Our First Overseas Adventure

This morning Ben and I arrived at Standsted Airport after a weekend away.. We came back from our first International trip, our first trip to a country where the first language is not English- and I can tell you it was a pretty amazing experience.

I didn't think about the language barrier at all until we arrived. Until I was hungry and wanted to order food, until people started speaking in Hungarian. It was then the feeling of awkwardness kicked in, there is something that feels really rude about making people speak a different language just so you can fill your belly, or buy a drink.

It was really the best weekend ever. Ben and I ventured off to the airport early Saturday morning, 2.5 hours later we landed in Budapest, Hungary.

We took bus tours, boat tours, ate Hungarian food, drank Hungarian spirits, we went to the spas, and met some awesome people. We just had so much fun all weekend,

Budapest is a very strange city, it was freezing, everyone rips you off, they scam you for as many HUFs as they can get away with, 50% of the shops have shut down, 40% of the shops are closed all weekend, there are pick-pocketers, most of the buildings are falling apart, and there are homeless people around many a corner.

With all the bad, there is even better good. The game stew I had for dinner was life changing, the history and architecture is like nothing I have ever seen, the healing spas were an absolute delight, and the fun we had in the castles was amazing.

Over all we grew to love Budapest, and can't wait to go back. It was the ideal first weekend away for us and an amazing experience.

They do say that travel is the only thing that you pay for that makes you richer.. I now see what everyone means.

 

 

 

 

This weekend we celebrate being from NZ with a Waitangi Day Pub crawl.. and the weekend after we are off on our second holiday- Amsterdam!

Life is pretty brilliant!

xx

New Year Celebrations

New Years here is so so different to back home. There's no summer Bach booked, no festival tickets purchased, no convoys none of it.

We had a great time regardless, I think the perfect one for our first year here.

We had a cruise down the river booked, a dinner and open bar kind of cruise.

The night started with drinks at Dale and Cara's where we chose to drink in style to set the mood with a yummy bottle of Bollinger. We all made our way down to the pier, and waited patiently for the arrival of our vessel... It was amazing to see the sheer size of the crowds lining the river waiting for the firework display, what a way to see in the new year- stuck standing around in the crowd.

The cruise was amazing, the food was delish and it was awesome cruising up and down the river for 5 hours!

The 12 minute firework display was by far the most amazing I have ever seen! Especially on the open top deck in the cool winter breeze.

After the fireworks display we continued our night in a bar for a short while before heading home.

It was such an awesome way to see in the new year.

London looked absolutely gorgeous!

MS Georgian.. Our Ship for the evening

Waiting to Board

Our little group

The open bar

My loveable Goof

 

Mixing my bubbles

Big Ben in all his glory

Please excuse my blurry iPhone pics.

Obviously enjoying myself and the beats, ha!

I have a good feeling about this year! It's started off with a bang! January began dry- no drinking for the month, healthy eating and exercise.
My lovely friend Kat gave us free tickets to the dress rehearsal for Cirque Du Soliel, which was absolutely magical!! And we have a long weekend in Budapest in 2 weeks to look forward too!

2013 is the year for travel. We have a trip booked for Amsterdam in February and, plan to be in Turkey for ANZAC day, Ireland for St Paddys day and have our Sail Greece booked for July.

My resolutions are on track and have all begun- here's to sticking to them!

Hope you all had a wonderful time, and have loads to look forward to this year!