10 Hours in Frankfurt

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! I had a great time with my family but I was a little sick so I couldn't do too much during last weekend. Anyway, I'm back today with another travel post and I thought it would be great to change a little bit and talk to you about a country that I have visited last year for the first time! I'm talking about Germany.

I was able to visit a little bit of this country last summer when I was coming back from Croatia because I had a 10-hour layover in Frankfurt. As always when I'm visiting a new place I was super excited to discover this city and for this case, in particular, I had an extra motivation to go to Frankfurt because I had the chance to see one of my friends, who is now living there. 

So, I arrived in Frankfurt around 8am and my flight to go back home was at 10pm. Therefore, I had a lot of time to spend and the first thing I did was getting a 24-hour transportation ticket to move around the city. It's very easy to get to the city center from the airport, I just took the train and in about 20 minutes I was at Frankfurt Main Train Station. 

I have to say that I didn't have too much information about what to see and do in the city so I found a Tourist Info office right there at the train station and asked for a map and some suggestions about how to spend my time there. They were super helpful at the Tourist info Office and gave me all the necessary directions and recommendations to start my journey!

I first walked a few streets in the direction of the Old Town to try to sense the vibe of this city. Frankfurt is a very big city, so it has a lot of movement and life. What I also noticed is that it is a very diverse place too! It was full of different restaurants serving foods from all over the world and you could see that there were a lot of people from different cultures living together there. 

After getting a little bit lost, I'm not going to lie :P I was able to find the Euro Building by accident. This building is very modern and that was another interesting thing about Frankfurt, the city is a perfect mix of extremely new and modern offices and buildings along with those traditional old German houses. 

When I reached the Old Town, I found some very nice traditional buildings with the most beautiful colors! I stayed there for a while taking some pictures, buying souvenirs and chatting with a local lady, who also gave me more recommendations! She told me to go and check out the river and the bridge, that were just behind the Old Town so I did exactly that. The bridge was really pretty and you could get a nice view of the city from there. 

After that, I had a little lunch that I bought in one of the bakeries. I really wanted to try that because the smell from the German bakeries was absolutely delicious and the sandwich I bought was delicious indeed. Then I went to visit one street that concentrated all the stores and also there was a shopping mall there. This street has a very lively atmosphere and it was full of people walking and doing some shopping. 

Around 4pm I was really tired of all that walking and sightseeing so I left the city center and went to pick up my friend to her office. Once I met with her, we went to visit the town where she actually lives, which I'm going to show you in a different post because it's the loveliest little town I have ever seen! 

So, that was what I did during my 10-hour layover in Frankfurt! I hope you like this post and please let me know if you have ever been to Frankfurt or Germany and also I would love to know if you also take advantage of layovers to explore some cities :)

What to See and Do in Opatija

During my winter trip to Croatia last year, I had the chance to pass by the beautiful city of Opatija on my way to Pula. I didn't have enough time to visit it then, but I knew I wanted to go back there to walk on those enchantingly glamorous streets!

Opatija is the city with the oldest tourism tradition in Croatia. It used to be the place where the aristocracy from the Austro-Hungarian empire retired for their vacations in both winter and summer seasons because of the nice and mild weather. Therefore, this city was called "the Austrian Nice" and it totally has that opulent and glamorous south of France vibe!

All those summer houses and villas that the Austrian aristocracy had in the region have now become luxury hotels with very interesting spas and wellness centers and they also have the most Instagram perfect café terraces you can imagine! So, this city was very high on my priority list when I decided to go back to Croatia last summer.

My plan was to stay in the nearby city of Rijeka and from there to explore the region of Kvarner, including of course Opatija! I didn't decide to stay in Opatija because of my budget mainly because as most of the hotels there are very luxurious I knew it was going to be a little too expensive for me, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this amazing place!

How to get there? 

If you are staying in Rijeka, like I did, it's very easy to get to Opatija, just by taking the bus! You can take bus number 32, from Rijeka's city center and that will leave you in the center of Opatija in more or less 30 minutes. I can't tell you enough how much I have enjoyed those bus rides! The landscape of the Adriatic coast is absolutely stunning! So make sure to get a window on the bus ;)

What to do on a day trip to Opatija?

Well, apart from taking tons of pictures, I highly recommend that you walk along the Lungomare promenade. It's a 12km walk along the coast from Preluka to Lovran and it connects all the different cities and beaches. It's not necessary that you complete the 12km but it's a very enjoyable walk for sure! 

In the center of Opatija, you can find the Maiden with the Seagull sculpture, which is a symbol of the city and I find it to be a very romantic spot! It's the perfect place to take a pause from walking and sit to enjoy the sea view. 

Another of my favorite spots in Opatija was definitely Villa Angiolina, which was one of the first tourist resorts in the city! It was built in 1844 and renovated in the year 2000. Now it operates as the Museum of Croatian tourism. Even if you don't enter the museum, the building itself is absolutely beautiful and worth the visit! 

Very close to this, you can find the Park of St. Jacob and Park Angiolina, which are two very popular parks that are filled with plant species from all over the world! These parks are stunning and the perfect place to get tons of amazing pictures for your Instagram ;)

Then I would also recommend you to visit Hotel Kvarner, this was the first luxury hotel built in the city and the Adriatic region. This building, which was built in 1884, is so impressive and beautiful that will for sure make you dream and imagine the life of these aristocratic people that came here at that time! I fell in love with the beautiful terrace it has and when I visited I also bought an Ice Cream there, which was absolutely delicious!

A sneak peak of the terrace

It got super cloudy in the afternoon that day

Last but not the least, I encourage you to walk as much as you can here because you will find a lot of charming café terraces, stunning hotel buildings, restaurants and cute places that will make you fall in love with this city!  

Hope you like this guide and I would love to know if you have visited Opatija or if you have heard about this place? :)