Cairns

It has been a while since I wrote about my fantastic trip last summer and I think it is because I only have a couple of posts left and I’ve written about every place that we visited. But it is about time to continue with it and complete the around the world journey that was an experience of a lifetime.

After spending a few days in Sydney, Johanne and I continued our trip to Cairns. I was so happy when we arrived to find out that the temperature was rather warm there. After some quite cold days in Sydney I was ready to warm up again and feel the sun.

When we arrived to our hostel I actually could not stop laughing. Nomads Esplanade was actually worse than the hostel in Sydney. They did not have a reception and the entrance was an ugly side door in the street. Our room was not much better; it was so tiny it could barely fit a bunk bed in there and we were wondering where to put our backpacks. But we managed and didn’t really spend a lot of time in that room.

Cairns is not a place where you spend weeks sitting on the beach. First of all we couldn’t find a beach, ironically enough. Cairns is the place you visit to go out on excursions. There are several things to choose from; skydiving, scuba diving, snorkelling, crocodile explorer, rafting and so much more. Cairns is actually the perfect backpackers city as it has a lot to offer outside of the city walls. So if you are looking for adventures then this is the place for you. Johanne and I actually went on a crocodile excursion and ended up having a fantastic day. I will be telling you more about that later.

Sydney

Leaving Singapore was actually a little sad. I loved everything about this place and during our seven hour flight to Sydney I was starting to plan my next visit to Singapore. It was a long flight and Johanne and I were tired when we finally arrived down under. We just wanted to get to our hotel and get some sleep before starting a new adventure.

When we arrived at our hotel in Singapore we thought the taxi driver had taken us to the wrong hotel. We thought the same in Sydney. Wake Up Sydney Hostel was nothing like the luxurious Atrium Holiday Inn and I really wish we had not chosen the cheapest hotel. But the lobby was actually rather nice, but the receptionist was scary. No one is that happy so late at night but fair enough. We finally got our room key and we could not stop laughing when we saw our room. It actually reminded me of a prison cell, with a bunk bed, nothing on the walls except an ugly vomiting green colour. At least we had a TV. After laughing for a while I thought that it could have been worse. After all, we did have a bed to sleep in, but I was beginning to worry what to expect the hostels in Cairns and Auckland would be like when this hostel had won the prise ‘Best hostel in the world’. And I was right to be worried.

But before that we had to experience Sydney. I could not believe how far away from home we were but our first dinner at Burger King sure was a life safer, and it tasted the same. What surprised me was how cold it was. Yes, I was aware that it was winter in Australia but our travel agent had told us that it wasn’t going to be that cold. It was and we were forced to buy some warm clothes. It was nowhere near a Norwegian summer, like she told us.

After a little shopping trip we were ready to see what Sydney had to offer. Our hostel was very central so we could walk to some of the main tourist attractions. The world’s biggest Imax cinema at Darling Harbour is a must and we ended up having a good time watching ‘The ultimate wave’ with the famous surfer Kelly Slater. There were a few restaurants at Darling Harbour and we decided that we wanted to treat ourselves to a steak dinner. We ended up at Angus Steak House at the Promenade and it was the best meal we had had in days. A little pricy but the food was delicious and the waitress was nice and helpful.

We also visited the Australian Museum where they had some interesting historical facts about this amazing country, and also a whole floor with dinosaurs. The Opera house is of course a must see, where you’ll have a great view of Sydney Harbour Bridge. We also took a walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens, which was a big beautiful park right next to the Opera House. It was so relaxing to walk here but as the sun was setting we saw several bats in the trees and decided that we did not want to spend the night there.

Bondi Beach is perhaps one of the most famous beaches in Sydney and even though it was winter and cold we decided that we wanted to visit. Bus 380 took us to the beach and it was so beautiful there. We ended up sitting there for a while but it was rather depressing to be at a beach wearing a lot of clothes because we were cold.

I liked Sydney but I do wish we had been there during their summer. I don’t really feel like I got to see the best side of this city. If I ever go back to Australia then I would like to go during November, when it is a lot warmer.

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

Like I expressed yesterday, Singapore is such an amazing place and one of my favourite attractions that we did while we were there was visiting the famous Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. I decided that this deserved its own post, it was that amazing!

After the worst taxi ride I have ever taken we arrived to the zoo. Apparently the taxi drivers have not heard of speed limits, or they are simply ignoring them. I felt like it was a miracle that we got to the zoo in one piece.

But when we got there I was amazed over how beautiful everything was. The zoo is set in a rainforest environment and this zoo has become famous for its ‘open concept’. The barriers are hidden so you don’t feel like you are in a zoo but out in the wilderness surrounded by all the spectacular animals. You fill find over 2500 specimens from 315 species where 29% of these are threatened. The zoo is also a designated rescued wildlife centre by the governing authority and it really is no wonder why this is the pride of Singapore.

Johanne and I spent hours here, walking around and getting to know many of the animals. It really did feel like we were in a rainforest and the animals looked comfortable in the environment they were in. Perhaps they also felt like they were not in captivity surrounded by barriers that limits their every move. This is without a doubt the best zoo I’ve ever visited. Apes, elephants, kangaroos, lions, hyenas, and white tigers are only some of the animals you’ll see.

After the zoo closes at six you have an hour to eat and relax before the Night Safari opens. This is a chance for you to experience the animals at night where they graze and hunt their night away. You were here being taken on a ride in attached safari cars where a guide told us about the animals we saw. After a while we were free to walk on our own before taking the car back. The whole experience gave me a Jurassic Park feeling, only without the dinosaurs. In was an amazing experience and I’m so glad we got to experience both the zoo and the night safari. You cannot take pictures inside the safari as the flash of the camera might frighten the animals, but it really gave the experience more credibility.

There was also some entertainment outside the safari, also known as the Thumbuakar, the fire-eating, acrobatic male dancers who knew how to entertain. It was the perfect beginning to our night to see this show and you could tell they were having fun acting on stage.

This is a must experience attraction when visiting Singapore and it really is fun for everyone. When we talked to some people we met while sightseeing they told us to not miss the zoo and night safari and I am now saying the same thing. It truly is amazing and it will be a day you won’t forget.

Singapore

After spending six days in Beijing and experiencing the exciting culture there it was time for our second stop on our journey; Singapore. I had really been looking forward to visit this place, but I didn’t know what to expect. After spending nearly a week in a city where no one really understood you I was excited to see how the people of Singapore would welcome us and I was very pleasantly surprised.

After a long taxi queue at the airport Johanne and I found ourselves on our way to our hotel. When booking this holiday we took the cheapest hotels we could find on all our destinations so when the taxi driver brought us to the Atrium Holiday Inn Hotel I was sure it was the wrong hotel. It was like a dream come true; the hotel was gorgeous, the staff was friendly and the rooms were big and almost quite luxurious. Even though this was the beginning of our seven week holiday we needed this treat and little did I know that the days I spent in Singapore would give me an adventure I’m longing to go back to.

Singapore has a lot to offer for everyone. The Singapore Flyer is the world’s biggest observation wheel, taking you 165 meters over the ground. There really is no better way to see this magnificent city. We woke up early so that we would be there when it opened and we ended up having a car entirely for ourselves.

The climate in Singapore is very warm with high humidity so Johanne and I always made sure we had water with us before leaving the hotel. May and June are the hottest months and we were there in the beginning of June. As we did a lot of walking we got to see quite a lot of this amazing place. The National Museum of Singapore was one of our first stops and we learned a lot of the history to this country here. We were also walking along the Singapore River, where we found many restaurants and cafes that we wanted to try out during our stay.

Raffles Hotel is Singapore’s most elegant hotel with several restaurants and bars and it is located right in the central of Singapore. Being backpackers and not bringing our finest clothes we decided not to try and have a look inside, but it looked very elegant from where we were standing. The Sultan Mosque was not far away from Raffles Hotel, a beautiful mosque in a lovely little neighbourhood with cute little shops.

Singapore Botanic Gardens is a must when visiting Singapore and entrance is free. It is a huge garden surrounded with beautiful flowers and waterfalls where the atmosphere is calming and relaxing. They are famous for their orchid garden, with over 1000 different kinds of beautiful orchids.

Sentosa Island is a playground for children in all ages with beautiful sand beaches and several attractions. A free shuttle bus from our hotel took us to this amazing place and we thought we had entered heaven. Universal Studios, spa, Underwater World, Jewel Cable Car ride, MegaZip Adventure Park and Tiger Sky Tower are only a few of the many attractions on this playground. You will also find the southern most point of continental Asia on this island.

I would without a doubt recommend Singapore to everyone. It is the perfect place to spend your holiday. I feel like Johanne and I have discovered a hidden pearl and I would love to go back someday. It is perfect for families, friends and couples. It really was a romantic and fun place where the shopping possibilities were endless and the food was cheap and tasty. If you’re wondering where to spend your holiday this summer, then I suggest you check out Singapore. You won’t regret it.

Great Wall of China

An absolute must see when you’re in Beijing is the Great Wall of China. I have no words to describe this wonder as it is truly breathtaking how they managed to build this wall thousands of years ago.

The wall was built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Several walls have been built since the 5^th century BC and it has been rebuilt and maintained from then through the 16^th century. The first emperor Qin Shi Huang wanted a better barricade to protect his people from the Mongol invaders as the wall was not solid enough. About 3000 people worked on the wall during the Qin Dynasty and people were dying ever second of exhaustion and disease. There is an old Chinese saying: Each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the wall’s construction. The wall is over 5954.57 kilometres long and it took several hundred years to complete it.

Johanne and I decided that we wanted to try to get to the wall on our own from Beijing. At our hostel they did have guided tours where you could combine the visit to the wall with other attractions, but we were brave and asked the hotel staff how to get there. We then took bus number 919 early in the morning and we were then on our way to Badaling, which is about 70 kilometres outside of Beijing. It took about one and a half hour to get there and the sight that met us was overwhelming. It was a dream comes true.

We arrived just before 9 in the morning and there were already a lot of people there. Of course some Chinese people thought Johanne and I were more interesting then the Great Wall but we tried our best to ignore them. We walked on the wall for over two hours and the time went by so quickly. The surroundings were so beautiful and I still can’t believe that I have actually been walking on one of the wonders of this world.

There were a couple of cafes and shops and also a museum where you could read about the history of the wall. The museum was interesting but it could not compare to walking on the wall. I read a lot about the wall before we left London but the feeling I got when we were there is something you can not read in a book. If I ever go back to Beijing I would love to go back to the wall again, perhaps another part of the wall further away from Beijing. I truly recommend visiting Beijing and the Great Wall of China. It is a vacation like no other and this really was the perfect start to our perfect around the world trip.

Beijing

 

I while back when I wrote about San Francisco I told you that this was our last and final stop on our seven weeks trip around the world. I now thought it was about time to start on the beginning, from when Johanne and I left sunny London and entered a city filled with history and excitement; Beijing.

After planning out trip for a year I could not believe we were on a plane and on our way to Beijing. Ten hours went by so quickly and I was more than ready to spend six days in this forbidden city. It was very easy to travel from the airport and into the city; there was a train then took us to central and from there we took the underground to get to our hotel. We quickly came to find that Chinese people do not speak English but after the Olympics in 2008 the underground had signs in both Chinese and English. I have expressed my enthusiasm about guide books before and I will do it again; they are amazing and they come with an underground map and we then quickly understood how it worked and we then managed to take it around Beijing.

Our hotel was the Forbidden City Hostel which was only two streets down from the main street Wangfujing Dajie and about a ten minute walk from the famous Forbidden City. I could not have dreamed of living in a hostel in a better location and it really wasn’t a bad hostel. Wangfujing Dajie had everything, even a Starbucks where we started our day almost every morning. It was also a very modern shopping street where you could find a huge shopping mall with clothing stores and several western restaurants. It was even a McDonald’s there and it saved us from starvation on our first day.

Beijing is very cheap. The underground cost only ¥2 for one trip, which is about 20 pence, and food and water was very cheap too. I really wish that I had tried more Chinese food when we were there but a couple of the times we did try some it did not look or taste very good. None of us are big fans of slimy food in some kind of sauce. But the Peking Duck is a must when actually visiting Peking and that was absolutely quite good. We don’t know if we ate it right though because the waitresses kept looking weird at us, but we really did not care.

Six days in this city was not nearly enough time to see everything that it has to offer, but we did actually see quite a lot. The Forbidden City is a must see attraction when visiting Beijing. The temples and the history is truly amazing and it is also one of the most popular attractions in this city. We also visited the Lama Temple, Tiananmen Square, the Jing Shan Park where the view over the Forbidden City is spectacular, the Silk Market, The Olympic Stadium, Beijing Zoo and the Aquarium. The Zoo was actually not worth visiting. It was very cheap but it did not look like a zoo but more like a big garden where the animals were hiding. We didn’t see many animals and the distance between them was endless and it looked like the zoo in general was in a poor condition. The aquarium is right next to the zoo and we had a much better experience there. We even got to see a sea lion show and even though it was in Mandarin we enjoyed every minute of it.

The Silk Market was another interesting experience. This was also one of the few places where we found Chinese people who spoke English. This place is all about haggling and Johanne sure was the master there. It was actually exhausting to be there as everyone tried to pull us into their little booths and they really did not take no for an answer. We ended up leaving exhausted but with a couple of shopping bags. I bought a silk scarf that I absolutely love so it is really worth visiting this market as it is an experience you’ll never forget.

Like I said, there is a lot to see in Beijing but sometimes, or almost all the time, it seemed like Johanne and I were the biggest attractions there. We were constantly looked at and people were taking pictures of us all the time and it actually became really annoying. You would think that Chinese people had seen Europeans before, especially after the Olympics, but I really did feel like a misplaced alien.

The Olympic Stadium is absolutely worth a visit. It is like a little city inside the big city and it was very exciting to be there. Of course some people were more interested in us than the actual stadium but we had almost gotten used to that by this time as we visited the stadium on our last day.

All in all, Beijing is an amazing city. It has so much to offer and it is the perfect travel destination for friends, couples and families. I recommend trying to learn some Mandarin before leaving and if you’re taking a taxi in Beijing than make sure the hotel writes down your destination in Chinese for you to show the driver. Their English really is bad. But Johanne and I laughed a lot and had a great start on our adventure. I would love to go back someday and experience even more of this spectacular culture.

Stonehenge

 

On Friday I said that Kjell Steinar and I were going to go on a little adventure on Saturday but I did not want to reveal where we were going. Well, we visited the infamous Stonehenge. This is something I have wanted to do for so long and I am so glad that I have finally been there.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire and it was built more than 5000 years ago. To this very day no one really knows for sure how or why it was built in the first place. There were originally 30 upright stones but today only 17 of these still stands. They are a bit over 2 meters tall and each stone weight over 50 tons. This monument is very impressing with its astonishing scale and the construction itself. It is one of England’s most popular sights as the original purpose of it is a mystery.

There are a few different theories about what Stonehenge used to be. Some claims that it served as a burial ground as cremated remains have been found on the site. Others claim that it was built as a speculator place of worship as the stones are aligned almost perfectly with the sunrise on the summer solstice. People have been speculating about these stones for centuries and its purpose really can be all from human sacrifice to astronomy.

It truly was the mystery around these stones that caught my attention many years ago and now that I have been there I really can’t understand why someone would build this in the middle of nowhere and like that. I bet I am not the only one in this world with questions about this sight as it truly is a mystery. It really is only heavy stones out on a field where its purpose is unknown and the whole surroundings are a big mystery. I can understand why Stonehenge draw over 800 000 visitors each year and I am so thrilled that I have been there.

This is a picture of how it used to look like.

Kjell Steinar and I booked a tour of Stonehenge through Golden Tours and I really recommend doing this if you’re ever in London. It takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive from Victoria Station and then you have one hour to truly experience this mystery. Audio guides are handed out where you will learn about the surroundings and hear about the many theories that are out there about this place. This is a wonder I would not want to miss out on.

Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted?

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London is a big city and there are actually three airports to travel to. The question is which airport should you use when travel to and from London?

I have learned a few tricks after living in London for over two and a half years when it comes to travelling and the most obvious choices are not always the easiest or the cheapest. It used to be a direct flight from Stansted to my hometown in Norway, Trondheim, but it took ages for me to actually get to the airport from my flat. I live in south-west London and it would take me over two hours just to get to Stansted. And it wasn’t very economical. One bus, London Underground to Liverpool Station and then the Stansted Express. If I were to buy a return ticket for the Stansted Express, as so many tourists do, I would be paying over £30 on my way to Stansted. And the time I was using was almost the time my flight would use back home.

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It is almost the same with going to and from Gatwick. I would have to take a bus, London Underground to Victoria Station and then the Gatwick Express. Here again I would also be using more than £30 put it is a little less time consuming as Gatwick is closer to central London than Stansted, but still expensive. I just realised that it is actually easier for me to take the train rather than the express from Gatwick, but I was surprised to find out that it was not so much cheaper. But then again, when I first arrive to Gatwick it is a direct flight home.

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Heathrow is without a doubt the easiest airport to get to from central London. The Piccadilly Line on the London Underground takes you directly to the airport, and from Piccadilly it takes about 40 minutes, more or less. When I went home for Christmas last year my boyfriend and I booked tickets from another airline so we could travel from Heathrow. There is no direct flight to Trondheim so we would have to go to Oslo first, but it cost about the same as it would have if we had travelled from Gatwick and we didn’t really use much more time. And it was so much easier and more economical to fly from Heathrow. At least for us.

I think a lot of people are most concerned about what the airfares are costing and not really thinking about how to get from the airport and to central. I know I didn’t think much of it at first, but I have come to find that if I spend a little bit more on my plane ticket then I might be saving money on other transportations. Of course, sometimes it is easier and cheapest to go to Stansted or Gatwick. I simply wanted to share my travel experiences and hopefully give some travellers a few tips.

London Underground to Heathrow

Gatwick Express

Stansted Express

Lock Love

♥ Lock your love forever in one of the most romantic cities in the world  ♥

As you all know I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago with my lovely boyfriend. We had a great time walking the streets of Paris and every night ended with a romantic dinner with wine where we would talk about the day and whatever came across our minds.

When I wrote about Paris here on my blog I said I had a little surprise that I would post on Valentine’s Day, and as promised I’m writing about the most romantic thing we did in Paris.

Along Pont des Arts you will find the place in Paris where love is all around. It is a bridge where people from around the world have locked their love, literally with a lock on the bridge. During the week before our departure I read a lot about Paris and I came across an amazing blog, Anna with Love, and she introduced me to this. I instantly thought that this sounded so romantic and thought: how romantic would it be if my boyfriend and I could lock our love on our first visit to Paris together?

I completely fell in love with this bridge and the idea of locking your love in Paris. I spent a while walking up and down the bridge reading some of the locks and there were a lot of people who had made quite an effort with their locks (just look at the picture with Dima and Olya's lock, it's amazing). I could not help but smile, but my favourite moment was when Kjell Steinar and I found the perfect spot on the bridge for our lock. So the next time we’re visiting Paris we will have to go back to that bridge and see if our lock is still there in the sea of love.