Pag Island, Croatia

Croatia was definitely a highlight of my 28 day tour. We stayed at an island called Pag Island for 3 nights which was the longest stay anywhere on the tour.  Pag Island is a party island that is absolutely pumping in Summer. Unfortunately, we arrived about a month too early which meant it was still off-season and most things were shut.  Luckily, mountain bikes were still available to hire which suited me perfectly and we had an epic time riding around the island for 2 days straight.

Croatia is quite interesting because the scenery is unlike anything I had ever seen before.  Even though it is an island and there were beautiful pebbled beaches, once you go inland a bit, the terrain turns very rocky and becomes almost dessert like.  Coming off the barge onto the island was really weird because we truly could have been anywhere and if someone had of said we were in the Middle East, we would have believed them. This terrain turned out to be pretty awesome for mountain biking and we found a few pretty awesome tracks to get the adrenaline pumping.

Italy Part 1 - Pisa & Florence

Welcome to Italy!  The drive from Nice to Italy was pretty incredible. We were taken over mountains, over massive bridges and through long tunnels drilled directly through mountains.

Pisa

First stop.. Pisa! This was definitely another tick off my bucket list. Photo's don't really do it justice because it is on an even bigger lean in person, however I have added a couple photos in case you have never seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  The square around the tower was also really beautiful which was a pleasant surprise.

Skydiving in The Austrian Alps!

This post is going to be out of order but I couldn't wait to show you this.  The video below is me skydiving over the beautiful Austrian Alps. 

Skydiving has to be one of the best things I have ever done. We had a 15 minute scenic flight over the alps to start with which was absolutely breathtaking.  The mountains were covered in snow, the grass the greenest I have ever seen and the Austrian houses looked stunning.

This jump is from 12,000 ft which gives us between 30 and 40 seconds of freefall.  My tandem instructor holds 6 world records for skydiving so I was definately in good hands.

Hope you enjoy!

As you saw in the video, I highly recommend you give skydiving a go. I can't explain the feeling of jumping out of a plane so all I can say is it is epic!  Surprisingly the only scary part is when you put your legs outside of the plane.  But once you jump, it is just the best feeling in the world. 

Another tick off the bucket list and I can't wait to jump again soon!  I will leave you with this picture, I think it explains itself perfectly. Good luck!

Nice and Monaco, French Riviera

This post is about my intense but awesome time in Nice and Monaco.

Nice and Monaco are very interesting because there are so many rich people around.  Before you start wondering, no, I unfortunately didn't find a rich lady in the French Riviera.  I did enjoy however the people, car, and private jet watching and it just blew my mind seeing how some people live.  Monaco, which is about a 40 minute drive from Nice, is so exclusive that celebrities like Michael Jackson and Elton John were both turned down on their application for residency there.  Most rich people want to end up living in Monaco because it is known as a tax haven, that is, no income tax is required.  I'm going to start preparing my application now so that it is ready to send off once I hit the big time!

Barcelona

It's been a while since my last blog post so you have had lots of time to prepare for Spain!  Barcelona is our only stop in Spain on this tour so I thought it deserved a blog post on its own.  The plan is to come back once the tour is over and go to Madrid and then Portugal.

First impressions of Barcelona was very different to the other European cities that I had been to so far.  It had a beachy kind of feel and the roads seemed to be far wider than the cramped streets of Paris and Avignon.  

The culture of Barcelona is pretty incredible.  Parties, monuments, beaches and fresh fruit/seafood markets seems to be an awesome mix and we truly had an epic time.  In the free day, a mate and I hired bikes and rode from one end of the city to the other.  The idea sounded better in our heads because we found out the hard way that Barcelona is quite different to Paris in that it isn't completely flat!  And with eating and drinking what ever I wanted for a couple weeks, let's just say the fitness level has taken a hit!

Spain is well known for the famous architect Gaudi so we first rode up to Park Guella to see some of his work and to see some amazing views of Barcelona.

Switzerland!

Switzerland was freaking amazing!  We went to a town called Lauterbrunnen and then went up the highest train ride in Europe called Jungfrau.  

I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves for this blog post.

And the craziest part:

With a small bit of ice burn..

I'm pretty sure my liver will be looking pretty similar soon!

The Swiss Alps was my first time seeing proper snow so I had a fantastic time!  This trip is teaching me that you should never not to do something because you are afraid you will fail or lose. Growth and learning can never happen if you don't challenge yourself so I challenge you to have a 'first time' as well this week. Do something you have never done before and even if you fail, you have still won :)

Scott out!

The city of love... Paris!

Paris has been a whirlwind but wow, what a fantastic way to start the Europe trip.

First impressions

To start with, I was quite surprised at France and Paris. The first thing we saw when we got off the barge on the French coast was a massive campsite/tip with immigrants trying to get to England.  The outskirts of Paris was similar and I was also quite shocked at how dirty and congested the area was and the number of homeless people milling about.  It kind of reminded me of an Asian country like Thailand or the Philippines.

The magnificent Paris

Once we started to see Paris however, I was instantly in love with the city. In my one full day in Paris, I saw: