Kaili's solo footsteps around the world in over 100 countries..
While it was sad leaving London, my first stop was Italy for my mates (from Adelaide) wedding!!! It was held in Venice and I had a week to explore beforehand. I went to Naples first and did some pretty amazing things such as a day trip around the island of Capri, cruised along the Amalfi Coast and ate some delicious food!!
Once back from Russia I had two of my Aunties come over to stay with me. It was great having family over and I showed them around London as much as I could after work hours and took them to Paris for a weekend. This was great fun as the sun was out to play while we wandered around the streets, going up the Eiffel Tower and we got to enjoy a beer at the Sacre Coeur overlooking the beautiful city of Paris.
Continue reading “Exploring England on my final days living in Europe..”
Riga was the city I flew into to start the Baltic leg of my trip. First thing I did was climb the tower of St Peter’s Church for a great view of the city. Of course, I did the free walking tour with Yellow Free tours where I met a couple of awesome girls. We checked out things such as ‘Stalin’s Cake’ , the food markets in the old airplane hangers (one of my favourite markets in the world!) and the oldest wooden church in the Baltics before a few of us branched off and went to an amazing teahouse in the middle of a snow-covered park.
Continue reading “Baltics, Scandinavia and Russia in three weeks..”
The start of 2013 had started in fine form and the next few months followed in suit.
We had a fair bit of snow in London which made for some more snowman making at our friend’s pub, the Trafalgar Arms, which was the in the middle of our houses. This pub became our home for the next couple of months over winter for a solid ‘Sunday Sesh’, we even had a couch that was the specifically saved for us.
Continue reading “Snow filled London, Romania and the Alps..”
I was lucky enough to once again stay with some family in Copenhagen and to spend Christmas with them as well.
We were off to the West Coast of Denmark to spend it at my cousin’s family home in Värde.
The day we were due to leave there was a snow storm which caused a little delay but made everything look beautiful. It was a nice drive and once we got there you could smell the amazing aromas saved for Christmas time.
Shortly after arriving back in London, my Dad arrived for a visit..
We spent the first weekend exploring London and I took him for a typical English pub meal. We also went to a soccer game which is pretty foreign to the both of us. It was Fulham v Aston Villa and ended up as a draw.
During the week my Dad caught the Eurostar to Lille where he hired a car and took himself around France and Belgium for a week by himself to explore the WW1 Australian battlefields on the WesternFront..
Continue reading “The last part of an extremely eventful 2012…”
As it was the year of the Olympics in London, it was manic with crowds of people from all over the world – more than normal! Such a great time to be in the city though and there was even more on than usual!
A group of us watched the Opening Ceremony at a mate’s pub before I caught the train to Manchester the next day read to go to my first Olympic event – New Zealand v Egypt soccer (also Brazil v Belarus). As the people I went with were mainly Kiwis I thought it was best to support the cousins from across the sea and join in donning the black and white. It was good fun watching the game at Old Trafford stadium and a great atmosphere. I spent the night and did some exploring of Manchester with some mates making the most of our time there.
Continue reading “The European weekends for 2012 continue..”
After returning from my latest trip I managed to pick up a couple of different temp assignments for a week or two before Richemont called me to say they wanted me back!! This was great news as I enjoyed working for Richemont, they were a great company and I learnt a lot working there. I ended up working there until my time was up in London.
The start of my weekend trips away was local, in Birmingham, to stay a night with my friend who was studying there. Charlotte showed me around and we hung out in the small city where the sun was shining for us. We did visit the Cadbury Chocolate factory which of course we felt ill from so much chocolate afterwards but well worth it.
The following weekend was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which meant an extra-long weekend, perfect to book a European trip away, Prague in the Czech Republic it was. I went solo and managed to meet some great people on the walking tour and at the hostel where I stayed.
My first stop was Amman in Jordan my original tour was meant to head straight to Syria followed by Jordan and Egypt but with all the conflict happening at that time, the Syria leg of the trip was cancelled. Therefore, I had quite a number of extra days in Amman so I did some research about heading to Jerusalem in Israel for a few days (this is not as easy as it sounds because of the border crossing).
I arrived at the hostel in Amman (Jordan) where I met one of my roommates who told me that a few of them heading to Jerusalem the next day and asked if I wanted to join – perfect! There were four of us in total which helped a lot with the cost of the taxis to and from everywhere.
After working my ass off every single day (over 70 hours per week) for the last couple of months, my Mum and Sister arrived. It was good to see them. My sister had her 18th birthday in London which we celebrated by having dinner at Jamie’s Italian restaurant and a quiet night as we were up early the next day to go to Copenhagen.
We got to Copenhagen where my Mum’s cousin (my second-cousin but still call him my ‘cousin’) picked us up and took us to his family home. They treated us with a yummy Danish lunch and then took us on a bike ride around the city of Copenhagen – it was beautiful!
Continue reading “My first family visit and another weekend trip to Europe..”
I returned to London just before New Year’s 2011 and headed straight up to Edinburgh to bring in the New Year with the Hogmanay Festival.
I was with a group of friends and we hired an apartment in Grassmarket Square which is pretty central and not far from Princes Street Gardens. We had a few cook ups and roasts and joined in the festivities of the Hogmanay Festival which included artists such as Mark Ronson, The Vaccines and Bombay Bicycle Club etc.
Continue reading “Hogmanay and back to London with a weekend trip to Europe in the mix..”
One of my mates organised for a group of us to head to the French Alps for Christmas with Fanatics Tour Group. The package included transport, accommodation, lift pass and ski hire.
We met at Waterloo Station late in the evening and jumped on the bus to Risoul (La Foret Blanche) in the South-eastern French Alps. Little did I know how far away from London this actually was and how long it would take us to get there.
We stopped a few times along the way for food etc and at one stop I finally got to experience snow, at last! It made everything so beautiful, and slippery!
It was December and so I boarded the Eurostar from St Pancras bound for Paris . It was so simple, a simple show of the passport, sit down in your seat and you were off to another country, via train, underwater.
As my mate had been to Paris before, I went off and did the free-walking tour while I waited for her to arrive (she was coming by plane from Edinburgh). The Sandeman’s free walking tour was great and went past a few of the major sites, Notre Dame, down Champs-Elysees with the Arc De Triomphe in the distance, past the various museums and through the arch at the Louvre. This was a perfect way to get my bearings around the city and learn some history all for free (funding based on tip at the end).
Goodbyes are never easy and I had my family there to bid me farewell, I had a two-year visa but no real idea of when I would be back.
After a mammoth flight, I landed in Lisbon, Portugal (Adelaide-Melbourne-Hong Kong-Istanbul-Lisbon). It was a solid 25 hours on a plane.
I was doing a ‘Top Deck’ through Spain and Portugal for two weeks as a ‘welcome to Europe’ for myself.
What I saw of Portugal was beautiful. We went from Lisbon to Porto which was stunning. A boat ride down the Douro River was ideal and a great way to see the sights.
Continue reading “First stop, Europe and a little Africa..!!”
