Stockholm was a random choice of next destination — we’d wanted to get to Helsinki and the Baltics, and then tried to use FF points for the flights, and the closest we could get was Stockholm, so here we are! I was here only two nights, but we packed a lot in.
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There was a bunch of stuff I didn’t have time to do last time I was in Athens, and sadly I didn’t tick off everything from my list this time either, but I did squeeze in a few important things. You can only get so much into three days!
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This trip I’m bouncing around a bit – starting in Greece and then heading to northern and eastern Europe to see some new places before ending in Istanbul.
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Not having been to the West Coast region, I decided to spend a few days in Franz Josef village and then head back up to Hokitika. It’s pretty tricky to do this by public transport, so I ended up hiring a car from Rad Car Hire who gave me the car at Hokitika airport and I dropped it back there on my way out, four days later. After driving my electric car for a few months it was strange driving a petrol one again, but I managed.
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The train ride down from Blenheim was lovely – beautiful scenery from vineyards to rolling hills to rocky coastline. Luckily it wasn’t too busy either so I had a double seat to myself.
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This trip is to celebrate the beginning of my long service leave, a nice chunk of time where I can focus on things other than work. And what better to do than travel?
I’d originally planned to be in the UK at this point, but decided that a quick jaunt closer to home was in order, especially since R and I will be heading to Europe together in June. I hadn’t been to NZ for a while, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to tick off a couple of bucket list items, the first of which was to visit the Marlborough wine region.
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(Posted retrospectively) We love visiting Hoi An. This is the fourth time and it’s not lost its shine, although every time we visit there is more development and bigger resorts and hotels. I’m glad it’s bringing money into the town.
Since R was leaving after three days so he could go back to work, we started our tailor stops with his requests, starting at Bebe. Since we were staying on the east side of town this time. we stopped at the flagship Bebe shopfront, which was very busy and businesslike. R ordered his items, but I didn’t really feel the joy so left it until the next visit.
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We’d been through Da Nang three times on our way in and out of Hoi An before, but not spent any time there, so this trip we decided to make a stopover before hitting Hoi An again. Good choice! Da Nang is similar in character to HCMC and Hanoi, and given it is the biggest airport in the area, it sees a lot of tourism (so it’s pretty well set up for people like me who don’t speak much Vietnamese.)
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When we were planning our stop in Quy Nhon, we found out that it was a beach town kinda like Nha Trang, but less touristy, and they had great seafood. We didn’t realise this meant that very few Western tourists went there, so we were a bit of a spectacle. Walking down the street, people turned and watched us, and children and teenagers practiced their English by saying “Hello” and giggling. We even had one lady ask to take our photo. We felt very famous.
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The last time we were in HCMC was in 2014 and I got pretty sick, and that coloured my impression of it, unsurprisingly. Happily, this time I was able to enjoy it much more and revise my first impressions.
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Two Weeks Away 