Throwback to Venice

I remember when we were back in Venice, we didn't plan our trip based on the tide. High tide in Venice will flood some walkways and we didn't know about that until we landed on the island.

We avoid going out early and always return to our accommodation before ten or else we may be stuck somewhere. They would lay out the wooden plank to make a walkway for the pedestrians but the way I see it is that it is rather dangerous. The only time we used the wooden plank was the day we took a train to Florence. Many of the tourists bought the rubber boots just to walk easily when it was flooded, but we don't have a budget for that, we can only work with our schedule.

There we had one of our most expensive meals, but the quality was just okay. Also he insisted to return for a liquor we saw the night before, so after we reached the train station on our last day, he took his way back to the store alone as we didn't want to carry all our baggage through the wooden plank anymore.

It was such a big challenge for him since he gets lost easily, but he made it with only the verbal instructions I gave. Big applause for him? 

The luck we had in our honeymoon

Right before this pandemic begins, we went to a one-month long trip in Europe, from Germany to Greece, we travelled through seven countries and 13 cities. 

It was a low-budget trip, we only spent RM12k per person throughout the whole trip. We did manage to stay in the hotels and not Airbnb for most of our trips, we had amazing meals and took multiple train trips and three flights in that month. When most people went to Europe to shop, we only brought back chocolates as souvenirs for our families and friends, because we only carried hand luggage to avoid paying for extra baggage. 

Our itinerary was planned to fulfil our needs, for him it is the food, and it is the scenery for me. We don't mind taking super early train and reaching our destination late night, one day we just took 7-8 hour train and stopped at Milan for one and a half hours for lunch. So we cut down most of the expenses on visiting the museum and historical sites that required entrance fee, also I make sure to book the trains and flights as early as I can book them so it saves the travel fee. Booking 3 months ahead and one day before the departure can have a huge difference for approximately 30-80 Euro. Not to mention that I actually used one whole year to plan for this trip. We didn't want to stay in one city for too long, usually 2-4 days, as we wanted to get a taste of each city this time. So our time is really limited.

But we got very lucky.

When we were in Berlin, despite having the most beautiful city park, the weather wasn't pleasant enough to make good photos. We planned to visit the Tiergarden on our last morning, we even picked our outfits to match each other. Thinking that we might have to cancel our plan but when we woke up that morning, the weather was so good. We managed to find a corner in the park for the photo shoot, and the result is so nice.

When we were in Prague, the last morning before our departure, the sky was blue and it was sunny for the first time. We got excited and took the train using the 24h pass we purchased the day before to the Old Town Square. Finally, we got to see the so-called romantic and pretty Prague's Square.

And then when we were in Switzerland, we only had one day to visit the snow mountain. It was the highlight of the whole trip so I was checking the weather forecast probably one month before our trip, although they are inaccurate. And because I bought the discounted ticket beforehand, we were not able to change the date if the weather is bad. Before we headed up to the mountain, the sky in the city was grey so we were a bit sceptical even when the weather from the live cam was good. The sky at Mt. Titlis turned out to be clear, the sun is up high, with no mist and almost no cloud. It happens that I also picked the right mountain as the condition of each mountain can be different. I even squeezed a very packed schedule to ride a ferry and visited another mountain. Mt Rigi on the day we leave Switzerland. 

It was also the same in Venice, where we only had one day to visit Burano aka the colourful island. The one-day pass ferry ticket was 20 Euro so we cannot afford to do it for two days, we also decide that if the weather isn't good then we will not waste that money and we can just go on our trip without visiting Burano island. Since we only stayed 2 nights there, so we only had one full day to fit the Burano trip, cancelling it would mean that we will only be able to visit the island the next time we visit Venice. And guess what, the weather turns out to be great, we even took good pictures from the Grand Canal when we were back from Burano island too.

Then, it is the visit to Santorini. We wanted to stay longer there as I know the scenery was too great to be missed. It also has the title of the most beautiful sunset, I didn't want to risk my chance of seeing it. But then visiting Santorini in December is boring as most of the shops would be closed. Even though it was cheap to eat, the hotel fee was affordable, but we can't visit the volcano, and we didn't enjoy spending money to dine on a ferry (even though that sounds very fancy). So we only stayed two days in Santorini, with only one sunset. I checked the live cam before our visit, and it was cloudy, the sun can hardly be seen. It happens for a few days continuously, but for the two days we stayed, it was sunny all the time. It is ridiculous to this point because when we were leaving, the sky wasn't that blue anymore.

I think the trip was amazing because the weather is always helping us. To have sunny days in Europe in November and December is rare, we had rainy and cloudy days most of the time but when it comes to the important schedules, the luck is on our side.

I am so thankful that we didn't happen to lose any money or miss any train. I am also thankful that my husband was calm and helpful all the time. <3

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Taking a trip back to Prague

Our days in Prague were not pleasant, mainly because of the weather.

I remember one day when it was raining when we were on our way back, he got a stomachache and we decided to stop at Starbucks. When he went to the toilet, I went to order and I fell down at the stairs again after doing the same thing at the Berlin main station where everyone was staring. This time no one noticed me as I fell down at the corner. 

The shop is small and pretty occupied as it was pouring outside. I ordered myself a festive drink, probably a hot toffee latte or cappuccino. I think that was the first and last toffee drink I had, it was sweet and warm. Now that Christmas is coming, Starbucks Malaysia also offers a toffee drink, it reminds me of Prague.

When it was cold and crowded, we were stuck together at Starbucks with a toffee latte.