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.
