Miss Travelette

I spent more than one week in Europe lately, so I haven't had time to write here at all, but now here I am, with lots of photos and a huge background information that I can share with you.

The cities I saw last week are Prague in Czech Republic, Dresden in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Bratislava in Slovakia and Budapest in Hungary. I can easily say that this one was the journey of my life (before that, it was Paris!) - 5 countries, 5 different historical background, and 5 different cultures in one week - like a dream to me!

Every one of them had different beauties; Prague is a magical city, while Vienna is the centre of arts and music with its well-organised streets and Germanic architectural richness, Bratislava is more than you can expect, Dresden is fascinating with its Gothic cathedrals, and Budapest is an adorable city with its Fisherman's Bastion where I fell in love with...

I have loads to tell and will share all the information I've got with you soon - for now, only the pictures...

Note: The flood is not that strong anymore, although some parts of bridges are still under water - so you don't have to delay your journey because of the flood. You may not be able to have a boat tour perhaps, but the last day I was in Budapest, I had a chance to see the city from the boat - so you will probably be able to do the same!

MORE POSTS ABOUT PRAGUE, VIENNA, BUDAPEST, BRATISLAVA AND DRESDEN WILL BE COMING SOON! KEEP FOLLOWING!


More info coming for budget travel, where to go in vienna, where to go in prague, where to go in budapest...

Me on the beach

Summer is about to come! It's already more than 25C degrees in Istanbul. Time to go for a holiday!

If you are planning a trip to Turkey, which is one of the most famous summer places around Europe for the last few years, I have loads of places to recommend. One of them is the Kaputaş Beach where I visited 2 summers ago, and found fascinating!

The beach is between two cities, Kaş and Kalkan, so if you are visiting any of these cities, you will surely have a chance to go and see the beach. Bring your bikinis with you and spend a whole day there!

The Kaputaş Beach is a bit different compared to other popular beaches in Turkey as it is actually located on a lower point when you look from the road, and there is nothing else around the bay except some local & foreign people having sunbaths on the beach!

If you are with a car - and I really don't know what else could get you there! - you must leave your car near the stairways in a little park lot, and start going downstairs. There you will have to handle 180 steps of a stairway both as going down and going up back to your car. So 360 steps in total! But never tiring! The view is so adorable! You will enjoy all the steps up!

The water looks turquoise all year (particularly in the brightest summer days) because it directly comes from under the ground, all fresh and icy! Explore what's behind the rocks to see more!

You'd better bring your own food to the beach because there is nothing around; no shops, no restaurants, no houses... Only the blue water and yellow sand, and people.

What else are you looking for anyway! ;)

Kaputaş Beach from my camera (taken on the stairways)

How to get there: If you are looking for a place like Kaputaş, then you must choose a place around Antalya to stay. Both Kaş and Kalkan are linked to Antalya, which is one of the hottest summer cities in Turkey. I remember crying because of the hot weather when I was a kid, because I was literally unable to sleep as it was impossible to breath!

There is an airport in Antalya where you can fly to, and in Antalya you might rent a car to drive up to the north side to get to the beach.

Me in Canterbury, Kent

Maybe this is not the same for everywhere, but here when you say "England", only one thing comes to people's minds: London!
It's not like Italy, which has Florence, Rome and Venice as its popular cities. People go to these three cities at one journey, but when it comes to England, they generally prefer seeing London and nothing else - which I didn't like at all.
For the last 5 years -or even more- I kept begging my family to buy a holiday package which includes only the Lake District in England. Even before seeing London, I wanted to see the country life over there.

Well, now LUCKILY as one of my friends from the secondary school with whom I used to study together lives in Rye, East Sussex this year. She's met an English guy 5 years ago, and been married to him for the last 3 years, but until the last months of the last year, they preferred living in Istanbul as they both love the warm weather more.

Now they're in England for career development, and that's been a great chance for me to see both my friend and the lovely country life of England!

As she wants to see more of London -of which I'm fed up with really-, we made a plan: 3 days in London, 3 days in the rural area (which are Rye, Canterbury and Tenterden).
So that's how it started!
Very unluckily the terrible weather had us frozen the first days of the trip and we eventually found ourselves running between the attractions we wanted to see in London! And veeery luckily, the last three days of our holiday was much much better, so we had plenty of time to explore the rural areas.

To start with, I will summarise what we've done in London and what we'done in other parts of the country.

First day, Tuesday - We met in our hotel, which was Best Western Paddington, that I would definitely recommend! Good service, quite luxurious rooms (a bit tiny though), clean, quiet and everything we were looking for! After leaving our luggages, basically followed the programme: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, lunch at Hyde Park, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Kensington High Street, Holland Park, Notting Hill and back to hotel - Dinner at Leicester Square.

The second day, Wednesday - Sherlock Holmes Museum (for which we were a bit late, so bought the tickets and visited again the next day), Oxford Street for shopping, lunch in Oxford Street, picking up our London Pass cards from Leicester and then National Gallery - shopping again (English books this time, from Waterstones) and back to the hotel - dinner at Leicester with a friend from London.

The third day, Thursday - Sherlock Holmes Museum-Baker Street, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, sandwiches for lunch(take away), London Cruise Tour, Tower of London(Inside the castle), Tower Bridge(Tower Bridge Exhibition), run to the hotel, take the luggages, check out and go to Sevenoaks - my friend's husband picked us up from there and we headed to East Sussex... That night we're staying at the Corner House, where actually my friend lives. The Corner House was a very very lovely place with 5-6 rooms, 2 horses, a big big garden and a little lovely lake - the Turner family owns it and has been running it as a Bed&Breakfast for the last 30 years. They are a very lovely family and I loved to spend time with them a lot - their rooms are very nice, yellow, pink, blue, colourful and clean - you have everything you need inside... and more. So I would definitely recommend you to stay there when you visit the town Rye!

The fourth day, Friday - Canterbury, Kent - we had to use the train to go there, spent a few hours around, but didn't have time for another cruise tour on the river. Dinner at home with the Turner family (Their traditional Fish&Chips Friday).

The fifth day, Saturday - Tenterden, Kent, and back to Rye, explore the little town. (Nice weather, tourists around, everything was perfect on that day!) Dinner in Rye, and a night out in Rye (Go to the George Pub/and another pub later on) - Drunk at the end of the night!

The sixth day, Sunday, go to the woods in Rye and to the Camber Sands Beach later on (when the water is not up!), lunch at home, get ready for the train which goes to Heathrow Airport.

Busy holiday it was! And I enjoyed the last three days more to be honest! London was exhausting for sure, but Rye and the others were great as we had too many chances to just chill out, long hours of eating, drinking tea and exploring the environment with no rush!

When my friend asked me which one I liked the best, my answer was Canterbury for some reason. But I think now it is Rye, with it's woods, beach and shopping area - little, traditional and warm - just as I like it!