Eurotrip 16 - Turkey

Turkey

Istanbul

Dear Turkey,
You were the biggest surprise of my trip!

I plugged Turkey onto the end of our holiday with the dual intention of attending a Dental Congress there. It gave me an excuse to spend 4 nights in Istanbul and I was more curious than excited about this stop.

From an expectation and enjoyment ratio, Turkey blew me away. I wish I could have spent more time there. I wish we had a whole month there. I wish I wish I wish.

Eurotrip 15 - Food Walking Tour through Chania

Chania Food Tour
http://www.athenswalkingtours.gr/chania-food-tour

I was contemplating whether I should just skip this post because it's so similar to the one we did in Athens. In fact, I found out about this one through the Athens tour (it's run by the same people) and I enjoyed that one so much, I didn't even hesitate to book the Chania version. What I didn't count on was that there would be a few redundant food elements because after all, we were still in Greece.

I'll run through the food quite quickly. We started off at a coffee bean roaster just to smell and take in the aromas. Later on, we were to actually sip coffee with loukoumades (something I had tried earlier in Athens).

Eurotrip 14 - Anastasis Suites

Anastasis Suites
http://www.anastasisapartments.com/home.htm

This will succeed in being the first accomodation venue I have found worthy to write a full blog post about. I know that Hungry Kittens is meant to be a food blog and this isn't strictly food-related but it was such an amazing place to stay that I want everyone to know about it. Plus, we did eat loads on site so there will still be tasty food photos!

There's no other way of describing it... This is the creme de la creme of indulgent island living. After being picked up from our previous hotel, we were welcomed and then given a tour (yes, a hosted tour) around our private suite.

Eurotrip 13 - Athens Food Walking Tour

Athens Food Tour
http://www.athenswalkingtours.gr/Athens-Food-Tour

This tour was awesome because we began to experience it before the actual tour. What do I mean by that? Well, part of the tour inclusion was a lunch ticket to a tavern in Athens.

Lunch we had pre-tour

Marc and I decided to use it the day before the tour because we were roaming in that area. It was a delicious and hearty lunch with breads and dips, salad, our choice of mains and dessert.

Eurotrip 12 - Greece

Greece

Athens

Marc and I flew from Rome to Athens and spent a couple of nights there before moving along. Athens was much like what I expected. It's a sprawl of old and new with scatterings of ancient ruins throughout. There's definitely an element of messiness but I found it endearing rather than threatening like the dark side of Paris or Naples.

We partook in a half day tour to check out all the necessary sites (Acropolis and whatnot). Another half day was spent on a walking tour to explore the culinary aspect of the city. This was much more to my liking and is blogged about here.

My impression of food throughout Greece is that it's very fresh. It was all a welcome change after Italy where we carb-loaded at every meal. Greek food comprised mostly of grilled meat (protein) and salad (veggies). It was about time we had some greens in our diet!

Eurotrip 11 - Cooking and Hiking in Umbria

Let's Cook in Umbria
http://www.cookinumbria.it/

When I do research for something, be it for buying a dog, house or going on holiday, I go a bit mad. For Europe, I gathered together advice and recommendations from sources as numerous and varied as internet, guide books, friends, magazines and more. I highlighted, short-listed and made special holiday Word documents and Excel Spreadsheets with lists and notes to myself.

It's through this fanatic approach that I became intrigued by the region of Umbria. I don't think this is a common stop for most first-time Italy goers because it doesn't contain any well-known cities. What it does have is a reputation for amazing food.

Eurotrip 10 - Italian Days Food Experience

Italian Days Food Experience
http://www.italiandays.it/

I've mentioned before that our holiday didn't have a strong gourmet focus. This is not strictly correct. To elaborate, I didn't look up Michelin star restaurants that needed bookings months in advance and I didn't research top rated eateries online. The reason is that I didn't want to commit ourselves to desperately searching for single locations within huge cities we had were unfamiliar with. There's nothing worst than trying to make for eg an 8pm booking at some street you can barely pronounce when there's no access to GPS and the only internet we have is at the odd free wifi spot. I had enough of that kind of stress just looking for our hotels.

Eurotrip 9 - Italy

Italy

Venice

If you thought Germany was a long post, this right here will be the longest post. Marc and I spent the most time in Italy, nearly 3 weeks. Now that I'm back, I can confidently proclaim Italy as my favourite destination throughout our trip. It's a combination of the weather, food and architecture that suits me to a tee.

Eurotrip 8 - The Lindt Chocolate Museum

Schokoladenmuseum in Cologne
http://www.schokoladenmuseum.de/

You'll pick up from my travel posts that neither Marc or myself have the slightest interest in museums or galleries. I personally like art and I partake in the odd bit of sketching and painting but there's no way I would line up for 3 hours to look at ye olden renaissance paintings. It's just not me.

What IS me is a chocolate museum! We spotted this in Cologne (and worked out that 'schokoladen' was 'chocolate') and followed the trail of signs to its riverside location.

Eurotrip 7 - Germany

Germany

Berlin

Get ready for a long post because we spent a fair chunk of time in Germany. Our first stop was Berlin. I'm ashamed to say that I'm very ignorant and uneducated when it comes to world history. Marc did the Berlin wall and other historical points on his own. I joined up for beer hall visits and later on, an interesting graffiti tour.

Eurotrip 6 - Amsterdam and Surrounds

Amsterdam and Surrounds

People my age tend to go crazy over the thought of Amsterdam, undoubtedly due to its reputation for fun. I'm a fun-lover for sure but I was skeptical about this city. The thought of its red light district and legalized marijuana put me to mind something like Fortitude Valley on a larger scale. I was worried it would be seedy and run down.

The truth is, Amsterdam city is beautiful. There aren't many cars, people either walk, tram or bike it around. As a result, the streets are clean and uncongested. Amsterdam is a city of canals, which I wasn't previously aware of. Most views include a sliver of water and as such, every angle you turn is picturesque.

Eurotrip 5 - Switzerland and Vienna

Switzerland and Vienna

Geneva

Dinner from Port Gitana, Geneva

From France, our next stop was Geneva in Switzerland. This was to be a one night stop over, just so we could mark it as 'been there' on our individual travel maps. I don't know much about Geneva beyond its famed lake so when I chose accomodation, I made sure we were right next to, and I mean, RIGHT NEXT TO, the lake. Rather than mucking around with transport, we took the easy route and had dinner at our hotel, Auberge Port Gitana. I have a feeling this site was better known for its restaurant on the lake than its accomodation facilities anyway. Our food was really nice, albeit on the pricey side.

Eurotrip 4 - Discovery Wine Tour and Food Pairing Lunch

Terroir Feely, Bordeaux
http://www.feelywines.com/tours.html

Whilst French romance doesn't interest me at all, French wine certainly does. It was a given that in our time in France, Marc and I would be embarking on a wine tour. I did a brief search and concluded that Bordeaux was one of the main wine regions in France and I narrowed down on this particular tour that was highly recommended on Tripadviser.

I drink a fair amount of red wine but I'm just about the most uneducated consumer there is, second only to Marc. If it's in a wine glass, I'll drink it. I'm quite embarrased by this fact because wine and food are supposed to go together and being a n00b at wine does not bode well for my reputation (if any) as a food blogger. I sought to ammend this with a day's worth of wine education.

Eurotrip 3 - France

France

Paris

I had a lot of friends telling me "you're going to LOVE Paris", and I mean a lot. The reasoning was that Paris is the heart of France, a country famed for its cuisine. And everyone knows I love food. It was a hypothetical match made in heaven. I, myself, was less than enthused. Paris is also the city of love, and whilst I'm pro 'love', I'm NOT a romantic and the thought of gooey gazes at each other under the Eiffel tower, holding hands across a pink and white checkered table cloth... it makes me dry retch a little.

Eurotrip 2 - Shanghai and London

Shanghai and London

Shanghai

It's a bittersweet situation for me because when I was younger, I would go back to Shanghai almost once a year, if not once every 2 years. It was like a second home and in some regard, I still see it that way. Now that I'm older and more world-conscious (and my parents are no longer funding my holidays), I feel a sense of responsibility to myself to explore more of the rest of the globe. Luckily, on this particular trip, I didn't have to compromise. Marc and I stopped off for a week in Shanghai before flying direct to London.

Xiao long bao from Old Town

I have written a bundle of Shanghainese food posts in the past so I don't really need to repeat myself. For most of our stay, Marc and I just ate. We didn't really have anything on the agenda but we were staying right in the city centre so it was easy enough to walk out onto the street and spot a new place to eat.

But wait... What about Europe?

Dedicated readers of this blog might be asking some fair questions:

"Didn't she go to Europe at some point?"
"Wasn't she away for like, a really long time?"
"Wasn't there talk about some Europe food posts?

Ok, I can explain...

Me in Venice; proof that I actually did go to Europe :p

Marc and I spent 3 months travelling between May-September 2013. Actually, today marks exactly 1 year since we took off. Needless to say, I'm feeling quite gloomy at the moment thinking about how excited I was this time last year.

Why is it taking so long to get some posts up? Firstly, the scope of this whole exercise is daunting. We crossed 14 countries in total and mostly all we did was eat. Add to that the numerous food tours, restaurant experiences and cooking classes I plan to review and it just seems like a LOT of work. I suspect I could have gotten through it by the momentum of the trip alone if it wasn't for a series of unfortunate occurences.