In the 3 + 1 section we’ll be asking all sorts of people from all walks of life to delve deep into their memory banks – and memory cards – to answer two questions: what have been the three greatest travel experiences of your life? And where in the world have you always dreamt of traveling to? Perhaps we’ll get something profound; perhaps we won’t. In the end, all that matters is that you wasted a couple of minutes of your day that you might otherwise have used working productively.

Today, as part of ‘Meet the Kapowers’ week, it’s Danielle.

1. Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Cesky Krumlov was one of the biggest surprises on our trip to Europe in 2008. Phil and I were doing our first Euro-trip and when I went to Cesky Krumlov, we were about 12 cities into our 16 stop journey and on the home stretch. Cesky Krumlov is a tiny, old city which is almost half way between Prague and Vienna. Along the way, we had heard great things about it from other backpackers, but had no idea what to expect and were pretty much just along for the ride!

We arrived in our room in the hostel and it was by far the best hostel we stayed in across Europe. It was at the top of a huge timber cottage and our beds were butted up against the pitched ceilings. We shared with about 10 other people, but the nights here were the best few nights sleeps we had had after a long time travelling! This hostel is an old 14^th Century Hospital (and many other things in its time including a psychiatric hospital… what those walls had seen!) with ladder-like staircases and an open loft bedroom above our beds. It was just inside the town walls and had great views of the city and the river. This hostel represented everything that the whole town was about. Lovely, cosy and full of history.

The town is a small, beautiful, medieval city with a castle in the central district – complete with a bear moat! Yes! I said bears. Real life and everything. I may have thought about pushing Phil down the slope… The castle is surrounded by a winding, ice cold river that the village floats above. The river runs in and throughout the cobblestone walkways and footbridges, drawing your eyes to the forest surrounds – reminding you that you’re surrounded by leafy trees, birds, blue sky and everything good about Autumn.

Cesky Krumlov itself during the day is a quiet, fairly family / tourist orientated place, with cafes and shops and great food, but at night it changes – oh how it changes! All of these little cafes and restaurants turn in to packed cocktail bars with happy hours on all night… and us youngies come out of the dark shadows for the night games!

Phil and I had some great times in our short stay here: a sneaky climb up the bell tower (you were meant to pay but we played dumb); a walk down into the depths of the dungeon of the castle that they have turned into an art gallery; we discovered the most amazing sugary cinnamon bread desert things; and had the best Svickova ever (you need to try it! – it’s the traditonal wedding dish of the Czech Republic) Good sleep! Good food! Fun adventures! And bears! What more could you want for just being along for the ride. 

2. San Sebastian, Spain

San Sebastian is a place I imagine a lot of people have gone to… and those of you who have been there know exactly how much fun it is! We spent a lot of time in Italy, Spain and France eating, but I have to say, most of my eating on the trip was done here in this tiny sea side Spanish city. Sitting down to eat is unheard of - all you do is stand, drink and eat tapas, all day long. If you want a break, you can go and whale it up on the beach, but then you crave the amazing food and go back for more. Those of you who know me know I’m not all that keen on food. To me eating is one of the things that needs to be done, it’s not a passion of mine, but if I lived in San Sebastian it would be a completely different story! Ok I may be going a little overboard here, but my mouth is watering just thinking about it – when you go you won’t be disappointed!

There is more to do though other than eat, and that’s drink. In Spain there is no such thing as a standard drink – if you don’t tell them to stop pouring, they may never stop! Its more like “Would you like some tonic with your gin?”, than the other way around. This is great for a while but can get very dangerous after 5 hours of it! We stumbled across a night club right on the beach one night with a group of people… from what I can remember, it was a great night.

San Sebastian is a little beach town with the old and new town like most European cities. It is really relaxed and there are tonnes of young people around which never results in a dull night. Even all the locals look under 40 – must be the seaside air. We were walking along the beach one day and there was this super cool couple walking a pot belly pig on a lead! Awesome!

This place was great fun, even though we got a hail storm when we arrived and it was pretty cold, it is definitely a place I want to go back to.   

3. Wisemans Ferry + Hawkesbury River, Australia

Wisemans Ferry, odd choice I know, but this is one of the places I have visited most in my life, and has probably been the most formative. My parents started going to Carinya Ski Ranch before I was born. It was a caravan park right on the Hawkesbury River in Wisemans Ferry. There were 50 or so sites in this ski park that were mostly permanently leased so every holidays and every weekend or two, all of the families with a place would go to the river. We had an awesome caravan complete with annex and bunk beds galore. In our younger years my sister and I would take turns of falling off the top bunk and I think I was the only one to cracked my head on the sink below, but can’t be sure, it was a frequent occurrence!

Every time it rained, without fail, all the kids would get out of the river, have a shower, put on the fresh trackies and shoes and socks and fang around the dirt roads on our pushies. This would result with a thick spray of mud up our backs which would then in turn infuriate our mums and there would be mothers yelling and chasing their kids all over the park! Good times.

Obviously the reason this was the coolest place on earth when I was a kid was because it was a ski park! We all had boats and would go skiing or aqua-boarding or on the big banana or donuts daily, several times a day and some days we would be out from sun up to sun down. It was a very standard routine, the dads would all get up really early and go out for a barefoot when the water was still like glass, then us kids would wake up and pester our dads to take us out, which they would do. Then we would get back to shore to go fishing or go to the kiosk to get iceblocks or mixed lollies or go for a fang on the bikes, then probably go out for an afternoon ride on the big banana then come back for dinner and if it was a nice day the dads would go out for an afternoon ski. Now you might be thinking what were our mums doing all day (other than getting the mud out of our tracksuits from the night before) – well, they were usually sitting on a beach chair IN the river with a champagne or wine, soaking up the sun, staying cool and chatting the day away. Looking back on it, we used to ask mum to come out on the boat every day and she would usually just say she’ll watch from the shore and now I COMPLETELY understand why! They had the best idea all along!!! Very clever!

Every year we would have the Easter hat parade and Easter egg hunt. We would have New Year’s Eve parties, which is where I learnt to love and master “Nut Bush City Limits”, but would never manage to stay awake until midnight. I think I made it until midnight one year, but then had to be carried home at 1 minute past because I had passed out from exhaustion (I loved and still love sleep!). We had a navy ship come through one year while I was out on the aqua-board. Not only did the ship nearly not fit through the river but it made what felt like 5 story waves behind it, which I had to ride. I was terrified to go out for months after this and mum had to bribe me with earrings to get me to go back out, I am clearly easily persuaded!

I could go on for pages and pages about the river and the fun we had there. It is also clear to see where my love of river water and river mud came from (New Years 2009/2010 confirmed this)! Just be careful, if you are ever in a muddy river with me, be prepared to be covered in it! Goes to show – travelling is just as much about the experiences and memories as well as the places.

The +1: Lands of the Incas

After finally watching The Motorcycle Diaries I now have an answer to the questions I get asked a lot, “What place are you most looking forward to going to?” Well I kind of have an answer as it’s not really one place I am most looking forward to, but rather one region – the Inca Empire. I know it could be a bit of a cop out that I didn’t narrow it down to one place for my +1, but I think it’s quite clever of me! Anyway back to the point, why is this the place I have chosen as the one I am most looking forward to. There is something about the mountains and the people of these countries that that has visually stuck with me since I was young.

My parents went travelling in their 20’s and we had a hallway full of photos from their trips around the world. I would stand there and stare at them all the time and I remember there being this one of my dad standing in front of this gigantic snow capped mountain. I always knew I wanted to be surrounded by those mountains.

Then, thanks to my wonderful grandparents (who I secretly believe were feeding the travel bug inside me from a young age), we would receive a National Geographic magazine in the mail box every month (still to this day)! I would run home from school and be the first home just so I could look at al the pictures first! I remember seeing so many photos from South and Central America, and would stare at all the ones from Chile and Colombia and Argentina and Peru and just think they looked amazing with the most kind looking people, unless they had guns, then they didn’t look so kind…

Also having friends who have done Machu Picchu telling you it was the best thing they have ever done, it just makes me want to see it first hand. Although – we did do a bush walk a few weekends ago and thought we were going to die, so maybe we’ll need to do a bit of training before we tackle this one!

And finally, my most recent want for this region has to be the Bolivia special of Top Gear. I have to say I love those guys and it could be the best show on TV. Anyway, in this special, they drive down Death Road. Not only it is hilarious when Richard drives in to a ditch and has to be pulled out while all the locals are laughing at him, or terrifying when Jeremy nearly goes over the edge when he is pushed frighteningly close by a truck, but it also looked so beautiful, this giant cliff on one side, then a huge ravine on the other, one wrong move and you’re gone. So after I heard you could do bike tours down Death Road… HECK YEAH, COUNT ME IN!!