Page 27 of Delek Delek Travel Blog Posts


Europe » Italy » Lombardy » Milan November 15th 2009

It was somehow ironic that we would be going to Italy of all places for a weekend of Kiwi sporting pride. And going to Milan to watch my first ever All Blacks match on a cheap Ryanair flight (£16 return), it seemed inevitable that I was going to bump into some fellow Kiwis that I knew. And sure enough, when I got off the bus from the airport at Milan's central station, I saw my old cricket mate Jacques, who I hadn't seen in years. Jacques, just like us, was here for the match and we had a bit of a mini-catch-up before making our way to respective hotels. Almost giving up trying to find the right bus-stop to get to our hotel was indicative of how things have changed in the last two years. As ... read more
Navigli
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Castello Sfrozesco

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest October 25th 2009

Can you see what I've done with the title here? Ah, creativity lull (or I've read too many British newspapers). Anyway, in terms of a city break, Budapest is simply awesome. As you will discover by reading on, this place has everything. As is worryingly becoming the norm before a holiday, I had so much going on that I had not really thought much about the holiday itself until I was actually on the plane after work on Thursday. I wasn't even excited until Davies and I touched down in Budapest, and realised we were in a completely different country. Hungarian as a language is weir- I mean, unique. It is not like any other European language so I could recognise no words or signage whatsoever except those taken from English. You know, words like "burger". ... read more
Parlament
St. Stephen's Basilica
Szechenyi Chain Bridge

Europe » Sweden » Västra Götaland County » Gothenburg September 6th 2009

"It's autumn in Gothenburg, I'm walking home to my suburb, Rain falls hard on the city, On every homeless kitty, Oh please God bring relief, Even if it's only brief, But she said that dreamers just make-believe, But I thought she said maple leaves." 98% of you will have no idea what the lyrics above are all about, but it just about sums up my September trip to Gothenburg, Sweden. The lyrics are from one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists, who comes from this very city. Therefore, this trip was somewhat of a pilgrimage and this blog entry will be packed with more Jens Lekman lyrics and references than there has ever been in any piece of writing not actually about Jens Lekman. It was also a return to Sweden, a ... read more
The Avenue
Domkrykan
Konstmuseet

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Somerset » Bath August 9th 2009

I've not done a huge amount of travel around this country that I live in so I decided to change that by taking a weekend trip to Bristol and Bath. It was a bit of a class trip as I was going with four friends I went to school with - Davies, Gkee and Kelley who have all appeared on this blog before, and another one of my old school friends Mitra. I had heard good things about Bristol - that it is a lively, modern city with a vibrant nightlife. On the way back from Bristol, we would stop by at the by-all-accounts-beautiful and much talked about tourist trap that is Bath. As per usual I was slightly hungover and in a rush to get to Paddington Station on Saturday morning and was sweating a ... read more
The Clifton Suspension Bridge
Bath Abbey
The Royal Crescent

Europe » Montenegro » Kotor » Kotor June 5th 2009

Before sending away my passport to the UK Home Office for six weeks, I decided to take one last holiday for some fun in the hot sun along the Adriatic coast. I only organised the whole trip about two weeks before leaving and so my first holiday since Krakow came a lot sooner than expected. It also gave me the chance to visit the second newest country in the world - Montenegro. Having gained independence from Serbia in June 2006, Montenegro only relinquished it's title as the world's newest country in February 2008 to it's Balkan neighbours Kosovo, who also gained independence from Serbia. Therefore I was intrigued to see what I would discover and experience in this new land. Montenegro also marked my personal three-o - the 30th country I have visited. Now, only 165 ... read more
Cathedral of St. Tryphon
Our Lady Of The Rock
Paradise?

Europe » Poland » Lesser Poland » Kraków May 4th 2009

After a hiatus of a couple of months, it was time to continue my travels and next on the list was a lads' weekend in Krakow for the first May bank holiday weekend. Everyone I had spoken to about Krakow had only said good things about it, so I was looking forward to seeing if it would live up to the hype. The trip could not have got off to a worse start. It's Friday afternoon and a colleague of mine needs me to do a last minute quote for a huge customer (Microsoft no less) and I am the only person with the skillz to do it - and it needs doing before I can leave for the airport. I ended up leaving 15 minutes later than planned and arrived at Liverpool Street station with ... read more
Church Of St. Mary
Church Of St. Peter & St. Paul
Town Hall Tower

Asia » Singapore February 5th 2009

Imagine the "oh shit" look on my face when, a week before I was to fly home to New Zealand for two weeks, I discovered that I had a 14-hour stopover in Singapore. Fourteen hours. From 1845 to 0845 the next morning. What would I do for fourteen hours? The logical thing would be to find somewhere to sleep, but where? Fortunately, I have a cousin who now lives in Singapore and thanks to Facebook, I also had the means of contacting a guy I hadn't seen or talked to in years. Perhaps more importantly, my cousin Marcus is an awesome and generous guy and was more than happy to put me up for the night. So what initially looked like a major hassle has now turned into the perfect, refreshing stopover that would neatly break ... read more
Singapore Skyline
Marcus, Me and The Feast
Souvenir Store

Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai January 1st 2009

It was weird being in the cold of London in the run-up to Christmas, as everyone was all about winter wonderland, mince pies and mulled wine. Then one (not-so) foggy Christmas Eve I boarded a flight to deliver presents to the most un-Christmas of places, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Christmas Day isn't even a public holiday here. And as opposed to the freezing Christmas temperatures in Europe, it was a rather balmy 25 degrees. When I arrived however, the desert sun was nowhere to be seen, as the whole city was, believe it or not, shrouded in fog! Maybe it really is Christmas. The first thing that struck me about Dubai was the incredible sight of the main highway, Sheik Zayed Road, slicing through a huge concentration of wall-to-wall skyscrapers. It looked like I ... read more
Sheikh Zayed Road
Desert Safari
Mike's Party Pad

Europe » Norway » Eastern Norway » Oslo November 23rd 2008

Admittedly, in the days before I left for Oslo I did not have the feeling of excitement or anticipation that usually preceded a holiday. I had heard that Oslo was expensive, freezing, dark and with not a lot to do - so not only was I lacking enthusiasm before the trip, I was almost filled with dread. Didn't help that I was going to one of the world's most expensive countries just days before payday. However, Norway is part of Scandinavia, of which I have a very high opinion after my visit to Sweden, Denmark and Finland last year. On top of that, it would be another country ticked off the list, Ryanair were offering £2 return airfares, and *apparently* the girls there are stunning, so that was enough to get me on the plane. Getting ... read more
Viking Ship Museum
Oslo Opera House
Parliament

Europe » Malta » Malta October 5th 2008

Having endured a non-existent English summer in London, I was thankful that my old travel buddy Davies and I had booked some Mediterranean sun as an insurance policy. I was looking forward to some proper summer weather! When choosing a summer getaway, I was looking for somewhere warm and relaxing, with enough to do that could be covered in a long weekend, and somewhere ideally, that was a new country to visit. Coupled with the fact that I had heard good things about it and the fact that it is served by Ryanair, this island in the sun ticked all the boxes and I was excited to see what Malta had in store for us. My boss (kindly) let me go early on a Thursday afternoon to catch my flight, but as usual, my journey to ... read more
A Luzzu
St. George's Bay
St Paul's Cathedral




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