Wander Victoria, 2016

The tourism slogan of our home state is "Wander Victoria". This inspired may journey's beyond the city borders to the 'country-side'. Itchy feet to explore, we needed a new car as Mei's faithful Honda Accord soon burnt out after 2 decades of faithful service. Our replacement wheels - also Honda and in the same burgundy palette; was bought and loaded with supplies for a series of road trips. The Victorian High Country and the Mornington Peninsula were ticked off and this post includes photos of our hikes and our signature photos of food. Why not swap a weekend in the suburbs for a wander around Victoria?

New Years 2016, Australia

Coming back from a weekend away in Daylesford, Spa Country in Victoria; we realised that the Australian travel stories were backlogged and the Oceania tab on the CultureStamps website was seriously neglected. So as 'resident tourists', we have a duty to our homeland to promote the best bits and scenic sights sought out on weekend getaways. And the New Year's holiday period of 2016 provided an excuse for a holiday - even though we had been in Melbourne for just 10 days. An opportunity arose when our friends Basti and Neelu came to visit and we headed west to the Barossa winery region and began our adoration for Adelaide. 

London Life, Thanks for the Memories

Perhaps a little late to be reminiscing about our life in London - now sitting at 1 year and 10 months since departing; but better now than never! London - one last tribute, here it is.
Also hoping that this post sparks off a better run of consistent blogging, as we have dropped off a bit. Distracted about plans to revamp this site to be more responsive and search engine friendly; unfortunately the core element - the writing content then dwindled away. Stay tuned for the revamp - it will happen. It was a new year's resolution after-all and those are never made to be broken!

Paris 2015, One Last Visit

There are feelings of nostalgia that come through when flicking through travel photos almost 18 months after the trip. On this occasion, we rediscovered some unpublished photos from our last trip to Paris in July 2015. This was perhaps our 8th visit to the French capital and a place that will forever hold happy memories in our hearts. This was also the month that Olie's family came to visit and we played 'tour guide' in London and in Paris at the iconic sites. So this is it. Recapping the last night in Paris. Au Revoir.

Budva and Kotor, Montenegro

Montenegro was the last country on our tour of the Balkans. Translating to 'Black Mountain'', the country shares a common history with nearby Serbia of being conquered by different empires over the centuries, due to its geographic location as the crossroads of 'East and West'. Our interest in visiting this country was the UNESCO listed Bay of Kotor. In order to reach this site, we flew from Belgrade to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica and booked a private transfer to the coastal (party) town of Budva. In the height of summer, this town was buzzing with super-yachts and electronic music pounding the centuries old fortress walls.

Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade - the capital city of Serbia, sits at the confluence of two rivers: Sava and Danube. Strategically, this location has been at the cross-roads of East and West; the site of wars between armies of the Austrian and Ottoman Empires and more recently the conflict that dominated the Balkan region during the early 1990s.

Our interest in history pulled us towards visiting this city and devoting three nights to sightseeing with little background research.
Overall we were enriched by the experience and place Belgrade on our list of recommendations -full of meat eaters where English is widely spoken and easy to navigate our way around.

Mostar, Bosnia

Mostar, famous for the bridge - Stari Most that was destroyed and rebuilt during our lifetime, was a place we wanted to visit for reasons other than ticking off another country. We wanted to see the locals dive off the bridge; reflect on the significance of the city as a cross-roads between cultures fueled by geo-political and religious tensions; and also learn more about war that had occurred during the 1990's.
We visited Mostar as an overnight trip that split (mind the pun) our days in Split. Easy to travel to, we recommend the journey and if we had more time, perhaps an onward trip to Sarajevo.