Around the World in 21 Days: Part One

Jan 16, 2015

—

by

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2015. You may have noticed it got a little quiet toward the end of last year on my blog. I ended the year on a big whirlwind trip around the world…in 21 days. Earlier last spring, an amazing (unbelievable!) flight deal came up that my fiancé and I couldn’t turn down. So late November, we embarked on a once in a life time trip that saw us fly from Vancouver to New York and then on to Milan. From there, we trained to Vienna and Prague. And then flew to Tokyo, took a bullet train to Kyoto and then flew home to Vancouver. We did this all in 3 weeks!

aroundworldtrip — Click to see a larger map of my travels

We spent about 3 days in each city and because we had so little time in each place, we tended to focus on certain aspects of the cities each day. Because there was really so much to do and I could talk forever about everything we saw and did, I think it’s better to do another one of my photo diaries with a random collection of images. So here is a sampling of my trip…

***

Part 1 – New York

This was my first time to New York during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I also got to experience the madness of Black Friday first hand. While a lot of museums and galleries were closed, we did get to catch a few shows in Chelsea. Making the most of being in the city during Thanksgiving, we went to see the Macy’s parade and walked by all the fancy Christmas windows at the department stores. I felt like the entire city was glittering.

Hello Kitty balloon - Macy's Thanksgiving Parade — Hello Kitty balloon – Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

My favourite Christmas displays were of fairytales

One of the Christmas displays of the 7 Muses — One of the Christmas displays of the Arts personified

***

Part 2 – Milan, Italy

We spent most of our time in Milan wandering the streets, popping into different churches and shops, and just enjoying the city. One of the highlights was seeing Da Vinci’s The Last Supper…no photos of that allowed, but I was amazed by the sheer size of it. Much larger than I expected, at about 25 feet high by 29 feet across.

The impressive Duomo that we walked by every day

Sneaking peeks at Villa Necchi Campiglio

Painted ceilings at San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

***

Part 3 – Vienna, Austria

I was really looking forward to this part of the trip because I wanted to see all the different Klimt and Schiele paintings. My favourite was the Beethoven Frieze by Klimt at the Secession Building. We spent every day museum hopping and kinderpunsch drinking at Christmas markets. An excellent way to spend chilly days.

Non-alcoholic kinderpunsch to keep us warm — Kinderpunsch to keep us warm

Inside the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

We caught a ballet...with dizzyingly high seats in the nosebleed section. — We caught a ballet…with dizzyingly high seats in the nosebleed section.

***

Part 4 – Prague, Czech Republic

We took the train from Vienna and after the last week and a half of rushing around, we decided to take it easy in Prague. We had four days to wander the streets and take a bit of a breather. The city was packed with tourists, so we spend a lot of time winding down side streets and along the river in this picturesque city.

We stayed up on the hill by Prague Castle, with a view of the city below

The rooftops of Prague...aka the view out our window — The rooftops of Prague…aka the view out our window

A sampling of the local monastery's award winning beer — A sampling of the local monastery’s award winning beer

Beautiful views crossing the Vltava River everyday into the city centre

Prague is one of the most romantic and picturesque cities I've ever been to — Prague is one of the most romantic and picturesque cities I’ve ever been to

***

With the European leg of our trip wrapped up, we flew via Paris to Tokyo. This post is getting a bit image heavy, so I’m going to leave our Japanese adventure for the next blog post, which I’ll put up in the couple of days.