Hell is a Hostel Kitchen

by Alex in Food, Gear

I think food is important. I may have mentioned this once or twice.

I think food is the most important part of day to day life – so much so that I decided to do it for a living. As a chef, I get paid to cook for people all day.

As a chef who also backpacks, however, I also frequently have to cook in hostel kitchens, surrounded by people who – without wishing to be rude to anyone – don’t seem to know what they’re doing.

And it bugs me.

photo by: hannumakarainen

Six Hours in Prague

by Alex in Europe, Topdeck

Prague is a city of culture. The Czech capital has been built up over the centuries into a winding maze, filled with a multitude of museums, galleries, architectural styles and the finest art and music Europe has ever had to offer. It's the kind of city you'd need a week to explore, and a month to even begin to fully appreciate.

We had half a day.

Travelling Stomach First

by Alex in Food, Epigrams and Interludes

There's something bizarre that happens when you travel with a chef. Something we do that no one else really does. And in the two and a half years since we left Australia, we've met a fair few travelling chefs, so I know I'm not the only one who does this thing.

Simply put, when you take a chef to a new city halfway around the world, they want to eat it.

Top Ten Photos of Europe on Tour

by Tasha in Photos, Europe, Topdeck

If you'd like to read more about of our whirlwind tour of Europe, click here! As always feel free to link to your own faves in the comments and/or on facebook :)
 

Auschwitz and Birkenau: Those Who Came Before

by Tasha in Europe

Today was a heavy day.

How I Met Your Drug Dealer

by Alex in Europe, Topdeck

Alright, gather round, kiddies! It's story time! Today, uncle Alex is going to be telling you the story of how he almost got knifed by a random drug dealer while on a pub crawl in Krakow, Poland.

At first, we were having a lovely evening - exploring the heart of Krakow with our friends Ally, Jona, Car and Carlos, having hot chocolates in funky underground cafes, and eating giant sausages for dinner - juvenile innuendo included, naturally. And then the pub crawl itself started.

We don't have any pictures from that night, so instead this article will be accompanied by photos of Krakow that your mother would approve of.

Stalking Statues in Slovakia

by Alex in Europe, Photos, Topdeck

The last time we spoke, dear reader - an embarrassingly long time ago - we were well into our whirlwind Topdeck tour of Europe. After Italy and Austria, and on our way to Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, we had one small stop to make - the beautiful, if slightly chilly, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Wandering down the cobblestone streets and squares, our awesome and ever-patient tour leader Kaz tried really hard to give us a brief history of the capital. But to be fair, we weren't really listening. We were distracted by all the statues. So, so many statues.

Bratislava is apparently filled to the brim with statues, which is any Doctor Who fan's worst nightmare. But cameras in tow and a true sense of the ridiculous turned an army of the creepy and lifeless, into fun, recreational living art.

The Hills are Alive in Austria

by Tasha in Europe, Topdeck

The hills are alive with the sound of Salzburg. With songs they have....

Okay I'll stop there. Full disclosure, I'm kind of a massive Sound of Music dork. And I'm guessing, based on your stunned silence and gradual backing away from the computer...you may not be.

Or maybe you are. Maybe the Von Trapps are hidden in your trove of guilty pleasures and you are waiting with baited breath for me to describe in perfect detail the locales which the lovable Austrian family danced and pranced their way across Salzburg in the classic musical film (and to a lesser extent, real life too, I guess).

The Many Merchants of Venice

by Alex in Italy, Europe, Topdeck

After a brief stop in Verona, we travelled onwards on our way to Shakespeare's other contemporary Italian city - Venice.

We arrived in Venice as the sun was setting, so after settling in to our hotel, we headed out as a group to a nearby restaurant for my birthday. Oh yeah, it was my birthday. Did I forget to mention that?

Verona: From Shakespeare to Stroking Statues

by Alex in Europe, Italy, Topdeck

Here's something I've learned from 2 years on the road - if a city has a claim to fame, however loose, they will try and milk it for all it's worth. Whether it's the Hans Christian Andersen museum in Odense, Cong's giant statue of John Wayne, or the Tolkien branding over all of New Zealand, it's true all over the world. 

However, few cities have a longer or more enduring claim than Verona: the setting of Shakspeare's (arguably) most famous play, Romeo and Juliet.

Day at the Museum: 5 Days in Rome - Part 5

by Alex in Europe, Italy

If you ask me, no trip to Rome is complete without two things. Fresh pasta, and a visit to the Vatican City. So, having made fresh pasta (and eaten plenty more in the city), we spent our last day in Rome at the Musei Vaticani.

This was a huge day for me - I've been fascinated with the Vatican City and wanted to visit it for basically as long as I can remember. I love visiting the holy sites of different religions, and the Vatican is probably the holiest site for over a billion people worldwide. On top of that, the little independent nation inside Rome is also home to some of the world's largest and rarest art and artefact collections - and as a pair of history nerds, the chance to see even a tiny fraction of that collection was too good for us to pass up.

Top Ten Photos of Rome

by Tasha in Europe, Italy, Photos

If you'd like to read more of our 5 days in Rome, click here! As always feel free to link to your own faves in the comments and/or on facebook :)

Cooking in Rome: 5 Days in Rome - Part 4

by Alex in Europe, Italy

If there's one thing I knew about Rome before coming, it was this: Rome is a mecca for foodies. And, for the most part, this has proven true - we've had so much excellent pasta and pizza while we've been here. Too much pizza, in fact - and yes, such a thing is actually possible!

As a chef, though, I wanted to do more than just eat. Finding a cooking class is easy, finding a class that works with locally sourced ingredients and uses traditional cooking methods is far more challenging. Luckily we stumbled upon Convivio.

They are a small family run business (just Australian expat Sally and her Italian husband Guido), and they run private (or very small group) hands-on cooking classes, rather than just demonstration, and best of all they do all this from their olive grove-adjacent home in the medieval city of Toffia just outside of Rome.

Stitch Goes to the Zoo: 5 Days in Rome - Part 3

by Tasha in Europe, Italy

This is Stitch.

Everybody, Stitch. Stitch, everybody.

Stitch is Alex's answer to me constantly asking for a puppy.

Stitch isn't a puppy. He may have been a collie before he got run over. But he was an orphan and we adopted him, and now he's part of our family.

We took our new little ohana to the most family-friendly place in Rome we could think of... the Zoo. Or in Italy - il Bioparco di Roma.

Levelling Up Italian and Dissing Ancient Heroes: 5 Days in Rome - Part 2

by Alex in Europe, Italy

While we've been in Rome, I like to think that I've been steadily leveling up my Italian speaking skills. When we touched down in Ciampino airport a few days ago, my Italian skills were basically non-existent - I have properly studied Italian in the past, but not since, well, kindergarten. Needless to say, in the intervening 19 years, I've gotten a little bit rusty.

When is a Fountain not a Fountain? 5 Days in Rome - Part 1

by Alex in Europe, Italy

If there's one thing about us humans I will always find fascinating, it's our ability to justify the most bizarre things we do. Case in point, on our first full day in Rome, Tash and I watched at least a hundred people, if not more, line up to throw coins into a fountain that wasn't there.

We started the day with a map marked with every site we wanted to see, and we set out on part one of our self-guided Roman Holiday walking tour - retracing the steps of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in one of Tash's favourite movies - which, I admit, I only watched for the first time 2 nights before.

Selfie at the Colosseum - taken by hand, with scaffolding in the background. Both of those will make sense in a moment.

A Farewell To Sleeves

by Alex in Gear, Epigrams and Interludes

I first laid eyes on you in Melbourne. Tash and I had just moved interstate. We were young, broke, adrift in a world that was bigger than anything we had encountered up until that point, but we were independent.

We were free. 

And although we didn't have much money to spare, we decided to celebrate our newfound freedom by treating ourselves. We knew that a factory outlet was all we could afford, so we headed out.

And there you were.

Retake the City: Dublin

by Alex in Retake the City, Ireland

If you decide to travel to Ireland (and you should - seriously, this country is gorgeous), you're almost certainly going to pass through Dublin. While you may be tempted to skip through the capital city in a rush to get to the picturesque rolling hills and ruined castles, I'd urge you to reconsider.  

Dublin is a great city, and well worth taking a few days to explore - no other major city in Ireland is so accommodating to travellers, with great historical sites and a plethora of shops and bars and restaurants.

And as ever, I will be your sensible, responsible, mature tour guide!

New Year Resolutions - What They Really Are and How to Keep Them

by Tasha in Red Tape, Budgeting, Language

With the coming of the New Year, in amongst the fireworks, alcohol and (if you are anything like me) massive sugar highs, there comes a sweet euphoric moment where everything feels shiny and new. Mountains can be scaled, rivers forded, and all our daily problems suddenly seem amazingly achievable.

It's like, I'm told, the feeling of jumping off a bridge. Around half way down all the life consuming problems that brought you to the edge of the bridge in the first place, all now seem insignificant and completely fixable....bar the fact that you had just jumped off a bridge.

The intense high of a year renewed, a fresh start, feels like it will last forever. But like all things, there are swings and roundabouts and before too long all those resolutions you promised yourself on January 1st, start to look more and more like mountains again.

Dammit Mountains!  photo by: blmiers2

2014 - A Year in Photos

by Tasha in Photos, Ireland, Denmark, United Kingdom

2014 was a great year for us in terms of travel and working overseas. We left Denmark and spent six weeks in the United Kingdom before leaving to work in Ireland for the last ten months. Here is a compilation of some of our favourite photos from the last year, a nice little cross-section of everywhere we've been.

As always feel free to link to your own favourites in the comments and/or over on Facebook. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Happy 2015 Everybody!