Travel to Europe, Gibraltar.

To be honest, I hadn´t realised that there was an English enclave in Spain, until about 2 months before arrving there. Just as finding a Spanish enclave in a corner of Morocco was interesting, it proved equally so finding a bit of England in a strategically placed corner of Spain.

Getting to effectively what is a big rock surrounded by a town, requires passing border control. The affable Englishman checking my passport, commented that I was a long way from home and wished me well, then I set off for a quirky adventure.

Gibraltar brought back a lot of childhood memories. The phone boxes, the English pubs, the atmosphere, the language and the people all contributed to me feeling like I was in a warped time zone, somewhere between NZ, England and Spain.

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Travel to Europe, Hungary.

Buda is dominated by Varhegy (Castle Hill) and we climbed it today by its nineteenth century funicular. As well as visiting the main attractions, the Matyas Church, a recreation of an original 13th building and the Buda Palace a former royal residence which has been rebuilt several times over the centuries but is now a collection of museums, we also wandered around the streets which included several interesting buildings. Everything has been impressively reconstructed after severe damage during the Second World War fighting.

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Travel to Switzerland, North-East, Winterthur.

I wake before my hostess and pour myself a little bit of ultra-pasteurized milk (a strangely pleasant taste to me but one many Americans dislike) with my muesli. Due to Kristy’s tiredness yesterday and my own desire to simply enjoy with her and not push a sight-seeing agenda, I opt for a day in Winterthur. And so when Kristy wakes up we munch a bit more and then decide to run some errands.

Kristy and Stefan live very near the pedestrian-only center of Winterthur and it takes less than ten minutes, especially when you jaywalk. Which Kristy says that few Swiss do but as Americans we do so with great abandon…and even some relish. Winterthur may be Switerland’s 6th largest city but there is little hustle and bustle here except for rush hours. After all, this city/village has turned into a quasi-suburb for Zurich so during the day much of the populace pours itself south. The city center has cobbled streets and palely-pastel buildings, jammed together but very well-maintained. Kristy points out that though these buildings and streets are hundreds of years old, there are very, very few buildings that have faded paint, weathered
Winterthur streets
Non-rush hour times (i.e. most times)shutters, or anything of a worn look about them. All is tidy…and dare I say it, Swiss. The two main streets revolve around the Kirchplatz, the Protestant church of indeterminate age (since we can’t read the Swiss pamphlets) and sumptuous, colorful murals inside. Metal dragon cut-outs flare out from one of the double towers of the church, a pagan embellishment on this rather staid Christian front.

We stop to get maternity clothes (Kristy’s first!!) and some posh coffee. I browse in and out of shoe stores, looking for a pair of fashionable walking boots but not surprisingly, all of them are fur-lined. Very sensible for Switzerland, plain stupid for SoCal “winters.” We head back for a cheesey lunch (seriously, this is not the country for the lactose-allergic or intolerant!) and after Kristy naps, we head back out to the forest.

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Travel to Europe, Germany, Hesse, Gießen.

Today is the second day. To start with Jet Lag caught up with me and I spent most of the night awake. About 4 hours of sleep from 8 to 12. I woke up when Svea came in to tell me that we were leaving in an hour. So I did the morning routine real quick and got ready to go. We left the house and made our way to the main train station in Frankfurt to catch a train to Gießen with our Frankfurt friends where Svea's other friends lived. They had invited her/me tagging along to a poetry slam. Gießen is a moderate sized city with a University so it has a good vibe. During this whole time my german was getting better but still I feel so behind sometimes. Especially with all these girls. They are chatty anyways and everything is so fast. But I guess its good practice to be with the fastest talkers in the world. We arrived in Gießen and then met the other friends for dinner. Again I'm not saying much mostly listening and trying to not make mistakes. I tell them all where I'm from ( the Land of cowboys and indians) and
Poetry Slamthey are interested. I tell them about the rodeos and wheat fields. I even told them about Rednecks ( which they had no clue about ).

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Travel to Europe, Poland.

Auschwitz. Today was one of the hardest days of the trip. Coming into today, I had a feeling it was going to be a pretty tough day because this is the camp that I know the most about, but I was hoping that it would be touristy enough that it wouldn’t be too hard. I was wrong.

Today started off early with a three hour bus ride to the camp where we watched The Pianist. It was a good movie.

Even just pulling up to Auschwitz 1, I could tell that it was going to be a rough day. Auschwitz 1 has had many of the barracks turned into areas that show things found from the camp after its liberation and after the war. We had to wear headsets as we walked around in order to hear our guide because you are supposed to be quiet while in the camp out of respect. Walking around the camp, it had a gloomy, depressing feel to it. It was eerily quiet and you could sense that dreadful things had happened here. Walking into the camp, we walked under the Arbeit Macht Frei sign and down the path that the prisoners walked down every morning and every night on their way to and from work. I felt a small sense of guilt as I walked because I was there of my own free will, I knew my family was fine, and I knew I could leave in a few hours and most people that had walked that path before me did not have that same comfort.

The first barrack that we went into gave us the facts on the camp and the number of people that were killed there; I can’t even comprehend over 1,300,000. Seeing the pictures of the unloading’s that occurred and the models of the process to the gas chamber were unsettling. It is one thing to see the buildings, but to see recreations with people in them makes you visualize it and makes it so that you cannot distance yourself from it. Seeing the Cyclone B was not what I had expected. I had seen the canisters before and had figured that it came in gas form. It was weird to see that it was pellets that just reacted with the warmth. I think it was so weird because it reminded me of the poison that is used to kill rodents, which I guess is hoe the Nazis viewed the prisoners, but that just adds an unimaginable level to it. I don’t know that I could look at another human being as view them as nothing more than a little rodent.

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Travel to Disneyland, Paris.

Country/Town Visited: Paris - Disneyland
Date of stay: June 2012
Tour or pre planned: Pre Planned

Visiting a Disneyland resort is something I’ve wanted to do since I was 8 years old and in June 2012 at the age of 30, my wish finally came true. The build up was huge and I could not wait for the day to come. As they say, it’s the happiest place on earth!

Our visit was sponsored by Disneyland Resort and the following review will give you a good insight to Disneyland Paris and how to get there from the airport and city centre. 

Disneyland Paris is made up of two parks, The Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. There’s alsoDisney Village for shopping, dining, cinemas and much more, here you’ll also find Planet Hollywood. Entry for one day to both parks costs €74 euro’s per adult and €66 per child. My advice would be to purchase tickets online and look for any special offers. 

Getting to the park is fairly easy from Charles de Gaulle airport via the TGV train which takes about 10 minutes and you can take the RER A trains from central Paris stations. Click on the following link for directions – 'Getting to Disneyland Paris'.

As our time was limited in Paris, we headed straight to Disneyland from the airport. We had our luggage with us, so thankfully the “Marne La Vallee Ches” train station (the Disneyland Paris station stop) has luggage lockers on the upper level. Look for the signs marked ‘Consigne automatique’, it translates to left luggage lockers in English. These cost roughly €8 euro for up to 24 hours. The locker was big enough for two (2) large suitcases and two (2) small bags. Taking the train from the airport is one of the fastest and most direct routes (refer to the link above for more information on "how to get to the Disneyland Paris").
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Sailing, Croatia

Tour Taken: Sail Croatia
Date of stay: August 2005
Travelled with: Friends 
Tour or pre planned: Tour

To be honest, I hadn’t heard all that much about Croatia as a tourism hot spot until shortly before departing. I wasn’t going to go, due to my ever climbing mountain of credit card debt at the time, but after a bit of arm twisting I decided at the last minute to hop on board and bite the credit card bullet. Oh boy am I glad I did.

Croatia is a paradise. Maybe not quite up there with the Caribbean or the Maldives, but it’s a paradise nonetheless. Located in Central and South Eastern Europe, it is nestled between Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary, and to me the culture there felt like a mixture of all of these places. It feels a little less Eastern-European though, and more like a pumped up hedonistic Italy on steroids (along the coastal cities of the Adriatic anyway).

Our group booked a 7-day cruise through Sail Croatia, who run different cruises along the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea. We started out in Split, then made our way to Makarska-Mljet-Dubrovnik-Korcula-Hvar and then ended up back in Split again.

There are several routes you can take, but I’d say this is the most popular due to the stunning towns Korcula, Hvar and Dubrovnik being on the list. 

Now things may have changed a bit since 2005, but there are a couple of things I beg you to consider before setting foot on your boat:

1. Book a boat with a bar and drinks on board. You’ll have a never ending supply of ice cold beer at cheap prices. If you book a BYO boat, you’ll be drinking warm beer and will eventually be stuck out in the ocean with a case of the dry mouth having run out of beer.
2. When you first step onto the boat, push everyone else out of the way (women and children included) and ensure you get a cabin as far away as possible from the engine room. Not only will you sleep longer due to less engine noise at 5am, but you’ll breathe in O2 instead of diesel fumes.
   
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Travel to Belgium, Bruges.

Country/Town Visited:Bruges, Belgium
Date of stay: Easter 2011
Where you stayed: Hotel Cordoeanier
Travelled with: As a couple
Tour or pre planned: Pre planned

We visited Bruges for fours days over the Easter holidays, despite the large crowds, it was still one of my favourite cities that I have visited in Europe. The centre of the old part of the city is made up of winding canals, bridges and amazing old buildings. The main draw card is Markt Square with the giant Belfry Tower on one side and ornate buildings on other sides with cafes and restaurants opening out into the square. If you’re feeling energetic you can climb up the 366 steps to the top for an amazing view over the roof tops.

There is so much to see, and with everything so close together it’s very easy to grab a tourist map and do a walking tour that will tick off all the major sites. This way you will get a chance to build up your appetite during the day so that you can stop off along the way to sample the world famous chocolates and waffles.

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