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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 81

    France: The French Riviera&Saint Tropez

    30 septembre 2023, France

    After Nice, it was time to cruise the French Riviera. I must say, there's a reason this part of France is popular! With hidden coves, beaches and quaint little towns littering the coastline, this place is a virtual paradise! But, as basic economics would show, where there's great demand with limited supply, the costs go up! It was after I'd told my dad that we were heading to Saint Tropez, that I realised it might be a little over priced. He -now famously -told me that when he visited this town with his friends in the 70s on their quest to catch a glimpse of Brigitte Bardot, they 'couldn't even afford a bloody boiled egg!'😂 Well, he was not wrong! With entrées starting at €40 pp, we were also in danger of going meal-less in St Tropez. Thankfully, we could at least go to the beach, which was free. It was here that Al and myself spied (although it stood out like a beacon) the 110m, 4 story super yacht parked in the bay. With modern technology, we were able to look up the registered owner of the yacht and what he paid for it. It ended up being owned by a Canadian CEO of a listed company who paid a cool $350mil (R6.6bil) for this boat. Small change. It was also pointed out that this guy's net worth was $700mil, so he spent half his overall wealth on a boat. Emz questioned who would do that? Well, I'd argue that if you've still got $350mil in the bank, you're probably not too worried that the price of bread has gone by 10c per loaf due to inflation. I also assured Emz that with a vet and a dietician's salary, if we saved really hard, we will be parked in the bay next to this guy in 5 years time ☺️. (What Emz doesn't know, is that the boat we are going to be in a 2nd hand canoe🙊😉)En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    1
    Jour 80

    France: Well isn't this 'Nice'

    29 septembre 2023, France ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    So after burning a few litres of fuel drag racing in Monaco, it was onto Nice. Well isn't that 'Nice'. (Another joke that I think got funnier with each retelling. Emz however, almost gave the impression that she didn't agree with this sentiment🤔). And FINALLY we got to meet up with our close friends Al and Caity who'd flown across from London to join us for a small section of the trip. We were finally able to celebrate our engagement by having a glass of Moet champagne from a bottle we'd been carrying around since leaving the UK 2.5 months earlier. Most of that 1st day was just spent catching up on news whilst tanning on the beach and swimming in the sea. With friends, excellent weather, great food and wine, it was a really good 'Welcome to France' day. Some might even say, it was Nice (see, never gets old😉😁).En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 80

    Monaaaaaaco

    29 septembre 2023, Monaco ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    So after a couple further nights in Italy in a place called Sanremo (where we just vegged on the beach soaking up the last rays of summer), we headed onto the French Riviera to meet our friends in Nice. But first, it was a quick drive by through Monaco (or as my dad would say, 'Monaaaaaaaco' with a really drawn out 'a'). Now this place is renowned for its opulence of flashy hotels, casinos, super yachts and fast cars. Thankfully, we were able to fit right in with the bourgeoisie by having Olaf, our Vauxhall Astra'n Martin😁. Oli was finally right at home where he belonged. He even turned many a head as we drove by in what I'm assuming was an unsubtle attempt to admire his sexiness (although the frown on the people's faces was at odds with this sentiment 🤔). Anyways we knew we were in for a challenge when we pulled up next to Maseratis, Lotuses, Ferraris and Lamborghinis at the robots where we all revved our engines (Olaf being a 1.6L, his roar was so deafening I don't think I could hear any of the other cars. Or maybe some of the roar came from them?🤔). And so the drag race began!! Olaf was so fast, that when we crossed the finish line, none of the other cars were in sight! I think the most likely explanation for this was that they were so far behind us! There's no reasonable explanation otherwise. Anyways, Olaf is now known as the King of Monaaaaaaco. If people say they've never heard of this knew 'king', just ask them if they own a super yacht. If not, then what do they know anyway.😉En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    1
    Jour 76

    Italy: Chiavari and Portofino

    25 septembre 2023, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    It was on to Chiavari and it was here that Italy FINALLY started living up to its expectations!😁 We stayed in a homely little place in this less than touristy town where the host was super helpful and let us use their bicycles for free. The one thing I can say about the Italians is they are the friendliest people we've had up to date on our travels and having the bikes made a huge difference as I feel these little Italian towns are so much better when explored by bicycle. So in a combination of cycling and going by train, we headed off to see the picturesque and exclusive town of Portofino. A place littered with super yachts and frequented by the rich and famous where the likes of Elton John and Rod Stewart (ahem, Dad?!🧐) have been visitors. It was a really lovely day out though cycling between the little hidden beaches until we settled on one we liked and Emz got her much needed beach and tanning time before the end of the summer. After heading back to Chiavari, we went out for supper to an excellent local Italian restaurant as recommended by our host. Finally! An Italian restaurant that lived up to our expectations! A proper local restaurant where the food was delicious, had decent portion sizes and for a reasonable price of €9/dish too! Uiteindelik we could see the side of Italy that is so revered by many. Bella Italia Belllllllla!🤌🏼En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 74

    Italy: Florence. Further disappointment

    23 septembre 2023, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    It was with great excitement, that we headed into Florence for the day! Finally! Getting to see the city that so many renaissance legends - Lorenzo de Medici/Michaelangelo/Leonardo da Vinci/Donatello/Raphael and Botticelli- called home! But once again, we were sadly unimpressed. Our day got off on the wrong foot when we joined a supposedly top rated walking tour of the city, but were unable to hear our tour guide from all the background noise of tourists. The times we could hear her, she just waffled on in a monotone of the history of the city with very little attempt at making the tour entertaining. We saw Michaelangelo's statue of David and the Duomo Firenze which were highlights in what was otherwise a lacklustre tour of the city. Another turn off to Florence was the fact that it was HEAVING with tourists! The place does have a cool history and architecture, but I think we were fortunate enough to have been to some other places on our travels that had the same charm and yet were far more understated than this city. Emz and I then had a traditional Florentine meat saamie called Lampredotto for lunch. Haha, Emz ended up a bit grossed out after having eaten the saamie when it sunk in that the meat portion of the sandwich was made from the 4th stomach of a cow!😳😂 Our best experience of Florence came next when we had gelato which I must say was delicious! Things improved further when our supper was also actually quite nice where we shared a pasta and a pizza and Florence also appeared a lot more charming at night when it was all lit up and was filled with classical instrument playing buskers on the streets! Sadly, the next item on our agenda was to watch the Bokke play Ireland in a packed Irish pub. Even though the Bokke played well, the loss was probably the cherry on top of what was on average a disappointing day. I think sadly Florence's high jump bar had been set too high and we were the forlorn athletes lying disappointed on the mats beneath.En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 73

    Italy: Cecina

    22 septembre 2023, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    It was our next 2 nights in Italy where I must say, I was a little disappointed. I think other places from our trip like the Baltics and Poland, our expectations had been relatively low, so it was easy for us to be pleasantly surprised by these places. Italy, well everyone raves about this place! So I guess if it doesn't reach one's expectations, then it's easy to be disappointed. Our first disappointment was the cost. In my head, I pictured Italy as being like Greece i.e. touristy but cheap. This was not the case near Florence! Emz and myself had done a couple podcasts on the Renaissance period of history and how Florence was the centre of all this, so it was a place we both really wanted to visit. Well, to stay in this city, one needs to have a higher budget than what we are travelling on! The cheapest place within a 1hr radius of Florence was £300/night!😳 What probably didn't help matters was that it was the wkd and that we were also used to Eastern European prices where everything is waaaay cheaper. We also subsequently found out it had just been the Milan fashion week, so probably more tourists than usual wanting to visit the city as well. So basically we were in the perfect storm for minimal and overpriced accommodation.
    We managed to find a self catering place that suited our budget, but was 1.5hrs away from Florence near a town called Cecina. The accommodation was really nice albeit having a slightly deserted, run down 'Aventura Resort' feel to it. With numerous cottages, 3 large swimming pools and a central restaurant, it seems a high occupancy rate was to be expected. Sadly I'd say it was probably less than 20% full. We had our 1st 'Italian' meal at the restaurant that night, which was once again, a bit of a disappointment. The food was nice, but nothing to write home about and the portions small for the €15 cost per dish. The only ray of sunshine was, well literally that! The weather was lekker! So we could lounge around these massive pools that we seemingly had all to ourselves and much to Emz's delight, she could start working on her tan.😎    En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 72

    Italy: Bassano del Grappa

    21 septembre 2023, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    From Lake Bled, we drove through the mountains (named the 'PreAlps') of North-eastern Italy. Dominated by tiny, quaint little ski towns like Tarvisio, our initial impression of Italy was a good one! Both Emz and myself had been to Venice before so had decided to skip this and drive further inland. We stayed in a town called Bassano del Grappa just for a night. Unfortunately, due to our 2 sleepless nights in Slovenia, we were both absolutely exhausted and thus just wanted a quick meal and some much needed rest! So, much to my chef of a twin sister's disgust (who had coincidentally just done a culinary tour of Italy), our first meal in Italy was to be a Turkish Doner Kebab.😂 I'm not sure what food Italy is famous for, but is this not it?🤔😂
    The only other incident on our 1 night stay in this town is Olaf's battery was flat when we woke up the next morning. Now this wasn't his fault and it was entirely due to a failed experiment on my part. We've had a mini car fridge which we've travelled with from the very start, and at every stop we've been careful to take the fridge out of the car and connect it to the 240v mains of our accommodation rather than leave it running on the car battery. Now obviously this is a bit of a mission to do each time we stop and where we were staying in this town was up 2 flights of stairs. So I decided we should take a chance and leave it running on the car battery. I mean, how much power could it ultimately be using, right?💁🏻‍♂️ Well, it turns out enough to flatten the battery. 😔 As a silver lining though, we got to meet a nice Italian guy who decided to help us and I got to use the jumper leads I'd specifically bought for an incident such as this and it was good to know they worked!😁 Oli was back in action!😁    En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 72

    Slovenia: Lake Bled

    21 septembre 2023, Slovénie ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    It was just a quick stop here to see probably the prettiest part of Slovenia and its major tourist attraction, Lake Bled. A beautiful alpine lake with an island in the centre on which there is a monastery. The area is very touristy and I guess for good reason as it's absolutely beautiful! When I did the student holiday exchange to Slovenia back in 2009, we swam out to the island and explored the monastery. Emz and myself took the more sensible approach and just walked around the lake for a bit rather than swimming in the freezing cold water🥶 a must visit place in Slovenia though!En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 70

    Slovenia: Ljubljana&visiting Ziva&Nejc

    19 septembre 2023, Slovénie ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    So it was off to the tiny country of Slovenia for 2 nights to visit an old vet friend of mine, Ziva and stay with her family. When I was at OP, we did a holiday exchange with Slovenia and Ziva is one of the vets that I've still stayed in touch with. She has moved from when I last saw her in 2018 when she used to stay in the capital city of Ljubljana. Now her and her family (her husband Nejc pronounced 'Nate' and her 3.5 y.o. son Lev, meaning 'lion' and pronounced 'L-ow' ) stay on a Sannen milking goat farm about 30min from the city. Her husband Nejc (pronounced 'Nate') is also a vet who now runs the goat milking farm. The scenery on the farm is absolutely beautiful and it felt so good to be back in a farming environment! Plus goats are one of my favourite domesticated animals, despite their strong aroma! Ziva and her family were super hospitable with ordering in pizzas for us on the first night and then us buying the food to have a lekker braai on the 2nd night. The only thing Emz and I would say though, is this ended up being our worst 2 nights sleep of the trip! With a culmination of an infestation of mozzies, goats bleating, cats scratching at the door, Lev crying and Nejc's alarm going off at 5am, we left their house feeling utterly exhausted!
    Given the beauty of the area, Emz and myself both decided to do a 5km through the forest near their house. This also ended up being rather interesting. Ziva pointed out a 5km run for us, but it was only after the run that she decided to mention that this area has the highest population of brown BEARS in Slovenia!😱 Thankfully we never came across one on our runs! We both however, did get 'attacked' by a really large +- Rottie sized dog which was quite scary. The dog thankfully didn't bite us, but it was quite difficult to determine the dog's intentions when a dog that size comes running at full tilt out of its garden and starts bearing down on you. Shame, since we were running separately, Emz got quite a fright from the dog and ended up turning back on herself and got completely lost! So her 5km run ended up being a 1.5hr run and had me quite worried especially after Ziva revealed the presence of bears in the area! Thankfully she was okay!
    Whilst staying with them, I took Emz into Ljubljana to see the pretty town centre where we had lunch. I also got Emz to try the famous local blueberry liqueur called Borovnicevec (pronounced 'borovneeshka') which was a local alcohol that she finally liked. Overall, a good stay in Slovenia despite being sleep deprived and having to avoid bears and large dogs!    En savoir plus

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  • Scandinavia Eurotrip 2023
    Jour 70

    Slovenia: Ptuj

    19 septembre 2023, Slovénie ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    As a student, I'd done a holiday exchange with Slovenia so I'm quite familiar with the country (although, we were students at the time, so it was a bit of a (drunken) blur😬). However, I don't ever recall us going to this town which is also supposedly the oldest town in Slovenia and dates back to the stone age. The present town was built at the location of an old Roman fort from 69AD. I guess it is 'just another beautiful, historic town with a castle and cobbled streets' found throughout Europe. There are so many towns like this across Europe that one almost becomes immune to their beauty on a long road trip like this, but I guess we need to remember that they are all beautiful in their own right and that we are privileged to see such places. Anyways, this town offered great views and was the perfect place for a hotdog lunch.☺️En savoir plus

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