The Token Traveller

The Caramello Koala Apartment Rating System

5 weeks. 6 countries. 8 apartments. We booked and paid for these places months ago without knowing anything about most of the cities we were visiting. You scan the pics on Booking.com, check there is a washing machine and that it’s in a part of town close to transport and a supermarket. But did we…

Take it or Leave it

Granted, we were only in Bratislava for a couple of days, but when the area around your house looks like this… …it’s easy to get a negative vibe about a place. This vibe intensifies when your husband is harassed by a rashy drunken dude in the car park who scampered off when he didn’t understand…

Beam Me Up!

“Now. This is going to be an expensive meal girls. Just drink water. And elbows off the table.” These were our sage, tight-arse words of advice before ordering my birthday meal at UFO watch. taste. groove, which is said to be one of the best restaurants in Slovakia. Fair call on the water when mains…

The City of Angels. Not that one. Or the other one.

No, we haven’t jetted over to the States to visit L.A., or headed closer to home to the other “City of Angels” Krung Thep (Bangkok). We’re in Varazdin Croatia, VERY loosely referred to as the “City of Angels” mostly because an artist who has painted angels for 30 years, Zelijko Prstec, decided to open a…

The teeny tiny town

Hum. Hummmmmm. It’s such a cute little name! Perfect for the town that’s allegedly been named by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the world’s smallest. However have a poke around the Guinness website, and you’ll find no such record. Perhaps the townsfolk decided on its smallness themselves? It’s also difficult to ascertain…

Mummies

It’s estimated that approximately 44,000 people visit Disneyland in California each day. You’d probably say it’s one of the biggest attractions in the world. So when we rolled up to Vodnjan in the south of Istria and saw this sign out the front of the Church of St.Blaise… …we thought we’d have to fight off…

Marostica, Aquileia, Trieste.

We popped into three Northern Italian towns we’d never visited before. Here are some mini snapshots… Marostica Where is all the second hand stuff? I was convinced I’d find so many little relics and dust-collecting nic-nacs to add to my “old stuff” collection at home. Most “old stuff” in Australia I’ve found at op shops…

Buona Befana!

In Italy’s North (Veneto and Friuli) Christmas and New Year festivities are “all wrapped up” (to quote a much-used advertising slogan at this time of year) on January 6, The Epiphany. This is when the 3 Wise Men (the magi) were said to have travelled to Bethlehem to bring gifts to baby Jesus. So, to…

Auguri da Venezia!

While it’s a bucket list dream for many to see in the New Year on Sydney Harbour for one of the biggest NYE fireworks displays in the world, Venice was our choice of party city to celebrate the start of 2020. “Get down to Piazza San Marco early” warned Frederico our apartment owner “or you…

City of Dragons

Full disclosure. Before planning this trip, the only thing I knew about Slovenia was this… The young Slovenian couple that made us all feel a little uncomfortable watching Eurovision (our annual viewing highlight) last year. But as we poured over the map of Europe, pinpointing all of the places we definitely wanted to go and…

Oh, Vienna!

ACHTUNG! If you are planning a Chrissy trip to Vienna, be aware that most of the shops will close half way though Christmas Eve, and will stay closed all day Christmas Day, and St. Stephan’s Day (Aussie Boxing Day). With Vienna bursting with tourists at the moment, I guess we assumed that there must be…

Australia to Austria

We have done a fairly fabulous job at raising our two girls, if I do say so myself. At 13 and 15, they’re (mostly) polite, (hopefully) kind, (usually) well spoken, and (definitely) well travelled. Our first big trip together was in 2009 when we took them,at 3 and 4 years of age, to stay in…