Coming soon to a blogspot near you!
I'm just about as excited as can be with what Leah and I are about to embark on. I've spent over a year saving for and planning a five week trip to Europe to coincide with Leah graduate from her Masters degree. We've thrown away so many ideas of where to go and what to do and have come up with an itinerary that we're very happy with. What's that got to do with you? Nothing really but I intend to blog about the trip as we go so it could be fun for any of you guys paying attention.
Here in Perth we suffer with a lack of culture as penance for having nearly 365 days in summer and a beautiful city. It gets a little trying at times. Currently the New York Museum of Modern Art has a show on at our State Art Gallery for a ridiculous $19 charge. This is the best that we have ever seen but comparitively it's miniscule.
As you may know already I am originally from England, spending my university years in London, so this kind of thing is a bit of a shock to the system. I needed to do something fun and a trip to Europe worked out at approximately the same price as a trip to Sydney and infinitely more fun.
We've taken an apartment in South London for the month and intend to use it as a base of operations. Fun fact about our apartment: It's close to Crystal Palace Park which is famous for its Victorian era stone dinosaurs. You can't wait to see pictures can you? I know you're googling it even as you read this.
From there we have plotted an assaut on six major European cities thanks to the dubious pleasures of Easyjet cattle class airlines.
Fun fact about flying with Easyjet: It's cheaper to take an apartment in London for our luggage than pay the extra fees to cart it around Europe with us on Easyjet. Yeah nobody actually believes that but it's true.
Prizes for who can guess the six cities. Answers on a postcard please. That was topical humour.
First up is Budapest, for those with a George W. Bush level knowledge of world geography that's in Hungary.
After that Vienna, it's in Austria which is sort of like Australia only not.
The Danish capital and home of Finding Nemo, Copenhagen, allows us to take a trip across the magnificent Oresund Bridge to Malmo in Sweden. I have a thing for bridges I guess.
Two Days In Paris are up next but hopefully without the terrorist experience had by Adam Goldberg in the movie and more mis-directing of Americans wanting to take a Da Vinci Code tour. I can hope can't I?
Berlin is the last stop in Europe, a city made famous by Philip Kerr in his brilliant Bernie Gunther private investigator novels and filled with cool East German architecture.
I won't blow my whole load just yet but I'll give you a teaser of what might be featured in this space come September/October by naming one awesome thing per city.
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| Széchenyi Chain Bridge Budapest |
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| Wiener Riesenrad Vienna (as seen in The Third Man) |
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| Carlsberg Brewery Tour Copenhagen |
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| Turning Torso Malmo |
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| Edward Hopper Retrospective Paris |
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| Checkpoint Charlie Berlin |
Anyone want to share their experiences of these cities ahead of departure time? Provide some extra ideas to squeeze in to the itinerary? Let me know in the blah.
I've never been out of the U.S., but this sounds like a fun month. Can't wait to read your posts about your journey.
ReplyDeleteI can fully understand why Americans stay in America to be honest, there are so many interesting places to see in their own massive country that there's no rush to go other places.
DeleteWhere's your favourite sight in your own country? I know my favourite thing in Perth rarely appears in guide books etc.
Probably Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I've been three times, and it's so beautiful. I could walk on the beach everyday if I lived near one.
DeleteI thought I'd be like that when I moved to Perth, we have beautiful beaches here but I very rarely go to the beach anymore. Last summer I didn't get to the beach once infact. Must rectify.
DeleteApart from all those towering hotels on the beach it looks pretty perfect.
Haha, I have a feeling that if I lived near the beach, I'd eventually get tired of it. Or I'd at least go less often.
DeleteYeah, hotels on the beach can be an eyesore. That's when you turn the other direction and look out at the water. ;)
You're going to have a blast. A weird place I recommend in Paris if you haven't seen it yet is Pere Lachaise cemetery. Lots of famous artists, poets, and novelists from the 20s there, as well as important figures from history. A little morbid, and I'm betting it was more fun while Jim Morrison was there than it is now.
ReplyDeleteAlan, are you saying that Morrison isn't buried there anymore? Or is it a reference to when he was alive? Adam Goldberg takes a trip to the place in Two Days In Paris I believe. Or at least it gets mentioned.
DeleteThere's a book I've seen on shelves called Tombstone Tourist, which always interests me.
It's my understanding that the French government gave that Gallic 'non' and shipped his remains back to Michigan from whence he came. At least, I think it was Michigan.
DeleteI was in Paris for a year, and Pere Lachaise was probably the only tourist-oriented place I went to more than twice. I did hit Versaille and the Louvre twice each, though.
Another that hit my spam filter for some reason. You lived in Paris for a year? Work related or are you so rich that you took an extended vacation? I don't think Versaille or the Louvre came close to making our shortlist.
DeleteHave fun. Those all sound like great cities.
ReplyDeleteThanks Trevor, I hope the time and money is worth it. I'd be pretty upset if it wasn't!
DeleteDude, that's fantastic! Enjoy it. Drink it in. I know you will.
ReplyDeleteCulture, what a wonderful thing. Just google street viewing these places is enough to make me gasp in pleasure at the architecture, seeing it in person is going to be incredible.
DeleteNiiiiice. My girlfriend and I took a two week trip to Europe a couple years ago. One of the best times of my life. It was a bit of a whirlwind -- we visited Paris, Venice, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam -- but so much fun. Out of all of them, my favorite stop was in Munich, and it's the place I would love to come back to the most.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, have a great time, man! Looking forward to your posts.
All of that in two weeks?! And I thought I was going to be rushing around on this trip! You really filled your time up didn't you. We thought about Bruges just to see the places they filmed In Bruges at. And Munich would be interesting to visit but Berlin won for us simply for the Cold War era stuff.
DeleteI only found out recently that the Berlin Wall surrounded all of West Berlin. All the high school history seemed to neglect to mention that Berlin was entirely in the Russian controlled half of the country. The lifestyle of West Berliners must have been surreal.
Yeah, man, Berlin just blew my mind while we were there. It's hard to believe that a city could be split like that, just over twenty years ago even. The part of the wall that still stands has some amazing murals on it now -- a must see. Also, I spent a good part of a day in the German History Museum which had a ton of fascinating stuff. Highly recommended if you get the chance.
DeleteSounds like an epic, revelatory trip. So cool that you've saved for a whole year to do this. Can't wait to read future posts about your travels!
ReplyDeleteThanks man, sadly the guys who were working on pre-production of Dog and Duck Story have called it off due to time contraints but that one small movie making disappointment aside this is gonna be one great trip.
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