• Haro, La Rioja Wine region

      19–20 may., España ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      📌 The next stop on our roadtrip, The La Rioja wine region where we were using Haro as our base. This area of Spain is famous for its abundance of high quality wineries, one of the best regions in Spain. The area was quite picturesque with small villages and small mountains on the horizon.

      📌 Haro was fairly quiet but we were able to enjoy our afternoon there, we visited a couple of wineries on the outskirts of the town, which again were super cheap at 4-5 euros a glass and thus resulted in a couple of drunk idiots ☺️ As a result, food was on the agenda and we found a tasty Mexican meal at a no frills authentic gem of a restaurant.
      Leer más

    • Salamanca via Segovia

      18–19 may., España ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      📌 We picked up a car in Madrid and begun a little road trip on our way to San Sebastian. The first stop was Segovia, this initial part of the day involved a beautiful drive through some beautiful forest and mountains. Segovia was of interest as it has one of the best preserved Roman aqueducts and upon arrival we were in awe of the size. It was amazing to see another structure that seemed incomprehensible to build in such a time. We spent a few hours in Segovia, quite a touristy place but none the less worth a wander.

      📌 We then headed for Salamanca, another town a couple of hours away that is primarily a university town but has great examples of beautiful gothic and Roman architecture. We arrived in the afternoon, the sun was out, the city was comfortably buzzing but not busy. Once again we enjoyed a short wander and then some refreshing 2.50 euro Tinto de Verano in the cathedral square.
      Leer más

    • Madrid

      15–18 may., España ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      📌 A fun 3 days in Madrid! We weren't sure what to expect of the Spanish capital but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

      📌 The standout for us was eating our way through apparently, one of the best food cities of the world, and as seen in the photos, I think we agree. The market we visited on day one had soooo many tapas options, the shops around the various districts were elite and every tapas bar we would pop into for an afternoon snack or light lunch was excellent, particularly as they'd usually have wine or Tinto d Verano (sangria alternative) for 2-3 euros. One of the highlights was also a Asian fusion dinner in a cool bar with a daily rotating menu, the gochgang ribs will always exist in our memories 🤤

      📌 Madrid was a super busy city, the architecture was lovely and the vibes in the sunny afternoons and evenings gave a true taste of the social life Europeans live. The streets and bars were always full, drinking was definitely more social rather than drinking to get drunk like Aussies. We also got a deeper insight into the city in a walking tour which as always was quite good, one stop including the oldest continuously running restaurant in the world, which seemed a little technical as it is apparently due to the wood fired oven being on since 1700s.

      📌 One of the days we visited Toledo, about ,45 minutes from the city by train. An old walled city that was originally the capital. It was nice to wander around the streets, admire the alcazar and sit in a square having some drinks with the locals as a very busy tapas bar where little english was spoken, a fun challenge.
      Leer más

    • Seville

      12–15 may., España ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      📌 The beauty of high speed rail, we travelled approx 900km in 5 hours and arrived in warm and sunny Seville around midday. We were now quite close to Africa and we were keen to see the remains of the former arabic influence on this part of Spain.

      📌 The weather was perfect for our 3 days, we enjoyed relaxing days with tapas and wine, cold beers after walking around admiring the beautiful streets or afternoon sangria whilst waiting for dinner. One evening we found a delicious Mexican taqueria serving 1 euro tacos and 5 euro iced margaritas. Another evening we wandered into a more local neighbourhood and had a challenging time ordering tapas in broken Spanish, eventually getting a random assortment of tasty dishes.

      📌 One of the main highlights was the plaza, a beautiful semi circular building with amazing detailed tiles and beautiful views. It was lovely to walk around admiring aspects of arabic influence, royal symbols and even seeing some elderly street flamenco dancers loving life. The city was beautiful to walk around in general, the colourful well maintained buildings and fascades, the random rustic tapas bars and the greenery amongst the streets.

      📌 Another memorable experience was heading to the local football game, Seville vs Las Palmas. The game was a sea of red chanting passionately, and as the game neared to an end with the other team pushing to score an equaliser, the intensity went up another notch and the fans were going wild. It was an atmosphere people definitely imagine when thinking of such a passionate football nation.
      Leer más

    • Barcelona

      9–12 may., España ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      📌 A late arrival into Barcelona was smooth and comfortable and it meant waking up to a whole day with perfect weather on Saturday. Everyone was out and about, the streets were closed, people were out at markets, cafes and enjoying the weekend. We grabbed a tasty coffee, something that seemed easy to come by in Barcelona. We were staying in a less central area so we wandered around on our way to the centre and came across a market serving wine with a DJ and people enjoying salsa. It was lovely to sit and people watch.

      📌 Without any particular goal on day 1, we explored different quarters, enjoyed some drinks at a tapas bar and then eventually went out to a Valencian owned restaurant for paella. As expected the restaurants started to fill up around 9.30-10 and our 8pm booking was early ☺️

      📌 On day 2 we had a bit more of schedule, a slow morning coffee enjoying another nice day, a quick peek at some of the buildings designed by Gaudi including the famous Sagrada Familia and then wander to the park at the top of Barcelona. We then continued our walking to an iconic chocolatier for some tasty churros before heading to a dingy local bar that was going crazy for the el classico Barcelona vs Real Madrid. Here we enjoyed a cold beer after a lot of walking before kicking off another boozy night of a brewery visit and a few more drinks with a delicious tapas dinner. Croquettes being a massive highlight 😍

      📌 Barcelona was a huge yes from us, a great city with good vibes, good food and pedestrian friendly!
      Leer más

    • Roady To Manchester

      18–19 abr., Inglaterra ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

      📌 Easter weekend and with both of us having good Friday and Easter Saturday off, this meant going to get our summer clothes and dumping all the bulky thick clothing from winter. Given Chloe was in Oxford and I was in Eastbourne, train prices varied considerably, so we decided to hire a car and do a drive with a couple of short stops.

      📌 I picked up a car early Friday morning from Gatwick airport and headed off to pick up Chloe. Once she'd worked out what clothes she wanted to part with, we headed off to Stow on the Wold, a small town in the Cotswolds that was reasonably close and worth a stop for a coffee and pastry. The Cotswolds was packed, and the roads were slow but it was a nice stop, the town was very quaint, the coffee was good and the pastries were awesome! Eventually we got out of the traffic but because we weren't going direct to Manchester, we didn't have a whole lot of freeway on the drive. As a result we winded our way through farmland, small towns and random suburbs. The next stop was just outside of Manchester, in the peak district. We enjoyed a late lunch in a beautiful pub in the small village of Castleton. The peak district was beautiful and driving through the winding roads and towns was lovely.

      📌 Eventually we made it to Hebden Bridge, we parted with our clothes, sussed our Emily and Robbie's renovations and went out for some catch up drinks. As expected, several drinks turned into more and we were out till midnight which lead into eating in the lounge listening to drunk Emily and Chloe talk whilst Robbie was half asleep very drunk. Eventually I was able to drag Chloe out of there and we made it to the accommodation in Manchester by 2am. An early start the next day was not nice, I dropped Chloe off at the station and headed for a nearby clinic as I had picked up a shift. Thank God the shift was super easy, knocking off early I set off to drive the car back to the south. It was a smooth cruise straight down the centre of England accompanied by some karaoke and audiobooks. It was a moment of realization again, that I was just cruising in another country on the other side of the world, how lucky are we. The drive was quite beautoful as I took little detour into the hills for a bit as the sun was going down. Quite a hectic weekend, keen to get into bed for the next few days off work.
      Leer más

    • Eastbourne

      31 mar.–9 may., Inglaterra ⋅ 🌙 7 °C

      📌 The next chapter of work and exploring another part of the UK. This time I am working for a vets for pets, the equivalent of Green Cross which will be interesting. The goal was to work as many shifts as possible and accumulate a nice boost to savings before a big few months of travel. I was able to get a bike off marketplace which made getting around much easier. I scheduled in a few shifts in nearby towns such as Brighton and Lewes which meant seeing a few extra areas along the south coast also.

      📌 Eastbourne was quite a nice coastal town, it seemed less built up then Brighton. The housing and some of the architecture was very nice, with large windows and colourful fascades characteristic to the south England coast. The sea front was lovely to ride along, especially on the way home as the sun was going down after a long shift. The sun was finally coming out and the weather was perfect to be on the coast.

      📌 One weekend Chloe was coming down, I decided to do a short shift in Ashford and on my tight time frame to get back to the train, my bike broke, terrible timing, it was unfixable and I had to run a quick kilometre or so otherwise a post nightshift Chloe would have had to wait around atleast an hour 😬 Anyway, I made it and we enjoyed a wander around Eastbourne, having some drinks and some English style fish and chips, definitely missing the potato cakes and dim sims though! The next day we headed out of Eastbourne to see the iconic south downs at the seven sisters. We caught the bus out, wandered around as the sun came out, it was a beautiful landscape, the ocean contrasting against the white cliffs with some dotted yellow over the fields. We ended up at a beautiful pub by chance as we had just missed the bus. This was great in the end as we stumbled across a little village for a Sunday roast and dessert.

      📌 Another weekend Chloe visited we decided to check out the nearby small village of Lewes for some of their classic pubs before heading into Brighton to continue our pub crawl. Overall, I quite enjoyed Eastbourne, it was hard work doing so many long shifts but it was worth it, the people were nice and we enjoyed some nice weekends around Sussex.
      Leer más

    • Visting Chloe in Oxford

      29–30 mar., Inglaterra ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

      📌 It was quite a weekend of moving around, I finished up in Neath on Friday night and got the train to a Reading Airbnb for a Saturday shift in Andover. After an early rise Saturday morning, and a pretty cruisy 9-5 shift, I headed to Oxford to meet Chloe for dinner. We went out to a delicious burger place, and then enjoyed some beers at an local friendly pub.

      📌 After much to catch up and a few drinks we headed back to Chloe's nursing accommodation where I had to sleep on the ground thanks to her tiny single bed ☺️ A few Guinness and a mattress of clothes made the going to sleep part easy, but there were a few sore shoulders the next morning.

      📌 The next day we had about 6 hours before I had to head off to the coast for my work in Eastbourne. It was a beautiful day and all the effort to come to Oxford was worth it. It was beautiful to wander around the area with no purpose and admiring the buildings and shops. We enjoyed some more lunch together, the sunny weather, some delicious coffee and a lovely day. It was quickly time to get on the bus for the next chapter of work, me in Eastbourne whilst Chloe finished her next 6 weeks in Oxford.
      Leer más

    • Weekend around Wales

      21 de marzo, Gales ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      📌 We had both planned the weekend off to go and see the wombats on their home soil and they were down in Cardiff. Chloe made her way to Neath and we headed off to explore Cardiff for the afternoon. We went and tried the renowned Welsh cakes at the Cardiff market where they were making 100s fresh in all different flavours, we had a quick peek at the castle and arcades and then we headed out for a couple of drinks at the breweries before the show.

      📌 The wombats were excellent as usual, and it felt the crowd were really into the older songs which we loved, particularly given out experiences with UK crowds have been a little lacklustre. The show went for a good 2 hours and we left satisfied on a train full of drunks.

      📌 The next day was quite sunny so we headed down to Swansea and then onto a little coastal section known as the mumbles, a little town adjacent to the Gower national park. We had a wander around the pier and enjoyed a a short walk along the rugged coast lined with beautiful yellow flowers. On Sunday we chilled out and enjoyed relaxing, it was another nice weekend together before Chloe headed back to Oxford, and also nice to see more of Wales before finishing up in Neath.
      Leer más

    • Stockholm

      7–10 mar., Suecia ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

      📌 We bid farewell to the snowy Lapland and the lovely swedes we met in Abisko, and headed for the warmer capital of Sweden. We arrived in the evening and headed out to a trendy restaurant/bar doing chicken in all kinds of ways. This meal was incredible, fried gochagang cauliflower, some of the best hot wings and an insight into the vibe of Stockholm.

      📌 As we were in Stockholm for the weekend, the city was buzzing. We wandered around the beautiful waterside areas, the old town, and the trendy sodermalm. The cafes were great, everyone was out and about in the sunny crisp weather, the city had a very vibrant feel. We ofcourse had an afternoon drink in a busy bar that was even serving a home made cola known as Koala Kola of all things. That evening we enjoyed more delicious food at a tasty Mexican place that was getting us excited for the end of our year trip, going home via Mexico. We ended the night at a small microbrewery, enjoying some local Swedish brewed beers.

      📌 Our final full day was relaxed, another sunny and clear day that involved a wander around the city. We finally got into the busy meatball restaurant, which was incredible food again! All kinds of Swedish meatballs that would melt in your mouth, served alongside delicious ligonberry jam and some of the best mashed potatoes. We enjoyed another walk through the old town before heading to the Vasa museum. This museum was based on a shipwreck that was submerged for 330 years from 1600s to the 1900s, where it was then surfaced and preserved. It was an incredible museum as the detail of the ship was amazing, the wood was intricately carved and would have been extremely colourful as the ship was one to show off the Swedish power and pride back then.

      📌 We ended our trip on a high with a intimate and friendly wine bar, some tasty Italian food and an early night for our 7am flight the next day. Stockholm was a highlight, potentially one of my favourite cities in Europe and definitely in Scandinavia so far. One final memory was on departure where the immigration was the slowest and strictest we have ever seen!!! We ran to the plan with about 5 minutes until boarding, thank god we asked some people to skip the line, people definitely missed the flight being stuck in customs.
      Leer más

    Consigue tu propio perfil de viaje

    Gratis

    QR code

    FindPenguins para iOSFindPenguins para Android