summer summer summer

Quick last recap before the start of my Aussie adventures part2

My European summer started out pretty good. Everything was going as good as I could've hoped for. Within a week I had a place to live in my beloved Ghent, within another week I got a job with great colleagues and I had reunited with all my loved ones. 

I had just over a month to finish and perfect my dissertation, which I did. And I could not have been prouder of the result. After all the stress of finishing my dissertation I escaped life for a short city trip to the beautiful city of Prague.

Phara, July 2018

One day I might write a post good enough for this beautiful city. because it really is a gem. But for now I hope to spark something within you to go and experience it for yourself.

You can't miss the beauty of this wonderfull city. There are so many places to see and things to eat. Easy to walk around and get lost for days in the small ancient streets, up to the castle or to the other side of town to the memorial hill. Something new to see, experience and eat around every corner. 

Vítkov memorial hill view

Castle hill vineyard

We only spend a couple of days here at the end of June, but we absolutely loved it and I would love to go back and explore the city even more. 
Sleeping in the many parks along the river, walking far and wide for the best views of the city and eating in small alley ways was great to start off our European summer!

famous 'dancing house'

Vítkov memorial 

picturesque old town

View over old town from the astronomical clock
with the national memorial on Vítkov in the back

Ghent, summer of 2018

Two weeks after Praha we booked our flights to Melbourne, Australia. Finally. I was going back.

But first, I still had to finish my degree. obviously. 

So my last European summer I spent living quite a good life, finally in the city centre with a good job, my friends and loved ones close, exploring ever more corners of the beautiful city of Ghent. 

Nature reserve, 'Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen' just a
10min bike ride out of the city

Castle of the counts on a beautiful summers day

day break at work on the Korenmarkt

Another couple weeks of hell survived and I finally, FINALLY got message that my three years of hard hard work had paid off and that I would officially be graduated about a week before my departure for Australia.

Edinburgh, September 2018

Off we went to Edinburgh, my brother, two sisters and myself. Off to our very first all sibling adventure!

Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, again a great European getaway. We were only there for a couple of days again but managed to get the most out of our time nonetheless (considering my oldest sister was highly pregnant at the time lol)

Ancient buildings woven in between so many parks, I love discovering and exploring these kind of places around the world. Plus it reminds me you don't always have to go far and wide to find great travel destinations !

Pretty chilly as summer draws to an end quite a bit sooner as in the south of Europe we still had great weather, always in for treats, coffees or lunch at the right times to avoid the showers.
Also very exciting was that I met up with a friend from Costa Rica here aswel! Which was super fun to see and catch up with her again. So great full for the people I'm meeting and reuniting with around the world. 

Arthurs seat is just a walk out of the city, a decent walk up is rewarded
with absolutely magnificent views all round.

I spend my last week in Belgium moving my stuff from my place in Ghent to my moms house across the country and then organising all my stuff at home. Sorting out what I wanted to take with me, what I wanted to keep and what I wouldn't need anymore at all.
Spending time with friends and family, trying to have seen everyone before my one way departure to the other side of the world.

Excitement building, I couldn't have been more ready to go back.

Today I'm almost 4 months into my adventure and so much has happened. can't wait to finally start filling you in on all the weird and wonderful moments I've had here.

xoxo Liz

a hot second - 2017recap

Hey all, 

It's been another hot second since y'all heard from me on here!

2 years, almost to date.

So much has happened, I've been to great places, met wonderful people and most importantly I've grown in life.

In this post I'm going to give you all, and myself a recap of those 24 months. To continue posting about my great Aussie adventures after.

2017

Starting where I left off at the end of January 2017.

Shortly after returning home from this great trip I kind of rolled into a relationship which felt like the best thing in the world. 

Which leads me to my second adventure of 2017 in April. 

Portugal, April 2017

During this two week trip I celebrated my 21st birthday in the beautiful city of Porto.

Thus for filling my life goal to spend my birthday in a new country every year for the 3rd year in a row!

Oporto

 Heading down to Lisbon, we rented a car and road tripped the remaining West Coast down to the beautiful Algarve. 

It was an awesome trip, full of good coffee, sleeping on beaches, learning to surf, spontaneous kayaking, beautiful sunsets in the best company possible.

I'd always dreamt of travelling with my partner, and now I was finally able to share my travels.

beach camping somewhere on the south west coast

Lisbon

everlasting beach views

Atlantic Ocean cotton candy sunsets

 After this great getaway vacation it was back to reality, back to uni. 

Heading into summer I surprised my partner (and myself) with a srprs.me trip which ended up flying us to one of my favourite cities in Europe, Budapest !

Budapest, June 2017

As you either know, or don't, I lived in the beautiful city of Budapest with my family for 4 years when I was younger. 

So you could definitely say I have a soft spot for the country and it's beautiful capital.

It had been a couple of years since I had visited and this time I was able to finally show my partner around the city I hold dearly in my heart.

Hősök tere

Even though we only had a couple of days worth citytrip we still got the most out of it.

Walking around for hours, beholding all the sights to see and relaxing in the thermal baths

Széchenyi thermal baths

Safe to say it was a great ending to a good uni-year.

the magnificent royal parliament

To round off this very euro-tripping year I went city tripping with my dearest sister, Tweenie, in Marseille, France!

Marseille, September 2017

After a great summer, this little city trip was the perfect way to end the summer and start the new (and my last!) uni year.

We chose marseille for no other reason really than that the flights were cheap, we found a good hotel deal and the sun was sure to shine so off we went !

A great balance again, between old and new city and nature close by. National park de Calanques is absolutely magnificent and easy accessible by bus or ferry from Marseille. The park is great to go sea kayaking to explore the beautiful coastline. unfortunately it was too windy to go out on kayak so we set out on foot as far as we could without hiking boots. 

the picturesque town of Callelongue

R.I.P. Zorro
one of the greatest losses in life

And even though my travelling year ended on a high, not all was as well. Once uni began again, the pressure of passing all my subjects to go on an international internship and to get my degree in general grew immensely. This combined with getting a kitten and having to let him go merely a month after we got him and some other personal downs. My year ended in more of a minor. 

Safe to say I was great full for the adventures I had in 2017 but extremely looking forward to going solo again in 2018.

2018

After going through another bit of hell (reed: exams) in January. February could not have come quick enough for I was heading off to Costa Rica for a solid 3 months of solo travel and wildlife rescue internship!!

I could not have been happier to leave Belgium behind and head off across the ocean for yet another great adventure. 

And what an adventure it was.

Stayed tuned for my full recap of my time in beautiful Costa Rica, my summer back home and my journey back to the wonderful land of Oz !

xoxo Liz

Iconic Ireland

In the mood for an easy get away? To a place where you'll rarely have to fuss around with sticky sunscreen, but you can snuggle up next to each other under an umbrella 200days a year on average. Then Ireland is your place to go!

Fáilte go hÉirinn !

(Welcome to Ireland)

As described by the lonely planet the land of ancient rocks and great legends this country has something for everyone. Looking for vibrant city's? feeling like long coastal hikes? In the mood for viking history or just a good pint of Guinness? 

Daily flights from Brussels international airport will bring you to Dublin, the beating hart and capital of this extraordinary republic. From there it's easy access all across the country by car, train, bus, coach bike or hike if you're feeling very adventurous.

My friend and I only had just over 60 hours worth of city trip, I think we're safe to say we got absolutely everything out of it we possibly could.

So early evening flight out of Brussels got us to our hostel by 10pm and out for dinner, a beer and a bit of live music in the bar around the corner from the hostel.

DAY 1 - rain/sunshine/rain/clouds/rain

TIPP: always find a hostel that offers free breakfast! even if it isn't much, it's always better than starting your day having to getting your money out right away.

To get the most out of our day we sorted ourselves out with a 24hour Hop on Hop off bus ticket to get us to all the must see places easiest.

The spire

So of we where, hopping on and off busses every time we felt like it.

Beginning at the spire, ...

..., eavesdropping on walking tours through the Trinity College grounds, ....

Ireland houses of Parliament on your right and the Irish whisky museum on the corner right in front 

..., taking out our sunnies for every ray of sunshine on the rooftop of the bus, ....

Saint Andrews Church 

..., getting of at Temple bar coming across the Molly Malone statue by accident, ....

Molly Malone 

..., finding an awesome 60ties diner called Eddie Rocket's, reasonably priced sliders, fries and a soda in a real old school fashion city diner is all we needed for lunch, ... 

Dublinia

.., stepping back in time in the viking history museum in Dublinia, wandering some more around Dublin castle, St Patricks Cathedral, the huge Guinness brewery and storehouse and Phoenix park among many others. To end a very busy day with a good meal and a big pint of Guinness accompanied by some live music as you must whilst in Dublin.

Christ Church Cathedral

Meanwhile we had decided to take a day tour to the west coast the next day and so we did.

After a painfully early morning we got on a coach for DAY 2 - rain/wind/rain/more wind/sunshine!

First stop; walking tour around charming Galway city

This 'City of the tribes' will be European capital of Culture in 2020 and for good measure. The cultural heart of Ireland, the city has over 23 festivals a year finding a reason to celebrate just about every,- and anything!

The Lynch window

Ireland might ass well be the land of the legends under the motto: "never let the truth get in the way of a good story".  

That being said, legend let's us believe that from this very window former mayor James Lynch FitzStephen hanged his own son, as judge and executioner,  for the murder of a Spanish young man who he had mistaken for being his girlfriend's lover.

St Nicholas' Collegiate Church

This collegiate church in the city centre, dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra (the patron saint of seafarers) in recognition of Galway's status of being a port and always stood central of life in Galway (literally and figural speaking that is).  

Fun fact: In 2002 the church hosted the first same-sex marriage in an Irish church.

As you may notice the tower has a clock missing on it's north-western side. This because, the roman catholic Galway Cathedral sits on that side of the city and the parish church didn't want the roman Catholics to be able to see the time from their clocks.

After a few hours in a cosy bus listening to, possibly, the best tour guide/bus driver talking about the Irish desert, Halloween by the Celts and how it all started, about the Wild Atlantic way on which we were driving and how it's the longest designated coastal road in the world, teaching us Irish and so much more. To stop at the best places for pictures through the bellowing wind and horizontal rainfall.

Around noon we stopt in a little village of Doolin with an old fashion pub where we had an absolutely mouth watering home made beef Guinness stew to brace ourselves for the absolute cherry on top of our trip, the Cliffs of Moher.

These magnificent cliffs rise about 214m out of the Atlantic Ocean on the highest point which O'Brien's tower marks, but have an average height of 120m from sea level.

It was down right jaw-dropping amazing to be on the edge of the Atlantic ocean. It's an absolute must-do if you're in Ireland, because even the most beautiful pictures can't capture the essence of this extraordinary site. Yet, we try.

travel buddy, Manon, looking over at O'Brien's tower

Manon and myself being blown away by the wind, trying to take a selfie

lushes green grass sides and slithers of blue sky and sun after a long days rain,
things couldn't have been better.

Feel like hopping on a coach to see these beauties for you self? Head over to the Dublin tour company website or ask your hostel is they go with the company for more information on all the different tours and prices, don't forget your student card, most tours give student discounts!!

 An elegant sunset drive across the country back to Dublin brought us to the end of our impulsive 62 hour city trip. As proper broke backpackers we had a painfully early flight in the morning so we slept in the airport to have a Starbucks breakfast at 3 AM before our flight back to Belgium. 

As uni has begun again, it'll be all about city tripping again until time (and money) for more!

xoxo Lizzie

Dublin/Ireland, Sept 6 to 10th 2016