from any other meter in the city. You just had to enter your license plate number and boom – Paid! We first strolled through the Historic Centre of Bruges seeing different architectural buildings such as the Belfort, the Markt, and a church which I can’t remember the name of (but I have pictures!). We hopped on a cheap little touristy boat and cruised through the city while the guide informed us about the town in three languages: English, French, and I want to say the third was Dutch, but I’m not too sure. We saw some of the different structures in the town, but my favorite thing on the boat tour was the huge whale made of recycling material.
Gian enjoying the boat cruise
Belgium beer taster
Buildings on the tour
church i don’t remember the name of
Inside the church
church
structure in belgium
recycled whale
We were quite hungry during this journey, but the food was so expensive! We ended up at Café Cambrinus (at least that’s what google tells me) where we got a meat sampler and tried out some Belgium Beer. I’d say 6/8 beers we had were amazing, which is pretty good because I don’t like many beers (Yes, you’ll see my drink beers quite often, but that doesn’t mean it’s my preferred drink!). After eating a little grub, we began our hunt for the best chocolate in town. We were super touristy and just followed google and trip advisor, so we ended up in this shop called “The Chocolate Line” which was good, but obviously expensive. We stopped by another shop around the corner which was smaller and cheaper, and honestly, I think their chocolate tasted much better. Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the shop we went to. Either way, I loved the chocolate in Belgium…until we had too much chocolate which I’ll also cover later. We probably would have benefited from asking a local where we should get some really good chocolate. Lessons learned.
Davoo was interested in seeing the “Windmills of Bruges,” so we headed that way. We walked for quite some time, but as I mentioned earlier, the weather was beautiful, so it was a journey well spent. We traveled along a little stream (or river?) and took some cool pictures while there. We got to the windmills and had such a great time there. There was a family of five seeing the windmills as well who offered to take our picture. The parents were super laidback with their kids and let them run around and have the time of their lives. They jumped off the windmill and the parents strongly suggested “keeping their knees together” when they landed so they wouldn’t hurt themselves. The son decided he’d roll down the steep hill to have some fun and then busted his head on the street. He was so confused he practically had birds flying around his head, but he obviously knew he was being dumb because he didn’t complain or say anything. He just put his hand on his head and stopped playing. It was funny, but I know his head hurt the next day!
Selfie at the windmills
Shaun sitting on the windmill
Chocolate Horse
butts and windmills
group windmill photo
More Chocolate!
It took us forever to walk back and by the time we got to
the car we were starving. The restaurants weren’t really open because it was Sunday,
and the places that were open were too expensive, so we decided to grab food on
the way home. We went to this Asian buffet which was an experience itself. We
were so thirsty the whole time we were out that we kept ordering waters. When
the bill came, we quickly learned that in
Europe, you are charged for water, even if it’s tap water. We all had like
six glasses and they were like $2 each! Learned that lesson fast.
The first “real” trip/holiday/vacation we took while living in England was to Belgium over U.S Labor Day weekend (31 Aug – 4 Sept). I say “real” because I’m not counting our trip in July to Gian’s hometown, Caguas, Puerto Rico, for our niece’s quinceañera. I’ll blog about that beautiful experience another day. Anyways, Belgium was an amazing first stop for our adventures!
The trip was originally supposed to be early August, but as
we waited for people to commit, the plane tickets crept up and I felt it wasn’t
worth going for 60 bucks more per person than originally planned for. We
rescheduled the trip, got everyone on board, and finally booked it. The entire group couldn’t go because of other
arrangements, but that happens when you travel in numbers.
With it being our first real trip and all, we were excited, nervous, and didn’t really know what to expect. We booked a RyanAir night flight 2155-2220 to the CRL Airport in Brussels and rented a car. Good thing because it was a 45 minute drive from the airport to our Airbnb! When we finally arrived, we could not find the apartment for the life of us. Turns out the keys were cleverly hidden in a bush, under a rock…but hey, I’m not judging. It was a nice Airbnb in Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels, which is about a 15 minute drive to town.
When you book a car online for European countries, make sure
you check how many miles/kilometers you are given. If you go over, of course
you get a big fat charge at the end. Luckily we knew exactly how many miles we
had, so we had to take this into consideration for the trip. While we were in
Belgium, we went to three cities: Brussels,
Bruges, and Ghent. We decided that we would drive to Bruges and Brussels,
and take the train to Ghent to effectively use our mileage.
I broke down the trip into separate blog posts because it
was about four pages on Microsoft Word, and no one wants to read four pages of
text in a blog. Stay tuned for future
posts about the cities of Belgium!
#Lessonslearned – A big thing I took away from this vacation is know your companions’ travel styles. I would highly suggest talking about it when you’re planning your trip, even before booking the flight, because in all honesty, that can make or break your trip. You may want to see everything while someone else may want to sit and relax. Both are fine, but just know what you’re getting into. Luckily for us, our typical travel group is about the same. We’re not cheap, maybe just frugal, but we do want to see the city and what’s in it. It’s all about the balance.
