Day 3 – HAKODATE I had an “OMG, I am so excited” moment when we woke up and looked out the window of our hotel on day three on our Japan holiday adventure. I had slept well and after much research was really looking forward to getting out of the hotel and exploring Hakodate. Dave…
The end of the line!
DAY 2: Tokyo to Hakodate As I mentioned yesterday, the reason we stayed near Tokyo Central station was so we could easily get to the Japan Rail Office in the morning to exchange our vouchers for rail passes and book seats on our first train. It seems that the queues of day one were to…
Please join the Far Queue!
DAY 1: Melbourne to Tokyo Nihon e Yo-koso. Welcome to Japan! It’s now mid-morning on Monday and we are already on our first Bullet Train! The countryside is whipping by as we travel at more than 200km/hr on the Hayabusa 19 from Tokyo to Hakodate. Hakodate is a small city on the south end of…
Konnichiwa
Hello Blog readers… long time no chat! Well to be honest, it hasn’t been that long, but I have good news! In a week or so Dave and I are heading off on a 14 day trip to Japan! This has been in the planning for quite a while. We had booked and paid for…
Finishing with food, of course!
ATHENS: Friday/Saturday 9th and 10th September 2022 DAY 1: Friday 9th Disembarking the ship in Lavrio early on Friday morning was super easy, and we picked up our suitcases at the portside terminal and then easily negotiated a taxi to take us the one-hour drive into Athens. Often negotiating taxi fares or routes is problematic…
Our Greek Island Odyssey
Greek Islands: Monday to Friday, 5-9 September 2022 The promise of a four-night, six-island journey around the South Aegean on a cruise liner with some of our closest friends had been keeping me awake at night with anticipation and is the perfect final phase of our European vacation. To take up where we left off…
Hydra has my heart
HYDRA (YDRA) 2/3/4 SEPTEMBER 2022 (part 3) It was just what we needed… rest, sunshine, warmth, good food. Hydra was all we had hoped it would be and perfectly timed after a couple of tiring weeks on the road, traversing central and eastern Europe. As you know, we started our five night sojourn on Hydra…
Hold your horses!
HDRA (IDRA): THURSDAY 1st September. ‘Hold your horses’ It’s the saying Harriet (of Harriet’s Hydra Horses) used, with a wry smile, each time she wanted us to stop on our four hour guided horse trek from Idra town to Palamidas beach, about five kilometres south-west along the coast. The day started early, as the agreed…
Ahoy me hearties!
HYDRA (IDRA): 30/31st August (VERSION 2) Blah Blah Blah… Yesterday (when I was in my philosophical mood) I wrote a long post about how I’ve worked hard all my life and how as a result of some significant health and well-being issues earlier this year, I’m learning to put my well-being first… I have decided…
First, Second, Third
THESSALONIKI: 27/28 August 2022 I’m sure many of you would have heard that the Melbourne Greek diaspora, at 425,000 (2021 census), is the third largest Greek population in the world. It takes no guessing that coming in first is Athens, the capital of Greece, with 3.15 million. But who knows which city comes in second?…
Why bother blogging?
BITOLA, NORTH MACEDONIA 26/27 August 2022 FLORINA, GREECE 27 August 2022 A couple of people have asked me why I take up valuable holiday time to write blog posts. There are many reasons, not least of which is to keep a record to help us reminisce. We feel incredibly privileged to travel, especially after a…
Hold the press, there’s been a recount!
SKOPJE, NORTH MACEDONIA: 24th August 2022 PRISTINA, KOSOVO: 25th August 2022 On careful review (Dave keeps a simple word document) we have discovered that as we landed at Skopje Airport and passed through North Macedonia immigration, that I had, in fact, hit country number 52! (not 50 as I mentioned previously) Wednesday started earlier than…
A few of our favourite things
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, Tuesday 23rd August 2022 I know ‘these are a few of our favourite things’ is a line from the Sound of Music, set in Austria rather than Hungary, but today was a day that we each got to do our favourite thing. (Also I have been singing Sound of Music songs since we…
91 and counting…
Budapest 22/23 August 2022 You may remember from my post in Vienna, that we have holiday rules. I listed ‘Passport stamps = quantity over quality’ as #4 when possibly I should have listed it as #1. We are a little competitive in the Morley family, well in certain situations anyway. Dave decided a number of…
Wilkomme to Skoda Country
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA: Sunday 21st August 2022 Trains, Planes and Automobiles have been our choice of transport thus far, but today we changed it up and caught a ferry from Vienna to Bratislava. The ferry wharf was a 15 minute suitcase drag through Vienna’s cobblestone streets, and set along a tributary of the Danube that comes…
The Living Daylights
Vienna, Austria: 2nd Instalment (Saturday 20th August 2022) The day began like any other… haha, I feel like I am writing a fairy-tale. Actually it feels like I am in a fairy-tale! Saturday did start with – eating, of course 😉 The Neuermarkt’s hotel breakfast was a step up from their hard beds and dodgy…