An easy train out to Helsinki airport. We’re flying FinnAir to Seoul then AirNZ home. Before I even got to the airport I’d decided I would never fly FinnAir again. Their customer service is terrible! I booked these July flights in January. They did not bother to reserve a seat for us on the AirNZ flight, and when checking in they could not check us in for our second leg either! So AirNZ had no idea we were coming up…
The ferry is an easy trip. We walk on, find a table and stash all our gear. It’s 2.5 hours to fill. I just sit, by now I’m just too shattered to be much use to anyone. We find our accommodation, also very central in the city. Top up on food but not too much! We spend the next day doing the sights. ALL the Santa / Christmas stores – because, you know, Santa lives in Finland! A church in…
We arrived into Talinn about 3pm. A cute little vintage bus took my interest as soon as I got off so photos sent back to my step father in NZ “look at this bubble bus!” Messages back that it was a Japanese interpretation of a 50’s bus. Ahh the knowledge base that is my parents. From asking about snow in Morocco to buses in Estonia. We ubered to our accommodation- that APP is SO useful when moving a family…
You should know now, Riga is CUTE!! After a 4 hour bus ride where I sat on a work call for most of an hour we arrived in Riga. The bus dropped us off miles away from our accommodation, it was raining so we caught an Uber….turns out we’d arrived into Riga on their busiest week of the year, right amongst the Latvian Song and dance festival that only happens once every 5 years and for which people from…
Vilnius was the beginning of the end. It was the last leg of the journey. We were tired and it was not going to be helping that I was moving us every 3 days! I have 3 photos in my phone of our time there. RK sleeping, a bubble tea RK got and our luggage at the bus station when we left. We spent a couple of days in a hostel in the middle of town. It’s very ‘up and…
So it was meant to be an easy a quick bus trip to connect with Swiss train to the airport in Zurich, short hop up to Copenhagen then another quick hop to Vilnius, Lithuania. It wasn’t that! …and I’m missing a bag and a car seat 😩 —- Well I managed to write the above as we went along so I’ll fill in the gaps. It was QUITE the travel day! One I won’t forget for a long time! We…
As I start to write this in December I realise why I stopped writing my blogs, I was utterly exhausted, burning the candle at both ends!! So the next few blogs weren’t written as I was on the go. They’re written months later you’ll probably notice a wee bit of a different style, a bit less detail! We chose not to pay the $80NZD vignette toll as we entered into Switzerland, we’d barely be in the country 2 days and…
It was going to a long day of driving so we got up early to get on the road at 7.30am. We were heading west to Vienna back through Slovakia. We found Slovakia quite cheap so we called in at ikea to top up purchase a few things and to have their famous meatball lunch!! After driving a bit more. Mum must have been tracking my phone because a message came through….”are you going to that outlet mall” I had…
We drove north and into Poland. We’d decided staying in a big city wasn’t for us so chose an area called Zakopane. We arrived to a very beautiful area in the mountain. Very Queenstown-ish we thought. And it was cold! 16! All the central heating was on. We’re not carrying winter jarmies so I hunted through the cupboards for extra blankets. The following day we decided it was time for a water park. The area we were staying in is…
We arrived to a large apartment on the 5th floor. Checked in and Bk found his favourite supermarket, Kaufland. He was there ages texting me pictures of how cheap it was and “this is what Europe supermarkets should be like”. Needless to say, he returned with half the supermarkets worth of stuff!!! We’re only here 4 nights! The first day I did absolutely nothing. Didn’t leave the apartment. Travel fatigue had hit and I was exhausted, not at all interested…