Showing posts with label #Eastern Europe. Show all posts

Top 10 Things to do in Prague, Czech Republic!

Finally, here comes my final Eastern Europe blogpost with the beautiful Prague in Czech Republic!
Someone told me that you must visit Prague once in your life time, and I really couldn't agree no more!
Prague is really gorgeous!
I think this is one of the most beautiful towns to see in Europe country, so make sure you must visit Prague if you are planning your trip to explore Eastern Europe.
Though Prague doesn't have super famous icons like Eiffel Tower in Paris, Statue of Liberty in New York City, or Big Ben in London, Prague is a historical city that involved with a rich history, an outstanding architects, a hint of romance, and happening nightlife.
The city became a popular spot for travelers from all over the world, so I think the only drawbacks of visiting Prague is the big crowds everywhere, no matter they are local people or tourists.
We spent one full day wandering around in Prague city, hence I'm hoping my today's post has enough to put the best things in Prague that able to help you while organizing your itinerary. :)




Hippo x Kraków Poland Travel Blog

Coming back to my Eastern Europe vacation today.
I know I've been taking so long to finish blogging about my trip.
When my friends still see me updating my blog about the Eastern Europe trip, they were like "har, still updating?"
#yalor I still need sometimes to finish my travel posts in Eastern Europe.
But....this is gonna be the second last post, so I'm hoping you will continue to stay here with me!
Today, I'll be blogging about the fifth stop in our 2 week tour in Eastern Europe, and I fell in love instantly with the beautiful Kraków in Poland.
I never expected I would love Kraków so much.
Indeed, I never really thought of Poland as a place I wanted to visit.
Kraków is so much more beautiful than I thought it would be, and it's a city that I'd love to go back one day for a little bit longer.




Hippo x Budapest Hungary Travel Blog

Finally, it has come to the Budapest post of my Eastern Europe trip.
If you are new to my blog and would like to read more about my Eastern Europe trip, you can click on the label #EasternEurope on the right, and then it will redirect you to a page which contains all my posts regarding my trip in Eastern Europe. 
Well, before arriving to Budapest, I've heard so much about Budapest, can't believe that I finally made it to this beautiful place.
Budapest is the capital and also the most popular city of Hungary.
It is the largest city in the European Union, and that's why it is worth a paradise for explorers to visit.
Due to the limited amount of time during the trip, we only stayed in Budapest for one and a half days.
It's definitely not enough, so in this blogpost, I will be sharing the main highlights of my trip in Budapest.




Hippo x Graz & Vienna Austria Travel Blog

Vienna, I first heard of this romantic place from my sister.
She is a piano teacher, and has been to Vienna one time for her summer music courses.
When she came back from Vienna in 5 years ago, she shared with us how beautiful Vienna is, and how much she was in love with this city.
She said to us that we must visit this fascinating place one day.
Since then, I always dreamed of travelling to Vienna, and oh yea my Vienna dreams finally came true and left me a wonderful memories.
My first impressions of Vienna were fantastic; a mixture of old and new architectures are stunning and massive, the streets are packed crowd of people, an abundance of beautiful scenery to explore.
If you want a romantic getaway with your special someone, Vienna is really a choice you won't regret later. :)




Hippo x Ljubljana Slovenia Travel Blog

I haven't been blogging much about my travel stories lately.
I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting for so long about my next destination in Eastern Europe.
Can't believe it's already the second month of the new year.
In January, I had been caught up with many events and product reviews.
My own business has been keeping me quite busy as well in the same month.
I'm definitely not complaining about it, indeed I'm very happy about all the exposures and opportunities..
I'm trying my best to keep my travel journals on going, so make sure you don't forget to drop by at anytime. :)
Today, I want to share a throwback to when I was in Ljubljana.
Ljubljana is one of my favourite cities that I'd been to during my Eastern Europe trip.
It's a very beautiful capital and largest city in Slovenia.
The city is quiet, and has so much to offer to visitors.
Continue to read on and you will know why I'm loving this place on my first sight when visited Ljubljana.




Hippo x Salzburg, Austria Travel Blog

My first time in Austria, also my first visit in Salzburg.
Honestly, I knew nothing about Salzburg before my visit, and only got to know the Mozart's birthplace from my sister.
Then, I know there is a beautiful Mirabell Gardens from the world's famous movie of The Sound of Music through a friend.
Salzburg is the fourth largest city in Austria, and the city is not very big but with many hidden back streets to wander around.
My first impression about Salzburg is it looks like a fairy-tale-inspired with a fabled city of music, and also many splendid and majestic castles and palaces all over.
It's certainly one of the most romantic and beautiful cities I have ever been to.
I enjoyed every moments in this beautiful city very much!



Without further ado, let's discover this beautiful city through my Salzburg storybook now!





My day in Salzburg started with a great place, the Mirabell Palace & Garden.
It is one of the settings for the world's most well-known musical film "The Sound of Music".
Do Re Mi Fa So La Te, still remember peeps?! :)
That's also one of my all time favourite musical movie in my childhood, sooooo happy that I came here!





The Mirabell Garden is flown over the freshly cut green grass and colourful flowers everywhere.
It's a cute little garden to walk around and one of the must photo stop in Salzburg.



Though the garden is not very big, I love every moments in Mirabell Garden.
It's really a beautiful place, a beautiful place to capture beautiful pictures.



While walking towards to Mozart's birthplace, we crossed over the Makartsteg Bridge which connects the new and old city town.
The pedestrian bridge is very wide and nice to walk around, also a great spot with amazing views of the river and the bridge.





From the bridge, you can see an outstanding far view of the castle and palace.
Wish to go up!



There are so many wishes love padlocks in different colours that tied to the bridge barrier too.





From the Makartsteg Bridge, it's just a short 10-15 minutes walk to the Old Town of Salzburg, Getreidegasse.
It's one of the UNESCO World Heritage landmark to visit.
Inside the old town, there are many beautiful architectures and buildings with international fashion chains to wander around.
If you come here for Mozart's birthplace, you should take the chance to walk on this street.





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One of the must visit popular attraction in the old town is the Mozart's Birthplace.
I think it's worth a visit no matter if you are a fans of Mozart not.
There are numerous original items, like portraits, personal items back into the 18th century were kept inside the museum.



Mozart was born and stayed in this nice yellow building with his family.
The building looks pretty small from the outside, but it is much bigger from the inside, which covering several floors.
Well, I think Mozart and his family will never thought that their little tiny house can be such an attraction after so many years later.



No pictures and videos are allowed inside the building.
So, the best photo stop at the museum is with the Mozart painting right in front of the entrance.







Headed to the Hartlwirt Gesellschaft for our lunch with the must have dessert in Salzburg, Strudel.
Strudel is a type of sweet layered pastry with a filling of cream, custard and apple inside.
It's too sweet for me; but if you enjoy very sweet dessert, then I think you will love it!







Felt a bit sleepy after the lunch, but we managed to have a photo stop at the Lake Millstatt.
Maybe it was just a short stop, so I find nothing fancy about this place but the changing autumn leaves and weather condition were so perfect to create a beautiful scenes out of the ordinary landscape.



Before the sky turned black, we drove about 1 hour plus to the Lake Bled.
Lake Bled is located in the Northwestern of Slovenia, and the Bled Castle that stands above the lake on the north shore is one of the tourist destination to visit.



We crossed from the lake to the middle of the island with the traditional wooden boats, pletnas.
And these pletnas are operated by standing rowers, which known as pletnars.
No life jackets will be provided, but the ride is certainly safe. :)





You can see the Bled Castle and the Assumption of Mary Church are surrounded by mountains and forests.
The entire view from the river is so gorgeous!



After landing, we have to climb 99 stone steps to reach the top, the Assumption of Mary Church.





There is a legendary tales about this place.
It is said that your wishes will come true when you listen to the church bell and ring it yourself.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to ring the bell because the church was under renovation during my visit!. :(



The whole place is surrounded by beautiful nature.
It's quiet and peace while you are at the top of the beautiful scenery view.



That's all I want to share about Salzburg, and to be honest, we were having short time in Salzburg.
We only stayed there till after lunch, and had to catch the time to the next destination in Slovenia.
I believe there are so many places that I not yet visit in Salzburg, and hopefully for the next time again.


I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post, and don't forget to watch my Salzburg travel vlog! :)

Hippo x Eastern Europe 2017

Hello guys! I am back!
Today gonna start my travel diary in Eastern Europe.
Well, I'm so glad that I finally made it to Eastern Europe for my very first time with my parents and sister.
When I knew I was going to Eastern Europe, I didn't really have a clue what should I expect from Eastern Europe; I only know Prague is a beautiful city.
We booked our trip in early April from the Matta Fair under a tour company, GTT (Golden Tourworld Travel); my family has been with GTT for many years and traveled with them to USA, most places in Europe, Turkey etc.
Many people asked about my opinion of joining a tour and most of the time I will suggest people to go with tours, especially to the Western countries because your safety, comfort, and enjoyment will be taken care by your tour guides with "fix" costs.
And, each time my feedback on GTT is they never failed my expectation in terms of the itinerary, food, accommodations etc.
Anyway, two weeks to 6 different countries were just not enough to explore all, I really hope that I have the chance to go back to most places, like Budapest, Poland, Ljubljana and Prague again. :)



In this post, I'm going to share beautiful pictures in all places I went in Eastern Europe.
It's an overview post with pictures of the cities I went to, and for the following travel posts, I will separate each places into an individual post.
It's my first trip to the places, so I really hope my post will benefit to those who wish to travelling to Eastern Europe like Prague, Budapest, Poland for the first time!



We flew with Emirates from KL to Munich, had a 3 hours stopped over at Dubai airport.
It was a long way, 7 hours from KL to Dubai, then another 6 hours from Dubai to Munich.
The flight experience with the Emirates Airlines wasn't as good as previously, in terms of the food and cabin crews' services; I have a feeling that they have cut down the operation costs.

Munich, Germany
Arrived in Munich, we went to BMW Well, a multi-functional customer experience and exhibition for BMW facility.
Buyers can actually take delivery of their BMW series from here. #cool



That's the BMW i8!



My dream car, Mini Cooper. :)





Then, nice afternoon spent at Marienplatz, a large open centre square in the city of Munich, Germany.





That's the new town hall in Marienplatz, which looks so elaborate and ancient.



Salzburg, Austria
Arrived Salzburg, see the beautiful Mirabell Gardens where the song "Do-Re-Mi" was filmed.



The Makartsteg Bridge with many love locks in Salzburg, Austria.



Birthplace of Mozart located at Getreidegasse.
Mozart fans, you should be here one day!



Lake Bled to see the medieval castle up at the hill.





Ljubljana, Slovenia
Third day morning at the Postojna Caves in Ljubljana.
It's the largest Karst cave in Slovenia with as much as 24km of underground tunnels and amazing view of the cave.





Ljubljana is a very beautiful city,
If I have the chance again, I really wish to come back here again, sit down and enjoy the peace and amazing view of the old town.





Vienna, Austria
That's my first day in the romantic Vienna.
The wind was so strong while walking at the Old Vienna Walk.



My first chop and sign in Vienna on my travel passport in front of the St Stephen Church.







The second day in Vienna was also very cold with weather less than 13℃.
Spent a pleasant day walking at the Vienna town to have a great feel of the beautiful music city.





Budapest, Hungary
On the 6th day, took a leisure drive from Vienna to Budapest, Hungary.
That was just a 10 minutes stopped by the Heroes' Square with landmark statues.





Fisherman's Bastion is amazing!
It's a well-known for the wonderful panoramic views of the city of Budapest.
Winter time is here, day time appears to go more quickly than the first day.



Last day in Budapest, we paid a visit at Szentendre, a cute little town, and Visegrad Castle, a small castle town in the north of Budapest.





Finally, before leaving Budapest, night view of the Hungarian Parliament Building right in front of me on the Budapest Night Cruise.







Krakow, Poland
A snippet into the beautiful and unique city of Krakow, Poland.
I didn't expect it to be so beautiful till I see it myself.









Prague, Church Republic
The long awaited moments in Prague has arrived.
Had a well spent 24 hours in Prague by visiting the most beautiful Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge, and Old Town Square.
I have been telling to everyone that Prague is so beautiful that I will visit the place again in the future.



Okay, that's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed!
Now, I'm going to edit the vlog of my entire trip.
So, stay tuned for more ya! :)