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

Sweden baby!

SWEDEN JULY 2015

This was my last minute Scandinavia-adventure this summer.

In the early evening on July the 20th I boarded a plane toward Bromma airport, Stockholm with my mom.

As soon as the plane left Belgian ground I felt a heavy weight lift of my shoulders as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. How wonderful it was to be back at cruise height again, flying toward new adventures!

Good evening Stockholm!

Once touched down and in the tiny 'arrivals/baggage collection- hall we found my oldest sister who was already in Sweden for almost 3 weeks by car whom we would join.

Our 3 day Stockholm- adventure!

 The first day we bought a city-bike pass and cycled through the city a bit until it began to rain like hell whilst on our way back to the apartment. The picture in the middle is the 'Stadshuset' as they call it in Sweden, meaning city hall. The City hall is located next to one of the thousands of water ways in Stockholm as you can see on the picture on the right, just above.

This is the Vasa.

This maritime museum is located on the island Djugården in central Stockholm and displays the almost fully intact 17th century war ship Vasa. It's only almost fully intact 17th century ship ever salvaged. 

The Vasa sank merely 1,3km in its maiden voyage because of the very poor initial stability. A strong gust of wind forced the (open) lower gun ports under the waters surface allowing water to poor onto the lower gun deck causing the ship to sink quickly to a depth of 32m merely 120m from shore.

It was quite impressive to see the museum build around the huge full-size ship. (Impressive and hard to get onto camera as you can see thanks to very poor lighting.)

The Vasamuseet, in Swedish, is Scandinavia's most visited museum according to the official website. 

For the entire history I would love to invite you to explore this very awesome museum ! 

(for more information see: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ )

blue skies, sunshine and rainbow in Stockholm

To end the day we took our bikes again and cycled around the island of Djugården in the setting sun and ate the best sushi EVER! 

Our last day in Stockholm we woke up early for our #goodmorningStockholm boat tour.

 This early morning guided boat tour talks you through Stockholm's wonderful archipelago stopping at the island of Fjäderholmarna for a guided walked around.
This little island has merely one inhabitant who lives there all year round but s-during the summer there is loads to do. From cosy restaurants too glassblowers, pottery-makers, smiths, handicrafts, they even have a whisky brewery and pub.
After a walk around we treated ourselves to some coffee, hot chocolate and sweet treats!

At noon I had the privilege to see the royal change of guard at the royal stockholm palace which was pretty cool to see!

After Stockholm we hit the road South

 the next 2 days consisted of driving around, wild camping next to random lakes, rivers and forests, skinny dipping in the evening sun, going to bed with beautiful sunsets and home made hot chocolate, cooking and eating in the same pots on open wood fires and so much more wonderful adventures!

 

So after 3 days of driving around and camping in the wild we found a place called Kyrkekvarn Mulljsö where we rented a canoe for 2 days.
And so in the early morning of July 26 we (my mom, sister and myself) jumped into a canoe with all our survival equipment and set off. In the drizzling rain.

The First day we didn't get really far because of heavy wind, cold and a lot of rain so we made up camp at the first suitable campsite.
Even though we had only paddled for just over 2 hours that day we still kept ourselves busy with cutting fire wood, maintaining a little selfmade fire/BBQ and preparing lunch and dinner.

By next morning it had stopped raining (most of the time), the temperature had risen a few degrees and the wind had settled a great deal which gave us a great last day on the water.

Driving back down south toward Belgium we decided to stop in Copenhagen for a day as we were to drive right through it anyway.
So in our 24 hour day trip to Copenhagen we walked through the pouring rain, saw the little mermaid and heaps of other art works and statues in the city and in the Museum of modern art.
It was a good day in between long hours of driving back home. The following day we drove straight from Copenhagen to home in almost 12 hours.

It was a great sweet escape which I really really needed.

xoxo Lizzie

Sweden, July 20 - July 28 2015