Making a little dream come true: Diving the Azores

September 27, 2017 Just Booked A Trip 6 Kommentare

A few weeks ago I went on a dive vacation to the island Pico, which belongs to the Azores. A little island, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, far away from mainland,… the inspiration for this trip came from a photo show by a research diver which I watched and listened to a few years ago in Munich. On one of his research trips, he went to Pico to photograph blue sharks – which I found extremely fascinating at that time.

The trip to get there took rather long: Amsterdam – Lisbon (short overnight stay) – Pico. At the airport, I was picked up by CW Azores and driven to the dive center where I could unpack my gear and talk about my dive plan for the next few days. Then I walked to the hotel, which was located just behind the dive center where luckily my room was available for early check-in. From the balcony I enjoyed this view below – not too bad right? 🙂

CW Azores Dive Center

View from hotel room

The small harbour with the dive boats

Denmark

One night in Copenhagen

September 22, 2017 Just Booked A Trip 2 Kommentare

Only one night? Is that even worth it? I was asking the question to myself before booking the flights 😉 In the end, it worked out like that due to flight and hotel prices and I also thought: If I can manage to see the highlights of Rome in 2,5 days, Copenhagen in 1,5 days should be doable, right!? In hindsight, I can now confirm my own suspicion. Even in one day, you could see the main sights.

I landed on Saturday in the late morning and arrived in the city center of Copenhagen after a short 15 min ride on the train. Since I was travelling only with a small backpack, I decided to go to the hotel only later on and get off in Østerport to first visit the Little Mermaid. There’s a lot of talk about this little statue about being… well, little… and rather insignificant. Same as with the Mona Lisa in Paris and the Manneken Pis in Brussels. True. But still, these landmarks for me are part of the deal when you’re visiting a new city and are therefore a must see! Afterwards, I walked through the little Kastellet (castle) just next to the mermaid which is actually quite beautiful. Not sure why it’s not even really mentioned in a guide book?

Little Mermaid

First Stop!

Kastellet

Italy

Whitsun in Rome

September 17, 2017 Just Booked A Trip Ein Kommentar

Fiiiiiinally Rome!

You probably wouldn’t have guessed it, but with all my city trips and world tours I had never made it to one of the most important European capitals. Again and again I saved up Rome „for later“ and thought I will have to go there on a long weekend, probably almost a week, once I have more time. In June this year I finally wanted to go – the wait had been long enough! 😉 So me and my parents booked a trip for the Whitsun weekend. We found a nice apartment near the Colosseum and visited Rome’s highlights in 2,5 days. It’s possible, but only with a lot of advance planning and organization (and early mornings).

We started our first day bright and early at the Colosseum. Even though we queued up at the online tickets-line, there were already some people in front of us and it was good to have been there 30 min before opening time. Then, we were finally able to enter…and WOWWW! This really blew me away!!! Of course, I had seen many pictures before – but really standing in this big arena myself, was something different. The size really impressed me and I could vividly imagine, how gladiators fought for their lives back then.

The Colosseum in all its glory

The 3 of us in the Colosseum

Early morning in Rome…

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