#NickAndMilliesGreatAdventure

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Week 5: Bangkok, Chiang Mai

Distance travelled by Air: 6029 Miles (6029 total)

Distance travelled by Rail: 423 Miles (423 total)

Distance travelled by Road: 70 Miles (5683 total)

Distance travelled on Foot: 44 Miles (256 total)

Places Visited: 2 (23 total)

Burgers eaten so far: 1 (9 total)

Thing learnt this week: Fire is dangerous

And so ends our first week on a different continent. We arrived in Bangkok last Tuesday, after 2 plane rides and a very long layover in New Delhi, and, understandably, we went straight to bed! We only spent one day in Bangkok, visiting Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining buddha, before we had to leave. We were aiming to be in Chiang Mai for the Yi Peng Festival, and the mass lantern release that takes place near one of the city’s universities. This meant taking a sleeper train from Bangkok, leaving at 6pm, and arriving in Chiang Mai at 7am the following morning. The sleeper train was a great experience, although we snoozed rather than slept, as it was bit rocky!

Arriving in Chiang Mai at around 7:30am, we bartered a rate with a “truck-taxi”, and were dropped near our hostel. After a slight navigational error, we made it to the Hostel shortly before 9 - luckily, we were able to check in early, and headed upstairs to take a well earnt nap. However, this plan was cut short by the Hostel owner, who knocked on our door to tell us that if we wanted to see the mass lantern release the following evening, we needed to go straight away to the temple with our passports, to get our tickets - they were being offered for free this year, but only if you turned up in a specific 2 hour window (which luckily we had arrived in time for!). We hopped in a grab taxi (like Uber, but cheaper) with another hostel guest, and headed to the temple, where luckily there was no queue. We then went straight back and went to bed for a few hours!

The Yi Peng and Loi Krathong festivals take place over a few days, centred around the full moon. That evening we attended the opening ceremony in the centre of town, where there was a dance performance, a prayer from the town mayor and then everyone had the opportunity to light one of a few hundred lanterns that were hanging from bamboo frames, filling the square. It was incredible to see how many people, locals and tourists alike, turned up for the ceremony - the square and surrounding streets were absolutely packed! The next day we visited the silver temple, and saw some monks and locals moulding and carving on new silver pieces for the temple/to sell. Later that evening, we joined a group from the Hostel and went up to the temple for the mass lantern release near the university, to celebrate Yi Peng. Over 4000 lanterns were released in three waves, and it was absolutely phenomenal! I managed to get some great photos and videos of the release - Millie finally got her ‘tangled’ moment! Afterwards we all headed back to the city, and were able to release our own lanterns near the Ping river (complete with scary moment where the lantern wasn’t quite ready to take off, and we almost set a passer-by on fire 🙄)

After a fairly packed few days, we spent the weekend relaxing - we went to a tea house and a some cafes, and just generally chilled out - we were still struggling to switch time zones, waking up at 10-11am, and not being able to sleep until 2am. We tried to go to a meditation class, but realised once we’d arrived that the first Monday of every month is a day off for a lot of people in Thailand, and the class wasn’t running 😔 oops!

For the last two days, we hired a scooter and took a trip up to the sticky waterfalls - a range of falls that you can climb up, followed by a Thai cooking class where we cooked our own Thai green curry, stir fry, soup and spring rolls - a busy couple of days again, now that we’ve got our sleeping pattern sorted!

Next week: Trekking with Elephants, and moving to our next country - Myanmar 🇲🇲

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Week 1 - Done!

So we’re currently sat in a tent in rainy Berlin, at the end of our first week. I have probably learnt more about European culture in the last 7 days than I have ever done in the rest of my life! So, here are the totals so far:

Miles travelled by car: 869 Miles walked: 57.8 Cities visited: 4 Burgers eaten: 0 😔 Thing learnt this week: Free walking tours are awesome.

Bruges: So first stop on our trip was the lovely Bruges. We found a campsite just outside the town, and walked in to the centre. We were wondering what to do when I spotted a couple of guys with giant red umbrellas, advertising a free walking tour. We figured we’d check it out (it was free, so why not?). It turns out, free walking tours are great - the guides really know their stuff, and really try to entertain and educate you, because the more they impress, the more likely you are to tip! We were shown around Bruges by our guide, and he taught us all about the history of the town throughout the medieval times, the old hospital, the cloth halls, and much more. It was two hours well spent, and we learnt a lot about the town that we would probably never have known! The tour was called the Legends of Bruges tour, and I highly recommend it. After the tour we got ourselves some Belgian waffles, covered in fruit and Belgian chocolate, which the vendor put a Belgian flag in for us! We also had some Belgian fries (apparently the Belgian people are really bitter that everyone calls the French Fries).

The campsite (Camping Memling) was really nice, and the perfect distance to walk to town from. Although it was very quiet, and we did feel like we would be told off if we spoke too loudly!

Amsterdam: In Amsterdam we stayed at Camping Zeeburg, on the edge of the city. The first night we walked in to town to watch the sunset, and managed to time it perfectly with a free ferry ride across the river, and got to watch the sun go down from the water. The second day we got up early and headed in to the city, to try and hit all the sights on our list: we took our picture at the “I Amsterdam” sign behind the Rijksmuseum, took a tour around Coster Diamonds (they do the Queen’s jewellery), popped in to the Apple Store to charge our phones, went to the floating flower market, visited the “bridge of 15 bridges”, saw the Begijnhof, saw the Anne Frank house and went to the Sexmuseum. Busy day! On our last morning we headed up to the Zaanse Schans, a tourist attraction with 8 traditional windmills. We ended up buying some cheese and some Stroopwaffels. Pictures to come later (when I have wifi!)

Camping Zeeburg was nice, but I think was more aimed at the ‘festival crowd’ - it has very lively atmosphere with its own bar, and everyone around smoking weed (which is, of course, legal in the Netherlands).

Hamburg: Hamburg was just a quick stopover on our way to Berlin, to break up the journey a bit. We stayed at the K 357 Stadtunterkunft Hamburg hostel, which was actually really nice - we ended up with a 6-bed dorm to ourselves, and the place was clean and tidy, and most importantly: quiet!

In the evening we walked down to the Planten un Blomen park, and looked around their rose garden and Japanese garden. At 10pm every night, Planten un Blomen puts on a fountain light show, which is free to watch. We sat on the edge of the lake huddled under our picnic blanket, and watched the show with the other few hundred people who had turned up.

Berlin: In Berlin we stayed at a campsite just outside of the city - a bit too far to walk this time. So we hopped on the bus on Thursday morning and went in to town to get ourselves on another free walking tour - this time led by an Australian called Steve. Steve took us around the centre of Berlin, taking us through the history of the city, but mainly focusing on the Berlin Wall. We started at the Brandenburg Gate, and walked all around past the old Luftwaffe HQ, crossing the route of the wall a couple of times, we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust memorial, and the site of the Fuhrerbunker. Steve was great, even though his jokes were terrible, and was very knowledgable about the history of Berlin.

The campsite (Campingstratz Gatow) was nice and quiet, although I resent having to pay for showers!

That’s all for this week. Next week: Poland, Auchswitz, Prague!

TL;DR Driven a lot, walked a lot, free walking tours are great, Belgians are bitter about 'French Fries’.

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And we're off! Next stop, Bruges 🇧🇪

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Week 3: Vienna, Budapest, Plitvice

It's the end of week 3! We have added 6 more countries to the list, and had some incredible days in some beautiful places. The scores on the doors: Miles travelled by car: 929 (3002 total) Miles travelled on foot: 42.5 (151.1 total) Miles travelled by bicycle: 5.9 (5.9 total) Places visited: 5 (12 total) Burgers eaten: 1 (4 total) Thing learnt this week: Just because it's July, doesn't mean there won't be rain. Vienna: We arrived in Vienna on Saturday evening, at about 6:30. We set up camp, and decided to walk to the shops and get some food for the next couple of days - there was only one problem with this: Vienna's supermarkets all close at 6pm on a Saturday, and don't open again until Monday morning! So after a fruitless walk, we headed back to camp to sleep, and get up early the next day. On Sunday morning we headed in to Vienna City Centre, and to the Riesenrad - a 64.75 metre tall Ferris wheel, build it 1897. We took a spin on the Ferris wheel, and then headed off to look for lunch somewhere. Due to a lack of other suitable options in the area (most places looked like they would give you food poisoning) we ended up in McDonalds for the second time this trip (McDonalds in Austria is better than in Poland). For the afternoon we hired City Bikes (Vienna's version of the Boris Bike), and cycled across town to the Schönbrunn Palace. We stopped at the Stadtpark for a break (and some ice cream). We even managed to find a shop open so we could buy some dinner! Bratislava: Upon leaving Vienna on Monday, we headed east to Bratislava, Slovakia. We stopped at Bratislava Castle for lunch, and to enjoy the view, which was beautiful. The only bad thing about Slovakia was being shouted at by an angry barman, after using the toilet that was very clearly advertised to the public. Budapest: After lunch we headed south again, towards Hungary and Budapest. We had booked an Airbnb again, as it was very cheap, and arrived late afternoon. We quickly zipped over to IKEA, having spotted it on the way in to town, for some meatballs and chips! On Tuesday, we walked in to central Budapest to see all the sights on our list: we managed to see the Hungarian Parliament building, the Shoes on the Danube, the Chain Bridge, Buda Castle, Matthias church, and the walked past the Opera house on our way to thermal baths, where we spent an hour in the pools and had dinner. This was a really long day, but was definitely worth the effort. Plitvice Lakes National Park: Next we headed to Croatia, and to Plitvice Lakes National Park. Plitvice is a collection of naturally formed pools and lakes, ranged over an altitude difference of ~900m. The place is absolutely stunning, and the natural waterfalls and crystal blue water are an incredible sight. There are a number of different routes to take around the park, depending on how far you wish to walk - we mixed and matched a few routes to make the most of our time there, and ended up walking nearly 12 miles! Wooden walkways take you across the lakes and right up next to some of the waterfalls, for some great photo opportunities (photos coming later, when I have wifi!) Lake Bled: Next we headed to Slovenia, and Lake Bled. This was based on a recommendation from our friend Soraya, who said the place was beautiful - she didn't lie! We drove in alongside the lake, bathed in gorgeous sunshine. People were swimming, kayaking, and rowing on the lake, and more still were walking the banks or enjoying ice cream in the beautiful weather. We arrived at the campsite and checked in, and immediately decided we would go to the beach and take a dip. We set up camp, changed in to swimming costumes, and started to apply sun cream. No sooner had we finished applying, when the heavens opened and unleashed an torrential thunderstorm! We decided that we would still go to the beach (we are British, after all) and did dip our toes in, before taking shelter in a nearby supermarket. We waited for a break in the rain, and made it back to the car - which we then sat in for 2 hours and watched a film! Once the weather cleared, we walked back along the lake and tried some traditional Bled cream cake, and a cup of tea. On Saturday morning we got up with the sun and went down to the beach, and had a proper swim for an hour or so. We then packed camp and headed over to Lake Bohinj, the largest lake in Slovenia. We had lunch on the shore, and enjoyed the view before getting back in the car and heading back West, towards Venice. I'm currently sat at a campsite in Sunny Venice, about to head in to the city for dinner. I will upload photos soon, and see you all next week. Ciao! TL:DR got shouted by an angry Slovakian, went swimming, Croatia is beautiful.

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Week 2: Sopot, Auschwitz, Prague

It’s the end of week 2! Sorry this is slightly late, we’ve struggled a bit to get internet this week. We’ve had a great time in Eastern Europe this week, and have added a couple more countries to the list. So, totals for this week:

Miles travelled by car: 1204 (2073 total) Miles walked: 50.8 (108.6 total) Cities visited: 2 (6 total) Burgers eaten: 3 (3 total) Thing learnt this week: Polish drivers are very impatient…

Sopot: Our next stop after Berlin was Sopot, on the north coast of Poland. We spent a lovely weekend here, and on the 7-hour drive there, we caved and bought our first (and so far, only) McDonalds. One thing we did notice was that Polish drivers are crazy! They will overtake at every opportunity, and just assume that incoming traffic will move to the hard shoulder. They will also exceed the speed limit massively, and will sit right on your bumper to tell you that you’re in their way! Mental. Our main reason for coming to Sopot was to see family, and Dave and Anita welcomed us and very kindly put us up for a couple of days. The flat is right on the beach, so after being shown around the town (and trying some of the local delicacies), we took a stroll along the beach towards the next town, G'dansk. Unfortunately, it decided to chuck it down whilst we were walking back, and we got soaked to the skin by the time we were home! This was very much a lazy weekend for us, and we mainly just chilled out for a couple of days. Thanks to Dave and Anita for having us, and for showing us around.

Auschwitz: On Monday we drove down to Oswieçim, and camped overnight. The following morning we got up very early, packed up and drove 10 minutes down the road to the Auschwitz I camp, which has been turned in to a museum and memorial to the atrocities committed there, and at the other camps in and around the town. For those that don’t know, Auschwitz was a German concentration camp, one of the largest - over the course of WW2 it was expanded several times, and more than 3 million members of the Jewish faith were murdered there. It was a very emotional day, and had a very sobering effect on both of us - the camp at Auschwitz I is generally intact, and they have turned most of the blocks in to exhibits focusing on certain aspects of the camp - the persecution of various nationalities, daily life in the camp, and solitary confinement - in the block where the first tests of Zyklon B gas took place. After visiting the museum, we drove to the other side of town and entered the site of Auschwitz II - Birkenau. Birkenau has been left very much as it was when the SS abandoned it at the end of the war, and the sheer size of the camp is astonishing. I didn’t take many photos during the day, as I felt it wasn’t appropriate, but I did take one to hopefully convey the size of the camp - I will upload them over the weekend.

Prague: After visiting Auschwitz, we headed back west, in to the Czech Republic and towards Prague. We spent our first night here camping, but the site was very small and couldn’t accommodate us beyond the first night, so we ended up in an Airbnb. During our first full day in Prague, we decided to visit the Zoo - to Millie’s delight. Prague Zoo is pretty big (so big it has its own chairlift to reach the top), and we spent a good few hours mooching around and watching all the animals - pictures to come. We went out for dinner that evening, and Millie let me pick the restaurant - so of course we ended up at a BBQ place, that did massive plates of ribs! We walked the 40 minutes back to the flat, to try and burn off the calories from our dinner! We did some good sightseeing in Prague, walking all the way in to town and then across Charles Bridge and up to the castle, and again we tried the local delicacies - this time it was a “chimney cake” - basically an ice cream cone made out of pastry. We also went on a night out, which started with some 30p beer at the flat (terrible idea), followed by a karaoke bar where the only people singing were a stag do that were terribly drunk, and a couple of Russian girls who were not following the lyrics on screen, followed by a visit to the cabaret, and finally a late night Burger King at 3am. Prague was great (and cheap), and we also got to meet up with Matt and Neil from my work, who were in Prague for a stag do (separate to the karaoke group!).

We have since driven down to Vienna, but we only arrived this afternoon and have yet to go in to the city - that will be on next weeks update.

TL;DR Drove around a lot, visited Auschwitz, drank a fair amount of cheap Czech beer.

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Weeks 8, 9 & 10: Chiang Rai, Laos

Distance travelled by Air: 0 Miles (6029 total) Distance travelled by Rail: 0 Miles (1188 total) Distance travelled by Boat: 180 Miles (180 total) Distance travelled by Road: 945 Miles (7220 total) Distance travelled on Foot: 94.6 Miles (408.6 total) Places Visited: 5 (30 total) Burgers eaten so far: 7 (19 total) Things learnt these weeks: Everything is better when deep fried, boat is (so far) our favourite way to travel, Millie is still terrible at beer pong.

After reaching Yangon, we spent the next two days travelling back to Thailand and up to Chiang Rai, where we spent most of the next week. After three solid days of travelling, we were very knackered and a little bit homesick, so we didn’t do a huge amount this week. We explored the town a bit, including the night bazaar, where we were sold a platter of all things deep fried for ~£1, including spring rolls, tempura and chicken. We also hired a motorcycle again, and took a day trip out to the Khun Korn Waterfall. This involved parking up and taking a 2km hike through the jungle to reach the falls, through some fairly rough terrain, which was definitely worth the walk. We also took the local bus out to the White Temple, an art installation in the shape of a buddhist temple, for some good photos. 

After a chilled out week in Chiang Rai, we took the local bus to the border with Laos (along with a couple of live cockerels as cargo), and crossed over the Mekong River. We spent the night just over the border, and in the morning we boarded the Slow Boat to Luang Prabang, the former capital of Laos. This was another 2 day journey, but this time it was much more enjoyable! Instead of being stuck in cramped bus seats, swerving at speed on mountain roads, we were on a gentle, scenic cruise down the Mekong River, with occasional stops for locals to get on/off. This was definitely our favourite mode of transport so far, it was just so relaxing and peaceful. We arrived in Luang Prabang at the end of the following day, after a stopover in Pak Beng (where we found a great Indian restaurant for dinner), and took a tuk-tuk to our hostel. 

Luang Prabang is a small town, where we, again, had a very low-activity week. As we’d progressed further south, the temperature was picking up again, so we tried to keep out of the sun by checking out the local markets and such. We also took another trip to another waterfall, the Kuang Si falls, which also houses a bear sanctuary and butterfly park. We were able to climb to the top of the waterfall this time, the equivalent of 51 flights of stairs, and enjoy the view (when we’d finally got our breath back). 

After 4 or 5 days in LP, we took the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. VV is a very small town, situated on a river. It made a name for itself a few years back because of the large number of backpackers who visited every year, and took a ‘tube’ down the river, stopping at bars every 500 yards and drinking (and more) to excess. In 2015, the Laos government stepped in to clean up VV’s reputation after a number of deaths of travellers. The place is a lot more tame now than in it’s heyday, but they still offer tubing between ¾ bars down the river. We had a great day floating on the current, and stopping for a cold drink a few times. In the first bar we were challenged to a game of beer pong by some strangers (who we’re fairly sure worked in the bar), and lost by 1 cup - not bad considering neither of us have played for a couple of years! We also walked out to the nearby blue lagoon on another day, and enjoyed cooling off after walking nearly 7 miles in the hot sun to get there. 

After VV, we arranged another VIP bus to Vientiane. The first VIP bus we’d taken was a double decker coach, so we were expecting similar again - but we were sorely disappointed when a vehicle not much bigger then a minibus turned up. The seats spanned 4-wide across the bus, and there was no aisle - once you were in, you weren’t going anywhere. Luckily, this bus filled up before we had a chance to get on it, and we were placed on the replacement minibus with a little bit of space to stretch out. 

We arrived in Vientiane on Saturday evening, and have spent a couple of days exploring again. The city is right on the border with Thailand, with the two countries split by the Mekong (the same river we travelled down by boat), so we took a wander down to the river and stood on the border looking over to Thailand. Today we took a walk around the city, as we hadn’t really exercised much in the last week or two, and visited the Presidential Palace, the COPE Amputee Rehabilitation Centre, Pha That Luang (a Stupa that is covered in 500kg of gold leaf, and appears on all Laos banknotes) and Patuxai, and war memorial built after WW2. This meant a 9.5 mile walk around town, before coming back to the hostel and collapsing in to a chair! 

Next week: Hanoi

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Week 6: Elephant Nature Park

Distance travelled by Air: 0 Miles (6029 total)

Distance travelled by Rail: 0 Miles (423 total)

Distance travelled by Road: 68 Miles (5752 total)

Distance travelled on Foot: 21.2 Miles (277.2 total)

Places Visited: 1 (23 total)

Burgers eaten so far: 1 (10 total)

Thing learnt this week: Elephants like bananas... a lot

We rounded off our time in Chiang Mai with a trip to the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary north of the city. Millie had done her research before we left the UK, and had chosen this park specifically - it had a good reputation for being an ethical place, and had great reviews. We found out when we arrived how true this was, and were very pleased we’d chosen ENP.

If you’ve ever been to Chiang Mai, you will know that there are an endless amount of places offering Elephant experiences, but many of them bully and torture the elephants to “break their spirit”, and make them docile enough for tourists to approach, and often, to ride. Whilst a few of the places are wising up to the fact that tourists now realise riding elephants is an unethical practice, and advertise “no riding”, they still use whips and hooks, and don’t have enough space for their elephants to roam - they are still being used as a tourist attraction, and many have 2-4 elephants in a very small compound. ENP owns a 60 acre park of land where their elephants are there just to roam free. All of the elephants have either been saved from riding camps/logging companies/street begging, or have been born at the park. Many of the elephants have suffered before coming to ENP, and bear the signs of abuse: some are blind, some have wounds from land mines, many have had their hair shaved and sold (elephant hair does not grow back). At the park they have a full time vet, and the elephants are cared for and allowed to roam as they please.

Visitors to the park get to feed and bathe the elephants that are ok with human interaction, whilst those elephants whose trauma has made them unstable around unknown visitors are across the river, in land that is closed to the patrons, so as not to stress the animals. On site there are also dog and cat shelters, set up after the flooding in 2011, and numerous horses and water buffalo. The park is currently home to 75 elephants, over 400 dogs, 200 cats, and the aforementioned buffalo and horses. It is an incredible operation to see in action - the kitchen area alone is huge and well stocked with bananas and melon, among other things for the elephants - each elephant will eat approximately 400kg of food per day, over an 18 hour period. They only sleep for a few hours each night, and are accompanied at all times by their own personal mahout, who looks after them.

We were picked up from our hostel at about 8:30, and after picking up two more groups from the city, we started the 90 minute drive up to the park. As we got close, we started to see other elephant parks and even some elephants on the road. As soon as we arrived, we were invited to feed some of the elephants from the walkway around the main house - buckets of bananas were brought out and we were able to hand them directly to the elephants, who took whole bunches at a time with their trunks, and threw them in to their waiting mouths. This was awesome, and seeing the smile on Millie’s face made the whole experience worth it, and we’d only been there for 15 minutes! Shortly after we took one of the elephants down to the river to bathe. Elephants cover their bodies in mud and dirt, to help protect them from the heat and the sun, but when it dries and gets in to the wrinkles in their hides, it makes it difficult for them to move around easily. So, the mahouts tempted the elephant down to the river with yet another large bucket of bananas, and she stood there quite happily on the shore, munching away, whilst we threw buckets of water all over her to clean the mud off!

After this, most of the crowd who had only booked a day trip were taken to the minibuses and headed home, whilst our group were shown our accommodation for the night. We also volunteered for an hour at the dog shelter, and took a couple of very reluctant dogs for a walk (tempted by many dog treats along the way). Before dinner, we spent some more time with one of the guides, meeting more of the herd and listening to their stories, and how they came to be at the camp. The following morning we were up early, and went for another walk with our tour guide, Apple. She took us round much more of the park on the second morning, and we met many more of the elephants. At one point we jumped in to the back of the food truck, and helped deliver breakfast to 10-15 hungry elephants. We also helped make food for some of the older elephants who have no teeth - this meant mushing up bananas by hand, and mixing them with rice, oatmeal and corn, to make a paste that they didn’t have to chew - we then spent an enjoyable half an hour handing piles of the mixture to two very old elephants, both of whom were nearing 90 years old. Finally, we bathed the elephants in the river once more, before heading to the buses and being taken back to our hostel.

If you ever visit Chiang Mai, please please please go and spend some time at the Elephant Nature Park! It’s such a worthwhile cause, and the owner, Lek, has been working her whole life to help sick and injured animals - before she was able to open the park with donations, she would work 6 days a week and use her own money to buy medicine for elephants, and give it to their owners free of charge. Whilst ENP is slightly more expensive to visit than some of the other options, it is definitely worth the money - most of your ticket price goes towards food and medicine for the animals, and the overnight experience is awesome, totally worth staying the night to be the only people in the park the next morning, before the day guests arrive!

Next week: Myanmar 🇲🇲

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Photos from the first part of our adventure!

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I’ve compiled all the photos in to one album, and added photos from Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Croatia, Slovenia, Venice, Verona, Lugano, Como and Monaco!

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Photos from week 3: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Plitvice Lakes and Lake Bled

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Photos from Sopot, Auschwitz, and Prague

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Photos from Bruges, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin