MyTravelerSelf

Hi there! I'm Michaela and here I collect memories and photos from my travels and adding some destinations on my wishlist. Roam around.

[allthingseurope]

Gerbroy, France (by roland grivel)

[breathtakingdestinations]

Stanton - England (by travelmag.com) 

[mytravelerself]

Countryside England is a dream.

#onmywishlist

[mytravelerself]

France '18

It's almost 2 years ago when I went on my first Erasmus+ student exchange to France. I was very excited but also quite worried how I'll handle everything in new country, with school and with my poor level of french as my third language it wasn't so ideal. But I was always optimistic and looking forward to new experience!

So I decided that I'll post some photos here and memories from back then, because hopefully in September I'm going on Erasmus again. And again to France 🇫🇷!

The first trip was to my new home, Rennes. Beautiful, beautiful Rennes. I fell in love with the city. I fell in love with people in it. I fell in love with the whole Brittany /Bretagne region. And I wanna save the memories I have from that time here. So stay tuned!

Just few pictures of Rennes.

And you know how it is.. When you are living somewhere you don't do the stupid photo of everything as you would as tourist in that place. You just live there, enjoy it there and don't have the need to photograph everything. Well I think I had it with Rennes. I was like at home at once. I think I lived there more fully and didn't care about the photos, there was no time for that or I don't know. Maybe that's why I don't have many photos from there. And it's a shame, because I really love the architecture and the whole looking of the city.

And this was my uni.

P. S. When I find the rest of the pictures I'll definitely posting them right away. 😊

Or if you are interested ➡️ go check out my Instagram!

[allthingseurope]

Gordes and  Senanque Abbey, France (by Tom Quinn)

[mytravelerself]

#onmywishlist

[mytravelerself]

Germany trip

Lake Königssee and Saint Bartholomew's Church.

During our stay in Salzburg we made one day trip to Germany.

Saint Bartholomew's Church is located in the heart of the lake Königssee on small island. Every hour boats transports tourist to and from island. During the boat ride you have nice views all around. In the middle of the lake the boat stops and the captain plays on trumpet, because there is special echo and the sound of the trumpet can be beautifully heard right there.

The island is quite big. There are some possibilities you can try - like touristic routes to walk/hike and see for example glacier. Or you can stay and just be around the lake and visit the church. I think that during summer or spring it would be better and even more beautiful trip.

[mytravelerself]

Austria trip

Salzburg

Salzburg is perfect city break destination. You have many options you can do in the city. As it was our first visit we mainly wanted to see the classic sights. But one evening we visited Mozarteum for contemporary classical music concert.

Must try are mozart balls and we tried different types but the best was probably the ones with the original recipe (blue ones).

[mytravelerself]

Austria trip

Hallstat

Charming and picturesque small village in Austria 🇦🇹

Recommend to visit not during high season (mainly summer) because I can't imagine how many people have to be there. We went in the end of November and it was crowded also.

It's ideal just as a stop during travelling, because of the many tourist.

[mytravelerself]

End of the year 2019

I'm typing this in the end of January, but I want to save this trip in this form too.. So let's go!

Bordeaux trip '19/20

I've got the most beautiful and kind of romantic gift ever. Flight tickets to Bordeaux on New Year's eve or Saint Sylvestre till 2nd of January! I didn't expect that and I was extremely happy.

We plan a bit our trip but later as you will see the plan was out of our hands. We took of from Vienna and came to Bordeaux around 11 a.m. We still had some time until check in to our apartment. We decided to go the the town market and buy some lunch and walk around the city. We planned to go to the Dune du Pilat, the biggest sand dune in Europe, but as we found out the buses, trains and all possible transportation was cancelled. Yes, French people love to protests. The next day was considered as holiday so we couldn't get there as well. I was worried about that 1st of January holiday, because I know that the French take it seriously and that may mean shops closed and restaurants and probably everything.

Later when we checked in I asked the host about the following day and unfortunately she didn't know if everything will be closed. I was worried that it would be a problem and what we'll do next day.

But that wasn't the worst.

We went shopping before and unfortunately bought just some cheese from market and wine of course.

The apartment was tiny but really cozy. We stayed there for a bit to warm up (quite cold outside) and fell asleep (I don't remember but I think we got up at 4 or 5 a.m.). We woke up and then started to prepare for our next plan - wine tasting! We did some research on Internet and chose some places.. This took us some time also. Meantime we opened the wine we bought and cheese. It was great. When we finally decided to go out, I was already in mood. It was a bit late but we thought that it'll be fine, we have nothing to do but tasting wine, have a nice dinner and then welcome new year in the city. And now the trouble begins.

Long story short. We looked for a good place to eat for almost 2 maybe 3 hours. It was awful. Everything we googled before was even closed or full or had expensive Saint Sylvestre menu that cost 80 euros per person. We are poor students, can't afford that. The hunger was bigger and bigger and the cheerful mood didn't last long. Even McDonald's was closed! We were desperate, but eventually around 10 p.m. we found Spanish Tacos. We walked in and asked for table. They said that they have one.. But it's for 4 people only. At the same time as we wlked in some french couple was waiting for table too. The waiter suggested that we can take the table with them. The french couple seemed nice and we didn't have enough energy to go somewhere else. We agreed. The table was definitely not for 4 persons. It was one small table with one bench at the back and two chairs. We were squeezed in there and people around us looked also squeezed the same as us. We had a small chat with the other couple but eventually we didn't talk together. There we waited for so long to order food and beer. We chose hamburgers and thought that it shouldn't take a long time to prepare. Wrong. They brought our food exactly at midnight. We didn't party, we didn't celebrate, we didn't kiss or anything. We just checked the time like, oh it's New Year, let's finally eats! I was disappointed. I didn't wanted the end and start of the New Year to be like that. Sitting in small Spanish restaurant, eating hamburgers and not drinking champagne. But it was fine, I was there with my favourite person.

The next day my fears the we'll be hungry af again disappeared. Most restaurants was opened and all we did that day was eating and drinking tea and bicycling around the town.

[mytravelerself]

ESTONIA / Tallinn trip

On our stay in Helsinki we decided to make a little trip to Tallinn in Estonia. It's quite an easy trip, aprox. 2 hours by boat and also not so expensive. We booked our tickets and we've been planning to stay there for 4 hours. We've been just wandering around the old town so 4 hours was really satisfactory.

The boat ride was pretty cool too. We had great views on the city and the nearby islands and then the sea. The boat was huge. It had 10 floors, shops, restaurants, bars, disco, terrasse and a lot of amusements.

The old town of Tallinn was close to the port, only about 15 min of walking distance.

First of all, we could spot the difference between the two capitals. Tallinn had beautiful historical old town, lot of coffees and restaurants and souvenirs and of course a lot more tourists. The weather there was also a bit hotter. We could feel there the athmosphere of the classic capital city. Although the old town was not so big, it was historical, charming and surrounded with many trees and green areas which I liked a lot. The prices was a bit lower too.

There was a cute street market with flowers.

Then we saw a lot of different churches and some panoramatic views on the city. The cute alleys was magical and not so crowded.

One thing that I was qite surprised was how almost everywhere and everyone spoke Russian. I knew that there are probably many of them but I didn't expect it that much. In souvenirs there were matches with Putin. Practically Putin was on every item in souvenirs. Yep.

And obviously many Finns go there to buy cheaper alcohol.

Well, that's probably all of my impression on Tallinn.

Aaaand I had delicious ice-cream! Only for 2€ strawberry sorbet and Pavlova cake ice-cream. The best combination ever. 🍓❤️

[mytravelerself]

Trip to Suomenlinna fortress

In the evening of day 3 we decided to take ferry to Suomenlinna island which is practically part of the Helsinki district. The card we bought for the city transportation even applied to the ferry. Win win.

Travel time by ferry was about 20min. The ride was pretty cool, evening was chilled and the sunlight begin to set down.

Suomenlinna was a quite small island, but really indented. There was about 8 little island connected by bridges. There were less people and unfortunately for us, all the museums and art ateliers were closed, because we arrived around 8p.m.

However, the athmosphere was charming. The views on other islands and sea was beautiful. The cute colorful houses and little boats were almost everywhere you looked.

The Suomenlinna fortress is although a military fortress and you cannot go everywhere, because it is military property.

In 1991 the fortress was added to the UNESCO world heritage list of sites.

In my opinion, it was worth the visit, you take a ride on ferry, see the Helsinki's archipelago on the way and you can do a little picnic by the sea. Lovely. And imagine that by the sunset. Even lovlier. Yes, and that's why we decided to go there a bit later and watch sunset above Helsinki from the rocks with some snacks and drinks. These moments counts for me always even more.

[mytravelerself]

FINLAND/Helsinki/day 2

We spent the next day wandering around Tampere and then we moved to Helsinki. The journey took aprox. two and half hour by bus, but it was the cheapest option..aand all low-cost options are win.

We came to Helsinki. Tried the Finnish markets and luckily found our apartment.

When we finally came to our new home, we were quite exhausted from the travelling and walking. We cooked some dinner and then chilled and planned the next days.

One thing that was confusing for me was definitely the light! There was much more light in the night..no dark at all I think and the sun was setting down way more later (around 10 p.m-11 p.m) We couldn't fall asleep that easily even though we were tired. We still had the feeling it's around 7 or 8 p.m. The next day we couldn't get up and the rest of the days were no different.

We walked around the city, saw some lakes and parks. One thing I probably like the most was the weather and the climate. Although there was 28°C I didn't feel so hot. The city was full of trees and green spaces and that kept the heat out of the town.

The seaside and the port was pretty. There were a lot of people sunbathing and even few were swimming. We sat down on the beach and enjoyed the sun and waves.

And we found the Czech restaurant right next to the railway station. There were menu with all the typical food and even the beer and it was written in czech as well.

Then I loved the small hidden alleys and restaurants and coffees that looked so cozy.

And sunflowers at markets. 🌻🌻

Overall conclusion on Helsinki :

~ Beautiful, but confusing.

~ Big and yet so calm?

~ Not many tourists.

~ Rather modern then historical city.

[mytravelerself]

The perfect apartment in Tampere and beautiful city!

Really. 

I liked the city way more then the capital Helsinki. Loved the design and industrial style of the buildings.

Everything was organised and had some kind of structure and symmetry. There were a lot of green and trees and thank to that you get the comfy and charming feeling. 

In the city you can feel the calm atmosphere, people sitting in parks, talking and eating luch or whatever. People sunbathing almost everywhere, for me bit strange but love it! 

Tampere, I need to visit you once more. This time it will be for longer, promise. 

[mytravelerself]

FINLAND/Tampere/day 1

Me and my friend booked a plane tickets to Tampere couple months ago. I wasn’t quite excited first, but eventually I am super glad I went. 

Well our little trip didn’t start so smooth as we expected.

We were flying from Budapest Airport at 6 p.m. We’re from Slovakia and from our city (Trnava) it is approx. 2h30m either by car or train. We booked our train and seats day before. It should be okay, we should come at the airport at time. But with all the situation with trains in our country, we prayed for train to come in time and we’ve taken the risk. 

First mistake. 

After not more then 20 minutes in train we started to slowing down and then train suddenly stopped really quickly. We looked at each other and hoped it’s just traffic reasons. After a while we heard annoucment that we’ll be staying there for about 80-120 minutes. We couldn’t believed what we’ve just heard. My friend told me, she just before our stopping saw some pieces of sheet metal on the railway. We were terryfied and seriously afraid that we are fucked, because we don’t make it in time to the airport. Everyone was on their phones and my friend went out to find out what happened. We hoped we didn’t hit and kill someone, because in that case we couldn’t get off the train and tried to catch our flight. 

We were luckily near one small train station. We could get off the train, but we still didn’t know what exactly happened. My friend was pissed off. Really bad. Her dad came pick us up and take us to airport. We didn’t have so much time though. However in the car we were less stressed and I was trying to think positively. 

Second mistake was the road.

On our way there must’ve been at least 2 car accidents and some works on the road and we’ve been stuck there for hour maybe even more. Then we started to freak out again.  The plane gate was closing at 5.30 pm. Well, it was 4.45 and we were quite far away and moved really slowly. 

We came to the airport at 5.15 pm. We were running around the hall like crazy, reminding us of film Home Alone. But eventually we made it. The plane was delayed for 15 minutes and that helped us a lot. 

Yeep. That was the dramatic start. 

And then we landed in Tampere 10.30 pm all happy and safe and enjoyed beautiful sunset. 

And then our troubles with transportation started once again. 

We nearly not catched two last buses to the city centre. Then the airport was closing and we would’ve waited there until 1 a.m. Luckily, we catched the last bus.

But all the drama and stress fell off when we came to our apartement in Tampere. It was really beautiful spaceful, cozy and comfy. And we were regretting that it was only for one night.