Apologies on the delayed post! We returned to the United States last week and hopped right into our work week, thus minimizing our time to write about Tokyo. Now that we’re settling back into our daily routines (in Chicago and NYC), it’s time to share the last of our adventures with you.

If we were to paint you a picture of Tokyo, it would look like a cleaner, more efficient and much more sprawling Manhattan. In that painting, we would double the number of people out on the streets, add millions more neon lights and incorporate Japanese signs and signals on every street corner. The city is enormous and makes one feel like an ant in a never ending field of grass blades. The other obstacle is that little to no English is written or spoken, which makes it difficult to see street signs, read menus or navigate the train system.

In our opinion, Tokyo was our greatest challenge on our ‘round the world adventure.

Continue reading “Tales of Tokyo”

As the fifth of our six cities, we knew that we’d be spending our time in Bali relaxing and unwinding; a vacation from our vacation, if you will. After haggling a ride from a local taxi driver at the airport, we made our way to Seminyak, the first stop on our tour of the island.

We checked in and headed out into the night, walking a half mile from our hotel towards the beach. We were soon greeted with the light of the half moon and the stars in the sky, the sound of crashing waves and the feeling of soft sand between our toes. Heaven!

Continue reading “Bali the Beautiful”

Landing in Vietnam was an experience in and of itself. There were mass amounts of locals – men, women and children alike – pushing their way off the plane, eager to get back home to their families. Most stood up immediately after landing, before we had even taxied to our gate, grabbing their bags and making way to the exits. As far as first impressions go, we were a bit nervous.

Thankfully our hotel had arranged taxi transportation from the airport to the city, which took about 45 minutes with traffic. Never in our lives had we ever seen so many motorbikes, carrying so many bodies. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to traffic either; no lights or yield signs, no stop signs or crosswalks. Just chaos – or so we thought at first.

Continue reading “Happy Hanoi”

The train to Vienna was stress free and relaxing; we caught up on our blogging responsibilities and continued making our way through season one of Suits. We reviewed our Budapest itinerary and prepared for our walk out of the train station and over to our B&B.

Thankfully, our host in Budapest provided us with thorough instructions on how to navigate the tricky train stations and avoid the taxi “hyenas” (as they’re referred to by locals) to make our way to safely to the hotel. We arrived at our B&B around 10:30 am and were greeted at the front door by a handsome 30-something native, who spoke flawless English.

Insert Albert, the owner of Kapital Inn and the coolest person on the planet. He immediately welcomed us with hugs and sat us down at the kitchen table for fresh pastries, coffee and shots of the local appertives. We picked his brain about the best of Budapest and he asked us more about our adventure. After the hour-long conversation, it felt like we were old friends.

Continue reading “Buda — Pest”

Vienna, in one word, is elegant. Picture a tall, blonde haired, blued eyed ballerina walking gracefully through a rose garden in the summer sunshine, with a wrinkle-free tutu and hair slicked back (with zero “fly-aways”) to perfection. That ballerina = Vienna.

The buildings are sky-high, well manicured and painted in beautiful pastel tones — yellows, pinks, greens and white. They demand attention with their detailing and fancy buttresses. We could have stared at those buildings for days, clicking away on our cameras.

You get the picture, right?

When we stepped off the train from Prague to Vienna, we had no idea what to expect. In the first five minutes of our walk to our apartment, we stumbled upon the Belvedere Palace and gardens. This was probably our favorite experience in our two-day tour of Vienna; maybe because this was our first stop, but also because the grounds are absolutely breathtaking.

Continue reading “Lady Vienna, You So Fancy!”

Fun Fact: The city of Prague grew and prospered in the 1300s under Charles IV who ordered the building of several of the city’s most important landmarks still today: New Town, the Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral and the Charles University.

In our second day of exploration, we decided to take in more of the beautiful history and charm of the Czech Republic’s largest city, starting with the river Vltava.

Based on recommendations from friends and tour books, we decided to board one of the many Prague tour boats that offer hour-long, Jazz and dinner river boat cruises. We decided on the hour-long ride; it was the perfect amount of time to enjoy a Coca Cola Light and snap pictures of the gorgeous Castle Quarter and Charles Bridge from the waters below.

Continue reading “Exploring Prague”

This entire day has been extremely surreal – the trip that we’ve been planning for 365 days is here! It’s TODAY, it’s TODAY!

The only time I’ve ever planned or prepared so long and hard for something was back in the first grade for my Disney princess birthday party (yes, this is Maggie… not Patrick).

We are currently snuggled up at JFK, sipping on cocktails (Amen) and waiting to board our flight to Prague. We’ll be taking off at 7:45pm ET and landing around 10:00am “Europe-time” tomorrow.

Continue reading “It’s Go Time!”