19 May 2018, Saturday After two days in Vienna, it was time to head west to Salzburg, the fourth largest city of Austria. Salzburg was one of the places I was really excited about, because like many others, I grew up watching the classic 1965 film The Sound of Music, and the songs from the […]
Category: The Grand Adventure 2018
18 May 2018, Friday The main agenda for today is a visit to Schönbrunn Palace, aka Schloss Schönbrunn (click here). It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is Vienna’s most-visited tourist attraction. Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence for the Habsburg rulers and it dates back to the year 1569. The palace building […]
Austria | Europe | Hungary | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 17 – Hungary (Budapest) / Austria (Vienna)
17 May 2018, Thursday Rise and shine, it’s time to move on to another city! At about 7:40am, we checked out of our Budapest Airbnb apartment and took the Metro to the railway station. The approximately 245km train journey to Vienna, the capital of Austria, takes just under three hours. Compared to the 8.5-hour train […]
16 May 2018, Wednesday It was our third and last full day in Budapest. The weather forecast showed that it would be mostly cloudy today, with temperatures ranging from 13 to 18 degrees Celsius. I was happy as long as it wasn’t raining. We set off at about 10am, with the first objective of getting […]
15 May 2018, Tuesday After a well-rested night, we were all ready and raring to go this morning. However, the weather wasn’t on our side as it was raining and a chilly 12 degrees Celsius. The forecast showed that the rain would stop at about 12pm or later. The rain and gloomy weather hampered our […]
Europe | Hungary | Serbia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 14 – Serbia (Belgrade) / Hungary (Budapest)
14 May 2018, Monday After spending two short days in Serbia, it was time to move on to another city and country – Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Before this trip, I have heard so much from my relatives and friends who have visited Budapest, and they all said that it is a very beautiful […]
13 May 2018, Sunday It’s our second day in Serbia and we have a full day today to explore. We left our apartment at about 9:15am and walked towards the Temple of Saint Sava, about 20 minutes away on foot. As it was a Sunday morning, the streets were quiet and clear of vehicles. All […]
Bulgaria | Europe | Serbia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 12 – Bulgaria (Sofia) / Serbia (Belgrade)
12 May 2018, Saturday After just one night in Sofia, it was time to move on to another country. We woke up at about 5:15am and it was a chilly 9 degrees Celsius outside. After munching on our breakfast, we checked out of our Airbnb apartment and walked to Central Bus Station, arriving at about […]
Bulgaria | Europe | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 11 – Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad / Sofia)
11 May 2018, Friday After a blissful night’s rest, we woke up bright and early to clear blue skies and 12 degrees Celsius weather. It was a beautiful morning. We had our breakfast before checking out of the apartment at about 8am. Initially, we encountered some difficulties flagging a taxi but thankfully, we managed to […]
Bulgaria | Europe | Greece | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 10 – Greece (Thessaloniki) / Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad)
10 May 2018, Thursday After spending nine days in Greece, it was time to move on to Bulgaria, the second country of my trip. Our Thessaloniki Airbnb host Asteris swung by the apartment in the morning to check us out. He then gave us a ride to the railway station, saving us the hassle and […]
Europe | Greece | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 9 – Greece (Kalabaka / Thessaloniki)
9 May 2018, Wednesday Day 9 and it’s our last day in Greece. This morning, our Airbnb host Dimitrios kindly gave us a lift from the house to the railway station. After bidding him farewell, we caught the train 590 and departed Kalabaka at 8:19am. The journey to Thessaloniki was not a direct one. At […]
8 May 2018, Tuesday I woke up feeling super excited because we were going to visit the Meteora rock formations and monasteries today. When I started planning this trip months ago, Meteora was one of the first things I pencilled in, so I was greatly looking forward to it. I initially considered touring the monasteries […]
Europe | Greece | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 7 – Greece (Santorini / Kalabaka)
7 May 2018, Monday This morning we set off early (as usual) as our driver sent us to the Santorini airport to catch our 9:55am flight to Athens. The drive from Fira to the airport took only 10 minutes and we arrived at 8am. The short ride cost us 30 Euros (S$48.75) though. I had […]
6 May 2018, Sunday As we had brought forward our Oia visit to yesterday, we had the whole day available to explore Fira today. That meant waking up slightly later, but not too late, as the weather forecast still showed that it was likely going to rain later in the day. At about 8:30am, we […]
Europe | Greece | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 5 – Greece (Mykonos / Santorini)
5 May 2018, Saturday This morning, we reluctantly checked out of our Airbnb apartment as we prepared to bid farewell to lovely Mykonos. Last night, I had arranged for my Airbnb host to send us to the port to catch our 9:50am Sea Jets ferry to Santorini. At 9:00am, the host’s brother arrived and he […]
4 May 2018, Friday It was a very relaxed day as we didn’t have any agenda at all. Most people who visit Mykonos will do a day trip to the nearby island of Delos, which is significant for being the birthplace of Apollo (god of daylight) and Artemis (god of night light), according to Greek […]
3 May 2018, Thursday We woke up very early today because we had to catch an early ferry to Mykonos. At about 5:35am, we checked out of our Airbnb apartment in Plaka and walked to the train station at Syntagma to catch the Metro to Piraeus. From Syntagma, we would have to change a train […]
2 May 2018, Wednesday This morning, we woke up bright and early for our visit to the Acropolis. From our apartment in Plaka, we walked for 10 minutes and reached the Southeast side gate entrance at around 7:50am. There are two entrances to the Acropolis and the West entrance is the main one where all […]
Europe | Greece | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 1 – Singapore to Greece (Athens)
1 May 2018, Tuesday On 1 May 2018 at 2:35am, together with my parents, I took my one flight out of Singapore to Greece. My uncle, aunt and cousin, as well as two of my friends LW and AW, had gone to the airport to send us off. Earlier, my other cousin FL had also fetched […]
Finally the day has come. In a few hours’ time, I will be boarding the Scoot flight and taking my One Flight Out to Europe. If all goes well, I will be returning home just in time to celebrate National Day. This trip has been more than nine months in the making. I prefer not […]