Wait what- August is over?

I’ll class that as the quickest month of the year haha.

Probably due to the fact that it was a busy month of travel and work and everything in between!

So here’s a little recap of what went down in August…

Destinations

Austria

August kicked off in Vienna, Austria. Now let me tell ya, Vienna is one beauty of a city. Due to the fact that it’s peak summer time, all the city dwellers leave and go away on holiday. So the city felt super empty. While in Vienna we did a walking food tour (video here and blog post here) and a winery bike tour in the gorgeous Wachau Valley (video here and blog post here).

Next up we took a train to Munich to pick up a rental car. You can’t rent a car in Austria without an International Driver’s Permit (which we did not have). But lucky for us, Germany doesn’t give a shit! We picked up the car and drove back down to Austria to stay one night in the most fairytale-like town you’ll ever see; Hallstatt. My god… Perfection! I highly recommend coming here, even just for a day if you’re in Austria. It’s not far from Salzburg so you can for sure fit it into one day. We show all it’s fairytale-ness in the video here.

After Hallstatt we headed west to a smaller town called Golling. This is where the largest ice cave in the world is. It’s up in the Alps and the only way to go inside is with a tour that last for an hour (you see the video of it all here).

Our last stop in Austria was Innsbruck where we spent 3 nights. Unfortunately it rained the entire time 🙁 The town is really cute but we couldn’t really experience it in full because of the rain. Luckily the final morning before heading back to Munich, the rain cleared and we were able to do the Alpine Coaster. This is a blast, it’s a 2km run down the Alps and you can really pick up some speed!

Germany

Munich was our first stop in Germany. We dropped off our rental car and hung around the city. Our first evening was interesting for the fact that I got stung by a wasp while out for dinner. So to help numb the pain I got drunk and bar hopped around the city. I mean, why not??

I’ve honestly never had the desire to be a princess… Until I came here… Ladies am I right!? Hahaha 👸 👸 . . . . . . #neuschwansteincastle #castles #visitgermany #intrepidintrovert #discovergermany #visitmunich #fairytale #beautifulplaces #discovereurope

A post shared by Hannah Martin (@intrepidintrovert) on Aug 31, 2017 at 9:55am PDT

While in Munich we went and visited Neuschwanstein Castle (AMAZING!!). We planned that quite wrong as we didn’t book in advance for a tour through the castle. So when we got there, the line was all the way down the street and the next available tour wasn’t for another 5 hours… No deal. We could still see it from the outside though, so it wasn’t a complete and utter failure. In Munich there’s also the River wave. So Nate rented a board and a wetsuit to have a go.

After Munich, the rest of our German trip was quite uneventful haha. We went to Frankfurt…. And our hostel ended up being in the red light district. I have never seen so many cracked out people in my life. It was weird… Like real weird. People tripping balls everywhere. We found a co-working space and just caught up on work instead of sightseeing. Which worked out great though as we decided to get a professional videographer to come and travel with us! We released a video to open up the applications and within a few days we had found our guy!

After Frankfurt was a last minute trip to Hamburg because I found out the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre were performing there. We stayed 3 nights here and again, didn’t get up to a whole lot. But the show was amazing!

Belgium

Our plan after Germany was to go to Amsterdam, but prices were through the roof, so we ended up heading to Belgium early and staying longer. We started off with 4 nights in Brussels where we caught up with some friends and did a lot of sightseeing including a waffle tour! When in Belgium!

Next up was Bruges! Another cute, quaint town which is definitely worth a visit. Here we celebrated Nate’s 27th birthday with a lot of beer, waffles, and chocolate. Again, when in Belgium! From here we had a bus booked to London…. Which we missed because we had left our passports in the hotel (FAIL!). No more buses were running for the day, so we had to stay another night in Bruges (not complaining) and leave the following day.

London

Back in London for the rest of the month and for the first week of September. Our video guy has just flown in from New Zealand so we are just going to be planning our upcoming month and getting into the groove of things as a new trio! Keep posted for the new videos we’ll be dropping. He’s gonna be with us for three months while we travel through France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and England.

NEW TRAVEL FAVES

I got two new travel gears this month…

The first is a super light jacket from Cotopaxi. I didn’t pack any winter clothes when I left New Zealand in March. But now winter in Europe is approaching and the jacket arrived at the perfect time. I love a little colour to spice up my winter haha.

The second piece I got is a travel bra. And it’s not ya ordinary travel bra either… It comes with inbuilt passport pockets and credit card pockets. Plus is super light, soft, and comfy. I think I’ll be wearing this everyday lol. Well I’ll at least keep my passport in it, so Nate doesn’t leave it under the bed in the hotel again 😉

That’s about the extent of my August! What went down in yours, let me know in the comments below!

This is the first monthly recap I’ve done and I’m thinking about doing them at the end of each month. If there’s anything else you would like to know in them do let me know!

Until next month,

Hannah