Category: City break

Barcelona time

by editaroundtheworld, posted in City break, Travel

A few years ago, when I was in Barcelona for the first time I really liked it and said I’ll come back again one day. That day has arrived and because a travel friend that I met in Thailand and then again in Australia, said to me that she’ll host me, I had no excuse not to go . Alisa, my friend welcomed me with the biggest hug ever at the train station and our adventure was about to begin.

I had a few things in my mind that I wanted to do and one of them was to get a haircut. Maybe it’s unusual when you go there just for three days, but I had a good feeling about the salon and I got a cheap and good haircut a la Barcelona.

After the haircut we went to check out Park Güell, the iconic photo spot and the whole park itself.

Park Güell
View over the city from Park Güell

The good part was just about to begin. We went for dinner to a seafood restaurant recommended by a local, called Lluritu in the neighborhood called Gracia.

It’s hard to describe in words how delicious the food has been. We ordered a few things, such as tuna leaves, sardines, calamari and clams. We licked all our ten fingers after each of them. 100% the best seafood that I’ve eaten in a very long time.

Delicious food that we are at Lluritu

Very quickly the first day was ending, but not before a night stroll to the iconic Sagrada Familia, which now is even bigger than the last time I visited.

Sagrada Familia

And when we said we’d go home now, we end up eating a massive pancake for dessert at like 10 pm. No regrets about it tho! And the nonalcoholic cocktail called Chill out was as delicious and the pancake.

Yummi pancake and Chill out cocktail

Friday went by quickly but we did a lot and we went to bed satisfied with the day and reminiscing about our memories from Sydney.

How awesome is to meet your travel friends in different locations on this planet!

Saturday we woke up later, almost 10 am, and took it easy. Although the weather was a bit tricky, a bit of sun then lots of clouds and later a bit of sun again, I insisted on going to the beach cause that was going to be my only opportunity this year to go sunbathing. So even though we were the only people sunbathing, bare in mind there was no sun at that point , we still had a beach day. Well, one hour at the beach to be precise. Anyway, it was good and yes, I had a beach day !

Playa del Bogatell

It was lunch time and after being so impressed of the food the previous night, I was looking forward to eat some delicacies again. This time we’ve chosen a Lebanese restaurant called L’Autentic . No one recommended us this place, we just went with our gut feelings and it was a good choice once again. The food was great, the service great too.

Eating at L’Autentic

After filling in our stomachs our next stop was Westfield, the shopping mall. You can’t go to Barcelona and not get tempted to do some shopping, especially if you’re with a girlfriend. We laughed our heads off while buying new outfits.

The day was far away from being over, going up to Montjuic for the sunset being the next to do activity. Sadly there was no sun, therefore no visible sunset either, but ride up there in the cable car still offered stunning views over the city and the castle was quite pretty too.

Cable car views
Castillo de Montjuic
Barcelona views from Montjuic

After we checked out everything on Montjuic we were headed to Salts Terassa Bar, another of the recommendations, for dinner. The view is nice from this place and the patatas bravas really delicious. We even got spoiled with a rainbow.

Delicious patatas bravas at Salts Terassa Bar
Rainbow

It was around 8 pm when we decided to go to a new Irish pub that’s called the Old Irish Pub, ready to dance the night away. And that’s exactly what we did! After almost two years of not dancing in my case, COVIDs fault, it felt like normal life again that I could dance and behave normally in a pub. It was like the good old times, when quarantine, isolation and all the other Covid related things didn’t exist. It was heaps of fun and a night that I’ll not forget any soon !

Dancing the night away, someone gave me an Oktoberfest hat

Saturday night we got home after midnight, happy and pleased with how great the whole day was.

Sunday was going to be another awesome day because we were going to Montserrat, a beautiful spiritual place, where Helen, a friend I met in Sydney was going to meet us. I haven’t seen Helen for three years, so this was exciting.

We took the train and in aprox one hour we reached Montserrat.

It looked impressive even from the cable car station and was going to be even more impressive when we reached the top.

A short cable car ride and we reached the attraction. It was quite full of people, but we were not bothered. We went on a short hike to reach silence and just admire nature’s beauty.

A few hours easily passed in good company. We talked about our nice memories and decided on making new ones in the future.

Our fun group

After this beautiful adventure, we had to say goodbye to Helen and Alisa and me returned to Barcelona and went to a dance class and then go dinner to Santa Gula in Gracia, another amazing restaurant. I tried for the first time ever octopus and I’ll certainly eat again in the future cause it was delicious.

My amazing Barcelona trip ended that night with this finger licking dinner at Santa Gula, the next morning rushing early to the airport and returning to normal life in Zurich. Can’t wait to go again to Barcelona and try other good restaurants. Hasta luego, Barcelona!

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Event of the year in Wollongong – Australia

by editaroundtheworld, posted in Australia, Backpacking, City break, Travel

For a typical tourist Wollongong is most likely completely unknown because it’s not one of those popular Aussie cities that must be on your bucket list.

It’s located less than 2 hours drive from Sydney, just around the corner if we speak in Australian standards in the matter of distance.

Even many locals commute on a daily basis to their work places in Sydney while living in Wollongong, where the cost of living is much lower than in the iconic city that hosts the Opera House.

Every December Wollongong becomes a big attraction though and that’s because it’s the location of the biggest Santa Claus pubcrawl in Down Under. It happens usually on the first Saturday of the month and it attracts thousands of people, all dressed up in white and red Santas and Santa’s helpers, elf’s and whatever could suggest Christmas .

All the income of the event goes to charity and everybody is happy because the party and good vibes go on the whole day, starting midday and finishing sometime around the morning hours the next day.

All the pubs and clubs of the town are involved and every single one of them gets overcrowded once the evening starts and the party goers spread around. It’s just normal to see drunk Santa’s stumbling around or the bit more sober ones riding their bikes.

What all have in common is the Christmas spirit and the eagerness to party all day and night.

But apart from the great santa pubcrawl, Wollongong is a good destination on other days too. The beaches are nice, less crowded than Sydney beaches and the atmosphere is very laid back.

For fit visitors renting a bike for a few hours and biking along the coast is a good workout and stunning photo shooting opportunity.

The views along the coast are wonderful and with a little detour you can reach the lighthouse, one of the iconic landscapes of the town.

Plenty of nice restaurants also around there. They serve amazing see food – until recently I wasn’t at all a seafood fan – which can’t be more fresh than that as the fish market is just next door.

Wollongong area is amazing for hikers too, Mt Keira being one of the greatest lookout points offering great panorama of the town.

A few days in Wollongong is enough to explore a bit also the surroundings. Daytrips to Fitzroy Falls or Carrington Falls are quite popular and doable in a few hours.

My favorite was Carrington Falls, where it’s impossible to resist not jumping into the fresh water to cool down on a hot Aussie summer day. The water is crystal clear and refreshing.

And if all these were not enough, on the way back to Wollongong make a stop at Robertson town, where for some reason the placed a big potato called massive stone, but that’s not even so special. Where you need to go it’s just next to it and it’s the best bakery you can find, called Petite Fleur. They bake right at the spot the most delicious cakes and cookies, just perfect to reward yourself in style in Wollongong area.

Düsseldorf – freezing, yet friendly 

by editaroundtheworld, posted in City break, Travel

I like to say that the unexpected ways of life take me sometimes to places I had no plan to go to. Surprisingly I even have friends to visit in such places. This way the long weekend was not only productive, but also a great occasion to catch up and discover a new city with the help of locals. 

Some time back I had a short layover in Düsseldorf already, not having enough time to leave the airport though. This time I wish I didn’t have to leave the airport – that was my first thought when the cold wind abbusivily blew through my body as I got out of the main train station. It was a really cold start of the journey, not the one you wish for when you are about to stride through the city. 

I fished out my warm scarf and gloves and in a minute I was prepared to win the battle against the inconvenient weather … at least for a while. 

I must admit there were not many fellows taking walks along Königsalle, so it wasn’t a hard job to take shots of the landscape without any people in them.




In the park it was pretty much the same situation, hence the pure beauty of the fall colors as they were.




As much as I cherished the lack of people in the above settings, at some point I started missing the sound of the everyday life and I decided to head towards the old town, where I knew there must be something going on with the occasion of the official Düsseldorfer Karneval opening day.

Karneval is a big deal in some German cities, Düsseldorf being one of the most important cities that hosts yearly the famous event. At 11 am of 11.11 every year the old town turned into a dance floor of the dressed up, already tipsy German ladies and gents and dozens of school kids. It’s a fun event and probably a great reason for drinking beer before midday. 


​However, it looks like it brings out the best of Germans, as they become instantly relaxed and totally laid-back, not to mention that they lose their reputation of being cold people, at least until the beer keeps flowing and the dj keeps playing their most beloved schlagers. 
Luckily the sun decided to show up on the sky for a short bit, just in time to be able to admire a blue Rhein, instead of a grey one.



A walk along the Rhein is a must while in Düsseldorf, especially if it’s a sunny day.

Further on it will look like I hopped over to Japan, because I’m just about to reveal the highlight of my trip: the stunning Japanese garden at Eko Haus. I learned that outside Japan, Düsseldorf is the city with the highest concentration of Japanese residents . I wonder what attracted them exactly to this city? I mean it’s nice city, no offense, but 11.000 Japanese it’s a semnificative number. That explains also the big number of Japanese supermarkets, book stores, restaurants and also the existence of this amazing place, EKO Haus, my favorite spot in Düsseldorf. It’s small, neat and complete: little lake, bridge, house, stones, colorful trees and above all: a peaceful piece of heaven, perfect for staying and reflecting or reading a book and relaxing – in summer ideally – my summer weekend getaway plan in Düsseldorf possibly.