Travelling

Group Tours – Survival Tips

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I have a friend who is a seasoned solo traveller, and only recently embarked on her first group tour. While most people are anxious about the thought of travelling alone, she was more concerned about problems that might arise from being stuck in a group!

group travel croatia

Group travel can be wonderful (Jorden/Syria/Turkey 2011… unforgettable), but it can also be challenging (Egypt 2011 shortly after the revolution). Whether you’re put in a group you feel you have nothing in common with, your roomie is particularly annoying, or when group dynamics just don’t work. Tours are the perfect solution for places that are a little more difficult to navigate, or if you just want guaranteed company. But they’re not always peachy. So here’s some tips on how to make the best of one.

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Monkey Memes – the result of a drunken afternoon sorting out Sri Lanka photos

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monkeys sri lanka
So many monkeys

The weekend after we arrived back in Austria from our Sri Lanka/Australia trip earlier this year, Thomas turned up with a giant hunk of lamb and we decided to celebrate our return with a Sunday Roast. I was, naturally, head cook, and as I babysat the baking meat, I started sorting through the photos from our trip.

But the further into the afternoon I got, the more wine I drank, and after a while I was unable to do anything useful. And so, facing an excess of random monkey pictures from Sri Lanka, I decided that it was high time I learnt how to make memes. Here are the results, and I think they’re funny, even if no one else does!

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Short Trips – Zagreb – a wedding, ćevapčići and more ćevapčići

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Zagreb dad and me
So good to see my Dad!

I’ve visited Zagreb a couple of times before, but the most recent trip was to celebrate my cousin’s wedding. Not only was it great to have a few days away, it was a privilege to witness the cementing of another successful multi-country relationship! My cousin was born in New Zealand, but having a Swiss father meant he relocated there in his 20s, meeting his now-wife, and eventually moving to Croatia. It’s complicated but awesome that I have a relative that lives so close (only 2.5 hours away).

Another brilliant thing was that my Dad and two of my aunties also joined in the celebratory-travel-party from Australia. It made for a great time to catch up, speak English (and occasionally try to understand Swiss-German, courtesy of the Swiss side of the family) and relax.

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Overseas Birthdays – highlight or lowlight?

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Birthdays while travelling seem to take place at two extremes. You either find yourself among a bunch of awesome people, and the fact it is your birthday propels everyone into party mode resulting an epic night. Or it’s lonely, in a city among people you haven’t connected particularly well with, which then becomes a half-hearted kind of tragic day.

italy
Not even sure who these people are, but I remember it was someone’s birthday… so things escalated quickly

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Short Trips – Brighton – a town of food, sea, fudge and lightning

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Brighton Pier, UKVisiting the London area in the past (eg. When I was living in Australia) was always a bit of a lowlight. Not bad, of course, just not as exciting as the rest of the trip.

It was a place that was easy, where I knew the language and had friends to stay with. It was a rest stop, a place to recuperate. Or it was simply the most practical or cheapest place to fly in and out of.

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Creating the perfect trip = attempting the impossible

debbiekaye19803 Comments

Before we went to Australia on our most recent holiday, I made a lot of lists. I like making lists. Lists of friends I wanted to see, things I wanted to do, food I wanted to eat, places I wanted to visit, food I wanted to buy and bring back… the list(s) goes on.

You see, what I was doing, was trying to organise the perfect trip home.

Australia sunset beach walk
Perfect sunset beach walks with the Captain

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Nothing’s changed – but please don’t hate us when we say it

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Captain getting old
No, he hasn’t gotten any greyer while I’ve been gone… right?

It has to be one of the most insufferable phrases to come out of an expat or traveller’s mouth upon their return home. I’ve heard it countless times myself and I’ve seen the expressions on the faces of people receiving it. Hell, I’ve even thought it, though hopefully I was able to hold myself back from actually spitting it out.

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Longer Trips – Australia – and suddenly it feels like a holiday

debbiekaye19802 Comments

sunset australia mornington beach

I’ve been back to Australia three times since moving to Austria, but it wasn’t until the most recent trip that it actually felt like a holiday.

The first time, triggered by an expiring plane ticket, was spent madly running around, organising documents, throwing stuff out and working out exactly what I would need in Austria for the next x number of months/years (under 30kg). The second time was our wedding, which, while it was perfect, involved quite a lot of time-consuming organisation which I could only do once I arrived in the country.

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