I have just entered a travel competition with Spar.
The world is just getting smaller and smaller. To travel to 14 countries in 4 months would be impossible for just some years ago. But now I have the possibility to do this with ´See the world with Spar`!
This will be the perfect ending of my three years at university. I love to travel and blog so vote for me and I will show you why the world is worth to see.
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Do one or all of these steps and help me win so I can see the world with Spar.
Until now I have showed you Budapest, Japan, Rome, London, Norway, Sweden and Finland. I was suppose to show you Dubai as well, but that film got stolen. So the next big trip is in 50 days, when I will go on a family trip to Australia! I am planning to make a couple of Young World episodes from that trip, but before that I am afraid I am empty when it comes to more materiel.
So while you waiting why not follow up on Travel Dave, who is publishing a lot of new and interesting articles at the moment.
Or why not go back in time and take another look at previous episodes of Young World. Why not go back to Budapest and take a look at “A trip to Budapest“, that was a nice trip to look at again.
Young World have also now gotten their own YouTube account, if you would like to subscribe press here to get to the homepage.
I am now going a little bit a head in time again. This is after Budapest, Japan and Italy in the beginning of summer vacation 2010. This time I am on a weekend trip to London with my mom and sister.
The first day was a half day. I came down to London in the middle of the day and met up with my mom. My sister was coming later next day. We went for a cultural look at London, trying to see parts of it we haven´t seen before.
The first place we went for was Covent garden market. A cosy marked in the middle of London, but maybe the part that is more tourist like and not so business like. It have a lot of exiting stands with artsy products for everyone. The streets round it is also very nice and a prime example of British architecture.
After a nice shopping trip in the marked, without buying anything, we went along and took a look at London eye and Big Ben. We didn´t go up in London eye this time. Last time I was in London we did that and its breath taking. You are in this big glass bobble looking over the whole of London. It go slow, its no scary shaking, it´s just like a relaxing trip through/over London. It´s a have to if you are new in London. It´s right by Big Ben, so you can take everything in one.
After dinner later in the evening we went to The National Gallery to look at some old art. It´s always fun to play a little bit cultural sometimes, even if you don´t really have that much fun looking at old paintings in quiet and big rooms. I was more impressed over the rooms then the paintings a lot of the time. When we came outside I also got more interested in a giant bottle with a ship inside it standing as art outside.
So to end the day with the most british that are we took a look at Buckingham palace. It´s always beautiful and full of traffic. Something that still irritates me. Why do you make a traffic road in front of the royal palace anywhere? It ruins the grande feeling it should give. It´s parks all round yes, but with a motor way running right through it the charm kind of disappear. Beside all of that it is beautiful and the parks are mostly very peaceful.
One of the things that kept on popping up in London this time was elephants. Last time it was filled with cows, this time it was elephant statues decorated in all sort of funny paintings, all for sale. It´s for a organization to rase money. I kind of forgot to read what it was for, because I was so occupied with having my picture taken in front as as many elephants as possible. It was like a treasure hunt.
One thing I have never understand is people that take the tube everywhere in London, when you with no problems can walk to most of the big tourist spots and more, everything seem to be inside walking distance from each other. So next time you are in London try to walk from one place to another, don´t take the tube.
The last day in Budapest we didn´t do much. We were thinking about going to some museums, but the places we wanted to look at was closed because it was a sunday. We hanged round in the lobby while we were thinking about what to do with the day. In the end we went for the closest museum round the corner.
When we came there we found out that it was a to expensive to go in. So again we had nothing to do and decided to go to the airport instead. We took the cutest train to get to the main station. It looked like it was made in the 1800th. At the train station we got the tickets. Took a nice train trip to the airport. Posted a letter to Dave´s grandmother. Had the best salad I have had in a long time and jumped on the plain back to the UK. A very bad day for blogging, but also a very chill day to just relax and say goodbye to Budapest.
It was a really nice trip and I really loved Budapest. Its a city were a weekend is enough, but you can also be there for a month and still have new things to explore. Go to Budapest when you can, its such a nice place.
Finally we manage to wake up to right time. We were tired as hell and really wanted to go back to bed, but this time we were set on making the hotel breakfast. I have had better breakfast, but it was more then enough. I got full and happy. But we went back to bed again, because nothing were opening before 12 anyway…
For lunch we went back to Gerbeaud. This time we bought three cakes to taste them between us. I also bought a hot chocolate with cream. That was the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted before and after. It was like heaven in a cup. The chocolate was tick and dark and warm. Real hot chocolate, made the old fashion way. It kicked Starbucks hot chocolate by a mile. I so wish I cud go back, just to taste it one more time.
After Gerbeaud we went to the old Budapest, that is placed on the top of Budapest center. Vi walked up instead of taking the Funicular, we needed the training and the money 😛 And when you walk you also have the chance to stop and enjoy the beautiful view of Budapest in the evening. When we came to the top we cud see all of Budapest in the last sun of the day. It was stunning.
We walked further in inn the old city and came to the fishermen´s bastion. A beautiful bastion. It was really a magical place to be. It was so amazing made with its strange architecture and engravings. It was like the castle in fairy tales.
For dinner today we found a Italian restaurant, “Tom-George“, with the best Milkshake ever 🙂 The funniest with this place was that you cud see the cook make your Pizza. A very nice place, with great staff and great food.
We managed to over sleep the first day and missed the hotel breakfast. But we got up and in to town to find something good to eat. It was a little bit difficult to understand the ticket system for the metro. But you can buy a 72 hours ticket that will last you for 72 hours 😛 The train them self was so cute, with their old 50s look.
When we arrived in the center it was no people there. For a moment I thought we got of at the wrong stop. We walked a round, looking at the beautiful houses enjoying quiet Budapest. Dave found this bakery he had read about. The place was called “Gerbeaud” and was a cafe in a 1800 stile. It was beautiful old walls and ornaments, heavy big curtains, in the ceiling they had chandeliers and behind the counter they had so many cakes! Since we were after breakfast we started with a sandwich and after that lovely meal we had to take some cake as well, it was like heaven.
After “Gerbeaud” we went to see Danube, the main river in Budapest. It was so strange to look at the buildings on the other side. It was like they were behind clouds of mist, blurry in a way. But it was beautiful. We found one of many bridges to cross over to the other side. We wanted to test out one of Budapest´s famous baths. I think the bath we ended up in was called Gellért Thermal Bath. It was beautiful, amazing, dreamy just stunning. I loved it, but then again I love everything from the 1800! It was like a castle, a must see.
After the bath we went up to one of the hills outside. We got a beautiful view over the city, it was sparkling like starts in the dark. We found a beautiful Michelin star restaurant in the city. They had half prize on everything that night and we just went for it. It was delicious! A perfect ending of day nr 2 in beautiful Budapest.
This is a trip Dave and I took in January 2010, a little bit late I know, but here it is.
The day started early, very early. In the middle of the night Dave came running in to my room at campus with all his stuff for the trip. We got some few hours sleep before the alarm clock rang for a new day.
While I was getting ready, Dave made breakfast. After that we went of to the train station to get on the train from Swansea to Bristol Airport at 08:28. To get all the way we had to change at Bristol Parkway and then get a bus from Bristol Temple Meads to Bristol airport. Very confusing, but in the end we arrived at the airport two hour before the plain was leaving. We got on the plain and some couple hours later we arrived in Budapest.
It´s always strange to get of at a new country and realize that you don´t understand anything they say or write round you. We took out some money, 15 000 Forint that is 50 pounds. 100 Forin is 3 pens, so that is nice.
We took the train in to Budapest center. It was a little bit scary because the conductor spoke little english, so she kept on speaking hungarian to us, like we understood that. Apparently we had to big money, so she didn´t have enough money for change. So she talked to one of the other passengers and he helped us with change, very strange but nice at the same time. It´s always nice when people help each other even if you can understand what they are talking about. We didn´t know 100% were to get of and it was impossible to see any signs on half of the stations we drove past. So we just sat on to the last stop, that was the city center, were we were suppose to get of anyway. So that worked out well.
For a while we tried to find out were we was so we cud find the hotel. In the end we had to give that up, to many streets with strange names. So we did what all confused tourists do, we took a taxi. The driver was very nice, but his english was rubbish.
Finally we got to the hotel. The receptionist was very nice and the first one we met that was good in english. The hotel, Star city hotel, was very nice. I felt safe right away. The rooms was big and as every other hotel room. The roof was very high though, must cost a fortune to heat up. One thing I really don´t like is dubbed films and television. For my big disappointment, Hungary dub their television.
After we had moved in to the room we went out to get some food. The nice receptionist suggested a typical hungarian restaurant called “Basohjvar” that was 20 minutes down the road. So we went for that. After a while we got to a beautiful place with statues of all the old hungarian leaders. The place was big and very nice illuminated. I think its more beautiful in the night then the day. When we came round the corner we saw some light through some threes. It was in the opposite direction from where we were suppose to go, but we just wanted to see what it was. It was a restaurant called “Robinson”. It was located by the river. Up from the water round it steam was coming up, hiding the restaurant in mist. It was lighted up with many small lights. Inside the restaurant came calm romantic music. It was just perfect, just then we heard music from another place.
We decided to check it out. Over a hill we looked down at a charming little skating path by the water. I had already decided, I wanted to eat at Robinson not Basohjvar even if it felt like I was deceiving the receptionist. We did take a look at Basohjvar, but after Robinson it just didn´t work. So we went for Robinson, and what a place!
The food was beautiful and delicious. The staff was polite and nice. The price was not bad at all eater! And the mood in the whole place for just perfect. A perfect ending on a long day with traveling. If you ever come to Budapest, fin Robinson restaurant one night. You will not regret.
I though I would just update Young World before I post a new place tomorrow.
The next trips I will post on Young World will be Budapest (4 episodes), London (3 episodes), Roadtrip to Finland (5 episodes), Besseggen Norway (4 episodes). This Christmas Young World are going to London, Paris, Norway and maybe Scotland. But everything can happen before that. I hope you can enjoy it all as it comes.
Episode nr 2 “Mr. Satoshi´s tour” of Japan have been entered in a competition on foXnoMad. The voting will start in 5 days on October the 12th. I will make you all obs on it when the day comes.
So tomorrow the first episode from Budapest will be posted. I hope you all have enjoyed Young World and that you will keep on enjoying it for the months to come.
I know I have said this before, but this time it´s true! Today is the last day of mine and Dave´s amazing backpacker trip to Japan, and then suddenly Rome as well.
It wasn’t the most beautiful day in Rome. It was raining. So we decided to use our hop on hop of bus tickets once more. You soon realize that you can see most of Rome in just a day. So we didn´t see a lot of new things on the new bus trip, but oh well, beats walking…
After a last quick look at beautiful Rome we got back to the hotel and then back to the Fiumicino airport. This time with no problems. Got on the plain and of to London we went. We came so late to Heathrow that all the subways and busses had stopped for the night. So instead of paying a insanely sum to the taxi we slept over at the airport. I have never done that before so that made it more exiting, but thats mostly it.
Sleeping at a airport is like spleeping in a car; uncomfortable and cold. Dave almost didn´t sleep at all. He sat there watching the things and me. While I tried to sleep just a little bit. Some how a manage it and somehow the night past and we got back to Swansea in one peace.
In all this have been a great adventure. I have done so much I never thought I would ever do and I was lucky to shear it with such a awesome person. I think everyone should try to get to Japan once in their life. It´s a beautiful place with so many new things. You will come back with a new perspective with life and always carry the memories with you. I know I will….
Thank you for this time. I will be back with more to tell in a couple of weeks. That time I will tell you about Budapest in Hungary.
Young World 