How to spend a Weekend in Vienna

Hello my dear readers, I hope you all had a fantastic start of 2019! I'm back on my island Mallorca now after having spent the holidays with my family in Germany. You know, I always love going home for Christmas, it's so much cozier there than here in Spain. However, I also love coming back to the Mediterranean, the warm climate and the sea just make me a happier person.

2018 has been a year of travelling for me. I've been to seven different countries this past year and have seen lots of different beautiful cities. One of them was Vienna. Austria's capital was never really on my bucket list but one of my best friends lives there and I never got to visit her. So my sister and I went to visit Kim in October. We spent a warm, sunny fall weekend in Vienna with lots of sunshine, laughter and sightseeing. Kim took us all over the city so we got to see many cool places and ate yummy food all the time. 

First Day in Vienna

We mostly spent our first day at the city centre where we explored some cute alleys and admired the Rathaus, National Theatre, the Opera and many more stunning buildings. We had some super tasty ice cream at Eis Greissler and some Mexican food. Vienna is a very pretty, charming city with all its palatial buildings and parks. You see horse carriages, old cafés and well-kept little gardens everywhere. However, the city and its people reminded me a lot of Germany, maybe that's why Vienna didn't surprise me as much as other European capitals I've been to. What I really enjoyed though was seeing the Hundertwasser Haus. I love arty buildings and this was the only place in Vienna that was really on my list of things to see. We went there in the evening of our first day and even though the light wasn't that great you could still admire the beautiful colors of the artist's house. 

Second Day in Vienna

If you're German and a true romantic you most likely watch the Sissi-Trilogy every Christmas. How can you not love Romy Schneider as the heart-warming Elisabeth, Empress of Austria? Well, I'm a big Sissi fan so of course, on our second day Kim had to take us to the Schönbrunn Palace where the Empress lived and reigned back in the days. The palace itself didn't actually impress me too much, I thought it looked very simple from the outside but the park was really beautiful. Also, I have to say we didn't enter any rooms because there were so many tourists waiting in line that Sunday, thus we decided to not do any tour. However, I heard the building is stunning from the inside so you should try to book the palace tour when you're in Vienna. Later that day we had some healthy lunch at Ulrich & Erich and vegan ice cream at Veganista. I tried matcha ice cream for the first time and absolutely loved it! Afterwards Kim took us to the Donaukanal where you find lots of people eating, chatting, working out and relaxing by the river on sunny days. We went for a nice walk and later spent some time at the theatre where my friend Kim works. After a long day of walking and exploring we finished our second day in Vienna with a typical Austrian dinner at the restaurant Rebhuhn.

I hope you guys find these tips helpful and enjoy reading my travel guides. London is coming up next so stay tuned!

Weekend in Milan

Happy Thursday, the weekend is near! This year 2018 I have used most of my weekends to either relax and go on adventures with friends here on Mallorca or to travel to new places in Europe. In October I spent an express weekend in Milan and another one in Vienna. I also travelled to London in November (post coming soon). Today I'll tell you a bit about how we spent our weekend in Milan, so keep reading!

Express Weekend in Milan

My boyfriend, my sister, her boyfriend and I got to Milan quite late on a Friday night and since our hotel was located a bit out of town we didn't spend any time in the city center that night. My sister had booked us a room at Neo Hotel, a modern and stylish hotel about 15 minutes from the city. We were very happy with our room and the great breakfast buffet they had. On Saturday, our first day, we just basically walked around to explore the city. Of course we stopped by the Duomo, Milan's most popular sight, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele which is right next to it. I have to admit, both were very pretty to look at but didn't impress me too much. I travel a lot and have seen many bigger and more beautiful cathedrals, for example the ones in Palma de Mallorca or Cologne, so the Duomo didn't really blow my mind. In general, Milan didn't impress me as much as other European cities like Paris or London. Maybe it's because I didn't spend enough time there or didn't see the coolest spots.

Anyway, after doing some sightseeing we had a very yummy and fresh pizza at Rosso Pomodoro. Can't leave Italy without having some pizza, right? After lunch we continued walking to the Navigli canals where we had some heavenly artisan gelato. I chose mango and coconut, such a delicious combo! I liked the neighborhood around the Navigli canals more than the city centre, there were more small shops, cafés and lots of non-tourists out on the streets. Later we just headed back to our hotel and had some dinner around there. By the way, the metro is a great and cheap way to get around Milan!

On our second day we visited the neighborhood of Brera which has a more authentic feel and hosted a vintage market that Sunday. It was a bit cloudy that day but I'm sure Brera is even more beautiful on a sunny day with all its colorful buildings and narrow alleys. Later we headed back to the city centre and went to Macha Café, a must do for me as a matcha lover! Bloggers like Chiara Ferragni come here for their matcha latte and vegan meals. The café offers a range of delicious matcha drinks and dishes, I wish we had one on Mallorca! I ordered a classic matcha latte and vegan cheesecake, both very yummy and healthy. Our flight was in the afternoon so unfortunately we didn't have much time for anything else. After a cozy hour at the Macha Café we had one last tasty pizza and went back to the airport. Even though we spent such a short amount of time in Milan I felt like I had seen enough of the city. Like I said before, you can surely do lots more other cool things there but in my opinion we had spent our weekend in Milan perfectly.

Exploring Salamanca

Hello there, everyone! How's your week going? Mine has been quite turbulent due to some changes at work, but hey, everything happens for a reason and there are always good things to come. 
I finally have a bit more time now to focus more on my blog again and post some pics of my 2018 travels. I'm not gonna be able to publish them all before Christmas though, so the posts are not gonna be in a chronological order but you guys hopefully don't mind. It was simply impossible for me to publish them at the right moment so I hope you understand.

Salamanca

Today's post is about my trip to Salamanca in June. My family and I visited the family of my sister's boyfriend in Nuñomoral, a lovely little village in the middle of some lush mountains in Spain's Extremadura. We had a wonderful, fun weekend at his hometown and also went on a day trip to Salamanca. It's a beautiful medium-sized town in the northwest of Spain that is famous for its stunning cathedral, the lively Plaza Mayor and its great university. We spent an entire day there exploring the narrow alleys, having lunch and coffee, meeting more family members of my sister's boyfriend and admiring the city from above from the rooftop of its cathedral. Since it was more a relaxed family trip I can't really give you any great sightseeing tips because we just strolled around and enjoyed being all together in a new city. However, you should definitely go up the cathedral if you're not afraid of heights. The views are so worth it! I hope you like the pics and wish you a wonderful rest of the week.