Deuces, Deutschland!

Peace out, Germany! Hello Begium!!! After endless weeks hearing about other peoples' vacations, it's officially our turn! Omg, I can't effing wait. It's just important for me to continue travelling, you know? I feel like lately I haven't been doing it as often as I'd like, so seeing something different, even if it's just a neighbouring country, is invaluable for me. Yup, we take off for Belgium in a few hours.

Antwerp will be our first stop. And then I've kinda roughly planned it like this: Antwerp --> Gent --> Brugge --> hit the coast --> head back inland onto Brussels. Camping/Backpacker stylezzzz. We gangster like that. We don't need the hotels and the high life. Not yet, anyway. Teehee. Okay kids, have fun!!! And enjoy what's left of the summer, k?! Tschüß!!!!!

Sachertorte-samplin' in Salzburg

My longing and lust to try The Original Sachertorte began a few years ago, when my dear friend Anh gave me a slice to try from a Sachertorte-style cake that she'd baked. I was intrigued by the flavours, and at the time, I hadn't been able to find the cake (of superior taste and quality, anyway) anywhere in Toronto. So you could only imagine my excitement when I was standing right in front of the place in Austria where the Sachertorte was supposedly invented! The story goes as follows...



A fellow named Franz Sacher created the cake back in somethin' like 1832, and eventually his son carried on the recipe. The cake was first officially served at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. As such, Hotel Sacher claims to have "The Original Sachertorte," and since they have a location in Salzburg, I was lucky enough to try it! But ya know what? It really wasn't all that and a bag of chips. Yeah yeah yeah, chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam and coated with dark chocolate icing - so what?! I've eaten homemade cakes that've tasted better! Textures were aiight but that icing really didn't tickle my fancy.

Lady with Red Balloons

We hadn't planned on visiting Austria at all during our roadtrip, but since Salzburg was along the way back to Braunschweig, we thought, "Why the heck not?!" Much to my discontent, we were only able to spend one hour (can you believe it?!) in the city. Time was of the essence but it was still well worth it! As we quickly strolled through Mirabelle Gardens, I spotted a group of people wearing what I thought was "Bavarian" clothing. But I've come to learn that this type of traditional dress (e.g. this woman's Dirndl) is worn in Bavaria, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol, and Austria.

Marché in Slovenia??!

Along a major Slovenian highway somewhere between Austria and Croatia, we made a pit-stop at a Marché during our roadtrip. It was freaky because it felt like I coulda been at the Richtree on Yonge Street in Toronto, for goodness' sakes! ...only the signs were all written in Slovenian. But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to find this candycane-shaped pretzel or this jam-filled donut (called Berliner in German) in Toronto [insert evil laugh]. BTW: really wish we had the chance to see more of Slovenia!!

After whittling down 2000 fotos to roughly 200 fotos, here it finally is! Hrvatskaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Top 8 Fave Fotos: Croatia Roadtrip 2012

Here are my Top 8 fave fotos from our Croatia Roadtrip [September 15-29, 2012]. Taken by either André or myself, I feel like these photos capture the true essence of Hrvatska: one long beautiful coastline, red-roofed Mediterranean-looking houses, rocky bays, creepy and abandoned buildings, underrated inland nature... the list goes on! Peep my Flickr photo album for mo'... ...

Deuces, Deutschland!

It's official — we're vacaying the eff outta Braunschweig! HEUTE! Endlichhhh! Dora the Explorer is back in full effect, ya'll! And we're doin' it low-budget/adventure/roadtrip styles (just our cups of tea)! Croatia-bound as of...................................................... NOW! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oz 2010-2011: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

For shits & giggs, I've plotted my journey in Oz and New Zealand (11/2010-10/2011) on this map. The dotted lines represent traveling by plane and the solid lines represent traveling by train or automobile. Oz is such a huge country, it'd take me at least 2 years to backpack it properly. As such, I didn't have the time (nor the $) to explore the Kimberleys or SA :( I am, however, proud to say that I literally came full circle and achieved most of my work/travel goals in Oz. Hallelujah! Let it be known that if you (YES, you!) are in need of Oz-y backpacker-ish tips/advice, you know who to holler at.



(START)
Melbourne

flew: San Francisco > Melbs
worked: 3 months in Melbs
roadtripped: up to Sydney (coastal route)
roadtripped: down to Melbs (inland route)
flew: Melbs > Auckland
roadtripped: down the North Island to Wellington (inland route)
roadtripped: down the South Island to Queenstown (coastal route)
flew: Christchurch > Sydney
flew: Sydney > Perth
worked: 2.5 months in Perth
flew: Perth > Alice Springs
roadtripped: west to Kings Canyon & Ayers Rock
roadtripped: east to Alice Springs & up to Darwin
worked: 9 weeks in Jabiru
flew: Darwin > Cairns
roadtripped: down to Byron Bay (coastal route)
road the rails: down to Sydney (coastal route)

(FINISH)
Sydney

Disposable (Waterproof) Camera Fun!

Roadtrip | Alice Springs, NT to Darwin, NT | 27 June ― 7 July 2011

Florence Falls & Buley Rock Pools, Litchfield Nat'l Park | Bitter Springs & Roper River, Mataranka

We began our journey in Australia's "Red Centre," driving up north to the country's tropical "Top End." In 11 action-packed days, we saw and experienced mind-blowing natural wonders. John (the funny, easy-going British bloke), Ben (the Israeli giant), Cecile and Julie (the friendly French girls) and I had an unforgettable time on the road together. Kudos to Gumtree and hostel bulletin boards for helping us find travel mates in each other, bahaha.

Long story short, my Sony digicam effed up and stopped working sometime throughout the roadtrip. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because luckily, John had a spare camera I could use. And guess what?! It was an underwater camera! And it was soooo much fun to use! Why? Because I had forgotten what it felt like to take pictures like back in the day.. that feeling of hoping for the best with each click.. because you don't have the luxury of deleting the photo and taking another one.

These 8 are my favourite photos of the set of 27. WYSIWYG! I haven't cropped any of these photos, nor have I messed around with them in Photoshop. I absolutely love how they turned out! They have an old-school quality to them.. vivid colours.. a grainy-ish texture.. love! Look at how that kid jumping into the water almost appears 3D, awesome! And look closely at the photo in the bottom right-hand corner. If you can spot the croc, you win a prize. The disposable camera is not dead, folks!

Food-y Australian Tea Towels

Love the aesthetic of these Aussie tea towels! I spotted them at the Info Centre in Tennant Creek, a small town we passed by while roadtrippin' the Outback. The tinge of brown that both tea towels have reminds me an art technique back from when I was a young one. We'd let (Tetley?) tea bags soak in big buckets of warm water, then crumple up sheets of white paper in the water. After the paper was laid out to dry, you'd end up with imperfect, ol' school-lookin' brown sheets of paper. Perfect for a variety of school projects! Anyone wanna make me Drover's Damper?