2 Feb 2014

TO TRAVEL


Provence

I've got the travelling bug. My feet are itchy. And all of those other clichés. I wanted to see new places this year. I love Berlin, but felt that I had done it to death over the past three years. It was time for a change, I was dreaming of far flung places in Canada, New Zealand and the North West coast of America. Places that my bank balance wouldn't stretch to. 

Well, I made a compromise. There are plenty of places right here in Europe that I have yet to visit. And there is a method of travelling that I have always wanted to try: inter-railing. Festival-booking, map-perusing and travel-blog-reading has led to the booking of two dream trips: one west and one east.

Trip 1: Eleven friends, Primavera festival and a scenic trip by TGV to get there. We arrive in Paris by Eurostar, spending just one night in the City of Love. Departing the next day by high-speed train, we will make our way to the romantic region of Provence; where we will spend a couple of days day-trippin' to Gorges du Verdon and vast lavender fields, wandering down narrow streets and eating fresh fruit and vegetables from the markets. And posing for photographs outside the ingenious bookshop (photographed below); obviously. We then travel on to Barcelona for four days of incredible music (Pixies, The National, Arcade Fire, Television, Mogwai), admiring the architecture and hanging out on the beach.

Trip 2: The ultimate dream trip by rail. Just me and Dave, adventuring across three countries that I have yet to step foot in. We begin in Budapest, where we will admire the castle, take a dip in a natural spa and drink ourselves silly in the ruins bars. Then on to Zagreb; exploring the city, sliding down sculptures in the Museum of Contemporary Art and visiting the nearby Plitvice Lake National Park (somewhere that I have always dreamt of). The final step on our whistle-stop tour will be the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. Here, we will hike up to the castle that overlooks Europe's smallest capital city, stroll over Dragon Bridge and take a day-trip to Lake Bled. To conclude our adventure, we are travelling back to Budapest for an extra two days in the city before flying home.

Summer can't come soon enough.

Budapest
 Ljubljana (and Lake Bled)
 Zagreb (and Plitvice)
Barcelona

1 comment

  1. What an amazing summer (*jealous*)! I've been to all those places except Provence + I live in Zagreb and let me tell you, you're gonna love it!
    xxx

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