Travel Posts

Japan 2019 – Summer in Tokyo and Nagano

October 7, 2019

While we’ve visited Japan numerous times now we’d yet to really experience the true heat and humidity of a Japanese summer. Technically it was the beginning of Autumn but the hot temperatures seemed to suggest otherwise. Shade offered little relief and we often spent as much time as we could indoors when possible. Most of our stay was in Tokyo but we also visited Nagano for a few days to escape the bustle of the city. Below are pictures from the main highlights of the trip.

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Travel Videos – May 2019

June 3, 2019

While I haven’t updated anything here for the last few months, I’ve been quietly working away on my backlog of videos from my past trips. I’ve actually written about these on the blog already but due to spreading them out over multiple posts, there didn’t seem to be any appropriate spot to include the accompanying videos.

So I’m just gonna put them both here! I’ll link to the related blog posts below each one that includes all the photos and story behind these videos.

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Austria 2016 – Innsbruck

July 22, 2018

We’re finally at the last Eurotrip destination! Our final stop in Austria was Innsbruck, neatly residing within a valley between two large mountain ranges. After nearly a month of traveling, we took a more relaxed approach to the few remaining days we had left, turning down the notch on what we wanted to see and just spent time strolling the city or resting at the hotel. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful clear skies throughout our entire stay as well, making it a nice end to our long trip.

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Time away in the hills – Montville 2018

June 21, 2018
Montville 2018 - Maleny Botanic Gardens & Bird World

I’m not the type of person to make a big occasion out of my birthday. It’s usually just another work day with some cake and a couple of gifts thrown in there but I prefer to keep the event quite low-key.

For some time I’d been thinking about taking a little trip away after hearing about other people’s weekend getaways and I began look into places I might like to visit. In my head I thought that I needed a reason or something special to take this trip, maybe I should wait until next year and go away for my 30th. I was telling someone about this and they said ‘why not do it for your birthday this year?’. They were right, there was no reason to wait and I could treat myself to this.

I decided we would stay in Montville for a few days, hidden away in the hilly slopes of the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Though our time away was short, we managed to visit the Maleny Botanic Gardens and the aviaries of Bird World, walk along one of the trails of Kondalilla National Park and see the falls as well as eat at variety of local restaurants like Secrets on the Lake and King Ludwig’s German Restaurant. I loved being up in the hills and surrounded by beautiful views, it was the perfect little escape for myself and I’m glad I got to spend some time away.

Below are a selection of photos from the short getaway in Montville :).

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Austria 2016 – Salzburg

May 31, 2018
Salzburg, Austria 2016 - Hohensalzburg Fortress

Of all the places we planned to visit during our Eurotrip, I think I was most excited about seeing Salzburg. I won’t lie, most of my preconceived ideas of the city were based solely off my love for the Sound of Music movie and I couldn’t wait to discover what it was really like. Delightfully, it completely lived up to my expectations of being a beautiful and charming town nestled in between the encompassing mountains. The only downside was the development of cold that crept up on me during the train ride but it was a minor nuisance that I could tolerate in such a lovely city.

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Austria 2016 – Vienna

April 30, 2018
Austria trip 2016 - Vienna

Day 14 – Travel day into Austria

We were up early, waiting for our bus to arrive on the main street of Mestre. We had a long bus ride from Venice to the Italian Austrian border, where we would switch and take a train the rest of the way into Vienna. A full day of travel logistics that I’ve never done before made me incredibly anxious as one mis-step could de-rail the entire trip.

I was pleasantly relieved when the bus arrived and we promptly loaded our luggage in an orderly fashion before we were on our way. The difference between the service of the driver with his friendly and helpful nature compared to those I’d dealt with in Italy instantly struck me and would become a recurring theme throughout our time in Austria.

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Italy 2016 – A rainy Venice

March 27, 2018
Venice - grand canal

After nearly 2 weeks of bustling around Italy, we would finally reach our last destination – the quintessential tourist stop of Venice. Our time actually spent in the city would end up being cut short as we experienced the only rainfall of the entire trip during our two day stay there. That said, we still made the most of our time and got to see some of the interesting parts of the city.

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Italy 2016 – A short stay in Milan

February 21, 2018
Italy Trip 2016 - Milan

When I was planning out our trip in Italy, I had no intentions of visiting Milan. However, after the discovery of a certain video game that features architecture based off the Milan Duomo, my interest was piqued and I conducted some more research on the area. I decided to re-route our journey for a quick stopover with only one full day to explore. It ended up being one of our favourite places from the Italian leg of the trip despite our short stay.

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Back in Japan – Hakone

October 3, 2017
Hakone, Japan

I’d been wanting to visit Hakone since our last trip to Japan, initially planning for it to be a day trip out of the city. After realising that travelling to and from would significantly limit our time, I decided to wait until our most recent trip to stay a couple of nights in the area.

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Back in Japan – Tokyo 2017

June 12, 2017
Tokyo, Japan 2017

We knew as soon as we left Japan last time that we would be back and after two years we were landing in Tokyo once again. I consider visiting Japan as something of a ‘true holiday’ because the usual stresses of overseas travel have been replaced by familiar routines from previous trips. I’m able to really relax because I know how to get around on their public transport, where my favourite places are to eat, what I want to go see again. Everything is just easier and I can fully enjoy our time there.

In Tokyo we would visit our usual haunts like Akihabara and Nakano broadway to nerd out on figurines (two full suitcases of them in fact) and wander the streets of Harajuku for new clothes. We’d also visit Disneyland again, though it would end up being rained out, and hit up our favourite sushi train in Shibuya almost daily.

This trip would also see us exploring new places like our day out to Yokohama along with our first shrine festival – Kanda Matsuri and other sights like Roppongi Hills and the Salt and Tobacco Museum (way more interesting then it sounds). This would also be our first time visiting Hakone which we stayed at for a few days. I’ll write a full post on this later.

Enjoy this small collection of photos, all taken in or around the Tokyo area.

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