It has been a while since I've posted something from my trips here and cards have seemed to pile up, so it is about time to decrease that pile and take a short tour from my last year trips...and a few extra cards :)
Now before I get down to this, in case you sometimes don't get a card from me from my travels, it may be cos of a few reasons:
- time-constraints....sometimes my agenda is so tight, that I just dont have that right time to write some cards =/
- finances...frankly, this may be the most frequent reason...being a freelancer, I travel on the budget most of the time, and sometimes money is unfortunately limited =/
- change of address...some of you people end up moving and I either had no idea about it, or hadn't noted the correct address down and the card doesn't reach you...although I must point out the Norwegian Postal system has done a tremendous job here, delivering a card to someone who didn't live at the address for over a year :)
- and last but not least, the card gets lost....and right now I am so frustrated with the Spanish postal system, cos it has delivered like just half of the cards I've sent from my last trip..HALF! And we are speaking about like more than 40 cards here....HALF delivered...and it's been a month!! It is just outrageous!! It is not just about the money here, but also the thrill, you know...you send surprise cards to people, and then there is no sign of it...disastrous!
well, anyways, lets see what was on the agenda last year...I did this update somewhat chronologically...
First in April, it was Vienna...
Even though I've been to Vienna before, I didn't mind having it on the agenda again cos my previous encounter with this fantastic city was in 2004, so it was about time to refresh those memories...and what can I say, I fell in love with it again...
Went there with my two travelling buddies, Marija and Sašo for the Easter holidays, and it was a cool trip from the very start...we went by bus (yeah, I know I know Vienna is far, but here a lot of trips are organized by bus since it also makes them very affordable)...and for the first time in my life I got to sit right behind the driver...and had this fantastic view in front of me while we were on the road...no other people's heads or seats, just a great view! I was so thrilled, that I barely slept...just didn't want to miss out something...ok, I admit, the driver was this charming man, so I just kinda wanted to chat with him, even though I am quite terrible when chatting to people I don't know and extremely clumsy when it is a person I like in question....but well making a fool of myself isn't something new :)
Then we had to cross the Hungarian border...but the guy from the Travel Agency got a call that there is a huge line of buses waiting at the Horgos-Roszke border that's usually used, so they all decided that we would go to the Kelebija-Tompa one...based on my passport stamp.
Even though we arrived there in the middle of the night, last thing I'd expected was that we would wake up the people working there...they were actually surprised to see us, wondered how on Earth did we know about that border crossing and openly told us NOT to come to their border crossing on our way back....huh?!!
One of the man who was stamping the passports asked our tour-guide to sing something in Macedonian if we wanted to cross the border...huh again?? And it is one of those moments when you don't know if you should burst out laughing or play it cool cos you don't know what consequences it may have...
Anyways, we arrived in Vienna, in beautiful sunshine, and the first day of course was the usual sightseeing...that's when I found this Hundertwasser card, scribbled it on the bus and dropped it in the mailbox...Hunderwasser is like one of my favourite spots in Vienna...it is like the Austrian Gaudi.
We also got to visit the Belvedere...and a bit later I posted it on Facebook...just to realize that my friend from Taiwan, HsuPeng was also there just an hour or so later! I couldnt believe it at the coincidence...I mean what are the chances that you end up at the same spot with a friend from a totally different part of the world?!! Well, we didnt manage to see each other then of course, we both had our own packed agendas, but we caught up a few months later here in Skopje :)
On the second day we weren't really in Vienna (see the next post), and on the third day, we went to the Donaturm first - me hanging there
and then afterwards, most of the people went to Schönbrunn...but being that I've already visited the place, didnt feel like going again...well one of my friends has been there too and our first idea was to go back to Belvedere and see the Klimt exhibition...but I changed my mind and went to Prater instead...I like Klimt, but honestly I'm kinda fed up with museums and cathedrals and all...don't get me wrong about this..I love art and history...but sometimes when my time at a place is so limited (and it always is), I don't feel like spending half or an entire day at a museum...Id rather be doing something else even if that means just chilling out with coffee and observing people or just walking around...anyways, this time Prater won, cos I totally love roller-coasters and there was no way Id choose Klimt over this :)
well, of course, the meeting point later was at Schönbrunn, so since my friend and I arrived there a bit early, we took a walk around the gardens...and of course, took a few pictures :)
and unfortunately, after Schönbrunn, we started our journey back home...so yeah, a really short stay...but a great one...and it wouldnt be me if I didnt get to drink coffee/eat something sweet whenever possible :) Highly recommend the Ice Cream parlour on Schwedenplatz...and the other ones were awesome, but can't possibly recall the names...the one with the Mozart liquer was Castelletto - that was actually more like a restaurant, but with a really cool atmosphere...and I think the one with the cake was somewhere on Stephansplatz...I always kinda mix Schweden and Stephansplatz...
are you still with me??!! Good :)
two stamps on the card...the one on the right was issued in 2003 in a set of two stamps titled "Holidays in Austria" and this one shows Mondsee...the bird stamp is from the two Fauna stamps issued in 2010, with this one showing European Roller.
so, briefly..or maybe not that briefly, that was Vienna :)
Now before I get down to this, in case you sometimes don't get a card from me from my travels, it may be cos of a few reasons:
- time-constraints....sometimes my agenda is so tight, that I just dont have that right time to write some cards =/
- finances...frankly, this may be the most frequent reason...being a freelancer, I travel on the budget most of the time, and sometimes money is unfortunately limited =/
- change of address...some of you people end up moving and I either had no idea about it, or hadn't noted the correct address down and the card doesn't reach you...although I must point out the Norwegian Postal system has done a tremendous job here, delivering a card to someone who didn't live at the address for over a year :)
- and last but not least, the card gets lost....and right now I am so frustrated with the Spanish postal system, cos it has delivered like just half of the cards I've sent from my last trip..HALF! And we are speaking about like more than 40 cards here....HALF delivered...and it's been a month!! It is just outrageous!! It is not just about the money here, but also the thrill, you know...you send surprise cards to people, and then there is no sign of it...disastrous!
well, anyways, lets see what was on the agenda last year...I did this update somewhat chronologically...
First in April, it was Vienna...
Even though I've been to Vienna before, I didn't mind having it on the agenda again cos my previous encounter with this fantastic city was in 2004, so it was about time to refresh those memories...and what can I say, I fell in love with it again...
Went there with my two travelling buddies, Marija and Sašo for the Easter holidays, and it was a cool trip from the very start...we went by bus (yeah, I know I know Vienna is far, but here a lot of trips are organized by bus since it also makes them very affordable)...and for the first time in my life I got to sit right behind the driver...and had this fantastic view in front of me while we were on the road...no other people's heads or seats, just a great view! I was so thrilled, that I barely slept...just didn't want to miss out something...ok, I admit, the driver was this charming man, so I just kinda wanted to chat with him, even though I am quite terrible when chatting to people I don't know and extremely clumsy when it is a person I like in question....but well making a fool of myself isn't something new :)
Then we had to cross the Hungarian border...but the guy from the Travel Agency got a call that there is a huge line of buses waiting at the Horgos-Roszke border that's usually used, so they all decided that we would go to the Kelebija-Tompa one...based on my passport stamp.
Even though we arrived there in the middle of the night, last thing I'd expected was that we would wake up the people working there...they were actually surprised to see us, wondered how on Earth did we know about that border crossing and openly told us NOT to come to their border crossing on our way back....huh?!!
One of the man who was stamping the passports asked our tour-guide to sing something in Macedonian if we wanted to cross the border...huh again?? And it is one of those moments when you don't know if you should burst out laughing or play it cool cos you don't know what consequences it may have...
Anyways, we arrived in Vienna, in beautiful sunshine, and the first day of course was the usual sightseeing...that's when I found this Hundertwasser card, scribbled it on the bus and dropped it in the mailbox...Hunderwasser is like one of my favourite spots in Vienna...it is like the Austrian Gaudi.
We also got to visit the Belvedere...and a bit later I posted it on Facebook...just to realize that my friend from Taiwan, HsuPeng was also there just an hour or so later! I couldnt believe it at the coincidence...I mean what are the chances that you end up at the same spot with a friend from a totally different part of the world?!! Well, we didnt manage to see each other then of course, we both had our own packed agendas, but we caught up a few months later here in Skopje :)
On the second day we weren't really in Vienna (see the next post), and on the third day, we went to the Donaturm first - me hanging there
and then afterwards, most of the people went to Schönbrunn...but being that I've already visited the place, didnt feel like going again...well one of my friends has been there too and our first idea was to go back to Belvedere and see the Klimt exhibition...but I changed my mind and went to Prater instead...I like Klimt, but honestly I'm kinda fed up with museums and cathedrals and all...don't get me wrong about this..I love art and history...but sometimes when my time at a place is so limited (and it always is), I don't feel like spending half or an entire day at a museum...Id rather be doing something else even if that means just chilling out with coffee and observing people or just walking around...anyways, this time Prater won, cos I totally love roller-coasters and there was no way Id choose Klimt over this :)
well, of course, the meeting point later was at Schönbrunn, so since my friend and I arrived there a bit early, we took a walk around the gardens...and of course, took a few pictures :)
and unfortunately, after Schönbrunn, we started our journey back home...so yeah, a really short stay...but a great one...and it wouldnt be me if I didnt get to drink coffee/eat something sweet whenever possible :) Highly recommend the Ice Cream parlour on Schwedenplatz...and the other ones were awesome, but can't possibly recall the names...the one with the Mozart liquer was Castelletto - that was actually more like a restaurant, but with a really cool atmosphere...and I think the one with the cake was somewhere on Stephansplatz...I always kinda mix Schweden and Stephansplatz...
are you still with me??!! Good :)
two stamps on the card...the one on the right was issued in 2003 in a set of two stamps titled "Holidays in Austria" and this one shows Mondsee...the bird stamp is from the two Fauna stamps issued in 2010, with this one showing European Roller.
so, briefly..or maybe not that briefly, that was Vienna :)
1 comment:
I have not been there before, but hope to someday. The postcard is wonderful! I love all the colors on the buildings. :D
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