Budapest

After cycling around 400km in 6 days, we deserved a little break in the beautiful city of Budapest.

This was our first time visiting the city, however my brother Harry has some Hungarian friends and one of them was handily available to play tour guide and drive us around in her car!

Our first stop was Heroes’ Square. A very impressive square with monuments of the Seven Chieftains of the Magyars and lots of other important national leaders.

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Viki, our tour guide for the day, then dropped us off at a gorgeous castle. We had a walk around the grounds and admired all of the beautiful architecture.DSCN6882

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We then stopped off at St Stephen’s Basilica and decided to climb to the top to see the amazing views over the city. It must have been a popular day to get married as we saw 4 or 5 brides in the space of a couple of hours!

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After stopping for some traditional Hungarian lunch we drove up to the Buda side (Budapest is in two parts – Buda and Pest, split by the river) to see the Citadella.

The Citadella is a kind of fortress which was built in 1851. The view from the top spans the city as well as the Danube and its 8 bridges.DSCN6946 DSCN6949 DSCN6957 DSCN6960

We then drove to the Fisherman’s Bastion, which was actually like a town inside a castle!

There was a church there as well and we saw another 3 brides getting married!DSCN6963 DSCN6969 DSCN6979

It looked like we’d stepped into a beautiful fairytale castle!DSCN6981DSCN6989

In the evening we’d been recommended a river cruise. The boat sails along the river after sunset so you get to see all of the glistening lights and enjoy dinner and a drink at the same time. DSCN6994 DSCN6998 DSCN7013What a beautiful sight to end our holiday!

Thanks again to mum and dad for taking me with you and putting up with all my complaining about sore legs after every day of cycling! 😉

 

P.s. If you want more regular day-to-day updates of what’s happening in my life, follow me on Instagram and Twitter @rachelwwilson!

Cycling the Danube

Right after my trip to San Francisco, I had around 2 weeks of leave! Mum and Dad very kindly invited me to come on holiday with them. They were going to be cycling around 400km from Vienna to Budapest!

I decided I might as well join them and get a bit of exercise!

Right after I landed from San Fran I quickly packed my bags and headed back to the airport for an overnight flight to Vienna. I made my way to their hotel and our first day of cycling was from Vienna to Bratislava.

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Most of the route was right along the Danube river on cycling paths.

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We stopped along the way by a huge cherry tree and Dad insisted that I climb the tree to get cherries for us!

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Once we arrived at our hotel in Bratislava, we had a nice walk around the city before dinner. There was some kind of food festival going on, so we just couldn’t pass up a glass of wine for 50 cents each!

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The next day our route took us from Bratislava to Mosonmagyarovar, in Hungary. (Not the easiest name to pronounce!)

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A lot of the way we were cycling along gravel paths, which was very tough going!

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Passing by fields and fields full of beautiful white poppies.

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After Mosonmagyarovar, our next stop was Györ, also in Hungary.

The company that organises the cycling holidays arranges all the hotels for you, and every morning they come and pick up your suitcases and drop them off at the next hotel. Very handy for us, as it meant we didn’t have to carry anything with us except what we needed for the day.

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From Györ we cycled back into Slovakia, to a town called Komarno. It’s actually in both Slovakia and Hungary, split into two parts by the Danube river. We stayed on the Slovakian side, and whilst exploring we discovered some beautiful buildings in the town.

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Our second last day took us from Komarno to Visegrad, back into Hungary. I think this was one of the longest routes we did, at about 80km!

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Finally on our last day of cycling we went from Visegrad to Budapest.

We stopped off at a very picturesque little town on the way called Szentendre, which was absolutely full of tourists!

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Once we finally made it to Budapest we were pretty much all cycled out!

Luckily we had two days here to do some exploring and sightseeing…and all of those pictures will be in my next post! 🙂

P.s. If you’d like to see more day-to-day updates of what’s happening in my life, follow me on Instagram and Twitter @rachelwwilson!

Where in the world is Rachel?

So my July roster has just come out….and let’s just say it isn’t the most exciting one I’ve ever had! 

I’ll be heading to:

  • Hyderabad (t/a)
  • Newcastle (anybody fancy taking this one for me?!)
  • Amsterdam
  • New York (Yay! Killer flight I’ve heard, but I’m so ready to do some shopping!)
  • Medina (t/a)
  • Sydney 
  • Kuwait (t/a)
  • Riyadh (t/a)

As you can see I’ve been given a fair few turnarounds! Not so much fun…but at least you get to come back to your own bed at the end of the day!

Sunny San Francisco!

First of all, my apologies for the long absence from my blog. I literally have not had a minute to sit at my computer and upload anything!
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was headed to San Francisco this month. I love exploring new destinations, and San Fran was definitely one on the bucket list! 
After a looooong 15 hour flight we finally arrived at our hotel, and I was greeted by a lovely view of the lake and hotel pool from my room. We made plans to meet up bright and early the next morning for a full day of sightseeing.

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After a huuuuge breakfast of eggs benedict and a frothy cappuccino (why do Americans insist on giving such huge portions?!) we were ready to do some exploring.

A quick ride on the BART and we arrived in Union Square. 

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Our plan for the day was to take the hop on – hop off bus and get out at any places we liked the look of. The night before I had also tried to arrange for the concierge to get us tickets to Alcatraz but unfortunately it was fully booked until the end of June. We popped into a tourist info centre and the lovely lady suggested going straight to the Alcatraz pier and checking if they had any cancellations, unfortunately this wasn’t the case and it’ll have to be on my to-do list for next time.

We walked on over to Pier 39, which is apparently the 3rd most visited tourist attraction in California!

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We had a lovely stroll down the pier, browsing the shops and taking plenty of pictures.

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At the end of the pier is a wonderful view out to see. Our first sighting of the Golden Gate Bridge!

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Before we knew it lunchtime had arrived, and we decided to go for a very typical American lunch…. In-n-out burger!

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Not healthy in the slightest, but very delicious!

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After lunch the 6 of us who were out decided to split up. The other 3 didn’t want to pay for the hop on-hop off bus so they did their own thing and us girls got on the bus ready to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close!

The bus stops at quite a few places along the way, however we realised that if we got off at each stop we just wouldn’t have enough time. 

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Here it is! We stayed on the bus until the other side of the bridge, and got off in the beautiful town of Sausalito.

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Once we were off the bus, we had a leisurely stroll around Sausalito. It’s a gorgeous little town with beautiful houses nestled into the hillside, and lots of palm trees dotted about!

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We decided to stop for a drink by the water and chose a delicious local white wine from Napa Valley to share. Next time I get a flight to SFO I’m definitely going to go there for a wine tasting trip! 

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Soon enough it was time to head back over the bridge into the city. The bus took us through the main areas (however any street names or significant areas seem to have slipped my mind now!) and we ended up back where we started, at Union Square.

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Just in time for a bit of shopping – we were in America, after all!

What a wonderful layover. I’d love to go back to San Francisco, as there’s so much more to explore, see and do. If only the flight wasn’t such a killer!

 

P.s. If you’d like more regular updates of where I’ve been and what’s going on, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

 

Deadheading to Dar Es Salaam

I recently got back from a trip to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Finally a new destination! Recently it feels like I keep on getting the same places all the time, so I was very happy to be rostered somewhere new.

Even more exciting was the fact that when I checked my roster the evening before the flight, I found out I was deadheading! This basically means you are flying as a non-operating crew, essentially as a passenger, but still getting paid half of the flying hours.

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Once we arrived, after a pretty short flight (around 5 hours) most of us arranged to go up to the pool for a swim. As we got up there the sun was just beginning to set!

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We had a few drinks by the pool and then met downstairs in the restaurant for dinner. 

The next morning was just as relaxing… free (!!) breakfast, and a couple of hours lounging by the pool enjoying the sunshine and reading my book.

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It’s way too hot in Dubai now to stay out in the sunshine, so I very much enjoyed sitting out in 28 degrees!

Next time I go I’d love to do a bit of exploring, although I haven’t heard much about what there is to do in Dar Es Salaam. Any tips?

In other news, I just received an email that I’ve been accepted for my business class training! 😀 Very exciting! Hopefully I’ll be rostered the training next month and then soon I’ll be working in the business class cabin instead of economy! 🙂

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what’s going on in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!