Paris, France

SURPRISE!! I say that literally. My girl Lara and her family surprised me by taking me to a mysterious/secret destination for a day, that turned out to be Paris, France and I couldnt have been more surprised, shocked, excited and overjoyed at being in one of the places I had always wanted to visit since I first watched the MK&A movie 'Passport to Paris' when I was younger. The day started by waking up and having breakfast at 6am, in Germany. At 7am we then traveled 3 hours to Paris by car. After that we parked the car and took a train to the centre of Paris and continued the rest of the day on foot, admiring this beautiful city.

When I first saw the Notre Dame I literally stopped mid-walk just to admire the beauty of the Cathedral, and that was just the outside. I got to go in! Inside, Outside, the Notre Dame is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever had the pleasure to see. Next we walked the streets, did a little bit of clothing and souvenir shopping (how could I not?!), saw a few street performances and continued to admire everything. We came to the Louvre, which has always been a dream to visit, unfortunately, we didnt get to go in because our time was limited, but I got a photo of the outside and even some rather silly and embarrasing photos with me and lara trying to "touch" the tip of the pyramid (a photo would be a better description of what I mean but alas, there are no flattering photos that I wish to share haha). The day was beautiful and we walked through this massive, I guess its a park?, with gardens, trees, giant ponds an deck chairs everywhere which you can take and sit on anywhere in the large vacinity and just read, admire the amazing views, take photos, whatever takes your fancy. From here we began to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance..

We thought having an early dinner at about 4pm was a good idea since we'd basically skipped lunch altogether, somehow though, we ended up in an area where we could not find a decently priced restaurant to eat, until we came across an Italian restaurant where we all agreed was a good place to eat. Yes.. I went to Paris and ate Italian food, not exactly what you'd normally do but to make up for it, I bought a box full of Macarons!! After dinner we continued to head towards the Eiffel Tower and when I say that I jumped up and down and started giggling and going hysterical with excitement, I am not exaggerating. I felt like a little kid at Christmas. Lara and I were the only ones to buy a ticket and go up the eiffel tower and after waiting in line for a while, by the time we got up, the sky was dark and the whole of Paris was alight, and to say it was one of the most amazing views ever would be understatement.

Unfortunately, my visit to this beautiful city was short lived - 12 hours long approximately, but I saw alot, experienced a bit of Paris, felt like a Parisian girl in my new H&M outfit I'd bought only 2 days before, went up the Eiffel Tower (girly, excited screaming) and had a whole lot of fun. I also managed to take quite alot of photos in such a short time, which was a major plus for me. And even though the time was short, it was definitely one of the best days in my life and I cant wait to go back again, hopefully for longer next time :)

St Wolfgang, Austria

 

 While I was staying with Julia and her family in Vienna, they took me a little road trip to a cute little village called St Wolfgang. We stayed here for 2 nights, over the weekend, in the cutest little (well i say little but it had more floors than you'd first think) hotel which you can see in the fifth picture (with the red car in front). Julia and I got a to share our own room on the 4th floor and it was alot fancier than I'd have imagined, it even included a huge flatscreen TV, (not that I'd be able to understand anything on TV as it was all in german). 

We only spent one full day in St Wolfgang and for most of that day we went hiking.. I dont hike and I also am not used to living out in the mountains so I wasnt exactly prepared for this little trip. I had no raincoat (which was well needed) just a warm trench coat from H&M, i had a scarf (thank god!) and a beanie, but I didnt have any form of footware suitable for hiking.. I ended up wearing canvas shoes, luckily Julia only had canvas shoes. Obviously neither of us are very bright. Despite the fact that I wasnt really prepared or like hiking that much, it was an enjoyable walk which wasnt that long and did end with an amazing view of the village and huge lake. After our hike we settled down in the mountains restaurant where I ordered soup because I wasnt at all that hungry. Once we got back to our hotel, we all thought it was a good idea to just relax until dinner.

Dinner was YUMMY! Julia and I ordered the exact same thing, which ended up being the hugest plate of food I've ever seen but somehow I managed to eat, not only all of my food, but half of Julias food as well. At one point, while stuffing my mouth with forkfuls of her potatos, I even said to her 'please stop me' which cause Julia to laugh so hard she choked on her drink and ended up having a laughing/choking/coughing fit in the restaurant and everyone was staring at our table. good times. After dinner, Julia, Julias Dad and myself headed to another, more expensive, hotel's bar where Julias Dad bought us 'End of the day Drinks' and for 2 and a half hours we ate pretzels, salted peanuts, had a couple drinks each and played P&As (if you dont know what that is, its a card game). It was a great day/night all in all. 

On our final morning we roamed around the little village taking a few pictures of the adorable buildings and I did a bit of souvenir/gift shopping for back home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in St Wolfgang, even though Im not much of one for cold, it was great to visit somewhere new and different.

Vienna, Austria

Vienna was a whole new experience. True I'd been in cities before, cities with cinemas and shopping malls etc, but compared to cities in New Zealand where Im from, Vienna was the biggest city I'd ever visited. Before I started my travelling, somehow I never imagined any of these places to be so huge, even Vienna, capital city of Austria, I didnt expect it to be so big and as well as the size, I didnt know if I'd love Vienna as much as I did because, in my mind, it was just another city. Of course I knew that I'd enjoy my time there and would love seeing all the awesome things that Vienna had to offer, but Vienna had so much more to give than Id originally thought and I loved that.

For the week that I was in Vienna I stayed with my friend Julia (more like a sister) who lives in Vienna with her family. Together we did touristy things. She took me to Schonbrunn Palace (top picture), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum. 2nd & 3rd pictures), Naschmarkt - the largest food market in Vienna, we also went to the zoo, we ate at Figlmueller which is the best place to eat Schnitzel with cranberry jam and we also spent a day at Prater, Vienna's local themepark which included rollercoasters, log rides, tandum bikes and Madame Tussauds wax museum. One night I even went to my first ever Cirque de Soleil circus with Julia, and her mum and sister, it was incredible, unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos during the show.

I loved Vienna so much. The people, the vast amount of shopping places, the beautiful buildings and even the subway, which I got so used to taking every day that I kinda miss it. The time spent with Julia and her family was wonderful, they made me feel at home and even took me away for a weekend to a small village (which I'll write in another post). Their hospitality as well as the city of Vienna itself makes me want to go back and see it all again and everything else I might've missed out on. When I do get the chance to go back, I wont hesitate for a second, but hopefully before I do return, I'll have been on a few more trips to other places and maybe even have learnt a little more German (sometimes not speaking the native tongue can be difficult, especially when wandering the streets alone).

I have a big list of cities/places that I wanna visit, but for now Vienna most certainly makes the top 5 so far. Now onto the next place, wherever that might be..