FLYING THE NEST: MONTH 10
Month 10 has come and gone within a blink of an eye. We finished off our eurotrip exploring 4 more countries before jumping on a plane and heading to a new continent - Africa! Here we spent a week volunteering with big cats and ended the month catching a train to Cape Town to reunite with family we hadn't seen for years.
Where We Went
1 day in Birmingham / England
2 days in Brussels / Belgium
2 days in Frankfurt / Germany
3 days in Munich / Germany
2 days in Zurich / Switzerland
2 days in Lake Como / Italy
2 days in Venice / Italy
3 days in Florence / Italy
3 days in Rome / Italy
7 day in North West South Africa / South Africa
3 days in Cape Town / South Africa
Highlights
Visiting fairytale castles in Germany. Both being big Disney fans, we were very excited to discover that Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle was only a couple of hours train ride away from Munich. This was the castle that inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle and visiting it felt like stepping straight into a fairy tale.
Scenic train rides. We spent most of the month travelling through Europe via train, and we think this is the best way to experience Europes beauty. We took some stunning train rides through the swiss alps, along turquoise lakes in Italy and through Germany's country side - absolutely breath taking.
Getting lost in Venice. Visiting Venice has always been a dream of ours, and being able to spend a few days getting lost in Venice's narrow streets, walking over the beautiful canals and eating way too much gelato felt like a dream come true.
Seeing the most colourful place in the world. Month 10 was full of bucket list moments. During our time in Florence we spent a day heading out to discover the UNESCO site, Cinque Terre. Made up of 5 cute and colourful seaside villages along the coast of Italy - if it's not already on your list we suggest you add this spot to it.
Exploring the Colosseum. Rome is such a historical city with buildings and architecture dating way back. Of course we had to check out the Colosseum and we were not disappointed.
Volunteering in Southern Africa. Ever since we volunteered abroad in Costa Rica for two weeks we have become hooked. When we began planning our South African trip we knew this would be the perfect opportunity to experience more animal conservation and volunteering. We teamed up with Volunteer SA and spent a week living, playing and caring for some incredible Big Cats.
The most luxurious train ride in the world. We had the amazing opportunity to catch the very luxurious Blue Train from Pretoria down to Cape Town. With our very own suite, 4 course meals and gigantic windows showcasing the stunning African scenery - I never thought we would ever be able to travel in such style!
Reunited with family after too many years. If you didn't already know, Stephen was born in South Africa and moved over to Australia when he was 10, leaving a lot of family behind. Arriving in Cape Town we we were greeted by Stephens auntie and cousin who we have not seen in years and as there was a wedding happening within the week we were reunited with more and more family as the weeks went on. It was was a very special way to end month 10 of our travels.
Lowlights
Having a travel breakdown. Travelling full time while also filming and editing our lives every day as well as keeping you all up to date here on the blog can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. During our travels through Frankfurt Stephen began to feel quite overwhelmed by all this which resulted in us not seeing much of Frankfurt, and instead spending downtime in our hotel room playing games, watching movies and just being silly. Even though we missed out on properly exploring a city, it was just what we needed.
The Funds
For the past few months a lot of our travels have been funded through the travel card we won back in July through the Covermore Ultimate Traveller Competition. This has allowed us to do and see so much, a big thank you again to all that voted and shared our entry!
For our second month here in Europe we tried to keep food costs to a minimum - food in Europe is so expensive - we basically lived off cheese and bread (ahh that full time traveller diet). Due to this poor diet we ended up spending on average about $15 on food a day, equally to around $350 between the two of us for the month.
We were lucky enough to have a lot of work assignments, experiencing and reviewing a number of hotels and rail systems which resulted in us only spending $102 for a bus from Birmingham to Brussels, $300 on last minute accommodation in Frankfurt and about $200 on entertainment expenses such as seeing a movie in Rome and trying a cheeky gelato in Florence.
All these opportunities meant that for month 10 we managed to spend $967 for the two of us to travel through Europe and begin our African trip.
Quick Numbers So Far…
Flights taken: 25
Kilometres travelled: 84, 263
Photographs taken: 20,123
Days uploaded to YouTube: 305
Coffee’s Had: 301
Where To Next:
We will be spending the next 2 months exploring South Africa. We have plans to spend Christmas & New Years with the family before heading off on more volunteering projects and road trips through Africa.
Thank you so much for coming along on our journey of leaving home and travelling the world!
