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World Trip
  • Cassandra Rippon
  • Michael Rippon
  • Cassandra Rippon
  • Michael Rippon

World Trip

Cass and Mike's Year Long Adventure Read more
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  • World Trip

    Edinburgh

    June 11, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We had a short and sweet stop in Edinburgh for a couple of days before we head to Spain for a month. Visited the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle and ate some good bangers and mash.

  • World Trip

    Seville

    June 15, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    Arrived in Seville to sunny blue skies and warm weather - the first time we've been warm since April! We spent the first few days in Seville exploring the neighbourhood (and retreating to our apartment to escape the late afternoon heat), sampling different tapas and refreshing ourselves on our limited Spanish. So far, we are loving Spain (even the 35°C heat)!Read more

  • World Trip

    Last day in Sevilla*

    June 16, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    Spent our last day in Sevilla wandering around the neighborhoods to the north of the city center, shopping and eating humongous pizza.

  • World Trip

    Caminito del Rey

    June 18, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Spent the day out walking at Caminito del Rey - a walkway that is literally pinned along the steep walls of a gorge near El Chorro. Had a fun day where we saw vultures and ibex (yay wildlife!), crazy canyon landscapes and learnt about the history of Caminito del Rey.Read more

  • World Trip

    Malaga

    June 19, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    A couple of days exploring beautiful Malaga, including Alcazaba, Malaga Cathedral and the famous El Pimpi restaurant.

  • World Trip

    Granada

    June 20, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We bussed from Malaga to Granada in what was a relatively pain free travel day. Checked into our Airbnb which has pretty views of Alhambra, followed by a visit to Palacio de los Olvidados. Mike and I did a tapas/sangria crawl, while the rest of our family went for a food and wine tour.

    We spent the next couple of days exploring Granada, including a rainy morning wandering around the beautiful Alhambra, many stops for wine and tapas and a sunset at Mirador San De Nicolas.    Read more

  • World Trip

    Granada*

    June 21, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Spent a couple more days exploring Granada, including a rainy morning wandering around the beautiful Alhambra, many stops for wine and tapas and a sunset at Mirador San De Nicolas.

  • World Trip

    Madrid

    June 24, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We arrived in Madrid a few days ago, which is totally different to the Andalucian towns we've been in the last couple of weeks. Rather than cute historic buildings, castles and forts, we're in a major city with a metro, massive apartment and office buildings. Our first day here was spent on a walking tour, visiting various monuments (cathedral, Temple of Debod, royal palace) and trying typical food of Madrid (calamari sandwich, gazpacho. We ended our night with a visit to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and a 1 hour (versus 25min) trip home on the metro due to a whole line being closed.Read more

  • World Trip

    El Rastro and Mercado San Miguel*

    June 25, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    Another hot day in Madrid! After a much needed sleep in, we made our way to La Latina for the El Rastro Markets (the biggest flea market in Madrid). It was hot (32°+), crowded and very busy, and full of cool clothing, souvenirs and knick knacks. When we couldn't handle the heat and crowds anymore, we went up to Mercado San Miguel for lunch. This was also super busy and very expensive - definitely felt like a massive tourist trap.Read more

  • World Trip

    Madrid*

    June 26, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Spent our last days in Madrid relaxing in Retiro Park and listening to the same busker play Michael Buble's 'Sway' on repeat for 4 hours, and visiting the archaeological museum.

  • World Trip

    Batalla del vino, Haro

    June 29, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Travel is full of highs and lows, and after a low of finding bed bugs in our hotel room in Logrono and having to hot wash literally everything we own, we finally made it to Haro for La Batalla del Vino! We picked up a few supplies (€1.40 cask wine, water guns, white t shirts and red bandanas) before joining the street party. The previously quiet and almost empty streets of Haro were packed with people and parades all night, and we spent hours walking through the crowds and dancing to the DJs and tribute Bruce Springstein band. After a very late night and short sleep, we got up early to join the wine battle. The wine battle was manic, with singing, chanting and no one holding back. After a couple of hours of wine fighting excitement, we headed home for a much needed siesta. Would definitely say this has been one of the highlights of our trip so far!Read more

  • World Trip

    Barcelona

    July 4, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Spent our first few days exploring Sagrada Familia and the pretty streets, buildings and parks of Barcelona.

  • World Trip

    Valencia

    July 6, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Spent our last few days with mum and dad exploring beautiful Valencia with its mix of old and new buildings and eating large amounts of paella.

  • World Trip

    Ibiza

    July 11, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Flew from Valencia to Ibiza for some beach time and to experience Ibiza's world famous night life. We swam in the ocean for the first time since March, which was welcome after spending the last month in 30°C+ heat in Spain. Dan flew over from London for 36 or so hours and joined us for some beach time and for Subfocus, Dimension and Chase and Status at Eden, which was one of the best gigs we've been to. On our last night, we went to Fisher at Hi Ibiza, which is rated the #1 night club in the world. While the music was good, Hi Ibiza was way too packed to really dance, but it was good to experience nonetheless.Read more

  • World Trip

    Sofia

    July 15, 2023 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Finally made it to Bulgaria (our 10th country on this trip!) after 1 hour of sleep, 2 flights (including one delayed by 2.5 hours), 1 bus and 1 very, very overpriced taxi.

    We didn't have a lot of time in Sofia, so today was a jam packed day of sightseeing including various churches, cathedrals and mosques throughout the city and a Balkan food tour. We're enjoying the change from Spanish to more Soviet architecture, are pleasantly surprised at how many people speak perfect English and are not pleasantly surprised by how hot it is here.Read more

  • World Trip

    Plovdiv

    July 16, 2023 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Arrived in Plovdiv from Sofia by bus around midday, where we checked into our hostel and went out to explore Plovdiv. We had 2 nights booked here, but after going to sleep and waking up an hour later scratching, we found at least 3 bed bugs in our room. We must have really bad luck because it was less than 3 weeks ago when we had them in a hotel in Spain! We immediately packed up all of our belongings, booked a ticket on the next train out of Plovdiv and messaged the hostel owner who didn't believe me until I sent him the videos and photos of the bed bugs. We're feeling very disappointed (and tired) about this whole situation because we really enjoyed our afternoon in Plovdiv and were looking forward to spending another day exploring the city, but the nasty bed bug situation has really made us want to get out of here. This is definitely one of the downsides of travel.Read more

  • World Trip

    Varna

    July 24, 2023 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After a sleepless night spent in the kitchen of our Plovdiv hostel, we walked to catch our early morning train to Varna. Turns out it's a rather old Soviet train, and as we couldn't book first class tickets, we were stuck in the second class cabins with no AC. The train was incredibly hot (like a sauna), got very full and was two hours late, but we were very happy to arrive in Varna. We were lucky enough to add an extra day onto our airbnb, where we began the long process of hot washing all our clothes (again). For the first couple of days here, we just slept, did some life admin and went for short walks to the beach and Sea Garden Park. Today we finally got some sightseeing in, with a visit to the Retro Museum which is full of cars and items from the communist period in Bulgaria. It was very interesting to see the toys, appliances and clothing from the communist period, but also interesting to see that it hasn't really changed a lot today. We spent the rest of our week in Varna relaxing at the beach or Sea Garden, in between planning the rest of our trip. Next stop, Romania!Read more

  • World Trip
    1

    Bucharest

    July 25, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    We made it to Bucharest this afternoon - our 12th country on this trip! Our bus ride from Varna to Bucharest was, thankfully, smooth and painless in a new, comfy minivan. We drove 5 hours past fields and fields of sunflowers which was really cool to see! We arrived around 2pm and checked into our hostel, which is possibly the nicest cleanest hostel we've ever stayed at for only $50 a night. It was really hot by the time we checked in, so we went for a short stroll to see the Parliament Palace and Patriarchal Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena, before hiding from the 40°C heat.

    We spent the next few days exploring Bucharest, including a couple of walking tours, watching the Bucharest Fountain show and an escape room (our wet weather activity).    Read more

  • World Trip
    1

    Bucharest*

    July 29, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Spent a few enjoyable days exploring Bucharest, including a couple of walking tours, watching the Bucharest Fountain show and an escape room (our wet weather activity).

  • World Trip

    Brasov

    August 1, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We spent an enjoyable 3 days exploring Brasov, including trying traditional Romanian food (samarle and papanasi), a walking tour of the old town and a rainy day hike up Mount Tampa. A trip to Romania wouldn't be complete without a visit to a castle, so on our last day here we took a day trip to Sinaia and visited Peles Castle which was originally a summer residence for the Romanian royal family.Read more

  • World Trip

    Cluj-Napoca

    August 7, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We took a minibus from Brasov to Cluj-Napoca, the capital of Transylvania, to meet up with some friends for the 4 day Untold Festival. In between the festival, we spent 4 fun days being tourists exploring Cluj and visiting the zoological museum. We really enjoyed the festival, which was massive compared to any festivals back home, and had really famous acts on each night.Read more

  • World Trip

    Budapest*

    August 8, 2023 in Hungary ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Made it to Hungary - our 12th country on this trip - after an overnight bus from Cluj to Budapest. Will spend a few days catching up on sleep and sightseeing here before our European summer ends and we head to Central Asia.Read more

  • World Trip

    Budapest*

    August 8, 2023 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After a massive nap this morning, we headed out for brunch at Lions Lounge and then hopped on the metro to Szechenyi Baths. We unknowingly bought the wrong ticket (which cost more than the ticket we were supposed to have) and were stopped and fined 24,000HUF (the equivalent to about NZ$110) by metro staff just for having the wrong ticket! It was absolutely ridiculous that there is no leniency for having the wrong ticket (especially one that costs more) or making the an honest mistake. We definitely will not be taking the metro in Budapest again, while we like this city so far, it has certainly made us feel unwelcome. After the metro mishap, we spent a few hours at Szechenyi Baths, and then wandered to several supermarkets to find something simple for dinner. This turned into a 2 hour trip as none of the major supermarkets had any of the food we needed. Maybe we are just tired, or maybe we have had a relatively good run until now, but today was one of those days where nothing went our way and everything felt hard. Maybe we will feel better tomorrow.Read more

  • World Trip

    Budapest

    August 9, 2023 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Made it to Hungary - our 12th country on this trip - after an overnight bus from Cluj to Budapest. After a massive nap to recover from the night bus, we headed out for brunch at Lions Lounge and then hopped on the metro to Szechenyi Baths. We unknowingly bought the wrong ticket (which cost more than the ticket we were supposed to have) and were stopped and fined 24,000HUF (the equivalent to about NZ$110) by metro staff just for having the wrong ticket! It was absolutely ridiculous that there is no leniency for having the wrong ticket (especially one that costs more) or making the an honest mistake. We definitely will not be taking the metro in Budapest again, while we like this city so far, it has certainly made us feel unwelcome. After the metro mishap, we spent a few hours at Szechenyi Baths, and then wandered to several supermarkets to find something simple for dinner. This turned into a 2 hour trip as none of the major supermarkets had any of the food we needed.

    We spent the rest of our last few days in Europe eating langos and goulash, visiting markets and exploring the city. Next stop: Kyrgyzstan!    Read more

  • World Trip

    Bishkek*

    August 13, 2023 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After 20 hours of travel, we've made it to Bishkek - our first destination in Central Asia! We flew from Budapest to Turkey, had a 6 hour layover, and then a 4.5hr flight to Bishkek, arriving here at 7.30am. We took our very first marshrutka from the airport to our hostel (the first of many over the next 2 months). We didn't sleep much on the plane so our first day here has been spent sleeping and making some final tweaks to our Central Asia itinerary. We were meant to come here back in 2020 (but then covid happened) and are so excited that we've finally made it!Read more

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