Basel and Ulm #Eurotrip

As a South African, obtaining a visa is a mission.. a five-hour-in-lines, in-the-middle-of-rip-roaring-arguments-of-impatient-men, desperate-for-bathroom-in -line-but-not-wanting-to-loose-place- long long mission.

All worth it! 

So this part will be done according to Visa....Shengen first....

Basel  Walks 

First stop: Basel, Switzerland
which happens to  be on the border of Germany, France and Switzerland. So, one can do their shopping in the country of preference as its a 15 minute drive to the next border. 
This resulted in breakfast in Switzerland, a day trip to Germany and dinner in France. What an amazing experience! 
Stayed with friends, Italian friends- living in Switzerland whom I met in South Africa ... "Its a small world after all ...."

Vitra Design Museum, Germany

Basel city 

Freshly baked bread (sorry body), freshly picked cherries long lovely walks through the town and the town centre, beautiful sunny days spend on the balcony surrounded by flowers and nature. Such a lovely time with the wonderful Arista family!

Bubbles on the Rhine

Fun fact: in Switzerland, you can only own two cats, you are not allowed to have just one. The same applies for fish? the don't want the animals to be lonely??




Next stop: Ulm, Germany 

Visit lovely Kermit and family, they live in the most lovely little town called Neu- Ulm. We cycled into Ulm town centre, ate more fresh bread (I'm swelling just thinking about it..) , walked down the market/ festival on the Danube River, spent time in beautiful beer gardens surrounded by rolling green hills and rivers. We Cycled to see the skew hotel over a joining river and the Munster which is a church with the tallest steeple in  Europe, with 768 stairs to climb to the top, decided against climbing to the top as I assumed I'd need my legs for the rest of my holiday. 

Beergarden Love<3 font="">

Ulm city 

On our last evening there we headed to the Danube festival thing, and Kermit had been telling me since I arrived about these Dough things that I HAD TO TRY. Said they were a delicacy and that everyone loves them and blah blah blah... so being the good sport I am, popped on in my mouth chewed- swallowed- tried not to gag in front of the"dough ball" chef and my hosts. 

Kerm and his wife giggled and giggled and giggled as we walked away....with swirling beer in my mouth attempting to rid my mouth of the taste of what I later found out was a COCKS BALL. Yes! a male chicken's testicle was ingested by me! 

Lots of Cocks testicles sacrificed for this dish! 

Fun Fact: Einstein was born in Ulm. (and probably ate the balls of Cock for every meal... maybe why so smart?? anyone notice if I am any smarter since Ulm?)

Ulm Prettiness

There is so much more to say, but cant bring myself to bore you all, and by "you all" I'm pretty sure I mean me reading this to myself when I am 80 and suffer with memory loss- I really don't want to bore 80 year old me ...

Who'm I kidding I probably will have to read this next week to remember....

That's it for now folks ---next instalment: England and Ireland... am I allowed to put them together in a post after Brexit? hmmmm ? 


Ps: so SO SOO grateful to both my lovely hosts... so grateful to have you as friends !! thank you thank you thank you for showing me around your picturesque, beautiful and friendly towns...

Pss: you may find me knocking on your doors again :) hehehee #selfinvite ahahaha

PSSs: apologies for krappy spacing- In the create place it looks good! on your screen it goes krappy I apologise-no actualy blogspot should apologise.. I take it back ;)

She sells Seychelles on the sea shore ....

Since my last post there has been some travel. 

I have been to:

• Mahe and La Digue in Seychelles 
• Basel in Switzerland (France and Germany are bordering, so there too) 
• Ulm in Germany 
• London in UK 
• Dublin in Ireland 
• Cape town South Africa
• Back to London 
• then Sri Lanka 

most of this travel was on purpose, one was happy happening totally unplanned :) 

Firstly Seychelles, 

Went to visit one of my favourite homies, Rene and her hubby Sean. They are living and working in Seychelles (sigh, shame) 

I spent almost two weeks with them, what a beautiful, amazing experience... in fact still actually cant believe it is somewhere I have been to. 

Things to remember when going to Seychelles:

1. Snorkelling will be ruined for you forever. The water is crystal clear! TURTLES and the whole cast of Finding Nemo right up in your face...and all their friends that aren't even in the movie... Not sure I will ever find any place with more clear and more underwater happiness again... I endeavour to look, but I'm not holding my breath (pardon the pun)

2. Wine bottles impulsively commit suicide in the middle of the night. Literally the arse end of the bottle just decides its had enough of life and falls off- causing a wine flood through out Rene and Seans lounge- which sounds like a wonderful event... but alas, I'm not sure Sean (who cleaned it up at 2am) - appreciated the event as much as i appreciate the idea of a wine flood..

3. Mosquito's in Seychelles wear invisibility cloaks. There was biting, there was scratching and there was the itch.. I did not see one little bugger in all the time I was there? (pack non rancid smelling repellent...)

4. The  tiny island of Mahe has weather bipolar. The one side (short drive) can be pouring with rain, the other side (another short drive) its perfect blue sky days. The weather does not know what it wants to be... so it is all the weather, all the time.

5. If your summer hat decides to runaway from home, and dives into the sea as its escape - let it go... don't  let your friends dive after it and  retrieve it (thanks Rene).. if its going to escape it will escape, never to be found again. Gone, but not forgotten. 

6. Palm spider. Colourful eight legs of death. I saw one en route to the beach, I took a different route the rest of the holiday.

8. Snails and their shells could house a small child - okay maybe not a child, but definitely something much bigger than your average snail. They are like natures speed bumps on the road... (sorry snails)

9. When a boat trip is planned- attempt not to drink all wine on island night before -this was first experience of sea sickness... didn't loose the wine (wouldn't waste like that) but definitely felt the quease. 

10. Black spiky fella's on rocks and coral are not friends!! I am grateful I found this out via someone else's agony.. but yikes! just yikes. note to self (and you) - wear fins people, wear FINS ! 

11. The ocean in Seychelles suffers from kleptomania... my snorkel was stolen, out of the blue (well into the blue;) ) on a boat trip. On the next boat trip the same section  of ocean tried to steal Sean's GoPro. Thankfully found again .. and two of other peoples goggles (must have been stolen a while back as were mouldy) sneaky sneak - make sure your things are fastened to you in some way.

12. Seychelles is humid. Its a little like breathing wet air.

13. When travelling to La Digue- your hire bicycles to get  around the island.. this is more a warning to guest house owners... ensure that tourists can reach the floor while cycling - when seats are to high - could lead to hedge  and tree destruction.... 

(apologies to the person who's garden this is, that I destroyed)

14. Flipping fantastic place to visit. Would recommend it to anyone- however save up a bit before heading over that way... eating out, wine, food, all things cost approximately four arms and two and half legs. Probably because its the remote little place in the middle of the ocean... but for what you are seeing and getting- I'd pay it all again ;) andddd I am so grateful that Sean and Rene housed me :) 

Anyhoo highly recommend for a beachy holiday :) 

Rest of adventures to be posted soon 

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Lessons from Krabi, Thailand. Same same, but different.

 

This adventure saw me and my homies (one living in Cape Town, one living in Seychelles) on a rendezvous in Krabi, Thailand.

Some Thai life lessons learnt.

1) Shopping is a tirade of utterly exhausting "bartering" and wheeling and dealing- you can half the original price if you have the patience. I do not have  patience. Note to self... buy more next time.

2) Eating is a delicate thing. "Pad Thai" is safe. I personally didn't venture much further than this. #imachicken


3) ATTENTION NON BEER DRINKERS: Chang is nice.  I think Jessie Jay's song bang bang was actually about chang

Chang chang into the room

Chang Chang all over you (and everyone else - if you're from Norway)

 

Or:

Chang Chang, She shot me down (robs with Keg)

Chang Chang, I hit the ground (the dude from Norway hit the ground)

Chang Chang, that awful sound (rene will tell you, wasn't a great sound)

Chang Chang, my baby shot me down

4) BEWARE of sucker fish from Australia. That's all. ;)

5) When doing island trips with your friends- take care not to walk infront of the person with the Go Pro. I feel for the husband who helps edit that footage, of this bottom. Apologies.

6) Whilst in Thailand, it appears that sufferers of insomnia are cured... My recommendation for other sufferers is head to Krabi for a weekend - I slept... on the beach, in the apartment, on the boat trips, on the bus rides, in the taxi, during massages and lastly I fell asleep standing up in transit at the airport.
Came back very well rested.

7) Those majestic looking long tail boats, so pretty in photo's.... not so pretty on the ears. 

8) When getting a massage attempt not to snore- thus creating the entertainment for the people working there and the rest of the beach front. Leads to red face syndrome, not to be mistaken for burnt face syndrome.

9) Sunblock is a good idea. No, not for me... for everyone else... hahahaha... okay for me to but only on day two.

10)  Thailand in February is way more moderate than how I remember Thailand in March/April. The GHD has some powers, and could actually move with out overheating.

11) I didn't personally get a Thai massage in Thailand but here is how it was explained to me...

 

 

     from when I arrived we had oil massages. This lesson was learnt through friends.

 

and lastly:

 

12) The most important lesson I learnt is that travelling with your friends is always a good idea. Was just so amazing to see my friends and have a short catch up- we could have gone to any country in this world and I would have been happy.. just so happens we managed to mix our catch up with a beautiful place. #attheriskofbeingcliched #blessed

 

Thank you Chikkitas for organizing such a rad time- Love you long time.