Salzburg, Austria

The unfortunate occurrence of my visa ending has to have some kind of silver lining, right?

Of course there is! Something that pretty much all those my age do these days - TRAVEL!

I had a couple free weeks before the start of my Asia trip so where better to spend my time than in the relaxing city of Salzburg before the more happening cities of Hannover and Berlin.

I took the cheap option and flew into Linz to take the train to Salzburg. The trains were a bit of good luck, had a whole train compartment to myself! It was very Harry Potter-esque.

I checked in to my hostel, YoHo International Hostel and had a quick nap after arranging dinner with a fellow traveller I had connected with on Facebook.

We had a lovely Austrian dinner before buying a cheap bottle of wine each and making our way up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. We sat on the fortress wall, playing our drinking games, watching the sunset over Salzburg.

It was such a lovely view and then the rains came! Luckily, the rain only lasted as long as the wine did! 

Luckily, the next day saw the sun shining brightly and a short walk bring the sweat on!  Unfortunately I had not looked at the extended weather forecast, otherwise I would have made more of the sun on Wednesday instead of making use of my bed for a nap! 

Thursday I woke up early to go on a tour to the Eagle's Nest. 

The Eagle's Nest was built high up on a mountain in the 1930s as a present for Hitler's 50th birthday. It was purely for conferences and Hitler only visited around 10 times. 

Unfortunately, I thought the actual building wasn't worth the price, but the view is absolutely to die for (and 6 - 8 people did die during construction).

Even on the rainy, cloudy day I went the mountains are magnificent to view. And I even met a lovely couple from Adelaide up there!

Thursday night had me back at the same restaurant, Zum Eulenspiegel with a bloke from the hostel. They have their own gluten free menu so I had some Austrian cuisine options. Unfortunately the rain stopped us from exploring Salzburg Old Town at night so we made our way back to the hostel for the nightly viewing of Sound of Music. 

I had to have a refresher of the songs as on Friday morning I was on another tour, this time to the different locations of Salzburg that are featured in the film.

We drove past the Von Trapp villa, the lake in the boating scene, the gazebo and the church in Mondsee where the wedding took place as well as the different locations featured in the 'Do Re Mi' song.

Typically, the sun had to come out and stop the rain AFTER the tour had ended. I made the most of it and wandered into the Old Town where I stumbled across a fresh food market! Score! No more paying €3.50 for breakfast! And the size of the strawberries! I'm pretty sure they were bigger than my nephew's head when he was born! 

Luckily, the fresh fruit, cheese and ham have sustained me all today as I have been cooped up inside the hostel due to the miserable weather.

Hopefully Germany will bring out the sunshine for me on Monday. 

Time Flies

Today is my last full day of work. After tomorrow's half day that will be the end of my time working during this stint of my stay in the United Kingdom. 

As an Australian, aged between 18 - 30 I am lucky enough to qualify for a Tier 5 Working Holiday Visa. 

The visa entitles you to work and live in the United Kingdom for a period of two years. You are also able to leave and enter the country multiple times. 

In the last two years I have been able to travel to 19 different countries and many more cities. I've had the opportunity to skydive in the Swiss Alps, hot air balloon over Cappodoccia, tubing in Turkey, experience an ANZAC Dawn Service on the Gallipoli Peninsula, see The Backstreet Boys in London's Hyde Park, ride a camel in Tunisia, be a supporter at the first Invictus Games and visit Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland.

I've also had the chance to live on both the east and west sides of London and try my hand at a few different jobs, from call centres, waitressing and bar tending to live in care work.

With my last 3 days of my 2 year stint in the UK I will be (finally) stepping on to the tourist trap that is the London Eye and catching up with friends - not to mention packing! So much packing!

On Tuesday morning I start out on another adventure, exploring the sights of Salzburg and Germany before spending just under a month in Asia before stepping my feet back on Australian soil! 

Warsaw - Capital of Poland

My roommate and I found flights from London to Warsaw for £19 (£35 inc luggage) and we thought 'why not?'  Booked. Hostel booked.

A couple weeks later we remembered we need to get home somehow.  We had already discussed going to Krakow but flights from there, while still cheap, were expensive. We had a look at Skyscanner and saw that there were cheap flights out of Gdansk. 

We looked at the map, saw the Poland was about the size of Victoria and decided it wouldn't be that hard to get from Krakow to Gdansk. Another flight booked. 

So in the last week of October we packed our bag full of heavy winter gear - the weather report said it would get down to zero! brr!

We arrived into Warsaw around 4pm, got on the local bus that took us to the train station and that took us to downtown Warsaw.

The hostel we stayed at (TripAdvisor reviews here) did give us amazing directions but it was dark and a bit creepy, deserted looking when we emerged from the station. We flagged down a taxi and arrived at our hostel 5 minutes later. 

After settling in our room, our receptionist gave us directions to the closest restaurant serving gluten free food. Before leaving I had printed out a 'Coeliac Restaurant card' in Polish (this website has cards in almost every langauge) which spelled out what I can and can't eat.

La Cantina is an amazing Mediterranean restaurant and almost every dish comes gluten free! You can tell the difference as the chefs stick in little Bez Glutenu flags in the GF dishes.

I opted for a creamed sauce pizza and Cara went for a delicious sounding pizza - she got GF so we could go halfsies.

 

The food was so filling! Although we were stuffed from our mains, there is ALWAYS room for Creme Brulee!

We only had 2 nights in Warsaw so we were determined to make the most of our one full day. We found a free walking tour company (here) and did the Old Town Walking Tour with Blaise. Our tour guide had a lot of information on both the history of Warsaw and local legends.

During World War II around 90% of Warsaw was bombed and destroyed. After the war and during the Communist regime a lot of the buildings were restored and today it looks almost as if the city was untouched. 

market square

   

Warsaw has a rich history and is the home of a few famous people - Pope John Paul II and Marie Curie both hail from here. 

Marie Curie Museum

Marie Curie is the only woman who has received a Nobel Prize in two different categories - chemistry and physics. 

 

Narrowest house in Warsaw

Many would have heard the story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but during World War II (1944) there was another Warsaw Uprising that involved all Poles. The Polish Resistance Home Army attempted to drive Nazi Germany out of Warsaw. The Uprising lasted for 63 days, with little outside support. The uprising ultimately failed and resulted in a massive loss of life through injury and mass executions.

A memorial showing the Polish Home Army using the sewer system to escape the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. 

The Old Town walking tour went for approximately 2.5 hours. The same company also offered a Jewish Walking Tour so Cara and I went of to lunch to wait out the 2 hours in between.

Blaise was our guide once again for our second tour.

The raised bit in the middle shows the walls of the Jewish Ghetto in 1940. 

Over the war years and with subsequent executions, rampant diseases and mass transportations, the ghetto got smaller and smaller.

As the ghetto was completely destroyed by the Nazis after liquidation, the boundary is now marked by pavers.

Our tour took us through what was the ghetto, which is now residential buildings, and ended at the Umschlagplatz memorial. 

This memorial stands where the Jewish people were gathered to be deported to the Treblinka Extermination Camp. On some days as many as 10,000 Jews were deported.

Warsaw is a vibrant city with a rich history and delicious food!. The 2 nights we spent there were definitely not enough and I would love to go back at some stage and explore the rest of the city. 

Turkey Highlights

I have just gotten back from an amazing 3 week adventure travelling around the sites of Turkey.
I will be doing in depth posts on the different aspects of my trip, but for now some photo highlights:

Balloon flight over Cappadoccia

Fairy Chimneys of Cappadoccia

Lone Pine Memorial, ANZAC Day 2014

Skydiving in the Swiss Alps

Last year, my cousin, her fiancee and another friend decided to travel across the European continent.

After hours of research and debate, we decided to go with the travel company Topdeck, as we thought they might have been a bit more 'mature' compared to other tour companies.

From the moment the I saw the optional activities for Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, I knew I had to do skydiving! I mean, what better place to throw yourself out of a perfectly working helicopter!!??

On one of the last days of June 2013, a group of us from the tour (Summer Fun & Sailing, June 28, 2013) got on a bus and were driven down to the skydiving office in town, where we signed our lives away and where most of us signed up for the photos and video package.

From there it was back up the hill to the landing site. There were 11 of us all up - 10 jumpers and 1 observer: unfortunately Daniel (the bloke on the left end) was too tall to jump.

I was in the pair to go last up, so as everybody else was taking their turns, I was doing my utmost to not freak out. This plan worked well until it was my turn to get into the helicopter! 

pumped up for a jump out!

It was fine for about the first 5 minutes, the helicopter pilot took us on a nice scenic tour - Daniel was on our jump up front with the pilot, so he got some good shots of the Swiss Alps - and then the nerves set in! Why the hell did I decide to do this??

When we reached the jump point, I was the first one out. I think this was the best way, I don't know if I would have been able to do it after watching Danilo. 

My instructor opened the side door and I just got a faceful of forceful wind. Then he tells me to stand on the helicopter leg thingys! So I was standing on them and he was crouched in the doorway, 'Now just fall' he says calmly. 

A faceful of strong wind and nothing between me and the ground 12000 feet away??? No! I wanted to get back in that helicopter on the ASAP!

he screams 'fall' I scream 'NOOO!'

Finally, I screwed up my courage and leaned forward like a banana off of the skid and plunge toward the green grass of the valley. 

The freefall of a skydive has got to be one of the scariest things you can ever do. 

Me, clearly not enjoying the freefall, and the valley I was plummeting towards at high speed. 

The instructor finally pulled on the parachute, and (thankfully) there was no problem in the deployment! I had survived the first leg of the drop! The deployment of the parachute can be quite a shock to your joints though, one second your horizontal, a microsecond later, and you're suddenly vertical! The straps certainly give your groin something to think about - lads watch out! 

My instructor did try and move about by pulling on either side of the chute (left to go left, etc) but I was having none of that! Just a leisurely glide down to earth was what I wanted! 

Before you land, you practice landing. This is using your hands to pull your legs perpendicular to your body. It's really hard to do when your dropping through gravity. Luckily, I managed the landing without any twisted ankles or broken bones!

phew! It's over and I survived!

All in all, the drop itself was about 2-3 minutes (pretty sure mine went on the longer end because I refused to let him 'sway' the chute).

Although I will always treasure this experience, there is no way in hell that I would ever put myself through it again!

The dive itself cost CHF 390 (approx $500 AUD) through Skydive XDream.

The company have a great team of experienced divers, many of who have passed there 1000th jump mark. 

If you happen to find yourself in the vicinity and are up for a bit of an adventure, I would definitely recommend them. We even got a free drink bottle! 

Thanks 2013

Dear 2013,

Thank you for a wonderful time.

We had our ups and downs, but half way through you seemed to get your shit together and treat me ( mostly) well.

Thank you for all the wonderful places you took me to, and the amazing people that I got to meet along the way. 

It's now time to say goodbye, I've found a new man - 2014.

We will always have Europe.


Love Rachael