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Adventures in Australia-October 2016

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For someone who loves to travel, this blog is getting a bit boring. I have been a bit lazy with my travels as of late. Part of the issue has been the fact that I’ve been back to the States practically every month.  Somehow, though I am not tired of this view.img_0146I was stateside at the end of September and headed back to Australia in early October.  I finally moved out of my “temporary” lodging, the Hilton Brisbane. After 6 months, it was time. I leased an apartment close by. Now that I am settled in, I am realizing I should have just stayed at the Hilton. It’s not like I cook!

It is nice to have a balcony and enjoy the fresh air! Especially with my view.

I did take a trip out to the Sunshine Coast to visit the famous Australia Zoo. It is interesting, especially if you are a fan of Steve Irwin.

October was pretty low key. I had planned on doing some more travels, but well life got in the way. I was booked for Thailand but the King died. So I rebooked for Vietnam.  It turned out I had few friends scheduled to be there at the same time.  But then plans changed again, so I ended up heading back the States, AGAIN.

Stayed tuned for my November/December adventures! Lots of fun stuff planned. Until next time, safe travels!

 

Adventures in Australia-September 2016

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September in Australia brought me to my first rugby game, South African Springboks versus Australian Wallabies. It’s funny  it took me moving to Australia to finally understand the love of sports. I was all about getting “kitted” for the match. Like I was hard core fan or something. Never mind, I had trouble following the actually game.

The Springboks arrived the week before the game and I had the enjoyment of taking elevator selfies with them. More like I told them don’t come elevator with me because I would make them take a photo.

I hope my excessive photo taking did not affect their performance. I had an amazing time attending my first game,  but sadly they lost.

September also brought my friends, the lizards, back from their winter break.  I had forgotten about them. Walking in the garden will become interesting again.

And well if I am honest, the real reason why this blog post is so boring, is because I was too busy drinking champagne with new friends. And no I will admit, at least not on this blog post, whose the 2nd glass was……

Until next time, safe travels……..

Adventures in Australia-August 2016

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Shortly after my birthday trip, I headed back to Australia. Which should really read, Flo had travel drama. I had a little bit of weather trying to leave Chicago .

I eventually made it to Australia, but my bags did not. Since I was “home” it should have been fine. But then I remembered, in a moment of pure insanity, I had gotten rid of 1/2 my clothes. So all that remained were now missing, apart from my exercise clothes. When I am going to learn to pack properly?  My bags turned up about 36 hours after me, so in the end it was not too bad.

I arrived back to my first winter in Brisbane. I was looking forward to it, I just did not realize it was going to be, well so chilly.  Not that I am complaining after the heat in Chicago. Something else that is great about the winters. Festivals, tons and tons of festivals!

It was  like German Christmas markets minus the extreme cold weather. It was fantastic!

In another exciting news, the streets of Brisbane were transformed into a movie set for the upcoming “Thor” movie. I did “spot” Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemsworth.

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Overall, August was a bit a of boring month for me. I was still recovering from being sick in the States. There was quite a few strands of nasty flu going around Brisbane, and I managed to get one them as well. So I did not get up to much.  Well my major accomplishment was that I stayed on one continent for entire calendar month.

Australia continues to surprise me. I am enjoying it more then I thought I would. I am hoping as spring is sprung I am able to get out and travel some more. There is so much to explore.

Until next time, safe travels.

 

 

 

Flo’s Birthday July 2016-Part 5

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Hello 40

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I had grand idea of going to the beach. But the weather god’s had other ideas.  But a few of my friends were still interested in going, so off to the beach we went. We headed over to Travmunde, a coastal town located on the Baltic Sea. Of course, it started to pour rain as soon as we decided to leave the house. Which was actually ok, because we got some great pictures with our brollies!

Then it was party time! As previously mentioned, the party theme was Oktoberfest. Which was bit odd, since it’s July and we were in Northern Germany. But Jan had asked if we could have a traditional German, throw the bone, fest. So there you have it 25 people, dressed in dirnd’s and lederhosen in Northern Germany in July. I had my dirndl made by Rare Dirdnl in Chicago. Erika is a phenomenal seamstresses. I highly recommend if you have a need for a dirnl anytime soon.

This party was definitely one for the books. I guess I can let the pictures tell the story. Too many to share. But memories I will cherish for a lifetime!

The next day we all stayed local and some of checked out the local town of Lubeck.  Which is a quintessential German town. Including market stalls in the town square.   That evening we went a lovely fish place on the Ratzenberg See .

And then it was time to head home.  Words can not describe how amazing this whole trip was. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life!   To my fantastic family and friends, Jon, Lesley, Cassandra, Carrie, Rebecca, Laura, Breno, Sheila, John, Michael, Katy, Natalie, Natasha, Lena, Jan, Christianne, Norbert, Michelle, Alexis, Barry, Regine, Jovelt, Sebastien, Nicolas, Jocelyne, Bruce, Will, Sea and everyone that was there in spirit, THANK YOU!

Until next time…. Safe Travels!

 

 

Flo’s Birthday-July 2016 Part 4

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Flo’s turning 40. Let’s have a ball. No seriously,can we wear ball gowns? This one I blame on Natasha. Since Natasha and Jan were having such a fine time planning my party/trip, I agreed to a lot of their suggestions. Hence how a random group of people from all parts for world, ended up Bliestorf, Germany dressed in dirndl’s and lederhosen.

Tuesday morning found us saying goodbye to some of the group and heading up Bliestorf for part 2 of the trip. It was about a 3 hour drive.  We arrived early afternoon to Herrenhaus Gut Bliestorf.  I wasa little nervous because all the correspondence had been done online. Well I had nothing to worry about. WOW. Just WOW.

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The house has with 13 bedrooms and 11 en suites. It was perfect, as everyone had their own rooms. As a gift to me,  Jan, Natasha, Christianne and Norbert, arranged to have a  Roman, a massuese come to the house  It was perfect.  We spent the afternoon just hanging out at the house, getting massages and just enjoying each other’s company.

I figured we would not want to have to hunt down a place to eat on the first night, so I arranged to have dinner catered that night. Well, I asked Jan to arrange the dinner. He told me it was going to be a BBQ. Something clearly got lost in translation. We had FEAST.

Photo by Alexis

There a no food shots, because we were all too busy stuffing our faces. I said to Jan, this is your idea of BBQ? He claimed that he asked for ” a lil meat”. I was crying because I was the idiot that had us all wearing tight outfits the next day. Pretty sure I heard some buttons popping that night. It was amazing. The food was  farm to table and could not have been any fresher. It was nice not having to drive anywhere, or even have to walk far to get our rooms.

Stayed tuned for the next part of this adventure… The actual birthday party!

Flo’s Birthday July 2016- Part 3

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Spotted some Qantas Roo’s eating Dello Mano brownies  on a United flight heading to Germany. Something is off with this picture…

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Thank you to the fantastic flight crew working UA 907 on July 8th. We had a blast on the flight!  Yes, I am referring to United Airlines, close your jaw. I , myself, was quite surprised. Graham, the purser was fantastic.  I was horribly sick when I returned from Scotland. Since I still was not feeling well when were heading out, so I opted to upgrade myself to business class. (Yes, only me, myself and I) To keep it classy, I made sure I had the last row,  which is rear-facing, so I could wave to my friends while I enjoy my business meal. (It’s a wonder I had any friends willing to travel with me with this type of behavior, SMH)

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Unfortunately, we all had a little too much fun on the flight so there not much sleeping. There was a rapper, The Game, and his entourage were on our flight.. They arrived late and there was a problem with the rapper’s seat belt. So we were delayed departing Chicago,  we arrived in Frankfurt with about 30 minutes to get our connection. Of course, we came into a remote gate, so we had to be bused to the terminal. We made our flight to Berlin, but our bags did not. The lucky ones that were traveling with carry on’s were able to refresh while the rest of us were sporting the latest in eau du travel funk.

We had a free afternoon and some of decided to do a bit of site-seeing.  The sun kept trying to hide behind the clouds, but it was quite pleasant when it made it’s appearance.

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That evening the majority of the group headed over to Borchardt for dinner.  We took a stroll after dinner and enjoyed the fact it was still light out at 9pm.Our missing bags finally showed up at midnight. I was so excited I tried to hug the delivery guy.

Sunday morning came too quickly. 1/2 the group went on a bike tour of Berlin with Fat Tire. And well some of us were just lazy

On Monday, the original plan was to go to the Porsche Factory in Leipzig. But it was closed for summer holiday. So option 2 was to take the train out to Potsdam. Well that did not happen. So option 3? Just walk around. The group met up again in the early afternoon for a boat cruise along the canal that runs thru Berlin. Really it was a reason to afternoon drink.

I liked to say we did something fantastic on Monday night, but it appears we were too busy playing on our phones……..

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Photo by Alexis Eckersall

Just kidding, sort of. We hung out the lounge at the Hyatt for a bit before heading out to a nice beer garden for dinner.

Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall
Photo by Alexis Eckersall

This was the last night in Berlin. A few friends were heading back to the States and the rest of the group was heading up Bliestorf for the next part of the trip.

You may have noticed the fantastic photos. I, of course, did not take them. Alexis, was the party photographer.  Thanks again, Alexis. The pictures are amazing.

Stayed tuned for the next part of this fun adventure, which includes dirndls and lederhosen.

 

Flo’s Birthday July 2016- Part 2

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I am solo traveler. I do what I want when I want to do it and well frankly I kind of of prefer it that way. I was little worried about traveling with 20 of my friends.

So how where we getting to Berlin?  Well before moving to Australia, I was very loyal to United Airlines. So I had a healthy amount of frequent flier miles. (If you want to learn more about earning miles, check out The Points Guy.)    Add in my 1k status and the choice was easy, Chicago to Frankfurt on United connecting to Lufthansa to Berlin.I was one of the last one’s to book my ticket. It was primary because I was not sure if I would be coming from Australia or the States.  After booking 6 friends on  one flight from Chicago, I realized it would make sense for me to book myself on that flight. Fun Fact: Lesley was the first one to book.

I’ve been fortunate to be able frequently fly in Business Class, alot. Most airlines provide a in flight amenity kit, some like Qantas and Virgin Australia give pajamas. Since part of this trip was for my friends to experience a “Flo” trip. I made special amenity kits for them. I was even able to include pajamas from Qantas. ( Thanks again Qantas!)

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You probably already know about my love affair with Flight 001. So it should not be a surprise that I choose a Seat Pak for my amenity kit. I included stuff that I found to be helpful on flights. A pen, tissue, toothbrushes, hand lotion, lip balm, electronic glass cleaner, antibacterial wipes and in some cases a battery pack. My friend, Michelle made amazing travel cards that included the itinerary, contact information for the other travels, so Flo travel trivia and a crossword puzzle. She even wrapped them in vintage maps!

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As with any trip, not everything went according to schedule. Apparently the Porsche factory was closed the week were going to be in town. There goes my dream of doing hot laps on the track in Leipzig.  Someone got a new job and had to cancel, another had to change tickets due to a wedding etc. Lots of shifting and organizing up until the last minute, including a last minute cancellation that had me sweating. Let me be very fair in saying, I was very clear to my friends that I would completely and totally understand if they were unable to attend, for whatever reason.  So when one friend, who had been making excuses for months, said that maybe they could not go about a week before, I made the decision to cancel.Only because if we are all being honest, said friend never had any intention of going on the trip.  I had to cancel the ticket, rearrange hotels, update transportation lists, etc. It was not a 2 minute fix. Fast forward to day before departure and I realized, I had no heard from that friend. Oops. Luckily the cancellation text message came in at 28th hour. Whew. That would have been a bit awkward at the airport.

I used my points to book most of us into the Grand Hyatt Berlin. Hyatt has this amazing program called Be My Guest. It allows diamond members to use their points to book rooms for friends and family and they get your diamond status benefits.  So everyone was upgraded to club rooms and given access to club lounge. Which was just ideal given the number of people traveling together. It gave us an opportunity to get together and just hang out. DSC_0052

I had coordinated with the hotel to ensure that everyone’s names where on their rooms and that everything was sorted ahead of time. Then I got an email the morning we were leaving confirming my reservations, minus a few rooms. Nothing like last minute panic. A quick email sorted everything out. And on our way we went.

We were all so excited that we headed to the airport early.I told the group that was traveling with me, that I would meet them at the gate. I was excited but not excited enough to give up my TSA Pre-Check. Stay tuned for the next part of the trip, actually going!

 

Flo’s Birthday July 2016-Part 1

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In 2013, I made my first trip to South Africa. I LOVED it. So much so, that I remember asking my sister how old would my nephews have to be for me to take them on safari. I said maybe for my 40th?  That is how the idea of having a destination party came to be for my birthday this year.

I sent out announcement with Christmas cards, warning everyone to save the date and start saving pennies. I even started hoarding my airlines miles and hotel points.

Fast forward to July, 2015 and the questions started. Where are we going? What’s the plan?
The original list included, Maldives, Thailand, Seychelles, Russia, Alaska, Haiti, Italy, France,  Germany ,Australia.

My cousin, Natasha and her husband, Jan, were just tremendously supportive in planning this party.  I can honestly say it would not have happened without them. Jan become the official Party Secretary. I highly recommend his services for staying on task. I am pretty sure I would still be thinking about where to have this party, if had not been for him.

There were lots of phone calls, emails, texts, facetime and even in person meetings.  It was at one meeting, where Party Secretary 2 and 3, Christianne and Norbert, assisted in narrowing down the location. We were all in Boston, visiting Natasha and Jan.  At that point, the party was leaning towards Russia. Why Russia? Well, Katy wants a Faberge Egg Pendant.  As one does. Haha.  You can just imagine that conversation  Wait? Who’s Katy? What is this Faberge egg? And why Russia?   Thank you, Norbert, for pointing out that maybe going to Russia was not the best idea. (FYI-Faberge Egg Pendants are not available for purchase in Russia)

My friend, Will, had been helping me search Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway, for house rentals. We had found a manor house in Bliestorf, Germany, Herrenhaus Gut Bliestorf. It fit the bill. So the decision made we were going to Germany.

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Then came the fun part, how does one handle the logistics of getting everyone to Germany?  Very carefully.  Ironically the timing of my decision, coincided with my decision to move to Australia. I had some fun conversations. “Hi Lesley, how are you? It’s been a while. So my birthday trip location has been locked to Germany, and by the way, I am moving to Australia”

So passports were renewed, tickets were booked, guidebooks were purchased. And then we had to wait. Oh the torture, it was almost like having kids on a road trip ” Are we there yet?”  The months turned to weeks to days and then next thing you know we were heading to Germany!

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Stay tuned for Part 2 of this crazy adventure.

 

Scotland-June 2016

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I am super lucky to have amazing friends in all over the world. One of my favorite friends, Katy, lives in Scotland and well it’s just not that easy to get to from Australia. I had planned to be back in the States in June and had this insane idea to drop off my bags in Chicago and continue on to Scotland. In theory it made sense, in actuality I was tired! But getting to hang out and chill with Katy and her friends (my friends), was worth flying to the moon and back.

I flew British Airways, well because I had a coupon. It should have been a simple connection in Heathrow, since it’s their hub. It was a NIGHTMARE. I only made my connection because the flight was delayed. The worse part is I normally avoid Heathrow at all costs. I arrived on the day that United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union. And the day the pound dropped to it’s lowest value against the dollar in over 30 years. It was interesting to be there on that day.

Katy surprised me this time at the airport. Even though I knew she was picking me up, it was nice to see her at baggage claim.  The Royal Highland Show was right by the airport, so we decided to check that out.

I think Katy just wanted a excuse to play with the tractors….. And I don’t recommend eating a burger in front of the cows. I got some pretty ugly stares and moo’s.

Then there may have been some drinking, dancing in the rain and pakora…

There were grand plans to go the Highland Games the next day, but it got called on account of rain.  So we did something unprecedented for Katy and Flo Adventure, we just chilled out. We went and saw the movie, “Me before You”. I warned Katy to bring tissues, man did we cry.
The next day we headed off to the Gleneagles Spa . I was always hearing about how Katy and Helen would go to the spa. I wanted to spa too! So I got to spa with Catherine, Helen and Katy. It was AMAZING. I could make a annual spa trip. It was just as I imagine including getting kicked of the quiet room.

I am so thankful to have had that weekend away. I needed a break and a break is what I got. And I finally got to meet people who I’ve only known virtually,Catherine and Helen,who are just as awesome in person.

The pre-birthday celebration was pretty fantastic!

Now it’s time to prepare for the big birthday celebration in Germany.  Stay tuned.

Adventures in Australia-June 2016

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In the end, I was only away from Brisbane for 2 weeks, but it felt like months. I must admit I was happy to be “home”.  It’s amazing how much changed during that time. Winter had officially arrived, there was definitely a chill in the air.

I had flown Qantas back to Brisbane and I had to check my bags, because of all my purchases in Fremantle. One of my suitcases was broken in transit. Lucky for me, Hunt Leather was close by and they were able to deal with Qantas directly to get my bag fixed.

As I was walking towards Hunt’s I noticed something odd, it appeared to a new bake shop. I had just eaten breakfast, so I glanced but did not really think much of it.  I went about my business and forgot about it. Later in the day I was chatting with concierge at the Hilton, and I asked if they had tried the bake shop. Nope.It was tea time and we were all a little peckish……

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That mahogany velvet cake came from Dello Mano . I would be lying if I said I wish our paths had not crossed. RIDICULOUS is the only word I can think of that to describe this bit of heaven on earth. Ridiculously good, fantastic, amazing, awesome… choose what word you will,  you must come to Brisbane and try these cakes and brownies. Did I mention the brownies?
I asked the shop nicely to put a photo of me on the wall saying I am banned from entering. I am already on a first name basis with the staff. That only took 2 days……..

Just when I think Brisbane is pretty great, I discover something that makes me love it more. Winterfest in King George’s Square.  I was heading somewhere and I thought I smelled what could only be described as Christmas Market smell. So I followed my nose. And boy was I surprised. And ice rink in Brisbane!

They even had Langos! I was so excited to get my “market” fix in Australia, especially in June! I guess it was a blessing that I was heading back to the States the next day.

Stay tuned….further adventures in Australia await.