Denmark, Italy and Hungary

Josh and I were both so excited to go to Copenhagen, a place neither of us had been before and I was eager for a change of scenery.  We arrived and managed to find our hotel easy enough. It had a nice but small room which was very central and looked over the city hall and the emergency services station.  I looked up on trip advisor the top rated restaurants so we went to one called ‘Tight’.  We were advised on the internet that the ‘Tight burger’ was what you should have. All we can both say is “wow”. It was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. It was quite expensive for a burger, but it didn’t take us too long to figure out that Denmark isn’t a very cheap place anyway.  We had a walk down the main pedestrian shopping street before trying to pass out for the night. The hotel doesn’t have a fan or air-conditioning so we left the window open which meant it was very noisy, especially across the road from the emergency services…we had sirens going at all hours.

The next morning we had a city tour and a boat ride through the canals of Copenhagen. We arrived 20 minutes early and waited at the location stated on the voucher. By the time the tour was due to leave no one was there so we phoned the tour company were advised that the tour departure location was nowhere near where we were, so we missed the tour. Lucky for us there was an afternoon tour. So we wandered around the city before meeting for the tour again. The tour itself on the bus was not very good but you don’t know what you are booking.  The boat ride however was fantastic. We visited the ‘Little Mermaid’ and saw the Queen of Denmarks private yacht, meaning she was in Copenhagen at the time. Poor Josh started to feel unwell that afternoon and by the time we got back to the hotel he just wanted to sleep. The next day was a right off with Josh still suffering from Migraine symptoms and unable to eat or really move at all.

A Hamlet Castle tour was booked for the next day. Josh felt a bit better until the bus got going so we took it easy for the rest of the day doing as little as possible. From what we saw the castles looked amazing though!  I went to the pharmacy when we got back and got some pills for him which seemed to help. Poor Josh! We just had an easy day the next day as Josh still wasn’t 100%. We departed for Rome the following day.

Our arrival into Rome saw us waiting for 30 minutes for our bags, luckily I had allowed 1 hour to get to the bus terminal to catch our bus in to the city. We arrived at the bus station 10 minutes early only to find the bus had left without us because it was full. A frustrating start especially when I had booked a specific time. Having been told the next bus was 20 minutes away we waited and waited until we had been standing there for 50 minutes. By this time there were probably about 100 people gathered, all wanting a seat on the same bus. No line was created so it was a first in first serve no matter how long you had been waiting. We gave up and decided to catch the train into the city. We had no desire to fight our way on to the bus (If you ever go to Rome, don’t use Terravision transfers). We made it to the hotel which was only about a 10 minute walk with our cases and got exploring straight away. We headed to a restaurant in front of The Pantheon via the Trevi Fountain.  A lovely view sitting down looking at the Pantheon and we were in t-shirts!  That was basically a first for the trip. We didn’t arrive in Rome until late afternoon so we just had dinner and a gelati in front of the Trevi Fountain (of course) and headed back to relax at the hotel.  

The next day we had a Vatican tour booked. This tour included visiting the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. The Pope had given an audience that morning, so the thousands of attendees of the audience were still in the Vatican by the time we arrived, which made it extremely crowded. The tour group were trying to battle our way through the crowds and it was horrible! It is still an educating experience so we did take in a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, especially in St Peters Basilica. The sheer size of it is just breath taking!  We ate pasta for dinner again and had yet another gelati. Lucky our hotel was a good 20 minute walk away from the Trevi Fountain, otherwise we wouldn’t have a chance to walk off all the gelati!

We had the next day free so we took advantage of it and walked up to the Spanish Steps and through the gardens of the Medici family which overlook the city. It was hot but a wonderful view and it was nice to get away from the tiny streets filled with tourists (and guys trying to sell you silly toys). We just wandered around, taking in the history and culture of this lovely city. We went back to the room for a relax and a shower before heading back to a restaurant near the Trevi Fountain that mum and I discovered on our travels. I wanted Josh to try the Veal in Marsala Sauce. The waiter there is so passionate about his job and is hilarious so we had a lovely time.

We had a lot of trouble sleeping in Rome due to the noise from the street until the wee hours of the morning. If only we weren’t such light sleepers!

Another tour we had booked was a Colosseum and Roman Forum tour through a company called ‘Dark Rome’. This was such an educating tour, our tour guide was an archaeologist so she was very passionate about her job and we can definitely recommend this company to anybody visiting Rome. It was another hot day so at the end of the 3 hour walking tour we were exhausted and wanted to relax a little before going back to the restaurant mum and I found (again) because it was so delicious. We walked to the Pantheon again and found an amazing gelati place with probably 40 types of gelati so we had one, of course! Our last night in Rome was very pleasant and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our arrival into Venice didn’t go quite to plan. Due to the Americas Cup, we had to go on a different water bus which took us to Rialto. Of course I had only printed off directions on where to go from the original stop, but we managed to find our way and we were even greeted with sunshine. Our accommodation was a lovely 3 bedroom bed and breakfast on a quiet street right on one of the smaller canals. Our room was large and there was a big kitchen with breakfast provided. The location was fantastic so after dumping our bags we went and had a nice pizza for lunch and had a wander around. I decided to surprise josh and book a 40 minute gondola ride. It wasn’t a private boat but it was very nice and relaxing with a man singing for all the boats in the group.

The next day we had a walking tour and canal cruise. The water was very busy due to it being the final day of the Cup.  Such a great tour and we had no rain just clouds! The day was finished off by dinner along the Grand Canal of Venice. Very romantic.

The next day we had to ourselves. We walked across to Piazza Roma, where the mainland is connected to Venice to get a bus ticket to the airport. We were flying Ryan Air and they have a different terminal which is a bit further away to the main airport. Due to the fact that we had the whole day we didn’t use the map too much and wandered around the area of Venice that isn’t occupied by tourists. On the way back we did get a little lost and it did start pouring rain, so we were drenched but it was fun. We found a small pizza place for lunch followed by some gelati and made our way back to the room for a little rest before heading out to dinner to a restaurant close by again which was delicious.

We had time the next day before the bus so we decided to drag our bags over to the bus terminal rather than taking the water taxi, which took us about an hour. We were exhausted but it saved some money and killed some time. After checking in at the airport we got some lunch which was pizza again which looked nice but didn’t really agree with Josh when we got on the plane to Budapest. Needless to say Josh had a nice bout of food poisoning for the next 2 days so we didn’t get up to too much. I changed the date of a city tour I had booked to our last night in Budapest to give Josh a chance to get over it. We did manage to have a walk around and down to the river when he started to feel a little better. The day before the tour we walked up to the castle I went to last time which overlooks the city. It was a lovey day but a long walk again (I am hoping all this walking will counteract eating gelati all the time haha). The following day we walked to the thermal spas of Budapest in the city. It was a hot day and we did find it difficult to hop in to 38 degree water but we moved to a slightly cooler pool and ended up spending about 2 hours there before having a shower back at the hotel and going to our walking tour which started at 8pm. Turns out there were only two other people on the tour so it was fantastic! Seeing the buildings in sunset and at night is amazing.  You might remember me saying last time how well the Hungarians illuminate things. We got on a boat around 9.45pm and had a cruise up and down the Danube with a glass of wine (I was able to stay outdoors this time as it was a nice temperature!).  A late night but totally worth it! The sights are breathtaking.

We departed Budapest in the morning, getting picked up by a Mercedes, it wasn’t much more expensive than a shuttle bus so we decided to live it up a little. Next stop, Paris!