Trippin' for a Year!: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

In Bruges (not the movie)

Where better to go after the hustle and bustle of big city Paris, than the tiny, historical Bruges?
I know, we couldn't think of anywhere else, either, so off we went!

Mum joins: trippin' for a month....

So for the next month, mum will be traveling with us (....and her very 'talkative' friend). It's going to be a very busy month.

Meeting up with our fellow travelers from Myanmar

We are so happy we were able to catch up with Margaux and Paule in Paris!!!!!!

In case you are wondering, they are the French girls who 'saved' Frode while we were traveling in Myanmar back in February!

Remember this?

4 months ago.... waiting for the overnight bus in Mandalay, Myanmar

4 months later..... Happy & Healthy in Paris

Picnic in Paris

As it happened, our visit to Paris overlapped neatly with my friend Mathieu's.

Some sort of tower..?

Mathieu, as you can tell from the name (best pronounced with an outrageous fake French accent), is French, and was travelling with his Italian girlfriend Elena to visit family and friends in France and Italy.
Despite their tight schedule (every hour fully booked of their five days in Paris), they had organised a Saturday picnic to catch up with a bunch of friends all in one go.

The best-laid plans..

An unexpected plan change - or how we learned to stop worrying and love the train strikes in France.

So we wanted to take a nice overnight train from Milan to Paris, saves on accommodation and would put us in Paris on the morning of the same day as Naomi's mum arrived.

No problem, these are both big cities, surely there's a direct train between them that we can use?

Last stop in Italy: Milan

Our last stop in Italy was Milan, financial and fashion capital. Very nice city but also very expensive. We rented a wonderful apartment in Milan via Airbnb where we caught up on our laundry and some blogging.. did some sightseeing and also caught up with friends from Milan.

Duomo - Very impressive!

Daytrippin' to Venice

We were up bright and early at 6:30am for a full day of exploring Venice!

This was my second time visiting (the first was a few years ago with my mum), but it was Frode’s very first time—so that made it extra special.

After a quick breakfast, we walked over to the train station and hopped on a 2.5-hour ride to Venice.

Voila! Venice!

So colourful :-)

By the time we arrived, it was already lunchtime, so we wandered into a random restaurant... unfortunately, it turned out to be pretty average by Italian standards. Bit of a letdown.

Post-lunch, we set off to explore the city on foot—Venice is such a beautiful and unique place to wander. We covered a lot of ground, did a little shopping, and just soaked it all in.

Gelato stop :-)

Souvenirs anyone?

Eventually, after many steps and sights, we found a spot for dinner that did hit the spot—finally, some delicious food to wrap up the day!

We caught the last train back to Milan at 7:50pm, arriving around 11pm. Quick taxi to our Airbnb, and just like that, our Venetian adventure came to a close. What a fun (and full!) day.

Until next time.....

Different kind of pastas....

There are so many different kind of pasta in Italy. I am always very confused at the restaurant trying to remember which one's which. I always get mixed up between Tagliatelle and Tortellini (probably because they both starts with T!) Anyways, they are very different. One is a flat pasta, similar to fettuccine and the other one is a stuffed pasta, usually with meat and cheese.

Daytrippin' to Pompeii

We were basing ourselves in Sorrento, south of Napoli, because we wanted to go to the Amalfi coast area, and to see the ruins of Pompeii.

We'd gone to Amalfi, now it was Pompeii's turn!

Beautiful Amalfi Coast - Sorrento, Positano & Amalfi

Today was a big one—our first time visiting Positano and the famous Amalfi Coast! This region is easily one of the most iconic spots in all of Italy (maybe even the world), so it’s definitely been high on our bucket list.

Back in 2012, I visited Capri with my mum and couldn’t help but wonder how this would compare… Turns out, it’s a totally different vibe!

We had an early start and hopped on a local bus to make our way along the coast. Even though it’s only about 31–32 km on the map, it ended up taking nearly two hours, thanks to some traffic and the winding roads. The route is absolutely stunning—but also very twisty and narrow in places. I started to feel a bit queasy along the way. 😅

Despite the rocky start, we were excited to finally arrive and explore this dreamy stretch of coastline!

Walking around the waterfront....

Lunch was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. I had an amazing pasta dish called Scialatielli (with clams and zucchini served with garlic olive oil and datterini tomatoes)—so delicious! Easily the best pasta I’ve had in Italy on this trip.