Reverse Culture Shock of Coming Home
As we prepared to move to Germany from the United States, we were informed of the dreaded cultural shock roller coaster we could expect to experience: euphoria, homesickness, adjusting, and then accepting normalcy. These aren’t the official categories, but these applied to us. First, you experience a sense of euphoria. Everything is new; your surroundings, ...
Sydney, Australia: A visit to the Sea Life Aquarium
In the heart of the Sydney lies an exhibit worth a visit. The Sydney Sea Life Aquarium located on Darling Habour allows an up-close view of the various types of sea life that live in the waters in and around Australia. Located beside the aquarium are also the Sydney Wildlife Zoo and Madame Tussauds to ...
Milford Sound – New Zealand
Our first stop in New Zealand was to the enchanting area of the Milford Sound. The Fiordland National Park is on the southwestern side of the the South Island. We joined fifty others from our cruise ship, who decided to take an overnight excursion. Our trip was from the Milford Sound with an overnight in ...
A Visit to Catherine The Great’s Palace (Екатерининский дворец) Outside of St. Petersburg, Russia
The country of Russia fascinates me. Living in Germany, one of our television channels was RTG (Russia Travel Guide) broadcasted in English. RTG does an excellent job in the production value of its HD programming. The shows are split between cultural and travel guides across the entire country. And, when you realize just how big ...
A Day Spent in Tallinn, Estonia
We had an opportunity to spend a day in the capital city of Tallinn in the Baltic country, Estonia. The city is rich in history given its location along the Baltic Sea across from Finland and sandwiched between Russia and Latvia. With a population today of about 437,000 people, Tallinn sees roughly 4.3 million tourists ...
Our Journey to Mystery Island in Vanuatu
Vanuatu lies almost halfway between the island nations of New Caledonia and Fiji. This makes Vanuatu an obvious destination for cruises in this area of the South Pacific. Our port of call for the day was Mystery Island. No one lives on Mystery Island. There is no electricity and no running water. And, it is the southern most island of the ...
An Excursion to the Paradise of Beachcomber Island in Fiji
With our 29-day cruise with Holland America, Amanda and I were looking forward to completing another bucket list destination with our visit to Fiji. It seemed like the further east our ship continued to go from Australia, the islands became more beautiful. Some day, we will continue our bucket list to visit more islands of ...
Stepping into the Shire – a visit to New Zealand’s Hobbiton Movie Set
It was a few days before Christmas, in 2001. Amanda and I, having been engaged for less than a year, lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. One evening, we went to the movies to see the first in the trilogy series of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." I remember watching that ...
The Iconic Sydney Opera House
Not everyone in the world loves the performing arts, especially when it comes to opera (we love it). However, the Sydney Opera House has to be truly one of the most iconic buildings in the world. Not only are 8 million visitors attracted annually, but the Sydney Opera House has become 'the' symbol of the ...
Our Review of Flying Emirates First Class to Australia from Germany
For our trip from Germany to Sydney, Australia we had many choices of airlines. But, with flights consisting of a first leg from Frankfurt to Dubai at 6.5 hours and the next leg to Sydney being almost 14 hours, our selection was more about comfort over price. Luckily for us, when we found flights onboard Emirates, ...
WorldThruOurEyes 