Stockholm

Sweden oozes style, design and everything is incredibly cool.

We left the sunny shores of Malta to the fresh crisp air of Sweden to meet our other sister, Jodie, who was on a work trip to Paris and took some time out to meet us in Stockholm. Being a designer, Stockholm was at the top of Jodie’s list of destinations. Kayla and I landed hours before Jodie and from the moment we landed we were impressed. The hostel was cool, the shops were cool, the cafes and restaurants were all so damn cool! I knew that Stockholm and I would get along just fine!

We got a recommendation to eat at a local Scandinavian cuisine restaurant around the corner from the hostel and couldn’t say no to traditional Swedish meatballs served on silky smooth mash with a lingonberry sauce - a traditional Scandinavian berry found in the forests. These amazing balls of meat kicked arse over the IKEA ones I was used to!

With only 24 hours in Stockholm, basically our time spent was shopping or eating. We discovered so many amazing secrets in this city, from an old vintage shop in the remains of an old fire station, to fresh organic uber cool supermarkets.

To top it all off was our final dinner at such a great restaurant on the waterfront, B.A.R. recently opened its doors and serves mainly seafood with such a great concept of your waiter taking you to the ‘market’ to meet the chef and choose your meat/seafood and help to choose your accompanying side dishes. The whole experience was amazing, impressive and I will be back in heartbeat.

Malta

Time to get down to my roots and hang out with my people.

We arrived tired and exhausted into Malta and were met by our Aunty Rose and Uncle Ken from Australia, as well as Dad’s cousins, Tony and Grace, who live in Malta and were taken to their apartment with a view of Marsaskala bay. After being force-fed a thousand pastizzis washed down with the local beer, ‘Cisk’ we decided the best way to settle the stomach was to take a relaxing swim in the Mediterranean. We spent the afternoon with the family before waiting the arrival of my friend Adrian from Australia.

Day 2 we went on a day trip to Comino, famed the ‘Blue Lagoon’ by the locals. Situated between the Island of Malta and Gozo this tiny island is merely 3.5km in area. Comino was also the set for the film Troy, not Greece!! There are some facts for you! We spent the afternoon lazing around in the turquoise blue waters and laughing at majority of the Italian tourists and their choice of what to wear at the beach!

After an amazing day in the sun we were very dehydrated and decided we needed some beers to cure this. We went to Saint Julian’s bay for a feast of rabbit stew and octopus casserole prior to an unplanned night out in Paceville. Now imagine the Gold Coast’s strip of generic bars, millions of young and under-age drinkers and rows and rows of promo girls trying to entice you into their club with free drink cards and free shots. I think you can gather how this night ended, and it was when the sun came up!

Our final day we were not spending sleeping on the couch as we were awoken by Nazi Lauren and ordered to get onto the bus and discover the wonders of Valetta the Island’s capital. We spent the afternoon wandering through this open-air museum named a UNESCO world heritage sight in 1980.

After our Maltese treats of ricotta ravioli we jumped back on the bus to meet the relatives in Ħaż-Żabbar the town where my Dad grew up. They were hosting their annual Festa in honour of our Lady of Grace. The whole town is blocked off to traffic and is traditionally decorated with the feeling you have just stepped into the set of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. The church was covered top to bottom in brightly coloured lights, which gave this romantic feeling to the town. I would have to say the inside of the church is the most impressive that I have ever laid eyes on. The decorations, from the most amazing crystal chandelier to the intricate detailed statues of the saints made this over-the-top-look work well.

We stepped away from the festivities and took Lauren to the house our parents grew up in. As we were standing out the front and taking photos of a house, which may have seemed slightly unusual, the new owner of the house asked Lauren if she was Carmena’s (our grandmother’s) grandchild as there is a big resemblance in the two. We all started to get emotional with this and Lauren felt the need to call her mother in Australia, which worked out to be 0330am! We left their house on a high and spent our last evening in Malta drinking beer, eating pastizzis and enjoying the Maltese life.

London Town

When asked to meet cousin Lauren in London for the beginning of her International trip, I couldn’t say no. To have the opportunity to be able to show Lauren around this city she had herd so much about from the years I lived there excited me, and especially for a first timer! We left sunny Berlin to arrive to the England with the true English weather in tow. Forecast grey skies and rain!

We met Lauren at our hostel, the clink hostel a former magistrates courthouse now restored into a hip hostel. With not much time on our hands we set of on our city exploration, first stop, Mother Mash, you couldn’t get more English. In this restaurant you choose your style of mash, than if you would like a pie or sausages and the flavour, and than to finalise the dish with your choice of gravy, washed down with a bulmers cider this was a dream. Welcome back to the UK! We spent most of the afternoon shopping on Oxford and Carnaby streets when we got stuck in a terential downpour, which led us into one of my favourite local pubs for a few hours. The Spanish bar of Oxford Street reminds me of a mini cherry bar back home. The jukebox is full of golden oldies and we drank the afternoon away chatting to some characters! As soon as the rain cleared up we were off to Camden to meet some of my friends from the old times and have some reunion drinks.

Day two we all chose something we wanted to see and do. Lauren chose to visit the Queen and that we did. We started the morning directly to Buckingham palace with the whords of tourists in the distance we set of on our own walking tour of London. Next stop was 10 Downing Street to see the prime minister. Hunger set in and we decided we needed a Full English Breakfast, thinking a pub across the road from Downing Street this would be good right. The plate may as well as been deep-fried, enough said!

Kayla’s choice fit right into our walk along the Thames for a visit to the Tate Modern. This was a first for me so I was intrigued to see, Lauren was more excited she could get free wifi inside! The galleries are set inside a former power station and houses the works of international modern and contempory art dating back to the 1900 until today. I thought I wouldn’t be so interested in this gallery but it was actually quite amazing.

After a long afternoon of walking and sightseeing we went to East London for a last chance to shop in the vintage shops and record stores before meeting some more friends for some fish and chips and some last drinks calling it a semi early night as our flight was at stupid O’clock which meant we were up at 4am to get to the budget airport for our flight to Malta.

Czech… one… two… three!

Mum couldn’t have chosen a better place to celebrate my birthday than Prague. Last time I visited this romantic, gothic city it was a blistering cold Christmas around 6 years ago. This time we got the city at its peak, packed with I would have to say was too many tourists, but apart from that it was all about the outdoors and beers in the sun. The perfect setting for a Jake birthday.

Mum went all out and booked us an amazing apartment right in the heart of the old city. Within minutes we were in the midst of the madness. We decided to start the discovering with a walking tour to get our bearings and find out more about the history of Prague and the area of Bohemia now known as the Czech Republic, which was shadowed by oppression, under both the Nazis and the Communists. Immersed in the local history, we set off on the food tour of Prague and taste-tested as many of the local delicacies as we could, much like that of German and Polish food the Czech food is a real hearty, stodgy delight, washed down with an amazing Czech Pilsner what more could we want!

On my day of all days, I decided I wanted to visit the nearby town of Kutná Hora, famed for its kooky bone chapel. About 1 hour out of Prague lies this eerie town in the Bohemian countryside. The catholic church is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, many of whom have had their bones artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. The story goes that in 14th century after the Hussite Wars there were many thousands buried here and the cemetery had to be enlarged and in time there became too many laid to rest, resulting in excess skeletons. What better to do with these unnamed bones than to decorate a church with them?! After what I thought would be a slightly morbid day, I was actually amazed by the church's dark beauty. I was later surprised with a magical picnic in the fields overlooking the city before our train back to Prague.

We once again got ready for a night of spoils. To celebrate we went to a new restaurant called Čestr, a meat lovers delight which focuses almost exclusively on gourmet cuts of Czech aged beef. We all decided to have 4 courses, this consisted of an entrée mine was a piglet head schnitzel, followed by BBQ Pork ribs, we all tried a different cut of meat served on small chopping boards with an array of sides and sauces, and just when the meat sweats kicked in and the feeling of exploding at the seams, I did it and stuffed down a chocolate fudge cake with homemade peanut ice cream!

We woke the next morning to wish Mum off as her three week European Holiday sadly came to an end... and then there were three! We met our friend Belinda from Australia for really one day in Český Krumlov - a small historic old town that resembles a pocket sized Prague. On arrival to our hostel we discovered we were staying in the top floor room just for us in the watchtower!! We spent our one and only day embracing the sun and floating down the river through the old city to the instantly being surrounded by forest and the occasional riverside bar to quench the thirst. The day was so magic and we didn’t want it to end.